On the heels of her most recent single, “Hours and Hours”, Bully’s Alicia Bognanno shares “Prism,” a new pre-release single from SUGAREGG, which premiered today via The FADER.
Bognanno says “‘Prism’ is about the process of letting go and realizing which aspects continue to resonate as time passes.” Highlighting the song’s lyric “Can’t feel your pain like before now it’s just vaguely a shadow waiting outside the door but it just keeps coming up” (see The FADER premiere August 12th)
[Photo credit: Angelina Castillo]
SUGAREGG will be available worldwide on August 21st, 2020 through Sub Pop. LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser edition on a translucent blue w/white “smoke” colored vinyl. Meanwhile, preorders in the U.K. and Europe through select independent retailers will receive the Loser edition on transparent red vinyl. There will also be a new t-shirt design available.
SUGAREGG was produced and mixed by John Congleton and Bully’s Alicia Bognanno, with additional production and mixing by Graham Walsh, recorded at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, and Palace Sound in Toronto, Ontario, and mastered by Heba Kadry.
What The People have been saying about Bully: “The most explosive collection of songs from Bognanno’s discography.” [SUGAREGG] - Under the Radar
“…The songs on SUGAREGG feel like the singer, songwriter, guitarist, engineer and producer has reached a new level of comfort in her relationship with herself.” [SUGAREGG] - Nashville Scene
“With incendiary guitars and Alicia Bognanno’s sneering delivery, the band unleashes an anthem for anyone finding themselves out of step with the expectations that are placed on them, singing “It’s like pressure to have a baby / When I don’t want one in my body / You say my mind is gonna change one day / But I felt this way forever some things / Stay the same, I stay the same.” [“Every Tradition”] - PASTE
“…Fuzzy and fierce and defiant..” [“Every Tradition”] - Stereogum
Due out September 18th worldwide through Sub Pop. Pre-order the album and stream track “Shove” now.
Yep, you read that right! On Friday, September 18th, 2020, Sub Pop will release L7’s Smell the Magic: 30th Anniversary Edition, the fiery, American grunge pioneers’ second album.
This 30th-anniversary edition of the ‘90s underground rock classic includes all 9 songs from the album, remastered and available together on vinyl for the first time ever! A multitude of rock music scenes populated the expanse of Los Angeles in 1989: hardcore punk, industrial goth, roots rock, and Sunset Strip hair metal, to name a few. L7 fit into none of them, creating their own unique blend of punk and hard, hooky rock loaded with humor and cultural commentary. Originally released in 1990, Smell the Magic is a landmark of ’90s feminist rock.
[Photo Credit: Charles Peterson]
Smell the Magic: 30th Anniversary Edition is now available for preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com and select retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser edition on clear with high melt orange, blue, and gray vinyl. Meanwhile preorders through select retailers in the UK and Europe will receive the Loser edition on neon orange vinyl. There will also be a new t-shirt design available.
L7 Smell the Magic Tracklisting: 1. Shove 2. Fast and Frightening 3. (Right On) Thru 4. Deathwish 5. Till the Wheels Fall Off 6. Broomstick 7. Packin’ a Rod 8. Just Like Me 9. American Society
About L7’S Smell the Magic: A multitude of rock music scenes populated the expanse of Los Angeles in1989: hardcore punk, industrial goth, roots rock, and Sunset Strip hair metal to name a few. L7 fit into none of them. Guitarist-vocalists Donita Sparks and Suzi Gardner, bassist-vocalist Jennifer Finch, and newly added drummer Dee Plakas were creating their own unique blend of punk and hard hooky rock, with humor and cultural commentary along for the ride.
But making a mark on the LA underground rock scene was more challenging than it seemed. Originating out of art punk circles in 1985, L7 played countless poetry readings, drag shows, art happenings and punk rock dive bars. They were nothing short of perseverant.
Having already released one album, eponymously titled, L7, the band was touring up the West Coast when they began to meet like minded artists affiliated with Sub Pop Records. The band managed to score a phone number for the imprint, and convinced label founders Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman to come see them live.
That show would take place a couple of weeks later in 1989 at an arts center in Seattle. The stage was finagled out of folding tables, and friends recruited to work a smoke machine (members of the group Cat Butt) decided to drop acid before attending to their duties. This led to a thick fog filling the entire venue and the band’s performance could hardly even be seen. L7 were convinced they blew it. Instead, they got signed: Sub Pop may not have been able to see them, yet, but they could hear them and asked if L7 would do a recording for their monthly Singles Club.
Later in the year, the band went into the label’s go-to studio in Seattle, Reciprocal Recording and in one day recorded “Shove,” “Packin’ a Rod,” and “Fast and Frightening.”
Released in January, the single’s A-side “Shove” would kick off the 1990’s with a bang and L7 would have an underground hit on their hands.
The band was then given the go ahead to record a full EP. The buzz from their Sub Pop’s Singles Club release was almost immediately palpable.
A few months after “Shove,” L7 continued with recording the EP—later expanded into a full-length album with three cover songs (“Packin’ a Rod,” “Just Like Me,” and “American Society”). They recorded again with Reciprocal’s producer, Jack Endino, and later Michael James and Ramones-producer Daniel Rey in Los Angeles.
This 30th-anniversary edition of the ‘90s underground rock classic Smell the Magic includes all 9 songs from the album, remastered and available together on vinyl for the first time ever! Originally released in 1990, Smell the Magic is a landmark of ’90s feminist rock.
Get yr L7 updates from everywhere in the known inter-verse:
Bully’s “Hours and Hours” is the latest standout from SUGAREGG, her incredible new album out next month on Sub Pop.
Alicia Bognanno offers this about the song, “‘Hours and Hours’ is about my mother and I finally figuring out our relationship. She and I had a really hard time connecting growing up and at times felt like it would never happen. Over the past five years we have become best friends, she is now the very first person I call when I am at my absolute lowest and has saved my life. I realize now how similar we are and how that probably had everything to do with why we had a difficult time with each other growing up. I wish I knew sooner how much we could relate but am eternally grateful that we have figured it out now and I’m just so thankful to be on good terms, I love her dearly.”
Bully will release SUGAREGG on August 21st, 2020 worldwide through Sub Pop. LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser edition on a translucent blue w/white “smoke” colored vinyl. Meanwhile, preorders in the U.K. and Europe through select independent retailers will receive the Loser edition on transparent red vinyl. There will also be a new t-shirt design available.
[US Loser Edition mock-up. Actual vinyl appearance may vary]
Late Show with Stephen Colbert Performance Online Now.
Washed Out’s “Paralyzed” is the third new single from his upcoming Mediterranean love letter Purple Noon, and arrives with a tastefully explicit music video from acclaimed fashion film director Caroline Koning. Shot in her native Holland, the clip shows real-life couple Shay and Dorien in an unguarded, intimate moment, set to a classically Washed Out ethereal pop track about the power of longing and lust.
Director Caroline Koning offered this on the video,“Human contact, and something as simple as a touch, has new meaning in the context of today. These special times make the viewing experience of physical togetherness a different one, and I wanted to tap into that sentiment in a pure way. The couple we follow in the film capture this simplicity beautifully, and what we see on screen all happened very organically. Encapsulating a perhaps general longing for closeness through a very unpretentious narrative gives this spot a natural honesty that I think visualizes the track in a strong manner.”
Washed Out has also announced Purple Noon Nights, a culmination of four months of new tracks and visuals leading up to the new album’s release over four nights this weekend. Beginning this Thursday, August 6th and ending on Sunday, August 9th at 8:30 pm ET/5:30 pm PT each night, Washed Out’s Ernest Greene will be hosting a different Purple Noon-related event each night:
Thursday, 8/6: Purple Noon listening party
Friday, 8/7: the Washed Out live band’s first live-streamed concert, performing selected tracks from Purple Noon along with highlights from his catalog
Saturday, 8/8: Q&A with fans via @realwashedout’s Instagram Live account
Sunday, 8/9: Greene will host the sixth in his popular Magic Hour Mix DJ sets, with this set focusing on the Washed Out catalog
The listening party, full band set, and Magic Hour DJ set will be broadcast live from Washed Out’s YouTube, Facebook, Instagram TV, and Twitch accounts.
He also appeared early last week with a solo, Ableton Push performance of “Too Late” on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s #PlayAtHome series.
Washed Out’s Purple Noon, his first full-length in three years will be available this Friday, August 7th on CD/LP/CS/DSPs worldwide through Sub Pop. The 10-track effort which features the lead single “Time to Walk Away,” along with standouts “Too Late,” and “Paralyzed,” was produced and recorded by Ernest Greene and mixed by Ben H. Allen in Atlanta, Georgia.
Loma (Emily Cross, Dan Duszynski, and Jonathan Meiburg) have returned withDon’t Shy Away, their incredibly absorbing new album and the follow-up to their acclaimed, self-titled debut, which will be available on CD/LP/CS/DL October 23rd, 2020 on Sub Pop. The eleven-track effort featuring the standouts “Ocotillo,” “Half Silences,” ”Elliptical Days,” and “Homing,” was produced and recorded by the band at Dandysounds in Dripping Strings, Texas—with the exception of “Homing,” which was produced by Brian Eno.
More on Loma’s Don’t Shy Away: On December 26th, 2018, Emily Cross received an excited email from a friend: Brian Eno was talking about her band on BBC radio. “At first I didn’t think it was real,” she admits. But then she heard a recording: Eno was praising “Black Willow” from Loma’s self-titled debut, a song whose minimal groove and hypnotic refrain seem as much farewell as a manifesto: I make my bed beside the road / I carry a diamond blade / I will not serve you. He said he’d had it on repeat.
At the time, a second Loma album seemed unlikely. The band began as a serendipitous collaboration between Cross, the multi-talented musician and recording engineer Dan Duszynski, and Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg, who wanted to play a supporting role after years at the microphone. They’d capped a grueling tour with a standout performance on a packed beach at Sub Pop’s SPF 30 festival, in which Cross leapt into the crowd, and then into the sea, while the band carried on from the stage—an emotional peak that also felt like a natural ending. “It was the biggest audience we’d ever had,” she says. “We thought, why not stop here?”
[Photo Credit: Bryan C. Parker]
Following the tour, Cross went to rural Mexico to work on visual art and a solo record, while Meiburg began a new Shearwater effort. But after a few months apart (and Eno’s encouraging words), the trio changed their minds and reconvened at Duszynski’s home in rural Texas, where they began to develop songs that would become Don’t Shy Away. Loma writes by consensus, and though Cross is always the singer, she, Duszynski and Meiburg often trade instruments. Meiburg compares their process to using a ouija board, and says the songs revealed themselves slowly, over many months. “Each of us is a very strong flavor,” he says, “but in Loma, nobody wears the crown, so we have to trust each other—and we end up in places none of us would have gone on our own. I think we all wanted to experience that again.” The album that emerged is gently spectacular—a vivid work whose light touch belies its timely themes of solitude, impermanence, and finding light in deep darkness. Stuck / beneath / a rock, Cross begins, as if noticing her predicament for the first time. Then she adds: I begin to see / the beauty in it.
It’s a couplet that evokes the album in miniature. Don’t Shy Away is shot through with revelations, both joyful (“Given a Sign”) and sober (the clear-eyed title track), and winds from moment to moment with confidence and humor. Like Loma’s first effort, there’s a tangible and sensuous feeling of place; insects sing in the trees, an ill-fitting door creaks in the wind. But there’s also a daring and hard-won wisdom, underlined by Cross’s benevolent clarinet, which often sounds like an extension of her singing voice. “Ocotillo”’s desert landscape unreels into a blazing sun; “Elliptical Days” seems to ascend endlessly like Escher’s circling monks; the jubilant “Breaking Waves Like a Stone” appears out of a haze of synthesizers that pulse like fireflies. A series of guests wander through these absorbing soundscapes, including touring members Emily Lee (piano, violin) and Matt Schuessler (bass), Flock of Dimes/Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, and a surprisingly bass-heavy horn section.
And then there’s Brian Eno. Loma invited him to participate in the mantra-like “Homing,” which concludes the album, and sent him stems to interact with in any way he liked. He never spoke directly with the band, but his completed mix arrived via e-mail late one night, without warning, and they gathered to listen in the converted bedroom Duszynski uses as a control room. “I was a little worried,” says Cross. “What if we didn’t like it?” But it was all they’d hoped for: minimal but enveloping, friendly but enigmatic, as much Loma as Eno—a perfect ending to an album about finding a new home inside an old one. I am somewhere that you know, Cross sings, above a chorus of her bandmates’ blended voices. I am right behind your eyes.
