Today, Calexico and Iron & Wine released Years to Burn via City Slang in the UK/Europe and Sub Pop in the rest of the world. The work of Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Convertino and Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, the album is their first full-length release and follows the critically acclaimed 2005 In the Reins EP. Calexico and Iron & Wine will embark on an extensive North American, European, and UK tour, including a June 21st performance at Celebrate Brooklyn! festival at Prospect Park which will be live audio streamed by WFUV HERE. [Full list of tour dates is below.] In addition, the collective released Years to Burn Behind the Scenes featuring exclusive interviews with the band and their long friendship and spirit of collaboration as seen here and also HERE.
Years to Burn
1. What Heaven’s Left 2. Midnight Sun 3. Father Mountain 4. Outside El Paso 5. Follow The Water 6. The Bitter Suite (Pájaro / Evil Eye / Tennessee Train) 7. Years To Burn 8. In Your Own Time
For more information on Years to Burn, the full bio is available here.
Early praise forYears to Burn:
“In incorporating more voices and sources of ideas, Years to Burn feels most of all like the work of a complete, cohesive and individual band — a group of old friends who’ve gathered together to sing in a single voice…The new set finds Sam Beam, John Convertino, Joey Burns and members of the extended Calexico and Iron & Wine casts at their loose-limbed best… They all sound comfortable, collaborating deep in the pocket, but they’re still exploring.” - NPR
“The warm voice of singer-songwriter Sam Beam (who performs as Iron & Wine) guides the album’s lead track “Father Mountain,” which features an airy acoustic progression and uplifting harmonies from Calexico’s Joey Burns.” - Rolling Stone
“Years to Burn proves that the time spent waiting on a second collaboration was worth it, but more meaningfully the album feels like the product of a cohesive unit rather than a tag team…Years to Burn rings with Beam’s soulful sobriety and Calexico’s gusty American Southwestern aesthetic, but the songwriting—again, primary credit goes to Beam—is the maypole around which the two bands braid their influences and proclivities. Unraveling one from the other is impossible.” - Paste
“Years to Burn, recorded with producer Matt Ross-Spang again marries vocalist and acoustic guitarist Sam Beam’s nimble lyricism with the incredible chops of Calexico nucleus Joey Burns and John Convertino. Together they make gorgeously sensual music” -American Songwriter
“Years to Burn is a beautiful sounding recording and for fans of Calexico and Iron & Wine’s initial collaborative release, this is a nice treat after all these years.” - Exclaim!
[Photo credit: Piper Ferguson]
Calexico and Iron & Wine Tour Dates + Ticket Links
Jun. 18 - Saxapahaw, NC - River Ballroom % [SOLD OUT] Jul. 19 - Lisbon, PT - Super Bock Super Rock # Jul. 20 - Arlesheim, CH - Stimmen Festival Jul. 22 - Milan, IT - La Triennale di Milano Jul. 23 - Gardone Riviera, IT - Anfiteatro del Vittoriale Jul. 24 - Rome, IT - Villa Ada Jul. 25 - Florence, IT - Cavea del Nuovo Teatro dell’opera Jul. 26 - Monforte D’ Alba, IT - Auditorium Horszowski Jul. 28 - Vienna, AT - Konzerthaus Jul. 29 - Palma, ES - Auditorium de Palma de Mallorca Jul. 31 - Hamburg, DE - Stadtpark Aug. 02 - Cambridge, UK - Cambridge Folk Festival Aug. 03 - Leuven, BE - M-idzommer Festival Aug. 04 - Crozon, FR - Festival Du Bout Du Monde Aug. 16 - Phoenix, AZ - Orpheum Theatre ~ Aug. 17 - Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre ~ Aug. 19 - Denver, CO - Denver Botanic Gardens ~ [SOLD OUT] Aug. 21 - Ogden, UT - Twilight Series at Ogden Amphitheater ^ Aug. 22 - Boise, ID - Knitting Factory Concert House ^ Aug. 23 - Portland, OR - Keller Auditorium ^ Aug. 24 - Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theatre Aug. 25 - Port Townsend, WA - The Thing Sep. 18 - Grand Rapids, MI - Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park “Meijer Gardens” \ Sep. 19 - Pittsburgh, PA - Roxian Theatre \ Sep. 20 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer \ Sep. 21 - Boston, MA - Rockland Trust Bank Pavillion + Sep. 22 - North Adams, MA - FreshGrass Festival Sep. 24 - Richmond, VA - The National \ Sep. 26 - Birmingham, AL - Iron City \ Sep. 27 - New Orleans, LA - House Of Blues \ Sep. 28 - Austin, TX - Stubb’s Waller Creek \ Sep. 29 - Dallas, TX - Majestic Theater \ Sep. 30 - Oklahoma City, OK - Tower Theatre \ Oct. 02 - Las Vegas, NV - House Of Blues \ Oct. 03 - Los Angeles, CA - Orpheum Theatre \ Oct. 04 - San Diego, CA - Humphrey’s Concerts by The Bay\ Oct. 06 - Saratoga, CA - Mountain Winery \ Nov. 05 - Utrecht, NL - TrivoliVrendenburg - Ronda # Nov. 06 -Luxemborg, LU - Den Atelier # Nov. 07 - Antwerp, BE - De Roma # Nov. 09 - Berlin, DE - Tempodrom # Nov. 10 - Linz, AT - Posthof # Nov. 11 - Munich, DE - Muffathalle # Nov. 12 - Budapest, HU - Müpa Nov. 14 - Mannheim, DE - Musensaal Rosengarten # Nov. 15 - Cologne, DE - Palladium # Nov. 16 - Paris, FR - La Cigale # Nov. 18 - Edinburgh, UK - Usher Hall * Nov. 19 - Liverpool, UK - Philharmonic Hall * Nov. 20 - Manchester, UK - Bridgewater Hall * Nov. 21 - Conventry, UK - Warwick Arts Centre * Nov. 23 - London, UK - Royal Festival Hall * Nov. 24 - Bexhill-On-Sea, UK – De La Warr Pavillion *
% with special guest Daughter of Swords ~ with special guest Madison Cunningham ^ with special guest Orville Peck \ with special guest Natalie Prass + with Andrew Bird # with special guest Adia Victoria * with special guest Lisa O’Neill
On July 12th, Sub Pop will release a chronological trip through the lesser known material of METZ. Automat is a collection of non-album singles, B-sides, and rarities dating back to 2009, from the widely-adored and delightfully noisy 3-piece punk band. This will be the first time that this 12-song collection will be available on LP.
The band has shared a new video for their song “ Dry Up.” “METZ have been making music together for over 10 years,” says the band’s frontman Alex Edkins. “It’s been a blur. We’ve very rarely allowed ourselves to look backward. We’ve been hyper-focused on always moving forward at breakneck speed, perpetually fixated on what’s next. The video for ‘Dry Up,’ as well as the Automatalbum, is an attempt to pause, take a breath, look backward and take stock of our past. It’s intended to express how grateful we are to be able to do what we do. It’s a love letter to the incredible places we’ve traveled, the beautiful people we’ve met, to community, music, and friendship.”
Consumers of the vinyl format of Automat will be rewarded with a bonus single that includes three additional tracks: a cover of Sparklehorse’s “Pig,” from a very limited 2012 Record Store Day split single originally released by Toronto’s Sonic Boom record shop; “I’m a Bug,” a cover of The Urinals’ art-punk classic, originally released on YouTube (not an actual record label) in 2014; and METZ’s previously unreleased rendition of Gary Numan’s “M.E.”
All tracks on Automat have been lovingly remastered by Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service.
METZ are currently hard at work on their 4th full-length LP which will be released on Sub Pop when we are all damn good and ready.
METZ are heading overseas on June 23rd, to begin a 14-date EU run with performances at Loose Ends Festival in Amsterdam, Lars Rock Festival in Chiusi Scalo, IT, Pointu Festival in Island Gaou, FR, and wrapping up July 14th in Montmartin-sur-Mer, FR. See below for a full list of shows.
Jun. 23 - Amsterdam, NL- Loose Ends Festival Jun. 25 - Bristol, UK - Fleece Jun. 26 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Jun. 27 - Manchester, UK - YES Jun. 28 - London, UK - Studio 9294 Jun. 29 - Eindhoven, NL - Effenaar Jul. 02 - Zurich, CH - Bogen F Jul. 03 - Lyon, FR - Ninkasi Gerland / Kao Jul. 05 - Chiusi Scalo, IT - Lars Rock Festival Jul. 06 - Milan, IT - Santeria Social Club Jul. 07 - Ile du Gaou, FR - Pointu Festival Jul. 09 - Düdingen, CH - Bad Bonn Jul. 10 - Luxembourg-Bonnevoie, LU - Rotondes Jul. 11 - Bremen, DE - TOWER Musikclub Jul. 12 - Herk-De-Stad, Belgium - Rock Herk Festival Jul. 13 - Paris, France - La Station, Gare Des Mines for Garage MU Festival Jul. 14 - Montmartin-sur-Mer, FR - Chauffer Dans La Noirceur
Today The Gotobeds - Cary, TFP, Eli and Gavin - unleash their third full lengther, Debt Begins at 30. The esprit de corps and anxiety-free joy that permeates their other LPs and EPs remains intact. The octane is high-test, the engine still has knocks and pings and the battery is overcharged. The Gotobeds - as Pittsburgh as it gets, the folk music of the Steel City - have more tar for us to swallow. Debt Begins at 30 is an old-fashioned blast furnace and the liquid iron flows.
Debt Begins at 30 features outside contributors on every track, including a special “Debt Begins at 30 (Alt version)” featuring the wonderful Victoria Ruiz - front woman of label mates Downtown Boys. Hear here.
Debt Begins at 30 is now available for preorder through Sub Pop Mega Mart. Preorders of the LP through megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers in the U.S., and select European and UK retailers will receive the limited, orange-vinyl Loser Edition while supplies last.
Debt Begins at 30 Tracklisting:
1. Calquer the Hound (with Evan Richards of The City Buses and Rob Henry of Kim Phuc) 2. Twin Cities (with Tracy Wilson of Positive No) 3. Slang Words (with Joe Casey of Protomartyr) 4. 2:15 (with Matt Barnhart of Tre Orsi/Mint Mile) 5. Poor People Are Revolting (with Pittsburgh poet Jason Baldinger and Gerard Cosloy of Air Traffic Controllers/Homestead Records/12XU Records) 6 .Debt Begins at 30 (with Mike Seamans of Mind Cure Records) and Bob Weston of Shellac/Mission of Burma) 7. On Loan (with Greg Ahee of Protomartyr) 8. Dross (with Bob Nastanovich of Pavement/Silver Jews) 9. Parallel (with Tim Midyett of Mint Mile/Silkworm) 10. Bleached Midnight (with Pittsburgh poet Scott MacIntyre) 11. Debt Begins at 30 (Alt version) (with Victoria Ruiz of Downtown Boys)
Read more about The Gotobeds and Debt Begins at 30 over here.
After recently releasing their new album ’This Mess Is a Place’, Seattle pop-punk four piece Tacocat have just announced a UK tour for this August with shows in Glasgow, Manchester, Cardiff, London & Brighton. ICYMI, you can see the video for album standout track “New World”nowhere.
When Seattle band Tacocat—vocalist Emily Nokes, bassist Bree McKenna, guitarist Eric Randall, and drummer Lelah Maupin—first started in 2007, the world they were responding to was vastly different from the current Seattle scene of diverse voices they’ve helped foster. It was a world of house shows, booking DIY tours on MySpace, and writing funny, deliriously catchy feminist pop-punk songs when feminism was the quickest way to alienate yourself from the then-en vogue garage-rock bros. Their lyrical honesty, humor, and hit-making sensibilities have built the band a fiercely devoted fanbase over the years, one that has followed them from basements to dive bars to sold-out shows at the Showbox. Every step along the way has been a seamless progression—from silly songs about Tonya Harding and psychic cats to calling out catcallers and poking fun at entitled weekend-warrior tech jerks on their last two records on Hardly Art, 2014’s NVM and 2016’s Lost Time.
This Mess Is a Place, Tacocat’s fourth full-length and first on Sub Pop, finds the band waking up the morning after the 2016 election and figuring out how to respond to a new reality where evil isn’t hiding under the surface at all—it’s front and center, with new tragedies and civil rights assaults filling up the scroll of the newsfeed every day.
See Tacocat live in the UK:
25 Aug – Glasgow, Scotland – Broadcast 27 Aug – Manchester, England – Gullivers 28 Aug – Cardiff, Wales – Clwb Ifor Bach 29 Aug – London, England – MOTH Club 30 Aug – Brighton, England – The Hope & Ruin 31 Aug – Paris, France – Supersonic 01 Sep – Brussels, Belgium – Botanique 03 Sep – Nijmegen, Netherlands – Merleyn 04 Sep – Groningen, Netherlands – Vera 05 Sep – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso 06 Sep – Eindhoven, Netherlands – Alstadt 07 Sep – Rotterdam, Netherlands – Rotown 09 Sep – Nurenburg, Germany – Kantine 10 Sep – Berlin, Germany – Marie Antoinette 11 Sep – Hamburg, Germany – Goldener Salon (Hafenklang) 13 Sep – Copenhagen, Denmark – Loppen 14 Sep – Oslo, Norway – Revolver 15 Sep – Stockholm, Sweden – Obaren
On May 31st, The Gotobeds - Cary, TFP, Eli and Gavin - return to the fray with their third full length, Debt Begins at 30. The esprit de corps and anxiety-free joy that permeates their other LPs and EPs remains intact. The octane is high-test, the engine still has knocks and pings and the battery is overcharged. The Gotobeds - as Pittsburgh as it gets, the folk music of the Steel City - have more tar for us to swallow. Debt Begins at 30 is an old-fashioned blast furnace and the liquid iron flows. You can stream the band’s new record in its entirety now via Brooklyn Vegan. Clickhere to listen.
The band will play an album release show in their hometown of Pittsburgh on May 25th at Babyland, with midwest, eastern and southern US shows in June, July, and August. See below for a full list of shows.
Debt Begins at 30 is out on LP/CD/digital and cassette Friday, May 31st, and it is available for preorder at the Sub Pop Mega Mart. Preorders of the LP through megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers in the US and select European and UK retailers will receive the limited, splatter blue-vinyl Loser Edition while supplies last.
The Gotobeds Tour Dates:
May 25 - Pittsburgh, PA - Babyland (album release show) Jun. 20 - Pittsburgh, PA - Babyland % Jun. 21 - Chicago, IL - Sleeping Village Jun. 23 - Columbus, IL - Ace of Cups Jul. 16 - Philadelphia, PA - Boot & Saddle Jul. 17 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Pool Jul. 18 - D.C, Washington - Comet Ping Pong Jul. 19 - Kingston, NY - Tubby’s Aug. 01 - Bloomington, IN - Bishop Aug. 02 - Nashville, TN - DRKMTTR Aug. 05 - Dallas, TX - Ruins Aug. 06 - Austin, TX - Vegas Aug. 07 - Houston, TX - Satellite Aug. 08 - New Orleans, LA - Santos Aug. 09 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl Aug. 10 - Cincinnati, OH - NSYC Oct. 17 - Millvale, PA - Mr. Smalls Theatre ^
Rock provocateur Marika Hackmanwill release her highly anticipated new album Any Human Friendon 9th August via Sub Pop in North and South America and AMF Records for the rest of the world. Marika also unveils her slap-in-the-face, Will Hooper-directed (IDLES, APRE) video for current single“i’m not where you are.”
The FADER had this to say of the video, “Hackman is preparing to release Any Human Friend, the follow up to I’m Not Your Man and, if its lead single “i’m not where you are” is anything to go by, a record just as brazen as its predecessor. “i’m not where you are” is one of Hackman’s most darkly-toned tracks yet: an ode to emotional unavailability delivered with Hackman’s typically smooth hypnotic, vocals. “I’ve been trying to find the point in human contact,” Hackman sings over crunchy guitars and bright synths, before shrugging the whole thing off entirely: “I get bored like that.” (see video premiere May 21st).”
Marika Hackman Tour Dates
Marika Hackman international tour schedule in support of Any Human Friend begins for 2019 spans September 21st in Bristol, UK at Thekla and ends November 6th in West Hollywood, CA at The Roxy Theatre. Preceding the headlining fall dates are two UK festival appearances: June 1st at London’s All Points East and August 15th at Green Man Festival.
Jun. 01 - London, UK - All Points East Aug.15 - Beacon Breacons, UK - Green Man Festival Sep. 21 - Bristol, UK - Thekla Sep. 23 - Glasgow, UK - Oran Mor Sep. 24 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club Sep. 25 - Manchester, UK - Band On The Wall Sep. 26 - London, UK - Islington Assembly Hall Oct. 11 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl Oct. 12 - Durham, NC - The Pinhook Oct. 13 - Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall Oct. 14 - Philadelphia, PA - Boot & Saddle Oct. 15 - Brooklyn, NY - Elsewhere Oct. 18 - Allston, MA - Great Scott Oct. 19 - Portland, ME - Port City Music Hall Oct. 20 - Montréal, QC - Bar Le ‘Ritz’ P.D.B. Oct. 21 - Toronto, ON - The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern Oct. 23 - Columbus, OH - Ace of Cups Oct. 24 - Ann Arbor, MI - Blind Pig Oct. 25 - Chicago, IL - Sleeping Village Oct. 26 - Milwaukee, WI - Back Room at Colectivo Coffee Oct. 28 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th St. Entry Nov. 01 - Seattle, WA - Neumos Nov. 04 - Oakland, CA - Starline Social Club Nov. 06 - West Hollywood, CA - The Roxy Theatre
Any Human Friend
Any Human Friendwas co-produced by David Wrench(Frank Ocean, The xx, Let’s Eat Grandma) and Marika herself, and shows off a sharper and more liberated sound than ever before. Now available for preorder from Sub Pop: LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser edition on Salmon-colored vinyl (while supplies last). There will also be a new t-shirt design available.
1. wanderlust 2. the one 3. all night 4. blow 5. i’m not where you are 6. send my love 7. hand solo 8. conventional ride 9. come undone 10. hold on 11. any human friend
More on Marika Hackman’s Any Human Friend: “hand solo,” “blow,” “conventional ride”—these are just a few of the cheeky offerings off Any Human Friend, the new album from rock provocateur Marika Hackman. “This whole record is me diving into myself and peeling back the skin further and further, exposing myself in quite a big way. It can be quite sexual,” Hackman says. “It’s blunt, but not offensive. It’s mischievous.” There’s also depth to her carnal knowledge: Any Human Friend (August 9th from Sub Pop Records in North and South America and AMF for the rest of the world) is ultimately about how, as she puts it, “We all have this lightness and darkness in us.”
Hackman lifted the album’s title from a documentary about four-year-olds interacting with dementia patients in senior homes. At one point, two little girls confer about their experience there, with one musing on how it’s great to make “any human friend,” whether old or young. “When she said that it really touched a nerve in me,” says the London-based musician. “It’s that childlike view where we really accept people, are comfortable with their differences.”
Such introspection has earned Hackman her name. Her folkie 2015 debut, We Slept at Last, was heralded for being nuanced and atmospheric. She really found her footing with her last release, I’m Not Your Man—which earned raves from The Guardian, Stereogum, and Pitchfork—and its sybaritic, swaggering hit “Boyfriend,” which boasts of seducing away a straight guy’s girlfriend. “Her tactile lyrics keep the songs melodically strong and full of surprises,” remarkedPitchfork. We’ll say!
“I’m a hopeless romantic,” she explains. “I search for love and sexual experience, but also I’m terrified by it.” Hackman is a Rid of Me-era PJ Harvey for the inclusive generation: unbounded by musical genre, a preternatural lyricist and tunesmith who isn’t afraid to go there. (Even her cover art, which finds Hackman nearly nude while cradling a baby pig, is a nod to Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra’s unfiltered photos of mothers just after they gave birth.) To that end, “hand solo” extolls the virtues of masturbation and features Hackman’s favorite line, “Under patriarchal law, I’m going to die a virgin.” The song “blow” paints a picture of social excess. And “conventional ride” thumbs its nose at heterosexual sex through “the trope a lot of gay women experience: sleeping with someone, then it becomes apparent you’re kind of an experiment.”
With Any Human Friend, boundaries are no longer an issue for her. “I sent ‘all night’ to my parents and they were quite shocked,” she says of the paean to the flesh, dressed as a sweetly harmonic track. “Why does it sound shocking coming out of my mouth? Women have sex with each other, and it seems to me we aren’t as freely allowed to discuss that as men are. But at no point am I disrespecting the women I’m having sex with. It can be fucking sexy without banging people over the head with a frying pan. It’s sexy sex.”
Sharing intimacies with her parents sorta makes sense when you consider she wrote “the one”—a portrait of the artist amid identity crisis—and several other songs in her bedroom at their house, where she crashed after a painful break-up with a longtime girlfriend. “‘send my love’ is a proper breakup song,” she says of the levitating, string-laden track. “I actually wrote that in a moment of grief. It’s a strange take on it because I’m imagining myself as my ex-girlfriend.” She penned its companion track, “i’m not where you are,” a melodic earworm about emotional detachment from relationships, roughly six months later.
“I think because my life was flipped upside down, it was taking me longer to write,” she says. “This was definitely the hardest process I’ve gone through to make a record.” She wrote the album over a year, recording a few songs at a time with co-producer David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The xx). “I stopped being able to sleep properly,” she says. “I was waking up in the middle of the night to write songs.”
But the longer recording process also meant that Hackman had the time to experiment in the studio, especially with electronic songs. She was inspired by Wrench’s vast synth collection, many of which she used throughout Any Human Friend (“the synths give the album a nice shine”), notably on “hold on,” a deep dive into ennui expressed as ethereal R&B. She also switched up drum rhythms and wrote songs on the bass, such as the upbeat, idiosyncratic “come undone” (working name: “Funky Little Thang”).
Hackman bookends Any Human Friend with some of her most unexpected musical turns. The first song she wrote, “the one” (technically its second track), is “probably the poppiest song I’ve ever written,” she says. “It’s about that weird feeling of starting the process again from scratch.” To that end, it features a riot grrrl Greek chorus hurling such insults at her as, “You’re such an attention whore!” The title track closes out the album and explores how, “when we’re interacting with people, it’s like holding a mirror up to yourself.” It’s a weightless coda that’s jazz-like in its layering of rhythmic sounds as if you’re leisurely sorting through Hackman’s headspace.
“The drive to do all this is all just about trying to work out what the fuck is in my brain,” she says, laughing. The dragon she’s chasing is a rarified peace that materializes after properly tortured herself. “I really did have a good time working on this album,” she says, reassuringly. “It’s just emotionally draining to write music and constantly tap into your psyche. No musician is writing music for themselves to listen to. It’s a dialogue, a conversation, a connection. I’m creating something for people to react to.”
