25-10-2018 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [from the recent past]

Bully

25-10-2018 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [from the recent past] # Bully, Tough Age, Léonie Pernet, Guerilla Toss, And So I Watch You from Afar, James, The Pretty Reckless, Leonard Cohen, Darlene Shrugg, Arc Iris, The Limiñanas, Mark "Porkchop" Holder, Yuck, Battleme, Tash Sultana

M U S I C

pres_perf_mix # The player always plays the latest playlist tracks. / A lejátszó mindig a legújabb playlist számait játssza. 

LISTEN THE PLAYLIST ON DEEZER.COM

Engaging blend of indie rock melodies, pop hooks, grungy guitars, and confessional lyrics from Alicia Bognanno. Playing upbeat but noisy indie rock with pop hooks and more than a slight grunge influence, Bully is a band from Nashville, Tennessee founded by vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Alicia Bognanno.
Bully
Feel the Same 1:59
Guess There 3:00
from Losing 2017
On the release of their debut record, Feels Like, '90s alt-rock revivalists Bully appeared to be the band with the most authentic credentials. Their ostensibly unwavering commitment to the sound of that era was supported by the recording of their debut at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio (Bully's founding member Alicia Bognanno interned at the studio under the tutelage of Albini, and returned there to engineer Losing herself) as well as their recent signing to Sub Pop. However, while there was a great deal of praise for her songwriting, that admiration was sometimes footnoted by mild regret at a lack of unique character in their music. Extraneous circumstances aside, Bully have very much stuck to their guns with this latest offering, but not at the expense of development. If Feels Like revealed a very promising young songwriter, Losing cements that early potential...

Vancouver four-piece blends sounds of rock & roll's past with 21st century lyrical concerns. Fusing elements of surf, garage rock, punk, and a dash of indie pop, Vancouver's Tough Age describe their music as "culmination rock," with four veterans of the Canadian underground rock scene pooling their ideas, influences, and experience for the project.
Tough Age
Everyday Life 3:15
Unclean 4:46
from Shame 2017
Canadian indie outfit Tough Age alter their formula on record number three, leaning deeper into elements of post-punk and the quirky melodicism of Flying Nun-inspired guitar pop while leaving behind much of the '60s-indebted garage affectations of earlier releases. Slimmed down to a trio and now calling Toronto home, former Vancouverites Jarrett Samson (vocals/guitar) and Penny Clark (vocals/bass) hooked up with drummer Jesse Locke in search of a sound that was more minimalist and dynamic. Having signed with Mint Records just prior to their debut, Shame is Tough Age's third outing with the label and their first working with Montreal-based producer/engineer Peter Woodford (Freelove Fenner), whose all-analog Bottle Garden studio was elemental in facilitating their leaner approach...

Also a sidewoman, arranger, and film composer, French musician Léonie Pernet puts an artful spin on anxious synth pop as a solo artist. 
Léonie Pernet
African Melancholia 3:28
Crave 5:51
from Crave 2018
Crave is the debut of French musician Léonie Pernet, who spent ten years as a touring bandmember, DJ, arranger, film composer, and emerging solo artist before endeavoring to write and produce her first full album. While a prior EP previewed the deadpan vocal delivery and experimental edge to Pernet's atmospheric indie electronica -- then centered around electronic keyboards, piano, and live rock drums -- Crave relies on danceable beats and reveals a more cinematic and cosmopolitan synth pop...

Brooklyn-via-Boston group combining no wave, punk, funk, psychedelia, and more in chaotic and ecstatic ways. Equal parts ecstatic and hallucinogenic, the genre-unrestricted group Guerilla Toss draw from no wave and noise as well as funk, punk, and psychedelia.
Guerilla Toss 
Magic Is Easy 3:11
Walls of the Universe 4:04
from Twisted Crystal 2018
Since moving to Brooklyn and signing with DFA, Guerilla Toss have evolved from their beginnings as a cathartic, free jazz-influenced noise-rock band to an acid-splashed party machine. Twisted Crystal is their third album for the iconic dance-punk label, and it's easily their most striking, focused, and fun work to date. As with Eraser Stargazer and GT Ultra, there's an abundance of thick, rubbery basslines and complex polyrhythms, as well as ecstatic vocals from frontwoman Kassie Carlson. However, Twisted Crystal stands out simply by having catchier songs which concentrate on new wave-influenced hooks without abandoning the experimentation or urgency of the group's earlier work...

Experimental, instrumental post-rock quartet with emo influences, hailing from Northern Ireland. The music of And So I Watch You from Afar, an instrumental rock band based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is frequently described as post-rock, but the foursome has more in common with contemporary math rock acts like Adebisi Shank and Maybeshewill.
And So I Watch You from Afar
Three Triangles 4:57
Chrysalism 3:18
from The Endless Shimmering 2017
Belfast's And So I Watch You from Afar play a form of grandiose, tuneful instrumental rock that celebrates life and exuberantly embraces the future. Their songs are aggressive and amped-up, but they aren't angry, and they aren't sad or brooding either. They're emotionally heavy and dramatic, and undoubtedly overwhelmed by all of the pressures of the world, but overall, the band's music is unabashedly hopeful and triumphant. They also value immediacy -- even when the songs stretch out to seven minutes, they're not spending several minutes trying to build up an atmosphere before the heavy part kicks in... The Endless Shimmering displays ASIWYFA's unrelenting optimism, and demonstrates their mastery of their singular brand of math-grunge.

Well-reviewed, long-running Manchester pop band who scored a bevy of hits in the 1990s. As one of the first groups to be dubbed "the next Smiths," James became an institution on the British alternative music scene during the '80s and '90s with their pleasant folk-pop. 
James
Bitch 4:52
Move Down South 5:19
from Girl at the End of the World 2016
Having found a situation they quite like, U.K. pop outsiders James reunite with producer Max Dingel and London's Rak Studios for Girl at the End of the World, their 14th album together. Building on the musical bed they established with 2014's La Petite Mort, the veteran Mancunian outfit up the ante with a big, vibrant affair that is heavy on electronics and pulsating dance rhythms. The fruit of a feverish, three-week full-band writing session in Scotland, James' collaborative approach has yielded a robust record with some mighty peaks and even a few extended jams...

Hard rock quartet fronted by Taylor Momsen, best known for her starring role in the TV series Gossip Girl. She formed the Reckless in 2009, later changing the band’s name to the Pretty Reckless to avoid trademark problems. With Momsen on vocals, John Secolo on guitar, Matt Chiarelli on bass, and Nick Carbone on drums, the group began finding a balance between hard rock and post-grunge, taking cues from female-fronted bands like Hole and the Runaways along the way. 
The Pretty Reckless
Wild City 4:48
The Devil's Back 7:06
Already Dead 4:16
from Who You Selling For 2016
The Pretty Reckless came into their own on 2014's Going to Hell, a sophomore set that found them executing their neo-grunge in a catchier, harder fashion than their debut. Now that they've mastered their vocabulary, it's time for them to expand their horizons on 2016's Who You Selling For... new developments are pretty clear signs that the Pretty Reckless have decided to grow up on Who You Selling For and, thanks to their inherent muscle and the sharp articulation of producer Kato Khandwala, this self-conscious maturation succeeds.

Cerebral yet sensual Canadian poet, novelist, and singer/songwriter who is acknowledged as one of the greatest lyricists of all time. One of the most fascinating and enigmatic -- if not the most successful -- singer/songwriters of the late '60s, Leonard Cohen retained an audience across six decades of music-making, interrupted by various digressions into personal and creative exploration, all of which have only added to the mystique surrounding him.
Leonard Cohen
You Want It Darker (Leonard Cohen / Patrick Leonard) 4:44
On the Level (Leonard Cohen / Sharon Robinson) 3:27
from You Want It Darker 2016
Given the subject matter addressed in the title and other tracks on You Want It Darker and Leonard Cohen's advanced age (82), it's tempting to hear this as a last album. In advance of its release, he told The New Yorker he was ready to die, but later walked back that comment. He wrote some of songs solo, and others with Sharon Robinson and Patrick Leonard. In declining health, and required to sing from a medically designed chair, Cohen enlisted his son Adam to produce...

Brash Toronto indie art-pop quintet featuring members of U.S. Girls, Slim Twig, and Ice Cream. 
Darlene Shrugg
Inherit the Wind (Meg Remy / Simone TB / Maximilian Turnbull) 4:23
Freedom Comes in a Plastic Card (Meg Remy / Simone TB / Maximilian Turnbull) 3:47
from Darlene Shrugg 2017
Representing a confluence of regional indie power sources, Toronto's Darlene Shrugg unites Maximilian Turnbull (Slim Twig), Meg Remy (U.S. Girls), Simone TB (Fake Palms), Carlyn Bezic (Ice Cream), and Amanda Crist (Ice Cream), who together form one surprisingly brash and unyielding rock & roll unit. Initially formed in 2013, the quintet maintained a somewhat shadowy presence over their first few years, honing a brutal but tuneful live set before entering the studio with engineer and co-producer Steve Chahley...

Arc Iris are a genre-blurring New England ensemble led and fronted by former Low Anthem member Jocie Adams. Arc Iris are a wildly adventurous, genre-blurring band founded in Massachusetts by frontwoman, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jocie Adams, formerly of the Low Anthem. Her bandmembers include the seasoned rhythm section of bassist Max Johnson, pianist and multi-instrumentalist Zachary Tenorio-Miller, and drummer Raymond Belli, with cellist Robin Ryczek and trumpeter Mike Irwin. Adams, a formally trained classical composer (as well as a former NASA researcher), formed the band as a wide-ranging ensemble informed by everything from sophisticated 1970s pop to folk, country, cabaret, jazz, classical music, and contemporary sources such as Grizzly Bear.
Arc Iris
$GNMS (Arc Iris) 6:24
Suzy (Arc Iris) 6:04
from Icon of Ego 2018
Each album by Arc Iris is an adventure. Over two previous albums, they created an original hybrid of indie art pop that was deeply infatuated with sophisticated archival pop to alt folk, cabaret, jazz, and even country. Given the quark strangeness and heartbreak that are the 21st century music business -- they lost their manager, their booking agent, and their record label -- this outfit has been pared down from its original incarnation as a sextet to its core trio of vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Jocie Adams (ex-Low Anthem), keyboardist/electronicist Zachary Tenorio-Miller, and drummer Raymond Belli (with a couple of guest string players assisting). Icon of Ego was released on Ba Da Bing, its third label in as many recordings. While their music has always been as exploratory and adventurous as it is accessible, they've honed their focus and concentrated on becoming a pop-prog outfit, mixing musical directions that include but aren't limited to '70s-era vintage electronica, dreamy pop, musical theater, and bigger beats...

Indie band that recaptures the glory days of '60s French pop. Working in the sweetly swinging tradition of Serge Gainsbourg and the yé-yé sound of the '60s, the Limiñanas have a sound that blends sunny psychedelia with vintage pop. Based out of Perpignan, France, the group is composed of drummer and sometime vocalist Marie Limiñana and bassist, organist, and jack-of-all-trades Lionel Limiñana, as well as a host of guest vocalists including MU.
The Limiñanas
Ouverture (Lionel Limiñana / Anton Newcombe) 3:19
Shadow People feat.: Emmanuelle Seiger (Lionel Limiñana) 3:11
Motorizatti Marie (Lionel Limiñana) 3:55
from Shadow People 2018
On their 2018 album Shadow People, French duo the Limiñanas don't budge an inch from the formula they honed to a knife edge on all the albums that preceded it. Starting in 2010, Lionel and Marie Limiñana mapped out territory that hit the sweet spot where the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Velvet Underground, sultry French pop, and Italian soundtrack music all meet to smoke cigarettes and look hard...

Rough-and-rowdy slide guitarist who fuses the soul of the blues and the swagger of rock; formerly with the Black Diamond Heavies. 
Mark "Porkchop" Holder
Captain Captain 4:42
Death and the Blues 3:52
from Death and the Blues 2017
...This November Mark “Porkchop” Holder released his sophomore album Death and the Blues. This bluesman knows how to deliver some of the finest blues songs you’ll find today. This results in an album you easily listen for multiple hours. Expect harmonica tunes that Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf made famous and, badass guitar solos in the Hill Country tradition... The guitar-slinging, harp-shredding bluesman released  Death and the Blues. On it, Holder, along with Travis Kilgore (bass) and Doug Bales (drums), builds on the success of his previous album with eight newly penned tracks, along with three rousing covers.

British band whose update on shoegaze and American indie guitar rock of the early '90s is spot-on and often thrilling. Having seemingly been blessed with the Midas touch in terms of being at the center of mass music press hype, by the end of 2010 -- and before the age of 20 -- Daniel Blumberg (guitar/vocals) and Max Bloom (guitar/vocals) found themselves in their second project that had achieved just that. 
Yuck
Stranger Things 5:07
Yr Face 6:18
from Stranger Things 2016
...Unlike its predecessor, the new album is expressed with a confident ease rather than pent up frustration. If Glow & Behold detailed the tumultuous break up period for YUCK, then Stranger Things sees the band reach a positively fresh stage of letting go. It's onwards and upwards from here on in.

LIONS' Matt Drenik explores lo-fi electro-folk with his solo project Battleme. Perhaps best known as the singer and guitarist of the Austin, Texas band Lions, Matt Drenik explores lo-fi folk and electro with his solo project Battleme. Started in 2009 after he was diagnosed with uveitis, an auto-immune disease that affects the eyes, the songwriter began to find his writing moving in a more expansive and personal direction.
Battleme
No Truth 3:20
Lowlife 5:56
from Cult Psychotica 2017
Battleme gained early attention for the lo-fi psych-folk of their eponymous 2012 debut after several tracks showed up on the motorcycle gang drama Sons of Anarchy. Since then, lead singer/songwriter Matt Drenik has pushed the band in an even more road-hardened direction with a fiery garage and punk rock-steeped aesthetic. It's a sound they once again champion on their swaggering fourth studio album, 2017's Cult Psychotica. Imagine if Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell jammed out with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and you'll get a good sense of the sound Battleme achieve here...

Indie rocker who broke through with viral live videos showcasing her command of multiple instruments and looping pedals. Sultana got her first guitar as a preschooler and went on to learn brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments, among others, always eager to learn more. She was busking on the streets of Melbourne by her mid-teens. Open about her battles with addiction at that time, she suffered a drug-induced psychosis at the age of 17. After recovering with the aid of professional help, Sultana started a Bandcamp page and began making videos of her performances and uploading them to YouTube.
Tash Sultana
Big Smoke (Tash Sultana) 3:58
Cigarettes (Tash Sultana) 5:22
Seven (Tash Sultana) 5:06
from Flow State 2018
With the sales of electric guitars not what they once were, many music business commentators have spoken out on the need for a new generation of guitar heroes. Since Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck don't mean much to most folks under 30 these days, they'd like to see some younger fret-wrestlers who will inspire America's youth to step away from their laptops and pick up a six-string. As it happens, it might be a guitar heroine who does the trick, as evidenced by Tash Sultana on her first full-length album, 2018's Flow State. The 23-year-old Australian first found an audience through YouTube videos in which she created over-the-top guitar soundscapes through the use of looping pedals, and while Flow State is clearly intended to also show off her gifts as a vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist (she plays all the instruments on these recordings), her guitar work shines pretty bright on this album. These songs have more to do with contemporary R&B than rock & roll...