ALTER.NATION #66
Sorry, Cornershop, Weaves, The Tippo Allstars & Fiona Apple, Phoebe Bridgers, Tom Waits, Haim, Leonard Cohen, Nicolas Godin Feat. Cola Boyy, Beck Feat. Sky Ferreira, City Girls, Kvelertak, Pop. 1280, Marilyn Manson
weekly favtraX
"Rock ‘N’ Roll Star"
ALTER.NATION #66 on DEEZER
Every time we listen to Sorry, the four-piece rock band from North London, we can’t help but feeling as if what is blaring through our headphones is unlike anything we have heard before. The music is rock, grunge rock, with strands of electronic coursing through it, and deliciously moody vocals from lead vocalist Asha Lorenz completing the circle.
Tags: alternative rock grunge post post-punk post-rock London
Sorry - Rock ‘N’ Roll Star
...Although they’re known for switching up their style from song to song, one thing this new one has in common with its predecessor is a reliance on wild saxophone trills. “Rock ‘N’ Roll Star” is a bit more deconstructed at first, like Sonic Youth attempting a nasty jazz track that eventually morphs into idiosyncratic pop music. Amidst the minimalist chaos, Asha Lorenz sings, I stayed up all night with a rock ‘n’ roll star/ He said you gotta just follow the part, you are not who you are.” From there it keeps transforming, always maintaining its unique aesthetic no matter how much the turmoil transforms....
Cornershop - No Rock: Save In Roll
It’s been 22 years since Cornershop, the great Britpop-era genre-melters, scored an out-of-nowhere UK #1 with Fatboy Slim’s remix of “Brimful Of Asha.” And it’s been almost eight years since Cornershop released Hold On It’s Easy, their most recent album. So it’s cool to learn that Cornershop, a band that many of us remember fondly, is planning a big return... “No Rock: Save In Roll,” the first track we’ve heard from England Is A Garden, has a Stones-y guitar riff and a funky tumble of drums. It’s Cornershop doing Primal Scream — specifically the Primal Scream era when Primal Scream were doing the Stones. Maybe there’s some complexity to the lyrics that I haven’t figured out yet, but right now, at least to me, it’s just a big and sunny rock song.
Weaves - Internet Tears
That’s both a musical and emotional statement: The song, their first since 2017’s Wide Open, is called “Internet Tears,” and it’s built around Jasmyn Burke’s refrain, “Sometimes the internet makes me cry at night/ Sometimes I cry at night looking at the internet.” If the last album found them embracing classic-rock grandiosity, this song goes way in the opposite direction, toward abstraction and absurdity and an extreme closeup of one person’s anxiety... In a press release, Burke explains, “I was watching something on the Internet that made me cry and started thinking about how ridiculous and funny and peculiar it is that we can sit alone staring at a screen and feel such strong feelings of happiness or sadness or anger while just browsing. It’s like imposed feelings or something. Maybe you can relate.”
The Tippo Allstars & Fiona Apple - Your Molecular Structure (Mose Allison Cover)
Not unlike his namesake, Luther Allison, pianist Mose Allison suffered from a "categorization problem," given his equally brilliant career. Although his boogie-woogie and bebop-laden piano style was innovative and fresh-sounding when it came to blues and jazz
The jazz and blues piano legend Mose Allison died late in 2016, just a few days after his 89th birthday. In the three years since, Fat Possum Records has assembled an all-star tribute to Allison... Apple has been pleasantly active in surprising, idiosyncratic ways this year: covering the Waterboys for The Affair, contributing an original Halloween song to Bob’s Burgers, guesting on a King Princess track, covering the Beach Boys alongside Jakob Dylan for the Echo In The Canyon documentary. And now she’s teamed with the Tippo Allstars on a jaunty cover of Allison’s “Your Molecular Structure.” Who are the Tippo Allstars, you might ask? They are indeed an all-star band, named for Allison’s hometown of Tippo, Mississippi. Benmont Tench on piano, Fred Tackett on electric guitar, David Garza on nylon string guitar, Sebastian Steinberg on bass, and Don Heffington on drums.
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| Fiona Apple |
Phoebe Bridgers - Georgia Lee (Tom Waits Cover)
Phoebe Bridgers is a great songwriter, and she’s also a great interpreter of other people’s songs... Today sees the release of the new tribute compilation Come On Up To The House: Women Sing Waits... Bridgers covers “Georgia Lee,” a deeply sad song from Waits’ 1999 album Mule Variations. The song is a tragedy, a true story about an impoverished black girl who, in 1997, was abducted and murdered at the age of 12. Bridgers gives a sensitive, tremulous reading of the song, really driving home how upsetting it is.
HAIM - If It Be Your Will (Leonard Cohen Cover)
...HAIM’s contribution to this project is a Leonard Cohen cover — but not Cohen’s oft-covered “Hallelujah,” despite the fact that they did release a song called “Hallelujah” this week. Rather, they’ve taken a crack at “If It Be Your Will.” Their treatment of the classic is sweet and sentimental, with Danielle Haim’s voice totally commanding Cohen’s oft jaunty cadence. Este and Alana come in to harmonize during the chorus, and within the swell of reverb, their delivery is absolutely haunting...
Nicolas Godin - The Foundation (Feat. Cola Boyy)
Nicolas Godin — one-half of the French duo Air... Godin is sharing a new track, “The Foundation,” which features guest vocals from the California singer Cola Boyy. Godin had this to say about the track in a statement: "Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #21 was the starting point for this song. Well, at least that’s how I presented the music to its future singer, Cola Boyy. I told him about the project’s architectural origins, explaining that he must let his own personal inspiration run free for the lyrics. I always thought that a concept was always the perfect way to start a record, but then you should soon let the music take over..."
Beck - Die Waiting (Feat. Sky Ferreira)
Beck releases his new album Hyperspace, a fascinating piece of work that he largely co-wrote and co-produced with Pharrell Williams.... We don’t get to hear from Sky Ferreira enough. Her great debut album Night Time, My Time is now six years old. This year, Ferreira has released the single “Downhill Lullaby” and sung with Charli XCX on “Cross You Out,” but that’s pretty much been it. So it’s cool to hear Ferreira’s voice on the new Beck song “Die Waiting,” even if she’s really just singing backup. “Die Waiting” is an interesting amalgam of dancey beck and folksy Beck. Beck co-produced the track with Pharrell Williams and David Greenbaum, and he co-wrote it with Cole MGN and Kossiko Konan. It’s a midtempo track, driven by an acoustic guitar strum and a synthetic beat...
City Girls - You Tried It
City Girls are back at full strength. Last year, when the Miami rap duo was on the precipice of breaking through, group member JT was sent to federal prison for credit card fraud. But Yung Miami, her City Girls partner, kept working and shouting out JT. Last month, JT was released from prison, and she immediately released the new song “JT First Day Out.” Today, City Girls are back with their first song as a duo since JT’s release... “You Tried It,” the new City Girls track, is pretty much exactly what you want from a new City Girls track. JT and Yung Miami rose to fame by talking mercenary sex stuff over hard, simplistic old-school Southern rap beats. “You Tried It” is two minutes long, and it’s got a big, heavy, uncluttered DJ Chose beat. And the two group members talk so much shit in those two minutes.
Kvelertak - Båtebrann
For many years, the Norwegian band Kvelertak have been arguably the most straight-up fun band on the entire metal underground. They’ve got a sound that’s entirely their own: chest-puffed roaring, Motörhead riffage, tremendous singalong hooks, and occasional flashes of classic-rock choogle, all tied to an unrelenting ferocity that splits the difference between black metal and crust punk... “Båtebrann,” we get to hear Nioklaisen at work. He’s got an impressive growl of his own, one that’s got a higher pitch than what Hjelvik brought to the table. The seven-minute single pushes even further in the classic rock direction that band was moving in on Nattesferd. There’s some Mötley Crüe in their riffage now, and there’s also a big, harmonized chorus that reminds me of Queen or Kansas or something. Nioklaisen introduces the guitar solo by deadpanning, “Ay, guitar, come on!” (It’s also possible that he’s saying, “Air guitar, come one!”) ...
Pop. 1280 - Under Duress
...“Under Duress,” a nervy and oppressive growl, and had this say about it:
"‘Under Duress’ started out as just a drumbeat that sounded like it had a song inside of it. We layered synthesizers and samples onto it and took it into the studio. There was an upright piano there, and spontaneously we decided to play that on the intro and throughout the song and it affected the mood incredibly. The swells of analog synth and samples that bounce off each other like waves after the choruses really affect us and are very satisfying to play live."
Marilyn Manson - The End (The Doors Cover)
Right now, Marilyn Manson is riding a nice little career renaissance, mostly because rappers keep namechecking him... Manson recorded “The End” with the country rocker Shooter Jennings producing; they’re apparently now working on an album together. It’s not Manson and Jennings’ first time covering an iconic movie song; they recorded a version of David Bowie’s “Cat People” together a couple of years ago.
Sorry, Cornershop, Weaves, The Tippo Allstars & Fiona Apple, Phoebe Bridgers, Tom Waits, Haim, Leonard Cohen, Nicolas Godin Feat. Cola Boyy, Beck Feat. Sky Ferreira, City Girls, Kvelertak, Pop. 1280, Marilyn Manson
