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Travis Scott has revealed the video for “Sicko Mode”, his standout Drake collaboration appearing on his latest album, ASTROWORLD. Director Dave Meyers turns Scott’s hometown of Houston into a psychedelic wonderland, wherein Scott can be found trotting around on horseback, serenading half-naked women by the train tracks, and moonlighting as a math teacher. All the while, a girl twerks in Drake’s eyeball; later, Drizzy’s face literally cracks into pieces. Needless to say, there’s a lot going on here. Watch it for yourself below. In support of ASTROWORLD, Scott will embark on “The Wish You Were Here Tour” beginning next month. Source

Cloud Nothings are back today with their fifth studio full-length, Last Building Burning. Stream the entire thing below via Apple Music or Spotify. Serving as a follow-up to one of our favorite records of last year, Life Without Sound, Last Building Burning was produced by Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Marissa Nadler) at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas. Frontman Dylan Baldi described the effort as “seven short, and one long, bursts of intense, controlled chaos.” (Read: The 25 Most Anticipated Albums of Fall 2018) In his review for Consequence of Sound, David Sackllah praises the record. “The band have never sounded as in sync; the years of playing together as a cohesive unit have paid off,” Sackallah writes. “A ferocious album that finds them diving headfirst into experimentation, it is filled to the brim with a driving energy that rarely lets up. Striking the precarious balance of melding their pop inclinations with uproarious noise, Cloud Nothings push the dial back in the right direction.” Cloud Nothings’ North American tour behind Last Building Burning kicks off October 22nd in Lexington, Kentucky. Last Building Burning Artwork: Last Building Burning Tracklist: 01. On An Edge 02. Leave Him Now 03. In Shame 04. Offer An End 05. The Echo Of The World 06. Dissolution 07. So Right So Clean 08. Another Way Of Life Source

Massive Attack’s seminal album Mezzanine celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. To highlight the 1998 record, the group previously announced a very special reissue in which Mezzanine’s 11 tracks would be encoded into 920,000 actual strands of DNA. As if that weren’t ambitious enough, Massive Attack is now taking things a step further by making the album available as DNA-encoded spray paint. According to a press statement (via FACT), the trip-hop outfit will release a limited number of aerosol cans containing a matt black paint featuring the Mezzanine DNA. Although the supply will be limited, supposedly each can carries approximately one million copies of the LP. “It’s a creative way to store your back catalogue, although DNA-encoded spray paint is unlikely to be adopted by street artists seeking anonymity,” said Massive Attack’s 3D, a musician and graffiti artist who has long been rumored to be Banksy. A Dr. Robert Grass of Zurich’s TurboBeads company explained the complex process of incorporating DNA into spray paint. “This digital bitstream of the album (0s and 1s) was first translated to 901’065 DNA sequences (A, C, T and Gs), each 105 characters long,” noted Grass. “The 901’065 individual sequences were then chemically synthesised resulting in a synthetic DNA sample, which fully represents the digital bitstream of the album.” The DNA sequences were then stored in “synthetic glass fossils,” which were in turn added to the spray cans. It’s unclear just how exactly one can listen to or play Mezzanine in this form, but it’s sure to be one heck of a collector’s item. Next month, a more traditional reissue of Mezzanine is due to hit shelves. Along with a remastered version of the 1998 original, it will come packaged with a second album featuring previously unreleased Mad Professor dub remixes sourced from the first Mezzanine recording sessions. These were intended to appear on a Mad Professor Mezzanine remix album that never materialized. Revisit some cuts off Mezzanine (no DNA or paint required): Source

Snail Mail, the CoSigned musical endeavor of teenage wunderkind Lindsey Jordan, has shared a new song via the Amazon Originals series. It’s a cover of “The 2nd Most Beautiful Girl In The World”, a song by Courtney Love, the band, not the Hole singer. Yes, in the early ’90s, Olympia’s K Records hosted a collaboration between Lois Maffeo and Pat Maley called Courtney Love. They released a few 7-inches, including 1990’s Uncrushworthy, from which Jordan pulled the song. Jordan’s cover is characteristically spare, with Jordan’s cracking, wounded vocals joined only by her electric guitar. (Read: Top 25 Albums of 2018 (So Far)) Hear it below. Snail Mail’s got tour dates lined up through early next year, with Jordan playing gigs throughout the U.K. and Europe before bringing the sounds of this year’s wonderful Lush back to the States. See her full itinerary below. Snail Mail 2018-2019 Tour Dates: 10/21 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds 10/22 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club 10/23 – Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 10/24 – Manchester, UK @ YES 10/25 – London, UK @ The Dome 10/29 – Nottingham, UK @ Bodega 10/30 – Brighton, UK @ Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar 10/31 – Bristol, UK @ Thekla 11/02 – Antwerp, BE @ Trix 11/03 – Paris, FR @ Pitchfork Festival 11/05 – Cologne, DE @ LUXOR 11/06 – Hamburg, DE @ Molotow 11/07 – Berlin, DE @ Badehaus Szimpla 11/08 – Reykjavik, IS @ Iceland Airwaves 11/09 – Copenhagen, DK @ Sorte Firkant Muskfestival 11/11 – Kortrijk, BE @ Sonic City 11/13 – London, UK @ The Dome 11/30 – Jersey City, NY @ White Eagle Hall 12/01 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair 12/02 – Holyoke, MA @ Gateway City Arta 12/04 – Oberlin, OH @ Dionysus Discotheque 12/05 – Detroit, MI @ Deluxx Fluxx 12/06 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall * 12/07 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall * 12/08 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall * 12/09 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall * 12/20 – Richmond, VA @ The Broadberry 12/21 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club 12/29 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia @ 01/17 – Chicago, IL @ The Metro 01/19 – Austin, TX @ The Mohawk 01/21 – San Diego, CA @ Music Box 01/22 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room 01/23 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Novo 01/24 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore # 01/26 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theatre % 01/27 – Vancouver, BC @ The Imperial % 01/28 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre % 02/16 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden & * = w/ Alvvays @ = w/ Kurt Vile and The Feelies # = w/ Black Marble % = w/ Choir Boy & = w/ Interpol and Car Seat Headrest Source

When Anthrax wrapped up the touring cycle for their 1987 breakout album Among the Living, the New York City thrash outfit found itself in the midst of a momentous career upswing that had, to a certain extent, caught the band off guard. Still, the sense of exhilaration in the Anthrax camp was such that drummer Charlie Benante was inspired to come up with the title State of Euphoria for the band’s fourth album. Originally released on September 19, 1988, the offering from the classic Anthrax lineup of Benante, rhythm guitarist Scott Ian, vocalist Joe Belladonna, lead guitarist Dan Spitz, and bassist Frank Bello arrived not only as Anthrax’s star was rising but as the profile of thrash metal in general was surging higher and higher, as well. In 1988, for example, landmark releases by Slayer, Megadeth, Testament, Nuclear Assault, Voivod, Death Angel, Sacred Reich, Flotsam and Jetsam and, of course, Metallica, showcased the continuing evolution of what was once a fringe sub-genre into a complex, ever-more-refined artform. With a deluxe remastered reissue of the album out now as a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the original disc, Heavy Consequence wanted to dive deeper into State of Euphoria, so we caught up with Benante to discuss the album. “You have to understand, that lineup was [only] two years old when we wrote and recorded Among the Living in 1987, and the ideas that were coming out were very adventurous,” Benante tells us. “That was exactly the music that I wanted to make and had always dreamt of making. [But] it was [still] a complete surprise that Among the Living was so well received. Now we were being looked at as a real fuckin’ band. And then the I’m the Man EP was even bigger after that. We couldn’t even watch it happen because we were in the middle of it. We were in the eye [of the storm]. All of that led to the title, and the whole vibe, of State of Euphoria.” Looking back on that time, Benante, Ian, and former Metal Hammer editor Alex Milas set the stage in the liner notes to the new deluxe remastered edition. Benante wanted that “whole vibe” to reflect in the album’s cover art, which was based on a concept drafted by the drummer, also the principal composer of the band’s guitar riffs, as well as its in-house art designer: “I wanted to show,” he recalls in the new liner notes, “that we were in this vortex — all of us just screaming with joy and also under all this pressure.” Several times throughout Alex Milas’ liner notes essay, he quotes Ian and Benante lamenting how in retrospect they felt like Anthrax rushed State of Euphoria through to completion. It’s a curious tactic for a reissue campaign, with a band openly doubting its own record while repackaging it for fans to buy a second time 30 years later. But in this case, the transparency pays off thanks to a host of fan testimonials printed in the new booklet that tell a rather different story. Fan after fan (identified only by their social media handles) remind us how wide the gulf can be between our favorite music and the experience of the musicians who made it. “I don’t hate that record,” Benante continues in our conversation with the drummer. “I just wish we had a little more time to give it that extra 25%. I didn’t take into consideration that you can be so critical of your own art that you need to shut your ears off a little bit because other people are hearing it in a totally different way. When I went back to put this anniversary edition together, I started to appreciate it more because I wasn’t so close to it as I once was. I spent a lot of time with this music again and I started to go back to that period. I think I was way too close to it back then. I was also very nervous about following-up that Among record.” Benante had good reason to be nervous. It’s telling that many of the fan testimonials come from fans who were hearing Anthrax for the first time with State of Euphoria. This is noteworthy because of the significant — even drastic — sonic difference between the two records. Among the Living is characterized by an immediate sound that highlights the music’s unbridled vitality. In fact, Benante and Ian had been adamant in resisting producer Eddie Kramer’s efforts to drench that album’s mix in reverb and had to sit Kramer down in a tense confrontation in order to convince him to back down. That being the case, the heavy presence of reverb and spacious ambience on State of Euphoria not only comes as a bit of a shock but muffles the band’s roar somewhat. “Eddie [Kramer],” says Benante, “wanted to do like a Def Leppard-y kind of thing [with Among the Living]. We wanted a more dry, in-your-face sound, like hardcore punk meets metal. Some of the songs are very, very fast. And with all that atmosphere that you put on it, it doesn’t have the same type of aggression. With State of Euphoria, I think we were trying to split the difference. We wanted a bit more slapback, what [producer] Mark [Dodson] would call ‘jizz’ on the vocals. It’s not something that I hated.” In fact, according to the liners, Ian and Benante felt they had “a monster” of a record when they were tracking at Quadradial studios in Miami. It was during the mixing process where doubts began to creep in. “I started to think that about 75% of the record was strong,” Benante explains, “but 25% could have been worked on a little more.” But because the band had a full slate of European Monsters of Rock festival dates booked for the summer of ‘89, they went ahead and finished the album against their own qualms.” As a kind of corrective, the reissue package also includes an entire disc’s worth of bonus, lo-fi rehearsal recordings. Track by track, listeners can now hear Anthrax working through decisions on structure and arrangement as a group. By definition, poor-quality rehearsal recordings can be difficult to listen to. In most cases, they amount to little more than filler for obsessive completists when there’s nothing left in the vault to raid for use as bait to justify re-selling a back-catalog title. In this case, though, the rehearsal tapes restore some of the bite to a body of songs with no shortage of quintessential — fast, chunky, often downpicked — Anthrax riffs. Tracks like “Schism,” “Finale,” “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” and the b-side “Le Sects” all convey the piston-like groove that defined Anthrax’s unique twist on the thrash metal formula. “Le Sects” in particular points to Benante’s original vision of an album with a slightly re-calibrated balance of heaviness to melody than the one we ended up with. Like “Antisocial,” State of Euphoria’s most well-known single (and a staple of the band’s live set to this day), “Le Sects” (originally released on the 1991 b-sides compilation Attack of the Killer B’s) is a cover of a song by the French metal band Trust. Both songs originally appear on Trust’s sophomore album Répression, released in 1980 in both French- and English-language versions. Benante explains that both tunes were supposed to appear on State of Euphoria back to back — a decision that would have had significant impact on the complexion and flow of the album as a whole. While “Antisocial” is built on an anthemic, singalong hook, “Le Sects” (originally titled “Sectes” in French and “Sects” in English) hews much closer to the full-on thrashing drive of formative Anthrax releases like 1984’s Armed and Dangerous EP and 1985’s sophomore full-length Spreading the Disease. “Antisocial” on its own, however, proved to be enough to propel State of Euphoria to gold sales in the U.S. But simultaneously, even as the album furthered the band’s commercial winning streak, the band felt as if certain factions of the music media had built them up only to tear them down — particularly the notoriously fickle British press. Benante took it personally. The band, he says, felt blindsided, which only compounded an already-mounting sense of stress. “We didn’t know how to deal with rejection at that time,” he says. “We were just kinda taking everything as it came, and this was now a first bit of our art being judged. Not that the other records weren’t being judged, but this was being scrutinized.” Making matters worse, the band’s choice of attire — most notably, the members’ penchant for bright-colored shorts — became a target of derision (somewhat fairly, perhaps, even by Benante’s own admission). “The image of the band was also being included in that [criticism],” he continues. “That was very strange to me. Like, ‘wait a minute — are you listening to us or watching us?’ I must say, though, that at that time I felt like things were starting to get a little bit away from us. We were almost turning into a little bit of a parody of ourselves. We definitely had to pull it back a bit. We were just living life [in the spotlight] the way we were living our own lives. But we were being splattered all over the magazines. And, like I said, I think it started to get away from us. And companies were throwing stuff at us to wear. That was another thing. We would get boxes of shit. Some guys would have [individual] deals with a company and wear [that company’s gear] onstage and [the company] would be happy. But then we [as a band] started not to be happy. Like, ‘we gotta stop doing this.’” Nevertheless, group interview clips from the period give the impression of a fun-loving, goofy bunch who were having a great time together. “It really was like that, I would say, 80% of the time,” says Benante. “It wasn’t until other people would get involved that things would get a little weird [between us]. But when it was just us, it was good.” Still, tensions that were almost completely hidden from fans were beginning to take their toll. And even though Anthrax ultimately welcomed the success that State of Euphoria achieved, the underlying frustrations would pave the way for the tone of their next album, 1990’s Persistence of Time. “As far as [success] goes,” Benante recalls, “everything was going great. But we wanted to make the next record a lot darker and heavier. That’s where we were going.” As for what’s ahead for the band in the wake of this reissue, Benante says that he wants to re-introduce some of the album’s deeper cuts into the current setlist and “play them with some new blood and fire.” Our thanks to Charlie Benante for taking the time to speak with us. The 30th anniversary deluxe reissue of Anthrax’s State of Euphoria is now available through several outlets at this location. Source

Origins is a new music feature which lets an artist reflect on the inspirations behind their latest track. Jordan Sudak has lived a wild, often confusing, life. He grew up as an army brat following his parents around two three different countries by the time he was 15. He watched his family go from free-spirited travelers to born-again, Harry Potter-burning Protestants, to Atheists in an experimental family band. Sudak sang in that band alongside his mother and father, but for some reason pretended to be a cousin. It was understandably a lot of a young boy to take in, a lot of half-truths to keep up appearances. Perhaps ironically, Sudak came out of all the confusion with an extreme clarity for reality, something he channels into his latest track as Koda, “TEARGLASS”. The song comes from his forthcoming debut mixtape under the Koda moniker, Same As It Ever Was, out October 26th. “‘TEARGLASS’ is about desperately and selfishly praying to unlearn inconvenient truths,” Sudak explains. “There’s a nagging guilt that comes with being alive and knowing all the horrors we are complicit In. ” Musically, “TEARGLASS” is an arresting introduction to Koda’s experimental, alternative electronica. Layers of gossamer vocals weave together a ghostly tapestry over shifting, restrained beats. It’s hard not to hear some form of Thom Yorke in the pinched prettiness of his vocals and Radiohead’s spectral compositions in the instrumentation. But this is far from an imitation of that great rock band, with Sudak’s unique production decisions creating a sound that feels melodic and cool yet subtly foreboding. That suits lyrics like, “None of it makes a lick of sense/ We must listen to the earth” just fine. Take a listen for yourself below. For more insight into “TEARGLASS”, Koda has revealed some of the track’s Origins. John Carpenter’s They Live: The song is all about being a collaborator in a consumerist society — at the end of the day, I’m selling not only ideas and music but myself, particularly if I want to have any success. And so this was all about wishing that I either wasn’t aware of it or that it didn’t bother me. So I feel sort of like Frank in the film desperately wanting to reject what I already know to be the inconvenient truth. Shaun Monson’s Earthlings: “TEARGLASS” isn’t directly about animal welfare, but it’s one of the first things that got me on my “ignorance is bliss” pining. Animal agriculture is completely unconscionable whether you’re an active or passive participant — and if I’m not setting myself on fire because of how horrific it is, then I must just be pushing it to the back of my mind every minute of every day. That’s how so much of our existence is — like so what if you’re woke? It’s just passive acceptance. Sticking your fingers in your ears: Photo by Lachlan Hardy We do this often — just being willfully ignorant. For the song that’s kind of what the backing la-la-la vocals on the chorus were, but in like a schoolyard bully mocking and knowing way. As if those same little assholes grew up to be investment bankers and they’re all standing at the top of the hill waving their hands with their fingers in their ears mocking us. The gross son of a banking exec I met in Vegas: I was lying down on the floor charging my phone at a hotel party as these two wealthy men had a conversation above me and one of them said, “You know how money is to guys like us — it’s just a scorecard.” I was taken aback because I had this idea in my head of what people like him were really like and having this weird candid stereotype affirmation scared me a bit. Maybe this really is a pervasive thought in those circles or maybe he was just projecting, it feels like a chilling thing for the powerful to admit. Source

Neil Young has announced a new live album called Songs for Judy. Well, it’s not entirely new; the collection comprises recordings from Young’s November 1976 solo acoustic tour of the US. Due out November 30th (with vinyl coming December 14th), Songs for Judy marks the debut release from Young’s Reprise Records imprint, Shakey Pictures Records. The collection was curated by director Cameron Crowe and producer/photographer Joel Bernstein, both of whom contributed to the liner notes. The 22-song tracklist is highlighted by classic tracks like “The Needle and the Damage Done” and “Heart of Gold”, early solo offerings including “Here We Are in the Years” and “The Losing End”, and the Buffalo Springfield gem “Mr. Soul”. Also included is “No One Seems to Know”, a song Young has played live over the years but has never been available in any form. The version here was recorded in Boulder, Colorado on November 7th, 1976. Pre-orders come with an instant download of “Campainger” from a November 22nd, 1976 gig in Boston. Find the full tracklist and album art below. Songs for Judy Artwork: Songs for Judy Tracklist: 01. Songs For Judy Intro (Atlanta, GA, Nov 24 (late show)) 02. Too Far Gone (Boulder, CO, Nov 06) 03. No One Seems To Know (Boulder, CO, Nov 07) 04. Heart Of Gold (Fort Worth, TX, Nov 10) 05. White Line (Fort Worth, TX, Nov 10) 06. Love Is A Rose (Houston, TX, Nov 11) 07. After The Gold Rush (Houston, TX, Nov 11) 08. Human Highway (Madison, WI, Nov 14) 09. Tell Me Why (Chicago, IL, Nov 15 (late show)) 10. Mr. Soul (New York, NY, Nov 20 (early show)) 11. Mellow My Mind (New York, NY, Nov 20 (early show)) 12. Give Me Strength (New York, NY, Nov 20 (late show)) 13. Man Needs A Maid (New York, NY, Nov 20 (late show)) 14. Roll Another Number (Boston, MA, Nov 22 (late show)) 15. Journey Through The Past (Boston, MA, Nov 22 (late show)) 16. Harvest (Boston, MA, Nov 22 (late show)) 17. Campaigner (Boston, MA, Nov 22 (late show)) 18. Old Laughing Lady (Atlanta, GA, Nov 24 (early show)) 19. The Losing End (Atlanta, GA, Nov 24 (late show)) 20. Here We Are In The Years (Atlanta, GA, Nov 24 (late show)) 21. The Needle And The Damage Done (Atlanta, GA, Nov 24 (early show)) 22. Pocahontas (Atlanta, GA, Nov 24 (late show)) 23. Sugar Mountain (Atlanta, GA, Nov 24 (late show)) Source

Damon Albarn is a man of his word. In a recent appearance on Kyle Meredith With…, the assiduous UK frontman promised a new album from The Good The Bad & The Queen would arrive before year’s end. Now, an advert in Uncut magazine has revealed that an LP titled, Merrie Land, is due for release on November 16th (via @DamonAlbarnUnofficial). The Good, The Bad & The Queen, a supergroup which also features The Clash’s Paul Simonon, The Verve’s Simon Tong, and Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen, dropped their self-titled debut album way back in 2007. Albarn has called the long-awaited follow-up record “an ode to the North of England,” one which he worked on with David Bowie producer Tony Visconti. As a reddit user points out, the artwork to Merrie Land is taken from the 1945 British anthology horror film, Dead of Night. MERRIE LAND It’s listed on Amazon. Release date: November 16. (thank you @gorillaz_club for the heads up)#thegoodthebadandthequeen #tgtbtq #damonalbarn #gorillaz #tonyallen #paulsimonon #simontong #tonyvisconti https://t.co/E7VyNsW1jp pic.twitter.com/SQMigZdqpT — thegoodthebad&thequeen (@TGTBTQUEEN) October 18, 2018 Albarn is currently wrapping up a North American tour with one of his other acclaimed outfits, Gorillaz. This weekend, they’ll stage their Demon Dayz Festival in Los Angeles. Hopefully tour dates for The Good The Bad & The Queen aren’t far behind. We’ve reached out to representatives for Albarn and The Good The Bad & The Queen for more information. Source

In 2015, Mindless Self Indulgence frontman Jimmy Urine took on the task of remixing “Kill V. Maim”, a track off the stellar Grimes record Art Angels. Now, Grimes has returned the favor by appearing on Urine’s solo album, EURINGER, which hits store shelves today. The art pop singer (and pumpkin patch partner to Elon Musk) contributed to a track called “The Medicine Does Not Control Me”. A four-minute cut punctuated by moody synths, it suits and complements Grimes’ trancelike vocals, which speak of wanting to “chase that high.” Take a listen below. Along with Grimes, EURINGER features appearances from My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way, System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, and Morningwood’s Chantal Claret. ”I was having fun exploring my brain,” Urine noted in a press statement, “I wanted to invite my friends to have fun with me immersing myself in another time and space, bit by bit, gaining its form from my daily life into a surreal stream of consciousness. Source

Here’s a new Halloween tradition: In celebration of the Festival of Samhain, Marilyn Manson has gone ahead and done what every industrial metal provocateur does in their late career … he’s slapped his face at the end of a dildo. On Thursday night, Manson announced via Instagram that he’s selling an officially licensed, black silicone dildo, which stands 8″ tall, has a solid 1.5″ girth, and even contains a handy sucker base. Hell, it’s even hypoallergenic. So, if you’ve got $125 to spare, be one of the beautiful people to get intimate with Manson and grab one tonight, today, or whenever your heart desires. It’s truly a dream to all the fans who want every day to be Halloween. “Dick or treat,” indeed. Source

KSP-member breaks out on his own and hits the beach for new single Kansas-by-way-of-Salt Lake City, popular KSP group member G-Baby prepares his solo run with his latest video, “West Palms”. The follow up to his “$unny $ide”, G-Baby fuses classic hip-hop with contemporary trap along with tunes of pop. Reforming the taste and tunes of contemporary music with his intelligent production. On “West Palms”, hits the beach for some much-needed R&R. Burying himself in the sand, smoking the finest cigars, and playing with his dog. Trippy at various points, “West Palms” carries a catchy melody that makes the new single a definite hit. Following the footsteps of success as his previous single, “$unny $ide”, “West Palms” is set to make its way to the top of the charts. Meanwhile, G-Baby is still performing alongside KSP and working on his forthcoming solo project, slated for a late-2018, early-2019 release. Watch G-Baby new video, “West Palms” above. The post G-Baby (of KSP) Lounges in “West Palms” : Watch appeared first on Verge Campus. Source

Download | Listen and subscribe via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Radio Public | Stitcher | RSS The Lowdown: In the midst of a grueling 2018 tour schedule that’s found them wowing audiences on club and festival stages across North America and Europe, the classic rock torchbearers of Greta Van Fleet attempt to translate the buzzed-about bombast of their live shows into their debut full-length (75% of which was written during a whirlwind two-week stint in the studio). The Good: Despite their weariness of the comparison, Greta Van Fleet remains preternaturally good at evoking the sonic world of the Zeppelin-ified ’70s; even without guitarist Jake Kiszka’s expertly bluesy solo work, frontman Josh Kiszka’s voice would naturally lead you to the conclusion that he’s somehow been pre-possessed by the ghost of Robert Plant. From the vintage drug name-drops of “When the Curtain Falls” (what up, Obetrol?) to the Southern rock choogle of “The Cold Wind”, the best of these songs would slot in seamlessly on period piece soundtracks (think back — you first heard “Age of Man” over a road trip montage in Almost Famous, right?) The vibe coalesces strongest on standout “Lover, Leaver (Taker, Believer)”, a charging, jammy anthem with lyrics that feel like they were written in the margins of a first-edition Monster Manual. The Bad: After a mauler of a first side, Anthem of the Peaceful Army fades sharply on the back half; twanged-up tracks like “The New Day” and “Mountain of the Sun” land with all the energy of a H.O.R.D.E. tour side stage act, and, despite flashes of flourish, the rhythm section of bassist Sam Kiszka and drummer Danny Wagner never manage to command a song in the way in which it feels like they’re capable. On a macro level, the record suffers from a serious case of pastiche fatigue; you have to wonder, if delivered by a singer whose voice didn’t resemble one of rock’s most iconic frontman’s, whether some of the material here would be original enough to hold up under its own weight. That fixation on the past also hobbles some of the lyrics; for every wicked wizard rock callback, the band conjures another retrograde clanger — the tired “evil woman” tropes of “You’re the One”, the naive bothsidesism of “Anthem” — that’s best left where they found it. The Verdict: “Classic rock” is classic for a reason, but in 2018, it’s not quite enough to simply present a convincing simulacrum of your parents’ record collections. On their debut, Greta Van Fleet proves their ability to resurrect the sounds of the past, but not necessarily that they’re ready to make those sounds into something they truly own. Gifted with youth, taste, and undeniable natural talents (just ask anyone who’s seen them live), the band still has time to become the saviors of rock and roll that many want them to be. For now, though, they remain overly devoted disciples. Essential Tracks: “Lover, Leaver (Taker, Believer)”, “Age of Man”, and “When the Curtain Falls” Source

The Lowdown: Following a hiatus that began 2011, Disturbed returned in 2015 with Immortalized, an album that would eventually go platinum thanks in large part to the massive success of the band’s haunting rendition of the Simon & Garfunkel classic “The Sound of Silence”. Now, Disturbed are back with their seventh album, Evolution, with the bar set high by singer David Draiman when he told Metal Hammer, “This is our ‘Black Album’,” referring to Metallica’s mega-selling 1991 self-titled disc. A lofty statement, indeed. The Good: From the moment they broke big with their 2000 debut album, The Sickness, Disturbed have showcased a hit-making sound that is very unique to, well, Disturbed, highlighted by Draiman’s staccato-like singing over guitarist Dan Donegan’s hammering riffs. The first single and leadoff track, “Are You Ready”, follows the band’s playbook, offering up a rousing start to Evolution. It’s immediately followed by “No One”, another banger that just might be the most powerful track on the album, both musically and lyrically, as it lambastes the motives behind the wars being waged in this world: “No more defending the lies / Behind the never ending war / It’s time to make them realize / We will no longer be their whore.” The Bad: The success of their “Sound of Silence” cover seems to have resulted in Disturbed getting a little too ballad-happy on Evolution. Just about half the songs show the band’s softer side, with a couple calling to mind some saccharine ’70s and ’80s rock ballads, seeming a bit out of place for an outfit that made its mark with heavy riffs and hard-rocking aggression. The Verdict: The heavy songs on Evolution should please longtime fans, with a couple harkening back to the dynamism of Disturbed’s first couple of albums, but the glut of softer tracks may have been served better on a separate acoustic EP. It’s almost as if Evolution is a tale of two albums, each with its own identity. Essential Tracks: “Are You Ready”, “No More”, “Stronger on Your Own” Source

Today, The Cranberries celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut record, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?, with a new deluxe reissue. Stream it below via Spotify and Apple Music. Originally released in 1993, Everybody Else Is Doing It featured the Irish alternative outfit’s smash hits “Linger” and “Dreams”. This new edition features a remaster of the original record plus B-sides “Liar”, “Where You Were”, “Them”), album outtakes (“Íosa”, “Linger” (Dave Bascombe mix), an atlernate version of “How”), and their 1991 Uncertain EP. Also included early demos from when the band was still called The Cranberry Saw Us, such as “Sunday”, an early version of “Linger”, “Fast One”, and “Shine Down”. (Read: The Cranberries’ Stunning Debut Does More Than Just Linger 25 Years Later) The final part of the collection is a number of live recordings, including a 1991 perform at Ireland’s Cork Rock festival. There are also a pair of RTÉ radio sessions (from 1991 and 1993) and a BBC Radio 1 session from 1992. The Cranberries intend to release their final album next year, in accordance with the wishes of their late lead singer, Dolores O’Riordan. O’Riordan passed away from drowning back in January. Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? 25th Anniversary Artwork: Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? 25th Anniversary Tracklist: Disco One: Original album remastered 01. I Still Do 02. Dreams 03. Sunday 04. Pretty 05. Waltzing Back 06. Not Sorry 07. Linger 08. Wanted 09. Still Can’t… 10. I Will Always 11. How 12. Put Me Down Disco Two: Album out-takes 01. Íosa 02. What You Were (Demo) 03. Linger (Dave Bascombe mix) 04. How (Alternate version) Single b-sides 05. Liar 06. What You Were 07. Reason 08. How (Radical mix) 09. Them 10. Pretty (Prêt-à-Porter movie remix) Debut EP 11. Uncertain 12. Nothing Left At All 13. Pathetic Senses 14. Them Early demos * 15. Dreams (Unmixed) 16. Sunday 17. Linger 18. Chrome Paint 19. Fast One 20. Shine Down 21. Dreams (Pop mix) *recorded as The Cranberry Saw Us Disc Three: Live at Cork Rock (June 1, 1991) 01. Put Me Down 02. Dreams 03. Uncertain – Live at Féile, Tipperary (July 31, 1994) 04. Pretty 05. Wanted 06. Daffodil Lament 07. Linger 08. I Can’t Be With You 09. How 10. Ode to My Family 11. Not Sorry 12. Waltzing Back 13. Dreams 14. Ridiculous Thoughts 15. Zombie 16. (They Long to Be) Close to You Disc Four: Dave Fanning, RTÉ radio session, 1991 01. Dreams 02. Uncertain 03. Reason 04. Put Me Down John Peel, BBC Radio 1 session, 1992 05. Waltzing Back 06. Linger 07. Wanted 08. I Will Always Dave Fanning, RTÉ radio session 1993 09. The Icicle Melts 10. Wanted 11. Like You Used To 12. False Source

Michael Myers isn’t the only veteran coming home today: Legendary Master of Horror John Carpenter has returned with his highly anticipated score for David Gordon Green’s Halloween, which is now available to stream below via Apple Music or Spotify. Although he’s been back behind the synths for years now, what with Lost Themes I & II and last year’s Anthology, this marks Carpenter’s first original score since 2001’s Ghosts of Mars and his first for the franchise since 1982’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Once again, he collaborated with his son Cody Carpenter and his godson Daniel Davies. Much like The Shape, Carpenter makes a “brutal” return with Halloween, as I wrote in my glowing review that “it’s arguably the most modern score he’s ever composed, cutting with a minimalistic edge that might make Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross blush.” Stream below and catch our recent interviews with Carpenter and Davies, who both joined our Halloweenies podcast earlier this week to discuss the score, their respective works, and many more pumpkin-flavored goodies. Download | Subscribe via iTunes | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Podchaser | RSS As for the film, senior writer Sarah Kurchak argues it’s nothing more than fan fiction, while also conceding it’s “an interesting experiment, and possibly a positive step toward marrying long-term franchises and pop culture touchstones with new creative visions.” Trick or treat? See for yourself as Halloween is currently in theaters. Though, if you dig the score, grab a copy now via Sacred Bones and Waxwork Records or maybe try to win a blood-stained vinyl from us. After all, everyone’s entitled to one good score. Source

MØ has revealed her new sophomore album, Forever Neverland, through Columbia Records. Stream it in full below via Apple Music or Spotify. The long-awaited album follows her breakthrough debut, 2014’s No Mythologies to Follow. It also proceeds after When I Was Young, her surprise EP released last year. (Read: 2014 CoSign Interview with MØ) According to the Danish pop singer, born Karen Marie Ørsted, it took over four years to finish Forever Neverland because of an inner dilemma regarding the future. The success of smash singles such as 2015’s “Lean On”, featuring Major Lazer and DJ Snake, had her second-guessing the next step in her evolution as an artist. She elaborated in a recent interview with DIY Magazine: “It was really, really wild, and also flattering and exciting. But honestly, and this is how I am with everything in life, the only thing I was thinking about is what’s next. What do we do next? What’s the next song?” she recalls of that period, animatedly regaling us down the phone from a Washington, DC hotel room in a manner that suggests she’s winning the battle against jetlag for now. “It’s amazing to see how [‘Lean On’] inspired a whole sound and a whole wave of things, but at the same time, all I was thinking about was what was going to be my comeback and how do I finish this record? And for a year or something, I had the famous writer’s block. So [that song is] the best thing that ever happened in my life, but also it slowed down the process of finding my own sound again. When you’re in a place and a position like that, you’re very eager to continue the success but at the same time [you want to] continue to be yourself and it can be very confusing. It became this big battle in my head with all these opinions.” The 17-track Forever Neverland sees MØ linking up with past collaborators like Diplo and Charli XCX, as well as guests in Empress Of, Two Feet, and What So Not. “One of the many reasons I love working with him [Diplo] is because I always feel like it’s a free and creative process and I always like the end product,” MØ remarked in a press statement. “We both loved ‘Sun In Our Eyes’ from the beginning and what makes it special to me is that it’s a combination of the two ingredients I’m always craving in music: uplifting and melancholy vibes.” Forever Neverland Artwork: Forever Neverland Tracklist: 01. Intro 02. Way Down 03. I Want You 04. Blur 05. Nostalgia 06. Sun in Our Eyes (feat. Diplo) 07. Mercy (feat. Two Feet and What So Not) 08. If It’s Over (feat. Charli XCX) 09. West Hollywood (Interlude) 10. Beautiful Wreck 11. Red Fine (feat. Empress Of) 12. Imaginary Friend 13. Trying To Be Good 14. Purple Like the Summer Rain 15. Final Song 16. Kamikaze 17. Nights With You Source

It’s been just over a year and a half since Greta Van Fleet exploded onto the scene with their debut single, “Highway Tune”. Two EPs and a number of hits later, the Michigan hard rockers have finally delivered their debut full-length album, Anthem of the Peaceful Army. Stream the entire thing below via Apple Music or Spotify. Anthem was recorded in Nashville and Royal Oak, Michigan alongside production trio Marlon Young, Al Sutton and Herschel Boone (aka The Rust Brothers). The album’s 10 tracks were co-written by the four members of Greta Van Fleet: twins Josh (vocals) and Jake Kiszka (guitars), their brother Sam (bass), and drummer Danny Wagner. It follows the band’s pair of 2017 EPs, Black Smoke Rising and From the Fires. (Read: The 25 Most Anticipated Albums of Fall 2018) Speaking about how their specific, reverential version of throwback blues rock has soared to such great success over the last two years, Sam told Premier Guitar, “I think what really sets us apart is the time our music is coming. Right now, it’s coming at a time when your stereo is not receiving signals of authentic music. And it’s time for that to change. Greta Van Fleet has a chance to bring authentic blues-rock back into the popular scene. We are three brothers and a best friend, we really love each other, we write all of our songs together, and we put power behind our music in this modern scene.” Anthem of the Peaceful Army Artwork: Anthem of the Peaceful Army Tracklist: 01. Age of Man 02. The Cold Wind 03. When The Curtain Falls 04. Watching Over 05. Lover Leaver (Taker Believer) 06. You’re The One 07. The New Day 08. Mountain of the Sun 09. Brave New World 10. Anthem Great Van Fleet will kick off their European tour later this month before returning to North America in November. The itinerary for their “March of the Peaceful Army” tour stretches well into the summer of 2019, and you can expect even more dates once festival season comes back around. Grab tickets here. Source

Neneh Cherry returns today with her new studio record, Broken Politics. Stream it in full below via Apple Music or Spotify. Broken Politics follows 2014’s Blank Project, and just like that last effort, this new full-length features production from Four Tet. Massive Attack’s 3D also helped out behind the boards on “Kong”, which was shared as an album single along with “Shot Gun Shack”, “Natural Skin Deep”, and “Synchronised Devotion”. Unsurprisingly given its title, the record tackles the divisive political climate of the world in 2018. However, instead of taking a macro stance and addressing the leaders who have led us down this path, Cherry suggest we first look inward for the strength to fight for our own moral and personal identity. As she explained in a statement, “I like writing from a personal perspective, and the time we live in is so much about finding your own voice. People have been left feeling misheard, misunderstood, and disillusioned. What the fuck can I do? Maybe politics starts in your bedroom, or your house — a form of activism, and a responsibility. The album is about all of those things: feeling broken, disappointed, and sad, but having perseverance. It’s a fight against the extinction of free thought and spirit.” Broken Politics Artwork: Broken Politics Tracklist: 01. Fallen Leaves 02. Kong 03. Poem Daddy 04. Synchronised Devotion 05. Deep Vein Thrombosis 06. Faster Than The Truth 07. Natural Skin Deep 08. Shot Gun Shack 09. Black Monday 10. Cheap Breakfast Special 11. Slow Release 12. Soldier Cherry will support Broken Politics with a European tour this winter, with a trio of US dates (Los Angeles, New York, and Miami) set before the end of the year. Source

Khalid has returned with a new EP called Suncity. Stream it in full below via Apple Music or Spotify. Since releasing last year’s American Teen — one of our favorites of 2017 — the R&B crooner has racked up a handful of Grammy nominations (Best Urban Contemporary Album, Best New Artist, Best R&B Song). He also nabbed the 2017 MTV VMA for Best New Artist, beating out the likes of SZA, Julia Michaels, and Kodak Black. Suncity is Khalid’s first major project in the wake of American Teen’s success, and has been described by the 20-year-old as “the start of a new era.” It collects seven tracks, including the previously shared “Better”. The closing number, also titled “Suncity”, is a collaboration with Empress Of. In recent months, Khalid has also teamed up with fellow rising star Billie Eilish on “lovely”, as well as delivered a memorable set at New York City’s Governors Ball festival. Suncity EP Artwork: Suncity EP Tracklist: 01. 9.13 02. Vertigo 03. Saturday Nights 04. Salem’s Interlude 05. Motion 06. Better 07. Suncity (feat. Empress Of) Source

Download | Listen and subscribe via iTunes | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS “Eddie discovered one of his childhood’s great truths. Grownups are the real monsters…” Constant Listeners, it’s time to go back to the future, where a very special dinner awaits, one that will leave you shaking with thrills, chills, and quite an unpredictable fortune. (Merch: Support The Losers’ Club and Grab Some T-Shirts!) Join Losers Randall Colburn, McKenzie Gerber, Ahse Digg, and Justin Gerber as they grab their Wayfarers and return to the ’80s for the fourth episode surrounding Stephen King’s 1986 epic. Together, they get some grub at the Jade and walk it off around town as they digest “Part 3: Grownups” and Mike Hanlon’s “Derry: The Third Interlude.” Listen above and return next week when the Losers circle back in time to 1958 with Part 4: July of 1958 and pore through another one of Hanlon’s interludes. For now, don’t forget to show your support and leave us a glowing review on iTunes. Chapter include: Introduction, Heroes and Villains (8:04), Misery (1:40:30), The Sematary (1:48:00), Word Processor of the Gods (1:55:30), Poundcake (2:12:00), King’s Dominion (2:17:00), Things We Glean Along the Beam (2:21:00), Outro (2:22:00) — Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram — E-mail us tips. Links — Listen and Follow: Coach Hop — In Case You Missed It: Bullying Fuels the Horror of Stephen King’s It — Editorial: The Generation That Grew Up on Stephen King is Taking Him Back — Editorial: Let’s Not Fuck Up This Stephen King Renaissance, Okay? — Feature: Behold, The Stephen King Cinematic Universe! — Guide: Stephen King in Five Films — Ranking: Every Stephen King Movie, Miniseries, TV Show from Worst to Best — List: The Top 10 Stephen King Film Adaptations Source

Action Bronson is just weeks away from his first independent release in several years, White Bronco. After sharing the title track last month, he’s back with another song called “Prince Charming”. The doo-wop-sampling cut finds the Queens MC dropping some stream-of-consciousness bars that loosely come together to define Bronsino. “Enough of that soft shit/ Me by myself is like the four horseman,” he spits early on. “You’re just a poor sportsman/ Your sports car could be your coffin/ The though of revenge release endorphins/ That make me feel just like I’m swimming with some dolphins.” Listen below. White Bronco is out November 1st via EMPIRE. It features production from Party Supplies, Knxwledge, and Daringer, as well as artwork designed by Bronson himself. “Prince Charming” Artwork: Source

Future and Juice WRLD have unleashed their collaborative album, WRLD on Drugs. Stream it in its entirety below via Spotify. Their first joint effort together, WRLD on Drugs is comprised of 16 songs and features guest appearances from Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Young Thug, and Gunna, among others. The album was completed in just the last few days, as the two were recording in the studio as recently as Wednesday, October 17th. (Read: The 20 Richest Rappers in the World) For Chicago’s Juice, the WRLD on Drugs follows his first-ever solo album, the chart-topping Goodbye & Good Riddance, which dropped in May. As for the Atlanta-bred Future, his last project came in the form of this past July’s Beast Mode 2. In an interview with Atlanta’s Hot 107.9 (via Rolling Stone), the 19-year-old “Lucid Dreams” rapper talked about his experiences listening to Future while growing up: “I ran into some percocets my freshman year,” Juice said. “Niggas was calling me and my homie…Two years later, three years later Future drop 56 Nights. By the way, Future is the GOAT. Future dropped 56 Nights. Niggas is hitting my phone like, where you get all them percs from, them xans.’ Hearing that music at such a young age, nigga I was trying to sip lean in sixth grade listening to Dirty Sprite, one and true story,” he continued. “So it’s like, it’s the people that doing that shit ’cause they like getting high and they going through stuff and they like addicted. And then it’s the people who do it for trends and for the people that’s really in the shit, it’s not as easy as seeing somebody die.” The two rappers have been teasing WRLD on Drugs with famous clips about drug use and drug abuse. One of those included that time Kanye West discussed his liposuction surgery and subsequent addiction to opioids. Despite drugs being a running theme of the album, Juice has said he’s been trying to curb his use. “I smoke weed, and every now and then I slip up and do something that’s poor judgment,” he told the New York Times over the summer. “I have a lot going for me, I recognize it’s a lot of big things, a lot of big looks. I want to be there, and you don’t have to overdose to not be there.” WRLD on Drugs Artwork: WLRD on Drugs Tracklist: 01. Jet Lag (feat. Young Scooter) 02. Astronauts 03. Fine China 04. Red Bentley (feat. Young Thug) 05. Make It Back 06. Oxy (feat. Lil Wayne) 07. Zan? 08. Different (feat. Yung Bans) 09. Shorty 10. Realer N Realer 11. No Issues 12. World On Drugs 13. Afterlife 14. Ain’t Livin’ Right (feat. Gunna) 15. Transformer (feat. Nicki Minaj) 16. [Hard] Work Pays Off JAY-Z and Beyonce Tour Reel Travis Scott's Top 5 Videos Food References in Drake’s Music Eminem’s Highest Charting Songs Migos’ Top Songs Source

Don’t waste your time on Internet rumors. After a couple of tweets spurred hopes that Tom DeLonge was gearing up to rejoin his former bandmates in Blink-182, TMZ has confirmed that it’s all hearsay. The rumor mill started churning when drummer Travis Barker tweeted out a picture of DeLonge with the message, “Where are youuuuuuuuuu.” DeLonge responded with another reworked lyric from Blink’s “Miss You”: “I am the voice inside your yeeeeaaaad.” Some fans speculated that DeLonge might finally return to the fold — perhaps for a tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of Enema of the State. However, per TMZ, the trio has no plans to reunite and the messages between Barker and DeLonge are just another interaction in a long line of open communication between the pair. I am the voice inside your yeeeeaaaad — Tom DeLonge (@tomdelonge) October 18, 2018 While DeLonge likely won’t be back with Blink anytime soon, the band is ready to retake the stage again. Blink has been sidelined for most of the year due to Barker’s issues with blood clots, but the drummer has apparently been medically cleared to get back behind the kits. That means Blink-182’s Las Vegas residency, which resumes October 26th at the Pearl Theater, is back on. Grab tickets here. Meanwhile, DeLonge has plenty of other concerns to occupy his mind. When he left the group under acrimonious circumstances back in 2015, he dedicated himself to his lifelong goal of pursuing alien life. Just a year after launching To The Stars Academy, which aims to help in provided resources and funds for UFO research, has wracked up a $37 million deficit. Source

I feel like the need to introduce Sasha, as if to refresh your memory, is a bit unnecessary considering the status he holds in electronic music. For those who don’t know and are relatively new to electronic, Sasha has been at the core of dance music since the scene burst out of the UK in the 90’s. He was truly one of the first global superstar DJ’s. One thing I maintain when I chat to artists is to remind myself that they’re just people too, and that’s what Sasha is, a bloody nice guy with a passion for music; just like the rest of us. Considering the length of the interview, I won’t bang on too much about him, as there is plenty to read below. Sasha is in town for a few shows, namely Strawberry Feild’s and Return to Rio festivals as well as a slew of sideshows all around Australia. I might suggest that you get a ticket to see the Welshman do what he does best (see the bottom of the page for tickets and dates). Enjoy the read. FS: You’ve been in the dance music game since its inception. Did you ever expect the scene to continue to thrive into what it is today despite some media in the early 2000’s declaring that dance music was dead? S: Yeah, that was a bit of a rough patch there. The UK scene, in particular, took a real hard hit. Everything changed at that point. The superclubs as we knew them back there started to close down, a lot of British labels that had been so successful in the 90’s very quickly just folded up. There was a huge change in music taste in the UK. Whenever you went out, you were mostly hearing RnB and hip-hop. The landscape changed massively. There was a short period where a lot of people where scratching their heads thinking ‘well is this done?’ But then the whole EDM movement kicked off in America, and it all kicked off again on a much more global and commercial level. FS: Do you think that’s what saved the scene from all the doom and gloom? S: I guess in some respects, yeah. It was a complete transformation for where electronic music fit and its influence around the world. FS: I was a reading a book recently titled Last Night the DJ Saved My Life. The interesting thing the book talked about was when you guys went over to the United States, there was this kind of rock n’ roll concert vibe but mixed with dance music. Did you expect that the music would develop into that kind of scale? S: I always had a feeling that America was always going to explode, it just took a little bit longer. I just kind of felt that it would be a continuation of what happened in the UK. There was a moment in the mid-2000’s where the scene sort of just stalled. I always knew that the scene needed to be led by local heroes, by American artists. You had the rise of people like Deadmau5. A lot of the upcoming electronic producers just started working with bit commercial artists and that took the scene onto a whole other level really. In the meantime, the underground scene went underground for a while, but it got bigger and stronger after and while and rose from the ashes, as it were. FS: Do you think that’s what we’re seeing today, that the underground is coming out, not so much into the mainstream but its following is growing? S: It’s very different now. There was a feeling in the early 2000’s that the underground had completely run out of steam. I don’t really feel its like that at all now at all, I just feel that general music tastes are changing. With the underground, the techno and electronic scene is thriving and doing so well all over the world. Boutique techno parties and festivals are getting huge. Really interesting lineups are being put together at festivals without commercial acts and are doing well. You got parties like Elrow where it really doesn’t seem to matter who’s DJng, it’s rather about the event itself. So it’s a pretty damn health scene right now. On the commercial end of things, I think people are getting tired of it the same way it happened at the end of the 90’s/early 2000’s that the commercial tastes where changing and people maybe got tired of a certain sound dominating the charts. That seems to be happening right now but those producers are evolving, changing and developing as well. The great thing, and I’ve always said this about electronic (music), the reason why it sticks around is that it does keep evolving. New sounds or a new hybrid sound will pop out and the scene will just suddenly gain momentum again. Even a few years before the drum & bass thing happened, no one could have predicted that people would start playing music at that tempo and it would become a huge scene. That just what happens with electronic, all it takes is one huge record to just change the course of things. FS: I can tell you that the underground scene down here is going through that ‘thriving’ stage now. A lot more international artists coming town and playing at a few venues around town. That boutique techno and house festivals are taking off big time down here. S: Well that’s really great to hear. FS: I think you’ll really enjoy coming down and playing at the 10th anniversary for Strawberry Fields. S: I’ve always enjoyed coming down to Australia and I’ve always enjoyed the crowds down there. I do see in Australia that things do move at a rapid pace down there and things come and go quite quickly and things can change in quite a short period of time. But it seems that right now is a really good time to be coming back so I’m very excited to come and play. I’ve always loved coming down to Australia anyway. The place is amazing. I love hanging out there, I love eating there (laughs). I got a lot of friends and relative there so it’s always a special trip for me. Seems that right now is a very good time to come back and be playing the type of music that I play. FS: Have you played in that unique Australian environment before? S: Yeah I did that crazy festival outside of Melbourne, Rainbow Serpent. I did that once and it was bonkers so I have an idea of what I’ll be getting myself into. (laughs). FS: Is there anything about the scene today that is keeping you curious to see where it heads next? S: I mean I always hate to make predictions with the scene because things always surprise me. People come out of nowhere and are suddenly huge DJ’s after a couple of releases like I said before it takes one record to change the course of everything. So it’s hard to make predictions. FS: You’re more or less just along for the ride with all of us? S: Yeah it’s just great to be along for the ride and to still keep being booked, to be relevant, to be enjoying it and being apart of it all. I never thought in the early days that I would get to make a lifetime career out of DJing and making music. I was always just apart of the scene in the early days. FS: You once said you “…always like to have something that you’re building towards” and if you don’t have that, you can get a bit lost along the way. What’s kind of methods do have you developed to stay inspired all this time? S: Having a big project, whether it’s a new album or a new concept for a mix CD or, right now my main focus is doing these live events which I’ve been really excited about. They’ve been quite successful and well received. Right now we’re writing music for the third round of these shows. I’m really hoping that in the future I’ll be able to find more of a balance between the live show and my DJ sets. So right now that’s where my energy is focused, writing the music for the live show and how we’re going to play it live. The first round of those shows was all about taking existing music that had been written for clubs and trying to make it work in a live environment, whereas now we’re writing music specifically for the show. We have a process of elimination where we ask ourselves ‘is this going to work in the show?’. If it’s not then we’ll put it to one side. If its ‘ahh this could really work in a live environment’ then we’ll push it (the sounds) like that. It’s kind of a new approach to making music which is really exciting; at this point in my career, to suddenly have a whole new way of music making and whole new direction. I’m still focused on the kind of sounds and music that I like to make, but whenever I made music I’d always envisage on how it would sound in the club the moment I dropped it, whereas now I’m thinking ‘how is this going to work in a live environment, how is this going to work?’. So it’s a different sort of focus and it’s really exciting because of its opening up a lot of interesting possibilities. FS: This is you working with an orchestra with this project? S: We’re working with strings but it’s not really a big orchestra thing. I know a lot of people are doing this big orchestral thing, playing a lot of the classics but that’s not really our focus. We’ve got strings apart of the show but they’re there as a sort of ‘add-on’ to what we’re doing. The core of the show is the main band which is me, Charlie May, David Gardener and Dennis White (Thermal Bear). We have an orchestral percussion guy, Joby Burgess, whose amazing. A lot of the other musicians and singers will rotate and change for each round of shows. I can’t take an 80 piece orchestra on the road, I’m not Hanz Zimmer. So the challenge at the moment, how do we evolve that show. It’s a really interesting and exciting process. FS: Is the audience you’re aiming to shoot for a ‘sit-down and listen’ crowd or is it more focused on dance? S: It’s not necessarily a ‘sit-down and listen’ show. I’ve seen people like Nils Frahm play in beautiful concert halls venues and he does that show incredibly well – his show has just blown me away – but then I’ve seen people like Bonobo play an electronic show at Ally Pally (Alexander Palace) to 10,000 people that really works in that environment, so his shows (Bonobo) is really more my inspiration than the orchestral electronic things thats happening a lot. I’m trying to build something that isn’t just tied to a concert or sit-down venues. We want to do a show that’s possible to put into those venues but at the same time, I’d also like to go to a regular festival and play on a stage as well. So we’re trying to look at how that works at the moment because they’re two different kinds of shows (venues). The next shows that we’re doing are at the Brixton Academy, Apollo in Manchester and Barrowlands in Glasgow so they’re very much kinds of big venues that host rock concerts. The first show we did was the Barbican in London which is a sit-down venue with amazing acoustics. It’s a very revered concert space so the show that we built for that won’t necessarily work in Brixton, so we’re trying to work out how we can keep the idea of what we did at the Barbican but make it work on a rock stage. That’s our challenge at the moment. FS: So the show is sort of this flexable experience… S: Yeah. On the last bunch of shows we did the Roundhouse which is more like a traditional rock venue, but then we also did the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester which is much more like the Barbican. We did those shows on the same weekend but they were very different experiences. The things the really work in the more rocking venues are the more rocking tracks. The stuff you play in the sit-down venues, you definitely get people’s attention for the finer details so you can be a little more experimental in those concert venues but in the rock venues, you’ve got to get the atmosphere rampt up and get the crowd rocking. FS: Is there any plans for that show to come down to Australia? S: It’s one of my big things at the moment to try and find out a way to try and tour this thing in the states and in Australia. We’ve definitely got offers and plans but we’re trying to figure out how to make the show work so we can tour. It’s quite a big show, there’s 35-40 people involved in the show in London. It’s hard to tour that and make it work. The logistics of touring that many people and equipment is very hard. But it’s definitely a conversation we’re having and we’re trying to work out, as how you said, how to make it flexible so we can get on planes and tour with it. FS: Fingers crossed, we’d love to see you. S: Yeah, I’d love to bring it to Australia. Its one of my key things to do Australia, South America and North America. Sasha resented this cover when it came out, but it shows just how large his artists status was. A testament to him being a down to earth bloke.FS: Has there ever been a time or times in your career where you’ve thought of giving it away? What have you told yourself to keep on track? S: There has definitely been times when the touring has really got to me. When you’re planning a run of shows 6 months in advance, you think ‘oh yeah I can do that’ and then you get into the nitty-gritty of the schedule that you agreed on, you start to think ‘oh god why did I agree to that’ (laughs). A few years ago when I was promoting one of the Evolver albums, I did in August something like 20 shows in 30 days and by the start of September I was just on my knees, just shattered, thinking ‘woooah what just happened to me!’. In hindsight, you look at that and think ‘that’s a bit too much Sasha’. But its very hard when you’re agent and management are calling up saying ‘do you want to do this great show and this great show?’ and of course you want to do it and don’t want to say know. You want to make it all work as you might not get offered the gig again. There’s always that pressure on. There’s something that comes with having good management and knowing yourself and how much you can handle all just comes with the experience of being on the road. FS: You’ve said that one’s health and sanity is the most important thing to protect. At what stage of your career did this dawn on you? What would be some advice that you’d give to the next generation of producers for dealing with pressure? S: Well it’s something that i’ve come to realise through experience and seeing some sad cases of people crashing and burning. FS: What period of your life did that dawn on you? S: It’s been fairly recent. I’ve been on the road for almost 30 years and it’s only been something in the last few years that’s come to my attention. You kind of have to go through it and experience a little bit of burnout before you realise ‘okay I can’t maintain that’. FS: In regards to that, what would be some advice that you would give to the younger generation of producers and DJ’s? S: It would be very hard for me to say ‘don’t overdo it’ (laughs). Because when your star is rising and you’re getting offered everything on the planet, you just want to grab at everything and take it all in, play ever gig and experience it all. It’s very hard for anyone to give advice about taking it easy. There’s been a couple of cases recently when I’ve thought that the management really should have stepped in and done something about it. Some of the EDM guys schedules that I’ve read about are just inhumane. I mean 300 shows in a year? Come on guys, what are you trying to do your artists? FS: The artist is sort of just a product that management is organising shows for vicariously. S: Yeah they’re almost well aware that they’re going to burn the person out and they’re just trying to make as much money out of the artist as possible. Like I said before, the only way to really understand the effect of what touring has on someone is obviously get your fingers burnt a little bit. All I’ll say is that if you can manage that then you’re going to have a longer career. Having good people around you, management you can trust and solid friends to form a good solid base around you is key. If you’re out there on the road by yourself, it can be a pretty brutal place. FS: Have you found that your family have been to fall back on and sink into that space when work has got too much? S: Yeah, I just learn this summer – and this is the first summer that I’ve ever done this in my entire career – but I took time off in the peak of the summer to spend time with my family and I had an absolute brilliant summer. The gigs where brilliant, I had time with the family and I had time to recuperate between shows. But it’s been the first time that I’ve done it in 30 years so it’s taken me a long time to learn that lesson. When I say time off I mean I took a weekend off in June, July and August. Normally I would work all the way through from the end of May all the way through until October and then collapse in a heap, whereas this summer I took timed breaks all the way through. It’s taken me 30 year of getting to the end of every October being in an absolute state (laughs) to realize that if I broke the summer up that I might actually feel better. Sometimes it take a lot to teach yourself a lesson. FS: You’ve always gone down your own path and worked on projects, despite knowing that some fans mightn’t appreciate the direction. Is a certain level of pressure when comes to choosing what ideas to follow? S: Maybe my career would have turned out differently if, when I released Expanded, I’d done another load of Expander type records because that’s what people wanted at the time. But I always feel that if I make a record of a certain sound that and I’m really happy with it, I’m like ‘okay I’ve done that now, what can I do next thats a challenge, that’s different? I’ve never really been one of those guys that just likes to churn out the same thing over and over. I might have been a bit more successful if I had done that, commercially wise, but I always feel like ‘that record was a sound and I’m really happy with it but let’s move on’. It’s okay to revisit stuff! Wherever I’ve gone back to do another involver, its always been a whole new set of music to do another one of those styled albums. I think you really have to love what you’re doing when you’re in the studio. Obviously, you want your core fan base to like what they hear, but at the same time, you want to push yourself forward a bit and challenge yourself. FS: Your output has been limited to one release in 2018. What was it about ‘Singularity’ in particular that enthused you to release that track in particular? S: There was a lot of music that we wrote off the back of Scene Delete. After doing that record, which was very tripped out and out there, definitely made for a home listening environment, I really wanted to make a load of club music. Singularity and Smoke Monk where the last of that batch of out-and-out club tracks that we’d made. Since then we’ve been focused on writing new music for this show. We have something like 50 demos on the go. 2019 is going to see a lot of new music come out. 2018 has been a little bit quite but we’ve been really busy. I’ve got a feeling that off that back working on the music for the live show, there will be another load of music that didn’t fit in there. Got some collaborations coming up as well so a bunch of interesting stuff coming up. FS: One thing I’m curious about is people’s creative process. Writer’s block and lack of inspiration is one of the core issues that producers encounter. What’s your method of dealing with these issues? Do you know that if your not in the zone do you put your attention elsewhere? S: I just listen. Whenever I get stuck in the studio I think ‘its time to get inspired’ and just start digging around corners of a website, bandcamp, spotify, around my record collection…The inspiration is all there. If you’re trying to make a certain record, and its not working, you sort of get tunnel vision. You think ‘I can’t do this because I’m not feeling inspired”. Inspiration is really just a click away. All of the time when I’m struggling in the studio a bit, I just decide that I won’t touch any equipment for a few days and just listen, and you always find things you like. It might take a while but you’ll always find something that really just hits a note with you. Weather its a synth noise, or a bass sound in a certain record or a groove. It’s good to just step away from the gadgets and the computer for a bit when you’re struggling. FS: I know what you mean. There are times when I’m in the studio and I start to get frustrated because I’m not making anything good. S: Yeah, I think those are times when you think ‘I need to open my ears and give them a clean’. FS: Is studio time hard for you to come by these days? S: It is. I wish I had more time in there. I have a little setup and I just love going in that room. Its like my happy place but I’m in there very far and few between. I have to grab ideas when I can when I’m on the road. A lot of my down time in my life is when I’m travelling, be that in a hotel room or I have a few days off in a city between shows. That’s the time when I can really dig into things, gather ideas together and work on existing tracks. So I do a lot of work on my crappy laptop speaker or headphones. But, I have to grab the time when I can because my studio days are pretty precious. When I get in there I might have ten ideas that are ready to work on and I’ll try and blitz through what I have in two or three days. FS: Do that sustain your output for a whole year? S: Yeah, we’re always working. My studio in London, where my production team of David Gardner and Dennis White are, is always working. As I said, we have something like 50 demos on the go and a mountain of other stuff to get through and get finished. The only way that I can do this is with a team of people. I can physically do everything between touring and my family life. The only way I can get this music together is with a strong team of people which I’m lucky enough to have found these guys to work with. We have a great relationship and understand. We speak the same language. I might be jet lagged in Tokyo at 3am with a synth line idea. I’ll send it through to them and they process it, work it around. We might take a groove off another track that we’ll work around with. A lot of the time it’s a complicated jigsaw puzzle. It was my upmost pleasure to get the chance to have a chat with Sasha and I very much look forward to seeing him play. Below is a list of his Australian club shows with ticket links so hop to it! Melbounre: Friday 9th November @ Brown Alley Return to Rio Festival, NSW: 9th-11th November @ Wisemans Ferry Brisbane: Sunday 11th November @ Capulet Bar Strawberry Fields Festival: 16th-18th November @ Tocumwal Sydney: Saturday 17th November @ Return to Rio – The Reveal Fremantle: Sunday 18th November @ Habitat Garden Party Source

Open Mike Eagle has shared his new EP, What Happens When I Try to Relax. It’s available to stream in its entirety below via Bandcamp. Spanning a total of six songs, the effort EP just a year after his breakout full-length, Brick Body Kids Still Daydream. The release marks OME’s first on his Auto Reverse record label. (Read: The Top 20 Hip-Hop Solo Albums) As a teaser of What Happens When I Try to Relax, OME previously shared “Relatable”, the lead single. “It’s too complicated for a quick explanation….” the Chicago-born, but Los Angeles-based rapper described the track. “It’s about expectations of form, anxiety, middle age and middle class. and that’s just the parts I know how to put into words a couple months after writing it.” What Happens When I Try To Relax by Open Mike Eagle To coincide with the EP, the MC will kick off a tour of Europe and North America tonight. Fans recently caught him live at Adult Swim’s inaugural festival in downtown LA a few weekends ago. What Happens When I Try To Relax Artwork: What Happens When I Try To Relax Tracklist: 01. Relatable (peak OME) 02. Every Single Thing 03. Microfiche 04. Single Ghosts 05. Southside Eagle (93 Bulls) 06. Maybe Gang (an initiation) Source