Belly – “Now They’ll Sleep”

Yesterday, February 13, marked the 27th anniversary of the release of Belly‘s second album King, and this surprises me a little bit. I remember very clearly walking to the HMV at University Plaza during my freshman year at Waterloo and buying my copy on CD the day of release, but I always thought that it […]

Warpaint – “Champion”

For those keeping track, that’s three much-anticipated new records just announced in the past week coming out at the end of April/start of May. Following news of new releases from Hatchie and Melody’s Echo Chamber, Los Angeles’ Warpaint yesterday released details of their fourth full-length and first since 2016’s Heads Up. Radiate Like This will […]

January – “Falling In”

I imagine the early aughts were an odd time to be a small, independent band. On one hand, the internet and its potential to reach a massive audience, had largely arrived. On the other, the technological infrastructure to support media, e-commerce, and everything besides just words and pictures on a screen, had frustratingly not. All […]

Hatchie – “Quicksand”

I’ve been waiting for details on the sophomore effort from Hariette Pilbeam – aka Hatchie – since lead single “This Enchanted” dropped back in September, and that patience was rewarded yesterday with a flurry of good news from Brisbane’s dreampop queen. First, the new record is called Giving The World Away and it will be […]

Synthesizing Men I Trust

I guess there’s just something about Men I Trust’s smooth, synthetic sounds that makes you want to close your eyes, drift away, and then obsessively reverse-engineer their creative process. How else to explain why there’s not one but two pieces online deconstructing their songs down to the synthesizer settings. Not that I’m complaining – I […]

Robin Guthrie / Springtime

If it seems like there’s been a rush of new music from former Cocteaus guitarist Robin Guthrie… well it’s because there has been. Yesterday, to coincide with his 60th birthday, Guthrie released the Springtime EP – a set of four gossamer guitar instrumentals. This follows last year’s relative deluge of material, starting with the Mockingbird […]

Cocteau Twins / Snow

Let’s kick of the last week before Christmas with the lowest-hanging of fruit for the season. In December 1993, just a couple months from releasing their major-label debut Four-Calendar Cafe, Cocteau Twins got into the festive spirit with Snow, a two-song EP comprised of covers of Christmas standards, albeit secular ones. A strange choice from […]

Warpaint – “Paralysed”

This year’s Gang Of Four tribute album The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration Of Gang Of Four is a genuine blast, with an A-list of acts managing to be both reverent and reinventive of the source material. One of the highlights, for me, is Warpaint’s take on the opening track of the band’s second album, […]