Tag: alt folk

New Audio: Los Angeles’ Swimming Bell Lovingly Tackles Beck’s “The Golden Age”

Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and musician Katie Schottland is the creative mastermind behind Swimming Bell. Earlier this year, she released her five-song  Rob Schnapf-produced EP Somnia  through Perpetual Doom

Somnia invites listeners to an ethereal sonic realm, a sort of underwater dreamworld where melodies drift effortlessly and rhythms pulse like ocean currents. Schottland envisioned the EP as an escape from the crushing weight of reality, a space where listeners could feel suspended — as though they were floating — between wakefulness and dreaming. Collaborating with Schnapf, Schottland embraced a much more percussive approach, allowing textures and rhythms to guide the listener through the material’s shimmering soundscapes.

I wanted this EP to feel like sinking into water, where everything is softened and suspended,” says Schottland. “Given all the stress and tension in the world, I wanted to make a feeling of escape – something hypnotic and transportive. Rob and I explored percussive layers in a way that felt both grounding and dreamy, creating movement within.”

Her first single since the release of Somnia EP is a gorgeous and lovingly faithful cover of “The Golden Age,” off Beck’s critically acclaimed and beloved 2002 effort Sea Change. “Sea Change has always been one of my favorite albums. I love the production so much,” Schottland says. “I’ve wanted to cover ‘The Golden Age’ for a long time and when my pedal steel and keyboard players lit up at the idea too, it felt right. Rob Schapf produced this version, and we kept it minimal and open, letting the song unfold naturally.”

Singer/songwriter and guitarist Laura Weinbach is the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles-born daughter of a horror filmmaker and the sister of a cult comedian. As a child Weinbach grew up in a household and community that proudly embraced eccentricity: her next door neighbors were circus contortionists with emus and fang-toothed monkeys as pets — and some of her favorite childhood activities included snail hunting and spying on celebrity neighbors like Slash, Ice-T and Mark Linn-Baker, the guy who played Larry on Perfect Strangers. Unsurprisingly, Weinbach’s upbringing manages to be present throughout her work in Foxtails Brigade — from the lyrical imagery, to the hand-drawn artwork and the sophomoric Insstagram cartoons she posts.

Since their formation, the project has released three full-length albums — 2011’s full-length debut The Bread and the Bait, released through Antenna Farm Records; 2012’s sophomore effort Time Is Passed, released through DIY Records; and 2016’s self-titled album released through OIM Records. Their previously released material was centered by hazy chamber folk melodies and spectral strings with songs reaching inward – but interestingly, Foxtails Brigade’s Jeff Saltzman-produced third album found the Bay Area-based act completely reinventing their sound. The material on that album featured peculiar percussion and synths paired with Weinbach’s guitar work with the band’s sound exploding outward in all directions. Additionally, the band focuses on crafting material with a directness and clarity without sacrificing the intricacy of their previously released work.

Foxtails Brigade support the release of their third album with touring across the Pacific Northwest, Southern California, the Midwest and South, as well as a tours opening for Emily Jane White across the East Coast, France and the rest of the European Union. Live, the Bay Area-based act’s live show is a meshing of junkyard beats, warped orchestral sonics, Weinbach’s gorgeous vocals and classically trained guitar work paired with a rotating cast of collaborators, who have played with Bright Eyes, Van Dyke Parks and John Cale.

According the band’s website, they’re currently working on their fourth album but in the meantime, Foxtails Brigade released a split 7 inch single with the Colorado-based act Kramies. The Bay Area-based act’s contribution to that split 7 inch is the contemplative “On The Other Side.” Centered around a shimmering and atmospheric arrangement of looping, classically-inspired guitar, twinkling keys and Weinbach’s gorgeous vocals, the song may be the most straightforward folk song they’ve released in some time — but while evoking the wintry chill of a Northeastern winter night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Audio: The Subtly Old-Timey Country of Blackheart Honeymoon’s “Mountains Speak”

Currently comprised of Ian Prebo (vocals, acoustic guitar), Wesley Amundsen (bass) Steve Andrea (guitar) Adrienne Marie Pollock (vocals, keys) Dusty Hayes (drums, vocals), the Seattle, WA-based quintet, Blackheart Honeymoon can trace their origins to when founding members […]

Chicago has been the home of a rather prominent garage rock scene, a scene that includes dear friends White Mystery, My Gold Mask and countless others. Miles Lee, an alt-country, folk-rock, blues-rock artist who records […]

Comprised of Jess Wolfe (lead vocals and synth), Holly Laessig (lead vocals and keys), Dan Molad (drums and vocals), Peter Lalish (guitar and vocals) and Andrew Burri (guitar, drums, vocals), the Brooklyn-based quintet of Lucius have been praised […]

Singer/songwriter Rodrigo Amarante is probably best known in indie rock circles for his time as a member of Little Joy and Los Hermanos. Easy Sound Records released Amarante’s solo debut, Cavalo, a couple of months ago, and the material on the album […]

In January, Eric D. Johnson, best known for his work in Fruit Bats decided to sit down and write an album’s worth of songs over the course of a few weeks. And of course, until then, it was something […]

Released last fall, Pain Is Beauty is the Los Angeles, CA -based singer/songwriter Chelsea Wolfe’s third, full-length studio album, and sonically the album is a decided change in direction as the material employs the subtle […]

Portland, Ore, the fourth full-length effort from Hillstomp finds the duo on a new label, Fluff and Gravy Records but perhaps just as important, the new effort has the band refining the sound they’ve developed […]

Early last year, I had interviewed Morgan Christopher Geer who writes and records under the moniker of Drunken Prayer about his fantastic 2012 release Into the Missionfield and other subjects. And for me, it was among a batch of favorite interviews […]

The desert city of Marfa, TX is 62 miles from the Mexican border, and the city has developed a reputation for it’s minimalist art scene, and was interestingly enough, where most of the most disturbing […]