Tag: The Coathangers

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Wistful and Summery Visuals for The Coathangers’ “Perfume”

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past few years, you’ve been made familiar with the Atlanta, GA-based punk trio and JOVM mainstay act The Coathangers. Currently comprised  Julia Kugel (vocals and guitar), Meredith Franco (bass), and Stephanie Luke (drums), the members of the JOVM mainstays have released five full-length albums in their decade and change time together, with each album finding the band refining their sound and songwriting approach while balancing and retaining a brash, raw, seemingly spontaneous simplicity with a feral urgency and biting irony.  With their last two full-length albums — 2014’s Suck My Shirt and last year’s Nosebleed Weekend, the trio wrote what may arguably be the most direct and forceful material of their growing catalog; but they’ve managed to pair that feral energy with rousingly anthemic hooks and a radio-friendly sensibility. 

Earlier this year, the band released the Parasite EP and the material on the EP finds the Atlanta-based JOVM mainstays balancing the unbridled, raw duty of their debut and the increasingly nuanced radio-friendly sensibility of their last two albums as you would hear on the EP’s first single “Captain’s Dead;” however, this particular post focuses on “Perfume,” off last year’s Nosebleed Weekend is some more jangling, sneering and hook-laden punk — but with a underlying bitter wistfulness that should feel familiar with the impending end of summer. 

Directed by J Trav, the recently released video for “Perfume” begins with the members of The Coathangers driving in an old 70s car to the beach, where they hang out with an adorable dog and then cruise around on a boat in a gorgeous and stylistic video; after all, who doesn’t want to spend time hanging out with cool women who kick ass? 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been following this site over the past couple of years of its seven year history, you’ve come across a handful of posts featuring the Los Angeles, CA-based indie rock/garage rock trio L.A. Witch. Comprised of Sade Sanchez (lead vocals, guitar), Irita Pai (bass, backing vocals) and Ellie English (drums), the trio have developed a reputation for crafting a grungy, garage rock sound that draws from late 50s-early 60s rock,  The Pleasure Seekers, The Sonics, The Black Angels, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and others — all while bearing a resemblance to JOVM mainstay artists The Coathangers, Sharkmuffin and Death Valley Girls

Suicide Squeeze Records, the label home of The Coathangers and several others will be releasing the band’s self-titled debut on September 8, 2017, and the album’s latest single “Kill My Baby Tonight” is a sultry and swaggering murder ballad full of chugging and jangling guitar chords played through copious reverb and delay pedal. Sanchez’s sneering, venomous vocals slash through a propulsive and stormy rhythm section; but unlike any of their previously released singles, the Southern Californian trio’s latest single reveals both a steely self-assuredness and some of their most ambitious songwriting to date.

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Party with the Undead in the New Video for The Coathangers “Captain’s Dead”

Currently comprised of Julia Kugel (vocals and guitar), Meredith Franco (bass), and Stephanie Luke (drums), the Atlanta, GA-based trio and JOVM mainstay The Coathangers have released five full-length albums in their decade plus time together, with each album finding the band refining their sound and songwriting approach, frequently balancing a brash, raw and seemingly spontaneous simplicity and urgency with razor sharp wit and biting irony. Interestingly, with the band’s last two full-length efforts 2014’s Suck My Shirt and last year’s Nosebleed Weekend, the trio’s material was arguably at its most direct and forceful of their entire catalog, which helped to retain the feral and rowdy urgency that they’ve become so known for; but they managed to pair that energy with rousingly anthemic hooks and a pop-leaning sensibility — or in other words, the material may have been some of the more radio friendly songs they’ve released to date.

Parasite, the band’s latest EP is slated for a June 30, 2017 release through Suicide Squeeze Records and the album’s material has the Atlanta-based trio balancing the unbridled and furious expressionism of their debut and the increasingly nuanced, pop-leaning sensibility of their last two albums. As the band’s Julia Kugel explains in press notes “During the making of our last album, I didn’t want to scream anymore, I just wanted to sing and focus on melody. When we came to this recording, I just wanted to scream and curse.” And in some way, it shouldn’t be surprising that the EP’s material is partially inspired by events within the bandmembers’ personal lives, the current political climate, rife with kleptocracy, hypocrisy, blatant sexism, racism and gratuitous cruelty and the band’s own existence and development as artists and songwriters.

“Captain’s Dead,” the first single off the EP manages to sound as though it could have been a B-side to the singles off Nosebleed Weekend while drawing from 90s grunge rock as the song structurally consists of alternating quiet and loud, anthemic hooks, and a surfer rock-inspired bridge, a propulsive rhythm section and a sneering punk rock air. And much like the band’s previously released material, the new single possesses an underlying mischievous feel underneath the scuzzy, give no fucks swagger.

Directed by Matt Odorn, the recently released video for “Captain’s Dead” features zombies, pirates, a merman, cheerleaders, a shit-ton of beer guzzling, some raucous performing within a milieu that’s mischievous, murderous and campy as hell.

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

L.A. Witch is a Los Angeles, CA-based indie rock trio that has started to receive attention for a ragged, scuzzy, reverb-filled garage rock/punk rock sound that some have compared favorably to the likes of The Black Angels and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and if Kim Deal were inspired by Nirvana among others —  although as you’ll hear on their boozy, bluesy-leaning “Ain’t Comin’ Home,” the band’s sound reminds me more of JOVM mainstay artists The Coathangers, Sharkmuffin and Death Valley Girls; but with a dingy, honky took vibe that subtly nods towards 60s psychedelia. Interestingly, this version was recorded live during their Levitation Festival a couple of years ago, but I think it’ll give the listener a good sense of their live sound, as they will be road testing their new material throughout the rest of the year — and the tour will include two NYC dates, more on that below.

Tour Dates

04.21.17 – Detroit, MI @ UFO Factory

04.22.17 – London, ON @ Call the Office

04.23.17 – Montreal, QB @ L’Esco

04.25.17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Knitting Factory

04.26.17 – New York, NY @ Berlin

05.01.17 – Las Vegas, NV @ Beauty Bar

05.02.17 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Vague Space

05.03.17 – Denver, CO @ Hi Dive

05.04.17 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sister Bar

05.05.17 – Norman, OK @ Opolis

05.06.17 – Austin, TX @ Levitation Presents at Hotel Vegas

05.07.17 – Dallas, TX @ Transit Bike Company

05.09.17 – Indianapolis, IN @ Pioneer

05.10.17 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas

05.11.17 – Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s

05.12.17 – Milwaukee, WI @ Milwaukee Psych Fest

05.13.17 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar

05.14.17 – Springfield, IL @ Alter Fest

05.16.17 – Amarillo, TX @ Golden Light

05.17.17 – Taos, NM @ Mesa Brewing

05.18.17 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar

05.19.17 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar

06.02.17 – Nelsonville, OH @ Nelsonville Fest

06.24.17 – Pomona, CA @ Glass House

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Currently comprised of Julia Kugel (vocals and guitar), Meredith Franco (bass), and Stephanie Luke (drums), the Atlanta, GA-based trio and JOVM mainstay The Coathangers in over a decade together have released five full-length albums in which each album found the band refining their sound and songwriting approach, balancing a brash, raw and seemingly spontaneously simplicity and urgency with a razor sharp wit and irony. And with the band’s last two full length efforts, Suck My Shirt and Nosebleed Weekend, the band was at their most streamlined and direct, giving the material off both of those albums a primal urgency — but with the sort of anthemic hooks that you can envision a room full of sweaty concertgoers lustily yelling along in a tiny, dark club.

Parasite, the band’s latest EP is slated for a June 30, 2017 release through Suicide Squeeze Records and the album’s material has the Atlanta-based trio balancing the unbridled and furious expressionism of their debut and the increasingly nuanced, pop-leaning sensibility of their last two albums. As the band’s Julia Kugel explains in press notes  “During the making of our last album, I didn’t want to scream anymore, I just wanted to sing and focus on melody. When we came to this recording, I just wanted to scream and curse.” And in some way, it shouldn’t be surprising that the EP’s material is partially inspired by both the bandmembers’ personal lives and the current political climate, rife with kleptocracy, hypocrisy, blatant sexism, racism and gratuitous cruelty while managing to be akin to a journey through them band’s existence and development.

 

“Captain’s Dead,” the first single off the EP manages to sound as though it could have been a B-side to any of the singles off Nosebleed Weekend while drawing from 90s grunge rock as the song structurally consists of alternating quiet and loud, anthemic hooks, and a surfer rock-inspired bridge, a propulsive rhythm section and a sneering punk rock air — but paired with twisting and buzzing organ chords. And much like the  band’s previously released material, the new single possesses an underlying mischievous feel underneath the scuzzy, give no fucks swagger.

The renowned garage rock trio will be embarking on a lengthy US and EU tour throughout the Spring and it’ll include two NYC area dates — April 20, 2017 at Sunnyvale and April 21, 2017 at Baby’s All Right. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

TOUR DATES:
03.09.17 – Visalia, CA @ The Cellar Door
03.10.17 – San Francisco, CA @ Brick & Mortar
03.11.17 – Oakland, CA @ Starline Social Club
03.12.17 – Santa Rosa, CA @ Arlene Francis Center
03.13.17 – Reno, NV @ The Holland Project
03.16.17 – Eugene, OR @ The Boreal
03.17.17 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
03.18.17 – Vancouver, BC @ Fortune Sound Club
03.19.17 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
03.21.17 – Spokane, WA @ The Observatory
03.23.17 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Fest
03.24.17 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Diabolical Records
03.25.17 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Bunkhouse Saloon

04.15.17 – Durham, NC @ Pinhook
04.16.17 – Richmond, VA @ The Camel
04.18.17 – Washington, DC @ DC9
04.19.17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Ortliebs
04.20.17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Sunnyvale
04.21.17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
04.22.17 – Boston, MA @ Do617 Pop-Up Record Shop @ Brighton Music Hall
04.24.17 – Montreal, QC @ L’ Esco
04.25.17 – Toronto, ON @ Silver Dollar
04.26.17 – Buffalo, NY @ Tralf Music Hall
04.27.17 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Roboto
04.28.17 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery
04.29.17 – Charlotte, NC @ Reverb Fest 5

05.12.17 – UK Manchester @ Night & Day
05.13.17 – UK Brighton @ The Joker
05.15.17 – UK Bristol @ The Exchange
05.16.17 – UK Oxford @ The Bullingdon
05.17.17 – UK London @ Oslo
05.18.17 – UK Hastings @ The Printworks
05.19.17 – UK Leicester @ The Cookie
05.20.17 – UK Leeds @ Gold Sounds at Brudenell Social
05.21.17 – UK Sheffield@ The Harley
05.23.17 – UK Ramsgate @ Music Hall
05.24.17 – BE Gent @ PSYCH OVER 9000
05.25.17 – NL Eindhoven @ Stroomhuisje
05.26.17 – NL Rotterdam @ Girls Go Boom Night @ Roodkapje
05.27.17 – NL Amsterdam @ Pacific Park
05.28.17 – NL Utrecht @ dB’s
05.30.17 – DE Hamburg @ Molotow
05.31.17 – DE Berlin @ Cassiopeia

06.01.17 – DE Munich @ Orangehouse
06.02.17 – DE Cologne @ MTC
06.03.17 – FR Paris @ Le Batofar
06.04.17 – IT Ravenna @ Beaches Brew Festival
06.08.17 – FR Clermont @ Ferrand Le Barraka
06.09.17 – FR Nimes @ This is not a Love Song
06.10.17 – FI Helsinki @ Sideways Festival

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Sophie, Annabel, Cecil and Georgia, Body Type are a Sydney, Australia-based — by way of Perth, Australia and Kiama, Australia — indie quartet that formed a little over six months ago and began receiving attention for material that thematically focuses on navigating heartbreak to the banality of life in in a moldy Redfern terraced house — and for opening for the likes of Gabriella Cohen, Cate Le Bon and The Coathangers. Adding to a growing national profile, the Sydney-based quartet recently signed to Our Golden Friend Records, who will be releasing the “Ludlow”/”264” 7 inch single, featuring their debut single “Ludlow” and their latest single, the moody and slow-burning “264.” While sounding as though it were indebted to jangling guitar pop and Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound-era production, the song manages to feature lyrics that describe the day-to-day life of in and around a shitty little house with a novelist’s attention to detail, a soaring bridge and a sinuous bass line holding it all together. It’s a gently swooning and moody take on a familiar and beloved sound — and it reveals a young band playing and writing gorgeous material with a cool, self-assuredness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Featuring primary and founding members Courtney Ewan (singer/songwriter) and frequent collaborator Andy Bishop,  Twin River wrote the material of their soon-to-be released sophomore effort Passing Shade, an effort whose name draws from a lengthy dream sequence in Patti Smith‘s memoir M Train while they were over 3,00 miles apart — Ewan had relocated to Montreal while Bishop remained in his hometown of Vancouver. Initially, the material took the form of stripped-down, heartbroken ballads about lost love and as Ewan explains in press notes “I always write on an acoustic guitar, which I think is the vestigial influence of being 15 and playing acoustic guitar in the basement because my mom wouldn’t let me have an amp. Nine times out of ten, when we get the band together, we end up increasing the tempo.” In fact, when Ewan and Bishop got together to flesh out the original demos, the material turned into a barn-burning rock numbers with infectious pop hooks with a subtle hint of atmospherics — and done in way that manages to channel both 60s psych pop and garage rock and the contemporary fascination with that sound.

“Knife,” Passing Shade‘s latest single is a jangling and muscular garage rock song featuring gorgeous shimmering guitar chords and a classic psych rock guitar solo and a propulsive rhythm section paired with Ewan’s vocals which evoke vulnerability and heartbreak simultaneously. From this single, I think the act will throw themselves into a growing list of contemporary garage rock and psych rock acts including High Waisted, Raccoon Fighter, The Coathangers and several others — and the band does so with a cool, swaggering self-assuredness that belies the heartache, yearning and badassery at the core of the song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

In the decade since their formation, Atlanta, GA-based trio and JOVM mainstay The Coathangers have released four full-length albums and have gone on a number of North American and European tours, all of which have cemented their reputation for writing incredibly catchy songs — and for unruly live shows. During the recording sessions for Suck My Shirt, the band went through a lineup change as Candice Jones left the band, making the band a trio comprised of Julia Kugel (vocals and guitar), Meredith Franco (bass), and Stephanie Luke (drums). Naturally, as a result of the lineup change, the newly-constituted trio’s fourth full-length effort, Suck My Shirt revealed a refined songwriting approach in which the album’s material still retained the raw, seemingly spontaneously simplicity and fury that has won them national and international attention — but with streamlined, more direct arrangements that made the material feel more urgent.

“Make It Right,” the first single off the band’s soon-to-be released fifth full-length album Nosebleed Weekend continued in the same lines of their previous effort as it possessed a similar primal simplicity — in other words although it nodded at garage rock and surfer rock, there was an underlying sneering, “we don’t give a fuck” attitude. The following single, album title track “Nosebleed Weekend” paired their signature sneering “zero fucks given” attitude with an anthemic hook that you can imagine a room full of sweaty concertgoers lustily yelling along with upraised fist and in a way that’s reminiscent of 90s alt rock.

Released just before their sold-out show at Baby’s All Right tonight, the band’s latest single “Squeeki Tiki” pairs punchy and bratty vocals and a catchy hook, a throbbing bass line, propulsive four-on-the-floor-like drumming and industrial-like squeaking and squawking in a sneering “in your face” “zero fucks given” song that draws from garage punk and surfer rock — as though the song drew from The Ramones, The Beach Boys and Nirvana.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

If you’ve been frequenting this site a bit over the years, you may recall that I’ve written about the Atlanta-based trio The Coathangers on a couple of occasions. And interestingly, the band has what may arguably be one of the most prototypically punk rock and funniest formation stories that I’ve heard. As the story goes, the band formed when the then-quartet of guitarist and vocalist Julia Kugel (a.k.a. Crook Kid Coathanger), bassist Meredith Franco (a.k.a. Minnie Coathanger), drummer Stephanie Luke (a.k.a Rusty Coathanger), and keyboardist Candice Jones (a.k.a. Bebe Coathanger) decided to start a band for the sole purpose of being able to hang out and play parties — and they didn’t let the fact that none of them actually knew how to play an instrument get in the way of them being in a band and having a good time. As a result, the band’s earliest songs walked a tightrope between abrasive dissonance and a primal minimalism.

In the the decade or so since their formation, the band has released four full-length albums and have gone on a number of North American and European tours, which have cemented their reputation for writing incredibly catchy songs — and for unruly live shows. Back in 2014, during the recording sessions for Suck My Shirt, the band went through a lineup change as Candice Jones left the band. Naturally, as a result of the lineup change, the newly-consituted trio’s fourth effort revealed a refined songwriting approach in which the album’s material possessed a raw, spontaneous simplicity and fury with arrangements that felt streamlined and more direct. In other words, no frills, no bullshit, balls-to-the-wall rock that spiritually channelled AC/DC and the Ramones.  

“Make It Right,” the first single off the band’s forthcoming Nosebleed Weekend continues in the same lines of their previous effort as it possesses a raw and furious feel paired with a primal simplicity — it’s grimy, gritty punk that also manages to nod at old fashioned garage rock and surfer rock, complete with a “we don’t give a fuck” sneering attitude. Interestingly, the largest departure for the forthcoming album was the actual recording process. Their previous albums were recorded at The Living Room Studios in Atlanta with Ed Rawls while this effort had the band recording the material at Valentine Recording Studios in North Hollywood, where The Beach Boys and Bing Crosby recorded albums. As the band’s Julia Kugel mentioned in press notes “The studio had been custom built by Jimmy Valentine and he was very protective of his passion. It sounds weird, but his spirit was there, checking in on us and fucking with us a bit.” That shouldn’t be surprising as the Nosebleed Weekend sessions were the first sessions at the studios in 36 years — and yet in some way, the location seems to help capture the materials’ primal immediacy.

 

 

 

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Coathangers Hilarious Video for Ass-Kicking Album Single “Follow Me”

The Coathangers have one of the funniest and prototypically punk rock formation stories I’ve heard in recent memory. As the story goes, the Atlanta-based band formed when the then-quartet of guitarist and vocalist Julia Kugel […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Honeyblood is the Glasgow, Scotland-based duo of Stina Tweeddale (vocals and guitar), and Shona McViccar (drums). Their debut 7 inch single “Bud” was produced by Rory Atwell (known for his work with Veronica Falls), and will be […]