Photo: Atiba Jefferson
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News from American Football, Folk Implosion, The Picturebooks, Tycho & Ben Gibbard, Lucy Dacus, Chvrches, a Sex Pistols litigation, and a musical NFT from Matt Bellamy.
+++ Steve Lamos has left. “After many years of playing American football, my life situation has changed,” wrote Lamos. “Unfortunately that means that I have to let go of the band.” The drummer and trumpeter of the emo and math rock greats gave no more precise reasons. His main job, however, is as a Associate Professor in creative writing and public speaking from the University of Colorado. So maybe the academic work is the reason. In 1997, Lamos founded American Football with Steve Holmes and Kinsella cousins Mike and Nate. Until the breakup in 2000 and since the reunion in 2014, Lamos released three albums as part of the band, most recently “American Football (LP3)” in 2019.
Facebook post: Steve Lamos leaves American Football
+++ Folk Implosion are back. The duo of John Davis and Lou Barlow (Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh) posted a photo on Instagram with the words “Yes, we’re working on new music”. Barlow formed Davis Folk Implosion as a Sebadoh side project in the early 90s and released three albums between 1994 and 1999. Davis dropped out in 2000 and became a teacher. Shortly thereafter, he put the project on hold and rejoined Dinosaur Jr. It is not yet known when the first Davis and Barlow music will be heard in over 20 years Instagram-Account the band has already created it. Only in the past few months has Barlow been heard on both the solo record “Reason To Live” and the Dinosaur Jr. album “Sweep It Into Space”.
Instagram post: John Davis and Lou Barlow reform folk implosion
+++ The Picturebooks have released the single “Catch Me If You Can”. “Catch Me If You Can” is the fifth excerpt from the upcoming album “The Major Minor Collective”. As with the previous releases “Here’s To Magic” with Refused front man Dennis Lyxzén, “Corrina Corrina” with Neil Fallon (Clutch), “Rebel” with Halestorm singer Lzzy Hale and “Holy Ghost” with Monster Truck singer John Harvey, there is also a guest on “Catch Me If You Can”. This is Chris Robertson, front man for Southern rockers Black Stone Cherry. Even more than the previous songs, “Catch Me If You Can” wades stylistically knee-deep in the (heavy) blues of the southern states and lives from slide guitars, a pounding beat and Robertson’s powerful voice. “The Major Minor Collective” is the sixth album by the Gütersloh duo and will be released on September 3rd via Century Media.
Video: The Picturebooks – “Catch Me If You Can” (feat. Chris Robertson)
Stream: The Picturebooks – “Catch Me If You Can” (feat. Chris Robertson)
+++ Tycho and Ben Gibbard have released the song “Only Love” together. The electro / post-rock musician Tycho provides the usual melodic, spherical and cinematic foundation for the gentle voice of the Death Cab For Cutie frontman. “‘Only Love’ started out as an instrumental, but something was missing,” comments Scott Hansen aka Tycho. “I sent Ben a raw demo and he recorded some vocals. The first time I heard them, the whole song suddenly made sense and the arrangement came naturally.” Lyrically, Gibbard was inspired by a quote from environmental activist Alexis Bonogofsky about the fact that only love can save a certain place. “When Scott sent me the music for ‘Only Love’, it seemed perfect for that statement,” said Gibbard. “Ever since I read Alexis’ words, I have carried them within me as universal truth. The only way we can preserve the people, places and things that are important to us is with love, not with hate.” It is not known whether the duo is working on further music.
Stream: Tycho & Ben Gibbard – “Only Love”
Stream: Tycho & Ben Gibbard – “Only Love”
+++ Lucy Dacus played a “Tiny Desk Concert”. “From Home” due to the pandemic, at least more or less. With her band behind her back, Dacus played several songs from her album “Home Video” in a classroom in her old high school in Richmond, Virginia – the beauty of the current issue 340. The mini-concerts in the offices of National Public Radio (NPR) in Washington DC are very popular, most recently Fleet Foxes and Pup played for the station – but also “from home”. Dacus’ first “Tiny Desk Concert” took place in 2016.
Video: Lucy Dacus – “Tiny Desk (Home) Conert”
+++ The Scottish synth-pop band Chvrches shared the new single “Good Girls”. After “How Not To Drown” with (disheveled) The Cure head Robert Smith and the feminist “He Said She Said”, the trio around Lauren Mayberry provides a third, also feminist foretaste of the upcoming album “Screen Violence”. The very poppy “Good Girls” was created at the beginning of the work on “Screen Violence” and addresses problematic (male) music idols. “It struck me how much effort people put into defending their heroes and it was so contrary to my own experiences in the world,” Mayberry explains. “Women have to constantly justify their existence and negotiate their own space. We are told that bad things don’t happen to good girls. That if you present yourself appropriately to the ideal – small and harmless and acceptable – then nothing happens to you and that’s damned again not true. ” “Screen Violence” is Chvrches’ fourth album and will be released on August 27th via Vertigo.
Stream: Chvrches – “Good Girls”
Stream: Chvrches – “Good Girls”
+++ Former Sex Pistols members Steve Jones and Paul Cook have sued John Lydon alias Johnny Rotten for a license that has not been granted. How Associated Press reports the background is the upcoming television series “Pistol” about the life of guitarist Jones by director Danny Boyle (including “Trainspotting”, “Slumdog Millionaire”). Jones and Cook argue that since an agreement from 1998, licensing issues relating to the music of the punk icons have been decided by majority vote. Lydon had already threatened legal action against the series in April. “I think it’s the most disrespectful shit I’ve ever had to endure,” says Lydon quoted in the Times. According to Danny Boyle’s team, Lydon refuses to make direct contact.
+++ Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) should be unique. That is the only way the digital works of art relate value. But if a unique object is used to create an NFT, it is probably really valuable. In 2020, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy bought the 1983 Fender Telecaster, which Jeff Buckley played on his album “Grace” – and thus also on his version of “Hallelujah”, for an unknown sum. According to Bellamy, it sounded different than any Telecaster he had in his hands to date. Bellamy has now recorded a 38-second instrumental version of the song “Guiding Light” from the 2009 album “The Resistance” on his guitar. It will not only appear on his upcoming solo EP “Cryosleep”, but will also be auctioned in NFT form. The proceeds go to the charity The Passagewho fight housing and homelessness. Why the NFT version of the song should be rarer and more valuable than the vinyl version of “Cryptosleep” Cryosleep “now has to explain a few Crypto-Bros …
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