Ok so not officially all released this week, but some tracks we’ve been enjoying over the winter break.

Further Listening:

5. Club Night’s New Single Is Shear Brilliance

Club Night are less a supergroup and more a logical coming together; the band consist of members of various Oakland DIY-bands, who went to each other’s shows, supported one another’s project and then almost inevitably formed a band. Members of various musical backgrounds and styles, thrown together by band-leader Josh Bertram, Club Night quietly produced something cohesive and intriguing, their debut EP, Hell Ya.

The band have recently shared the video to their latest single, Shear. The track is a frenetic blast of angst and energy, combining the impassioned yell of Wolf Parade with the expansive ambition of Broken Social Scene. Add a claymation video with ominous nods to the illuminati and Shear becomes an exciting triumph and a fitting send off to what has been an excellent year for Club Night.

Hell Ya is out now via Tiny Engines. Click HERE for more information on Club Night.

4. This Means Nothing To Me, Oh Vienna (Youth)

Vienna Youth formed back in 2016 and began work on the songs that have gone on to form their upcoming debut EP, a record that, in their own words is about, “the highs and lows of small town life”. With a release date still to be confirmed, the band have recently presented the first taste of that record in the shape of debut single, Falling Man.

The track introduces a sound indebted to shoegaze but given a modern makeover at least partly due to the presence of singer Vienna James’ gravelly croon. Around the vocals bass-lines tumble and glide, as textural guitar notes ring out and the drums build to crushing waves of pure My Bloody Valentine noise. The youthful Devonians haven’t, up until now, strayed far from their hometown of Torbay, but if they’ve got more tracks as good as Falling Man, don’t expect that to stay the case for long.

Falling Man is out now. Click HERE for more information on Vienna Youth.

3. These Flamingos Are Riding On The Wind

Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, Flamingo Shadow are in their own words “a genre-hopping, tropical punk band”. Recently the band released their new single, Riding On The Wind, their first new material since their 2016 debut EP, Vibe Control.

The track is a beautiful merging of styles, the vocal has a bright new-wave quality, fluttering above tremulous guitars that float ethereally around frenetic bass-lines and driving, post-punk influenced beats. It builds to a thrilling crescendo as the vocal becomes an impassioned yelp, repeating the line, “I’m good man, don’t you worry”, as the music swells to a brilliantly energetic finale. With an as yet untitled debut album on the way in the Spring, Flamingo Shadow sound like a band ready for huge things in the coming year.

Riding On The Wind is out now. Click HERE for more information on Flamingo Shadow.

2. Anyway Here’s The New Song From Little Church

We know very little about Chicago-trio Little Church, we do however know that we like what we hear. The band released their appropriately titled debut EP, Volume One, back in November and recently shared the latest single from that record, Anyway.

What initially grabbed our ear about Little Church was the stunning quality of Chelsea Foss-Ralton’s voice. Chelsea’s laid back drawl instantly bringing to mind Sarah Hall of the much missed Let’s Buy Happines; like Sarah, Chelsea manages to make complex vocal melodies sound entirely effortless. On Anyway, the musical accompaniment is equally impressive, it builds around a propulsive fuzzy bass-line and a muted, Do Make Say Think-like jazzy drum beat, before soaring into a rich chorus, as a slacker-guitar line meets the repeated lyrical pronouncement, “I don’t want you anyway”. They might not be telling the world very much about themselves, but we’re quite happy to worship at this Little Church.

Volume One is out now. Click HERE for more information on Little Church.

1. Ezra Loves You So Bad

The Boyfriends are dead, long live The Visions. Describing upcoming album, Transangelic Exodus, Ezra Furman has suggested it is, “not a concept record, but almost a novel, or a cluster of stories on a theme, a combination of fiction and a half-true memoir. A personal companion for a paranoid road trip. A queer outlaw saga”. We can’t be alone in thinking that’s the most exciting description of a record we’ve heard in many years. This narrative vision is matched in a different approach to recording and writing music, one that is accompanied by a change in backing band, or at least a re-christening of an old one.

Ahead of Tranangelic Exodus’ release in February, Ezra has recently shared the video to his latest single, Love You So Bad. Propelled by an energetic string quartet, Love You So Bad is adventurous, inspired pop music; unique and intense, at once very Ezra Furman and entirely different to anything he’s previously produced. Lyrically, it’s a record of contrast and contradiction, surmised in the opening lines, “you know I love you so bad, I don’t believe in love”. Throughout the track, Ezra seems to question his place in the world, and how much of that was down to opportunity and fate; Ezra presents snapshots of a youth at, “the back of the classroom” in a “garbage, small town rat trap”. Perhaps the ultimate damnation of the injustice at heart of the track is presented in the off-hand way Ezra quips, “I always knew I was bad”. In a world where so many aren’t ever given the chance to make a life for themselves, Ezra Furman is singing for the downtrodden, persecuted and oppressed, and simultaneously stepping ever more confidently through his own personal journey; an artist always on the move and more vital than ever.

Transangelic Exodus is out February 9th via Bella Union. Click HERE for more information on Ezra Furman.

Header photo by Jason Simmons – https://www.instagram.com/jason_ryan_simmons/