Further Listening:

5. Antonioni Are Our Odds On Favourite

Seattle-quartet Antonioni emerged back in 2017 with their jangle-rock debut EP, Lullablaze. Things for the band have been a little quiet since, however that all looks set to change with release of their follow-up, The Odds Were All Beating Me. Ahead of sharing that record, the band recently shared their excellent new single, Stutter-Step.

Described by the band as a, “post-punk dance cut”, Stutter-Step is something of a departure for Antonioni. After a clatter of drums and shimmy of sultry guitar brings the track roaring to the life, vocalist, Sarah Pasillas comes to the fore, likes the middle-ground of Debbie Harry and Neighbor Lady’s Emily Braden. The track builds to a skittering indie-pop crescendo; the sort of song that used to soundtrack the best nights of your life, screaming your heart out in the sweatiest basements. Having already played with the likes of Whitney Ballen and Jo Passed, Antonioni are a band starting to garner an impressive reputation, the release of The Odds Were All Beating Me should cement their place as a band well worth keeping your eyes on.

The Odds Were All Beating Me is out now via Den Tapes. Click HERE for more information on 

4. Los Bonsáis Don’t Want To Go Out

It’s been four long years since we last heard from Los Bonsáis, the Asturian-duo of Nel González and Helena Toraño, and frankly we hadn’t quite realised how much we missed them. After previously releasing two brilliant mini-albums, full of indie-pop gems with a distinct Spanish-charm, the band have this week announced a brand new album, Hinoki, and shared the first track from it, ¡No Quiero Salir!

Translating as, I Don’t Want To Go Outside, ¡No Quiero Salir! is Los Bonsáis’ anthem for the lazy, kind of fitting after four years off! What’s most remarkable about ¡No Quiero Salir! is just how fresh the band still sound; the shuffling Cure-like bass-line, the almost child-like lead guitar line, that perfectly understated, almost dead-pan vocal, nobody sounds like Los Bonsáis anymore, maybe nobody else ever did. Es bueno tenerte de vuelta Los Bonsáis!

Hinoki is out February 15th via Elefant Records. Click HERE for more information on Los Bonsáis.

3. Girl! Rosie Wants To Take You To A Gay Bar

Thankfully, or sadly we’ll let you decide, Rosie Tucker’s new single Gay Bar isn’t a cover of the Electric Six classic. What it lacks in early noughties nostalgia though it more than makes up for in actually being a good song. The track is the first to be lifted from the Los Angeles-based songwriter’s, difficult to say the title of, new album, Never Not Never Not Never Not.

Discussing the track, Rosie has suggested it is a celebration of, “the incredible spectrum of characters dressed to impress at your average regional queer watering hole. I’m aiming for innocence & bliss here– the joy of looking really good & dancing with people who already like you a lot.” The track serves as fine introduction to Rosie’s songwriting, a world where characters are presented as lyrical portraits; detailed, mysterious, sometimes witty, sometimes a little broken, and always entirely believable. The lyrical brilliance is paired here with perfectly chugging-guitars, steady drum beats and a thick bassy pulse, as with acts like Torres or Mitski, it’s always a little darker, a little heavier than you initially realise. Discussing why she makes music, Rosie has suggested, inspired by Erik Satie, “I like art that happens when people toil in obscurity, although I guess that’s not my goal right now”, keep writing songs this good, and obscurity might not be an option.

Never Not Never Not Never Not is out March 8th via New Professor Music. Click HERE for more information on Rosie Tucker.

2. Potty Mouth Offer 22 Reasons To Listen

Potty Mouth first appeared the best part of six years ago with their acclaimed debut album, Hell Bent. It might seem like a long time to not hear from a band, yet it comes not from a lack of creativity, but a desire to do things their own way, as bassist Ally Einbinder, explains, “our approach made things take longer, but it gave us more creative freedom. To have that flexibility was so helpful, and the amount we grew and learned during the making of this record is the product of a lot of patience and finding the right situation for ourselves”.

The results of their creative growth will be shared with the world in March, with the release of their second album SNAFU, and this week the band have shared the first track from the record, 22. A somewhat tongue-in-cheek reference to the anxieties of growing older, and accepting that age only changes you if you want it to. Musically, the track instantly transports the listener back to the hey-day of pop-punk, as with acts like Doe or Fresh, Potty Mouth take the blueprint of Throwing Muses or Veruca Salt and re-invent it for our modern times. On this evidence, Potty Mouth are a fine testament to taking your time.

SNAFU is out March 1st via Get Better Records. Click HERE for more information on Potty Mouth.

1. Faith Eliott’s Slithery New Single

Originally from Minneapolis, Faith Eliott moved to Scotland as a thirteen-year-old, it was after moving to Edinburgh in 2013, that Faith became immersed in the city’s DIY music and visual arts scene. After playing with numerous bands while they studied sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art, it was only on graduation that Faith began exploring their own songwriting. After a well received 2016 EP, Insects, Faith is set to release their debut album, Impossible Bodies later this year, and has this week shared a new video, Lilith.

Lilith is a fine example of the mythology and legend that influences Faith’s songwriting. Inspired by Lilith, according to Jewish folklore, the first wife of Adam, who after she refused to be subservient to Adam, was banished from the garden of Eden, before returning later as the snake who tempted Eve. The track itself was inspired by a slightly less mythical setting, a petting zoo, as Faith explains, “I was inspired to write the song after a visit to a reptile petting zoo and seeing all the snakes in glass boxes. The lyrics chronicle an explosive escape in which the snake I call Lilith breaks free from the petting zoo and spirals off into space as the world crumbles and burns behind her. It’s a song about feeling captive in an identity, specifically as a woman, but also more generally as a body.” The fabulously delivered lyrical story, is backed by a clattering, musical wonder, all loose flourishes of drums, guitars that peak, swoop and collapse and Faith’s transatlantic vocal, bold, clear and wonderfully unforgettable. Creative, intriguing and very different, Lilith feels like the first chapter in a fascinating book, we can’t wait to see where Faith’s imagination takes us next.

Impossible Bodies is out April 19th via OK PAL Records. Click HERE for more information on Faith Eliott.

Header photo by Mario Cruzado – http://www.mariocruzado.co