Further Listeng:

5. It’s Surely Not All Downhill From Here For Carson McHone

Carson McHone was last on my radar back in 2022, around the release of the excellent album Still Life. At the time, I compared Carson’s music with that of Lilah Larson, an association that’s only going to be more drilled into my brain now that Carson’s upcoming album, Pentimento, shares a title with Lilah’s brilliant 2016 release. That record will arrive via Merge in the middle of September, and this week, marking her European tour, Carson shared the latest single from it, Downhill.

Although there’s always an element of alt-country to Carson’s music, she is equally a songwriter never wedded to a particular genre, a fact made very clear across Downhill. Throughout the vocals shift tempo beautifully, almost drifting in and out of focus as the guitars display a similarly skronky strut, to the sunnier side of the Velvet Underground or Veronica Falls. Lyrically, it seems to zoom in on Carson’s earliest memories, the moments of our childhood that shape everything about the people we are, Carson recalling, “the bitter taste of asphalt”, as, “the memory last impressed upon my skin from falling fast”. As fans of Fake Or Fortune will know, a pentimento is the trace of an earlier painting beneath the top layers, a ghost of painting past if you will. Here, Carson seems to be taking that idea off the canvas and projecting it onto a human being, asking questions of who we are and how we got here. Masterpiece or work in progress, we’re all a reflection of the marks we make along the way.

Pentimento is out September 12th via Merge. For more information on Carson McHone visit https://www.carsonmchonemusic.com/.

4. Tugboat Captain Are In Complete Control

It was back in April that Tugboat Captain, a band that features so regularly around here that I consider them almost part of the furniture, released the excellent Dog Tails. Their first album in the best part of five years, it was something of a kick against the grandeur of their previous offering, Rut. While Rut saw them indulge their Beatlesian fantasies in the hi-fi setting of Abbey Road, for Dog Tail they went back to basics, writing and recording the album in just one week, seeking to find, “novelty and excitement and freshness”. The result is a record that feels less glossy, and perhaps a little more true to its creator’s instincts, a little freer from the shackles of music history. As the band prepare to return to the studio to see what’s coming next, this week they briefly stopped to throw some much-deserved attention back on one of Dog Tail’s standout moments, Pest Control.

A song about, “realising and accepting the weight of the world”, Pest Control finds lead vocalist Sox finding freedom in letting go, “no matter what happens certain things are out of control, like having pest infestations, these things just happen and can’t necessarily be helped”. Musically, the track enters on lo-fi guitar rhythms and burbling electronics, before taking a turn towards retro-pop perfection with trotting piano chords and wavering brass that has a touch of Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys. The whole thing really comes to life though, when Sox and co soar into the stadium-sized chorus, a choir of voices sounding triumphantly downcast, “there’s hope when the parasite breaches and the world weary teachers they’ve got mice in their homes”. Throughout it’s a song of contrasts, each triumphant crescendo matched with a lyrical sigh, each musical breakdown contrasted by a little ray of hope. It’s a song unsure of whether to laugh or cry, and knowing whichever you choose, all you can really do is keep on keeping on. The track is accompanied by a video filmed on a camcorder across both of their sold-out album launch shows at the Ivy House in Nunhead, the joy of performance and creativity on show serving as a delightful contrast to the song’s weightier themes. Here, as across Dog Tale, Tugboat Captain feel like they’re getting back to their roots, a band lifting a weight off their shoulders and remembering why they loved making music in the first place, four albums in, they’ve never sounded better.

Dog Tale is out now. For more information on Tugboat Captain visit https://linktr.ee/tugboatcaptain.

3. Living Hour Are On A Roll

Since I first discovered Winnipeg’s Living Hour, when they released one of my favourite albums of 2019, Softer Faces, they’ve been a band whose music has been renting some space in my brain free of charge. The follow-up, 2022’s Someday is Today, was just as good, and so it was with great excitement that I greeted an email from Keeled Scales saying this most excellent of bands was teaming up with an always excellent record label. Their new album, Internal Drone Infinity, will arrive in October, and this week they shared the first single from it, Wheel.

Wheel is a song built out of a scam, after lyricist Sam Sarty went to British Columbia to buy a car off Facebook Marketplace. “The car was junk, but I had no choice but to drive it home“. Feeling betrayed by the men who had wronged her, Sam conjured up, “an alternate reality where I’m a vengeful spectator in these men’s lives. What if I had died on the road, and what if I came back and plagued them all with my powerful essence that they so easily dismissed, contorted and took advantage of?” Musically, the track is a subtle progression for Living Hour, their trademark dream-pop shimmer remaining, only now with a touch of Forth Wanderers’ slacker guitar squeal and Wednesday’s creek rock grit, the sharpening of the edges helping to bring Sam’s ever fabulous vocal into crystal clear focus. Living Hour were already a fantastic band, yet now everything just seems crisper, richer and more alive to the possibilities of where their music can go.

Internal Drone Infinity is out October 17th via Keeled Scales. For more information on Living Hour visit https://www.livinghourband.com/.

2. The Cords Are Just The Fabulist

Not many bands’ first gig is supporting The Vaselines, but then The Cords aren’t just any band. The Scottish pop sister duo of Eva and Grace, The Cords are a band rooted in indie-pop history, tapping into the same spirit of the C86 bands, only with the boundless energy and confidence that can surely only come with youth. Despite just a handful of songs being released, they’ve already supported the likes of Camera Obscura and The Go Team! and roped in acclaimed producer Jonny Scott to bring their self-titled debut album to fruition. With the record arriving at the end of September, this week they shared the first single from it, Fabulist.

While it’s described by the band as a, “wholehearted take-down of people who lie for a living”, listening to Fabulist, you could easily miss it. An entirely authentic take on the original indie-pop sound, here The Cords just seems to explode with a youthful abandon that overwrites everything else. As with acts like Literature or Remember Sports, the song has that “we’re playing this as fast as our hands can manage” excitement that just gives it life. Sometimes you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and here The Cords decide to pull off a different trick, breathing new life into old sounds and making them feel fresh and exciting again. Fans of classic indie-pop might just have found their new favourite band!

The Cords is out September 26th via Skep Wax (UK) / Slumberland (US). For more information on The Cords visit https://linktr.ee/thecordsband.

1. The Cindys Are Your Forever Band

What does a boundary-pushing musician do when they cease finding joy in pushing boundaries? The answer in Bingo Fury, aka Jack Ogborne’s case, was to lean into what made him fall in love with music in the first place. The result is The Cindys, Jack’s new band inspired by the directness and lucidity of 80s indie from The Clean to Beat Happening, a deliberate attempt to reconnect with his favourite bands. With a debut mini-album on the way in November via Breakfast Records, this week The Cindys shared their debut single, Eternal Pharmacy.

Discussing Eternal Pharmacy, Jack has suggested it was inspired by, “the first proper European tour I went on“, seeing the places you never would otherwise have seen, “living a life of excess while simultaneously being totally broke“. While Jack might speak of looking back to old influences, for the sound of The Cindys, he’s conversely stumbled on a sound that would fit equally nicely alongside contemporaries like Langkamer or The Golden Dregs. Their sound fuses the melodic chug of the Guided By Voices-like guitars, beautifully crisp drum sound and thoughtful, observant lead vocals, lifted by the unmistakable contrast of bandmate Naima Bock’s backing vocals. Lyrically, Jack does a beautiful job of capturing the disorienting nature of life on the road, “there’s no daylight and no good ideas and no way to escape sober”. Yet here he offers neither damnation of rose-tinted cheer, “I can’t remember how I got here, or why I have to leave so soon, I’ll plagiarise my dignity from you”. These are early days for sure, but The Cindys sound like they’re onto something rather special, a songwriter leaning into their influences but never letting them drown out their unique point of view, and from that melting pot coming out sounding not quite like anyone else and utterly thrilling as a result.

The Cindys debut mini-album is out November 7th via Breakfast Records (UK) and Ruination Records (US). For more information on The Cindys visit https://linktr.ee/thecindys.

Header photo is The Cindys by Nina Winder-Lind