The Daniel Craig / Rami Malek James Bond movie is the escape we need

Official 007.com / Nov 20

A Huge Return for No Joy

One of the music projects I've looked forward to most this year sees fruition tomorrow. Jasamine White-Gluz aka NO JOY has recorded a new full length, Motherhood out tomorrow. I've only heard a handful of tracks so far but they're everything I could hope for!  Clearly still on the same journey, White-Gluz finds her creative muses in familiar waters with results more contemporary but true to the artist's spirit. What we've heard so far is inspired.

The sounds and the soul are hypnotic, low-fi poetry. I love where this is going. If No Joy sounds a bit disjointed and angular at times it's probably because that's the reality and it works. I don't think you create this way unless it's really the only way it makes sense for you. The tracks sound dangerous but the fit is precise. It takes a lot of vision and probably a thoroughly solid sense of humor to create this way. It's all a part of the art, this surrendering.

Dream Rats (feat. Alissa White-Gluz)

Many years ago I stood, sweat-soaked and at the stage at a club in Toronto when No Joy was about to take the stage. It was my second night in Toronto and my first time seeing this band live.. my excitement level was palpable. It all paid off. It was an evening I'll never forget. I would actually end up seeing the band play three times in a week. It really was special. I thought I was going to be seeing a shoegaze band (as they affectionately tagged by bloggers and fans.) Other descriptors like 'experimental' and noise pop' were tossed around. But what I saw was a creative tornado. No genre could ever contain No Joy and I knew that eight years ago. Motherhood just proves that case to a whole new generation of fans. 

NO JOY
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Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders - Cold Feet

From the album HURTSVILLE (2011)

All my life I have waited
For you, to come to me
And now that you're here with me
I wanna, I wanna leave

All my days, I have wondered
From one love to the next, so carelessly
And now, that you're here with me
I wanna, I wanna make like a tree
I wanna, I wanna leave

Cold Feet
Cold Feet

Well I see you brought your bags with you
Well, I got my troubles too
There's only one way outta here
And well it's what I'm gonna do

Cold Feet
Cold Feet

Like a sand crab in the glass pit
My world is changed
And the things I needed yesterday
I don't need in the same way

Loneliness sings memory's song
Loneliness sings memory's song

Cold Feet
Cold Feet

JACK LADDER
Hurtsville & Blue Poles (new!) 

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Bess Atwell - Cherry Baby

 

From the Album BIG BLUE (2019)  

So we got away, for a little while
Everything feels strange
And my boy, he don't look back
When you said
What I needed was to need
It all made sense, all made sense

I stare at the sky through that pane of glass sometimes
Landing wide-eyed into a dream of mine
Trying to stay awake in the age, awake in the age
Awake in the age

So sell my sight
For a price I'd like to think is right
Think I might fight the lightning
Now you see me
Am I ripe for the taking?
Now you don't
A cherry baby you're making
Cherry oh

Everything must go
'Cause we're closing down
I could hesitate
And turn it all around
But now
I believe you when you leave to somewhere else 

Somewhere else

Glacier swell, put me under that spell
I'll be the fruit if you'd just treat me well
And I'll try to stay in…

BESS ATWELL
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A Music Playlist for the Third Season of Self Quarantine

Presenting the Third Season

Kyoto (performed at Home) by Phoebe Bridgers

NEW In a pandemic performance from her home Phoebe Bridgers wowed audience this week with a performance of Kyoto off her stellar new album Punisher. In the brief #playathome performance, Bridgers finds a way to elevate the space and enhance the appearance the clip using relatively easy means.. couple that with her delivery of lyrics and what you have is a spontaneous gift during this quarantine. And I just really needed to share!

Phoebe Bridgers
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New from Mill Pond Falls

Never Needed, the new song from Mill Pond Falls, is a quiet instigator of sorts, marrying the worlds of Americana and indie rock over a raw, bleak landscape. This one feels timeless - and it easily could have come out of a different decade but it's difficult to remove it from the backdrop of self-isolation and reflection that have emerged as a part of the quarantine for the Covid-19 pandemic.

We know Joe McMahon, the heart behind the MPF story, from his many years of exquisite recording and live support on stage with some of the region's top music acts. He's become one of the most reliable and visible players in the city's music scene. The Mill Ponds Falls stage name accompanied the McMahon curated songs from his debut EP back in 2016 and we're excited to see it carried forward so strongly here.

And while standing in front of a bleak news cycle, McMahon remains positive. On the new track he calms the defeated listener assuring that "this too shall pass" and "put yourself at ease." Let's just hope Joe's right. Never Needed was written and recorded via social distancing in home studios. Players include Joe McMahon vocals, Tom Polce guitars, Ed Valauskas bass, and Eric Edmonston drums.

MILL POND FALLS
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