This is more like it. At least as far as Indie Basement is concerned, this is the first big week of releases for 2024 (i realize there have only been four Fridays), with four albums out this week that I recommend. Those are by Ty Segall, The Smile, Gruff Rhys and The Umbrellas. To go along with those we also have terrific EPs from Finnoguns Wake (the new band from Shogun of Royal Headache) and Vanishing Twin. That is a complete breakfast (and dinner) right there.
Over in Notable Releases, Andrew also gives The Smile a spin, along with new records from Alkaline Trio, Benny the Butcher, Torres, and more.
This was another huge weeks for announcements, including new albums from Arab Strap, Klaus Johann Grobe, Fat White Family, Liam Gallagher & John Squire, Elbow, Shannon & The Clams, The Reds Pinks & Purples, Corridor, and Melts; and tour announcements from CSS (first US tour in a decade) and Lush’s Miki Berenyi and Lol Tolhurst x Budgie. Plus: Matador is reissuing Butthole Surfers albums.
Head below for this week’s reviews…
Ty Segall – Three Bells (Drag City)
The 15th solo album from this psych-rock wunderkind keeps his hot streak going
Ty Segall has said that he’s consciously trying to take his foot off the gas a little when it comes to his output, which in the past has seen multiple albums a year from a variety of projects, from solo to Fuzz, GOGGS and beyond. Three Bells is the pysch-rock multi-instrumentalist wunderkind’s 15th album under his own name in just about as many years, and is his first since 2022’s acoustic “Hello, Hi.” But it’s also a 65-minute double album, so in some ways he’s keeping up his prolific reputation. Quality control is definitely pretty high here, and the vibe is a mix of the gleaming synthetic perfection of Harmonizer, the boundary-stretching of First Taste, and the gonzo energy of Freedom’s Goblin (also a double LP), along with a few new moves. Ty experimented with using the same chord shapes across multiple songs, and that gives the album a subconscious cohesiveness without ever feeling samey, whether it’s outer space jams (“Void”), proggy proto-metal grooves (“Hi Dee Dee”) or hooky pop songs (“In My Room”). He also co-wrote a third of the album with his wife, Denée, which brings new melodic and lyrical elements to the table. (She contributed to Harmonizer as well, and together they make music as The C.I.A.) Three Bells has the creative boundary-pushing you associate with a double, but manages to go down like a tight, single-LP. It’s also clear this wasn’t two albums worth of songs randomly collected on one. Ty shouldn’t worry about oversaturating the market with records, especially with the hit-rate consistency he’s maintained.
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Gruff Rhys – Sadness Sets Me Free (Rough Trade)
The 25th album from Rhys is one of this most personal, quietest and unique
Sadness Sets Me Free is the 25th album that Gruff Rhys made, when counting solo works, records with Super Furry Animals, Neon Neon, soundtracks and more. For this one, Gruff and his band — Osian Gwynedd (piano), Huw V Williams (double bass) and Kliph Scurlock (drums) — recorded the majority of it in a three-day session in Paris in March 2022, with strings and backing vocals by This is the Kit‘s Kate Stables added later. “At this point I quite like working with serendipity,” Rhys says of the album. “Not in a cosmic way, [but] I try and leave things open to chance encounters and chance geography…I’m always looking for ways to make a different-sounding record.” Sadness Sets Me Free is one of Rhys’ prettiest records, heavy on acoustic guitar, piano and strings, with a strong element of both ’70s country and tropicalia. Gruff is one of those rare artists who consistently manages to do something new every time while only ever sounding like himself. The way he writes songs, the chords and melodies he favors, haven’t really changed over the years — this album’s “Celestial Candyfloss” could’ve fit, with a different arrangement, on SFA’s 1996 debut, and “Silver Linings (Lead Balloon)” could be a cousin to “Northern Lights” from 1999’s Guerilla. Yet both feel like they could really only be here, and his inquisitive, thoughtful, and empathetic lyrical style is as warm as the music. (When Gruff sings “I left my dreams in a rental car” on “Silver Lining,” you know how he feels.) Let’s hope Gruff gives us another 25…and that at least one of them is a new SFA album.
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The Smile – Wall of Eyes (XL)
The second album in less than two years from Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner is a more subdued affair than their debut, but is a grower
The Smile, aka Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner, did a magical thing in 2022: they reignited my interest in Radiohead. Perhaps they also reignited Yorke and Greenwood, too, as The Smile’s debut album was to these ears the most engaged they’d sounded since maybe In Rainbows, and seeing them live in 2023 made it clear they were having fun. At that show they played a handful of songs that are now on The Smile’s second album, Wall of Eyes, which is a much subtler but no less sophisticated record than the first. This is also the first album from Yorke and Greenwood to not feature Nigel Godrich in some capacity since Radiohead’s debut, but hard to tell if that has anything to do with that. Nothing here calls attention to itself the way “Thing Thing,” “You Will Never Work in Television Again” or “The Smoke” did, but these eight songs hang together better as a whole and grow on you. The most immediate number is probably “Bending Hectic,” which has a misnomer of a title though the strings get very intense (shades of Jonny’s film composition works) before the afterburners kick in for a Big Rock Finish. It’s the only song that might have you looking up from the book you’re reading — the slow-rising “Friend of a Friend” is great too, actually — but the rest of the album is engaging “back to mine” music, and Skinner’s syncopated drumming style pulls everything together in new directions. Wall of Eyes is also a “late night” album that deserves to be played loud. Go ahead, wake the neighbors.
For more thoughts on Wall of Eyes, read Andrew’s review in Notable Releases.
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The Umbrellas – Fairweather Friend (Slumberland)
Second album from this San Francisco indie-pop group hits all the right notes, even when they’re a little out of tune
San Francisco’s The Umbrellas embrace 40 years of shambolic indiepop, the kind made by fanzine-reading, striped-shirt-and-cardigan-wearing folks who mix big hooks and catchy choruses with warbly guitars and dream of visiting the Glasgow library for a Stephen Pastel sighting. They are clearly students of the genre, and tip their hat to some of the janglemasters of the form, including The Pastels, The Wedding Present, Comet Gain, Beat Happening, Orange Juice and others. Fairweather Friend is the band’s second album and a big sonic leap from their debut, with the production giving the kind of oomph you could tell the band have live, not to mention more nuanced arrangements (strings, keyboards, harmonies). The songs were great on that first album but everything felt a little flat. The Umbrellas also play to their strengths here as well, namely the vocal interplay between Matt Ferrera and Morgan Stanley. More than anything, Fairweather Friend sounds like a band that know they’ve got the songs, know they can really play, and are having a great time doing so without overthinking it. To paraphrase the album’s first song (and Orange Juice), three cheers to The Umbrellas!
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Finnoguns Wake – Stay Young (What’s Your Rupture)
Former Royal Headache vocalist Shogun heads in new sonic directions with his latest band
Shogun has one of those instantly identifiable voices, a dude who belts it out with every kilowatt of personal energy he has at his disposal. It was the guiding force in his band Royal Headache and his subsequent (short-lived) group Shogun & The Sheets, and it still is with his new thing, Finnoguns Wake. This one’s a little different though, as the band is a collaboration with Finn Berzin, who is a couple decades Shogun’s junior, who also writes and sings lead. (The band name is a portmanteau of their names, not to mention a nod to James Joyce.) The two bonded over music, everything from Husker Du to Oasis, and judging by their debut EP it was kismet that brought them together. As much as I loved Royal Headache (especially live), the music Finnoguns Wake make is a much better fit with Shogun’s pipes. Their hazy, anthemic brand of post-punk really soars with his voice, especially on opener “Blue Skies” which might be the best song Shogun has been apart of. (In this context, he sounds closer to The Sound’s Adrian Borland or Cleaners From Venus’ Martin Newell.) “Strawberry Avalanche,” Shogun’s other spotlight song, is pretty great too, leaning into those shared Oasis influences hard. Finn is no slouch either, bringing a slightly lower key vocal quality to “So Nice” and “Lovers All” which makes for a nice contrast. Listening, I have two questions: when will Finnoguns Wake play North America, and what happens when Shogun and Finn sing together? I hope we find out both soon.
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Vanishing Twin – Life Drummer (Sub Pop)
This London-based group prove “anything can be a drum” on this new 7″ from the Sub Pop Singles club
God bless the Sub Pop Singles Club which allows the label to put out records by artists they love but didn’t sign, and also gives those artists a little room to stretch their wings. One of the two January releases in the club is this 7″ from London’s Vanishing Twin, featuring three new songs that take them in new, experimental directions. Life Drummer‘s title track has them exploring “new rhythmic worlds where anything can be a drum,” and they take that idea literally. Vanishing Twin have an incredible drummer, Valentina Magaletti, who could make just about anything sound good and her rhythms here hit hard for a killer, quirky groove while singer Cathy Lucas reads off a litany of potential instruments: “garbage can, plastic bucket, empty jars, bottles of all descriptions.” I’m not sure if all those (and more) were used here, but I wouldn’t doubt it. (The lyrics were adapted from a chapter in W.A. Mathieu’s The Listening Book titled, yes, “Life Drummer.”) The other two songs — “Inarisan” and “Non Guardare” — are not as immediate but are just as interesting and creative rhythmically. Is this a sneak peak at their next album or a flight of fancy? In any case I’m glad it, and the Sub Pop singles club, exists.
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