Hi Gigantic Gang,
I bet you can’t wait for the bank holiday weekend to start! Yes, it’s a shame that the weather has gone a bit wet and windy but at least there’s plenty of puddles to jump in. So, grab your wellies and turn the volume right up for this week’s #NewMusicFriday blog and playlist.
We have tickets for all the best new acts plus you can hear the latest tunes right here with Gigantic. Passionate about music, we’re the best place to discover your new favourite act and get to see them perform live.
Albums
PETER DOHERTY & THE PUTA MADRES – ‘Self-Titled’
Your favourite fedora adorned troubadour is back and joined with a new band, each of which come from some far-flung quarter of the globe. Peter Doherty & The Puta Madras saw The Libertines singer decamp to the North Western French coastal town of Étretat where he and his new friends quickly recorded their album in just four days.
“It’s more of a covert operation than The Libertines. The Puta Madres is an everyday expression for me. Not that I can’t be myself with The Libertines, but with Carl [Barat] now there has to be give and take. He’s willing to put up with me on certain conditions. I know he loves me, but he doesn’t accept me for who I am, really.” – Peter Doherty
The new album deals with themes of fame, loss, addiction and doomed romance and takes a blues direction, making for excellent listening for his devoted fans.
“A delicate album filled with wit, beauty and wonder which largely once again reveals Peter Doherty’s skill as a songwriter and a storyteller through music.” – Jimi Arundell, Indie Is Not A Genre
This month sees Doherty take his merry band of tearaways around the UK, playing dates at O2 Academy Bristol, Stylus at Leeds, O2 Manchester Ritz, Rock City at Nottingham and O2 Forum in London.
Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres tickets are currently available.
BIG THIEF – ‘U.F.O.F.’
Released on iconic independent label 4AD, ‘U.F.O.F.’ is the third album from Brooklyn indie folk-rock band Big Thief, recorded with engineer Dom Monks and producer Andrew Sarlo at Bear Creek Studios. On their latest outing, drummer James Krivchenia, guitarists Buck Meek and Adrianne Lenker who takes lead vocals plus bassist Max Oleartchik play about with sweet and savage dynamics by joining gently lilting vocals with sporadic screams and deftly played complex fingerpicking broken up with roaring fuzzed up guitars.
This eclectic make up was a result of a spontaneous writing and recording process, with many songs written mere hours before being laid down on tape. It freed the band from the constraints of what they felt was expected of them by having no time to really consider what they were creating and what it meant before it was already recorded. It was a leap into uncharted territory which Lenker particularly relished; “Making friends with the unknown… All my songs are about this. If the nature of life is change and impermanence, I’d rather be uncomfortably awake in that truth than lost in denial.”
Big Thief tickets are currently available.
KEDR LIVANSKIY – ‘You Need’
Kedr Livanskiy describes her second album ‘You Need’ as a celebration of both life and rebirth. Real name Yana Kedrina, she originally worked as a DJ before moving into production and this second LP draws on her deep knowledge of dance and combines it with a variety of experimental sounds, dub and krautrock to complete a joyful record tinged with her dark techno roots. The effect is a strange kaleidoscope sensation, feeling much like leaving the dark confides of an abandoned factory at the end of a rave in her Russian homeland still giddy on the excesses of the night.
‘You Need’ includes the single ‘Kiska’ which is promoted with a video directed by her long-term collaborator Konstantin Bushmanov. When asked about the song, Kedrina answered;
“The message is sharp and biting in both melody and lyrics. This song is about a girl who’s a badass. ‘Pussy gonna sit on your face’ – this is a mythical, crazy expression from the ghettos of Marino. This is a message to everyone who doesn’t believe in you, to all the haters and good-for-nothings. It means, shut your mouth. You don’t need to tell me how to dress and what to do. Some people fantasize about being a princess or a knight in shining armour, but I imagine myself as an unapologetic badass who can stand up for herself. But the lyrics shouldn’t be taken too seriously. This music above all embodies a wild dance, where you can forget and get high on yourself.”
Kedr Livanskiy tickets are currently available.
THE DREAM SYNDICATE – ‘These Times’
First formed in 1981 and been subject to the whims of an ever-revolving line up only to split at the end of the decade and return in 2012, Californian psychedelic rockers are once again ready to blow your mind with new album ‘These Times’. Singer Steve Wynn explains where his ideas for their latest offering came from:
“When I was writing the songs for the new album I was pretty obsessed with Donuts by J Dilla. I loved the way that he approached record making as a DJ, a crate-digger, a music fan wanting to lay out all of his favorite music, twist and turn the results until he made them into his own. I was messing around with step sequencers, drum machines, loops — anything to take me out of my usual way of writing and try to feel as though I was working on a compilation rather than ‘more of the same.’ You might not automatically put the Dream Syndicate and J Dilla in the same sentence, but I hear that album when I hear our new one.” – Steve Wynn
Catch The Dream Syndicate at Scala London on Monday 21st of October. Tickets on sale with Gigantic right now!
The Dream Syndicate tickets are currently available.
FILTHY FRIENDS – ‘Emerald Valley’
While the word supergroup usually makes you recoil in horror, thinking of many projects that should have been amazing but fell well below the sum of their parts, indie rock outfit Filthy Friends are thankfully absolutely amazing. Boasting a line up which includes Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney, Scott McCaughey and Linda Pitmon of The Minus 5, famed producer Kurt Bloch and Peter Buck of some little name beat combo band called R.E.M., they’re certainly not lacking in talent or experience and they more than wetted listeners appetites with debut album ‘Invitation’ released by (who else?!) Kill Rock Stars in 2017.
Now the gang are back with second record ‘Emerald Valley’. The record first began after Tucker was given a demo by Buck. It sparked both her imagination and her rage, angry at the regressive political climate that current occupies the United States and inspired to rally against it; “I had this long poem growing in my brain. It turned into a sort of manifesto about the kind of place we are at as a country but also as a region. Just taking stock of where we’re at and feeling like I can’t believe we let things get this bad.”
‘Emerald Valley’ is an energetic album bursting with ideas and showing the sort of vigour, ingenuity and energy of a band of fresh faced early 20 somethings. Rousing, melodic and brimming with heart, the new LP is begging to be banged into your car stereo and turned up loud to soundtrack your summer road trip.