A dark cloud is on the horizon. There’s a sense that a storm is coming. But while such imagery often suggests bad times ahead, with Holus Bolus (Blues Funeral Recordings), the latest record by brooding Folk-Rock four-piece Lord Buffalo, those coming rains could be a welcome release. Continue reading
Poland‘s Sunnata emerges from the cloud of smoke that shrouded the band on their last album to jam out their brand of grunge-out psychedelia. Continue reading
Duff McKagan is an interesting character. Having released his first solo album in 1993, a big gap followed till 2019’s Tenderness, with Lighthouse (BFD Records /Orchard/Sony) his third. This of course is but a fraction of McKagan’s musical story. Consistently coming across as the most likeable out of the classic Guns N’ Roses lineup (in which he played bass and for his part was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), such a rock pedigree is already more than most mere mortals would ever get a sniff at.
Until his untimely death in February of 2022 there were few singers who could match the gruff, forlorn weariness of Mark Lanegan. But while the world won’t be able to look forward to a new release from the former Screaming Trees frontman in 2023, on The Last Black Flower (Lay Bare Recordings) the second album by Soothsayer Orchestra, the spirit of Lanegan is ever-present.
Founding Screaming Trees bassist Van Conner has died. He was just 55. No cause of death has been revealed. The news of his passing was announced in a Facebook post by Van’s brother, Screaming Trees guitarist Gary Lee Conner. You can see Gary Lee’s post below. Screaming Trees was the second band from the Connor brothers, who started as punks and lovers of Psychedelic Rock in the early 1980s, before co-founding Screaming Trees with singer Mark Lanegan and drummer Mark Pickerel. Lanegan died last February at age 57. The band would later become a breakout band from Seattle, in the “Grunge” explosion, along with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Melvins, and more. Screaming Trees album Sweet Oblivion catapulted the band with three hit singles, including “Nearly Lost You” – which was also on the Singles soundtrack, and led to the band touring the world and performing on Lollapalooza. RIP.
Hjartastjaki (Svart) is an almost cinematic experience, as Isafjord create bleak and desolate landscape pictures with their sombre atmospheric music. The duo of Solstafir vocalist Addi Tryggvason and multi-instrumentalist Ragnar Zolberg (Sign) wrote the album while holed up together in an old house, during the depths of an icy winter and using a broken piano to start many of their ideas.
Alt-rock legends Local H have shared an awesome cover of 1970s classic Looking Glass’s track “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl” from their forthcoming covers album: Local H’s Awesome Quarantine Mix-Tape #3. The album is releasing October 8th 2021 on Brutal Panda. The album is the third in the series of covers and gives a nod to the mixtapes in Marvel’s Guardians of The Galaxy! The new album features two different covers of Prince’s “When Doves Cry,” and they’ve also taken on songs from Fountains Of Wayne, Blondie, the Kinks, Mark Lanegan, Eurythmics, and Robert Plant. The band is hitting the road with fellow 1990s icons Soul Asylum, and Juliana Hatfield. Check out “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” right now!
Alice In Chains is being honored by Seattle’s MoPop Museum of Pop Culture on December 1st, and the band will be celebrated by a cadre of their peers, as well as hold their first performance of 2020. Korn, Metallica, Mastodon, Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction, and Krist Novoselic of Nirvana are among the artists who will take part in virtual tribute performances when AIC is presented with this year’s Museum Of Pop Culture (MoPOP) Founders Award. The full list of presenters (virtually) is listed below. Continue reading
Post-Metal leaders Cult of Luna has announced a new EP, The Raging River via Red Creek (http://www.red-crk.com) – the band’s newly created record label, which will be physically distributed by Metal Blade Records (in North America) and Season of Mist (in Europe). The EP features a guest appearance by Mark Lanegan (solo, Mad Season, Screaming Trees). New music coming soon. Pre-orders are live at the link below.
Here is yet another Ghost Cult “End Of Year” Guest post! We’ll be sharing lists, memories, and other shenanigans from our favorite bands, partners, music industry peers, and other folks we respect across the globe. Adrienne Davies, drummer and artist non-parallel of Earth has shared her shortlist of faves from 2019 with us. Earth released their immense new classic Full Upon Her Burning Lips in May via Sargent House and we chatted with her and Dylan Carlson in New York to discuss the album and their career. Check out her picks! Continue reading