Welcome back! https://trouserpress.com/forum/index.php Thu, 30 Apr 2026 12:06:46 -0500 Phorum 5.2.23 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71135,71135#msg-71135 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71135,71135#msg-71135 breno Trouser Press Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:15:27 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71134,71134#msg-71134 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71134,71134#msg-71134 Courtney Marie Andrews
The Atlantis, Washington D.C., April 24, 2026

One of those names that was vaguely in the back of my head, but which rarely penetrated my active thoughts, Courtney Marie Andrews has now been doing indie country-influenced songwriting for almost 20 years, but I’ve never listened closely to her music before I randomly won a ticket to see her last week at the Atlantis in Washington.

Andrews, touring for a new album called Valentine, is an immensely poised songwriter who also plays Wurlitzer keyboard, acoustic and electric guitar, and flute in concert. Her instrumental chops are not insignificant, but her vocals are truly eye-opening. On “Pendulum Swing,” the opening track on the record, which she performed in order on Thursday night, she suddenly segues in the first verse from a middle register to a piercing soprano. She manages to do this multiple times throughout her songs, in a way that is showy, but never seems extraneous to the compositions themselves.

Maybe it’s indicative of my lack of background knowledge, but I saw threads of Andrews’ show connecting her with the murmured intimacies of Jessica Pratt and the Southern gothic romantic turmoil of Skylar Gudasz, but I gather that throughout her career, she has been compared most to Linda Ronstadt in terms of pure vocal firepower. I get it, too; Andrews has a marvelously supple and powerful voice, put to good use on songs of exquisite longing and loneliness like “Cons and Clowns” (which also showcased her flute solos).

The set of the show was spare. There were a few, deliberately sad-looking, heart-shaped balloons floating above the stage. Andrews switched between Wurlitzer and various guitars, and memorably, sometimes played flute with a guitar hanging around her neck (honestly, way more impressive than a harmonica). She was elegantly dressed and made up, and was backed, as is every female songwriter I see, by a group of homely bearded dudes recruited for their instrumental chops rather than stage presence. The songs always edged in the direction of country — tonally, in their instrumental accompaniment, and frequently in the narrative settings — without ever feeling like they hewed remotely close to Nashville trope.

The setlist for the show is not online, but since Andrews did all of Valentine in order to open the set, it wasn’t hard to figure out the bulk of the show. And since the ticket I won included a copy of the record on LP (“a vinyl,” as the person at the merch desk said), I expect I’ll take a close listen to this album in the coming weeks.

Opening for Andrews was a genuinely impressive young woman whose set I only saw part of: the unusually named Aubory Bugg. Not a stage name; it seems too weird to be anything other than authentic. She’s based in Nashville, but spoke about growing up in the memorably specific Granite City, Illinois. Performing solo on an acoustic guitar, which she fingerpicked with casual expertise, she told self-deprecating stories and sang with gripping earnestness about romantic relationships, doomed flirtations with straight friends, and kind elder relatives whose good works outlive them. She reminded me most of early Lucy Dacus, whom I saw before her career blew up, but maybe I conflate queer Southern women. For a starting point, “friends?” with its deliberate ambiguity in the title, is a good one.]]> zwirnm Trouser Press Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:17:24 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71122,71122#msg-71122 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71122,71122#msg-71122 www.reddit.com]]]> BCE Trouser Press Mon, 27 Apr 2026 08:57:54 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71116,71116#msg-71116 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71116,71116#msg-71116 he's reaching out to you to do this, then you make it happen!" So yeah, I told him, I'm in.

These days, the touring/performing unit consists of the three singers, plus their backing band. Keith Strickland opted to retire from touring a few years ago. But they've kept this version of the band together for some time now. (Drummer Sterling Campbell has been on board for over twenty years; bassist Tracy Wormworth, more than thirty.) Kate Pierson is still a force of nature, with that range ... and Fred Schneider, well, he's still "just Fred," as he once named a solo album. He sounds no different than he did from the beginning. Cindy Wilson is the weak point, as anyone who's seen the band in recent years knows. The best I can say is, she has her lower register and her higher register, but no bridge between them. This was especially evident during "Give Me Back My Man" — long a showcase number for Cindy. With half the lines in the song, her voice dropped out altogether for a measure or two, as she shifted from lower voice to higher. (Oh well, you can't accuse her of lip-syncing.)

But overall, the concert was a blast for us. My brother was stoked enough just for us to hang together for a few days, just to chat and really get up to speed with each other. We both had watched the Las Vegas episode of Somebody Feed Phil, so we had some restaurants and other things to check out. The Gritz Café and Milpà both were outstanding, and the Meow Wolf exhibit was a hoot and a half. And it was nice to travel with someone who appreciates some chill-out time, rather than someone who strives to fill the schedule with as much as possible.

In a way, it was sort of like seeing Brian Wilson a few years ago. That was a marvelous show, with a great setlist full of classics ... but all through the show, Brian was seated at the piano, center stage, seeming to drift in and out of awareness. (Since then, I've occasionally wondered whether that piano was real, or just a prop. He had two other keyboardists on stage.) Still, my wife and I agreed, we didn't feel as if we'd been taken. It felt more like we were participating in a fond farewell ... saying, "We love you, Brian; thank you for all the great music." (Then again, sometimes, you tell yourself what you have to.)

Seeing The B-52's was a little like that. Granted, no one in the band seemed to be at any loss for why they were onstage ... but I can't imagine any of them is kidding themselves, about how many years are behind them. But when I think of how much this band has meant over the years to me and to both of my siblings — when I remember seeing them on Saturday Night Live, and how they turned my musical outlook (and the rest of my outlook as well) from black & white to full panoramic color — then the show in Vegas can easily be seen as a way for us to say, "Kate, Cindy, Fred, we love you; thank you for all the great music, and for everything else."

SETLIST:
Cosmic Thing
Mesopotamia
Give Me Back My Man
Private Idaho
Lava
Dirty Back Road
52 Girls
Roam
Party Out of Bounds
Dance This Mess Around
Is That You, Mo-Deen?
Good Stuff
6060-842
Love Shack

ENCORE:
Planet Claire
Rock Lobster]]> Delvin Trouser Press Tue, 28 Apr 2026 19:32:08 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71106,71106#msg-71106 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71106,71106#msg-71106 "6060-842" - The B-52's
"King's Lead Hat" - Brian Eno
"Antmusic" - Adam & the Ants

"Rockaway Beach" - The Ramones
"Dragula" - Rob Zombie
"Warm Leatherette" - The Normal
"DJ" - David Bowie

"From Out of Nowhere" - Faith No More (for Billy Gould's birthday)
"Shadowplay" - Joy Division
"Union City Blue" - Blondie (for Nigel Harrison's birthday)
"Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?" - Chequered Past (see above)

"Trucks and Trains" - Alkaline Trio (for drummer Derek Grant's birthday)
"The Groover" - T. Rex
"Wherever You Take Me" - The Moberlys
"Get It Out" - Jim Basnight

"The History of the World, Part 1" - The Damned (for Captain Sensible's birthday)
"There Are More Snakes Than Ladders" - Captain Sensible (what I said)
"I'm Shakin'" - The Blasters
"Get Downtown" [live] - Drive-By Truckers (for drummer Brad Morgan's birthday)

"Derecho Domenico" - Jack White (by request)
"The Girl from Baltimore" - The Fleshtones
"Take to the Streets" - D.B. Stewart
"Long As I Can See the Light" - Creedence Clearwater Revival (for drummer Doug Clifford's birthday)

"Lagartija Nick" - Bauhaus (for David J's birthday)
"Life in Laralay" - Love and Rockets (likewise)
"Homosapien" - Pete Shelley
"A Dip in the Ocean" - Fountains of Wayne

"Crawling Kingsnake" - Elvin Bishop (by request)
"Secret Agent Man" - Devo
"Won't Get Fooled Again" [live] - Pete Townshend with John Williams (for John's birthday)]]> Delvin Trouser Press Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:50:46 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71101,71101#msg-71101 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71101,71101#msg-71101 Iceland Airwaves
Songbyrd, Washington DC, April 23, 2026

I've been fortunate enough to attend the free Icelandic shows in Washington for several years now; it’s been something of a cultural soft-power export from the Icelandic embassy for awhile, and the shows have been periodically startling (GROÁ’s feminist punk) and even star-making (Laufey's utterly poised piano-pop, a year before she became the cultural phenomenon she now is). And of course, there’s always the small chance that your raffle ticket is drawn and you win a free vacation in Iceland. (I have yet to do so.)

This year, the headliner was Inspector Spacetime, with support from someone or something called Róshildur. And of course there was the now-typical raffles for Icelandic goodie bags and a DJ whose sign warns that he plays only Icelandic music, even when told not to.

Róshildur, to me, was a revelation. Her official bio reads, “Róshildur is the musical project of Icelandic-Danish producer, songwriter, and performer Anna Róshildur. Her music blends intimacy and scale, exploring companionship, doubt, and quiet emotional tension through carefully crafted lyrics.”

This is accurate if incomplete. First off, Róshildur does sing entirely in Icelandic, so the impact of her lyrics is likely lost on the American audience. Secondly, and more pressingly, the bio omits the key method of her singing and presentation: Anna Róshildur is basically a loops and vocals artist, whose ethereal sing-songy vocals are frequently looped back over themselves, with thumping unsettling beats intruding over the sweetly murmured Icelandic lyrics. It reminded me of what could happen if spare Tricky beats from early Bristol trip-hop were superimposed on a Julianna Barwick set. One real winner was “Samferða,” which she described as being about an Icelandic term of two or more people agreeing to travel to the same place together, for mutual safety and reassurance as well as companionship. And she did a song about a dangerous Icelandic bird, “Kría,” and it’s another stunner, especially because she switches mics between one that is run through heavily processed and electronic loops to another that shares her vocals in their natural sweetness and warmth.

And she was both delightful and personable; I spoke with her a few minutes after her set and she was exceedingly gracious and eager for the release of her upcoming full-length album; her releases so far are all singles or EPs in digital format only. Anyway, a strong endorsement.

By contrast, Inspector Spacetime was an utterly, joyously, inanely silly dance pop band. Indeed, Inspector Spacetime might be the answer to a question no one bothered to ask. What if Black Eyed Peas were … Icelandic? I know, no one asked.

Every Inspector Spacetime song included shouted choruses, ineptly enthusiastic rapping, dance music exhortations, and three extremely Scandinavian people (two guys; one woman) doing their best to recreate a chaotic drunken disco scene in a quiet Thursday night in front of the Icelandic diplomatic corps. I won’t deny, some of the songs were genuinely, dumbly hooky in the way of Icona Pop’s “I Love It” or the hits of Ke$ha on the early 2000s. ״Party at My House” gives the subject matter away with the title. This isn’t going to be Nick Drake. Not everything was deliberately imbecilic; they had a track with a chorus “What’s your pleasure / more pressure” that was genuinely well-crafted.

Not surprisingly none of these setlists appear to be online.]]> zwirnm Trouser Press Sat, 25 Apr 2026 09:48:32 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71089,71089#msg-71089 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71089,71089#msg-71089
In kid Congo powers’ memoirs, “some new kind of kick,“ he talks about reading and seeing pictures of the Ramones in “rock scene” magazine before the album was released. When he found out what day it would be coming out,
He lined up outside the door figuring there would be a mad rush to get into the record shop. He was the only one! But he instantly loved it, and started the Ramones fan club.

Anyone else here get it when it came out? I was just a wee lad, wouldn’t be till later in the 80s that I finally bought it. I’m sure I have every second of it memorized.

Thanks to Da Bruddahs. For a bunch of glue-sniffing knuckleheads from Queens, you truly changed the world.]]> MrFab Trouser Press Fri, 24 Apr 2026 17:30:54 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71087,71087#msg-71087 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71087,71087#msg-71087
Television Personalities & The Who]]> STEVE Trouser Press Sun, 26 Apr 2026 14:37:07 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71083,71083#msg-71083 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71083,71083#msg-71083
When the Sun is the Moon
Yerba Buena
Psychic Breaks]]> STEVE Trouser Press Thu, 23 Apr 2026 21:42:36 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71070,71070#msg-71070 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71070,71070#msg-71070 breno Trouser Press Thu, 23 Apr 2026 07:58:59 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71069,71069#msg-71069 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71069,71069#msg-71069 The Golden Age of Wireless (first U.S. version before it was maimed and rereleased to include "She Blinded Me with Annoyance") is one of my favorite albums of all time, but I'd seen the setlists for his shows for the last year or so, and they'd been light on Dolby songs and heavy on covers of the greatest hits of the Slicing Up Eyeballs canon, which seemed like a peculiar undertaking to me and not all that interesting - I'm not terribly jazzed about going to see cover bands, even if it's somebody famous doing the covering. Plus, it was at the St. Louis branch of the City Winery, which is basically a wide hallway lined with cafeteria style tables where you get to dine with obnoxious strangers eating $25 slices of gooey butter cake, which is torture for me with my increasingly misanthropic demeanor. But friends informed me that they'd bought me a ticket that I didn't need to reimburse them for, so I figured what the hell and went.

Turns out Dolby is writing a symphony based on 80s music, and he's workshopping it on tour. Exactly how a standard four piece rock band performing 80s medleys will translate into an orchestral performance is beyond me, even with one of the great synth whizkids forcing his gizmos into making symphonic sounds, but I reckon that's Dolby's concern, not mine. He did usually have images of an orchestra performing on the screen behind him, anyhow, to at least attempt to create the feeling we were watching a symphony.

But it never really felt like that. It just felt like Thomas Dolby doing an 80s themed Stars on 45. "Oh! He's seguing 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' into 'Dancing With Tears In My Eyes!' Oh my! He just threw in the keyboard line from 'Running Up That Hill' and is singing one line of Lisa Stansfield! Ha ha! He should call this section 'Here Comes the Red Rain Again'!" It was entertaining in the same way that Girl Talk was entertaining back when he was a thing, what with it being moderately fun to recognize whatever the next snippet was and hear what it was paired with, but ultimately it just elicited the same "yeah, so?" reaction from me that listening to Girl Talk always did. It's neat that you segue "Billie Jean" into "This Must Be the Place", but what is that accomplishing besides providing a shot of aural Geritol to perk up the tired blood of all the wheezing forty-years-past-their-primes hipsters that made up the audience (myself included)?

But it was very pleasant that he included "Bonny" by Prefab Sprout almost in its entirety during the medley, er, symphony. And when he did a brief slide show of croaked 80s icons during the aforementioned "Love Will Tear our Dancing Tear Filled Eyes Apart" mash-up, he included Ryuichi Sakamoto, who actually might've gotten the loudest applause of the departed. So good on ya for that, Senior Citizens of St. Louis.

Weirdly, for an opus that was ostensibly trying to contextualize the 80s somehow or another, the medley contained nearly complete versions of "Ordinary World" and "Woke Up This Morning," two resolutely 90s songs. It also included a chunk of "Comfortably Numb," which was technically 1979, but released late enough in the year that I can give it a mulligan into 1980.

There were a few non-medley songs bookending the show before and after the medley section, although even there he trotted out covers when I would've preferred he do full versions of "Flying North" or "Windpower" instead of just including brief quotes of them in the "symphony." He opened with "Blue Monday" and did a decent version of it, but whatever. Then he did "Evil Twin Brother," which I at least consider to be the least annoying of his officially annoying songs. He followed that with some good stuff - "The Flat Earth" and "One of Our Submarines," two of his best songs, though for some reason he wedged a chunk of "Cars" into the middle of "...Submarines". Then he did a mostly instrumental cover of "Heroes" which mainly served as a reminiscence of Live Aid and how that's where he first met Gail Anne Dorsey when they were backing Bowie at the event - Dorsey is in Dolby's backing band on this tour and she did a pleasant solo opening set. The supposedly symphonic section followed, then he closed out the main set with "Hyperactive" and "She Blinded Me With Science," the two songs that torpedoed his original reputation as "the first great singer-songwriter of the synthpop era" and replaced it with "hyper goon what makes all them silly songs with geegaws and gymcracks."

The encore was "Europa and the Pirate Twins" and "Airwaves", so even though he didn't play many of his own songs, the ones he did perform hit an acceptably high percentage of stuff I was very happy to hear. Happiest of all, he performed at least one song from each of his albums (either standalone or as part of the "symphony") except Aliens Ate My Buick, which remains one of the most rancid blasts of explosive diarrhea ever expelled by an artist I like. I'd like to think that age and wisdom have led him to regret ever inflicting that Brontosaurus turd onto the world, but I doubt it. I suspect he just couldn't fit any of it in, thank God. I would've loaded up with overpriced City Winery rotgut until I was as unsteady on my feet as most of the oldsters in the audience were without their walkers if he'd trotted out that horror "Airhead" rather than "Airwaves."

It was kind of interesting/depressing that I don't think there was anyone under the age of 60 in the audience. At just about every show by decrepit New Wavers that I get dragged to these days by my college friends who refuse to leave me the fuck alone and let me molder at home in peace, there's usually at least a handful of fresh faced younglings who've been rifling through their parents' record collections and discovering swell older stuff, but there were none of those at Dolby. That may just be down to the fact that young people are smart enough not to attend anything at the damn St. Louis City Winery, but I think it boils down to the fact that Dolby's reputation has never been rehabilitated. Bands like OMD or Tears For Fears that once were dismissed by the nitwit class as 80s cheese are now respected again, but Dolby is still just the SCIENCE!!!!!!! guy. Which is unlikely to change because the work that showed him in his best light, the first US version of Wireless, is lost in the mists of time.

He mentioned that he had his wife in tow on this tour and that she was in the audience, but I never got a glimpse of her, so have no idea how much she still looks like the girl Genco Abbandando lusted after lo, those many years ago.]]> breno Trouser Press Sun, 26 Apr 2026 16:04:44 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71062,71062#msg-71062 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71062,71062#msg-71062 wpts.pitt.edu]

Grey trash aliens - Freak
The Avalanches & Johnny Marr & MGMT - The Divine Chord
12 Rods - My Year (This is Gonna Be)
Out of Control Army - Two Tone Fever (live)

Bebel Gilberto - Aganju (Latin Project Mix)
Sly and the Family Stone - Ha Ha Hee Hee
Boy Pablo - Wachito Rico
Radiocrimen - Los Chicos no Estan Bien

Dear Nora - Rollercoaster
Ben Folds Five - Philosophy
Stereolab - Ping Pong
Donald Fagen - New Frontier]]> Heff Trouser Press Wed, 22 Apr 2026 10:08:04 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71053,71053#msg-71053 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71053,71053#msg-71053 belfast Trouser Press Tue, 21 Apr 2026 21:30:17 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71050,71050#msg-71050 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71050,71050#msg-71050
Oct 16, 2026 – Boston, MA – Royale
Oct 17, 2026 – Norwalk, CT – District Music Hall
Oct 18, 2026 – Huntington, NY – Paramount LI
Oct 21, 2026 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
Oct 22, 2026 – New York, NY – Brooklyn Steel
Oct 24, 2026 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
Oct 26, 2026 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
Oct 29, 2026 – Detroit, MI – The Majestic Theatre
Oct 30, 2026 – Columbus, OH – Newport Music Hall
Oct 31, 2026 – Chicago, IL – Concord Music Hall
Nov 2, 2026 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
Nov ^, 2026 – Kansas City, MO – The Truman
Nov 5, 2026 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
Nov 6, 2026 – Austin, TX – RADIO/EAST
Nov 8, 2026 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
Nov 11, 2026 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
Nov 13, 2026 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues
Nov 14, 2026 – Huntington Beach, CA – Darker Waves
Nov 17, 2026 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern

No PNW dates, but last time around, they announced those dates as kind of an addendum (or afterthought). They also have European and Australian dates on their schedule.]]> Delvin Trouser Press Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:36:10 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71046,71046#msg-71046 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71046,71046#msg-71046
1. Adrian Belew - Twang Bar King
I really enjoyed this. For some reason I remembered it sounding "low fi" but it isn't. It doesn't begin well with a cover of "I'm Down" but it gets much better. (The cover is fine enough, but seems an odd choice to kick off an otherwise very original album.) Stylistically, it's all over the place, but you get all sides of Belew in top form.

2. The Alarm - Strength
Better than I remembered. Strong album. Anthemic, of course, but that's The Alarm. "Knife Edge" is a great opening track and it doesn't let up from there. Guitar work is better and more tasteful than I expected.

3. Stan Ridgway - The Big Heat
Also better than I remembered. Mosquitos was always my go-to, and I do like that better. But this one is almost as good. Some of the song topics are goofy, but I could say the same about the Belew album. "Camouflage" is a really cool song to end the album.

4. Oingo Boingo - Only A Lad
I think I bought this at the same time as Nothing to Fear, which is far superior, so I gave it little attention. But this one is much better than I remembered, especially the second side. The cover of "You Really Got Me" is both horrible and awesome. Overall, even though this album is 40+ years old, it still sounds different and unique.

5. Prefab Sprout - From Langley Park to Memphis
Of all these albums, this is the one I listened to the most in the past. It's a very accomplished album for sure, I just didn't enjoy it as much now as I thought I would. Maybe my tastes have changed, but this just seems a little too lightweight for what I want to hear right now.

6. Paul Kelly and the Messengers - Under the Sun
Solid album. Not really the style of music I listen to much these days, but good songwriting and playing and enjoyable overall. Not much stands out as exceptional, but no stinkers, either.

7. Tim Finn - Big Canoe
Way overproduced, but some good stuff here. More interesting guitar work than I remembered, but not Finn's finest hour. His voice sounds great, and nice to hear contributions from Phil Judd.

8. Shriekback - Big Night Music
I really tried to get into this album many years ago. I couldn't then, and I still can't. I truly admire what they are doing, and it is definitely unique, but it doesn't grab me. Maybe I'll feel differently in another 10 years.

9. The Style Council - The Cost of Loving
So bad. I'm a huge Weller fan, but this doesn't do it for me. D.C Lee is not a good singer, and she's all over this album. "Right to Go" is an abomination. There are guts of a few good songs here (e.g., "It Doesn't Matter," "Fairy Tales") but not with these arrangements and production.

10. Tom Tom Club - Close to the Bone
Easily the worst of the 10 albums which is saying something after #9. Some interesting things here and there (mainly instrumental bits or rhythms), but an overall unpleasant listen. Nothing worth hearing again.]]> zoo Trouser Press Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:49:50 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71040,71040#msg-71040 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71040,71040#msg-71040
Not much has changed in the intervening decade. Oleg Guitarkin & Zombierella are as close to successors to Lux & Ivy as we're going to get, and their patented mix of surf, sex, rockabilly, and horror is timeless - as befits the undead. Orig from St Petersburg, Russia, Messer Chups have been around for decades, with a discography, including numerous spin-off projects*, that practically rivals The Fall or Guided by Voices (slight exaggeration). They also tour so relentlessly, one wonders if they sleep. But again, being undead probably makes that a moot point.

What's great about surf is that the guitar virtuosity is in the service of havin a good ol' rock n roll party. As opposed to jazz, prog, or the "shredders," where the songs are sometimes mere templates for the guitar pyrotechnics. Oleg can indeed bust strings with the best of em, but the mostly instrumental songs are joyous, upbeat, and over in a few minutes. Surf rock - the fun is baked right in.

Bassist/style icon Zombierella adds occasional vox to break up the relentless instro attack. Like Fred Schneider, she's not exactly a "singer" in the classic sense, but she has style. When she sings "Call Me Zombie," is she asking us to address her in a certain way, or is she asking a zombie to give her a ring sometime? See, I think about stuff.

Greg: "Third time I've seen em, with a different drummer every time!" Tonight's skin-beater had long hair, beard, and answered to "Rasputin."

Unlikely instro surf-style covers are one of the band's specialties. No "Twin Peaks Theme" like last time I saw them, but we got TWO Sinatra covers, and "Love Will Tear Us Apart." I've never known them to play the usual standards, but perhaps saluting the fact that they were visiting the birthplace of surf, they ended with "Miserlou."

openers Christina Jean and the Howlers were fronted by a sexy blonde singer who plays swell garage-abilly. I had already discovered them somehow (Bandcamp, maybe?) and have played em a couple times on my show. Good times. There was another band, but Greg didn't want to stand all night. So we sat in the patio with all the goths, surfers, rockabillies, and punks. I might have been the only one there with no tattoos. Rebel that I am.


*Messer Fur Frau Mueller, The Bonecollectors, The Guitaraculas, Zombierella solo, etc..]]> MrFab Trouser Press Tue, 21 Apr 2026 09:48:52 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71037,71037#msg-71037 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71037,71037#msg-71037 Mirah
Comet Ping Pong, Washington DC, April 7, 2026

I’ve seen Mirah in concert more than almost any single musician, save Mary Lou Lord. Based on my own count, this month was the ninth, or maybe eighth-and-a-half, time I’ve seen her in concert, and there’s almost no one for whom I’d make that much of an ongoing effort. It’s a testament to her continued musical exploration that I continue to find new ways to experience her music; Back when I lived in Portland, I saw her at VFW halls and all-ages indie scenes, and since then at punk clubs, ornate shows at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, quiet shows in the homes of her fans, and last year with a harpist at a distillery. I’ve also written a lot of words about her music, although I’ve rarely exchanged more than a few words with her at a time.

Anyway, this month, she was scheduled at Comet Ping Pong in northwest DC, in support of her first album in quite a few years, Dedication. She’s been a prolific songwriter and collaborator for many decades, since the late 1990s in the Olympia scene, but this slowdown was driven by her motherhood and the pandemic coming in close succession, which left her relatively isolated and out of the music scene for several years.

I don’t think Dedication is one of Mirah’s better records, but it does feature a complete outlier of a track: “Catch My Breath,” almost a pure 80s pop number with extensive elaboration by Jenn Wasner (Flock of Dimes/Wye Oak). It’s such an atypical song for her that when it was released last October, I wondered if it might portend a radical change of pace for her musically. Not so, however. Most of Dedication, which Mirah featured in her set, is her typical mode: heartfelt, emotional, intimate. As it turned out, to my surprise, this was intended as a full band show, but she and her bandmates all got COVID, and only she recovered and tested negative in time to drive down from Brooklyn for the set. (What is this, 2021?) So she was in almost solo-busking mode, but she’s a truly accomplished guitarist, and has one of the best and most supple voices in indie music, so it was fulfilling on its own, even if the song selection was heavy on the new material.

Indeed, she did all ten songs off of Dedication, beginning with “Ballad of the Bride of Frankenstein,” although she didn’t exactly follow the track list of the album. The performance of “Catch My Breath” proves that the song works just as well solo as it does with full pop orchestration, and her songs about motherhood (“Mama Me”) were more effective and affecting in concert than they are on record, where they could be a bit cloying. And unfortunately, around halfway into the Mirah set, my wife was flaming out. Comet Ping Pong is most renowned (if you’re not a QAnon supporter) for its live shows, but they don’t clear the table tennis equipment out until after the dinner crowd, so it was well after 11:00 pm by the time she took the stage, and my wife loves Mirah but lacks my tolerance for late nights in rock clubs. So I missed about half of the set (thus the 8 1/2 count in the first graf), including a few covers from her collaborative album with Thao Nguyen, Thao + Mirah, released back in 2011 on Kill Rock Stars. Based on the set list, she completely omitted some of her most beloved records, like her debut You Think It’s Like This But Really It’s Like This and C’mon Miracle, reaching back into her catalogue only for “Mt. Saint Helens,” from her second album, Advisory Committee.

Because everything starts so late at Comet, we did see the full sets from both opening acts. Openers for the show were Dim Wizard, led by DC promoter and impresario David Combs, who is also a former member of Bad Moves and does a lot of bookings in DC, and Jane O’Neill, a DC-area singer-songwriter in the process of relocating to New York. (Hilariously, her name led to some audience member confusion with the long-standing indie-folk songwriter and artist Tara Jane O’Neil, formerly of Rodan, who has collaborated with Mirah in the past.)

I have seen Dim Wizard a few times, usually at Comet, and Combs made a point to play a more subdued and chill set than he usually does in the context of Mirah as the headliner. It was still pretty loud, however; fuzzy guitar-pop anthems. I found myself paying more attention to the Dim Wizard show than I had in the past; Combs is a thoughtful guy and he spoke with genuine affection for Mirah (with whom he has no obvious aesthetic linkage), especially in an elliptical reference to one of her finest songs, “Jerusalem,” for “singing about the genocide in Palestine from a Jewish perspective.” As a Jew who’s lived in Israel and has typically conflicted opinions about the Israeli state, it certainly got my attention; Dim Wizard presumably is the first band to write a psychedelic power pop song about the Palestinian cause from a Jewish perspective. Otherwise, the Dim Wizard Live Rock and Roll Experience is all grooves and hooks and fuzz, akin to Superchunk or The Clean, or maybe Dinosaur Jr. in less shredding mode. Jane O’Neill, conversely, was aesthetically closer to Mirah with sturdy folk-rock Americana songs, and might have fit in better sonically, but her songs were a bit wan in comparison. It was well-sung and ably performed but the songs just didn’t stick.

Full set list by Jeff M Hunt, the same dude who somehow attends all the shows I attend but whom I’ve never met.]]> zwirnm Trouser Press Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:31:16 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71031,71031#msg-71031 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71031,71031#msg-71031 steevee Trouser Press Wed, 22 Apr 2026 21:53:00 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71027,71027#msg-71027 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71027,71027#msg-71027 new show is up on Mixcloud now.

Suicide-“Cool As Ice”
Gina X Performance-“Plastic Surprise Box”
Shox Lumania-“Signals”
Kelela-“Idea 1”
Suitor-“Private Prison”
No Peeling-“Stationery”
Gay Meat-“More Good Angels”
Edward Skeletrix-“Slavery”
Arlo Parks-“Beams”
Claudia Valentina-“Road BBY”
Theodora-“Miss Kitoko”
Alizade-“Stop Smoking”
Jeune Morty-“Katy Perry”
ANSIEDAD1000-“Abizzmo”
Sidepieces-“I Love You”
Weed420 featuring Dexonia-“alien (no acostumbro festejar)”
People Like Us-“A New Baby”
Xaviersobased-“100,000”
Maryam Saleh-“El Fetra”
Fauna-“Boreala andlosheten”
Emily Rach Beisel-“To Rise In Arms”
Daniel Pemberton-“The Crash”
Mary Halvorson & Ambrose Akinmusire-“Soundcheck”
Henriette Eilertson Trio-“Tretakt”
Francesco Fabris-“Barricading the Ice Sheets”
Hoavi-“Colossus”
Upsammy & Valentina Magaletti-“Superimposed”
Bagong Kussudiadardja-“Witing Klopo”
Sonny Sharrock-“Monkey-Pockie-Boo”
Sunn O)))-“Does Anyone Hear Like Venom?”]]> steevee Trouser Press Sat, 18 Apr 2026 09:21:11 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71026,71026#msg-71026 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71026,71026#msg-71026 "Super Extra Large" - Devilhead
"Supergun" - Mary Lou Lord
"Super Rad!" - The Aquabats

"Supersoaker" - Kings of Leon
"Supercharged" - Skeemin' NoGoods
"Superblast!" - Lush
"Supersoaked" - Be Your Own Pet

"Super Bon Bon" - Soul Coughing
"Superball" - Aimee Mann
"Super-Connected" - Belly
"Superhero Girl" - Transcendence

"Supernatural Superserious" - R.E.M.
"Supermodel" - Måneskin
"Superstar" - Mega City Four
"Superstition" [live] - Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble

"Supersonic" - Cowboy Mouth
"Supersonic" - Bad Religion
"Supersonic" - Andy Bown
"Supersonic" - Oasis

"Supermassive Black Hole" - Muse
"Super Heartbeats" - The Motorettes
"Superconductor" - Rush
"Supermodel" - Jill Sobule

"Superstar" - The Spell
"The Super Thing" - Devo
"Supersonic Daydream" - Libido
"The Supermen" - David Bowie

"Superunknown" - Soundgarden (for drummer Matt Chamberlain's birthday)
"Supernova" - Liz Phair (for Liz's birthday)
"Supercollider" - Fountains of Wayne]]> Delvin Trouser Press Mon, 20 Apr 2026 19:06:36 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71020,71020#msg-71020 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71020,71020#msg-71020
Anyhow, there's a big cut out of George surrounded by swooning girls along I-57 outside of Benton, which is kinda cool. One of the better roadside signs in Illinois.

[abcnews.com]]]> breno Trouser Press Sat, 18 Apr 2026 17:02:08 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71019,71019#msg-71019 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71019,71019#msg-71019 Mary Lattimore and Julianna Barwick
The Miracle Theatre, Washington D.C.
March 24, 2026

Two names I have been familiar with for years, but never followed in depth, are Mary Lattimore and Julianna Barwick. A harpist, Lattimore is the musician whose work I know better; I actually have a CD of hers. Barwick, whose profile is likely higher, is an experimental vocalist, synthesizer player, and composer, whose music I periodically hear excerpted on NPR. Both, I would say, traffic in an area that edges between experimental and art music and modern classical with influences from New Age music and alternative. Barwick, particularly, comes at her work through a lens that welcomes in an ear to dissonance and ambient spaciness; she does a lot with analogue looping and modular synthesizers. Lattimore travels in an art form that to me is more background music; lush and magical but a bit ephemeral for my taste. But both get a lot of attention from Pitchfork and clearly travel in music that is alternative in distribution and aesthetic, even if not always in emotional tone. Indeed, if you heard it as background music in a cafe over brunch, you’d likely only be caught up in the surface prettiness and not any of the underlying messages.

I heard a fair amount of hype of their debut collaborative record Tragic Magic on NPR All Songs Considered, of course, and respectful interest from other venues. But it wouldn’t have been my thing except for a friend who ended up bailing on this show to see a member of Phish do a thing elsewhere in DC, which says a fair amount about the breadth of his own tastes.

So I invited Heff and we made our way to Barracks Row in Capitol Hill, the first time I’ve ever seen a band at the Miracle Theatre. It’s a vintage, neighborhood movie theater that now houses a small stage, vintage screenings of movies, and a nondenominational evangelical church. The crowd was maybe a few dozen people? Not a lot for what I envision to be an expensive show to tour, given the logistics of Lattimore’s harp, Barwick’s synthesizer and electronics, etc.

What we saw and heard was lovely and periodically gripping but a bit hard to define. The show was very concise, maybe 50 minutes, no opener, and they did most, maybe all, of Tragic Magic, periodically interspersing the yearning, dreamy, periodically unsettling music with their deeply thoughtful discussion of the songwriting process that led to the album; specifically, their residency at a museum of antique musical instruments in Paris. Collaboration was very much in the two women’s minds; not only did they develop the music together, but they tapped into an earlier inspiration, Roger Eno, who contributed a song (perhaps barely a sketch, turned into a song), and Vangelis, whose soundtrack to Blade Runner is the source of “Rachel’s Song.” I happen to barely know these earlier influences although I have some of the Roger Eno work with his better-known brother, and of course I’ve heard Vangelis soundtracks. But that genre of work isn’t in my own musical vernacular to characterize as aptly as I usually like to do.

Where I found the concert most compelling is the moments in which Lattimore and Barwick presented the context of the songs in their prefatory remarks; the discussion of the Los Angeles wildfires that threatened their homes while they were in Paris but a sense of urgency on “Melted Moon” and the sampled sounds of raindrops in their cover of “Rachel’s Song.” (Of course, the torrential rains in Blade Runner carry a very different emotional weight than the promise of rain in the midst of a catastrophic wildfire.) The friendship and mutual respect that Lattimore and Barwick enjoy also shone through in the performance; some tracks were clearly a harp showcase in which Barwick primarily was in a support role, and others allowed Barwick’s inventiveness with loops and modular synthesizers to take lead. It was altogether compelling but still basically impenetrable at times. And then, basically, the show as over, just as the mood and sensibility was starting to convey its own internal logic.

Full setlist posted by some guy named Jeff whom I feel like I have to meet, since he’s at all the same weird women-singer-songwriter gigs I attend.]]> zwirnm Trouser Press Fri, 17 Apr 2026 21:21:58 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71013,71013#msg-71013 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71013,71013#msg-71013 STEVE Trouser Press Thu, 16 Apr 2026 23:39:21 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71012,71012#msg-71012 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71012,71012#msg-71012 I've given this bands first three albums numerous spins over the last ten to twenty years. Time and time again, my response was one of ... "there's something great here, yet, it's fleeting". I was trying to grasp this band to tightly.
There's something truly magical about a bands music that reveals its beauty slowly and rewards a patient listener, like an old friend, with repeated visits.

P.S. Thanks to Heaven for Dave Schulps]]> STEVE Trouser Press Sat, 18 Apr 2026 18:34:24 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71011,71011#msg-71011 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71011,71011#msg-71011 STEVE Trouser Press Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:32:55 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71010,71010#msg-71010 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71010,71010#msg-71010 I think I may have summed it up in terms of "clever lyrics doll", backed with the most horrible twenty-first century novelty schlock band ever_
I ended the overall terrible event by reminding our fan club president that the experience was the absolute antithesis of everything Trouser Press.
She agreed. We spent the remainder of the ride home in silence, thinking about how wonderful true human art is.]]> STEVE Trouser Press Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:34:32 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71009,71009#msg-71009 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71009,71009#msg-71009 STEVE Trouser Press Thu, 16 Apr 2026 20:38:56 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71008,71008#msg-71008 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71008,71008#msg-71008
Father Ted
Black Books
The IT Crowd]]> STEVE Trouser Press Thu, 16 Apr 2026 18:43:24 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71007,71007#msg-71007 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71007,71007#msg-71007 STEVE Trouser Press Thu, 16 Apr 2026 18:21:22 -0500 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71006,71006#msg-71006 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,71006,71006#msg-71006
Here's a performance from last year, apparently in a churchyard: [www.youtube.com]]]> rhettlawrence Trouser Press Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:45:38 -0500