Latest in “News”

Mac DeMarco Is Getting the Engine Running Again
FLOOD

The unflappable musician discusses returning to his calling of building songs from scratch after becoming preoccupied with other DIY projects in the garage and at home.

Mac DeMarco is a true follower of the DIY path. It’s where he’s always felt at home, making his songs of woozy, deeply felt, gently melodic indie rock, telling personal stories of heartbreak and life changes. He’s a Canadian prairie boy who did it all with a guitar and a reel-to-reel, rising to become a genuine lo-fi superhero, another voice for another generation.

Since he last released a conventional album back in 2019, the songwriter has taken that hands-on ethos even further, veering away from his usual musical obsessions to work with his hands—learning to fix motorcycles and work on houses from Los Angeles to the islands of British Columbia. As it turns out, he’s no slacker. DeMarco has collected a full set of tools, and is practically a general contractor now, schooled in the building trades from an endless supply of YouTube videos.

“It’s a snapshot of where I was at that moment” – Mac DeMarco’s new record is a magical search for home
Hero Magazine

Written and recorded over the course of a month in November 2024 at his Los Angeles home, Guitar leaves the edges raw. There’s tape hiss lingering in the background, an intentional looseness, and a voice that slides effortlessly into an ethereal falsetto. “I didn’t overthink too much about what I’m doing. It felt like magic, and I just trusted the natural flow,” he shares. It’s a contrast to the sprawling 199-track expanse of One Wayne G or the wandering instrumentals of Five Easy Hot Dogs. Tracks like Terror confront mortality with naked honesty, while Home drifts between affection and distance – all twelve tracks charting the terrain of a man reckoning with his place in the world.

Live Report: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard at The Royal Albert Hall
Clash Magazine

After the “intermission”, King Gizz and the orchestra behind them twinkled into the full ten minutes of fan favourite, ‘The River’, followed by another ten-minute epic ‘Crumbling Castle’, opening up the mosh pits and sending the audience swirling. At least two dozen people under the Hall’s dome were carried over the heads of fellow onlookers and into the arms of security (who were kept busy all evening). Then, ‘Mars For The Rich’ and ‘Dragon’ gave the group a chance to further flex their metal muscles to an animated and locked-in crowd.

Ezra Furman debuts “One Free Hand”
Northern Transmission

Ezra Furman today shares new single titled “One Hand Free”. The track was recorded during the studio sessions for Goodbye Small Head, her LP released earlier this year via Bella Union. “One Hand Free” comes accompanied by a video shot by JJ Gonson featuring Ezra accompanied by an assortment of birds, lizards and myriad other species.

Ezra Furman on “One Hand Free”:

“This is a jaunty back-porch breakup/depression song about feeling so bad you’re not sure what species you even belong to anymore. We left it off Goodbye Small Head because it was too good. It’s better than Jason Aldean. Better than the Barbie movie. Better than Bob Dylan. Better than Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Cue the sound of one hand clapping, a Zen round of applause.”

Ty Segall: New Frontier
Relix

For how unabashedly bizarre his music can be, Ty Segall is an affable guy.

Settled on an outdoor couch, sipping from a Pacific Coast Highway mug, his measured cadence makes a real case for oceanside life’s tranquilizing effect. At times, that breezy tone is tough to square with his reputation for grinding rock’s cutting edge with a spree of fuzzed out monoliths. But experience has steadied his hand, and by now, he’s got more than enough of it to breathe easy with the throes of his passion.

“I’ve spent so much time on the road in the States, it’s all just turned into one drive, you know?” he reflects. “It’s weird to think about ‘cause you’re just kind of going and going and going, going, going, going.”

The revolution begins in the basement for Ezra Furman
MatterNews

In a press release, Ezra Furman described her new album, Goodbye Small Head, as “twelve variations on the experience of completely losing control.” Asked in a late June interview if this was a new idea for her, and if she was traditionally someone who needed to have a firm grasp of the steering wheel, she paused.

“Hmm, let me think about that. I think in some places in my life I’m a bit control obsessed, and that’s often been true in my art life, my music life,” she said, and then reconsidered. “Well, no, let me start that answer over. You can tell I’m grasping for control even in just answering this question, where I’m like, I’ve got to say exactly what I mean. But a lot of the most vivid and beautiful experiences of my life are experiences of losing control and surrendering to a large experience, a big feeling, and I think I needed this music to be for that. I needed this music to be a place to lose control and to really open myself to what I can only have if I let go.”

Mac DeMarco’s Slacker Rock Dazzles Radio City Music Hall Crowd
Forbes

On stage, DeMarco projected a charismatic, likable and humorous persona that went beyond his simple attire of a baseball cap and a T-shirt. He mostly roamed around holding a microphone as his excellent touring band played around him, although he did put on a guitar for a few numbers. DeMarco was also entetaining with his amusing banter in between songs while encouraging his New York fans to clap and wave their arms.

Monday’s performance for DeMarco was the second of two sold-out dates at Radio City, and it was clear from this particular show that he definitely had his fans eating at the palm of his hand.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Let Fans ‘Name Your Price’ for Albums on Bandcamp
Rolling Stone

While Bandcamp’s default pricing for albums is set at $9 (with tracks at $1.50), the company says artist are still able to set “pricing in a way that reflects your goals, your audience, and the value of your work.” The novel pricing move by King Gizzard, implemented on Sept. 5, opens up their digital catalog with a no minimum payment, making their music more accessible than ever.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s Stu Mackenzie Talks Field Of Vision, ‘Phantom Island’ & More
JamBase

In 2024, when they had a day off from their two-day, three show run at Colorado’s Red Rocks, the band took a field trip to Buena Vista to check out the site,

“Michelle [Cable], our manager, who is the best, started looking for sites and this was a place that came recommended from some friends. We came out when we were here last year for Red Rocks.

“We had a day off and we drove out [to Buena Vista] and back on that day. As soon as we got here, we had some lunch and then we’re like, ‘what the fuck? Is this place real? It’s crazy here.’ Then we went out to the site and dipped our feet in the creek and just walked around. It’s honestly stunning.”

Mac DeMarco: ‘People use AI to write lyrics now. Give me a break’
The Independent

Today he’s talking to me down the line from a farmhouse on British Columbia’s Gulf Islands, where he’s decamped with his girlfriend Kiera McNally to grease the wheels for his own next world tour. He recently helped his mother Agnes move to a new home in Victoria, and bought his own tumbledown place a couple of hours away to enjoy the tranquillity of what he calls “a summer cabin kind of vibe”. Soon, his bandmates will join him to start rehearsals. There’s also a new album, Guitar, which he recorded alone at his home studio in Los Angeles in a fortnight and was initially just a pretence to get back touring. “I just wanted to go out and perform,” he says. “We could do that without releasing something, but I think that would make me feel like it was a reunion or greatest hits tour.”

Is Mac DeMarco the Last Indie Rock Star?
The New Yorker

DeMarco has become only more popular in the past decade. “Chamber of Reflection,” a teetering, synth-driven track from “Salad Days,” is ubiquitous on TikTok, and has been streamed nearly a billion times. DeMarco himself has more than twenty million monthly listeners on Spotify, a remarkable number for a dude who plays dazed, quivery guitar songs about whatever’s on his mind. A TikTok account dedicated to his work has more than eight hundred thousand followers and features videos of DeMarco telling jokes that are sometimes scatological and always absurd.

Mac DeMarco Announces New Album Guitar: Hear “Home”
Stereogum

The lead single from Guitar is a soft, twinkly meditation called “Home,” and it’s all about the relationship that DeMarco has to his birthplace in British Columbia. It’s a short song, but it’s long enough to evoke a real bittersweet longing for something that you can’t always have. To make the video, DeMarco brought his camera onto a canoe and filmed himself near his mother’s house. A bunch of Canadian geese make cameos.

In addition to the new album, Mac DeMarco is also announcing some heavy touring plans that’ll take him all over the world in the months ahead. In his journeys, he’ll be joined by a bunch of openers — Mock Media, Tex Crick, Daryl Johns, Vicky Farewell — who are signed to his record label, which is called Mac’s Record Label. Below, check out the “Home” video, the Guitar tracklist, and DeMarco’s touring itinerary

BV interview: Ty Segall talks going “pop” for new LP ‘Possession,’ playing piano, touring with Primus, pet portraits & more
Brooklyn Vegan

Ty Segall came up through the late-’00s West Coast garage-psych scene that also gave us the Oh Sees, The Intelligence, White Fence, and more. For a while, he was matching those artists’ output with a constant barrage of albums, including solo releases and through his various side projects. These days, 17 years since releasing his debut album, Ty is slowing down a little. He’s married, has a kid, and moved his Harmonizer studio to the family’s new home near Pasadena. Possession is Ty’s 17th solo album, depending on how you count — and his most immediate yet.

Ty Segall On How Piano Lessons, Glyn Johns, The C.I.A., And More Inspired His New Album Possession
Stereogum

Possession is billed as Ty Segall’s sixteenth album, but that feels about as underreported as the tip jar at an anarchist cafe. You have to factor in the slew of side projects as well, like Fuzz, GØGGS, and Freckle, the last of which being a new band with Color Green’s Corey Madden, which put out an unreasonably slept-on self-titled debut just a few months ago. It’s an old cliche at this point that Segall never slows down, but part of why it’s been easy to keep up is because he insists on slicing through fresh terrain, often with new people holding on for dear life alongside him.

Osees’ John Dwyer & Bow Wow Wow’s David Barbarossa Go Deep On Their Wild New Band Chime Oblivion
Stereogum

With each decade, musicians who’ve been in the game since they were a kid get to add a little flair to their performance style, like badges on a Boy Scouts sash. John Dwyer and David Barbarossa are such unshakeable giants at this point that listeners tend to associate them with a specific sound: garage rock for the Osees singer-guitarist, new wave for the Adam & The Ants drummer. But listen to all of their other bands — because, boy, do they both have a lengthy scroll of projects — and the compulsive, unstoppable creativity that’s coursing through the two of them on the regular is unmistakable.

Ezra Furman: Beyond the Limits of Language
Paste Magazine

Furman’s 10th studio album, Goodbye Small Head, was written in the wake of illness, sociological terror, collapse, and creative exhaustion. She recently spoke with Paste about invoking tropes of humiliation, deviance, and rebellion by repurposing them through the lens of agency.

The edgy new heights of SPELLLING’s panoramic mysticism
The Line of Best Fit

Nevertheless, she describes Portrait as “a creative resurgence” and “a way to bridge the gap” between SPELLLING the artist and Chrystia the person: more forthright, more honest, less cloaked in mystery. The price of a small identity crisis in the process is one she’s come to terms with. Through asking the big questions like “Who am I?” and “What are my relationships?”, she was able to explore romance and intimacy “in new ways” that reflect on and address the changes in herself. She describes feeling “a big sense of relief” from coming to the end, as if the portrait’s completion marked a pivotal moment, a return to self. “There’s Tia and there’s SPELLLING,” she says firmly. “This album is much more personal, it’s much more Tia.”

Ty Segall Announces New Album Possession, Shares “Fantastic Tomb”
Paste Magazine

“[‘Fantastic Tomb’ is] an energy-charged anthem that would feel right at home on classic rock radio.” – Paste

“Segall sets his hard-luck narrative to the grind of a fried electric guitar riff, while a smattering of keys and blustery saxophone solo further bring his story to life.” – Paste

“[‘Fantastic Tomb’] explodes with color; every element sounds like it’s been filtered through California sunshine. If you’re looking forward to a summer road trip, this is the song for you—its freewheelin’ groove practically demands to drift from cracked-open car windows, out onto the open road.” – Paste

Ty Segall Announces Tour Dates and New Album, Shares New Song “Fantastic Tomb”: Listen
Pitchfork

Ty Segall has announced a new album. Co-written with his longtime collaborator and filmmaker Matt Yoka, Possession is the prolific rocker’s follow-up to the two records he released last year: Three Bells and the instrumental LP Love Rudiments. The new one is out May 30, via Drag City, and is led by the single “Fantastic Tomb,” which you can listen to below.

SPELLLING — ‘Alibi’
Stereogum

Last month, SPELLLING announced her new album Portrait Of My Heart and released the gripping title track, which was one of our favorite songs of the week. Today, she’s back with another beautiful banger titled “Alibi.”

 

“Alibi” was originally a piano ballad, which is hard to imagine. Much like “Portrait Of My Heart,” “Alibi” is an exuberant, triumphant explosion of sound. Listen below.

Jim James, King Gizzard & the Wizard Lizard, Mac DeMarco Feature on L.A. Fire Relief Benefit LP
Rolling Stone

Mac DeMarco, King Gizzard & the Wizard Lizard, Jim James and the War on Drugs are just a few of the dozens of artists featured on a new benefit album released on Tuesday to help raise funds following the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.

Super Bloom: A Benefit for Los Angeles Fire Relief, is 62 tracks-long and also features songs from Guided by Voices, Jenny Lewis, Dr. Dog, Ty Segall, and Swamp Dogg, among many others. All 100 percent of the proceeds from the album — organized by nonprofit Sweet Relief Musicians Fund — will go toward wildfire relief to organizations including Mutual Aid LA, the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, and Pasadena Humane. A digital copy of the album is available to purchase on Bandcamp now for $10, though customers could also pay more as a charitable option.

The 5 Best Songs Of The Week
Stereogum

02 – SPELLLING – “Portrait Of My Heart”

SPELLLING has a knack for making music that sounds like it’s from another galaxy. “Portrait Of My Heart” is Chrystia Cabral’s newest otherworldly tune — taken from her just-announced new album of the same title — and it’s as fun as it is celestial. With enchanting strings and a cathartic chorus, “Portrait Of My Heart” serves as a cinematic, urgent anthem about alienation. It’s the best possible first preview of Portrait Of My Heart. –Danielle

SPELLLING – “Portrait Of My Heart”
Stereogum

For Portrait Of My Heart, Cabral assembled a band with Wyatt Overson on guitar, Patrick Shelley on drums, and Giulio Xavier Cetto on bass. It has Drew Vandenberg, Rob Bisel, and Psymun on production, and features special guests like Chaz Bear of Toro y Moi, Turnstile guitarist Pat McCrory, and Zulu’s Braxton Marcellous. “Portrait Of My Heart” is a bewitching first taste; the song is a sweet indie-pop epic, even stronger paired with the Ambar Navarro-directed music video of Cabral dancing and singing in her bedroom, opening up a portal to another world. Fall under her spell below.

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