Best Albums of 2023 So Far
The Needle Drop
King Gizzard’s PDA listed as one of the best albums of the year!
King Gizzard’s PDA listed as one of the best albums of the year!
The key to understanding the King Gizzard phenomenon is a willingness to imagine disparate categories in dense overlap, well beyond anything our post-genre pop era might have prepared us for. The group’s six musicians live at the center of a very unlikely Venn diagram: stylistic chameleons on par with Beck and Damon Albarn, prolific at a rate that outpaces even the famously hyper-productive Guided By Voices, mounting completely unpredictable live shows with the jam band ethos of Phish. Led by 32-year-old primary songwriter Stu Mackenzie, they have released 24 studio albums since 2010, five of which dropped in 2022. (Two of those, the MGMT-ish Omnium Gatherum and the groovy jazz-fusion opus Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, and Lava, are good entry points for the uninitiated.) The records tend to be organized around genre and musical high concepts — garage rock, various flavors of psychedelia, electronic excursions, prog, blue-eyed soul and several albums exploring the possibilites of microtonal tuning.
And take a band like Le Tigre – Kathleen Hanna’s brilliant 90s riot grrl band whose MO was always to “write political pop songs and be the dance party after the protest”. They feel just as, if not more, vital today as they did back then (their debut album in 1999 featured the line “Oh, fuck Giuliani! He’s such a fucking jerk!” – how’s that for prescient?).
“We were originally asked to headline a festival that would take place just months before the 2020 election,” JD Samson of the band tells me. “We hadn’t toured since the Bush era, and it felt especially timely for us to rekindle our anti-right wing chants for our fans and anyone else that wanted to join in.”
“Unfortunately, COVID shifted our timeline and the event ended up taking place in 2022. In the process of working on the show, we reconnected with the work and realised how relevant the music was – and how much fun we had working together – and have felt connected to those intentions since.” Their recent show at the Troxy in London was a joyful celebration – a reminder they’d reached whole new audiences while they were away and that the need for fun, defiant protest feels just as, if not more, pressing than it did when they formed the band.
King Gizzard clocked back into somewhat familiar instrumentation with PetroDragonic Apocalypse (for short, because, of course), which marks their 24th studio album. Self-described as “heavy as fuck,” the new record harks back to 2019’s Infest the Rat’s Nest by diving into the metal pools of experimentally hard-hitting riffs and songs about witches and wizards. They teased the album with lead single “Gila Monster.”
“The trio tore through classics like “Deceptacon” and “TKO” as though no time had passed, with Kathleen Hanna, JD Samson, and Johanna Fateman each dressed in vibrantly colorful outfits that gleamed under the light show. Hanna and Samson split banter duty, with Hanna giving especially impassioned speeches deriding oppression and urging the audience to take action against it wherever they can.”
Finally — King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have made an album about lizards and wizards. With a title impossibly more tongue-twisting than the band’s name, and one which seems to beg for a sepia-toned fantasy map in the vinyl gatefold to fully understand its lore, PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation finds King Gizzard opening the medieval spellbook on their most blackened, ominous album to date.
Thankfully, this bleak turn of events chronicled on King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s new album, PetroDragonic Apocalypse or Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation, is just a fantasy (for now). But as some kind of metaphor for how humanity has ravaged its only home to the point of no return and is actively contributing to its own demise, it feels frighteningly, powerfully real.
“Unlike nearly every musical act on the planet, you don’t see them expecting to hear a favorite song. Chances are, you won’t hear it. Instead, what binds all this, what they ask is faith in an old value: A live performance should be ephemeral, fleeting. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, exciting, dumb, silly, moving, is alive above all else.”
On the face of it, rage and joy are not an easy aesthetic fit. Rage is engaged, rope-veined; joy is free and light – frivolous, even. And yet the collected works of musical activist Kathleen Hanna – across three bands: 1990s punk outfit Bikini Kill, her electronic bedroom pop project the Julie Ruin, and Le Tigre, a multimedia collaboration alongside Johanna Fateman (mostly guitar) and JD Samson (mostly synths) – dance along the tightrope between fury and fun.
“The band are full of energy that doesn’t let up, whether playing and dancing to electro bops or guitar-heavy rock offerings. Hanna gives her trademark shrill screech throughout – a subversive, self-consciously feminine expression of punk”
Following their latest foray into thrash metal with 2019’s Infest the Rats’ Nest, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard returned with a promise of more “heavy as fuck” tunes coming our way with the lengthily titled PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation, due June 16 via their own KGLW.
“From start to finish, the band’s collective fluency with soul music truly shines”
“Playing live is this visceral, cathartic event. It might as well be like you’re playing a game of football, chess or whatever. It’s not the same as writing and rehearsing, you have a crowd, you have interactions with other people”
“Rich Homie Quan talked the talk, but John Dwyer walks the walk: The man will never stop going in. The prolific underground rock legend stayed busy with a zillion improvisational side projects during the pandemic, and it didn’t stop him from releasing a new album with main band OSEES last year. Now — on the release date of the new Live At Levitation — he’s already following up A Foul Form with Intercepted Message, another new OSEES LP”
Cleaner and lighter than past efforts, The Murlocs Calm Ya Farm is their best full album yet as the good time sounds flow like free wine at a late-night afterparty.
“Instead of trying to fit within genre conventions, the Murlocs piece together what they’ve explored in the past and let their country undertones rise through the cracks on Calm Ya Farm. At their most collaborative, they’ve created their most cohesive yet multi-faceted album to date. Surprisingly upbeat closer “Aletophyte” ends it all on the question of how to move forward when life leaves us feeling like sun-bleached shrubs between cracks of concrete. If we all fall off the edges of our minds in some way or another, maybe it’s best not to worry too much — just keep trying, because we’re all doing the best we can. This may be their first rodeo, but the Murlocs know damn well what they’re doing”
The band’s first album of 2023 follows the triple-header of LPs released in October of last year, Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava’, ‘Laminated Denim’ and ‘Changes’.
The new album’s full title is ‘PetroDragonic Apocalypse Or Dawn Of Eternal Night: An Annihilation Of Planet Earth And The Beginning Of Merciless Damnation’. No firm release date has yet been revealed, but the album will be up for pre-order from May 16 on Gizzverse.
Earlier this month, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard announced a new album called PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation. Now, they’ve shared more details about the project, due out June 16th, and revealed its first single, “Gila Monster.”
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard came out of 2022 with five new albums, and the prolific Australian psych-rockers already have another new one on the way. They announced their 24th studio album in an Instagram post: It’s called PetroDragonic Apocalypse; Or, Dawn Of Eternal Night: An Annihilation Of Planet Earth And The Beginning Of Merciless Damnation and pre-orders for the album start on May 16, though they haven’t disclosed a release date just yet.
“When we made Rats’ Nest, it felt experimental,” singer Stu Mackenzie said in a statement. “Like, ‘Here’s this music that some of us grew up on but we’d never had the guts or confidence to really play before, so let’s give it a go and see what happens.’ And when we made that album we were like, ‘Fuck, why did it take us so long to do this?’ It’s just so much fun to play that music, and those songs work so well when we play them live. So we always had it in our minds to make another metal record.”
The Murlocs offered the final preview of their coming album Calm Ya Farm with the swirling psychedelic single, “Queen Pinky”. The new album from the King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard offshoot led by multi-instrumentalist Ambrose Kenny-Smith is out on Friday via ATO Records.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard will release new album ‘PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation’ on June 16th.
The Australian band are ever-productive, releasing a string of albums throughout 2022. The coming year brings yet more projects, with King Gizzard set to release a grandiosely titled album this summer.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have announced details of their forthcoming album ‘PetroDragonic Apocalypse’, which is apparently “heavy as fuck”. The album will be out on 16th June via KGLW
An empty cabaret in the wee hours of the night is the setting for a surprising twist on the good, old-fashioned love song in the Murlocs‘ “Queen Pinky” video, directed by Hayden Somerville. The track can be found on the Australian band’s new album, Calm Ya Farm, which is out on Friday (May 19).
“If I’m going to write something, I need to move forward,” he said in a recent interview, his first since his opus, “One Wayne G,” was released. “I like this stuff. I’d like to share it. I don’t really know how. I might as well just give it all at the same time.”
“Celebrate they did, though there was also a shared sense of purpose marinating in the venue. One could feel the unspoken agreement that – while there is a lot of work to do to combat all of the recent legislative and judicial attacks on reproductive heath, gender-affirming care, and democracy in general – tonight was a time to dance and recharge in order to rise to fight another day.”
By the end of the first song there is one undeniable truth: Bikini Kill is just as paramount today as they were 30 years ago. Formed in 1990 in Olympia, Washington, Bikini Kill broke into music with the intention of igniting change. They were a beacon of resistance and actively encouraged other women to embrace their power. Kathleen Hanna is credited for coining phrases such as “girls to the front” and the infamous “girl power.” Their influence on alternative music and feminism during recent decades has been immeasurable. Now back on tour, the women who helped pioneer the Riot Grrrl Movement are reminding us all that our anger is our power.
The Murlocs turn reality upside down in the video for “Undone and Unashamed,” the second single from their upcoming album Calm Ya Farm. In the Jack Rule-directed clip, group member Ambrose Kenny-Smith does his best to snap an unidentified couch potato out of his bathrobe-wearing, beer-drinking, canned foot-eating malaise, while also offering up a nifty saxophone solo in the process.
“With Bikini Kill, Kathleen Hanna had led a band that challenged and changed the gender dynamics of punk rock. Then came Le Tigre. Hanna says that their MO was to “write political pop songs and be the dance party after the protest.” And their debut in 1999 delivered: it’s a record that’s clever and political but not too clever and political to get in the way of having fun: these are shouty, exhilarating songs, charged with a DIY spirit using drum machines, samplers, turntables and also a sense of discovery, celebration and solidarity. “Deceptacon” remains an indie dance-floor filler and “My My Metrocard” has the lines ““Oh, fuck Giuliani! He’s such a fucking jerk!”. What’s not to love?”
The artist will be playing a one-off show in Los Angeles as well as residencies in New York, Paris and at London’s Hackney Empire. Accompanied by a full band, he will be performing ‘Five Easy Hot Dogs’ in its entirety, as well as other songs from his catalogue with new arrangements.