Fire Note Staff

Cut Worms, moniker of Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Max Clarke, has returned with “Castle in the Clouds,” and an accompanying video. Clarke wrote “Castle in the Clouds” in April 2019 after tours supporting his 2017 EP Alien Sunset and 2018’s Hollow Ground. The songs came quick, then, too many to count. Eschewing demos for in-studio spontaneity, he finished “Castle in the Clouds” on a flight to Memphis, TN, and then recorded it the next day at Sam Phillips Studio with Matt Ross-Spang (John Prine, Jason Isbell, Margo Price). The resulting track is somewhere between a lonesome cowboy lullaby for the restless, and a doo-wop sci-fi elegy for the daydreaming teenagers of Mars. Its video, homemade by Clarke, pulls together luminous animations and mid-20th century stock footage.

“‘Castle in the Clouds’ was the first one we did,” says Clarke. “I remember being in the studio, thinking the control room looked like the bridge on a spaceship. It reminded me of the old Carl Sagan Cosmos, where he’s kind of hovering above, transporting you across the universe. I always really liked the theme song. I think that spirit found its way onto the recording.”

You can find the single HERE. As of right now there is no information on a new LP but stay tuned.

Formally Baked the now just Beans are back with a sophomore record titled All Together Now via Flightless Records on June 26th. Recorded in Wallington, Victoria (on an old apple and pear farm cool room that has been converted into a home studio) All Together Now is a 9-track offering that captures the energy of a band who have made their name through the intensity of their live performances, including festival appearances at the psych fest; Gizzfest, New Year’s Evie and Loch Hart festivals, as well as King Gizzard tour support.

“Stride” is the first single and I think you can hear the Beans inspiration by the likes of Electric Light Orchestra, Slade and Skyhooks. They have the late 60s and early 70s groove for sure!

The Beths share a fervent new single/video, “I’m Not Getting Excited,” from their second album, Jump Rope Gazers, out July 10th on Carpark Records. Following the lead single, “Dying to Believe,” “I’m Not Getting Excited” is an urgent track about imposter syndrome. The track opens with driving guitar and a jockeying melody before bursting with a crashing rhythm section. The band performed the single on their “Live From House 2” live stream earlier this morning.

“People always ask ‘are you excited!?’ and it’s a fair question, because exciting things do happen to us sometimes,” says Elizabeth Stokes. “Support slots, overseas tours, music releases. Stuff we’ve dreamed about for years. So the correct answer is always ‘yes.’ But the truth is that deep down there’s a tiny Liz saying, ‘don’t get excited.’ She is certain that anything good that could happen will most likely not happen, because of a freak accident. Or because somebody finally realises that we aren’t worthy, shouts ‘phony!’ and takes everything away. I wrote ‘I’m Not Getting Excited’ last year, well before everything really did get taken away. From everyone. It feels like the song has a new context, but we don’t know what it is yet. And now we all share a blurry, uncertain future.”

The official video was filmed during the first month of lockdown in New Zealand. It’s a spooky more-is-more collage of animated night terrors. The directors Sports Team “turned our laundry into a film studio and spent our inside time mastering the art of stop-motion animation. We animated old towels, all the cardboard in the house and The Beths themselves… frame by bloody frame. There’s a lot of scary imagery in the song that we wanted to play on. There’s a madness too, in the contradiction between what the song is about and its frenetic energy. It has defined the lockdown for us—being locked indoors but furiously busy.”

You can pre-order the new Beths album HERE.

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down will released their new album Temple this Friday May 15th. “Pure Cinema,” is a new single and the video was made remotely while sheltering in place, because that is my new music video love language. The video was directed by Justin Mitchell.

From Thao on the track: “Pure Cinema” is such full band song, and it has so much to do with our years of touring as a roving family constellation, that I really wanted this video to highlight and celebrate The Get Down Stay Down. However much of a fraction I have been out there over the years, our band and crew kept me as safe and sane as was possible. They have been my stabilizing force for so long. As it goes with family I don’t know if I’ve ever truly thanked them or told them. It was so sweet and also quite bittersweet to see everyone at home, projected into our home. I don’t know when we can play shows together again, I don’t know what touring will look like. I miss the band.

“Pure Cinema” is about taking stock of how adrift I’ve been, in every sense of the word. It’s very easy to feel lost and alone even as you are surrounded by people. I’ve had a very compromised relationship to touring over the years.. if you’re not right with yourself it is only going to be exaggerated as you cast yourself out into the world. I’ve floated above my life for a long time; I’ve landed now. It makes me so happy to see my bandmates settled and happy in their own homes and lives, as I am in mine. “Pure Cinema” is a cautionary tale and also an encouragement to keep faith and keep building home and family.”

You can pre-order the new album HERE.

Primo! just released of their second full length album, Sogni, on April 17, via Upset The Rhythm. Sogni is the follow up to 2018’s Amici and now you can check out the video and single “Machine.”

“Machine” is a propulsive jangle of a track dealing with notions of work-hierarchy struggle and the video sees the Melbourne quartet putting in some serious elbow grease down the auto-shop to convey this message.

Suzanne Walker from Primo! explains further “it’s the feeling of being like a machine inside the machine but as well the fact that sometimes great ideas, thoughts & observations come to you during the working day, in unexpected ways. Rhythmically the pacing is like that of a machine, speeding up and slowing down, at times frantically chugging, spattering vivid bursts of greasy colour before halting to a stop and slipping the key from the ignition.”

Spanning just under 30 minutes, Sogni’s twelve songs were conceived collectively in the rehearsal room and perfected in a live setting, before being recorded to an 8-track with Al Montfort across a number of home studios in Melbourne.

You can order a copy of Sogni HERE.

Muzz, the new project of Paul Banks (Interpol), Josh Kaufman (producer/multi-instrumentalist and one third of Bonny Light Horseman), and Matt Barrick (drummer of Jonathan Fire*Eater, The Walkmen, and Fleet Foxes’ touring band), announce their self-titled, debut album, out June 5th on Matador, with this new single/video, “Red Western Sky.” The album, written, arranged and performed by all three.
 
Muzz was born out of longstanding friendship and collaboration. Banks and Kaufman have known each other since childhood, attending high school together in Spain before separately moving to New York. There, they independently crossed paths with Barrick while running in similar music circles. They kept in touch in the following years: Barrick drummed in Banks + Steelz and on some of Kaufman’s production sessions; Kaufman helped on Banks’ early Julian Plenti solo endeavour; various demos were collaborated on, and a studio was co-bought.
 
Taking shape at a simmer, the first Muzz recordings date back to 2015. A typical session incorporated demos Banks or Kaufman brought to the table with room for any member to build upon, or with a new skeleton composed during a jam in the live room. All three contributed lyrics and helped shape things vocally (a first for Banks who is usually the sole lyricist). “Josh has more training as a theory musician while Paul comes from a different perspective,” Barrick says. “You never know how Paul’s gonna approach a song, lyrically and melodically, so it’s always unusual and exciting. Everyone is open to everyone else’s ideas. I think three is a great number of people for a band. We all had a big hand in everything.”
 
Sonically, “the music has this weird, super removed vibe but is also personal and emotional at the same time,” Kaufman says. “If something felt natural in a simple way, we left it. I’d never heard Paul’s voice framed like that—a string section, horns, guitars—we know none of that is visionary but it felt classic and kind of classy.” In fact, the band’s name holds a meaning that serves to describe that very feeling – Kaufman used the word “muzz” to describe the music’s subtle, analog quality and texture.
 
In conjunction with today’s announcement, Muzz present the galloping “Red Western Sky” with a video, directed and produced by the band. It’s the first video to ever be shot at the immersive, psychedelic American Treasure Tour Museum, a location chosen after a Barrick family visit. The single follows two previously released songs—the sparse and rustic “Broken Tambourine” and “Bad Feeling,” which chimes with melodic introspection. No matter the sonic direction Muzz go, they go there as if effortlessly and with maximum emotional charge.

Pre-order Muzz
https://muzz.ffm.to/muzz
 
Muzz Tracklist:
1. Bad Feeling
2. Evergreen
3. Red Western Sky
4. Patchouli
5. Everything Like It Used To Be
6. Broken Tambourine
7. Knuckleduster
8. Chubby Checker
9. How Many Days
10. Summer Love
11. All Is Dead To Me
12. Trinidad