The first of this week’s treasures was recorded on The Rolling Stones’ 40th anniversary Licks World Tour in 2002 & 2003, with the band performing in arenas and stadiums in addition to the occasional theatre. In November 2002, the Stones arrived in Los Angeles to perform at a packed Wiltern Theatre, treating fans to a set heavy on rarities that feel right at home in such an intimate setting. While the band did perform some of their hits, this night at the Wiltern is notable for the rarely played classics, including ‘Stray Cat Blues’, ‘No Expectations’ and a cover of ‘Everybody Needs Somebody to Love’ featuring a guest spot by the legendary Solomon Burke, who opened the show that night.
On a Golden Shore arrives as The Hanging Stars reflect on a year of triumphs, spearheading the UK’s Cosmic Americana cohort. Their new album finds them definitively themselves and presents a set of disparate songs whose fundamental linkage is the band that made them. On a Golden Shore is ultimately an album of sensation as much as thought, filled with fleeting moments of blissful excess and stumbling, rushing flutters of sound; its evanescent psychedelia, divine choruses and shards of strings combine into an infectious, compelling cosmic heartbreak boogie.
It’s two years since Connectivity (2021) smashed into the top 40 and debuted at #1 in the UK download chart, propelling the fiercely independent voice of Grace Petrie from critics’ choice to the main stages of major festivals across the UK and Ireland, Australia and Canada. Recorded raw and unflinchingly with folk-punk legend Frank Turner in the producer’s seat, Build Something Better is a return to blistering protest form for Britain’s most relevant political songwriter, a decade after being hailed as “a powerful new voice” (The Guardian) and “a millennial’s Billy Bragg” (Huffington Post). In a world that seems to make less sense than ever, these are songs made both to holler along to from the crowd barrier and to tear up with on a lonely late-night train. A record for everyone whose broken heart beats for, and whose boots stomp in time with, the hope of a brighter tomorrow.
After a phenomenal 18-month period during which they released two critically acclaimed studio albums, New Long Leg (2021) and Stumpwork (2022), and became one of the most talked-about bands in Britain, Dry Cleaning reissue their first two EPs, Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks / Sweet Princess. The two EPs, remastered and presented here on a single disc, share a similar pent-up energy, unsurprising given they came to life in the same environment, an environment that had a huge influence on the band during those formative years.
Between 1988 and 1991, Pixies recorded six sessions for the BBC: five for John Peel and one for Mark Goodier. Catching the raw energy of the band’s live performances, these sessions felt immediately noteworthy, timestamping a moment when Black Francis, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago and David Lovering were motoring out front. Among the twenty-four tracks they recorded in this period are favourites from mini-album Come on Pilgrim and three of their four 4AD studio albums. Also recorded were three covers: reworks of The Beatles’ ‘Wild Honey Pie’, ‘In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)’ from the film Eraserhead and The Beach Boys’ ‘Hang On To Your Ego’, a track Black Francis covered a few years later on his debut solo album.
Our release of the week is The Collective, the second solo album from musician and visual artist Kim Gordon. The new album follows her 2019 solo debut, No Home Record, and continues her collaboration with producer Justin Raisen (Lil Yachty, John Cale, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Charli XCX, Yves Tumor). It was recorded in Gordon’s native Los Angeles and advances their joint world-building, with Raisin’s damaged, blown-out dub and trap constructions playing the foil to Gordon’s intuitive word collages and hooky mantras, conjuring communication, commercial sublimation and sensory overload.
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