Yard Act by Jamie MacMillan
Brand new music from Yard Act and Courtney Barnett brought some of our biggest headlines last week.
Yard Act have released their new standalone single Trench Coat Museum – a reflection on the band’s breakout success which frontman James Smith has said provoked, ‘scrutiny and disdain just as much as love and appreciation’.
“The Trench Coat Museum is about how our perception of everything shifts both collectively and individually over time at speeds we simply can’t measure in the moment,” he continued.
Within whatever space in society we occupy, we often see our own beliefs as being at the absolute pinnacle of what should be the “cultural norm” and whilst the completely human trait of being self-assured can’t be helped, it’s an absolute hindrance on our collective process. We are one etc. (Are we fuck.)
HAIM have announced a 10th anniversary reissue of their Days Are Gone LP.
The multi-format release is to come with bonus tracks and remixes – adding to the original album which Live4ever praised as the, ‘work of ideas bouncing off each other at a thousand miles an hour’:
“Comparisons have often been made to the girls’ obsession with the song and the dynamic of Fleetwood Mac – an approach to the process which easily forgets that the latter leaned on a blizzard of inter personal subterfuge and cocaine for inspiration.”
A brand new record from The Streets has been announced, Mike Skinner’s first since 2011’s Computers And Blues.
The Darker The Shadow, The Brighter The Light will be accompanied by Skinner’s debut feature film of the same name, while its lead single Troubled Waters is out now.
“It has been seven long years working on this film and album,” he’s said. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and after dipping my toe in with some shorts and music videos, I felt I was ready.”
Courtney Barnett live at the Albert Hall in Manchester on November 11th, 2022 (Gary Mather for Live4ever)
Courtney Barnett will release the instrumental album End Of The Day on September 8th.
Comprising 17 improvisational works which were originally created for the score to the documentary Anonymous Club, the album is the first from Barnett since 2021’s Things Take Time, Take Time.
“The woozily sad Here’s The Thing has a persistent bass line and melody structure (along with a gentle snare) which nearly evokes The Velvet Underground & Nico, were it not for the difference in vocal delivery, which is fast becoming both Barnett’s trademark and Achilles’ Heel,” our review reads.
Supergrass have announced an expanded re-release of their 2002 fourth studio album Life On Other Planets.
In their grand tradition, the record featured wonderful pop singles such as Grace, Seen The Light and Rush Hour Soul, those on this reissue package along with rarities, B-sides and live recordings.
It’s just the latest chapter of the band’s reunion which began not far from Glastonbury back in 2019, after which we saw them at the real thing last year.
Blur will perform their new album The Ballad Of Dream for the first and only time at a gig in London on July 25th.
The special Eventim Apollo concert is to also be broadcast as a global livestream via Driift which will then be on-demand from July 26th-28th.
The news comes shortly after the band completed their two nights at Wembley Stadium earlier this month.
