

Bolachas Now Playing, a new music Spotify playlist, updated every Wednesday.
While 2020 has certainly been a shitshow of a year, we could only have hoped Bright Eyes‘ first record in almost a decade would have saved it. We weren’t wrong to hope. The brilliance that is “Down In The Weeds Where The World Once Was” is here and please excuse us while we take the rest of the year off to plunge into this sturdy pool of sadness, death and divorce.
Plus: new tracks by H.C. McEntire, The Shilohs, Fenne Lily, The Lemon Twigs, Josh Ritter, Chuck Prophet, Lydia Loveless, Steve Gunn / John Truscinski, Nubya Garcia, Rhodri Davies, TFS Band, Still House Plants, METZ, iLiKETRAiNS, Naked Giants, Guided By Voices, Old 97’s, The Nude Party, Holy Motors, No Joy, Kate Bollinger, Grace Gillespie, and Angel Olsen
It’s been ten years since Sarah Harmer last released a record. The Canadian singer-songwriter spent the last decade advocating for environmental rights, but she’s now back on track with an album that feels like a successor of her 2000 breakthrough, “You Were Here”. Folk-rock folks, please gather around here. Plus: new tracks by Willie Nelson, Samantha Crain, Jay Som, Ada Lea, Katie Von Schleicher, Lilly Hiatt, Trace Mountains, Real Estate, Spinning Coin, King Tuff, Six Organs of Admittance, Lee Ranaldo & Raül Refree, Califone, Oiseaux-Tempête, Agnes Obel, Katie Gately, Jessy Lanza, Grimes, Beatrice Dillon, Yves Tumor, Bib, No Age, Guided By Voices, and Josh Ritter.
It’s starting to be too common: no matter how warm and sunny it is in the week leading up to the festival, NOS Primavera Sound (NPS) is doomed to be ruined by at least one day of rain. The first day did not look promising after the announcement of the passage of depression Miguel (no, not the rnb star who performed there a couple of years ago) through the north of Portugal. Flights were cancelled, Ama Lou and Peggy Gou could not reach Porto in time to perform, strong winds and rain showers threatened to turn Parque da Cidade into a muddy mess, the gates were opened almost an hour later than it was scheduled.
Blank Range’s second album, “In Unison”, is our record of the week. If you’re into rocky americana with plenty of pop hooks a la Blitzen Trapper or Deer Tick, they’re your new guys. Plus: new tracks by Beirut, Avey Tare, Eriksson Delcroix, Ozuna, Jards Macalé & Tim Bernardes, Nilüfer Yanya, Harlem, Guided By Voices, FIDLAR, Robert Forster, Craig Finn, Josh Ritter, Motel Mirrors, Hayes Carll, Nils Frahm, Cass McCombs, Orville Peck, Andrew Bird, Soccer Mommy, and Stella Donnelly.