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Bolachas Now Playing

#360: The Tubs, “Dead Meat”

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Bolachas Now Playing

#246: Bright Eyes, “Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was”

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. McEntireThe ShilohsFenne LilyThe Lemon TwigsJosh RitterChuck ProphetLydia LovelessSteve Gunn / John Truscinski, Nubya Garcia, Rhodri Davies, TFS Band, Still House Plants, METZiLiKETRAiNSNaked GiantsGuided By VoicesOld 97’sThe Nude PartyHoly MotorsNo JoyKate BollingerGrace Gillespie, and Angel Olsen

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Bolachas Now Playing

#220: Sarah Harmer, “Are You Gone”

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 NelsonSamantha CrainJay SomAda LeaKatie Von SchleicherLilly HiattTrace MountainsReal EstateSpinning CoinKing Tuff, Six Organs of Admittance, Lee Ranaldo & Raül Refree, CalifoneOiseaux-TempêteAgnes ObelKatie GatelyJessy LanzaGrimes, Beatrice Dillon, Yves Tumor, Bib, No AgeGuided By Voices, and Josh Ritter.

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live

The TakeRoot 2019 review

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Garrett T. Capps. Photo by Knelis / TakeRoot 

It’s midnight in Groningen. It’s the end of an abnormally warm November saturday and it should also have been the end of an eight hour marathon of roots and americana across six rooms in the De Oosterpoort complex. But Garrett T. Capps and his NASA Country have different ideas. Suddenly, a “curfew” seems like a malleable concept as fellow Texans Robert Ellis and James Steinle join the band on stage for a sprawling and ecstatic “Born in San Antone” and a version of the classic “She’s About a Mover”, penned by San Antonio’s very own Doug Sahm. Capps seems comfortable as the frontman to a 21st century version of the mighty Texas Tornados, powered by a strong rhythm section and an unusual synth that takes his brand of Americana to another dimension. I’ve been calling it krautcountry after seeing them in Paradiso’s small room in the same evening as Faust and Camera, and you should too.

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live

TakeRoot Festival 2019: our picks

The Grote Zaal of De Oosterpoort during the 2018′s TakeRoot festival.

TakeRoot Festival. Saturday, 2 November 2019, at De Oosterpoort, Groningen, The Netherlands. Tickets for sale here.

Coming of age in the era of MySpace meant stumbling into a lot of “A little bit of everything, except country and rap” on your fellow scenester’s profiles. Fast forward some 15 years, and there’s a rapper headlining your favorite indie festival, much to the disgust of a few folks who haven’t grown from their proud everything-except-country-and-rap pedestal. But most young alternative Europeans still look at country music with the same disgusted look that your aunt made the first time she stumbled upon a 50 Cent music video.