“Excelsior!” is the first LP by NYC-based singer-songwriter Johanna Samuels. Produced by Sam Evian, the album features contributions by the likes of Courtney Marie Andrews, Hannah Cohen, A.O. Gerber or Lomelda’s Hannah Read. If you’ve followed us long enough, you know this means we’ve already sticked our seal of approval five times. Come for the copious namedropping, stay for some of the best lyrics of the first half of 2021.
Five years in the making, sixteen after their original collaboration, “Superwolf”, Matt Sweeney teams up with Bonnie Prince Billy for its follow-up, “Superwolves”.
It doesn’t matter how conservative or liberal you are: people are naturally resistant to change, especially if the previous form of what’s changing was so dear to them. We get it: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Judging by the tone and content of most comments we can find online about this year’s Primavera lineup, both in Porto and Barcelona, folks ain’t happy about “the new normal”. Yes, some of the biggest pop artists in the planet have claimed most of the spots with the big font in it. Yes, there’s a shortage of loud, extreme music we often found at the long gone ATP stage, and every year there are less and less historical, cult indie rock bands reforming for a Primavera performance. But, other than that – tiny specks on a lineup of over 120 bands in Barcelona and over 60 in Porto – has it really changed that much? Is the Primavera DNA gone? (Was there really a “Primavera DNA” to begin with?)
Bolachas Now Playing, 14/2018 (#141):
Gulfer – Secret Stuff
The Cairo Gang – Real Enough To Believe
Superorganism – Something for your M.I.N.D.
Forth Wanderers – Ages Ago
illuminati hotties – Paying off the Happiness
Hop Along – Look of Love
Sarah Shook & the Disarmers – The Bottle Never Lets Me Down
Sarah Shook & the Disarmers – Lesson
Marem Ladson – Shades of Blue
Soccer Mommy – Cool
Wye Oak – Join
Fenne Lily – Car Park
Jess Williamson – Mama Proud
Faustina Masigat – Stay with Me
Erin Rae – Can’t Cut Loose
Amen Dunes – Satudarah
Holy Motors – Valley
Altin Gün – Kırşehirin Gülleri
Sons of Kemet – My Queen is Harriet Tubman
Imarhan – Alwa
Dungen, Woods – Loop
Western Centuries – Warm Guns