Fintan McKahey’s latest offering Platinum is a missive to magic. In light of the Covid-19 crisis, Fintan’s themes of resilience are uncannily prescient. As the world around us slows down and many people delve deeper into the old ways. This new single from the young Irish songwriter/producer is an eclectic, downtempo, bedroom-pop production, influenced by the likes of Chet Faker & Bonobo. The song is envisioned from the perspective of one of “The skies own relatives”, the mysterious traveler, who can open the portal to other realms.
For decades artists and healers have been attracted to the beaches and byways of West Cork. Rural Ireland echoes with tales of magic and myth, so it is no surprise that these themes emerge in Fintan’s songs. He writes, records and produces all of his music from the haven of his home studio, where he is continuing the family legacy, as the son of Stump drummer, Rob McKahey, and the nephew of CousteauX singer, Liam McKahey; who spent their own childhoods in the rebel county. The video for Platinum was recorded at his home studio and filmed by Fintan’s partner Kate Bean. Fintan later edited it, whilst self-isolating and awaiting the results of his own test.
“This past winter, I poured my energies into creating a space that I could work in with my band in 2020. The results are beyond inspiring and it almost feels as if the songs write themselves here in my new studio. I was fortunate to complete this self-build just as the Coronavirus began impacting us all but I guess I shall be going it alone here for a while yet.”
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/McKahey
https://twitter.com/FintanMcKahey
https://www.instagram.com/fintanmckahey
http://fintanmckahey.com
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3qgXyv2eyJHzhSqzIXQYjE?si=AcNFal-oQce8HPsdu8vCmQ
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Davey Woodward And The Winter Orphans – Bad Day
Davey Woodward And The Winter Orphans have premiered their new video for the track titled ‘Bad Day’. Capturing that quirky magic of the music, the video for ‘Bad Day’ gives that alt-rock bravado combined with the first-person perspective in a slow energy style grit guitar fiasco that is the signature of creativity. This is a new anthem for a new age. Let’s hope the title doesn’t carry over (lol).
‘Love and Optimism’ is out now, available on limited edition white vinyl and black vinyl, on gatefold CD with a booklet, and also digitally. It can be ordered via Bandcamp.
Check out our other features with Davey Woodward And The Winter Orphans HERE.
ABOUT DAVEY WOODWARD AND THE WINTER ORPHANS
Bristol indie music legend Davey Woodward and The Winter Orphans present ‘Bad Day’, the latest single from their ‘Love and Optimism’ LP. Best known for his bands The Brilliant Corners, The Experimental Pop Band, and Karen, they recorded this album ‘live’ in the studio. A very personal collection, this is Woodward’s most emotional performance, putting Davey solidly amongst the best songwriters of his generation.
Davey Woodward and the Winter Orphans play alt folk, often intimate songs set in Bristol. Sometimes they get into drainpipes and pointy boots ‘New Wave’ mode. ‘Bad Day’ is one of those moments.
‘Nobody visits. I’d like someone to stay
In my single bed with my microwave
I’m having a bad day.‘“Imagine a time when putting together the best cassette compilation ever (Today it’s called a playlist) was the sole purpose of the day. Getting it right would mean the difference between a good day or a bad day. It was also the best way to impress girls and show your mates how hip you were. A time when dreaming, looking cool, and disregarding the rules was everything. Decades later and life catches up, poverty, broken relationships, broken families. You could make a playlist but who would you send it to?” says Davey Woodward.
Ahead of this, the band previewed two singles – ‘Occupy This Space’ and ‘Warm Hands’, which could be a soundtrack to a David Lynch movie. This is pop music for grown-ups loaded with dark mysteries of desire and loathing, melody and lyrics that stick in your head.
‘Love & Optimism’ is the band’s second collective long-play, following their 2018 self-titled debut album, released via Tapete Records. On both set of recordings, the band wanted to capture that elusive live magic and spontaneity that is often lost by today’s modern recording techniques.
Davey Woodward first came to prominence with his 1980s band The Brilliant Corners, part of the jangly indie C86 scene, but with a diverse palette of indie pop, country, rock n roll, post-punk and humour. The mini-albums ‘Growing up Absurd’, ‘Fruit Machine’ and ‘Whats in a Word‘ brought the band to the attention of the music press and wider public, followed by their best-known album ‘Somebody up there likes me’ (1987), several John Peel sessions, indie chart success and regular tours. In 2013, Cherry Red Records released a retrospective of the band’s work ‘Heart on Your Sleeve’ (A decade in pop 1983-1993)’ to much interest.
Woodward’s next band The Experimental Pop Band (1996- 2012) was again championed by Peel and signed to City Slang Records, enjoying critical acclaim in the UK and Europe, and performing at Glastonbury.
In the last decade, Davey has released a handful of solo LPs, including the lofi folk pop album ‘6 miles east of here 5 miles north of nowhere’ (2011). He also recorded with alt guitar band Karen, releasing several EPs on The Environmental Sounds label.
The album was recorded in Summer 2019 prior to the Covid 19 pandemic and the tragic events that led to Black Lives Matter, but strangely it is still relevant to these times. ‘Occupy This Space’ seemingly captures the whole feeling of ‘Lockdown’ and the song ‘Clara’s Ghost’ is partly about the history of Bristol’s involvement in the Slave Trade. Just a few months after it was written, Bristol residents pulled down the Statue of Slave Trader Edward Colston in the center of town, making worldwide headlines.
LINKS:
https://daveywoodward.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/daveysongs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LjUye3GMgM&feature=youtu.be
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/davey-woodward-mn0000527805/biography
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/davey-woodward-and-the-winter-orphans/1412097438
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0Oiv29FDDnrhtM3UiP7Lq2 -
Jenn Vix – Complicated Man (Into The Veldt Mix)
Alternative singer-songwriter Jenn Vix has teamed up with Danny Chavis of shoegaze pioneers The Veldt to present the ‘Into The Veldt Mix’ of ‘Complicated’. Featured on her new ‘Unlocked’ EP, this new version is trippy with psychedelic underpinnings and a very urban gazey vibe.
Here Danny Chavis re-envisions this song, contributing guitar and other instrumentation. As a principal member of The Veldt, he has a rich history of collaborations with the likes of TV On The Radio, Mos Def and Lady Miss Kier (Deee-Lite), and touring with Phantogram, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Pixies, Throwing Muses, Echo & The Bunnymen, Cocteau Twins, Manic Street Preachers, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Oasis, Chuck D, Living Colour, and Schooly D.
The accompanying video for this track was directed, produced and edited by Renan DeAraujo, a 27-year-old, Brazilian filmmaker who loves to tell stories with light and rhythm. The video features Jenn Vix herself, along with actor Michael French. Not long ago, Vix presented the new video for the original version of ‘Complicated Man’, working with the same team.
“My interpretation was to put Jenn’s personality on the screen, and in particular, the overall feeling of the track; a mysterious and delicate mood, at the same time. I was trying to express the character’s point of view,” says DeAraujo.
Based in Rhode Island, Vix is a solo electronic-rock recording artist, songwriter, producer and recording engineer, who has, over the years, ventured into other genres including alternative rock, trip hop, darkwave, modern new wave and electro-industrial.
This five-track release sees Vix at her best. With weighty lyrics surrounding personally challenging experiences, her vocal delivery on ‘Complicated Man’ has earned her comparisons to Shirley Manson of Garbage.
“I wanted to explore different sounds, and it felt good to do so. After my illness, it took me a year and a half to be able to even listen to music again. Change is scary, but it can also be refreshing. I recently had to burn a few bridges, but they say that the brightest light can come from the bridges you burn. I agree,” explains Jenn Vix.
Vix has collaborated with some quite achieved artists in the alternative realm, including two members of The Cure, Tin Machine and David Bowie and Iggy Pop’s bands. The track ‘Unlocked’ features John Ashton, original guitarist of The Psychedelic Furs. Ashton previously collaborated with Jenn Vix twice previously, on tracks ‘The Woman with No Fear’ and ‘Weirdo’, which are found on her five-track EP ‘Strange Buildings’.
“Jenn’s haunting voice draws you in immediately and possesses a vulnerability that feels genuine,” says John Ashton. “Her music is where minimalist groove electronica meets gritty rock guitar and melodic bass, which for me, is far from a bad neighborhood to be hanging around in. It’s dark and vibey.”
On past releases, Jenn Vix has collaborated with Reeves Gabrels, current guitarist for The Cure and former guitarist for David Bowie and Tin Machine, and with Andy Anderson (The Cure and Iggy Pop), as well as Dirk Ivens, Belgian electro-industrial pioneer of Absolute Body Control, The Klinik, and Dive.
Her work with Marco Pirroni (Adam Ant, Rema Rema, The Models, Sinead O’Connor) resulted in her cover version of Shirley Collins ‘Turpin Hero’ being featured on the compilation album ‘Shirley Inspired’. Vix also recorded vocals on tracks by Rodney Linderman (a.k.a. Rodney Anonymous) of The Dead Milkmen.
LINKS:
http://jennvix.band
http://www.facebook.com/jennvixmusic
http://jennvixmusic.bandcamp.com
http://soundcloud.com/jenn-vix
http://www.youtube.com/user/jennvixvids
http://twitter.com/jennvix
http://www.instagram.com/jennvix -
Captain Squeegee – Our Children
Psychedelic indie rock band Captain Squeegee has made a name for themselves in Arizona over the years for their over-the-top music videos and their latest release, the delightfully strange “Our Children,” does not disappoint. The song is the first single from their upcoming EP Harmony Cure, a collection of punk rock show tunes due to release on January 26th via 80/20 Records. The uneasy anthem is about passing on a broken world to the next generation as vocalist Danny Torgersen charismatically belts optimistic lines as “And when our children hang out, I hope they save the world. I hope they know about our weapon. And drop it again, that harmony cure.” In order to balance out the serious subject matter, the band opted for Sci-Fi references, 90’s hip-hop aesthetics, and even wheeled out a freakin’ DeLorean in the video.
“Our previous videos always told a narrative story and had a plot, kind of a guided journey, and I wanted this one to be a sensory overload, ‘what the f*ck kind of video.’ I wanted this video to make a lot less sense than other videos.” said vocalist Danny Torgersen.
Harmony Cure was produced, engineered and mixed by Bob Hoag (The Format, The Ataris), the same person behind the band’s 2013 full-length To The Bardos!. The five wickedly clever tracks hover over funk, ska, prog, rock, jazz and everything in between. “It’s about finding hope through song, confronting the demons of the 3D world with HARMONY,” says Torgersen. “A sonic swim through the unsettling swamps of time, age, death, dying art, & the future of Earth. You know, whatever. That’s kind of why we also named our new beer (by SunUp Brewing) after the album…it’s like, ‘dude I know, being human is crazy… here just drink this it might help’”
“…an energy that is irrepressible and unpredictable.”
– Music Connection“Captain Squeegee has dramatically expanded their sound, resulting in a heady brand of neo-psychedelic prog… [like] a van full of jazz performance majors raised on ska would play it”
– AZ Central“Their horn-driven instrumentation, metaphysical lyrics, and intense multi-media performances have hailed them “one of the toughest acts in town to follow” and “prepared to headline Coachella, tomorrow.”
– Modern Times MagLINKS:
http://captainsqueegee.com
https://www.facebook.com/captainsqueegee
https://twitter.com/captainsqueegee
https://www.instagram.com/captainsqueegee