Well, Heartbreaking Bravery’s another 50 posts in, which means that it’s time for another mixtape- and the timing couldn’t be any better. As April springs forth, a new quarter begins and leaves the first part of the year behind, opening it up for examination. First Quarter Finish is a testament to the the startling strength of 2014’s first three months and is largely composed of music that’s been featured on this site. Perfect Pussy‘s “Driver” kicks things off in a typically frenzied fashion, reflecting the purpose of this collection as acutely as possible. Make no mistake, this is a batch of songs that traffic in very high intensity even in their quietest moments.
1. Perfect Pussy – Driver
2. La Sera – Losing to the Dark
3. Cheap Girls – Knock Me Down
4. Archie Powell & the Exports – Everything’s Fucked
5. Crow Bait – 83
6. Big Air – Cemetery With A View
7. PAWS – Tongues
8. Brain F≠ – Sicks
9. Antarctigo Vespucci – I’m Giving Up On U2
10. Playlounge – Waves and Waves and Waves
11. Vertical Scratchers – Memory Shards
12. Angel Olsen – Forgiven/Forgotten
13. Silence Dogood – Chairman of the Bored
14. Priests – Right Wing
15. Green Dreams – Eye Contact
16. Fucked Up – Paper the House
17. Creepoid – Baptism
18. La Dispute – Woman (in Mirror)
19. Sleep Party People – In Another World
20. Odonis Odonis – Order in the Court
21. PILE – Special Snowflakes
22. Young Widows – King Sol
23. Protomartyr – Scum, Rise!
24. Technicolor Teeth – Tomb
25. Cloud Nothings – I’m Not Part of Me
After an unforeseen extended break due to some technical difficulties and exterior circumstances, the defibrillator has jumped this place’s pulse back into motion. Returning after a week’s silence means quite a bit of catch-up to do while also attempting to keep the up-to-date news in circulation. In the coming days and nights, there will be multiple posts a day until the day:post ratio of 1:1 is re-attained. This frenzied spree will kick off now, with what will hopefully be the last overdue Watch This for quite some time. This week’s edition is heavy on full KEXP sessions as an apology of sorts, a way to overcompensate for lost time. So sit back, relax, and watch this.
1. Coachwhips – You Gonna Get It (Sailor Jerry’s)
For whatever reason, Sailor Jerry’s has always been supportive of the DIY punk scene and hosted more than a few memorable live sessions. Most recently, they were on hand for SXSW to both assist and capture this insane middle-of-a-crowd Coachwhips performance. Coachwhips, a direct predecessor of Thee Oh Sees, were a band that generated a lot of support in the early days. Seeing them come back and met with an elevated level of adoration in this video is nothing short of bliss.
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2. La Luz (KEXP Session)
With a tumultuous 2013 behind them (one that saw them release one of the year’s best LP’s, EP’s, and survive a major traffic collision), La Luz have nowhere to look to but the future. They’ve earned the support of a very vocal community that’s constantly growing. With performances like this one, it’s hard to see that trend doing anything but continuing- after all, that’s probably the best way to pay tribute to the band themselves.
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3. Fruit Bats (KEXP Session)
Fruit Bats have maintained an enviable consistency over the past 17 years, releasing a body of work that deserves to be celebrated as legendary. Perpetually on the fringe of national attention, Eric D. Johnson watched as the roster around him constantly shifted. For this session, the songwriter came in on his lonesome and delivered a handful of tracks from Mouthfuls, along with the announcement that Fruit Bats was officially calling it quits. If this video can be viewed as a selection of Fruit Bats’ last stand, then it’s pretty clear Johnson is going out on top.
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4. Dinosaur Pile-Up – Arizona Waiting (Audiotree)
There has been no shortage of bands playing with 90’s influence as of late but it’s been quite some time since there was a band reminiscent of Sunny Day Real Estate, Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, and early Foo Fighters in equal measure. Dinosaur Pile-Up somehow manages to encapsulate the spirit of all of those bands while throwing in enough Audacity-style change-ups to keep things firmly rooted in the present. This video couldn’t be a more perfect introduction.
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5. Angel Olsen (KEXP Session)
What else can be said about Angel Olsen at this point? Since the release of this year’s first quarter highlight Burn Your Fire for No Witness, Olsen’s gained enough accolades to close a canyon and her performances have been revered in the most awestruck of words. Having already appeared numerous times in Watch This, the most that can be said without growing too repetitious is that this KEXP session may be her finest recorded live outing to date.
Once again, apologies are in order. Live content was suspended as there was, unfortunately, no possible way to get anything up since the last posting. Regular content resumes with this round of catching-up. Sunday will see the return of the regularly-scheduled Watch This programming. Now that everything’s been brought up to speed, this 14th installment of the series features several of the program’s most trusted resources (KEXP, Jam in the Van, etc) and spans quite a few genres. Read, watch, and listen to everything below.
1. Capsula (KEXP Session)
This week’s kicking off with something a little unorthodox- an Argentinian band based in Spain that primarily plays covers. The distinction? They’re some seriously fucking great covers. This isn’t the stereotypical classic-rock-by-the-numbers cash-grab, there are moments of serious passion and inventiveness here. All of these songs are reworked in sly ways that play to the band’s frantic energy. Bonus points for the best “Moonage Daydream” cover since The White Stripes’ version was being passed around as a live bootleg.
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2. Tara Fox – Morning Light (Jam in the Van)
Oh, Jam in the Van, will you ever tire of bands that wear hats when they play? As long as they’re as winsome as Tara Fox, it honestly won’t matter (it doesn’t really matter now, it’s just a strange recurring trend). Tara Fox, for their part, conjure up Americana that’s infused with both Burger-friendly surf aesthetics and a few hints of 60’s pop tendencies. It all works impossibly well in the van setting and feels perfect for the open road.
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3. Cate Le Bon (NPR Tiny Desk Session)
NPR once again mines a great singer/songwriter record for a stunning session. While Cate Le Bon’s 2012 triumph Mug Museum may not have been released as recently as Burn Your Fire For No Witness, the two do share some similar qualities. They’re also the records that are responsible for 2013’s two best Tiny Desk concerts to date. Le Bon reveals herself to be not only a capable performer but a tantalizing one.
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4. Deafheaven – Sunbather (Live at 285 Kent)
Very few bands managed to anger as many people as Deafheaven did last year. Their crime? Making an outstanding record that had serious crossover potential. Black metal elitists were up in arms, shoegaze enthusiasts were full of cynical trepidation, and no one wanted to claim them as part of their genre. Only Perfect Pussy have matched their ratio of critical acclaim to critical vitriol since the release of Sunbather. While it can still be difficult to fully embrace the style of vocals Deafheaven rely on, their actual music is undeniable and their live performances have been well-documented as being one of the more captivating prospects out there. Pitchfork’s ongoing series of the RIP 285 Kent videos has likely come to a conclusion with this absolutely immense performance of Sunbather‘s title track. Major credit is also due to the audio engineer on this one as it sounds absolutely phenomenal. A very fulfilling 10 and a half minutes.
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5. Four Eyes – SOS (Live)
Four Eyes are an incredibly hard band to find information on beyond basic facts. Whether this band still exist is anyone who’s not in the know’s best guess. They don’t appear to have any official page of any sort and they only have two 7″ records to their name. Both Four Eyes and Towards the End of Cosmic Loneliness are fucking incredible records full of riff-heavy basement punk. There are shades of early 90’s SST all over both of them and “SOS” is among the group’s very best. Here’s hoping that the band hasn’t hung it up. This is incredible music that deserves to be heard.
When Heartbreaking Bravery started, it was originally intended to be a place where film and music found equal footing. Now, 100 days and 100 posts later, it’s clear that somewhere along the line it established an identity firmly based on the music side of things. There are going to be a few changes made to the site in the upcoming year, one of them will be a section devoted to the discussion of film. New features will start and old features will be kept running. A few of the first updates were made earlier today. In addition to having its own domain, Heartbreaking Bravery now officially has homes on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Look for extra content, to varying degrees, on all three platforms.
For those just joining in or becoming aware of Heartbreaking Bravery’s existence, there are two things to ease into the familiarization process. One’s a playlist that features the kind of music that’s most regularly featured, which can be found below. Below that, active hyperlinks for the first 99 articles. Happy listening.
There are 25 bands and songs in this playlist. A few have received coverage from Heartbreaking Bravery, another few should have, and a fair few were part of what inspired its very existence. All of these bands mean something to this place and hopefully they’ll mean just as much, if not more, to whoever comes across them.
Between the streaming of Terrestrials the behemoth of a collaborative album between Sunn O))) and Ulver, the announcement of a Bad Banana reunion show, John Dwyer releasing his first material post-Oh Sees hiatus, Big Air publicly unveiling their excellent debut tape, Buds, Fear of Men releasing a very promising sneak peek of their upcoming debut full-length Loom, a surprisingly punchy new track entitled “Any Wonder” from Yellow Ostrich, Mary Timony’s newest project, Ex Hex, offering up a hard-charging sample of their upcoming Merge debut, the cleverly constructed first music video to come out of the pairing of Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws and Julianna Hatfield for their Minor Alps project, an NPR Tiny Desk Session from The Pixies, the energetic black-and-white music video premiere of The Orwells’ “The Righteous One“, a live performance video of an all-acoustic run through of upcoming Drive-By Truckers track “Made Up English Oceans“, and Angel Olsen‘s absolutely stunning smoky, seductively noir-ish music video for upcoming Burn Your Fire for No Witness track “Hi-Five“, it’s been one hell of a Monday. Then, to top it all off, there’s the video that managed to edge out all of this to become today’s focus piece; Saintseneca‘s extraordinary clip for upcoming Dark Arc track “Happy Alone”.
Dark Arc, at this point easily one of the year’s most anticipated albums, should officially herald the arrival of Saintseneca, a band that was previously best known for being a conglomeration of two excellent Ohio basement punk bands; All Dogs and The Sidekicks. They’ve been maintaining an entrancing (and incredibly effective) rollout campaign for Dark Arc, their Anti- records debut, and seem poised to continue rewarding the investment of anyone who’s paying attention. “Happy Alone” has officially elevated their art form even further. The Christopher Good clip is clearly indebted to a vast array of arthouse influences and features stunning handheld cinematography, a gorgeous (magic hour-infused) color palette, inspired editing, yet another great song from the band, and band member Zac Little’s head in a giant bubble as he makes his way through everyday tasks.
It’s borderline dadaism and dips in and out of some Warhol-level pop art as it goes along to the most weirdly entrancing effect. It works as a surface level piece and as a light commentary on the nature of loneliness. There’s really absolutely no reason for any of it to add up to the inexplicably powerful whole that it is but it manages to do that and a little more. On its own, “Happy Alone” is definitive enough to act as a perfect introductory piece to the uninitiated while being singular enough to plausibly rank as one of the bands most important moments in their continuing evolution during this much-deserved groundswell of success. Above all else, though, it’s just a beautiful piece of art. That’s something that will always be worth rewarding. Watch it below.
Continuing with the welcome (and, frankly, much-needed) influx of notable live performances, the 11th installment of Watch This saw a fiercely contended battle for inclusion. There were well over 20 viable selections that could have been placed here, though none were more deserving than the five on display. Ranging from a stunningly raw, almost naked take from a solo artist responsible for one of February’s most anticipated records to a raucous run through of a staple from one of the best bands in existence, this round of Watch This absolutely lives up to the series’ title.
1. Angel Olsen – Enemy (La Blogotheque)
Burn Your Fire for No Witness already seems to be shaping up into one of the first legitimate early contenders for an album of the year end-run while also boasting one of the most graceful album titles in recent memory. La Blogotheque has only elevated the anticipation for the record’s release with this powerful clip of what appears to be the record’s centerpiece. “Enemy” is a delicate and nuanced song to begin with- but all of its best qualities become almost unbearably perfect by virtue of the caring cinematography that mirrors the quiet, tragic tension of the song. This is the kind of soul-baring performance that those who were fortunate enough to be present are likely never going to forget.
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2. Fucked Up – Magic Word (Live at 285 Kent)
285 Kent was never going to be sustainable, that was part of its appeal. Still, it’s tough to lose something like that so shortly after losing Maxwell’s. That said, fond farewells often call for the most memorable parties. To that end, 285 Kent delivered in full. One of the acts to play the venues final show were Canadian hardcore icons Fucked Up. Pitchfork was on hand to capture the band ripping through “Magic Word” from 2008’s polaris-winning The Chemistry of Common Life, one of 2008’s best records. This is another instance of something that’s not likely to be forgotten by the people fortunate enough to have found themselves shoulder-to-shoulder on what many came to consider hallowed ground. For everyone else, there’s always this video to live vicariously through.
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3. Tenement – Rock Eating People (Live at Cactus Club)
Another week, another instance of a video that, given recent events, was always going to be posted in this installment. Simply put, Tenement may very well be the best band on the planet right now. Their recorded output and live shows have consistently ranked among the finest anyone could hope to come across and they’re (impossibly) getting better as they go. That little moment at around 2:12? Chills. Every time. Even if this hadn’t been the covered show last week, the video would’ve been included for both that moment and the insane tambourine freakout that happens shortly after. Seriously, best band. A sincere thanks to Don Giovanni for being on hand to film this.
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4. Night Sun – Baby Baby (Jam in the Van)
Curtis Harding has been hyped beyond belief by Burger Records over the past few months and the series Harding did for Jam in the Van (both with Night Sun and as a solo act) completely justifies their faith. Of the three tracks the session offers up, “Baby Baby” may be the finest. A soul-driven throwback R&B number, everything falls completely into place to create something special. From the pitch-perfect harmonies to the reverb-ed out effects, an entire era of music isn’t so much evoked as it is genuinely resurrected. “Baby Baby” feels both of the time and like a lost relic, proving, as Burger’s been saying all along, Curtis Harding is a name to watch out for.
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5. Grass House – Faun (POPnews and Citazine)
Only half a year ago, this band was rattling the walls of London’s Hoxton Square Pub & Grill as a part of the East End Live festival. Since then, the band released one of the best songs of 2013 and an excellent LP, A Sun Full and Drowning, shortly after. Their showcase set at that festival was a thing of beauty, eccentric and ear-shattering in all the right places. Here, though, the band goes acoustic for an inspired take on “Faun” that finds them winding up with characteristically stunning results. It’s nearly impossible to pin this band down, so, as is sometimes the case, it’s best to just sit back and listen attentively. One of the most intriguing UK acts going right now and definitely one to watch closely.
Yesterday Angel Olsen continued a growing trend; the artist released a music video for “Forgiven/Forgotten” despite having already done so. While the first version was striking for its simplicity, this new version utilizes a muted color palette, simplistic special effects, and a retro feel to conjure up something completely new. “Forgiven/Forgotten” on its own still comes laced with more aggression than most would’ve expected from a primarily indie-folk artist. Now, the song matched with this visual aesthetic, Olsen presents herself as a single unit wrecking crew.
When “Forgiven/Forgotten” was circulating its first video, it was enough to get people excited about February’s Burn Your Fire for No Witness. With the additional video providing some potential context for Olsen’s vision this time around, it’s even easier to push the release up any “most-anticipated” lists. A two month wait has suddenly turned from manageable to excruciating. If Burn Your Fire For No Witness comes armed with this much clarity, precision, and outright force, 2014 may have an early Album of the Year contender on its hands.
Until the final reveal of the record, all that anyone can do is guess at what’s to come. “Forgiven/Forgotten” has already proved that’s a near impossibility. The John Congleton-produced Burn Your Fire for No Witness will be released stateside as a CD/LP on February 18 by Jagjaguwar. Pre-orders are currently available at both Jagjaguwar and iTunes. Watch the most recent clip for “Forgiven/Forgotten” below.
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