Showing posts with label Penny & The Pits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Penny & The Pits. Show all posts

Sunday, 27 April 2025

Penny & The Pits - The Boneshakers - Kacimi & Initials MB - Skinny Lister

Photo - Nicole Cecile Holland
Penny & The Pits - Pool Party.

Penny & The Pits is the new project from Maritime stalwart Penelope Stevens. Perhaps best known as one third of the feverish art rock band Motherhood, Stevens is also a vital organizer, collaborator and visual artist in New Brunswick’s weird art and music underground.

Liquid Compactor (album due out on June 27), the debut statement from Penny & The Pits, is the result of Stevens putting their voice front and center for the first time. It’s a gritty, adventurous punk-rock album that processes feminist joy, rage and revenge. Across the album’s ten tracks, Stevens tears through a series of personal and collective traumas with a pulpy sense of exuberance. “I spent a lot of time making challenging work that would test both myself and the listener,” they reflect. “Now, I’m trying to make music that feels good; music that connects the heart to the body.”

That connection is felt immediately on lead single ‘Montenegro On Ice’, a rollicking song about the lure of hard memories and the lengths we go to avoid them. It’s a heady number with a buzz on–confidently skewing the line between vintage Deerhoof and present-tense St.Vincent. ‘Pool Party’, the second single, is an allegorical surf-punk banger about solidarity. It portrays a badass group of femmes who ‘crew up in the deep end’ and ‘shave their heads like Sinead’.


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The Boneshakers - I’ll Kick A Brick (For My Man).

The Boneshakers are back with “Live To Be This”, their 11th studio album and their most electrifying release to date, dropping on July 18, 2025, via renowned Blues Label Gulf Coast Records.

The pair recently signed to Gulf Coast Records and have this to say: "This album is a love letter to the music that shaped us, gritty, soulful, and alive. In a world of digital perfection, Live To Be This is all about real musicians playing with feeling, and we couldn’t be more excited to have some of our favorite artists joining in on the fun as special guests.” – Jenny Langer. "Little did I know that Jenny and I would find ourselves in such great company via Mike Zito’s very cool Gulf Coast Records. Just beautiful, positive energy pouring from all involved, living for music and the musicians. A great new home for the Boneshakers! - Randy Jacobs

The new album follows the band’s previous chart-topping success with “One Foot In The Groove”, which dominated the US Soul Blues radio charts and reached #1 on the UK Blues radio charts. “Live To Be This” vows to bring a raw, electrifying energy that harks back to the band’s original sound, fueled by the emotive vocals of Jenny Langer, who joined as lead vocalist in 2020. Langer, an International Blues Challenge (IBC) winner (Best CD), brings her powerhouse vocals to the forefront, delivering standout performances across every track. Fans won’t have to wait long for a taste of the album, the first single, "I’ll Kick A Brick (For My Man)", just dropped on April 25, 2025.


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Kacimi & Initials MB - Dernier invité.

French chanson meets psych-pop elegance in “Dernier Invité”, the brand new collaboration between Kacimi and Initials MB. Just released (April 25) this bittersweet track blends vintage textures, lyrical storytelling, and timeless flair. A hypnotic invitation into their singular sonic world. his is the first of two joint singles, to be followed by “Aquarelle” on May 23rd. 

Both tracks were recorded in the heart of the French countryside, in Initials MB’s lair – an enchanting 18th-century house nestled in Nord-Isère. The music carries the aura of a life outside of time, blending cinematic pop, psychedelia, and garage rock, much like the two artists’ respective solo productions.

Kacimi and Initials MB go way back – to the buzzing Lyon rock scene of the late 2000s, with their bands The Rebels of Tijuana and The Small Ties. Now reunited, they’ve crafted two songs that started as instrumental compositions by Initials MB and were transformed into haunting lyrical pieces by Kacimi, sung in the language of Ronnie Bird and infused with his signature fuzz-driven sound.

“Dernier Invité” (Last Guest) is a fuzzed-out garage track that pays tribute to soldiers on the battlefield – a powerful and timely anthem in today’s troubled world. Here, the fuzz guitar returns as a sonic weapon for peace. Stay tuned for the second single, “Aquarelle” – a nostalgic English-style country folk song, where pedal steel and swirling organs evoke a faded memory from the late 60s.

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Photo - Josh Massie
Skinny Lister - Song From The Yonder.

Skinny Lister step into Spring with their chest-swelling new single "Song From The Yonder". With Lorna and Dan digging deep to channel their inner Kirsty MacColl and Shane MacGowan, the title-inspiring track of their upcoming new album, ‘Songs From The Yonder’, is a striking duet to stir the soul.

Set to a score of swaying celtic arrangements that lift and lilt the listener along their journey, the song acts as an open and earnest conversation between the couple about love, life, and longing.

Opening-up about "Song From The Yonder", Dan Heptinstall says: “‘Song From The Yonder" is a proper conversational duet between Dan and Lorna. It’s a song about longing and returning from distant travels to where the heart is. It’s also a song about looking beyond petty disagreements, putting things in perspective and embracing the things that connect us.

We’ve not properly explored this duelling vocal approach since "George’s Glass" from our album ‘Down On Deptford Broadway’, and it was a lot of fun to return to writing and recording a track with this kind of dynamic. It’s also a good companion to a track like "Six Whiskies" - with its ‘end of the night’ ‘drunken waltz’ feel.”

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Saturday, 15 March 2025

Will Morton - Ruth Lyon - Penny & The Pits - Caravan Palace

Photo - Justin Hammond
Will Morton - Good Ol' Boys Don't Cry.

Rising country artist Will Morton has released the official music video for his latest single, “Good Ol’ Boys Don’t Cry.” Directed and filmed by Justin Hammond, the visually striking video was shot in a Nashville hotel room at night, capturing the song’s emotional weight through its introspective aesthetic.

Morton explained the meaning behind the music video, saying “We shot inside a hotel room in front of the big picture glass overlooking Nashville because I am often gone for work and miss my family. This song is so true and close to me, being about growing up tough, being raised by a single mother, trying to always be strong for her, and knowing how it feels to keep all of that inside. With the birth of my son and raising him, seeing how much love and kindness is in his heart, I just want him to know it’s okay to have and share emotions.”

Set against the glowing city lights of Nashville, the music video features Morton in moments of quiet reflection, looking out over the city, walking along Broadway, and writing lyrics on a notepad. The raw authenticity of the video further amplifies the track’s powerful message, making for a visual experience that resonates deeply with audiences.

Produced by Mark McKee and written by McKee, Morton, and Chris Ayer, “Good Ol’ Boys Don’t Cry” serves as the lead single from Morton’s forthcoming full-length album The Long Way, set for release later this year.


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Photo - Sel Maclean
Ruth Lyon - Books.

Newcastle indie-folk singer-songwriter Ruth Lyon has just announced her debut album 'Poems & Non-Fiction', out 13th June on Pink Lane Records. Out now is new single 'Books', the second taste of the album following the previously released single 'Wickerman'.

Weaving deeply evocative narratives and potent meditations, with an artistry that balances delicacy and strength, 'Poems & Non-Fiction' is a major waymark for Ruth Lyon. Forged by her experiences as a disabled woman and a life-long sense of otherness, she explores the beautiful mess of existence, challenges social norms and ignites a journey towards self-acceptance, empowerment and perhaps most importantly, hope. “I have surprised myself with the raw honesty in these songs and I hope these stories inspire healing and growth,” Ruth says.

Working with acclaimed producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding) and influenced by artists like Adrienne Lenker, Fiona Apple and Moondog, the songs are rich with poetic nuance and the unconventional insight of a young life lived to capacity—a mesmerising blend of analogue and angular indie-folk that gives as much attention to silence as sound, with understated yet muscular grooves. Shimmering between the abstract, the archetypal and the naked truth, meaning lingers just beneath the surface, daring listeners to both reach out and dig deep; to give emotion a solid, tangible shape.

New single 'Books' is released today alongside a video directed by Sel Maclean. Stop-start strings, plucked and bowed make holes in the texture like a typewriter on paper, weaving in and out of driving piano, bedded by lazy rhythm falling away and returning, all glued together with vocal calls to the echo of a page. Lyon turns a cosmic reckoning on herself “Weigh me today and weigh me in again tomorrow / rocks in my socks, balloons tied round my elbows” that perhaps can be heard as a plea to the fates, wedded with Lyon’s typical Dali-esque imagery.


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Photo - Nicole Cecile Holland
Penny & The Pits - Montenegro On Ice.

You might be familiar with Penelope Stevens from her role as bass and keys shredder and sometime vocalist in Canadian avant-rock trio Motherhood (whose 5th LP Thunder Perfect Mind just came out recently and was described as "wildly entertaining" on Bandcamp Daily and "a welcome, alien presence in today’s musical landscape" on Post-Trash). Here, she is sharing a new single as Penny & The Pits, with Motherhood forming the backing band: "Montenegro On Ice"

Quote from Penelope Stevens: Montenegro on Ice explores memory and the ways in which the past can seep out of its box and drown your present and future. I was feeling the temptation to stew in past pain, choosing to really live in it, y’know? It’s so easy to stick your fingers in your own wounds. So I wanted to make a song that had a jaunty little limp, an endearing disfigurement, that could illustrate the way I was feeling at the time - wounded, absolutely, but sort of enjoying the ride.

The song is part of a larger mythology I’m working out in my songwriting - the allegory of the Liquid Compactor. Water has been an important force in my life, as an emotional cleanser and physical rehab. I’ve been imagining a sentient underwater machine to which I can feed my rage, my ethical malaise, my skewed memories, and allow it to compress these unsavoury bits into little building blocks.

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Photo - Nicolas Patault
Caravan Palace - City Cook.

Before heading out on their North American tour, Caravan Palace (a 6-piece live band and a trio in the studio) are giving the standout track “City Cook” a fresh moment in the spotlight with a brand-new single release. Originally part of Gangbusters Melody Club (Le Plan Recordings), the song now comes in a tighter, punchier edit, perfect for those who like their tunes with a bit more bite. To top it off, the band has teamed up once again with directing duo Double Ninja - who previously brought “Lone Digger”, “Miracle”, “Moonshine” and “Wonderland” to life—for a music video that’s as delightfully offbeat as you’d expect.

About the “City Cook” music video, the band adds: “Once every seven days, a ritual takes place—a ceremony as old as the civilization itself, whether it be ancient or alien. They are bound to a single sense: sight. Their deity, by contrast, perceives all. And so, in fear of what they cannot match, they seal its eyes, stripping it of the only power they themselves possess. From the bowels of the earth, they extract their offering—flesh of beast, flesh of root—feeding a cycle neither questioned nor broken. And with each offering comes a spectacle to behold, a feast for sight alone—pleasure twisted into ritual, excess into sustenance.

What is this but the order of men, subjugating the feminine, binding its body to hunger, to control, to torment without end? Or is it humankind itself, ransacking the world for instant reward, for pleasure stripped of meaning, for wealth that devours all? The deity endures, plundered yet inexhaustible. The cycle turns once more. Meaning shifts in the eye of the beholder. The question remains.”

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