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The Guardian
25-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Westside Cowboy's ramshackle Americana – plus the week's best new tracks
From ManchesterRecommended if you like Pavement, Ezra Furman, Guided By Voices Up next Debut EP out 8 August Westside Cowboy describe their sound as Britainicana. You get what they mean. The winners of this year's Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition are the product of a burgeoning new Manchester underground scene but started out performing Hank Williams and Bob Dylan covers in drummer Paddy Murphy's bedroom. While the vocals locate them firmly in the UK, there's a distinct country/rockabilly undertow to their sound. But equally, Britainicana feels like a slightly ungainly term for music that seems so natural and spontaneous. Recent single Alright Alright Alright rattles along at high speed, its influences buried under a layer of fuzz and feedback and punky vigour, the guitar lurching from the central riff into bursts of noisy abstraction: it sounds like a snatched recording of a band playing live, complete with the thrilling sense that their performance is seconds away from collapsing. The quartet's debut EP is forthcoming, and the first tastes of This Better Be Something Great are more sedate. I've Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You) lopes in time-honoured slacker style; Shells starts out as a hushed ballad before unexpectedly bursting into life 90 seconds in. But they're equally marked by a mood of ramshackle invention at odds with the studied, polished air of a lot of current alt-rock. The name, incidentally, comes from the horse riders employed to ensure trains didn't exceed a certain speed in 19th century America: another weird choice, given the velocity Westside Cowboy currently seem to be travelling at. Alexis Petridis Flock of Dimes – Long After Midnight'People say it's not my problem / They say that actions have a consequence,' Bon Iver collaborator Jenn Wasner sings on a beautiful acoustic meditation about offering help against your better judgement. Kieran Hebden + William Tyler – Spider BalladFour Tet shatters the Nashville guitarist's arid playing into kaleidoscopic fragments, creating a tense, near-breathless strobing effect that evokes glimpsing horror in half light. Confidence Man x Jade – GossipGossip's delicious, destructive power is brandished like a weapon on this icy double threat, decorated with enjoyably unexpected acoustic guitar and Jade spitting a very rude word in pure South Shields. Joanne Robertson – GownThe sometime-Dean Blunt collaborator leads her new album with a song that evokes Sinéad O'Connor's Celtic hymnals heard through Grouper's damp-forest haze – with stirring cello by Oliver Coates. John Also Bennett – Ston ElaiónaFar from his formative years in the Ohio noise scene, Bennett channels the stillness and swoop of the view from his new Athens home, in gorgeous, consciousness-tweaking ambient bass flute oscillations. Daniel Avery – Rapture in Blue ft Cecile BelieveThe wildly underrated Canadian singer – and former Sophie collaborator – gets a deserved showcase leading this anguished, expansive and surprisingly pop turn by the British producer. Chuquimamani-Condori – LRC with Pueblo De Dios Capo E DJ edit One half of one of 2025's best records – Los Thuthanaka – blesses us with a 24-track collection of edits. On this highlight, whistles and heartfelt chanted vocals fight against hypnotic pile-driver production. [Not on Spotify: listen here] Subscribe to the Guardian's rolling Add to Playlist selections on Spotify.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Guided By Voices Deny Breakup Rumors by Announcing New Album
Indie-rock veterans Guided By Voices have claimed that rumors of their demise are greatly exaggerated, pointing to a forthcoming record as proof. The prolific Ohio outfit became the center of rumor on Monday (May 19) when a new episode of Lou Barlow's RAW Impressions podcast unintentionally broke the news. In the latest episode, Lou spoke to Guided By Voices guitarist Bobby Bare Jr. with his wife Adelle, who admitted to having never seen the group live. More from Billboard Saweetie Locks in Debut Australian Tour Dates French Police Recover Bust From Jim Morrison's Grave, 37 Years After It Was Stolen Taylor Swift Premieres 'Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor's Version)' in 'The Handmaid's Tale': Watch In response, Bare noted, 'We're breaking up, you never will.' After Lou adds 'You never will, they're done,' Bare seemingly confirmed the band's status by adding 'We're never going to play again.' However, the apparent revelation may have been a case of miscommunication due to technology, with the episode's description on YouTube noting that it was 'loaded with technical difficulties,' and that 'the audio is often breaking up.' Following the news apparently breaking, the episode's hosts spoke to Brooklyn Vegan to clarify their own thoughts on the matter. 'My understanding is that they didn't have plans to play more live shows,' Adelle explained. 'But I think they are still recording! Not broken up. And yea, I had a lot of technical difficulties during the podcast episode.' Lou echoed this by adding that the group were in the process of making a new record, though he understood that there were to be 'no more live shows.' In the wake of the rumor mill going into overdrive, a representative for Guided By Voices spoke to Rolling Stone to deny that the band were splitting, and even noted that a new album called Thick Rich and Delicious would be arriving on Halloween. Currently, the band have not shared any further information on the upcoming record. News of a breakup announcement from Guided By Voices wouldn't be entirely unexpected, however. Having first formed in 1983, the Robert Pollard-led outfit released a total of 15 albums before splitting in 2004 – including their highest-charting release, 2002's Universal Truths and Cycles, which hit No. 160 on the Billboard 200 and No. 3 on the Heatseekers charts. After reforming in 2010, a further six albums followed before another split in 2014. Since reforming again in 2016, the group have been immensely prolific, with 19 albums arriving in the past nine years, including February's Universe Room. Pollard will also release the debut album from his Rip Van Winkle side-project this year, with Blasphemy set to arrive in July. Giving credence to Bare's claims about not playing live again, however, Guided By Voices have not performed since an October 2024 show in Dallas, with reviews of that show reporting Pollard had claimed it was to be their final gig. Indeed, no further live dates are listed on their website at the current time. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
