STACK #132 Oct 2016

MUSIC

NEWS

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happen really quick." Lost My Head puts the piano with a gorgeous vibraphone break-down and softly hooting vocals. “The chords are just simple formations, and I’ve only been using my left hand. It’s so I could hold the mic, with a left- handed swagger,” Vile smiles. There’s a lot of footage of Vile and the crew during and after Joshua Tree, recorded by Vile’s brother Paul – “’cause he just likes to show up to be where the action is” – as well as afterwards at Josh Homme’s Pink Duck studio in Burbank. “One day we’ll put out some kind of arty documentary with cool music. But also more professional movies… that’s obviously the more romantic notion, which I want to do too. I don’t know. I just think, certain songs belong in the end credits of the biggest movie in the world. Every movie that comes out should have my…” he trails off, cracking up, wondering aloud how you even get your songs into films. “Maybe there’s some kind of underground mafia,” he suggests. “Like, The Kid Stays In The Picture kind of thing. Kurt’s Songs Stay In The Credits .”

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A pparently Kurt Vile was reading Cormack McCarthy’s bleak, dust-mussed Western novel Blood Meridian during the recording of B’lieve I’m Goin Down . It fits with the scene of the recording location – Joshua Tree National Park, in California – but there’s a warm, crooked smile throughout Vile’s tracks too. “[Joshua Tree] is the place that Gram Parsons found so holy, and all those ‘70s types go there and make music, and trip balls, or something,” Vile chuckles. “It’s just so chilled there, nothing stifling your brain, or, I don’t know, your third eye or something.” Vile says that although his last album Wakin’ On A Pretty Daze was also autobiographical, he feels that B’lieve I’m Goin Down is suffused with an even more honest range of emotions. “I think maybe with this one, I’m affected by all emotions at once in real life, in my surroundings,” he says contemplatively. “There’s a lot of things to be stoked about, and there’s all kinds of things that kurt vile talks life like this

make me sad all the time. I don’t even want to say certain things out loud, because involving having kids… it’s such an intense love that it’s scary because the world is f-cked up. But ultimately, it always ends on a positive or a funny note. I was definitely pretty up and down making this record.” Vile leans more heavily on the piano on this release, shown through the wonderful single Life Like This , which shuffles with sweet, calm bombast: “Wanna live, wanna live, live a life like mine?/ Well I’ve been doing it baby all the time/ To do so you gotta roll with the punches/ Jump from the sweetest to the toughest of tough love,” he sings. “Obviously I’m not an amazing piano player but I feel it, I’m totally into it,” he tells us. “ Life Like This was really just a piano idea. Then all of a sudden I heard all of these lyrics in my head, then I had an idea for the guitar riff. Those are the best kind of songs really, the ones that

B'lieve I'm Goin Down by Kurt Vile is out now through Remote Control.

big noise for little simz

DAN KELLY at leisure

F our mixtapes, five EPs, and now one rather intriguing album: Little Simz is slaying it. The English rapper, singer and actress has just released A Curious Tale Of Trials + Persons , which showcases her distinctive flow and sometimes coyly mysterious, sometimes openly boisterous and provocative lyrics. More than a few hip hop icons have pointed her out (Kendrick Lamar: "She might be one of the illest doing it right now"), and we're in agreement.

H e's one of the driest, most charming cards in Australian music – and that style is definitely reflected in Dan Kelly's new album Leisure Panic! . Recorded in various foxholes across Australia and in London, the gem features a backing band that comprises musicians who have variously played with Augie March, Ground Components, CW Stoneking and Magic Mountain Band; they manage to match Kelly's affectionate and amusing lyrics with aplomb.

Kelly and his crew are touring throughout this month; go to dankelly.com.au to check dates.

A Curious Tale Of Trials + Persons is out now through Inertia.

rise of rhodes F ragility and power are the two sides to the sword wielded by Rhodes; the young vocalist and songwriter has so far supported Ben Howard, Sam Smith and London Grammar amongst others, and the songs he played during those appearances – Turning Back Around , Breathe and Raise Your Love – are amongst the gorgeous offerings on debut album Wishes . If you’ve yet to hear this Brit’s astonishing voice, we highly recommend you begin with the duet single Let It All Go (with precocious teen vocalist Birdy) and then pick up the man’s album out now on Sony.

JOHN GRANT tickles our fancy

T o most of us, Reykjavik is where Björk was born and that's about it. To hugely acclaimed songwriter John Grant, it's the place that saved him from an alcohol and drug-fuelled mental pit, and is now his new home (he's originally from Denver). But don't be fooled – Grant's new solo

the most compelling songwriting we've heard this year. Grey Tickles, Black Pressure is out now through Liberator.

album reveals a seriously sharp wit and absolutely no fear in making fun of himself, amongst some of

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