#XL Recordings

[fancypantsrecords]

Radiohead - OK Computer: OKNOTOK 1997-2017 | XL Recordings | 2017 | Blue

[grrlmusic]

Burial - Boy Sent From Above (Vinyl Rip)

[musicollage]

King Krule – Space Heavy. 2023 : Matador + XL.

[underachievers-please-try-harder]

Track of the day // Fontaines D.C. - Here's The Thing

From the album Romance, out August 23rd on XL Recordings.

[iamlisteningto]

keiyaA's Forever, Ya Girl

[trevlad-sounds]

Invisible Waves 37.

15.09.2024

Intro 00:00 anthéne–untitled 5 00:21 Harmonium Chapter 1 02:54 Nekomachi–Kidoku 05:21 Yahama QY Series The Smile–Friend Of A Friend 06:59 Chapter 2 11:29 worriedaboutsatan–Subtle & Sweep 13:44 Time Is a Mountain–Clear-Out Clouds 26:57 Italy in 1981 Chapter 3 32:54 Luke Sanger–Flutter Env 35:32 Norfolk Coast Mark Ellery Griffiths–Woodsmoke 38:36 Moon landing 1969 Waldorf PPG Wave 3.V M-Tron Pro IV Kontakt 7 Chapter 4 41:45 Esa Kotilainen–Unisalissa 47:07 Minimoog ARP 2600 Vox StringThing Fender Rhodes Kouvola Casotto (Accordion) Kantele Hammond B3 Leslie 251 & 145 Binson Echo MXR 90 Phase Maestro Phase Shifter Foxx Wah Wah pedal Indian bells Farfisa organ Polymoog Tape stop 1:03:55

[sxyx]

their releases are quite frequently

[gotta-google]

*•.¸♡ arca's KicK II and III fanmade posters

[albumcoversthatmatter]

Jai Paul - Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones)

[sinceileftyoublog]

Fontaines D.C. Live Show Reivew: 10/9, The Salt Shed, Chicago

Photo by Zach Caddy

BY JORDAN MAINZER

It's clear that on Romance (XL), Fontaines D.C. are a changed band. The story behind their "bigger" sound and reach is well-known by now, the Dublin quintet ditching scene go-to Dan Carey for Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford to flesh out the ideas that started when they opened for Arctic Monkeys throughout the U.S. Taking inspiration from the hip-hop, R&B, and dance stalwarts of yesterday and today, the band members went their respective ways, reflected, experimented on their own, and then wrote and holed up in the studio together for months, at different locations. Knowing that they wanted to explore grandiose themes--life, death, and, yes, romance--beyond the confines of their native Ireland, it makes sense that Grian Chatten and company decided to break down any sonic barriers. And they've let us know every step of the way, from Romance lead single and industrial boom-bap banger "Starbuster", to album and current tour set opener "Romance", whose melodic vocals, chiming synths, and blasts of distortion present us with this new era of Fontaines D.C.

Photo by Zach Caddy

On Wednesday night at The Salt Shed, the band's reintroduction was as gradual as ever, as the members came out in bunches, building up "Romance" piece by piece, Conor Curley's guitar, Conor Deegan III's bass and Tom Coll's drums, Carlos O'Connell's keyboards, green strobe lights, and then Chatten's vocals. It took me the whole song to get used to not just how they sounded, but that there were more band members on stage than I expected, and how they looked. For one, Fontaines D.C. are touring with guitarist Cathal Mac Gabhann and multi-instrumentalist Chilli Jesson of Palma Violets. Moreover, multiple band members had dyed hair and wore Matrix-meets-Brat leather jackets and sunglasses. If you didn't know it before, it was clear this wasn't the same scrappy band who wrote Dogrel.

Photo by Zach Caddy

Throughout much of their set, Fontaines D.C. performed the songs that best emphasized their expanded sound. There was the post-grunge standout "Here's the Thing", replete with Chatten's unexpected falsetto, Curley's buzzing guitars, and Deegan III's menacing bass line. "Bug" sported acoustic guitars and whooshing synthesizers, shoegaze beauty "Sundowner" a gentle Curley on lead vocals. Just like on their previous albums, though, the songs that ended up being the live anthems were those where Chatten showed off his mighty pen. The loud-quiet-loud "Death Kink" takes its name from those who believe the idea that misery makes good art. "There's a certain kind of air in the smoke / Must be some amount of truth in the joke / For it to make you laugh, ha ha ha," Chatten sang, the audience laughing with him in unison. As a frontperson, Chatten spent most of his time rousing up the crowd, arms waving in the air like Craig Finn, or jittering around in circles reminiscent of Ian Curtis. The crowd ate it up; someone even tossed a blow-up doll over the barrier during "A Hero's Death".

Photo by Zach Caddy

Approaching the climax of their set, Fontaines D.C. made sure to get out of the way their clear-cut back catalog highlights: "Jackie Down the Line", "Big", and "Sha Sha Sha", the final preceded by a simple, "Free Palestine" from Chatten. Yet, I'm glad they gave prime real estate to Romance closer "Favourite", a stunning, glorious, reflective slice of jangle pop, the band playing it last before coming out for an encore. The song is, at once, hyper-specific and universal, perhaps most successfully exemplary of Romance's wide-reaching goals. During one verse, Chatten describes the type of hangover where your mind is running all over the place, thinking about how you might have had a good night, regretting some decisions, yearning for a simpler time when your immediate world was "bed radios and days spent playing football indoors," and nonetheless realizing that you were lucky not to experience the time "when they painted town with Thatcher." Anyone, Chatten posits, can feel nostalgic for a time while recognizing its ills.

Photo by Zach Caddy

That mental back-and-forth played out during the band's encore, too. "In The Modern World", played first, refers to a trip Chatten and Curley took, where they met another Irish traveler, who gave them a drug that numbed them to their surroundings and overall troubles. Its acoustic guitar line, Chatten's whispered rasp, orchestral synths, and layered vocals in the chorus certainly recall the Lana-esque faded L.A. glamor the band was going for. But the lasting sound of the night was "Starburster", a stream-of-consciousness-seeming rap inspired by Chatten having a panic attack in the St. Pancras tube station. The song is composed as if to surprise you around every corner, beginning with piano plinks, harmonic synths, a snapping snare drumline, and a chorus punctuated with Chatten's breathless gasps, replicated live by a sampled gurgle. "Starburster" is certainly one of Fontaines D.C.'s finest songs, and it will likely be played during every set for the rest of their career, but I feel like only on this specific tour can it close the night. If the band is trying to show that they've grown beyond the taut, literate punk blasts of their first three records, what better way than to unspool like nervous wrecks?

[nineteenfiftysix]

Fontaines D.C. - Sundowner (Romance, 2024)

[frgmnthtr]

For Granted (2023)

[underachievers-please-try-harder]

Track of the day // Gyrofield - Lagrange

[iamlisteningto]

Joy Orbison’s “flight fm” / “shiloh’s revenge”

[ruinedholograms]

With A Hammer (2023)