Exclusive new album from Thalia Zedek, new music from claire rousay & more eaze, new music from Gnod & White Hills, Ghost/Spirit track by track, 10 questions with claire rousay & more eaze, and more
Weekly newsletter for February 27th, 2025
Subscriber exclusive presale: Thalia Zedek Band - The Boat Outside Your Window
Thalia Zedek’s body of work demonstrates a clarity of vision, a singular performance style, and an expansive range, and her ability to deliver raw emotions through her vivid stories of loss and hope, strife and triumph is totally unmatched. This mastery of emotive songwriting is on full display in Thalia Zedek Band’s newest record The Boat Outside Your Window, which is available to pre-order ONLY for you fine folks who follow this newsletter! It is available on limited Coke Bottle Clear vinyl and CD and every version includes a digital download. This is a subscriber exclusive presale not yet available on Bandcamp, look for it in stores on May 23rd.
Zedek has long been a melodic songwriter in a series of heavy, hardcore, and no-wave bands in NYC and Boston’s music scenes (Uzi, Live Skull, Come, E), and that contrasting grittiness alongside her distinct blend of both direct and poetic lyrics allows her to sing of the most difficult of life’s moments in ways that are both elevating and deeply devastating.
For this release, the band is now joined by pedal steel guitarist Karen Sarkisian. Sarkisian’s counter-melodies and oblique augmentations created with non-traditional tools like an Ebow add an otherworldly quality to songs. The crunch of Zedek’s guitar and drive of bass and drums are met with synth-like swells and more harmonic density. The album also features guest performances by Nancy Asch on percussion and Beth Heinberg on piano.
Her unique musical voice remains potent and pointed. The Boat Outside Your Window is Thalia Zedek reaching new heights, reinforcing her status as a peerless songwriter and voice in the world today. Pre-order below!
Gnod & White Hills share never-before heard collaborative single "Unify"
Gnod & White Hills have shared the sprawling new single "Unify" just ahead of the release of their deluxe, definitive version of the acclaimed Drop Out series, Drop Out III, on Mar. 21st.
"Unify" is a never-before-heard piece recorded during the original Drop Out collaboration period. Whirling and frothing with blissfully lysergic motion, the song's hypnotic throb and sinewy bass groove belie the soaring, fuzz-laden guitars. The over-13-minute piece embodies what makes the two bands' collaboration so special - it’s an epic meeting of the MASTERS of psych and space rock.
15 years after the series began, Drop Out III is an essential album for lovers of contemporary psychedelic rock, a testament to the power of this collaboration. Gnod & White Hills will be embarking on an extensive European and UK tour this Spring (including their debut collaborative performance at Roadburn Festival), recapturing the spirit of the original D.O. sessions. Don’t miss out!!
more eaze & claire rousay share ecstatic new single "lowcountry"
more eaze & claire rousay have released their final single from their collaborative masterpiece no floor (out Mar. 21st). Named for a bar in San Antonio where more eaze (mari maurice) and rousay spent much of their formative years, the track exudes an adventurous sense of wonder through dynamic swells and haywire electronics that parallel the uncertainties and spontaneities of youth.
"I went to that bar a lot by myself, but I’ve been there a lot with mari too," notes rousay. "At one point I was living somewhere that was close by. This was in a more unhinged time for me and was like 'mari, did you want to come over and rage?'"
maurice adds: "There’s a throughline of the track 'limelight, illegally' to this, where some of the bartenders who worked at Limelight moved to lowcountry. This is the most unhinged track in a way. When we decided this one was lowcountry claire was adding a lot and pushing it I decided, 'ok, I’m going to push it even more too.'"
no floor presents an introspective reflection of the emotional turmoil of youth, while equally celebrating a camaraderie forged through those shared experiences, one that has since blossomed into a close friendship and fruitful series of collaborations. Eschewing the auto-tune inflected pop-psychedelia and found sounds of their previous collaborations, no floor is collage music as pastoral melancholia, a lush tour into their own version of Americana.
Heads up - there are less than 10 copies of the Green LP left for sale, available exclusively at thrilljockey.com.
New Limited Red - just posted on Bandcamp and will be up on the site soon!
10 questions with claire rousay and more eaze
We are asking our artists the questions that most would not dare.
Questions for claire:
Do you recall the first time you met mari?
oh shit! i think it was like literally for a rehearsal or an "audition" at her mom's house ..? maybe that was the first time. idk i forgot but i do remember how hot that room got when the music started.
Sour Patch Kids vs gummy bears?
sour patch kids, sour patch kids, sour patch kids, sour patch kids (not the watermelon ones tho those suck)
Favorite children's book?
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Some people like their dog to sleep in their bed, but think eating food in bed is gross. Thoughts?
I like the dog in the bed and I like eating in the bed. I don't like my dog eating in the bed or my girlfriend eating in the bed. I don't like eating on my dog
Ever been tempted by a coin operated massage chair?
i want no part in whatever happens in those chairs
Could you go 2 months without wearing a hoodie?
no i literally live in hoodies and usually am wearing nothing under them. same with sweatpants. all day and always camando, baybeeeee
Any pre-show rituals that you adhere to?
if the artist playing before me sucks, I usually try to avoid listening to that before playing. Luckily this isn't the case a lot of the time.
3 questions mari asked claire:
Favorite emo record? Why?
not a record but an amazing 7” - the Raymond Brake S/T
(or Commander Venus - do you feel at home?)
Uh Oh - Ableton's crashing mid show! How do you salvage the set?
girl you know i’m just hitting space bar anyways. that set is an mp3 in itunes already
What's the perfect order at Alamo Café?
cheese enchilada plate extra chips to scoop the gravy at the end
Questions for mari:
Do you recall the first time you met claire?
Yes! It was exactly as claire described. She came over to practice/audition for being in an early band of mine at my Mom's house where we practiced in San Antonio. I was very skeptical of her because she was so young but after we played like two songs I knew we would play music together for the rest of our lives.
Bottle Caps vs Sweet Tarts?
Oof-not a huge fan of either anymore (I'm fully gummy mode usually) but I gotta go with sweet tarts because they've got a lot more flavor/bite. Also, the consistency of a bottle cap is not something that I think I can handle anymore.
A book about music you can recommend?
I just read Ocean of Sound by David Toop and absolutely loved it. It's such impassioned writing about music and I like that's it's driven mostly by observation and not a prescriptive thesis.
New York, NY people love that you can get anything at almost any time - what is the weirdest late night thing you wanted and got?
Most of my weird late night cravings are typically around food/treats of some kind. I think the weirdest food I've gotten late at night was a giant sushi platter with a side of wings that my partner and I ordered at like midnight once.
Favorite meal of the day?
Breakfast. I used to not eat breakfast very often but it has become extremely important to me. I usually will make a rather large meal with eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns or potatoes of some kind but I also am so stoked to just eat a bowl of cornflakes. As I've gotten older, I've realized that I'm so much more productive when I've eaten shortly after waking up.
Do you have any travel superstitions?
Not particularly but I do generally try to get to the airport early and avoid the Bermuda Triangle
Favorite piece of gear lately?
Right now, I'm obsessed with the Max software Forester made by Leafcutter John. I've proselytized about it to claire and all of my students and friends. It's so refreshing to have something that's so easy to use but also full of endless and slightly random options.
3 questions claire asked mari:
making sweet love in a car? yes, no, why?
It is not my ideal situation but ultimately yes/I have done it. It's very risky and hot but also potentially uncomfortable depending on the car.
out of tune string. you gotta finish the song but cant adjust the tuning. is your preference for it be sharp or flat?
Really depends on the instrument-on guitar and violin-my preference is flat but on pedal steel sharp.
Top 3 releases on Kendra Steiner Editions
1. Sweet Days of Discipline by Matt Krefting
2. The Shape of It by Jen Hill
3. Objects by Sarah Hennies
Track by track: Jules Reidy details the songs from Ghost/Spirit
Jules breaks down the guest appearances, album concepts, and instrumentation on their immense & dense project Ghost/Spirit, out now!
Every Day There’s a Sunset
This track sets the tone of the whole record. Lyrically it describes disappearance and the void that’s left. The person who disappears cycles between ‘I’ or ‘you’ or ‘her’, as does the person who gives. The idea that when you give all of your attention, to God or to another human being - you disappear, in different ways. The lyrics outline these differences, the human needing and choking or the divine dispersing and seeing without abstraction.
This was the first thing I recorded, it started as guitar and voice and took about 10 different forms, recording and re-recording. It was the domain within which I chose the pallet for the whole record, in terms of material, which is often how I work - it was about 100 tracks worth of layers, stripped back down to guitar, voice, synths, bass, drum samples. It works well as a simple song for guitar and voice too, but I decided to expand it out to its final maximalist psychedelic form, which hopefully can be said for the whole record. Samples by Andreas Dzialocha, the other half of Sun Kit.
Interlude 1
Pretty harmonics with resonance samples, re-tuned vibraphone samples by Morten Joh (duo collab member, and member of the Pitch). Stop/go sort of form, functions as a breath of air between two very intense tracks, palate cleanser.
Satellite
Push/pull feeling rhythmically in step with the lyrical content, which is all about gravity and falling into a star’s atmosphere. Epic chorus trombone samples by Weston Olencki. Recurrence of the S-Bahn Wedding sample that appears several times in the record, which bears personal significance as a site but most importantly signifies cycles / orbits and returning / to the same point over and over. Cello samples by the magical Judith Hamann, blended with tastelessly distorted synth line.
To Breathe Lightning
Title comes from an Anne Carson quote from the “Glass Essay”, which deals with heartbreak and eternity. Grooviest song on the record and maybe one of the most song-ish. The lyrics describe being drawn to the sky and drawn to the earth, two forms that love can take and the metaphorical movements of both (descending to and ascending from) - gravity, and grace. Light that falls to earth ignites and becomes fire.
Ghost
I made this very quickly, very late at night, following a night terror, which is something that started happening to me a lot last year. I kept having these hallucinations in the form of this crazy black silhouette thing that would run at me and I'd wake up screaming and sweating. So the lyrics are very basic, sound like they were written by someone who was half asleep because they were.
Breaks
My favorite song I’ve ever written, a simple heartbreak song that is the most direct description of my feelings for the person I love and lost. Written in one sitting, my phone recording of it is my favorite version.
Search Light
A kind of afterthought, written very late in the process, ended up being the perfect beginning to side B. By far the most emo grunge-y track.
Every Day There’s a Sunrise
Obvious lyrical and thematic throwback to track one, lyrically explores the state of dissolution and abundant peace that one feels through presence, or what I keep referring to as ‘divine love’ for everything. Non-personal love, directed at nobody, kind of schizophrenic and hyper-associative. The music I think sounds that way too. Drum samples by my metal-head drum whiz pal, Sara Neidorf.
Spirit
The last iteration of this melody on the record, describes love and fear as yet another, but perhaps the most direct and succinct metaphor for the album’s title.
Maybe
Initially the second half of Satellite, broken up and re-distributed and delivered as another kind of callback.
Interlude II
Bass sample, stretched and manipulated, with church bells recorded from my ex’s bedroom window.
Letter
Old Skool acoustic guitar and electronics track, based on a semi-improvised piece I played at km28 last year, for a group of people that I would very soon not be hanging out with any more.
Splits the Light
Euphoric burst of light, describing a human hand reaching out, splitting the light of the sun, which you can’t look at directly. Inhaling, ascending to the sky, exhaling, dispersing into the earth.
You are Everywhere
In general, side A is ghost, side B is spirit. This track is intentionally confusing, as it’s definitely more ghost than spirit, and appears to be another emo heartbreak song. But it's also to be left to interpretation - whether the ‘you’ is the person, or the divine - is it a relapse into the suffering of attachment or a final acceptance, a letting go.
Cratediggers: GNOD
“It's a bit long but it's very true to the tracks we were listening to around the time we did the Dropout LP. We loved sticking on a 20 minute head track at a party and making people's heads melt, including our own. So basically, it's a sludgy psychedelic party mix which should be played at a volume to shake walls.” - Paddy & Chris, from GNOD
Spotlight from the Catalog:
Joyous album played with some of the most exciting new faces on the Malian music scene.
Get a joy injection by taking a quick to trip to Mali, with this amazing video filmed in Bamako, at one of Sidi's favorite spots.... with the band ripping “Heyyeya”. I could watch this 10 times in a row!