Tag: Alternative Rock

Musical Evolution: The Mysterines’ Bold New Sound in Afraid of Tomorrows

Afraid of Tomorrows is due out June 21 via Fiction Records. Photo: Steve Gullick, used with permission.

Starting over is never easy. It takes guts, determination and will power to move out of the shadows of yesterday. But this is precisely what British rock band The Mysterines has done. Their ferocious new album, Afraid of Tomorrows, out on June 7 via Fiction Records, burns the past to the ground and builds something brand new out of the rubble. (Big Hassle, 2024)

Formed in Liverpool, The Mysterines – frontwoman Lia Metcalfe, drummer Paul Crilly, bassist George Favager and guitarist Callum Thompson – has undergone a radical transformation over the past few years. Fresh with new purpose and reinvigorated from songwriting sessions while secluded away in the countryside, the band is about to release the best music of their career. “We can feel the difference with this album,” Metcalfe says. “These songs show how far we’ve come. We’ve grown up a lot.”

Afraid of Tomorrows is the perfect frame for Metcalfe’s extraordinary voice. Like no one else on the British rock scene, she can switch suddenly from a lascivious purr to a hair-raising yowl, the love-child of Courtney Love and Karen O. The most impressive part of the record is how much it demonstrates the band’s colossal ambition.

This week, the band released their whirring new single “The Last Dance,” the third track to be taken from the highly-anticipated new album Afraid of Tomorrows.  

Bolstered by a blistering guitar solo and thunderous drum beats, “The Last Dance” details finding solace in something that is not real. Frontwoman Lia’s imagination dances wildly through the track, as it tells the tale of a person who falls in love with a porcelain mannequin and longs to dance with them.

“I suppose it’s an analogy for what loneliness can do to you. Once you’ve exhausted all the dark alleyways of drugs and alcohol, you end up reaching for something to connect to that isn’t real.” – Lia Metcalfe

The Mysterines is set to embark on their biggest headline tour to date this fall across Europe and North America. The band will play a string of exciting shows this summer, including at Crystal Palace Park as special guests to Bloc Party for their huge 20th anniversary show on July 7, and numerous festivals including Riot Fest in Chicago. North American tour dates will go on sale this Friday at 12p.m.ET — complete tour info available online.

UPCOMING NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
September 10 – Los Angeles, CA – The Roxy
September 11- Phoenix, AZ – Last Exit
September 13 – Colorado Springs, CO – Vultures
September 15 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th St Entry
September 17 – Toronto, ON – The Cave
September 19 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
September 22 – Chicago, IL – Riot Fest

Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Afraid of Tomorrows track list:

1. The Last Dance

2. Stray

3. Another Another Another

4. Tired Animal

5. Jesse You’re A Superstar

6. Hawkmoon

7. Sink Ya Teeth

8. Junkyard Angel

9. Goodbye Sunshine

10. Inside A Matchbox

11. So Long

12. Afraid of Tomorrows

Forthcoming new album release: I Want It All Right Now – Grouplove

Grouplove announces deluxe version of I Want It All Right Now – out on May 10, 2024. Photo: Brantley Gutierrez, used with permission.

On their new album I Want It All Right Now, Grouplove offers up a body of work built on a raw but incandescent sound that vocalist/keyboardist Hannah Hooper refers to as “resistance pop.” As Hooper reveals, the Atlanta-based band’s sixth full-length album emerged from a period of intense transformation for herself and her husband/bandmate, vocalist/guitarist Christian Zucconi. Over the course of 11 shapeshifting songs, Grouplove’s debut release for Glassnote Records documents that progression from external searching to radical self-discovery, infusing each track with the wildly unbridled spirit the band has always embodied. (Big Hassle, 2024)

I Want It All Right Now fully harnesses the ecstatic energy Grouplove has brought to the stage on multiple international headline tours and at leading festivals like Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza. In a major leap forward for the band—whose lineup also includes bassist Daniel Gleason, guitarist Andrew Wessen, and drummer Ben Homola—the album explores the deepest tensions of the human psyche with equal parts tenderness, curiosity, and exacting self-revelation. A bold evolution of the defiantly sincere songwriting they first delivered on their 2011 debut Never Trust a Happy Song, I Want It All Right Now ultimately leaves the listener newly awakened to the wisdom and power of their own intuition.

I Want It All Right Now Deluxe will be available everywhere on May 10, 2024.

The deluxe album will feature six new tracks, including the live version of the album’s title track “All” from Madison Square Garden. With Jake Clemons from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band lending his talents on the saxophone, the live rendition sheds any previous confines and swells into something altogether larger than life.

Multifaceted in her approach to artistry, Hannah Hooper has painted all of the band’s artwork. Grouplove’s artwork has become almost as recognizable as their sound over the years, seeing the band work out the tensions of life through all mediums at their disposal.

In February, Grouplove released the first deluxe track “Chances.” The rapturous, overstimulated, hallucinogenic singsong saw the band channeling their ecstatic energy into the deepest tensions of the human psyche, all while playing with the contradictions and complications of existing. I Want It All Right Now, the band’s sixth studio album, was originally released in 2023.

Over the last month, Grouplove has been joined by Bully for the North American Rock And Roll You Won’t Save Me Tour. Fans who missed the tour or simply want more need not despair as the band has upcoming festival performances this summer at Wildflower! Festival, Bonnaroo and Oceans Calling. By popular demand, Grouplove has been added to 9 new dates this fall supporting P!nk.

UPCOMING TOUR DATES
May 17 – Richardson, TX – Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival
June 14 – Bonnaroo – Manchester, TN
June 22 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage (with Arkells)
September 28 – Ocean City, MD – Oceans Calling Festival
November 3 – Austin, TX – Moody Center ^
November 6 – Arlington, TX – Globe Life Field ^
November 8 – Tulsa, OK – BOK Center ^
November 11 – Raleigh, NC – PNC Arena^
November 12 – Raleigh, NC – PNC Arena^
November 14 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena^
November 16 – Birmingham, AL – Legacy Arena at The BJCC^
November 18 – Orlando, FL – Camping World Stadium^
November 20 – Columbia, SC – Colonial Life Arena^

^ supporting P!nk

I Want It All Right Now Deluxe track list:
“All”
“Cheese”
“Malachi”
“Hello”
“Eyes”
“Billie”
“Tryin’”
“Cream”
“Francine”
“Climb”
“Wall”
“Chances”
“Can You Feel My Love”
“Fire”
“House”
“Fishbowl”
“All (Live)”

Courtesy photo, used with permission

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