“Pop” isn’t a dirty word, it’s just taken the Cribs a little longer to realize it. “We’ve always had a little punk rock guilt,” explains the band’s singer/guitarist, Ryan Jarman. “Whenever we’ve written something that’s had an overtly pop feel, we’ve always felt like we needed to balance it with something noisy.”

Cast an eye (or an ear) back over the trio’s back catalogue, and it’s not hard to understand what he means. When Ryan and his siblings Gary (bass) and Ross (drums) first emerged from Wakefield, England with their self-titled debut (2004) and the follow-up “The New Fellas” (2005), both brimmed with scrappy punk and youthful exasperation. They sounded like a band at war with themselves, but underneath that hubbub was a clutch of perfect pop songs. Even with the more obvious, radio-friendly sheen of “Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever” (2007), the Cribs still sought equilibrium through dissonance with tracks like “Be Safe,” which also featured Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo spitting bile. And when the Johnny Marr-assisted “Ignore The Ignorant” (2009) added a further level of panache, the band swiftly and pointedly got back-to-basics with the dense and turbulent “In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull” (2012).

But on “For All My Sisters,” that pendulum has now swung back to pop – and the brothers are keen to hold it there. “We wanted to make something that embraced our pop side,” continues Ryan, and the songs on this album feel less like an embrace, and more like a bear hug. Having drawn a line under the first phase of their career with 2013’s “Payola” compilation, “For All My Sisters” is the album they’ve always threatened to make; sleek, accomplished, concise, and packed to the brim with unadulterated melodies. Musically speaking at least, it’s a guilt free zone. The Cribs released their latest album, “24-7 Rock Star Shit,” produced by Steve Albini in 2017.

Inquiries:
info@fenwayrecordings.com
Booking (NA): Matt Hickey at High Road Touring
Label (NA): Arts & Crafts | Label (R.O.W.): Sony RED
Management (excl. NA): Nigel Templeman at Red Light Management

Their history you probably know by now. About how brothers Jez and Andy Williams met Jimi Goodwin at 15 and forged a lifelong friendship from their shared passion for music. How the trio’s incarnation as Sub Sub -inspired by ecstatic trips to The Hacienda – saw them hit number three with the sublime ‘Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use) in 1993 only to lose their way until their rebirth as Doves.

How the success of 2000’s debut album Lost Souls spawned the widescreen vision of The Last Broadcast just over two years later. And, more recently, how the civic concerns of 2005’s epic Some Cities paved the way for Kingdom Of Rust, most sane people’s album of the year in 2009. None of which, of course, tells you anything about the beauty and majesty of the music they’ve created over the years.

The Places Between, their latest, is a painstakingly compiled look back at Doves first twelve years. From the opening chorus of There Goes The Fear (“Think of me when you’re coming down / But don’t look back when leaving town”) through classic debut single ‘The Cedar Room’ (originally released on the bands own imprint Casino Records – funded by Rob Gretton) to the sonic maelstrom of ‘Jetstream’, CD 1 is a seamless reminder of Doves unique knack of blending nostalgia, euphoria and social comment with gleaming musical modernism.

KUNZITE is the exciting new project from producers Mike Stroud (RATATAT) and Agustin White (White Flight). Stroud is based out of the Catskills of NY, while White resides on the island of Kauai. Longtime friends since their early 20s, having toured together during past projects, the pair only recently started KUNZITE as a long-distance collaboration, emailing the songs that would become their first album back and forth across the Pacific Ocean. The chemistry was immediate and their collaboration deepened significantly while making the second album, with the duo regularly recording together in each other’s home studios, and hopping from coast to coast (including sessions in LA, Iceland and beyond). 

As multi-instrumentalists, both producers have preferred a DIY approach to recording themselves, comfortably trading off writing and singing duties. With their yet to be released 2nd LP, their sound has evolved with even deeper dance grooves and cosmic pop songs, as well as a good portion of psychedelic instrumental tracks, of which fans of their previous projects should find familiar, yet pushed into new dimensions. 

Lush synthesizers, laser-like guitarmonies, sub-bass frequencies and vocoder-laced vocals morph into one another, creating a mix that is impossible to pin down into a single genre, yet unified by its crystallization of futuristic beats. One of the new tracks even features the Reggae/Dub Grandmaster Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, whose groundbreaking and alien-like approach fits right at home within the KUNZITE sonic universe.

Blending electronic, psychedelic, beat-heavy production with other-worldly vocal harmonies and live instrumentation, the duo followed up their debut album (BIRDS DON’T FLY) with the single “NOVAS” on Tom Windish and Future Classic’s collaborative label, Wilder. They will be releasing more brand new music very soon.

Inquiries

info@fenwayrecordings.com

Had Andrew and Ben not agreed (probably with a smirk) long ago that, should their ever-evolving musical collaboration called MGMT reach the crucial Third Record Threshold, they'd make that milestone eponymous, MGMT (the album) might well have been called something like Step Into The Club - ("because it's like a multi-level club inside of our brains") - or Now, That's What I Call Now! or just MGMT - NOW! (like the Rolling Stones' third album), because MGMT has indeed made a very now record.

Songs for anyone who's "going through daily life feeling like an alien," MGMT draws seasoned fans and new initiates alike into the band's eureka zone, a psychic oasis offering the opposite of dumbed-down (smarted-up?) as sympathetic counsel or support for something like chronic mis-aligned-multiple-reality syndrome, DejaVu-DO or Modern malaise - whatever you want to call it. With their resplendent third album, Ben and Andrew finally open up the MGMT inner sanctum through a brand-new sound that's about what it's all about: "sinking in - and forgetting about time."

MGMT released “In The Afternoon” as the first ever independent single off of their own label, MGMT Records, in 2020.

Inquiries
info@fenwayrecordings.com
Booking (NA): Paradigm Agency
Booking (International ex. NA): CAA
Label: MGMT Records
Publishing & Licensing: BMG

www.whoismgmt.com

‘Unsound’ is Mission of Burma’s fifth studio album, continuing their remarkable legacy. It seems redundant now to even call it a comeback because they’re a dynamic, current band. Originally together just four years, from 1979-83, Mission of Burma reformed in 2002 for a handful of shows...which let to more concerts, then more, and eventually the release of 2004's "ONoffON", their first new recording in over twenty years. But no one expected them to just keep putting out records, let  alone records that were every bit as vital and influential as their seminal early recordings. Their first album ‘Vs’ is down in the annals of time as being one of the most important post-punk records ever. Their subsequent recordings: "ONoffON", "The Obliterati", "The Sound, The Speed, The Light", and now, "Unsound", continue to grow in scope, depth and accomplishment with every step.

On "Unsound" we see Mission of Burma messing with their comfort zone by recording in their Boston rehearsal space which doubles as a recording studio: Analog Divide. As usual, Roger Miller (guitar, vocals), Clint Conley (bass, vocals) and Peter Prescott (drums, vocals) share the songwriting credits with their distinct styles. All of them tried their hand at other instruments and sounds, allowing them to take risks with their creativity and giving them a more fluid line-up. Of course, regular fourth member Bob Weston (of Shellac) was on hand to provide the tape loops and production duties.

Inquiries:
burma@fenwayrecordings.com
Booking (NA): Frank Riley at High Road Touring
Booking (Europe): Peter Meeuwsen at Puschen, Jose Luis Ceuvas at Born! Music

www.missionofburma.com

Swim Mountain is London-based artist and producer Tom Skyrme. His 2014 debut self-titled EP brought us washed layers of evocative guitars and vocal harmonies written under the hazy LA sun. The Guardian noted that “six tracks just [didn’t] seem enough” from this first release. Skyrme’s 2017 EP Anyone, written and recorded from his studio in East London, experiments with ’60s guitar riffs, crooning psychedelic beats, and waves of nostalgic synths. The music is about the complicated duality of relationships set against a backdrop of analog synthesizers and punchy drum machines. Indie Accent calls it a “wonderfully textured and innovative piece of music.” Stereofox describes it as “indie-pop tinged, but with a bit of groovy/psychedelic-esque undertones.” Swim Mountain was additionally featured on Tourist’s popular single “Sleepwalking” in 2017. Along with performing as Swim Mountain, Skyrme has film credits as a composer and audio designer (Money Monster, Rough Night) and has worked extensively in Los Angeles, including work in Hans Zimmer’s studio. Skyrme released his new EP, If, on Tourist’s Monday Records in February 2020.

Inquiries

info@fenwayrecordings.com

Booking: Paradigm Agency

Label: Monday Records