Wolf Alice

A nice antidote to all the hoo-ha about the Reading and Leeds line up being rubbish, last night on the BBC; an hour of Wolf Alice headlining the Radio 1 stage. Storming gig, band on fire, all the hits, fancy lights, disco balls, glitter, the whole bit. At one point they got 2 girls up and one proposed to the other to raucous cheers and applause, then they went into Don't Delete The Kisses. If i was 18 watching that i'm sure i'd have fuckin loved it.

I'll have to ask Alice about it, they are down there this weekend

Some friends' 16-year old son is at Leeds. I suggested Wolf Alice, but he said it clashed with The Wombats. Tsk, kids.

Yeah, they were deciding between the Kooks on stage, and the Wombats in the signing tent.

I'm sure Wolf Alice was a green marker event though.

The Winterbottom film is great! I can't believe it isn't better known about. It's streaming on Amazon Prime btw if any of y'all have that.

nice one chaps!

Genuinely surprised!

People will say they were 'due for an Indie one' this year but hey. Ellie Rowsell herself was on the panel a coupla years back 'interestngly'.

Joff has released an album of John Fahey covers to benefit a food bank charity.

https://theface.com/music/wolf-alice-folk-music-joff-oddie-food-bank-fundraiser-trussell-trust

ooh yeah, nice link thanks.

Their website is teasing something new.

Ooh.

I know we've talked about the price of rarities on Ebay but this takes the piss a bit

https://www.ebay.com/itm/WOLF-ALICE-Blush-EP-new-sealed-UK-2013-Chess-Club-10-vinyl-single-NEW/164211912609?hash=item263bcaefa1:g:0OYAAOSwB~ZexgNi

New song premiers tomorrow on Annie Mac during the britishes 18 pm hour (1 pm Eastern Standard Time). Video will be available on youtube the hour after that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzH6toY_EPw

When they first uploaded the video, there was a link to pre-order 'Blue Weekend' which was quickly taken down. Googling 'Blue Weekend' led me to some people in the film world who had already updated their resumes to include their work on the videos, including this tidbit:

2020 1st AD
Music Video Wolf Alice / Blue Weekend album (11 x music videos) Academy Films

Pretty excited!

it's up! it's...a weird single choice but still pretty great! is this JM-J on the boards again?

oh my god that song is fucking amazing

that is the best goddamn song they've ever made

i literally can't remember the last time i listened to a song six times in a row. sometimes when there's a really good 1975 single i guess

I agree with Simon that it seems like a weird 1st single choice, but my impression is that they're giving us a taste of what the album will be like. It's very much a home stretch, end-of-side-b kind of song, and it could easily be a final track, but we know from the track listing that it's the third from the end, so my speculation is that the final two songs will be a real tour-de-force. I dunno, that's just me talking out of my ass.

Don't agree with Brad that it's the best goddamn song they've ever made, but it is definitely a goddamn good song. I listened to it like 6 times in a row too! My thought on that was that it felt unnaturally short to me, if that makes sense? Like, it runs 4:30, which is pretty decent length by pop songs standards, but I felt like I was only in it for 3 minutes or so, and so I kept going back to listen again.

Anyway, I'm stoked. Really happy that they're still together making music. Can't believe that it's almost 4 years since Visions of a Life.

just remembered that the previous lead single was "yuk foo" so I wouldn't infer too much about the sound of the album yet lmao

this is fine but i'm not really feeling it as much as you all seem to be

it's up! it's...a weird single choice but still pretty great! is this JM-J on the boards again?

― stimmy stimmy yah (Simon H.), Wednesday, February 24, 2021 5:27 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Simon, I was just listening to the Annie Mac interview from earlier today and Ellie mentions the producer, but I can't quite hear the last name. Marcus J-something? A little after 13 minutes here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000shvj

Also, check out who did the strings.

omfg, king

love the end
mitski style in a good way

Paulina S
5 hours ago
Wolf Alice be like “yeah this’ll make them wanna kill themselves.... release it”

Markus Dravs

i don't think even rick ruin could mess up a wolf alice album now they're too good

lol rick ruin

Yeah, I hate this.

Markus Dravs

― peace, man, Wednesday, February 24, 2021 6:03 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

one of my favorite producers who is not jmj so phew yay awesome. also no wonder owen's on it

The only thing I really know that he's worked on is Homogenic. I guess now is the time I finally listen to Arcade Fire. Anything else in particular you would recommend?

i am very alone on this board in thinking the florence album he did (how big how blue how beautiful) is her best

also viva la vida is... great... lol

Ok, I will give those a shot. Right now I'm listening to the James album he worked on.

Dravs's first big notable gig was doing the sound design for Derek Jarman's "Blue" (credited to Markus Draws I think). He became Eno's right-hand-man for a while, doing more-than-half the work on James's "Wah Wah", which was the album that inspired AF to hire him for Neon Bible onward. Coldplay had a "we love AF" moment and picked Dravs/Eno to do Viva La Vida, then Dravs was subsequently drafted by Mumford & Sons and Florence; Dravs won a Grammy for the former, iirc. Maybe another one, too, same band or something else. He has another arranger above me on his rolodex (the guy from Goldfrapp, who did Viva La Vida etc.) but we have great personal rapport and I love working with him, I think he's an amazing producer tbh.

Oh yeah, and Dravs did most of Homogenic, and much of Vespertine iirc

damn that is one hell of a CV

I seem to remember him telling me that the mid-00s Merz albums he produced were his own favourites of the work he's done, I haven't listened but I should

Anyway Wolf Alice rules

Thanks, fgti!

“It’s about the arrogance of humans,” said Rowsell, explaining the lyrics. “I’d just read Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and I had written the line ‘Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from god’ in my notes. But then I thought: ‘Uh, your peculiar travel suggestion isn’t a dancing lesson from god, it’s just a travel suggestion! Why does everything need to mean something more?’”

i don't mean to start stanning for this band but this is exactly what i'd write a song about

oh i never realised dravs worked on homogenic - he seems to be credited with engineering & programming, not production, so that's why i'd never noticed

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson) at 9:14 25 Feb 21

i am very alone on this board in thinking the florence album he did (how big how blue how beautiful) is her best

not alone!

The performance on Jools Holland was pretty astounding.

Don't agree with Brad that it's the best goddamn song they've ever made,

Good article in the NME this morning. They give some hints about the styles of some of the songs and a few lyrical quotes.

https://www.nme.com/big-reads/wolf-alice-cover-interview-2021-blue-weekend-2898441

The new song Smile is great, imo.

love the drummer in this band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV39h7GHDYs

oh this one rules