torres - 'torres'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkSLJOZX62w

welcome to 2013, year of pitchfork-friendly country music

(the album is great, though.)

What's 'country' about this exactly? The blown out, raw distorted guitar at the end, or the breathy anonymous indie rock vocals? Sounds like more "Cat Power has a lot to answer for" music.

her press release mainly?

He's half a girl, He's half a boy, Torres, Torres.
He looks just like a transvestite, Torres, Torres.
He wears a frock, he loves the cock, he sells his arse on Albert Dock
Fernando Torres, Carraghers bit on the side

banturi te salutant

man, i had to sift through so many of those search results already

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NISMOpGrNpk#!

hm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NISMOpGrNpk

...

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

been listening to this a bunch this week, a bit surprised at how little interest it's generated. i guess it's sort of out of place/out of time for indie in 2013?

this is really fucking god

i just stumbled upon it 20 mins ago dicking around on p4k/spotify and am completely blown away

yeah its great - not sure if 'chains' really works for me but the rest is all super impressive

ok i'm gonna save the rest for later because it's a beautiful friday and i don't really feel like bursting into tears

This is fantastic. Listening to that Youtube of "Honey" was a totally arresting moment and the album delivers on that promise.

That last album was a slow burn in terms of attention so it's nice to see things will likely spike up further with news of the new one:

http://pitchfork.com/news/58236-torres-announces-new-album-sprinter-shares-strange-hellos/

https://soundcloud.com/torrestorrestorres/strange-hellos

This record comes out soon. It sounds real good.

I like it but I don't love it - it's a bit too primal compared to the debut.

this album is so so good!

primal is why it's good, i feel like this sort of primalism is all too lacking in ~alternative music

Have you listened to her first album? I'd be curious to if you think it's better/worse.

nah, had never heard of her before last week! can't remember where i got linked to her. the most primal moments are my favourite on this one - "strange hellos" is unfuckwithable as an opener, i love her voice on it

"jealousy and i" from the first record is still a stunner

I really like this.

Is the mid-to-late 90s sound on its way back? Kind of metallic sheen + fuzzy feel to this in places (Garbagey?), on "Strange Hellos" especially.

Didn't think I wanted that sound back...

I think it's already here, with the Best Coast and Waxahatchee albums from this year too.

Grouping this in with Sharon van Etten in that there's something really good at the core but just ruined by leaden, stodgy arrangements. Like, it's okay to occasionally play a note off the beat, there would be so many better ways to bring something out of these songs rather than just hammering away with straight eighth notes on every single song.

As it is, I feel like I've heard these exact same production and arrangement choices a million times - I dunno if it's lack of imagination, ineptitude or just a really dull aesthetic preference. It feels like a very post-millennial rock record to me for all the occasional 90s touches.

Thinking about PJ Harvey, who hangs most obviously over this, and she would arrange these songs in a way that brought our their intensity rather than flattened it.

Having said that, something about the way she sings the chorus to Strange Hellos reminds me more of Matt Bellamy than anyone else.

revisiting the first record after listening to this new one, i forgot how many great songs are on there. 'jealousy & i", "november baby", "come to terms" all fantastic imo

i think i like the first album better than the second one, but torres moderate fame is not commensurate with her immoderate level of talent

"honey" is everything i've ever wanted in a song

New Torres incoming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mSaYRd3iIo

Per PR guff

TORRES, the creative alter-ego of Mackenzie Scott, unveils the video for her new single “Skim” today. It is her first new music since 2015’s Sprinter, as well as her first release via new label home 4AD.

Sat. 6/24 – BIALYSTOK, PL @ Halfway Festival
Mon. 7/17 - LOS ANGELES, CA @ School Night @ Bardot
Fri. 7/21 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA @ Popscene @ Rickshaw
Sun. 7/23 – SEATTLE, WA @ Capitol Hill Block Party
Sat. 8/19 – OMAHA, NE @ Maha Festival
Thu. 9/28 – PHILADELPHIA, PA @ Boot & Saddle
Fri. 9/29 – WASHINGTON, DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel
Sat. 9/30 – BOSTON, MA @ Sinclair
Sun. 10/1 – MONTREAL, QC @ Petit Campus
Tue. 10/3 – TORONTO, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
Thu. 10/5 – CHICAGO, IL @ Subterranean
Fri. 10/6 – MINNEAPOLIS, MN @ 7th Street Entry
Mon. 10/9 – VANCOUVER, BC @ Fox Cabaret
Wed. 10/11 – PORTLAND, OR @ Doug Fir
Tue. 10/17 – SAN DIEGO, CA @ The Casbah
Fri. 10/20 – SALT LAKE CITY, UT @ Kilby Court
Sat. 10/21 – DENVER, CO @ Larimer Lounge
Mon. 10/23 – ST. LOUIS, MO @ Off Broadway
Tue. 10/24 – NASHVILLE, TN @ High Watt
Wed. 10/25 – COLUMBUS, OH @ The Basement
Fri. 10/27 – BROOKLYN, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Sat. 11/4 – REYKJAVIK, IS @ @ Iceland Airwaves
Tue. 11/7 – MANCHESTER, UK @ Soup Kitchen
Wed. 11/8 – LONDON, UK @ Tufnell Park Dome
Thu. 11/9 – BRIGHTON, UK @ The Haunt
Fri. 11/10 – PARIS, FR @ Le Point Ephemere
Sat. 11/11 – AMSTERDAM, NL @ Bitterzoet
Tue. 11/13 – COLOGNE, DE @ Gebaude 9
Wed. 11/14 – HAMBURG, DE @ Waagenbau
Thu. 11/15 – BERLIN, DE @ Kantine am Berghain
Fri. 11/16 – MUNICH, DE @ Ampere
Sun. 11/18 – BRUSSELS, BE @ Botanique Rotonde

maybe it's just the arresting video but this is doing more for me than anything off the last album

Dropped from 4AD. :(

(Btwn this and Grimes, what's going on over there?)

https://pitchfork.com/news/torres-says-she-was-dropped-by-4ad-for-not-being-commercially-successful-enough/

I missed the Grimes story (just caught up). Have no idea what the aim of that label even is anymore.

I can't imagine who would hear the first two Torres albums and think "this is gonna be our moneymaker"

there's very few indie-rock female singer-songwriters who are commercially successful - even someone like Cat Power who is critically praised and established still isn't scoring big hits and massive tours - so why did they think the increasingly adventurous sonics and unflinching emotional bluntness of Torres would bring in the money?

that last album was madly under-rated by the way, I feel like in a different year with less good stuff coming out she might have gained a bit more traction with it

seems weird for them to ding her for not being commercially successful when they still have someone like Pixx on the label (I assume) who has only barely released like 2 eps

oh I guess she finally put out an album, but still...did anyone buy it?maybe she'll be dropped next.

getting dropped by a label for not being commercially successful is...pretty typical?

Yeah, surely it’s not that huge a story? It’s a shame for Torres personally and I can completely understand her disappointment with the situation but it’s not a new or shocking outcome. I would expect that she’ll find another label.

Everyone loves brands

Got this email from Merge; never really listened to her but the Tim McGraw reference piqued my interest. It's all right.

https://open.spotify.com/album/4S4Uyd4EjdrlmDNkzou92g

Mackenzie Scott, who performs as TORRES, just announced the July 30 release of Thirstier, the studio follow-up to last year’s acclaimed Silver Tongue.

+ Listen & watch: Music video for “Don’t Go Puttin Wishes in My Head”

The single, which Scott playfully describes as “my relentless arena country star moment—my shameless Tim McGraw cheeseball hit,” is one of ten songs that comprise Thirstier, a searing and life-affirming eruption of an album that wonders what could happen if we found a way to make our fantasies inexhaustible.

I dunno about Tim McGraw, but I just came here to remark on how much it sounds like a Killers song.

New album is fantastic IMO.

listening to it right now - it's great!

I have entirely ignored Torres to this point, but this album hits all kinds of sweet spots for me. I gather it's noisier and punchier than her earlier stuff? If so I joined at the right time, I like the noisiness and punchiness.

she's gotten increasingly noisier but the first album is some incredible songwriting

xp Her second album, Sprinter, is similarly noisy & great, less synths and perhaps more overtly influenced by 90s alternative rock.

Never listened to Torres before but the new album sounds great. A lot of it reminds me of the Breeders and Mitski.