by Batpiss
Batpiss Rest in Piss (PBS Feature Record)
Discordant and dissonant, Rest in Piss is Batpiss' third LP, and the most incredibly-titled release you'll see this side of the Pacific in 2017. Recorded and produced by Gareth Liddiard of The Drones (a match made in gritty rock heaven), it follows the wild community radio success of first single Weatherboard Man. The single launch saw the band sell-out Collingwood's Gasometer to the hilt last month, delivering a confronting and committed set and introducing a series of new material from the record.
Paul Piss kindly expanded on the record's themes and artwork: “The cover is from a painting I’d done earlier in the year. I'd been mucking around with some messy portraits and abstract stuff using oils and oil pastels. After a month or two of sitting in the shed all night pushing paint around, we had about a dozen to choose from. The album itself is about dead mates and some of the stuff that comes with missing them, so we settled on the face, and the title pretty easily. Marty nailed the design and layout in one go, then we had a few vape bags, listened to John Lennon, and here we are.”
And there's an album tour, of course. Headlining their spiritual home The Tote and flanked by a series of regional and capital city dates, you do not want to miss Batpiss live. Beat Magazine loved the trio's recent sold out Melbourne date, raving "what was a calm looking pub crowd…became a rocking and rolling, sweaty mass of people by the time Batpiss were done with them."
Evidence that Batpiss are not entirely occupied with doom and gloom: the band saw some of their tracks reimagined in a gospel (you heard right, gospel) style by Nick "The Grinch" Finch of Graveyard Train fame for a limited Record Store Day 7" release. Appropriately titled 'Baptist', the band endorsed it as "some amazing shit."
Rest in Piss traverses with gigantic, purposeful leaps, this record delves deep into the darkest, dankest parts of the Australian psyche.
Waxahatchee Out in the Storm (featured on The Breakfast Spread)
Out in the Storm, Katie Crutchfield’s fourth album as Waxahatchee and the follow-up to her Merge debut Ivy Tripp, is the blazing result of a woman reawakened. Her most autobiographical and honest album to date, Out in the Storm is a self-reflective anchor in the story of both her songwriting and her life.
The album was tracked at Miner Street Recordings in Philadelphia with John Agnello, a producer, recording engineer, and mixer known for working with some of the most iconic musicians of the last 25 years, including Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth. Agnello and Crutchfield worked together for most of December 2016, along with the band: sister Allison Crutchfield on keyboards and percussion, Katherine Simonetti on bass, and Ashley Arnwine on drums; Katie Harkin, touring guitarist with Sleater-Kinney, also contributed lead guitar. At Agnello’s suggestion, the group recorded most of the music live to enhance their unity in a way that gives the album a fuller sound compared to past releases, resulting in one of Waxahatchee’s most guitar-driven releases to date.
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