When The Beths released "Silence is Golden" last month, we noted that it was their most rock song to date. On their latest, "Expert in a Dying Field," the New Zealand band get quite a bit quieter. This new song stops short of being a power ballad, but just barely. There is still plenty of crunching guitars and noise to keep this from being a pure pop song, but "Expert in a Dying Field" has far more harmony for it to be pure indie rock. It's filled with plenty of reverb and crashing drums, but this is a gorgeous song. It's rare for a song to be this delicate but yet still rock this hard, but The Beths somehow pull this off.
Elizabeth Stokes says of the new song:
"I really do believe that love is learned over time. In the course of knowing a person you accumulate so much information: their favorite movies, how they take their tea, how to make them laugh, how that makes you feel. And when relationships between people change, or end, all that knowledge doesn’t just disappear. The phrase ‘Expert in a Dying Field’ had been floating around my head for a few years, I was glad to finally capture it when writing this tune.”
You can watch the video for "Expert in a Dying Field" below. Expert in a Dying Field, the album, is due out September 16 on Carpark Records and can be pre-ordered here. For more on The Beths, check out the artist's website. Upcoming tour date are below the video.
Sun. Jul. 24 - Seattle, WA @ Capitol Hill Block Party
Mon. Jul. 25 - Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret
Fri. Jul. 29 - Brooklyn, NY @ BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival
Sun. Jul. 31 - Denver, CO @ UMS - The Underground Music Showcase
Tue. Aug. 2 - San Diego, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
Wed. Aug. 3 - Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory
Thu. Aug. 4 - Santa Barbara, CA @ SoHo Restaurant & Music Club
Fri. Aug. 5 - San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Music Festival
Sun. Aug. 7 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
Wed. Aug. 10 - Davenport, IA @ Raccoon Motel
Thu. Aug. 11 - Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
Sat. Aug. 13 - North Adams, MA @ Here and There Festival, Mass MoCA
Sun. Aug. 14 - Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palace
Mon. Aug. 15 - Detroit, MI @ Magic Bag
Tue. Aug. 16 - Chicago, IL @ Here and There Festival, Salt Shed
Thu. Aug. 18 - St. Louis, MO @ Blueberry Hill
Fri. Aug. 19 - Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi
Sat. Aug. 20 - Covington, KY (Cincinnati) @ Madison Live
Mon. Aug. 22 - Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
Tue. Aug. 23 - Richmond, VA @ The Broadberry
Thu. Aug. 25 - Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
Fri. Aug. 26 - Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Lanes
Sat. Aug. 27 - Portland, ME @ Portland House of Music & Events
Sun. Aug. 28 - Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz PDB
Wed. Aug. 31 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit Hall
Thu. Sep. 1 - Columbus, OH @ A&R Music Bar
Thu. Sep. 15 - Melbourne, AU @ 170 Russell
Fri. Sep. 16 - Sydney, AU @ Metro Theatre
Sat. Sep. 17 - Brisbane, AU @ The Triffid
Tue. Sep. 20 - Adelaide, AU @ The Gov
Wed. Sep. 21 - Perth, AU @ Magnet House
Fri. Sep. 23 - Wellington, NZ @ Opera House
Sat. Sep. 24 - Nelson, NZ @ Theatre Royal
Fri. Sep. 30 - Christchurch, NZ @ James Hay Theatre
Somehow Peter Prescott of Mission of Burma and Volcano Suns has another band that I never knew about. Minibeast already released an album that I completely missed back in 2012, and they are currently at work on the follow up, Free Will. Based on a track from the upcoming album, "High Sea," Minibeast shares some common sonic ground with Mission of Burma, but with an added emphasis on the groovy side of things. It's basically the noise and dissonance of Burma but heard through a 60s surf groove, as if Frankie and Annette were punks. You can listen to "High Sea" below. Minibeast currently have a Kickstarter to help fund the final production of Free Will. You can get more information on that here . It should be out sometime in June.
Earlier this week I was expressing sympathy for Limp Bizkit. Limp Bizkit just don't seem to be riding that surge of 90s nostalgia that all sorts of other terrible bands from that era are. Sure, they're terrible. But are they really that much worse than Filter, Alien Ant Farm, and other bands on those 90s nostalgia packages. And then this video is released. The first lyrics to the song are literally "Go fuck yourself." It then features Fred Durst sitting on a toilet, bikini clad chicks pretending to fellate garden hoses and leaf blowers, and Fred Durst talking about fucking bitches, all while wearing a hoodie and a backwards red baseball hat. Then Lil Wayne comes out. Please keep in mind Fred Durst is a 42 year old man.
Photo by Annabel Kean For their latest single, New Zealand's The Beths have released "Mother, Pray for Me." This is a heartbreaking ballad consisting of Elizabeth Stokes' vocals and guitar with just the slightest hint of organ. It's a deeply personal song for Stokes, made obvious with how intimately the song comes across. It truly feels almost confessional, and it's quite simply beautiful. The Beths are most known for huge little indie rock gems perfect for bopping along to, but "Mother, Pray for Me" is quite the opposite. Stokes' vocals and lyrics are right up front on this one, and I can't imagine it any other way. Elizabeth Stokes says of her latest single: “I cried the whole time writing it. It's not really about my mother, it's about me — what I hope our relationship is, what I think it is, what it maybe actually is, and what I can or can't expect out of it. “My mother is a first gen Indonesian immigrant, and very Catholic....
