** PLUS **
SLEATER-KINNEY
DOWN WITH BORING.
MARIKA HACKMAN
FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES
TATE MCRAE
THE LAST DINNER PARTY
+ LOADS MORE
ISSUE 84 · FEBRUARY 2024 · READDORK.COM
WITH... YARD ACT CRAWLERS MGMT WHILE SHE SLEEPS BODEGA + MORE
Courting. THE BIG ALBUMS FOR 2024.
FIRST UK APPEARANCE IN 20 YEARS
FINAL UK FESTIVAL
311 Alien Weaponry All Them Witches Alpha Wolf alt blk era atreyu bleed from within BRAND OF SACRIFICE calva louise Celestial Sanctuary charlotte sands Counterparts Crystal Lake deathbyromy defects Delilah Bon Dream State Dying Fetus Dying Wish Elvana Erra Fit For A King frozemode gel halocene Hanabie Harper Heriot HOLDING ABSENCE hoobastank HotWax Imminence karnivool Kelsy Karter & The Heroines KNIFE BRIDE lord of the lost MAKE THEM SUFFER MISSIO NOAHFINNCE OXYMORrONS PEST CONTROL Pinkshift RØRY Royal & The Serpent Scene Queen Scowl Shadow of Intent Silverstein SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL Speed STORM The Blue Stones the callous daoboys Those Damn Crows tigercub Underside Until I Wake Urne VUKOVI wargasm zulu
PLUS MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED
downloadfestival.co.uk DONINGTON PARK 14-16 JUNE 2024
(SUBJECT TO LICENCE)
(BILL SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
INDEX.
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Issue 84 | February 2024 | readdork.com | Down With Boring
Hiya, Dear Reader.
As we step into 2024, we welcome you back to our pages as we get Really Quite Excited about some of the big records set to arrive over the next twelve months. From a possible second album from Wet Leg, an “almost finished” record from Billie Eilish, and a vague hope we may hear from Wolf Alice before the year’s end, there’s a lot to get excited about. Yard Act leap out of Leeds and into our hearts with their brilliant second album, ‘Where’s My Utopia?’. Building on the foundations laid by their acclaimed debut, they venture into new realms, proving they’re no one trick ponies. In the world of debutants, Crawlers stand tall. Their first album, ‘The Mess We Seem To Make’, is a raw and compelling journey through the labyrinth of self-discovery and empowerment. It’s a testament to the transformative power of music, and a bold statement of arrival on the global stage. Courting, ever the mavericks, dazzle us with ‘New Last Name’. Their album is not just a collection of tracks but a tapestry of creativity, weaving together a narrative that challenges the conventional boundaries of the music album. All three long-time Dork faves feature on our covers this month for the first time. Elsewhere, the enigmatic MGMT return with ‘Loss of Life’, a title that belies the optimistic pulse throbbing at the core of this album. Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser continue to evolve, embracing a message of hope and openmindedness, proving that their journey is as unpredictable as it is fascinating. We’re also checking out new records from Bodega, While She Sleeps and Another Sky, plus profiling loads of big hopefuls for the year ahead. But that’s not all. This issue is bursting at the seams with interviews that take you behind the scenes and into the minds of artists like Tate McRae, Sleater-Kinney, Sprints, L Devine, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, and Marika Hackman. We also dive deep into the freshest albums from The Last Dinner Party, The Smile, and Folly Group, among others. And for those who live for the thrill of live music, our reports from Chappell Roan, Ashnikko, Wargasm, and more will set you right. Best get started then, eh?
‘Editor’ @stephenackroyd
readdork.com Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Contributing Editors Jake Hawkes, Jamie Muir, Martyn Young Scribblers Abigail Firth, Alexander Bradley, Ciaran Picker, Dan Harrison, Dillon Eastoe, Emma Quin, Jack Press, Finlay Holden, Jessica Goodman, Kelsey McClure, Minty Slater-Mearns, Neive McCarthy, Rebecca Kesteven, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Barney Curran, Chris Hornbecker, Darina, Derek Bremner, Enzo Iriarte, Frances Beach, Jamie MacMillan, Jennifer McCord, Jonah Freeman, Patrick Gunning, Pooneh Ghana, Sarah Louise Bennett, Steve Gullick, Travis Shinn
Top Ten. 04 06 07
TALK SHOW SUM 41 THE RHYTHM METHOD
Intro.
24 26 33 34 38 44
WHILE SHE SLEEPS CRAWLERS ANOTHER SKY MGMT COURTING BODEGA
Features.
08 10
TATE MCRAE DORK’S NIGHT OUT
Hype.
46 50 52 56 58
12 13
JUNODREAM RATBAG
Incoming.
Big In ‘24. 16
YARD ACT
62 62
SLEATER-KINNEY SPRINTS MARIKA HACKMAN L DEVINE FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES
REVIEWS THE LAST DINNER PARTY
63 64 65 65 66
FOLLY GROUP SPRINTS DEAD POET SOCIETY COURTING MARIKA HACKMAN
68 69 69 69
CHAPPELL ROAN VIVA SOUNDS WARGASM ASHNIKKO
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THE VACCINES
Get Out.
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TOP TEN. GOLD THE BEST HAPPENING
STUFF N O W.
SOUNDS
TALK SHOW are finally ready to drop their debut album.
Words: Sam Taylor.
it’s more than worth the wait. We caught up to find out more. Hi Harrison! How’s it going? Are you up to anything fun today? I’ve actually had a really nerdy day. I went guitar shopping on Denmark Street as I’m currently looking for something new to play this album on tour. It’s a bit of a whirlwind on Denmark Street; sometimes, you instantly know what you’re looking for, and other times it’s much more difficult.
→ From the pulsating heart of South London, a new chapter is being etched
by the indomitable Talk Show. Initially making their presence known on the capital’s music scene before the madness of the pandemic hit, in 2024 they finally stand poised to unleash ‘Effigy’, their much-awaited debut album that promises to capture the raw intensity of their live performances and distil it into nine tracks of unapologetic boldness. Due on the 16th February via Missing Piece Records, lead single, ‘Gold’, is a testament to this. It’s a track that doesn’t just demand attention — it seizes it, with relentless drums and a
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Tell us about your debut album ‘Effigy’ – when did you start work on it? What was your headspace like at the time? Writing pretty much started as soon as we came out of the studio from recording the previous EP. It felt like a pretty natural process aiming for something bigger and, on the whole, aimed to be a bit braver. I think that’s why we started to pull from a wider cross-section of influences. I’d been listening to a lot of Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine, stuff that was a lot harder and darker, with loads of textures and nuances. With NIN, it’s got so many different layers to it, which is what I really wanted to explore. How could we create an album that wasn’t one-dimensional and had a range of emotions? We talked a lot in the studio with Remi about the fact that there’s nothing interesting about screaming in a hurricane; it’s much more alluring and effective whispering instead.
"WE’VE BUILT AN EFFIGY TO A NIGHTCLUB, FROM THE What’s the album about? Who is the effigy for? MUSIC TO THE COVER" It’s not technically ‘about’ anything, but H A R R I S O N S WA N N
bassline that pulses with the lifeblood of the city’s night. Ready to make their grand opening statement, ‘Effigy’ is the sound of a band channelling their fire into an album that frontman Harrison Swann describes as bigger and braver than anything that’s come before. Trust us,
the main musical nods in the album, such as ‘Gold’ and ‘Catalonia’, are supposed to feel like you’re in a club. The main one we talk about a lot is the one in Blade, but the claustrophobia of the practical scene in Fallen Angels and Enter the Void played a massive part. I hate all the really reductive cliches about clubs, drugs, and ‘escapism’; in my eyes, they can also be really
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TOP TEN
intimidating and unsettling places, and so it was important to have a sense of that juxtaposition. It’s why my vocals were mixed to feel like they’re either the voice in your head or the person standing right next to you jam-packed in a club. For the title, I suppose, in short, we’ve built an effigy to a nightclub, from the music to the cover. Also, the fact that effigies aren’t just hated and burnt but also worshipped, and I felt that fit perfectly for the album. It isn’t a romantic ode to a club, and it’s not a damnation either. How did you approach curating the tracklisting? We were pretty much all on the same page when it came to the track listing. We knew it had to start with ‘Gold’ and go from there. It needed to take you through this club space we’d envisioned in the music. Ending on ‘Catalonia’ was also a total given; it’s where we really tried to hone in on creating an atmosphere that you could feel, so it made sense to finish there.
THE LYNKS EFFECT → Lynks has announced their debut album, ‘ABOMINATION’.
They’ve also shared a new single, ‘CPR’, which follows on from ‘(WHAT DID YOU EXPECT FROM) SEX WITH A STRANGER’, ‘NEW BOYFRIEND’ and ‘USE IT OR LOSE IT’, and arrives ahead of a headline tour that kicks off in April 2024. “There’s this temptation to shrink yourself and make yourself seem all helpless and vulnerable with those guys, so they get to feel like some Big Strong Man protecting you. CPR felt like the perfect metaphor for that weird dynamic,” Lynks explains. “I first had the idea for CPR while doing a first-aid course at my old job. I was mid-chest compression on my dummy, and suddenly the chorus just came into my head over the rhythm of my hands on the doll. I quickly ran to the toilet to do a voicenote, then got back to saving imaginary lives.” Of the album, set for release on 12th April, they add: “I think on the EPs, I was trying so hard to get anyone to pay attention. Early on I was like, ‘Well, every song needs to be a hilarious concept’. Whereas this album, there’s quite a few of those, but there’s also songs that aren’t necessarily funny, or they’re exploring an idea rather than being really specific.”
Did you hit upon any unexpected challenges during the record’s creation? I wouldn’t call it an unexpected challenge, but once we were in the studio with Remi, it took on this new whole lease of life. Remi really helped us pinpoint all the dark corners of the music and accentuate all the breaks. It was all these millisecond notes or pauses that the detail really started to shine through. It became a cardinal sin to play over the top of each other, especially me and Tom. So that got pretty intense and pushed us pretty damn hard to get better at what we were playing. How does ‘Gold’ fit into the album? ‘Gold’ really helped pave the way for the rest of the album. Whenever we’ve played it live to crowds, the response is always instantaneous, and it made us clock pretty early on like, “Wow we’ve got something here”. I’m really fuckin’ proud of that song. Do you think anything about the album will be a surprise to fans? It’s weird, and it’s different, but I know it’s hands down the best thing we’ve ever written. What would you most like to achieve with the album? The thing I’ve always said is I want to take this band/the album as far as it will go. Take it to the biggest stages and play it to the biggest crowds. Getting to Glasto wouldn’t be too shabby, either. Are there any debut albums from other artists you’re especially looking forward to right now? A band called Maruja joined us on tour this year back in Spring. Without a shadow of a doubt, them – plus they’re sound as fuck Is there anything else we should know? We’ve got some pretty special shows lined up for the next year, so keep your eyes peeled. P Talk Show’s debut album ‘Effigy’ is out 16th February.
SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS → Death Cab For Cutie and The Postal
Service have confirmed their previouslyteased London show. The date is part of a
wider tour that will see them both performing albums in full – The Postal Service’s ‘Give Up’ and Death Cab For Cutie’s ‘Transatlanticism’ – with the London stop taking place on 25th August for All Points East. Lead vocalist and guitarist Ben Gibbard says: “I know for a fact I will never have a year again like 2003. The Postal Service record came out, ‘Transatlanticism’ came out. These two records will be on my tombstone, and I’m totally fine with that. I’ve never had a more creatively inspired year.”
TIME FLIES
→ Sea Girls have unveiled details for third album, ‘Midnight Butterflies’.
The twelve-track record will be released 14th June via the band’s new independent label Alt. Records, and features previous singles ‘Weekends & Workdays’ and ‘Young Strangers’. Frontman Henry Camamile says: “It feels and sounds like a fledgling band making their energetic untainted debut record. It’s super optimistic and euphoric. There was a huge freedom in making this record. It’s an exciting time for music across genres, and who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?” READDORK.COM 5.
COVER STORY
As we charge headfirst into a new year, we’re already getting rather excited about some of the big albums we’re expecting to arrive over the next twelve months. Here are some of the best. 16. DORK
YARD ACT
When Yard Act found themselves locked in a battle for a Number 1 album at the start of 2022, it felt like an impossible dream. As they talk to Jake Hawkes ahead of its follow up this March, this time, they’re searching for Utopia. photography by DEREK BREMNER.
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COVER STORY
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CRAWLERS
The 2023 Hype List alumni are ready to make 2024 their own. by ALI SHUTLER. photography by DEREK BREMNER.
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FEATURE
D by FINLAY HOLDEN. photography by JONAH FREEMAN.
MGMT navigate positivity, partnerships, and the idea that love conquers all with their new album, ‘Loss Of Life’.
GMT.
ipping in and out of the mainstream zeitgeist at a whim, US psychpop duo MGMT have long been challenging to pin down. With their fifth album, ‘Loss of Life’, Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser are outrunning their shadows to push forward a message of optimism and open-mindedness. MGMT’s last full-length effort, ‘Little Dark Age’, saw a resurgence in popularity for the group, with the widespread title track becoming the soundtrack to social activism within online platforms and racking up streams to match the status of their iconic debut record. However, far from capitalising on this unintended success, Andrew and Ben simply watched it unfold from the sidelines. No longer the ambitious but satirical stage performers they were when they met in college 20 years ago, the pair have found freedom in the more unseen parts of the craft. “There has been a flipping over the course of our long friendship and career as a band,” Andrew observes. “As we’ve progressed over the years, we’ve gotten more comfortable being in the studio, making sounds and recording. Last time we were touring, I loved it, and we had a lot of great times, but I don’t really talk a lot on the mic. I can say for myself, I don’t feel like an entertainer anymore.” Instead of putting on a front for crowds, the guys put more emphasis on entertaining themselves and their
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MGMT
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Cour -ting COVER STORY
With their debut full-length, Courting set themselves up as indie-pop’s plucky new disrupters. As they return for its follow up, ‘New Last Name’, they’re playing a much bigger game. by NEIVE MCCARTHY. photography by DEREK BREMNER.
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ll the world’s a stage, but Courting are not merely players. No, though they are about to deliver the performance of a lifetime, the Liverpool four-piece are directors in their own right. A band well-versed in making their own rules already, as they return with their second album, ‘New Last Name’, Courting are the ones pulling the strings more than ever. They’ve never been ones for following convention, and on the follow-up to ‘Guitar Music’, they prove this with every unsuspecting beat. ‘New Last Name’ is an act of reinvention, but not in the conventional sense – it’s an alternate world to its predecessor, reinventing genre and long-settled rules and the very concept of an album itself.
g.
COURTING
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ON a Sleater-Kinney’s return marks a renewed commitment to urgency, authenticity, and the unpredictable path of rock. by ALI SHUTLER. photography by CHRIS HORNBECKER.
ROPE
H
aving released ten brilliant albums over the past thirty years, SleaterKinney are undeniable indie-rock legends. Essays have been written about the impact of 1997’s breakout album ‘Dig Me Out’ while the clear musical chemistry between Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker has constantly pushed the band from riot grrrl and beyond. In 2015, a ten-year hiatus was brought to a close with ‘No Cities To Love’, an album that was as urgent and vicious as anything that had come before, but despite SleaterKinney’s sprawling and influential legacy, the band really aren’t that interested in it all. “I need to feel like I’m doing something meaningful, even if it’s only meaningful to me,” CARRIE explains Corin. Sleater-
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Kinney have never done an anniversary tour, and the closest they’ve come to revisiting old albums was their 2022 ‘Dig Me Out’ covers record, which saw the likes of St. Vincent, Self Esteem and The Linda Lindas put their spin on the iconic album. “Nostalgia is a very satisfying feeling to luxuriate in, but there is a cynicism to it,” continues Carrie. “You’re basically saying the present is not as good as the past. It can be corrosive to not believe that right now is worthwhile.” Live, Sleater-Kinney still celebrate every corner of their back catalogue, “but we’re really trying to embrace who we are now and what the world is, for better or worse,” says Carrie. This brings us to eleventh album ‘Little Rope’, perhaps the perfect introduction to the spiky, melodic might of Sleater-Kinney. “You never want a new BROWNSTEIN record to be met with an eye
“SO MUCH O F S L E AT E R K I N N E Y IS ABOUT CONNECTION. IT’S ABOUT C O M M U N I T Y. IT’S ABOUT A SHARED EXPERIENCE”
SLEATER-KINNEY
E READDORK.COM 47.
FEATURES
Marika Hackman’s new album ‘Big Sigh’ is an exercise in catharsis it’s soul-baring, vulnerable, and melds together all of her previous works to create something with an identity entirely of its own. by REBECCA KESTEVEN photography by STEVE GULLICK
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ou’re staring at a blank piece of paper or screen and desperately wishing something creative, cool, or even mildly interesting would pop into your head… but nothing comes. Writer’s block might be one of the most frustrating things to happen to a writer, and there’s nothing quite like emerging out of a lengthy bout of anxious introspection off the back of COVID lockdowns to hammer the nails into that lyrical coffin. Marking a welcome return to the music stage after a four-year hiatus (minus 2020’s ‘Covers’ - a creative ten-track reimagining of songs from artists from Grimes to Radiohead), Marika Hackman describes her fourth LP ‘Big Sigh’ as the hardest record she has ever made. Written over a two-and-a-half-year period, she compares songwriting to carving a sculpture out of ice, which you slowly chip away at until a song reveals itself - except this time, sitting in her studio in London, it felt like everything had frozen over for good. “It was so much harder to break through like the muscle had been rested, and it just didn’t feel as close to the surface as it had before.” That was until one night in 2021 in a pub toilet (of all places). Sneaking off to re-listen to a demo she’d recorded earlier that day, the Londoner realised with relief that the writer’s block which had iced over her ability to write songs for so long had finally begun to
“ It ’s re al l y im p o r t a n t to not le t vu ln e ra b ilit y b e c o m e a fe ar ” MARIKA
HACKMAN
thaw. “It was mainly the fact that I was even listening back to it - like, sneaking off to go and listen to it - it showed me that I was excited about something that I’d done. The main feeling was just relief; I felt like I’d broken through the writer’s block. It didn’t mean that the rest were all then easy to write; it was just proof to me that I could still do it… which,” she laughs, “is quite an important thing to hold onto.” That demo would become ‘Hanging’ - a delicate piano-led track about processing the end of a relationship, which crescendos into a roar of grungy guitars. The track mirrors what the album’s themes would also come to be: a clashing of opposites. Using different sonic dynamics, which err on the uncomfortable at times, Marika explores the tensions between loud versus quiet, the industrial inner city versus the pastoral, and childhood versus adulthood
MARIKA HACKMAN
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FEATURES
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes continue their exploration of silliness, selfcritique and identity with their new album, ‘Dark Rainbow’. by JACK PRESS
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FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES
"T
his is where I’m doing my healing; if I see something, I’m trying not to be reactionary,” says Frank Carter. On a miserably wet Monday, the frontman of The Rattlesnakes is practising blue sky thinking and turning over a new leaf. “If after 10 minutes I still wanna call someone a cunt, then I will, because at least then it’s 10 minutes, and that’s still a shitty thing they’ve done, and I fancy getting into it.” Scrap that; we haven’t lost the punk rock renegade just yet. ‘Dark Rainbow’ ushers in a new era for Frank Carter and Dean Richardson, aka Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes. Whereas 2020’s ‘Sticky’ poured pop hooks into post-punk, ‘Dark Rainbow’ languishes in the lounge-pop multiverse Arctic Monkeys made a reality on ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’. Since sharing singles ‘Man Of The Hour’ and ‘Brambles’, the duo have gone toe-to-toe with the internet trolls. “I’m defending it now because it’s fun. It’s not fire with fire, it’s silliness with silliness, cause all I’m getting online is ‘What is this shite’, and I’m like, ‘It’s just a song, it’s not complex’.” “I could sit there and explain to them what it means to me and why I wrote it, but they don’t give a shit,” proclaims Frank, who’s felt like he’s been hit by a tonne of bricks daily by fans. “What they want is rage, not because they’re angry with me, but because they’re frustrated with themselves, and I was an integral part of their process in the way that they dealt with life, and now I’m gone,
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