waxahatchee – and so she thinks

Waxahatchee at Oval Space

admin — Tue, 12 Jun 2018 09:18:53 +0000

It’s a Monday night, but the pubs around Oval Space are heaving, as this little corner of London gets ready to welcome Waxahatchee.

Tonight is the first gig of the tour, and with it comes a new support. Ex-Void might be dressed in matching pastel, but their tunes are certainly not tranquil. Led by Alanna McArdle and Owen Williams, former members of the now defunct pop-punk group Joanna Gruesome, they make vital and viscious music that ricochets around the warehouse. Treating us to a short set, they blast through tunes including recent single Boyfriend.

Waxahatchee enter the stage whilst the sun is setting outside. Katie Crutchfield is seems genuinely happy to be joined by her band, and the five piece elevate solo tunes to bold songs. Symphonic and aggressive, they play from across the outfits four albums, American Weekend (2012), Cerulean Salt (2013), Ivy Tripp (2015), and Out in the Storm (2017). Never Been Wrong, Sparks Fly and Poison get some rapturous response. The encore is a muted affair, with Alison playing three songs on her guitar, including a new one.

Field Mouse – Episodic

admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 13:49:25 +0000

Released on Topshelf Records, August 5^th

Field Mouse are far less timid than their name may suggest. New album Episodic sees the American band (Rachel Browne – vocals/guitar, Andrew Futral – guitar, Saysha Heinzman – bass, Tim McCoy – drums, Zoë Browne – synth/rhodes/vocals) up tempo and angst, with riffs that pound and vocals yearning with both pleasure and pain. The album is packed with guests, Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz) sings on Do You Believe Me?, Allison Crutchfield (Swearin’/Waxahatchee) lend her vocals to Out Of Context, on which Joseph D’Agostino (Cymbals Eat Guitars) also plays guitar and sings.

The grungey influences of each of these musicians is evident, with things shifting away from the shoegaze vibes of debut Hold Still Life to something more frantic and potent. Accessory is gloriously spikey, whilst Beacons is a more melodic and epic centrepiece. Some how Half Life managed to be both fast and with a gentle lilt, and title track Episodic is super bouyant, with a melody line more than inspired by Los Campesinos’ You, Me, Dancing!

The album ends with the thrashing crescendo of repeated refrain ‘it hurts’ on Out Of Context. For the listener, it’s been something of a delight.

Waxahatchee – The Dirt

admin — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 21:06:40 +0000

Sadly, Katie Crutchfield, better known as Waxahatchee, had to pull out of her Wichita birthday show at Islington Assembly Hall earlier this week, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t get our fill of punchy rawness, unsettling guitar and powerful lyrics. New single Dirt is one of the most upbeat from recent album Ivy Tripp, but just as gritty as anything else from that record of tangled emotions. Bitter and bruised, she sings ‘I’m a basement brimming with nothing great.’ She lies.

Released October 30th on Wichita.

Waxahatchee – Ivy Tripp

admin — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 14:19:00 +0000

Ivy Tripp is a term that Katie Crutchfield, her band Waxahatchee, invented to describe the directionless feeling experienced by modern twenty somethings and her album of the same name is the soundtrack to that experience. Taut in execution and tender in sensibility, it’s an album of growth and reflection, this follow up to 2013’s Cerulean Salt indicating a maturity and jostling resilience. There’s a sense of potent authenticity to it, songs revealing a tightly packed vacuum of frustration as well as a vibrant and steadfast core. Guitars aggressively ride forward as the lyrics analyse experience, in this riotous album of spectacular discordance.

Featuring rhythmic opener Breathing, sweet and tender Air, the hypnotic State By Noon and rocky confidence of Poison, whirling guitars and pounding drums shimmer together throughout in a steely union. In fact the whole album, regardless of style and tempo, is brilliantly direct in style and acute in sensibility. Sometimes the frantic pace seems to be alluding to the gritty determination to get going and the frustration felt by limitations, whereas at other the step back suggests weariness and fear.
In a rare articulate press release, Crutchfield explains that ‘My life has changed a lot in the last two years, and it’s been hard for me to process my feelings other than by writing songs. A running theme is steadying yourself on shaky ground and reminding yourself that you have control in situations that seem overwhelming … or just being cognizant in moments of deep confusion or sadness, and learning to really feel emotions and to grow from that.’
Ivy Tripp sparkles with force and exploration. Crutchfield is growing up well.
Released 6th April 2015 on Wichita Recordings in the UK.