Five Favourites: Umarells

Having just shared their debut EP, One More Day, Manchester-based dream-pop group Umarells create lush, glistening soundscapes, fizzing with a rippling raw emotion. Combining elements of shoegaze, grunge and indie-pop, they offer heartfelt reflections on themes such as grief and failed relationships, each song offering their own unique sparkling musicality.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspires them. So, following the release of their debut EP, we caught up with Imogen, Josh, Ryan Sarah and Fuchsia to find out about the five albums that inspire them the most. Read about their five favourites, and watch the beautiful video for stirring single ‘June‘, below…

Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising
I first heard Natalie of Weyes Blood’s gorgeous Carpenter-esque voice on Drugdealer’s 2016 album The End Of  Comedy. When Titanic Rising was released in 2019 it resonated as the theme of an era of my life. Blending ‘70s pop vocals with romantic space age synth cynicism I was hooked from my first listen and rushed to see the masterpiece live in Manchester venue Yes’ pink room. ‘Picture Me Better’ – a song written about the loss of a friend – perfectly encapsulates heart wrenching grief and the hope to hear the impossible “call from beyond”. A song that inspired me to pour my own grief into our song ‘One More Day’.

Burial – Untrue
I vividly remember the first time I stumbled upon this album while exploring a friend’s CD collection. It was a revelation – nothing I had ever heard compared to its dark, gritty sound, interwoven with ethereal melodies and harmony. So melancholic. I often listened to it on my bike rides home through the city centre at 5am, after finishing my shift at a nightclub; feeling as though I was the only soul awake in the world. It’s perfect for those late nights when you’re caught between the desire to drift off and the inability to do so. The sampling on this album is incredible; the original sources are so cleverly transformed that I found myself spending hours online trying to uncover their origins. It’s a remarkable masterclass in genre-bending and structure, carving out its own distinct niche within the electronic scene. Its sound remains refreshingly futuristic, even today.

Pixies – Doolittle 
All amazing tracks and completely seminal. I became obsessed with Pixies when I was fifteen, after loading up my mp3 player for a school trip to Sorrento. I’d heard that Nirvana’s loud-quiet-loud structures were ripping off Pixies, so I downloaded some songs from Limewire. Listening to them on a coach driving along the West coast of Italy really cemented the tracks for me and I was kind of blown away by it. The guitar work is just perfect to me – simple driving bass lines, and Joey’s surf inspired riffs and bends are just amazing. The range of sounds in Frank’s voice means the album never gets boring and it contrasts with Kim’s vocals so well. To top it off, ‘Gouge Away’ is just the best final track on an album for me.

The Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream
My favourite album changes constantly, but if I had to choose one right now I’d pick Siamese Dream. My first introduction to Smashing Pumpkins was at about seven or eight years old hearing them on The Simpsons episode ‘Homerpalooza’. A few years later when I hit my full-on emo phase I delved into their back catalogue and Siamese Dream was the album that stuck out to me. I’ve never got sick of listening to it. Billy and James’ guitar playing on this record is just insane to me. The dynamics of the album too are just so great, the fact you’ve got heavy songs like ‘Geek USA’ but the softer songs like ‘Luna’ and ‘Disarm’ but they work perfectly together when listening to the album in full. Billy’s lyrics as well – “Fool enough to almost be it, cool enough to not quite see it. Doomed.” on ‘Mayonaise’, incredible. Whenever I’m writing new music I find this is the album I reference the most.

Big Thief – Two Hands
This is such a beautiful album – the lyrics are so raw and heartfelt – it’s such incredible story telling. The album flows from really soft gentle tracks to heavy gritty ones so effortlessly, and everything about the way it’s recorded sounds so natural. It came out when I first got back into playing music after a really long break and I would just listen to it on repeat. The whole album reminds me of a time when I really started to feel comfortable with myself and listening to it still reminds me of that. Seeing them live at the Apollo last year was an awesome experience!

Huge thanks to Umarells for sharing their five favourites with us! Watch the beautiful new video for stirring single ‘June’ here:

One More Day, the debut album from Umarells, is out now via Fear Of Missing Out Records.

Photo Credit: Kitty Handley

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Five Favourites: Zombina and the Skeletones

Having initially blasted onto the Liverpool scene back in 1998, local ‘horror-rockers’ Zombina and the Skeletones have previously wowed audiences with their eccentric energy and intoxicating fusion of sounds supporting the likes of Shonen Knife, The Damned and Misfits. Now, having officially come out of retirement last year, the band have just released their first full-length album in ten years, The Call Of Zombina. Interweaving an eclectic array of sounds, from uptempo garage-punk and girl group pop leanings, to haunting baroque-inspired goth-rock and a swirling punk energy, the album offers a fierce return to form from the Merseryside legends; an exquisite, immersive cacophony that’s not for the faint-hearted. 

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspires them. So, following the album’s release, we spoke to Zombina and Dr Horror from ZATS about some of the albums that have influenced them the most. Have a read, and then watch the video for immense new single ‘Don’t Kick My Coffin‘ below, before listening to the full new album in all its glory. 

Zombina’s Picks:

Cocteau Twins – Heaven Or Las Vegas
This is a weird one for me, because I’m not a huge album listener. I’ve always been into bands and artists, and songs in a standalone sense, but poverty and ADHD impatience have always had me flitting around mixtapes and ‘Best Of’ compilations. I’d never have described Cocteau Twins sound as my main kind of thing, but yet I’ve returned to this record again and again and again over the years. It’s been the soundtrack for more scenes in my life’s journey than I can believe: it’s been playing whilst I’m de-cluttering, breastfeeding through the night, working out, reading my bestie’s tarot, shopping, grieving a loss, fucking OR making love (two very different things, and it works for both for me, which is no mean feat!), walking to job interviews, hungover in the tour bus, the list goes on… I genuinely listen to it several times a week. I’m Neurodivergent and I recognise this is one of my top comfort albums. The two times I have managed to write and record music as a solo project, I have only been able to eschew writer’s block by taking a “Cocteau Twins approach” to lyrics, and just letting word sounds tumble out ad-hoc. As someone who has spent a lifetime singing lyrics I rate super highly, written by my best friend, I really think was the only way I could have got past the inner critic to explore the musicality I was trying to access, and I credit this album for that.

Roky Erikson – The Evil One
I don’t remember how soon into our BFF-ship Doc Horror and I started listening to this… Oh shit, wait, yes I do – it must have been almost right away aged fifteen and sixteen, because we recorded a cover of ‘I Walked With A Zombie’ from this album on our home 4-track for the very first Zombina and the Skeletones demo! I’ve still never watched the film about Roky. I think it would upset me too much. I’m a real sucker for the under-dog, people that have struggled and suffered injustices, especially surrounding mental health. I was already floundering my way into the mental healthcare system myself by fifteen. I remember hearing about Roky’s story, and it was never extricable from how I felt listening to his music. I heard the deepest pain and the most jubilant perseverance in his voice; I held on to the thought that he had come out the other side of a dark and brutal life chapter, and still had this creative passion bursting out of him, and sounding so fucking GOOD! He was also someone who had paved the way before us. We were teenage horror movie fanatics, trying to form a band around that shared passion, and then we discover this guy and the genre he named himself – Horror Rock! I was planning to choose my top five tracks from the album, but it’s too hard. Just listen to it. Many times. Let it permeate you like it has me. I implore you!!!

Doc Horror’s Picks:

The B-52’s – The B-52’s
Zombina introduced me to the B-52’s via Cosmic Thing back when we were in school, and that was revelatory enough, but their self-titled debut turned out to really be where it’s at for me. For our generation B-52’s meant ‘Love Shack’ and ‘Rocko’s Modern Life’ and, like, ‘The Flintstones Theme’, not that there’s nothing wrong with that, obviously – but this album is something else entirely. We found it on cassette in a charity shop sometime in the late ’90s and I couldn’t believe how punk-rock this thing is. It’s got this sort of proto-Riot Rrrrl quality to it, but somehow also sounds like flying saucers coming over the horizon. They’ve somehow got way more depth than they get credited for, but are also exactly as silly as they seem. Cindy Wilson’s vocal on ‘Hero Worship’ is possibly the best vocal on anything ever! We caught them live in Manchester years later when they did Funplex and they were still phenomenal. Experiences like that are great training for staving off the I’M GETTING TOO OLD FOR THIS SHIT feeling that can come twenty odd years into being a band. Fun is fun, no matter who you are. Everybody goes to parties!

45 Grave – Sleep In Safety
I remember coming across this LP when Zombina and the Skeletones was very new, and seeing that amazing band photo on the back cover and immediately finding new role models in 45 Grave before I even heard their music. I purchased it at the next opportunity and found myself utterly baffled by the music on first listen. From what I’ve heard, it seems like I’m not alone in that. A lot of people find Sleep In Safety quite difficult to get into, but you have to stick with it!  Once you get past the tonal whiplash of the whole “oh it’s a sort of dark prog record… no wait it’s hardcore punk… oh what’s this surf instrumental doing here?” experience, it’s actually incredibly rewarding – and very much ended up as a template for what we do, in a lot of ways. It was like suddenly being given a license to disregard the constraints of genre. And then you get to the chorus in ‘Partytime’ and realise that this was the song that seemed to be coming out of that skeleton’s mouth in that one scene in The Return Of The Living Dead – the movie that you and Zombina watched alongside The Rocky Horror Picture Show a few months back and that’s what inspired you to start a spooky band in the first place -, and it’s all come full circle… But you never would have guessed that it was the same band because the chorus from ‘Partytime’ sounds like some AC/DC pastiche. Again… baffling. A couple of years later, one of our first European shows was opening for Dinah Cancer’s post-45 Grave band Penis Flytrap. She turned out to be really nice. Not nearly as scary as you’d think. Whenever I put on Sleep In Safety, I find myself transported to ZATS year one and I’m filled with the excitement of future possibilities. It’s still a weird listen even now. Our track ‘Dead Birds’ on The Call Of Zombina is a bit of a love letter to this sound.

Girls At Our Best – Pleasure
I don’t really ever discover new current music. Instead, my version of that seems to be stumbling across things from the eighties that are at least new to me – often from bands like Girls At Our Best, who split up around the time I was born. I have no clue how Pleasure even ended up on my radar. It seemed to just appear in my life a couple of years ago without me really noticing and I just kept finding the various tracks stuck in my head and before long I was just binging it daily and playing it to people, like “check this out…”. I’m not sure if I’ve successfully converted any fans yet. I ended up listening to it constantly while writing The Call Of Zombina but if you were to play to our record side by side with this one you probably wouldn’t make any connection between the two. Pleasure is all major key sunshine and The Call Of Zombina is more like a night in Dracula’s castle… But it was very subtly informed by Pleasure on some subliminal level. It’s just great. Every song has about 20 legitimate hooks apiece, loads of inventiveness, earworms and strange instrumental choices. You have to wonder who they were and what happened to them. They made this one excellent album then fucked off.

Huge thanks to Zombina and Doc Horror for sharing their Five Favourites with us! Watch the new video for ‘Don’t Kick My Coffin’ below:

The Call Of Zombina, the brand new album from Zombina and the Skeletones, is out now via 9×9 Records. Buy it now.

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EP: Piney Gir – Cosmic Upside Down

With some twenty years’ experience in music, Piney Gir has earned a reputation as something of a go-to in the world of indie – there’s been collaborations and support slots with pretty much everyone, from big names like Ride, Gaz Coomes and Noel Gallagher to less-heralded indie acts such as The Hidden Cameras and Sweet Baboo. Wikipedia also notes that Piney – who was born in Kansas, but is now based in London – is also a journalist, cookbook author, and puppeteer. If that’s not enough to be going on with, Piney’s interest in witchcraft has led her to recently produce a trilogy of EPs. Starting with 2021’s mini space odyssey Astral Spectra and continued with the indie pop-magick exploration of Alchemy Hand in 2022, now latest release Cosmic Upside Down furthers her previous releases’ combination of twanging guitar stylings, deceptively simple lilts and Gir’s trademark honeyed vocals.

Opener ‘Show Me The Lightning’ has that guitar ringing right up front, while its lyrics speak of the magical excitement of heavy weather. As the track swells into its chorus, synths are introduced, which then swirl throughout, taking us further into the ethereal storm. Following this, the EP’s title track is a tale of tarot, with its title (and lyrics) discussing the ‘uncertainty’ of the cards’ meanings – especially when they are drawn inverted. The Cups “lead the way” but The Moon, despite its light, is still the most ambiguous. The Ace of Wands comes “out of the blue”, just like the flurry of sax that precedes it; threatening to take the track in another direction, before arpeggiated keyboard brings us back to the shuffle-and-draw process.

Switching themes, the lyrics of ‘What Have We Done for Nature?’ discuss climate change, with its keyboard-led backing evoking Jane Weaver, and elements of its percussion drawing from both White Album Beatles and ‘60s girl group rhythms.  This is no polemic (which doesn’t seem Piney’s style), more a holistic consideration of what nature gives us, compared to what we give back. Not much seems to be the conclusion.  

Closer ‘Witches & Covens’ is, musically, the gentlest track on the EP, but returns to the themes of uncertainty found in Cosmic Upside Down. Devotion here, much like for the subjects in its title, is a given, even when the subject of the song “twists” the narrator’s “melon”. Happy Mondays are just one of a few nods to other artists here, with a lift from Elvis’ ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ also featuring prominently. With the further reference to “stars align[ing] in East LA”, the whole feels like the tale of a well-versed musician grappling with the other-worldly, and the all-too-worldy – perhaps not coincidental, given Piney’s bio to date.

With an impressive degree of sonic density, as the musical experience of Piney and her backing band would suggest, these four intriguing songs draw the listener in to return and immerse themselves fully in the EP’s swirling majestic allure. It’s rather like the repetition of a witchy incantation, or laying out a spread of cards, you might say. A fascinating addition to an already decades-long career, Cosmic Upside Down suggests that Piney Gir will have us under her spell for some time to come.

Cosmic Upside Down, the new EP from Piney Gir, is out now via No Distance Records. The EP was produced and mixed by Tomas Greenhalf at Direktorenhaus and mastered by Kevin Tuffy at Manmade Mastering.

John McGovern
@etinsuburbiaego

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INTERVIEW: Scrunchies

With their latest album, Colossal, being one of the last albums that the legendary Steve Albini recorded and mixed, and having supported the likes of Built To Spill and Otoboke Beaver on tour, Minneapolis based riot grrrl-inspired band Scrunchies are cemented themselves as definite ones to watch and are new favourites for sure. I can’t get enough of their raw punk energy and grunge-tinged empowering allure, and highly recommend you treat your ears to the album as soon as possible.

We caught up with Scrunchies to find out more and chat about the experience of recording with Steve Albini, their enjoyment of performing live, their thoughts on the inclusivity and accessibility of the music scene right now, and more. Have a read, and then make sure you watch their fantastically fun music video, created in collaboration with Los Angeles-based “dance aerobics celebration Pony Sweat!

Hi Scrunchies! Welcome to Get In Her Ears! How are you doing today?
We’re good! We are driving home from tour, somewhere between Kansas City, Missouri and Minneapolis, Minnesota. We’re excited to get home to our pets, partners, and beds.

Are you able to tell us a bit about how you initially all got together to start creating music? 
Laura and Danielle were both in bands that had played together over the years (Kitten Forever and Bruise Violet) and ended up playing in a Buzzcocks cover band together called Buzzcunts. We loved playing music together and it had been a while since Laura had fronted/played guitar in a band, so we formed Scrunchies around 2017. We had a few bassists over the years and we met Jeremy through his band Double Grave and had him fill in on some shows on bass, including going on a tour with Built To Spill in 2022. We had such a fun time we asked Jeremy to be permanently in the band and wrote the majority of Colossal with him. 

I love your empowering riot grrrl energy and scuzzy punk sounds, but who would you consider to be your main musical influences?
We all grew up listening to Nirvana, so basically any bands connected to them were hugely influential to us as we were growing up: Sleater-Kinney, the Raincoats, The Wipers, The Breeders, Sonic Youth, the Jesus Lizard, Babes in Toyland, Bratmobile, Hole. We’ve been getting a lot of Fugazi as a reference to our music lately which we didn’t really seek out, but we can appreciate. We have also been listening to a lot of pop music in the car (Charli XCX and Olivia Rodrigo)!

You’ve just released your new album Colossal, which is super exciting! Are you able to tell us about the inspirations behind it? Are there any particular themes running through it?
Feminist themes run throughout the album with an exploration of the insidiousness of modern gender expectations, power, and bodies. I (Laura) keep saying that this album is about “sex, death, and rollercoasters”, but that’s not really catching on outside of my own head… I write lyrics that veer more towards surrealistic and poetic imagery with the hope that they can resonate with people in different ways that are impactful to them. This is also the first full album we’ve written since my former band broke up; it is as significant as a long term relationship ending, and exploring that shift is a big part of the content of this record.

The album was recorded and mixed by the late, great Steve Albini. What was the experience of working with him like? And how did the process differ from your previous releases?
We all have different feelings about the recording process in general, but this specific experience was amazing for all three of us. We love Steve’s music and admire his influences on music culture (including his ability to self-critique and embrace growth). Not only has his work had a huge impact on us and our musical careers, but from the minute we walked into the studio it was immediately a comfortable, honest experience. We were kinda nervous but it quickly became easily collaborative and he had our best interests in mind and wanted to help us get what we wanted. Laura started doing vocal takes and he was like “wait, i have this microphone specifically made for women’s voices”. It immediately made a huge difference in our sound. It was so clear he cared about the outcome and didn’t phone it in at all. He was extremely professional and understood everything and the vision immediately. It honestly probably spoiled us for future recording sessions.

Following the album, you’ve just been out on a big US tour. How’s that been for you? And what can fans expect from a Scrunchies show?
Tour was good, despite the fact that the U.S touring landscape has changed a lot over the past few years and is really difficult right now. But that’s a whole other interview! As far as what people can expect, we like to put a lot of energy into our shows. One of our pet peeves is when a loud and exciting band doesn’t seem excited to be playing their own songs. I (Laura)  really love performing; a big reason I’m in a band is because I like playing shows, so I make sure the shows feel fun and exciting because I think playing shows is fun and I’m excited to be playing them. We like to be as loud as we can be at every show, and we have a lot of good energy together – people have commented “you guys really enjoy playing together and look like you’re having fun” and we are!

And has there been a specific show you’ve played over the years that stands out as a favourite, or particularly memorable?
We’ve opened for Otoboke Beaver from Japan twice and they are SO fun to play with – they go out of their way to meet and interact with their opening bands, take photos with them, etc. Touring with Built to Spill and Prism Bitch in 2022 was such a good experience and they were all the kindest, coolest people. We played Treefort in Boise, Idaho outside during a snowstorm, which was like playing in a snow-globe. 

And when you’re out on tour, or playing gigs, are there any particular essentials that you like to have with you to keep you going?
In no particular order:
Inhaler; Almond butter and bread; Lots of coffee; Red Bull; Eyemask and earplugs for bed; Breakfast sandwich; Swimsuit in case of pool; Quiet time/introvert time; Athletic shorts; A good pillow.

As we’re an organisation with a focus on supporting new and marginalised artists, I just wondered how you feel the industry is for them at the moment? And do you feel much has changed over the years in its treatment of female and queer artists?
Yes and no. The music scene (at least from our vantage point) is definitely more diverse than it was a number of years ago. It is less common to see an all white-cis-male lineup every day of the week than it was a few years ago. There are many venues that have developed Codes of Conduct for their shows that adapt a zero-tolerance policy for harassment. Many places have done away with gendered bathrooms. Many organisers ensure there is an accessibility note for spaces. There are more women/non-men, queer, and BIPOC folks who have made their own spaces to create and share their art. This influx of diversity in the music scene has pulled in different genres (theatre, art, etc) that showcase a huge variety of weird/queer/unique creativity in a bunch of different mediums. Despite all of this, there is still racism, sexism, ableism, fatphobia, homophobia, and transphobia that continues to permeate the music and art scenes. Much of it has become slightly more covert than overt in the past few years, but it’s still there. We see it happening to us, we see it happening to others. This continues to remind us that we need to stand up for and take care of each other – we hope that we are doing what we can to compassionately hold each other to accountability.

And are there any other new bands or artists that you’d recommend we check out at the moment? 
We played with an awesome band called Violet Approach in Kansas City, amazing queer feminist punk band! The two bands that opened our Colossal release show- In Lieu and Mary Jam – are two of our favourites in Minneapolis right now. Heet Deth out of Chicago are a two piece who sound HUGE. Amazing live show, fantastic people. Skorts out of NYC blew us away at our Brooklyn show at Baby’s All Right, we’re so excited to see what comes next for them! There are so many amazing young queer kids starting pump bands in the Midwest- we had the opportunity to talk about them and the bands in Minneapolis that THEY love in this article – lots to check out in there!

Is there anything else you’d like to add about upcoming plans or particular thoughts you’d like to mention? 
Right now we’re focusing on promoting Colossal, getting back on the road (along with some at-home shows) and hopefully getting over to Europe! 

Massive thanks to Scrunchies for answering our questions! Make sure you watch the fantastically fun video for ‘Generator‘ now:


Colossal, the new album from Scrunchies, is out now via Learning Curve Records. Order here.

Photo Credit: Darin Kamnetz

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