Weekly digest #75

Featuring Dinosaur Jr, Muelas, The Mars Volta, Björk, Bob Vylan and more

📷 Dinosaur Jr (by Jeff Fowler)

You won’t know if from this newsletter, and my band t-shirt certainly wouldn’t give anything away, but pop is a regular soundtrack in our home and car. Mrs T’s radio station of choice, London’s Capital Radio, hasn’t change since before she was a teenager and over the years she’s been an important part of expanding my musical horizons.

So on Monday we trekked across London to Wembley Stadium to see Harry Styles and Shania Twain. There’s a pretty good possibility I was the only one attending in a Deafheaven t-shirt, but it was the baby pink Sunflower one, so perfectly appropriate among the glitter, feather boas and other decorations on show.

And what an absolutely joyful show it was. It was only my second stadium concert, but unlike some of the pop gigs I’ve been to that have had a slightly uncomfortable undertone – think: town centre after the pubs chuck out, this was just 98,000 or so kids (and some older ones) having an incredible time. I could have done without whoever behind me was screaming in my eye every now and then, but that aside, from the stage outwards it was overtly inclusive, musically interesting and all very danceable.

Now back to the regular direction of my listening and your latest weekly digest of punk rock, alt rock and indie music news and writing.

The links are mainly taken from my social media feeds, so if you want more of this sort of thing than you can follow me on Facebook, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon (I’m also on Instagram).

Headlines

Dinosaur Jr. announce new album There Near (Consequence of Sound)

Bob Vylan take legal action against BBC over Glastonbury controversy (The Independent)

Early Coldplay studio recordings and unheard Chris Martin ‘James Bond’ demo go to auction (NME)

Billy Morrison (Billy Idol/The Cult) and The Offspring’s Dexter Holland team up on single ‘Never Gonna Change’ (Consequence of Sound)

Primal Scream to reissue their 1997-2002 albums as the ‘Bunker Trilogy’ in autumn (Louder Than War)

New releases

Muelas has a new EP on the way, Bellow (Scene Point Blank)

Taxi Girls arrive with debut album Static (The Punk Site)

Vanishing Twin announce new album, share ‘Bring Me the Axe’ and ‘Archives’ (Brooklyn Vegan)

Spaced record Audiotree Live session (Punk News)

TV Dinner with Wine Lips (Scene Point Blank)

Listen/watch

The Mars Volta announce new live album, unveil ‘Cue the Sun/Alba Del Orate’ (Consequence of Sound)

My Chemical Romance dust off ‘Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back’ at Anfield and pay homage to Liverpool FC (NME)

Watch Wilco debut new songs at Solid Sound day 2 ++ The Breeders, Ryan Davis, Prewn, more - pics, video (Brooklyn Vegan)

Wolf Alice announce The Clearing (B Sides), share new song ‘Gospel Oak’ (Our Culture)

Michael Stipe and Brandi Carlile Cover Elvis Presley, Josh Homme covers Tom Petty at Gansett Games (Stereogum)

Long reads

In Iceland, Björk presents multidisciplinary new work (Wallpaper*)

5 Albums I Can’t Live Without: Jaret Reddick of Bowling for Soup (Spin)

When Sheila Rock photographed Siouxsie Sioux at the height of her post-punk powers (Vogue)

In conversation with Face To Face‘s Trever M. Keith (Punk News)

Going for the jugular: on the recording of the Velvet Underground & Nico (The Quietus)

Elsewhere on Substack

"It sounded like the future!" Corin Tucker on a Sonic Inspiration from Childhood

And finally…

Venues should stop giving Stephen Malkmus black towels (Stereogum)

Do you have a Substack article, news tip or other piece of writing you’d like to be considered for the digest? Send it to tangleofwires@gmail.com (same goes for press releases etc.)