L&Q Weekly
Hardcore band If It Rains, Jenny Hval on Summer Solstice, trainers from Nardwuar and Charli XCX, and Glastonbury's Patchwork mistake
Supported by Ninja Tune
Track of the Week
Actually, two tracks (they are very short) – from a new New England hardcore band called If It Rains. If Turnstile aren’t doing it for you (and perhaps if they are), the latest band from scene veteran Evan Stein just might. This is how I hoped Turnstile would sound when hearing them described as a melodic hardcore band – still fast as hell, left raw and somehow remaining imaginative even within a track that’s 1 minute, 6 seconds long, as with ‘Foglake’, which ends on a surprisingly ambient note. ‘How’s It Going To End?’ delivers even more on the promise of melody, especially as it settles into a chug with almost jazz drum breaks and a final hook of “I want you to miss me!”. Hopefully Turnstile’s huge crossover success will make way for hardcore like this to enjoy some wider success this year too.
3 Sentence Live Review
JENNY HVAL, ICA, LONDON, 21 JUNE: Summer Solstice and the hottest day of the year is even hotter in the airless black box of the ICA gallery within view of Buckingham Palace. Norwegian experimentalist Hval – with her husband and Lost Girls collaborator Håvard Volden – is at her most open and upbeat as she jokes, “This is what we do for our party set, sing about girls laying down in graves,” but the tunes really are her most accessible and, dare I say it, pop. Stand next to someone attempting to dance and hope the air they move towards you isn’t boiling hot. Stuart Stubbs
Lana Del Rey keeps it real with a stadium show that gets a little weird
On her first UK stadium tour, no one will care that Lana Del Rey’s new, tenth album remains unreleased, but fuck me, that’s wild, isn’t it!? Lasso, as it was once called, was originally due in November 2024. Then May 2025, as The Right Person Will Stay. On 11 April, Del Rey posted a video on Instagram: “You know it’s not going to come on time, right? Should I even tell you that the name changed again?” A few tracks have been released since, presumably to feature on what Lana has called her first country album, but nothing further on the name, and no third release date. Continue reading
Pavement's Pavements is the most Pavement film Pavement could have made
It’s a case of sitting back and allowing Alex Ross Perry and the band to troll you for an hour and a half, choosing to decipher how much you’re hearing and seeing is a fabrication as much or as little as you like. The line between truth and fiction is a thin one due to the accuracy of the send up and the band’s real life story, which is often unbelievable, leaving you to question not just if the band really did that, but also, did they really make that musical, and if so when can I see it? Continue reading
Albums for your diary announced this week
John Maus – Later Than You Thing (26 Sept, Young): The first album from the Minnesotan analog futurist in 7 years, and his first on the Young label.
Jonathan Richman – Only Frozen Sky Anyway (Blue Arrow, 19 Sept): The Modern Lovers legend with the voice it’s hard to get sick of has a new album that seems to feature one cover, and that cover is of Bee Gees’ ‘Night Fever’.
Mac DeMarco – Guitar (Mac’s Record Label, 22 Aug): Mac gets back to singing again following his 2023 instrumental album, launching Guitar with a George Harrison-ish song about wanting to be alone.
OSEES – Abomination Revealed At Last (Deathgod, 8 Aug): The name says it all of the West Coast garage band’s one millionth album. It’s about our world gone mad. Just listen to ‘Flight Simulator’.
Sprints – All That Is Over (26 Sept, City Slang): The second album from the Irish punk band looks set to push them over the top, released in the States via Sub Pop for the first time and sounding bigger than before on new single ‘Descartes’, which was written on a plane and inspired by the line “Vanity is the curse of our culture” from Outline by Rachel Cusk.
Rumour of the Week: Patchwork might not be playing Glastonbury after all
Previously reported in the L&Q Weekly was how Winchester band Patchwork had been booked to play Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage on Saturday afternoon – a surprise to the band and thousands of fans who had assumed that Patchwork was code for a secret set from a bigger band who play their own songs. It’s now looking like ‘Hampshire’s rocking-est function band’ might not be on the bill after all, as we hear reports of singer David Strutton and guitarist Ian Potter speaking in raised voices at the front of the artist ticket collection queue. One onlooker has said that the two musicians, already wearing their guitars, could be heard saying: “But that’s our name on the listing! Right there! We are Patchwork!!!” As other queuing artists grew increasingly impatient, an impromptu performance of ‘Spaceman’ by Sam Ryder its said to have momentarily calmed the likes of Bean On Toast who were itching to get to their pre-pitched tipi tents with dressing tables, walls and Sky TV. Patchwork’s drummer Toppy Charles was allegedly later seen attempting to discretely pass a security guard a £5 note concealed in a handshake.
Wrap this up
Neil Young has refused for his Glastonbury headline set to be broadcast on the BBC tomorrow, as is customary. Charli XCX’s Other Stage performance will be broadcast in its place.
Former Babyshambles guitarist Patrick Walden died earlier this week at the age of 46.
Doot doola doot doo! Canadian rock interviewer Nardwuar ‘the human serviette’ has launched a collab with Nike, a version of the SB Dunk Low that matches the tartan of his famous, very silly hat.
More trainers, and more Charli XCX, with a Converse All Stars collaboration coming. The Party Girl Chuck Taylors have a key and a locket attached to the back of them. Y’know, so you can lock it… and do some coke.
Classic Toppy Charles, I played on a bill with Patchwork once and came into the green room and he was rifling through my rucksack