As part of Bandcamp’s fee-free day in which 100% of all revenue goes direct to the artist & label, Peel Dream Magazine have released a new EP entitled Moral Panics, available exclusively via Bandcamp. Moral Panics features six unreleased tracks recorded during the sessions for their recently released second album Agitprop Alterna.

Stream/download Moral Panics here

In addition to the Bandcamp release, Tough Love will release a lathe cut edition of the record, housed in hand printed sleeves and limited to 25 copies. A mock up of the record is included below. This is only available to purchase via Bandcamp [EDIT: SOLD OUT]

Joe Stevens, the main artistic force behind Peel Dream Magazine, explains the thoughts the behind the EP:

“Moral Panics is an EP featuring unreleased songs from the Agitprop Alterna recording sessions over the course of 2018 and 2019. It’s kind of like a sibling to that record as well as the Up and Up EP from 2019. The title comes from Stanley Cohen’s Folk Devils and Moral Panics which talks about Mods in England during the 1960s. Cohen talks about how the English press and politicians benefited from vilifying that cultural phenomenon, and I wrote about it in the first track New Culture, as well as Permanent Moral Crisis off the LP. I’m really into everything Mod … I think it’s something I come back to again and again. These songs definitely create their own vibe but they’re still connected to Agitprop Alterna …”

Tracklisting
1.   New Culture
2.   Verfremdungseffekt
3.   Dialectrics
4.   Life At The Movies
5.   The Furthest Nearby Place
6.   Clean Water (DEMO)

“The song Look Alive! was written as a loose, impressionistic pastoral of Melbourne at night and was inspired by ugly experiences I’ve had after dark in the city where I grew up. It’s intentionally vague and lyrically colourful so as not to be too specific. This video was filmed on drives around town in the midst of the current Corona virus crisis. The predominantly empty streets provided an eerie juxtaposition to the songs themes.” - Gus, The Stroppies

Watch the video for the title track from The Stroppies forthcoming record, out 5th June. Another insta-classic. They’re good at this…

Pre-order Look Alive here (only a handful of the limited version with bonus 7" left).

Peel Dream Magazine Agitprop Alterna is out in the world today! A beguiling and intellectual intersection of ripsaw shoegaze buzz and downtempo spaceage introspection, that skirts sharply around C21 consumerism, body politics and existentialism with a brazen melodicism. A creative highpoint and future classic. And look at that artwork!  

It’s a strange time to be releasing music no doubt, but i’m hopeful this can shine a little light in an otherwise bleak period. Transparent vinyl press available direct from us or your favourite indie. Buy here

Love to Slumberland Records who are releasing in US too.

Some light in the dark - here’s the video for ‘Burning Bright’, the latest track to be taken from The Stroppies new record. It’s a song about “two people trying to meet in the middle and failing. It’s about shooting for something good and not quite making the mark”. Ironic, as they’ve hit the target dead on with this one.

Look Alive! is out 5th June. Pre-order here.

Stereogum have shared ‘It’s My Body’, the latest track to be taken from Peel Dream Magazine’s new album Agitprop Alterna, which is out 3rd April.

Pre-order Agitprop Alterna here. Only a handful of advanced copies of the transparent vinyl pressing left.

SAY NO TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD

Since most of us are going to be stuck inside for the foreseeable and for the sake of something to do, I’ve created a new playlist on Spotify as a soundtrack of sorts to isolation. Songs of Isolation, a modern day David Axelrod if you will. I’m going to attempt to update it every day or so. Starts with 15 songs now, some from the Tough Love cataloge, the rest from however inspiration takes me - includes TOY, Ulrika Spacek, The Stroppies, Peel Dream Magazine, Wilma Archer, Ulla, Dadamah, O Yuki Conjugate, Garbage and the Flowers, Angel Bat Dawid +++

Listen/follow Say No To The Outside World at the link below

Originally starting as The DIY home recording project of Angus Lord and Claudia Serfaty, The Stroppies have now evolved into what some might call a “proper band”. Following on from their 2017 demo cassette and a sling of singles, 2019 saw the release of their debut LP Whoosh!, a studio-based affair that evolved The Stroppies sound, underpinned with a newly discovered melodic classicism. Look Alive!, their latest effort which was recorded only months after the band’s return to Australia after their second European tour of 2019, represents a marriage of the two different styles of Stroppies recordings and rounds out an incredibly productive twelve months for the group.  

Look Alive! Is the sound of The Stroppies honing their craft under new and unfamiliar conditions. Written mainly on the road then finished and recorded at home with whatever was on hand with only three of the four members present, it is according to the band’s singer/guitarist Angus Lord, “an EP forged in circumstance. A sum total of fleeting vignettes on scraps of paper, voice memos and iPhone notepads all collated between soundchecks and long stretches in a tour van pieced together over weekly jams. We didn’t want to waste much time when we got home so we opted to record it ourselves”. For a band who began with the initial idea to create “open-ended music, collaged quickly and pieced haphazardly together”, it is in some sense a return to their true self.  

Lead single ‘Holes In Everything’ presents the band at its pop best: “If I could disappear into the atmosphere, I would be around you all the time” sings Lord, before swiftly throwing shade on the sentiment in the chorus, “It’s always frightening what I think”. It’s this penchant for push and pull of light and dark splashed against the backdrop of trepidation and humour that make The Stroppies records so endearing and open-ended. Though undeniably pop structure orientated, the bands propensity for re-inventing and re-appropriating their recording and writing process ensures that nothing starts to fossilize. Indeed, Look Alive! is that most intriguing of records precisely because it represents two ideas at the same time - the sound of a band in flux, but also the sound of a band becoming more sure footed as they walk their crooked line.

Watch the video for ‘Holes In Everything’ below. Directed and edited by the band themselves, no less.

Look Alive! is available on LP, CD and digital formats. Limited to 250 copies, the Tough Love/Bandcamp exclusive of the LP is pressed on Mean Mr Mustard colour vinyl and comes with a 'secret 7"’, featuring two songs not available anywhere else. Pre-order here. 

‘Portra’, the AA side from White Flowers debut 12", is now available to listen to online. Watch the video above, or stream/buy here

The band play a handful of UK shows at the end of this month and start of next

28.02 – The Moth Club, LONDON
29.02 – Crofters, BRISTOL
01.03 – Yes, MANCHESTER
04.03 – Recommends @ Rough Trade East, LONDON

The Stroppies debut is now back in print, this time on transparent vinyl. Pre-order here, will ship next week.

More Stroppies news to follow imminently…

After 18 months of writing and playing live with a shifting cast of supporting members, Peel Dream Magazine is back with Agitprop Alterna, their new album which pushes the group’s dreamy, motorik-heavy sound to a deeply melodic and beautifully discordant place. 

Released on Tough Love Records on Friday 3rd April 2020, their second LP pays homage to the fuzzy, mod-ish twee of acts like My Bloody Valentine and early Stereolab, but it’s also indebted to stateside bands like Yo La Tengo and Rocketship that were cut from a similar cloth. It’s part Chickfactor, part Space Age Bachelor Pad; a shambolic, drone-heavy brand of minimalism, filtered through a cross-section of classic indie pop.

Pre-order here. Watch the video for lead single, ‘Pill’, over on Brooklyn Vegan here.

Peel Dream Magazine is the musical vehicle for NYC’s Joe Stevens, who launched the band in 2018 with the critically acclaimed album Modern Meta Physic. The debut was a mysterious, liminal tribute to the hazy end of ‘90s dream-pop – a masterful mix of first-class songwriting precision and train-window sonic impressionism. Stevens played all the parts on Modern Meta Physic himself, blending live and sampled sounds into uniquely identifiable and abstractly psychedelic soundscapes. The album struck a perfect balance between DIY bedroom pop auteurism and studio wizardry, and duly found its place on numerous “Best of 2018” lists. Where the creation of Modern Meta Physic was a solitary pursuit, Agitprop Alterna found Stevens channelling the collaborative spirit of the band’s ever-rotating live incarnation in the studio. He worked with close friend Kelly Winrich to develop new sounds for the project, creating musical snippets that Winrich would mix into the cohering whole. Live band members like vocalist Jo-Anne Hyun (later replaced by Isabella Mingione) and drummer Brian Alvarez would stop by and work their magic on the recordings, laying down parts with trademark exactitude. The resulting music revels in its realness: heavier, more dynamic, and truly the work of a band. 


Each tune’s unique character fits carefully into a broader thematic whole examining personal freedom from manipulation and misinformation. First single “Pill” examines what Stevens calls the “inundation of performances of normalcy and fulfillment that fuel our desire to consume – self-medication for the pain of doubt, want and need.” “Emotional Devotion Creator” frames advertising (and the cynical, manufactured emotional response it elicits) with a critical eye, while “It’s My Body” is an “anthem against people who want to exert power over you and make you feel small…a reminder that you don’t owe anyone anything Agitprop Alterna is ultimately defined by the tension of difference: between itself and its predecessor; Stevens’ and Hyun’s intertwined male-female vocals; the music’s languid dreaminess and concrete sonic immediacy. Deeply rooted in the Brechtian ideas of art as a tool to spur action, Agitprop Alterna deepens the connection between the existential and the interpretive first explored on Modern Meta Physic, giving the listener space to find their own meaning in shimmering guitars, fuzzed-out synths, and buzzing organ drones. It is a rejection of manipulation in all its forms and a buzzsaw against complacency – soft-focus pop whose clear-cut message is that you get to decide the message. It’s a rare trick to agitate without being obvious: perhaps that makes Agitprop Alterna the most Peel Dream Magazine-like statement yet.

Thrilled to announce that Tough Love will be releasing White Flowers debut 12", the double A side Night Drive/Portra, on 14th February. Limited to 100 copies, it’s housed in a hand stamped sleeve and includes a ‘zine produced by the band. Pre-order here.

Watch the ‘Night Drive’ video below

Brought up on the sounds of 80s Manchester though too young to have experienced it first hand, White Flowers, made up of Katie Drew and Joey Cobb, make gloriously gothic dreampop that’s as ambiguous as it is beautiful and exciting. Co-produced by Doves’ guitarist, Jez Williams, their debut single Night Drive carries a Kevin Shields-esque drone, with guitars that swirl above its fragmented arrangement. Apocalyptic in nature, it twists and turns - thematically covering anxiety, fragility and frustration, while reminding that, even in the lowest of moments, one should not lose hope.

“Creating and crafting the songs has always been a therapeutic outlet for us,’ Cobb stated. ‘It’s been a long process, but it’s been one which has helped us deal with the frustration, worries and difficulties that come with every day life. It’s definitely a very cathartic record. It serves as a kind of journal of growing up and maturing in the 21st Century.”

Having begun life as scraps of ideas on a laptop, the songs were carefully crafted by the pair, before Williams got on board.

“At times, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture when you’re so involved in the song,’ Drew noted. ‘Jez was great at drawing out the most important aspects. A lot of the songs are first takes - recorded at home in a very lo-fi way, but Jez gave us confidence. He made us realise that the rawness and the accidents are where the magic is. As fans of Doves, we’ve always admired the soundscapes and sampling techniques that they use, so it was a privilege to work with him.”

Prior to the release, White Flowers will be heading out on tour with TOY to celebrate Independent Venue Week. The dates are as follows:

25.01.20 – Independent – SUNDERLAND
26.01.20 – The Live Rooms – CHESTER
27.01.20 – The Boileroom – GUILDFORD
28.01.20 – The Cookie – LEICESTER
29.01.20 – The Smokehouse – IPSWICH
20.01.20 – Esquires – BEDFORD
31.01.20 – The Joiners – SOUTHAMPTON
01.02.20 – Ramsgate Music Hall – RAMSGATE

Merry Christmas (I don’t wanna pay full price tonight)

Xmas & New Year Sale
20% off all store items from 24th December to 14th January
Use the following discount code “EMERGENCY 2020”

https://tough-love-records.myshopify.com/

All Fridays Are Black
Online Store Sale

LPs - £8
12" EPs - £5
CDs - £4
7" - £3
while stocks last

29th Nov-2nd Dec

SHOP HERE

“TOY have made an album far more than the sum of its parts… Ultimately, Songs of Consumption towers above most covers albums” - Uncut (8/10)
“TOY have returned with an album of covers versions - and what covers they are!” - The Times (⅘)
“On ‘Songs of Consumption’ […] TOY seem to be gradually, like the woman on the cover, submerging themselves into deepening gloaming. Keep going!” - Norman Records
“Interesting and genuinely exciting” - Loud & Quiet

TOY’s latest and potentially greatest album, Songs of Consumption, is released today. Though comprised of eight interpretations of the band’s favourite songs, calling Songs of Consumption a 'covers record’ doesn’t quite do justice to what is going on here. These are masterful, instinctive re-workings that re-imagine both the familiar and obscure, and draw together eight disparate songs in such a way as to make them feel part of the same work - here we have the Stooges and Nice sitting alongside Soft Cell and John Barry as if they’ve only ever been this way. Murky, greyscale, mildly distopic, this is a fitting early winter foray into England’s darkness that nonetheless retains a burning ember heart of majesty. Covers, sure. but in the end what you’re ultimately left with is distinctly and singularly TOY, and a vision of a band birthing into their next phase. A truly special record.

Buy/listen here

And the band celebrate the album release with their final London show in a while tonight. They will also tour the UK in late Jan. All dates below

November
15th - Hollowed Out @ Studio 9294, London
January
(as part of Independent Venue Week)
25th – Independent, Sunderland
26th – The Live Rooms, Chester
27th – The Boileroom, Guildford
28th – The Cookie, Leicester
29th – The Smokehouse, Ipswich
30th – Esquires, Bedford
31st – The Joiners, Southampton
Feb
1st – Ramsgate Music Hall, Ramsgate

TOY have shared ‘Down On The Street’, their take on the classic Stooges track, taken from the forthcoming Songs Of Consumption, an 8-song collection of unique interpretations of tracks which have inspired them.

Pre-order Songs of Consumption here

Additionally, the band will be playing two shows in Manchester and London in November, and will be touring the UK in January as part of Independent Venue Week. Tickets on sale now. All dates below

09.11.19 – Band on the Wall - MANCHESTER
15.11.19 – Studio 9294 – LONDON
25.01.20 – Independent – SUNDERLAND
26.01.20 – The Live Rooms – CHESTER
27.01.20 – The Boileroom – GUILDFORD
28.01.20 – The Cookie – LEICESTER
29.01.20 – The Smokehouse – IPSWICH
20.01.20 – Esquires – BEDFORD
31.01.20 – The Joiners – SOUTHAMPTON
01.02.20 – Ramsgate Music Hall - RAMSGATE