KCRW Highlights Patrick Watson’s Collaboration With Martha Wainwright
Patrick Watson had “Today’s Top Tune” on Santa Monica’s KCRW last Wednesday, January 28, with “House On Fire, “a stunning new collaboration with Martha Wainwright from his album Uh Oh. Written during a period when Watson temporarily lost his ability to sing (and completed alongside Wainwright) the track unfolds as a deeply moving duet. Carried by a sweeping string arrangement, their […]
Retrofuturista Explores Woo History With Clive Ives
In an interview with Retrofuturista, Woo‘s Clive Ives says, “I don’t think we ever aspired to be live performers. We were always more interested in recording sound and in the creative process.” The band is at radio now with a reissue of their extremely creative cult classic DIY debut, Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong, out via Independent Project […]
EverOut Recommends Fruit Bats In Portland
Portland’s EverOut explains, “From making demo cassettes at home in the late 1990s to touring in a full band with Modest Mouse and becoming a member of the Shins, Eric D. Johnson—and Fruit Bats’ music—has changed a lot over the years; the singer isn’t afraid to explore different genres from lo-fi folk to soul-tinged indie rock… “Fruit […]
New Music: Louder Than You Think Soundtrack Featuring Pavement, Gary Young, Edward W. Dahl, Noah Georgeson, and more
Independent Project Records is releasing the original motion picture soundtrack from the 2023 documentary film Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young & Pavement. Proudly resistant to genres and conventions, the Louder Than You Think soundtrack tells the story of Gary Young, a true original who – when he was approaching the ripe old age of 40 – joined […]
Patrick Watson Gets A Juno Nomination
Patrick Watson‘s Uh Oh, which is at radio now via Secret City Records, has earned a nomination for “Adult alternative album of the year” at the 2026 Juno Awards. See the full list of nominees here. Watson has a grip of North American tour dates on the way. Check him out live: 2/5 – Guadalajara, JA – C4 Concert House […]
Post-Punk Monk Praises Woo
Post-Punk Monk praises Woo‘s Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong for being “created without any commercial concerns at all! This was a rare music of unaffected innocence that becomes a balm for the person lucky enough to be listening to it… Once I put this album on it beckons me to let it play all night long. […]
Fruit Bats’ Eric D. Johnson Chats With The St. Albert Gazette
The St. Albert Gazette has a feature on Eric D. Johnson in advance of his Fruit Bats performance in St. Albert, Alberta next week. According to the feature, Johnson describes his songwriting process as “a collage of fragments that slowly form complete songs. Songs often start with a single line, image, or melody, then grow organically as he develops them. […]
New Music From Charm School
Charm School is the latest project from Louisville, KY-born and LA-based multi-hyphenate artist Andrew Sellers and his longtime collaborators Matt Filip, Drew English & Brian Vega. Sellers grew up immersed in Louisville’s underground music scene, soaking up local legends like Slint, Crain, & Rodan, as well as the catalogs of Chicago’s famed indie labels Touch […]
PARADE Tells Readers To March On Over To The Louder Than You Think Listening Party
PARADE has alerted readers to the Bandcamp listening party happening later today for the Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young and Pavement official soundtrack. The site notes that the collection includes never-before-heard Pavement tracks. For those who aren’t in the know, PARADE notes that “Between 1992 and 1999, Pavement released five full-length studio albums, […]
The Big Takeover Salutes Independent Project Records and The Well
According to The Big Takeover, “The Well, a sprawling two-volume compilation curated by Independent Project Records founder Bruce Licher, is less a retrospective than a revelation. Spanning over four decades, forty-one tracks, and a dizzying array of genres, it positions IPR not just as a label, but as a laboratory of independent creativity; a place where ambition, idiosyncrasy, and […]
Willamette Week Recommends Fruit Bats
Fruit Bats’ Portland show next week is on the Willamette Week’s calendar, due in part to the epic backstory behind it. “More than 12 years ago,” the site says, “Eric D. Johnson played what he said would be his last show with the Fruit Bats at Portland’s Aladdin Theater, but the folk-rock project has proven tenacious […]
Beatique Covers Woo’s Newest Cult Classic Reissue
“Now considered something of a cult classic,” writes Beatique, Woo’s Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong is “a collection that brought together psychedelic, minimal synth and jazz-tinged sounds in a way that was years ahead of its time.” The site has the story of brothers Clive and Mark Ives, who, “around the junction of the 1970s and […]
TapeOp Compares Fruit Bats To Nick Drake
Geoff Stanfield of TapeOp recently reviewed Baby Man, the newest LP from Fruit Bats that is at radio now from Merge Records. Stanfield writes, “Intimate recordings of acoustic guitar or acoustic piano bring the songs on Baby Man to the listener as if you are sitting in the room. In some ways, it reminds me of Nick Drake records; rich, dark, smooth tones, and minimal vocal processing […]
Philip Brasor Reviews The Louder Than You Think Film
Blogger Philip Brasor has seen Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History Of Pavement, the documentary film, and he says “the almost obsessive attention afforded Gary Young and his story helped me appreciate Pavement’s singular achievements in a new way.” The review tells the story of the film, which is soundtracked by a compilation that will be released later this week from Independent […]
New Release From Independent Project Records: The Well
For more than four decades, Independent Project Records has embodied what true independent record labels should stand for. The compilation The Well is its past, present and future rolled into two albums-worth of genre-defying, utterly unfettered music. You’ll find them living together, post-punk and ambient, psychedelia and desert surf rock, dream pop and goth rock, well-traveled singer-songwriters and young […]
The Big Takeover Digs Woo’s Shifting, Eclectic Debut
The Big Takeover writes, “There are records that feel anchored to a moment, and others that seem to exist on a parallel timeline, quietly ignoring fashion and chronology. Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong, Woo’s debut album, belongs firmly to the latter category. More than forty years on, this newly remastered double-LP reissue from Independent […]
Nina Protocol Chats With Venera
Nina Protocol is up with an interview with Chris Hunt and James “Munky” Shaffer about their collaboration, Venera, and the new album they have at radio now, Exinfinite. The LP, writes the site, “serves as a deepening of the core Venera sonic language—both cinematic and damaged.” The interview hits lots of points, including details on the band’s collaboration with FKA twigs, the gear […]
New Release From Woo
Independent Project Records (IPR) has reissued UK cult band WOO‘s debut album, Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong, originally released in 1982 via the band’s The Sunshine Series Records label, as an expanded edition. The remixed and remastered edition of Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong includes new album cover art and ten previously unreleased bonus […]
Patrick Watson Talks Gear With Arturia
Last year, Patrick Watson spoke to Arturia about his “distinctive musical identity” as well as the Arturia synths he uses. According to the feature, “From his perspective, anything that keeps him from feeling fully present in the moment is a distraction. ‘If I’m behind a laptop, it might break that connection,’ he notes, preferring hands-on gear that allows him […]
Eric D. Johnson Tells Glide Mag About Fruit Bats’ Baby Man
In a 2025 interview with Glide Mag about his new Fruit Bats album Baby Man, Eric D. Johnson explained, ““It’s like a snapshot of a week in the life. With my other records, there might be songs I worked on for a year. But this one—I wrote and recorded everything in a week and a half. Some of the first lines were literally […]
