News Roundup

 

Photo credit: Kristy Benjamin 

In another not-so-busy week for music news, there was one event that I definitely do want to talk about. That is, of course, the release of Boygenius’ new EP ‘the rest’ last Friday. The EP consists of four songs which didn’t quite make it onto the album ‘the record’ earlier in the year, most of which are quite short and all of which are absolutely gorgeous. The band had been playing songs from the EP at shows over the last couple of weeks, but to celebrate the release they organised an acoustic show in LA where they played songs from both ‘the record’ and ‘the rest’, guest starring Phoebe’s pug Maxine. In terms of the actual songs, you’ll be hearing more in my track of the week next week but all I can say is that I love them and they are the perfect way for Boygenius to complement a hugely successful album release and tour. 

The other thing I wanted to speak about isn’t exactly music news, but more of a hack for the guitarists out there. For those of you who’ve heard of rubber bridge guitars and like the sound of them, you’ll know that it’s a permanent and expensive modification to a guitar. However, this week I investigated a trick I heard about online of using a string dampener designed for tennis rackets to replicate that sound, and I can confirm that it works! This is great news for anyone looking to produce music at home, especially because the dampener I used (the Babolat Vibrakill) will set you back less than a tenner. So, in the interest of not gatekeeping, you should definitely go get your hands on one.