The New Cue #464 February 7: Squid, Biig Piig, Benefits, Casino Hearts, Yann Tiersen, Hamilton Leithauser, The Illness, Throwing Muses

"Open mic nights and drunken tales"

Good morning,

Welcome to another round of Recommenders. Niall here. I am continuing to hold the fort, which is actually more like a shed, but don’t worry, I’m not going solo, it’s more like a TNC spin on Home Alone. Ted will be back soon enough to clear up the mess.

In today’s edition, we’ve got Release Valve Q&As with Squid and Biig Piig and a whole host of new music picks. Shall we begin with a playlist to ease you in to the whole shebang?:

And here it is for the Apple Music crowd.

This edition is for paid subscribers only. For £5 a month, they get full access to every edition of The New Cue as well as our now-quite-sizeable archive. Big enough to start boasting about actually. No, I have no idea how to change a tyre but I do have a very plentiful archive of TNC editions. Stick your tyre-changing talents!

Enjoy the edition and if you ever see me by the side of the road staring at a flat tyre then please remember the contents of the previous paragraph,

Ted (with us in spirit) and Niall

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Release Valve #1: Biig Piig

Biig Piig is Billie Eilish-approved Irish pop singer and songwriter Jess Smyth, who follows up her excellent 2023 mixtape Bubblegum with an even-better full-length debut that’s out today. Titled 11:11, it caters for all your pop needs, from electro-pop anthems to Daft Punk-y bangers to minimalist ballads and more. In the run-up to release, Jess took on our RV queries…

The first record I loved was: Ben Harper’s Diamonds On The Inside. There were a few tracks on that record where I was young and moving around a lot and his lyricism felt really heavy hitting, it definitely meant something else to him than what it meant to me but I feel like the way I navigate my relationships at home and with moving places and feeling quite isolated, his music spoke to me around then and it was the first time I fell in love with a record.

The last record I loved was: The Fontaines album. Romance is one I’m still banging out loads. And Charm by Clairo. I’m loving that we’ve had that period of time recently where we weren’t listening to records and a lot of people were skipping through them. I feel like we’ve come full circle back to really appreciating a whole record and not just picking one or two tracks off of it.

The musician I grew up most wanting to be is: When I was in my Britney phase when I was younger, most definitely her! We used to make dances up for Britney tracks and pretend we were performing.

My fantasy band would feature: I’d have Adrianne Lenker on guitar and vocals, Flea on bass, Karen Carpenter on drums. Those three feel good for now.

The greatest gig I ever saw was: Rodríguez. He was carried out by his two daughters but gave everything, it was so beautiful and so emotional, it was really gorgeous. FKA Twigs too, she blew me away when I first saw her. The way she produced that show was unbelievable.

The greatest gig I ever played was: Playing All Together Now [festival in County Waterford] on the main stage was crazy, I loved that. Also End Of The Road was a really fun festival.

My favourite group when I was 13 was: Oh my god, probably Bowling For Soup, their pop-punk era. I went to see them live and it was just chaos and so fun.

The story of my new album goes like this: It’s about going through and navigating a world through relationship and what it means to be with and without love and people in your life. Growing pains, as a whole.

I couldn’t have made it without: Community and music and my collective, without open mic nights and drunken tales.

The one song everyone should listen to that isn’t on one of my albums is: Kerosene, it’s a fun vibe and a bit of a dance.

The song I wish I’d written is: When I heard Amyl And The Sniffers’ Jerkin’, I thought, ‘That must be so fun to play live’, the energy of that is so fun and it’s such a fuck you to anyone that doesn’t align with letting them be themselves, I think that would be really empowering to sing onstage.

The film everyone should see is: Love by Gaspar Noé, the cinematography is gorgeous and the soundtrack is really great. That’s my fave.

The book that changed my life is: How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones. It’s about him growing up and his experiences navigating his queerness, it’s a really beautiful book. He’s a really good poet as well.

The person who is making my favourite music in the world right now is: There’s an artist called MOIO who is just starting out and I have a feeling he’s gonna make some of the best music that’s come out of Ireland for a long time. He’s so good, he’s going to make some important stuff.

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Recommender

The shuffling grooves, dusty strums and murmured vocals of the new song by LA trio Casino Hearts is the sort of thing you wouldn’t mind being woken up by, unless you’re like me and it bugs you for two straight days about what it reminds you of (dEUS’s Sister Dew, got there in the end).