Bilders new album, Neverlasting is a mix of psychic adventures, hard psychedelia and commentary with a bite. Bilders have always sung outliers with a heap of empathy—exploitation of migrants, unmitigated killing and the state of our depleted planet. This album maintains an analog feel with technical finesse as it casts a cold eye on uses and abuses of power in the higher echelons. It is pure Bilders. Surprise collaborations bring in fresh tangents of colour and emotional edge. “We are the Neverlasting renter-squatters of Earth exhausted”.The band is once again the voice/guitar of Bill Direen, bass of Matt Swanson and near everything else by Alex McManus, with guesting by former Bilders. It’s the same lineup as last year’s acclaimed Dustbin of Empathy, released by Grapefruit and Sophomore Lounge, and the first ‘core’ Bilders lineup to remain constant for more than one album. The new compatibility shows. It’s an album that builds on current strengths.Notable guestings include Athens Georgia lights Claire Horne of 1980s BBQ Killers, and Curtiss Pernice, guitarist of heavy vanguard Porn Orchard, with a snook-in from experimental and electronic prince Todd Gerber. Two never-released tunes by vintage Bilders (Stu Page and Greig Bainbridge) sit perfectly with the new material. This is quite simply the strongest Bilders album ever.
LP $22.00
10/31/2025
***The NZ-American Bilders brings Matt Swanson (Lambchop, My Dad Is Dead) and Alex McManus (Vic Chesnutt, Lambchop) into the fold, all with acclaimed albums in their saddlebags. Quality production and mature song themes reflect a lot of pure experience. Dustbin of Empathy opens with a voyage across Europe and down the generations, a tribute to the small people who survive massive events. One tune has an anti-war bias. Peace! Another is a trip of a kind—"Angel (The Astronomer)" is an eerie voyage into the “sinuses” of space. Most of the tunes were co-written, a couple were penned by Direen alone. High quality recordings, and the pedigree of the musicians, should make this unexpected album a pearl of 2024. It is hard to choose a stand-out track for campus stations—alluring “Lately Rain”, epic "Citizens of Nowhere", the harder edge of "Anvil Dark", lap-steel engraved "Scaribus" or already WFMU-blooded "Custody of Love"? Pure quality to take you from Dustbin right the way back to Empathy.
LP $23.50
07/19/2024