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Mary Timony’s fifth solo album, Untame the Tiger, is notable for its layered and decisively foregrounded acoustic and electric guitars. The classically trained singer-songwriter made her name in the 1990s as part of the alt-rock band Helium, and as a solo artist she’s dabbled in psychedelia, prog-rock, and blues- and South Asian-inflected folk music. But while a few of the songs here—the title track, “The Dream,” and “No Thirds”—feature synth strings, the majority of the album sticks to a traditional rock-trio lineup with occasional percussion flourishes.

Untame the Tiger also has a specific time and setting in mind: early 1970s Britain. “No Thirds,” for one, is built around droning guitars that nod to Richard Thompson. Like Thompson, Timony is unfashionably fond of guitar solos, which distill the mood of her songs down to their purest element. In her hands, the guitar is alternately capable of crying...

Mary Timony wants the summer to never end. On Monday, the former Helium guitarist released “Summer,” the newest single from her album Untame the Tiger, out Feb. 23.

“I wanted it to be a guitar stomper kind of in the vein of The Kinks, Jethro Tull or Elf and have simultaneous guitar solos at the end,” Timony said in a press release. “I’m excited to play this one live.”

Timony will tour starting at the end of February, making stops across the country for shows in cities such as Minneapolis,...

Mary Timony has announced her new album, Untame the Tiger, out February 23rd via Merge. She’s also mapped out a 2024 North American headlining tour in support and revealed the lead single, “Dominoes.”

Untame the Tiger is Timony’s first solo album in 15 years. It was recorded following the breakup of a long-term relationship and bookended by the deaths of her father and mother. Timony wrote many of the songs over a two-year period during walks and bike rides she took as a break from serving as the primary caregiver for her ailing parents. “Since I had to confront the reality of loss, I realized what was important to me about being alive, and I became less scared,” she said in a statement. “The record became my anchor in a time when I was losing so much around me. It felt like all I had — a guide that helped me through,...

Matador Records has announced Revisionist History, a new podcast featuring the label’s artists and collaborators in conversation.

Linked to the catalog reissue series of the same name, the podcast celebrates album anniversaries with artists discussing each other’s processes and careers. The first episode features Liz Phair, Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan, and Mary Timony.

The three musicians discuss each of their debut albums — Phair’s Exile in Guyville, Snail Mail’s Lush, and Timony’s Mountains — the latter of which turned 20 this month. They also discussed how different...

On the 40th anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy, Joe Wong has teamed up with Mary Timony for a cover of “Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him.”

After Wong kicks off with a slowed down, ethereal intro, the cover picks up a minute-and-a-half in, with Timony joining on vocals. From there, it stays true to the original, down to the silky bass line. “Why do I roam when I know you’re the one?” Wong and Timony sing in unison. “Why do I run...

Joe Wong has released a hazy new video for “Nite Creatures” — the title track to his debut album — directed by Fred Armisen.

The clip opens with birds chirping as Wong appears inside a lavish living room. Psychedelic swirls surround him for the chorus, alongside Seventies-style production with a horn section. “Relax your mind,” he sings. “The night creatures wander past you.” Later, Ex Hex’s Mary Timony reads sheet music, gazing at the notes.

Wong met Armisen in the Nineties, when Armisen was a drummer in Trenchmouth. The duo reconnected...

Ex Hex returned to Late Night With Seth Meyers to perform their new blissful ripper, “Cosmic Cave.” The song appears on the band’s sophomore album, It’s Real, which was released in March.

Immersed in pink and blue-hued lights, Mary Timony sang about the dark illusions love can cause and wanting to bring those emotions into the light. “Baby come on and dance with me/Come out of your cave,” Timony, Betsy Wright and Laura Harris harmonized during the upbeat chorus. “Let’s ride on a wave.”

Ex Hex...

Ex Hex, the D.C. garage rock trio of Mary Timony, Betsy Wright and Laura Harris, rock out in the video for their latest single “Rainbow Shiner,” off their latest album It’s Real.

Directed by animator and cartoonist M. Wartella, the video brings the album art of It’s Real to life, painting over the band’s leather jackets with bursts of rainbow scribbles and blown-up, chroma-keyed heads. “I got to shine on/Through all the black and blue/I got from you/It hits so hard with all the colors that there are,...

Solange, When I Get Home

Solange carries her history like a talisman. It’s there to remind her — and us — how to remain grounded while moving forward. With When I Get Home, she pays tribute to her roots in Houston by presenting a therapeutic and transfixing scrapbook that seamlessly brings together the past and the future of her home. With 19 songs the clock in at under 40 minutes total, Solange’s tribute takes an unusual form. She offers brief but potent statements; over half the tracks are under three minutes and...

“Angie, are you tough enuh-uff/To let it go?” asks Mary Timony over sugared electric guitar churn at the outset of Ex Hex’s latest, immortalizing a new rock’n’roll Angie with as much performative heartache and swagger as Jagger, maybe more. Ex Hex’s second album is about garage-rock thrust at its core, like prime Stones and their own debut Rips. Like that LP, it draws a through-line from the Shangri-Las to Blondie to Sleater-Kinney to, well, Ex-Hex.

This time, though, pop-metal production shine adds a new meta-textual layer,...

Ex Hex’s music video shoot for new single “Tough Enough” coincides with a nuclear Armageddon in the band’s latest visual for their upcoming LP It’s Real.

The “Tough Enough” video begins as a run-of-the-mill low-budget film shoot, with Mary Timony and company butting heads with the director. However, midway through the video, a nuclear war occurs and Ex Hex and the filmmakers are forced in a conveniently located fallout shelter. After a year in the bunker and the radioactivity subsides, Ex Hex reemerge from the shelter, ready...

Ex Hex will issue their first LP in five years, It’s Real, on March 22nd via Merge Records. The indie-rock trio teased the album – which follows their acclaimed debut, 2014’s Rips – with its surging lead single, “Cosmic Cave.” The group offer a psychedelic edge to the jangly power-pop track, pairing shimmering guitar riffs and hammering drums with wordless “whoa-oh” vocals and blasts of vintage phaser. “Baby, come on and dance with me,” guitarist Mary Timony sings. “Come out of your cave; let’s ride on the waves.”

The band...

Mark down 2014 as the year that women tore down the punk-boy clubhouse and erected a big middle finger in its place. Scrutinize year-end lists and you’ll find an unprecedented number of lady-fronted punk and indie bands. I’m honored to be in the company of bands like Ex Hex and Perfect Pussy on Vulture's list of the best albums of 2014. Beyond that, look around at other lists and you'll also see names like Cayetana, Speedy Ortiz, and especially, White Lung, whose third LP Deep Fantasy took 2014 by storm and demonstrated the power and diversity of contemporary punk music. Also, this year we saw the return of iconic bands like the Muffs and Sleater-Kinney, who released music in 2014 for the first time in years. And there is Against Me!, who put out one of the most important records of the century, Transgender Dysphoria Blues. Against Me! was a male-fronted band...

For the last few years, I’ve taken it upon myself in my capacity as Sos co-founder and eternal DJ to gather up some of my favorite tracks of the year, along with excerpts of dialogue and scoring from some of my favorite films (and, this year, TV series!) of the year, and cram it into a mix that could fit onto a hypothetical CD-r. But since this has been the year of the mixtape (hello Guardians of the Galaxy, Mommy, and Boyhood), and since there’s been such an overwhelming bounty of great music to choose from, I opted for a “C120″ format – two “sides,” one hour each. Since non-film music is the one area of pop culture Sound on Sight will (hopefully) never devote a subsection to, it’s the one instance I allow myself every year to flex my geekery in this area.

Lots of really great...