Vautrin Vautrin The Thief (1943)

To mark their 30th anniversary as a band, the Residents released this strangely programmatic album, their first since 1998's Wormwood: Curious Stories From the Bible. According to Cryptic Corporation (the band's corporate face), the songs on Demons Dance Alone were "written for the most part in the days following September 11" and "capture a quite different side of the Residents" – a vulnerable and questioning side that poses unanswerable questions. What this means is a more subdued ambience and more tunefulness, and a little bit less "nyah-nyah-nyah," though not that much less. The first singing voice (on "Life Would Be Wonderful") is that dorky pseudo-country & western one that listeners have all come to know and be irritated by, but the next one sounds like it could be Syd Straw or maybe Lori Carson (Residents are never identified by name), and the song she sings, "The Weatherman," is disarming in its naked emotion. Goofiness is never far from the surface, as song titles like "Mickey Macaroni" and "Make Me Moo" indicate, but this time out it is seriously tempered by what sound like – dare one suggest it? – intimations of mortality.

Over the last half-decade, The Pineapple Thief - led by musical polymath Bruce Soord and bolstered by the involvement of master drummer Gavin Harrison - has rapidly ascended to the upper echelons of Europe’s Alternative Rock scene.

In 13th-century Tangiers, regent Mustapha hires a paid assassin to kill baby Prince Hussein in order to usurp his throne but the assassin has second thoughts and steals the baby for himself.

Recorded September 2020 to July 2023, the record took shape slowly but surely as the band meticulously perfected their sound. Often guarded, 'It Leads To This' keeps its ace in the pack up its sleeve, biding its time until all the right pieces fall in place, giving way to a beautiful, cinematic experience on every track. Conceptually the record is Soord's efforts to better understand himself & the world around him.

Today, Big Thief announce a late-2021 North American tour. In conjunction, they release Big Thief - Live at The Bunker Studio, as well as video footage of all the songs. The bulk of these recordings are culled from 2019’s widely praised Two Hands and U.F.O.F., additionally including ‘Black Diamonds’ from their earlier album Capacity. Directed by Marisa Gesualdi in November 2019, this collection was originally previewed with live videos of ‘Not’ and ‘Cattails’, but now the whole session is available to listen to and view.

In post-World War II Rome, Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani) is desperate for work to support his wife Maria (Lianella Carell), his son Bruno (Enzo Staiola), and his baby. He is offered a position posting advertising bills but tells Maria that he cannot accept because the job requires his bicycle, which he has pawned.