Laurr - Danny Golden - The Stars of Disaster - The Catenary Wires
Singer songwriter Laurr shares a mystical lyric video visual for latest single release "Sell My Soul."
"The inspiration behind Sell My Soul came from what people did or would be willing to do for money during quarantine in April. I myself had to work three jobs to keep from feeling insecure in a time of uncertainty. While others decided to take some unsavory paths, which were also very tempting to me. In the end, would those less savory paths be worth "selling your soul" over, and what is the dollar really worth? With the help of my producer/co-writer Corey Lawson, I feel we were able to capture the meaning of the lyrics with a driving bluesy melody and dark tone,” Laurr explains.
The alternative country songstress premiered the lyrical visual on Music Crowns. Laurr’s musical inspirations derive from the wide spectrum of genres her parents would listen to throughout her life. From Sublime, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Amy Winehouse, to Jamey Johnson and Johnny Cash.
Growing up in a small town, Laurr never thought she would be chasing such big dreams. From the big Utah mountains to the hills of Tennessee, she has had quite the journey as a songwriter and artist. Growing up, Laurr always had a huge imagination and would use my fireplace as my stage, and whatever furry creatures were around as an audience. They would not only listen to her made-up songs, but also my interviews with Ellen DeGeneres, and Jay Leno. Although she loved my imaginary stage, in school other kids would get frustrated at her, because it always seemed she was the main character in any school performance. She would say the best part about this journey is getting to reopen that imagination and revive her small-town child star persona as she grows into a musical artist.
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Austin-based musician Danny Golden announced an April 23rd release date for his new EP Changes. The announcement comes with the first single “I Can’t Change” — Under The Radar praised the song’s “inviting melodies and plainspoken lyrical approach” along with its “towering layers of shoegaze guitars and crashing percussion.”
Changes follows Golden’s 2018 full-length Old Love. “It’s been over two years since I last put out new music, and I felt that ‘I Can’t Change’ had to be the song to break the silence,” Golden says. “The period between my last record and now saw me dealing with a lot of changes in my life, and in my approach to making music; I don’t think that’s more evident anywhere than on ‘I Can’t Change.’”
The song starts with a cymbal crash from Jeff Olson (White Denim, Balmorhea) and a wall of electric guitar sound courtesy of guitarist Ben Brown (PR Newman). These players along with Sam Pankey (Balmorhea, Mother Falcon) on bass, Mary Bryce (Smiile) in backing vocals, and Spencer Garland (Black Pumas, Matthew Logan Vasquez) on synth make up the EP’s core backing band. Other collaborators include David Ramirez (who produced the EP song “L.A. County”), and John Michael Landon (who produced “I Can’t Change” and “Alien”).
“I Can’t Change” is at once abrasive and inviting, like a friend pulling up with the aux at full volume. Your senses are a bit overwhelmed, but you know you want to get in, and that you’re bound for a good adventure. “The song is an expressionistic postcard and a story of supplication,” Golden says. “You can agonize all you want about choices in your life, but either way, change is going to happen to you. Taking what’s dealt to you and allowing change within yourself determines your quality of existence. I think we all experience periods of listlessness and malaise, often when we’re seeking answers without knowing the questions. Recording ‘I Can’t Change’ was a chance for me to give lyrical and sonic form to feelings that had been too abstract to understand.”
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The Stars of Disaster started playing together in February 2019, in Pittsburgh. They’ve been playing out since May 2019. The songs started coming in 2014, when Anthony Schiappa came home. He’d made a go of it as an airline baggage handler in upstate New York, an academic in NYC, and an exile in Scandinavia. Back in his Steubenville, OH, basement, trying to stave off the terrors of clock-punching and memory. That’s when he rediscovered his childhood love of making loud music.
He started recording the songs in Pittsburgh, with friends old and new. They were done guerrilla style: in friends’ apartments, in Anthony’s sister’s house, in clubs during off-hours, anywhere. Eventually, they had a record: Love Won’t Save You.
To come alive onstage, the record needed a band. And it has one: Kate Daly (the hi-frequencies) on bass, David Brockschmidt (Benefits) on drums, and Chicago native Jesus Geoffrey Martinez (Burning Luck) on lead guitar.
Anthony’s main influences are Guided by Voices, early R.E.M., and early Ween. Amid these touchstones, you will hear Anthony’s own style. It’s a blend of claustrophobic themes and non-stop get-down that Kate calls “composed mania.” Mike Baltzer of Benefits calls the aesthetic “Rust-Belt garage psych.” Joe Tarowksy from Action Camp says “It’s like Teenage Fanclub came from the Ohio Valley.
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There are times where you end up working with a band which had a huge impact on your youth and helped shaped your tastes over the decades, and while The Catenary Wires only started in 2014. The main two people behind the band Rob Pursey and Amelia Fletcher have made music as Heavenly, Marine Research, Tender Trap, and more providing a blueprint for the indie-pop scene over the last thirty years. This new Catenary Wires "Mirrorball" is set to be a classic and essential listening like the rest of their catalog. Both Rob & Amelia are available for interviews, guest editor features, mixtapes, you name it. Being in the UK under lock down they have time to make your interview or feature dreams a reality. Just let me know. I also have a few copies of the vinyl single promo copy wise that will be able to ship in mid-March, but it will be first dibs kinda set up. Hope you enjoy this new single as much as I do.
The Catenary Wires formed in 2014, initially as a duo. Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey had previously been in Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, Marine Research and Tender Trap. The first Catenary Wires album "Red Red Skies" (Elefant/Matinée Recordings, 2015) was a marked departure from the fuzzy sixties-inspired girl-group pop of their earlier bands. It was more acoustic, emotive and melancholy.
The band have just completed their third album, to be released in June 2021. The first single "Mirrorball" is a love song inspired by eighties discos. It will be released on Shelflife (US) and their own new label, Skep Wax (UK and rest of world).
The band’s name refers to the chain of curves made by the overhead cables seen suspended from pylons or above electric trains, cables that can seem to lead you off to somewhere different and unknown. Mirrorball takes two lonely single people, and takes them for a night out in an 80s disco. Surrounded by divorcees and middle-aged drunks, will they be too shy to talk, or will they find some love action? Is this going to be heaven or hell?
This is definitely the most positive and the most romantic duet The Catenary Wires have ever released. With delicate – and not so delicate – musical tributes to the 80s, Mirrorball starts off skeptical, but ends up falling in love with the music of a decade that was pure, unsubtle, tasteless and synthetic. The 80s disco turns out to be heavenly!
Rob and Amelia (ex Talulah Gosh, Heavenly) started The Catenary Wires as a duo, but they’re a full band now - and this record really feels the benefit of inspired contributions from Fay Hallam (keyboard), Ian Button (drums) and Andy Lewis (bass).
The Catenary Wires write songs for grown-up indie kids. They don’t pretend to be 23 any more, but they do remember what it felt like. The song is a combination of joy and regret, innocence and experience. MIRRORBALL is the first single from upcoming album Birling Gap.
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