Course - The Spare Parts - Anya Hinkle - The High Hawks
Chicago based synth/indie/pop group Course released today their brand new single "Nick Of Time." The track is the latest peak at their forthcoming debut album A Late Hour, out on May 21, which also features a collection of nine short stories written by singer/guitarist Jessica Robbins to accompany each song on the record. Robbins stated "'Nick Of Time' is about being in a toxic relationship and the freedom and realization of being in a happy/safe place because you acted and got out in time. This song, paired with the short story, is a progression from pain to liberation and self-worth."
"Nick Of Time" follows the release of Course's previous single "Sixteen," which Consequence embraced with "optimistic synths that dance with anticipation." The nostalgic track debuted along with an advanced preview of the song's accompanying short story. Lead single "Give It All Away" is also out now, which Under The Radar called "a lush dream pop tapestry."
Comprised of veteran musicians Robbins, Chris Dye (drums), Dan Ingenthron (synth/keys), Mikey Russell (guitar), and Brian Weekly (bass), Course blends diverse aspects of dream-pop, 90's new-wave, alternative, electronic, and indie rock. Drawing on Robbins' indie-folk roots, Course incorporates polished, modern production and lush electronic instrumentation to create songs with a characteristic ethereal-industrial sheen.
Course recorded the bulk of A Late Hour in the desert town of Dripping Springs, TX with producer Dan Duszynski (of Subpop group Loma), who's studio is set up among a series of airstream trailers. Bright but with depth, the album offers a collection of elegantly upbeat reflections on life and love - though not without somber moments. It's an album filled with intricate and sweeping stories - literally. At one point while writing lyrics, Robbins found herself stuck, so she devised another way into the songs: She wrote narrative fictional short stories to accompany and elaborate each track. The stories will be released in a Chapbook along with the record.
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Cheesy love stories really do happen. Our frontman, Phillip Vonesh, wrote our new single for his brother Mickey and sister-in-law Jamie's wedding.
She's from Vancouver and was studying to be an urban planner at York University. They met on OkCupid and fell for each other hard. Jamie moved in within two weeks and the rest is history.
Dance, kiss, love and take it all in this summer. "Life Moves Fast" is taken from our upcoming album, Infatuation, out on June 4th.
It is a collection of songs inspired by a two year period of being single in our mid twenties – trips to Austin and New Orleans, Tinder dates, hook-ups, crushes, late nights and embarrassing mornings. Infatuation is a meditation on unrequited, new, and true love.
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For songwriters, any phrase, experience and observation can find its way into their next song. And often, it’s those details from life that make the music relatable, that make the music something people hear and say, “Oh, I know that feeling.” Organic Records artist Anya Hinkle’s new release, “Why Women Need Wine,” does just that, relating stories of situations and attitudes that women deal with day to day and reminding them with a little humor, a lot of friendship — and maybe an eye roll — they can shake it off and move on with their lives.
The phrase “Why Women Need Wine” came to Hinkle when she was feeling down and reached out to a friend who said “Come over, I’ve got a great bottle of wine, let’s talk.”
“I spilled it all out, just said every ridiculous thing and we laughed, I cried, and on my way home I just felt so much better,” says Hinkle. “Everything seemed possible again, I got a grip, and this line popped into my head: This is why women need wine.”
That thought spurred another for Hinkle, and she began to list all the ridiculous things that drive women crazy, from “My skirts are all too long or short, my shirts too loose or tight” and “I swear what do I do with my hair” to “Cause girls can do anything, but women must do everything” and “Nobody wants to hear you whine / Grow up, but not over thirty-nine.”
As Hinkle sings these lines, the songs gently swinging country blues binds the ideas in a way that gives its subtext of struggle a light-hearted groove. Women will nod, smirk and laugh with the recognition that they feel these things, too — and they’re not alone.
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In the first few seconds of The High Hawks’ debut single, a flurry of pulsing electric piano, kick drum, and Townshend-esque guitar strums give way to a flat out J.J. Cale groove just in time for the first line to be sung: “If we could just find a highway...might even find a way to make it home.” And thus, The High Hawks take flight. That tune, “Heroes & Highways,” is an appropriate first taste of music from the long-time-coming, feel-good Americana cooperative, naturally expressing the range of which the bands’ members can reach.
With close to 150 years of collective experience as professional touring musicians, The High Hawks—Vince Herman (Leftover Salmon), Tim Carbone (Railroad Earth), Chad Staehly (Hard Working Americans),Adam Greuel (Horseshoes & Hand Grenades), Brian Adams (DeadPhish Orchestra) and Will Trask (Great American Taxi)—have maintained a generation-spanning presence at the forefront of the roots music scene for over two decades. On June 11th, their debut album The High Hawks will be released via LoHi Records.
Yesterday, Live for Live Music premiered the music video for the aforementioned “Heroes & Highways,” a song the band calls “a nod to the ever-present tension of the thrills and experiences of ‘the highway’ and the comfort and pleasures of home sweet home.” Live for Live music echoed that sentiment, calling the tune “a much-needed reflection on the way of the road.”
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