With two critically-acclaimed albums, one EP and five singles under their collective belts, Welsh Music Prize-nominated Cymrucana pioneers Climbing Trees return this spring after three years of hibernation with brand new single Troubling Times. Released via Staylittle Music and distributed by The Orchard and PYST.
Recorded in isolation at Mwnci Studios in Hebron, Carmarthenshire – the setting for the band’s critically-acclaimed albums Hebron and Borders – Troubling Times marks the Trees’ first studio material since 2018’s Borders: Acoustic B Sides EP, released at the end of an eventful few years which included shows in the UK, Europe and USA alongside numerous television, radio and festival appearances, a live session at London’s iconic Maida Vale Studios and a performance with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
As the band’s frontman Matthew Frederick remarks; ‘We decided to take a year off in 2018 to spend a little time on our various solo and side projects. Before we knew it, two years had passed, then three, and a whole lot has happened in the world in that time. We didn’t want to come back until we had something to say, and, more importantly, a good song to say it with, and Troubling Times certainly feels timely in that sense. We’ve really enjoyed making music as Climbing Trees again, and we can’t wait to get back out on stage in front of the Trees fans, whenever that may be…’
Michael Lane releases the happy upbeat indie folk single "Good Times" on April 30th. Although 'Good Times’ is a very upbeat and happy song, it still has a more serious and deeper meaning. Without getting too much into it, in the song I’m basically saying that, just because you surround yourself with a new house or nice car, doesn’t mean it will give you more happiness in the long run.“ Michael Lane explains. If there is a modern folk-pop artist who has seen the harsh realities in life, it is Michael Lane himself.
As a US soldier in his twenties, sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, Michael was forced to live at cruelty. And if his previous albums were like a kind of musical diary in which these experiences were reflected, Michael Lane's regained ease and joy can clearly be seen in Good Times“.
The song is a message of hope and positive certainty that a time of crisis will lead people back to the important things. Successes such as two top 50 songs in the German charts, four albums, international tours and the single "Liberty" as the official song of the 2015/2016 Four Hills Tournament, Europe’s biggest international ski jump event, have made the German-American known to the public. In addition to his work as a musician, Michael Lane is currently also active as a songwriter for production music and as a music producer in his remote "Studio Waldblick“.
Bethany Ferrie, a 23-year-old singer/songwriter from Glasgow who has recently been shortlisted for the BBC Radio Scotland Singer/Songwriter Award and signed her first publishing contract in 2020, releases her new single, Bones, on the 30th of April 2021.
The track, written in the midst of lockdowns and an upturned world, is about reminiscing, letting go and opening up.
Bethany takes a wide range of influences when it comes to crafting her music: from the likes of Fleetwood Mac to Lewis Capaldi, Kings of Leon to Taylor Swift.
Hunter Sheridan is a Canadian musician whose music delivers soulful songwriting with warm melodies that weave a euphoric atmosphere. Hunter’s writing highlights honest lyrics and dynamic arrangements connecting with listeners across music genres.
Hunter released his debut album, Life is a Dream, in May 2020 and has reached over 100k streams cross-platform. He is now following up with a new single, “To You, My Friend,” which highlights the beauty in the briefness of life, and how important it is to show gratitude, support and appreciation to the ones you love while pursuing your own passions.
Don’t let the title fool you... The folk music forecast just got brighter and livelier with the release of “The Wind of Death” from Canadian acoustic quartet, Samways.
The second single to drop ahead of the group’s forthcoming debut album, the song juxtaposes a muscular, driving rhythm and sunny vocal harmonies with the moving poem, “The Wind of Death.” Written by Canadian poet and journalist Ethelwyn Wetherald well over a century ago, the poem touches on the tenuous and reflective last moments of someone’s life.
The wind of death, that softly blows The last warm petal from the rose The last dry leaf from off the tree Tonight, has come to breathe on me
Respectively all known and loved Toronto-based artists in their own rights, lead songwriter, guitarist and composer Nathan Hiltz — and the vocal trio of Shannon Butcher, Jessica Lalonde and Melissa Lauren — have combined their formidable talents to form the creative core of Samways.
As they succinctly put it, they create and perform “acoustic music with lyrics drawn from early Canadian poetry.” What kinds of acoustic music and poetry? Original folk inspired jazz and the 19th and early 20th century works of famed Canadian poets such as Bliss Carman, Susannah Moodie, E.J. Pratt, Agnes Maule Machar and of course, Ethelwyn Wetherald.
The music for “The Wind of Death'' also comes from a mash-up of different worlds… The song answers a question: What would it sound like if Sonny Greenwich joined the Gordon Lightfoot band? Greenwich, an arch top jazz guitarist from Montréal with a psychedelic, Coltrane-influenced style, and Canadian folk legend Lightfoot, are both big inspirations for Hiltz.
While in his twenties, Hiltz was a jazz purist working at Toronto’s Ring Music, and Lightfoot used to come around to the shop. “I absolutely knew who [Lightfoot] was but had no idea what he sounded like,” Hiltz explains. “All I remember is this badass who parked his big, old-man Cadillac in the no parking zone out front of the store. “He came in and said ‘I’m Gordon Lightfoot. I’m here to pick up my guitar’.”
Those moments stuck with Hiltz and years later, as his musical tastes opened up, he devoured Lightfoot’s entire discography, citing his beautiful music as a driving force in the creation of Samways. Unlike the group’s first single “Untrodden Ways,” “The Wind of Death” is more akin to Lightfoot’s “Summer Side of Life” than “Long River.” Now, replace Lightfoot with three powerful female singers and you have Samways’ signature and fully-satisfying sound.
NYC-based dream-pop duo Phantom Handshakes are sharing their new album, No More Summer Songs, on all DSPs followed by a Bandcamp release on April 30th via Z Tapes.
No More Summer Songs is a collection of songs exploring themes of memory, nostalgia and the visceral feeling of when summer gives way to autumn. If Phantom Handshakes' debut release, Be Estranged was their summer album, this is their end-of-summer album.
The album expands on the lo-fi, DIY approach they took with Be Estranged. The songs on the album are less concerned with following a standard structure and more interested in a mood. For the duo, creating these songs was a cathartic outlet to help us get through these long months in lockdown.
No More Summer Songs was written, recorded and mixed entirely by Phantom Handshakes at their respective homes in New York City and mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering in Chicago.
PACKS debut LP Take The Cake, is due out on Fire Talk Records (Dehd, Patio, Mamalarky) and Royal Mountain Records (Wild Pink, Alvvays, Mac DeMarco) on May 21st, and significant excitement has been building around the Toronto band since they announced the album in early March. The album has seen two singles so far in "Silvertongue" and "New TV," which have been the subject of some high praise! This week the band are sharing a third single from the LP, the sneakily infectious "Two Hands".
Memorably invoking a "Simpson's sunset" in its opening lyric, the track delivers a hazy jangle that forms the perfect frame for PACKS leader Madeline Link's laid back melodic acrobatics, and the accompanying video, which Link directed herself, reflects the song's springtime feeling.
PACKS was initially a solo songwriting project of Madeline Link that she pursued between gigs as a set dresser for commercials, the band is now a four piece, composed of Shane Hooper (drums), Noah O’Neil (bass), and Dexter Nash (lead guitar). Together they turn Link’s melodically adventurous and introspective songs into the purest and brightest kind of indie rock. Anchored by Link’s voice, which brings such an easy charm to her songs that it’s easy to miss her keen ear for acrobatic vocal lines, the band’s debut is a collection of songs that marry the loose but incisive jangle of early Pavement with the barbed sweetness of Sebadoh and the wide-eyed wonder of the first Shins LP.
Written in two different settings, between the city limits of Toronto where Link was living in 2019, and the Ottawa suburbs where she was quarantined with her parents in the spring 2020, both remain complementary emblems of self-reflection and wry observation of the mundanity of daily life.
It’s the sound of a song you half remember. A voice from some faraway radio. A glimpse of a now scratched record. You pause, reaching into that dark recess of memory for a brighter recollection, and return with nothing but the gnawing remembrance of something you’re sure you’ve forgotten. No satisfaction can be found: Sleepy Jean’s blend of American standard songwriting and folk sensibilities are unquestionably her own.
Borne from the bones of forgotten nostalgia, Sleepy Jean spent the better part of a decade frequenting tourist traps and hole-in-the-walls alike whilst sneakily sliding her self-penned songs amongst those of her contemporaries and reveries. Her wistful, smoky voice is equal parts Joni Mitchell and Etta James, and is known for that inimitable quality that evokes salty streams of tears and bloody bar fights alike. Her first recorded offering, Idle Hands, makes its way into the world midsummer 2021.
Idle Hands began as an exercise in self-soothing. The dawning of 2020’s Great Slowdown saw Jean watch her regular hustle and bustle as a working musician (playing over 250 dates a year!) disappear within the wink of an eye. In her effort to avoid the realities of global catastrophe, Sleepy turned inwards and spent the majority of her time dreaming up songs that felt comforting, yet addressed the anxieties and idiosyncrasies that peppered her newly empty days. “Hungry,” a sugary sardonic musing on social cannibalism, was the first to surface while “By the Oceanside,” a tribute to the harmonies of the Everly Brothers soon followed. Idle Hands sees Sleepy exploring her love of 1960’s folk music (“Smaller,” “I Don’t Belong”) while paying homage to the likes of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald (“Moonshine,” “Downer.”) The final track, “How’s it All Gonna End,” is both an ode to the Truman Show and an unnerving waltz that swells with a tension filled current as she ponders that titular, existential question.
Sleepy partnered with long time collaborator Dan Serre (Cat Clyde, Shitbats) to record and mix the majority of the 7 song extended play over the course of 2 months within the confines of a spare bedroom. Russ Donohue (Stonehouse Studios) aided in additional mixing, and mastering was completed by Kristian Montano (Montano Mastering) in Toronto, ON. Drums and vibraphone were provided by Marshall Bureau (Great Lake Swimmers, Jill Barber), with additional playing from Kaelin Murphy (trumpet), Phil Bosley (upright bass) and Al Aguilar (synthesizers). A long-play is expected to follow in early 2022.
Los Angeles native artist Joe Cardamone has lived a few lifetimes while leaving a wiry dent in the global underground music and film scenes. The band that Joe fronted for 17 years, The Icarus Line, formed in East Los Angeles in 1998. Over the course of six albums the punk agitators became an underground phenomenon and the most dangerous, if not the greatest, punk group of their generation. The cult band the never gave up.
Performances at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in front of 30,000+ fans, multiple appearances on the legendary John Peel show, criss-crossing the US in a van opening a stadium tour for A Perfect Circle and The Cult and a UK tour with Primal Scream are just some of the “greatest hits” of a legend loaded with nearly mythic live performances and chaos. But it was the death of guitarist/original member Alvin DeGuzman in 2017 following a long battle with cancer, which was the actual end of The Icarus Line (a demise recently depicted in Michael Grodner’s independent film “The Icarus Line Must Die” which is now streaming on Amazon and Hulu).
The following year Joe released his solo debut, the frenzied Holy War album and film on his own imprint American Primitive. Cardamone’s new approach was a modern one man show that forged R&B and crushing electronics with the combative spirit of his formative punk years. While crafting a pair of follow up albums in 2020 the world stopped and the QUARENTINA project emerged in response. Outside of his work as an artrist Joe has produced and collaborated with some of the greatest artists of our time including Mark Lanegan, Ian Astbury, Warren Ellis (Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds) and James Williamson (The Stooges).
Faiyaz and the Wasted Chances are a POC fronted Toronto punk band that have been described as a raw garage pop band with virtuosic protopunk influences, cheekily modded for today’s listeners.
Their sound falls somewhere between Warhol pre-punk and the Toronto DIY indie that they flowered in. The band’s raucous, rough-around-the-edges appeal is concisely painted.
Raised in the downtown core, the band cut their teeth as young underaged punks playing the original Silver Dollar Room, The Horseshoe Tavern, Lee’s Palace, and any other willing hole-in-the-wall in Canada.
Through relentless mini tours and studio EPs in famed studios 6 Nassau, Candle Recording, and Lootbag Studios, the band gained the cult following that have allowed them to play alongside larger more reputable acts. They are currently on Lootbag Records alongside many great artists.
Glasgow based Dundonian Jeshua (Joshua Gray) is set to release his effervescent debut album Unreliable Narrator on June 4th with the fourth single from the album, ‘Esther’, an ode to the singer’s Grandmother, due on April 28th.
Unreliable Narrator beguiles with layers of delightfully hazy guitar pop, whisking you off you feet with an assured aloofness and a wistful beauty that is only seen rarely in guitar albums these days.
Jeshua’s introspective dream-pop encapsulates the everyday experiences of a fly-on- the-wall shop assistant, drawing from feelings of disconnection and the need for distraction from programmed living.
Singles so far, ‘Feel-So-Alive’, ‘Waste Away’ and ‘IDK’, have gained both local and national airplay, notably being championed by Vic Galloway (Radio Scotland) and Shell Zenner (BBC Introducing/Amazing Radio) and featured on Spotify editorial playlists.
“Each song has a specified meaning and all of them are connected, I think it sums up a ten year period of my life and how I was feeling about life and death, with the lyrics being an exercise of reflection.
Abby K is back and defining herself to say it is MY time. I am taking control and you will hear me! "Pay Attention" is a rock anthem delivered to the proverbial board of trustees as if to say- "I know what I want, I know what I am doing, NOW listen because I have the rock and I need to roll. Nothing you say or do is taking me off my drive!" Clearly, Abby K is making her statement and it is time for the music insiders to "Pay Attention"!
Without a doubt, Abby K is a strong female-fronted hard rock/metal band continuing to blaze the trail like Lzzy Hale, Lita Ford, and other great female rockers have! '"Pay Attention" is the ultimate “I’m here, now LISTEN” song! It is catchy while also being a hard-hitting rock song that you can’t help but bang your head to. Powerful hooks and shredding guitar solos belong in rock music and we’re bringing them back! We want to show the world that we’re here to stay and we won’t stop until we reach the top. So you’d better pay attention!"'
Abby K is a bassist, vocalist, and songwriter from Charlotte, North Carolina. She picked up the bass at age 13 after being influenced by Gene Simmons at a KISS Concert. Months into her musical journey, she was 1 of 3 bassists in the United States selected to attend GRAMMY Camp in Los Angeles, CA. Abby was soon later invited by the producers of America’s Got Talent to audition for the show. She claims that her proudest moment was when Nita Strauss joined her onstage to perform Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper”. Since then, she has developed her own style of musicianship which is commonly described as the love child of Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) and Lita Ford.
In the spring of 2021, Abby K became an independent artist and announced that Crispy Borell and Diego Vargas will be joining the band as co-lead guitarists. Recently, the new lineup released the title track of their upcoming album, “Pay Attention” as a single. Join Abby and the band on this incredible journey of theirs by following @abbykrocks on all social media.
Dr. Fabola is a Manchester based singer/songwriter whose upbeat acoustic pop is laced with rootsy folk,world music and jazz. His intricate finger picking and soft,soulful vocals combine effortlessly into a sweet feel good vibe that has drawn comparisons to Jack Johnson, Tracy Chapman and Nina Simone.
"You could say I wrote my latest single 'No Tomorrow' as a reminder - a note to self - to be kind, to love others, to love myself, to laugh and just live life to the fullest. Does this sound basic? Like "Live, Laugh, Love"?
Well, that's the idea; the good life is meant to be basic, but we over complicate things, and this song is a reminder of just how simple and beautiful life can be. Laugh like there's no one watching, and love like there's no tomorrow."
Paul Shepherd and Owen Marchildon have spent the last twenty years in the Toronto music scene, playing in various different projects, sometimes together and sometimes separately. While thinking on a new project, Val Calam was invited to join and collaborate with the pair. Calam was just the lift Shepherd and Marchildon needed. After several dinner parties with endless music listening, they discussed their strengths and aspirations and High Wasted came to fruition.
Together, they blend simple punk tones and exploratory lyrics that push towards a velvet induced frame of mind, approaching the recording process with an energetic, transcending mentality.
High Wasted’s debut single, “Germ Free High Fives,” showcases the band’s sonic capabilities and musical lyricism. It’s energy is peddled by a tattered charm, a feeling of pleasant dizziness, that may leave the listener to encompass decades of past classics.
We have some sunny dreampop from the French indiepop band Pastel Coast. The first single "Sunset" debuted at Austin Town Hall early last week with the video debut last Friday at French outlet Magic Revue Pop Moderne. A track that brings to mind American dreampop bands like the Drums, Wild Nothing, and Craft Spells.
From the shores of Boulogne-sur-mer, Pastel Coast are looking toward the sea. Quentin Isidore and his band surf waves of indiepop with waves of crashing guitars, taking influences from bands like Phoenix and Air, with their own fresh "à la française” sound.
After their debut album, Hovercraft, the band was nominated in the TOP 10 emerging French artists for the Paris’ Ricard price foundation and for the auditions of the "Inouïs du Printemps de Bourges", Pastel Coast are coming back in 2021 with a new opus entitled Sun that will be released on Shelflife / Groover Obsessions on June 4th.
Norway’s Frøkedal & Family share Set Your Spirit Free, an awakening both sonically and spiritually, and the third taster taken from forthcoming album ‘Flora’ which follows 14th May, Fysisk Format.
Lauren Lavern once described Frøkedal as sounding like “Fleetwood Mac getting on pretty well with Joni Mitchell”. It’s a description apt for new single Set Your Spirit Free melding as it does Frøkedal’s indie-rock heritage (I Was A King, Harrys Gym) with folk traditions, taking roots instrumentation, a meandering melody and Frøkedal’s gloriously ethereal overlaid vocal and building it skywards, layer upon layer heavenwards.
However, Set Your Spirit Free also inhabits its own transcendental and somewhat magical world, it is a song described by Frøkedal as “the dam that bust.” Born on day seven of ten consecutive days in the studio, it marks the turning point where the chronology of the studio diary disintegrated with the song triggering an experimental free-falling and unstoppable avalanche of overdubs, cümbüş, whistle piano, high strung, congas, chimes. “Shortly afterwards, the studio diary mentions something about paranoia” explains Frøkedal, “but the way I remember it, this was one of the happiest days we spent in the studio.”
Set Your Spirit Free was born out of a deep human connectivity, it’s the organic, heartfelt and intuitive sound of Frøkedal & Family letting loose and setting themselves free.
“We know the mind is able to move mountains. That the souls of all living things are connected through invisible links. There is a language that is understandable to all creatures. This is the song we sing to those of you who have forgotten.” - Frøkedal.
The Felice Brothers released their first new single in two years "Inferno" alongside an official video composed of found footage edited by Ian Felice. The song, out today via Yep Roc Records, reflects on the half-forgotten memories that shift and morph in the mind as we age, and is their first new music since the release of their critically-acclaimed 2019 album Undress.
"This song, more than anything, is about the persistence of certain mundane memories, and how they take on hidden meaning and significance, how their symbols become part of our inner lives, and how they are transformed in our minds," explains Ian Felice. "It’s also about youth and growth and transformation. Memories of the film are obscured through the lens of time. Does Jean Claude Van Damm actually ride a motorcycle along the banks of the Rio Grande? I don’t recall, but still I have this image in my mind. I just remember how horrible the movie was. The two characters in the song are transformed into swans in the final verse, in a dream, as they are swept into the fire of another, more frightening reality."
"Inferno" was produced by The Felice Brothers, engineered by James Felice and Nate Wood, and mixed by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Phoebe Bridgers). The song also sees the continuation of the new lineup of the band that debuted with Undress, consisting of Ian Felice, who shares songwriting and vocal duties in the band with his brother James Felice, bassist Jesske Hume (Conor Oberst, Jade Bird) and drummer Will Lawrence.
The Felice Brothers’ Undress was acclaimed by No Depression, Consequence of Sound, American Songwriter, Paste Magazine, PopMatters, Talkhouse, and Rolling Stone who called it “their best album in years.” NPR Music said “With Undress, The Felice Brothers' folk-rock sound and vision has matured and focused, and the band does its best at making sense of our modern times.”
New Skin. It’s not just a title. It’s a state of mind, an accurate summation of the position in which Ivor Novello Award-winning songwriter Scott Matthews finds himself with the release of his seventh studio album on May 14th 2021. The man who specialises in conveying the emotional complexities of love and loss in sparse, warm-hearted acoustic songs has shed another skin. Reborn in a new guise, circumstances have forced fundamental reinvention.
Covid-19 was the catalyst. A life-changing event that forced Matthews to reassess, he decided to scale a musical Everest, setting himself new challenges, digging deeper than before to find new ways to communicate through song. Unable to tour or collaborate with musicians, he had only his own head space in which to operate. And so, he created ‘New Skin’, a daring and audacious record swathed in Eno-esque electronica and Thom Yorke-centric uncovering that channels the driving energy of ‘80s Springsteen. Rock and ambient. Acoustic and electro. Matthews fuses insistent guitars and pulsing beats with the sort of angular, early ‘80s synths that Vince Clarke pioneered. It is bold and fearless, experimental, and compelling. ‘New Skin’ inhabits a rare terrain.
The first track to be unveiled from the album, the title track ‘New Skin’ picked up Radio X & BBC 6 Music Breakfast Show airplay plus support from a plethora of music blogs and sites, winning over critics and fans alike to Scott’s new sonic exploration, including legendary former Cocteau Twins member and Bella Union boss Simon Raymonde, who has subsequently invited Scott to perform at his next ‘Lost Horizons’ show later this year.
Second single from the album ‘Wait In The Car’ explores the human fear of nothing lasting forever, while portraying a euphoric energy that drives the listener into feeling they can break free. With its soaring synthesizers and ambient electric guitars resonant of the Cocteau Twins, the emotional resonance and driving energy of ‘Wait in the Car’, will inhabit a place in every soul as Matthews masterfully interlaces melancholy and euphoria.
The director of the ‘Wait In The Car’ video, Damien Hyde, unearthed the beautiful 8mm home movies filmed by Ellwood P. Hoffmann. They were masterfully shot and such a beautiful celebration of life. The portrayal of a life’s potential lost opportunities and the fleeting nature of our experiences informed the decision to play the movies backwards. In Damien’s words, ‘The home movies are, to me, a testament of bravery in the face of fear. This is an allegorical road movie. The tenderness and joy in some of these scenes is truly remarkable. Those fleeting moments of beauty captured, and replayed and repurposed decades later, are the by-products of endless rumination, doubt and vulnerability.’
It's been 14 years since the release of Matthews’ stunning debut, ‘Passing Stranger’, a record that prompted tours with the Foo Fighters, Robert Plant and Rufus Wainwright and earned his Ivor Novello for the timeless ‘Elusive’. Since then, through the daring ‘Elsewhere’ and the immersive ‘What the Night Delivers’, through his affectionate ‘Home’ Part I & II song cycle and his thoughtful and elegiac ‘The Great Untold’, Matthews has refined his craft. Having mastered the art of the song, he’s given himself permission to take flight by making a record that will surprise and astonish, delight and mesmerise.
Yet for all his adventures in electronica, ‘New Skin’ is at heart a record of classy songs. Yes, the treatment is different. Yes, it will take listeners into a new space, just as it provided Matthews with new aural adventures. Yet above all, it’s a collection of songs written by one of our greatest craftsmen.
Australian eclectic chamber indie folk sister duo Charm of Finches have just released “Treading Water”, the single is a part of their upcoming full length album set for release later this year.
“Treading Water” captures the bittersweet reminiscing of a relationship that was mutually ended. The journey takes the listener across the city of Melbourne, while navigating across the trickier emotional terrain as they transition from lovers to friends. The song features tender layered vocals, dreamy melodies, and creative instrumentation that is soul-bearing, immersive, and fluid. The duo are signed to AntiFragile and have found success being added to official Spotify playlists including Fresh Folk, Lush + Etheral and Acoustic Spring among others.
Melbourne sister duo, Charm of Finches, sing haunted folk tunes about love, grief and whispering trees with their signature tight sibling harmonies and chamber folk sound. Mabel and Ivy Windred-Wornes emerge from an eclectic musical childhood of Celtic strings and busking old-time tunes.
Their debut album “Staring at the Starry Ceiling", produced by Nick Huggins of Little Lake Records and featuring the duo's signature angelic vocal harmonies and captivating chamber folk sound, was praised for its candour and originality and named one of the best releases of 2016 by ABC Radio National. Their sophomore album “Your Company” in November 2019 on their independent label Conversations With Trees, they toured Australia widely. This album was Melbourne's PBS Radio Album of the Week and winner of the Best Folk/Singer-Songwriter Album in the Independent Music Awards (IMA).
The duo has won many awards nationally and internationally and their music has featured on Australian TV. Their influences include Sufjan Stevens , Gillian Welch, Danish songstress Agnes Obel and First Aid Kit as well as the incredible home grown talent in their local Victorian folk scene.
New York’s Simone is revealing the 3rd song “everything/nothing” from her upcoming pure pop love lessons EP which will come out this summer. At 16, after releasing her first alt-pop track "Kissing Strangers" earlier this year and she revealed “Boy Of My Dreams”. Simone writes with a cinematic eye here, capturing the rough edges of modern relationships in vivid detail.
Simone explains the song: “everything/nothing” tells a story about a young love from its beginning to its end. In the chorus, I play with the clichés of teen romance by contrasting them with the anxiety and pain that comes along with it. On the surface, the song is a classic love story, but there are a lot of underlying messages about the pressure and confusion that comes with being a teenager.”
At 10 years old, her worldview opened up to become a performer when she sang 2 self-written songs at an open mic in Nashville, TN. Needless to say that from an early age, New York-based Simone has set her vision on sharing her love for music. “Kissing Strangers”s arrangements are sonically rich to match, mixing radio-ready pop hooks with indie rock grit and singer/songwriter intimacy. “Kissing Strangers” is a buoyant, brilliant earworm exploring the rise and fall of young love in all its exhilarating, heartbreaking transience. About “Boy Of My Dreams”, she said: “it’s a song I wrote after ending a relationship that really damaged my perception of love.”
Born and raised in New York City, Simone first fell in love with Broadway as a youngster. By the age of ten, she’d already appeared in a slew of musicals, and by the time she hit middle school, she was writing her own songs and performing regularly at New York open mic nights, such as Sidewalk Cafe. It was at one of those early performances that Simone caught the attention of a New York-based producer, and soon she found herself recording in a proper studio and making waves across Spotify and social media. With a mix of mesmerizing performance clips and down-to-earth, straight-to-camera videos documenting daily life, she quickly went viral on TikTok (247k followers), racking up millions of likes from fans around the world who could relate to both her unabashed ambition and dry, self-deprecating sense of humor.
Simone’s musically diverse songwriting styles from acoustic teary to pop bops will be part of her upcoming full love lessons EP this summer. Besides writing, she hosts a weekly podcast Is This Thing On?.
Heralded Scottish rock band We Were Promised Jetpacks share brand new single ‘If It Happens’, and announce a 7” featuring the track to be released via Big Scary Monsters on June 29th. The new track signifies a change in musical direction for the band. ‘If It Happens’ is all at once grand yet restrained – sonically reflective of its lyrical examination of the bigger picture of life and how that can be boiled down to a simple phrase; “If it happens, it happens.” Lead singer Adam Thompson explains:
“I feel that ‘If It Happens’ expresses a lot about what I had been trying to get across to myself. It was all part of my new mindset of trying to be more positive about what I have and not always thinking about what I don’t. It’s about embracing the idea of happiness, doing what you can to encourage it and generally be a lot more ‘c’est la vie’ about everything. If it happens, it happens; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. What can you do?”
Since releasing 2018’s ‘The More I Sleep The Less I Dream’, We Were Promised Jetpacks’ Adam Thompson, Sean Smith and Darren Lackie have embraced change head-on. Amicably parting ways with founding member Michael Palmer the following year, they knew they would likely need to go through a sonic transition.
Entering 2020 as a trio with a handful of songs written and a successful US tour under their belts, the world around them came to a sudden halt. Yet despite the unquestionable uncertainty that the lockdown brought, it also proved to be a blessing in disguise. Fifteen years into their career, the trio are more focussed than ever.
With versions of this song being passed between the band members remotely, they found the collaborative process engaging and rewarding. “Writing together this way allowed us to stay in contact all the time, talk about the song and what we were individually and collectively trying to achieve with it. Even though we were unable to be in the same room, this way of working allowed us to create together and communicate more directly,” says Adam. “Having music to focus on during lockdown assured us that we wanted to keep writing songs together for many more years.”
“We’re all very appreciative of the people who are listening to us,” Darren says. “It pushes us to keep getting better.” Nodding to both the band and their ever-loyal fans, Adam agrees. “It is very much our band, and we do this because we can do it together.”
"Supersonic" is the second single off of Spud Cannon's forthcoming LP, Good Kids Make Bad Apples, out June 25th via Good Eye Records.
Recorded as a part of an all-nighter, one-take, not-campus-approved sessions on a squash court at the band's now alma mater, Vassar College, "Supersonic" captures the band's family dynamic
Ari Bowe (keys, vocals) details; "Since the girls write all the lyrics, we always end up writing about the guys in the band. It’s almost like a rite of passage, and for us it’s a fun way to get our feelings out there. There are a lot of songs about Jackson, but this song is Ben’s debut as our subject!
It’s about us all being worried that Ben (with his newfound party persona) would get himself in more trouble than he could handle. Hence 'Good luck doing time for a big smile.' The lyrics definitely embody a sort of cheeky warning to our beloved Ben.
While he was pissed at first, he came to understand where the lyrics were coming from, and the song is now one of his top tracks from Good Kids.”
David Climaco Garcia - Down By Her Riverside Home.
David Climaco Garcia announces the release of the gentle Americana tune, “Down by Her Riverside Home” on May 6. Built on a traditional Irish ballad song structure, the single provides an interlude from grief through the comforts of nature.
The single was released exclusively on Bandcamp in honor of Earth Day. Before the official May 6 release, proceeds will be donated to the non-profit wilderness advocacy group, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. The single is off the album, Between the Devil and Me, due out this summer.
Written about the upper Gila River that flows through 45 miles of pristine wilderness, it tells the story of a widow who lived on the river with her daughter, who was lost in a tragic accident. Soothing vocals and instrumentals mimic the woman wandering the river’s banks, trying to find solace and commune with her lost child amongst the trees.
An open, droning sound and a signature Celtic fiddle part played by Garcia’s wife, Nikelle Garcia, contributes to the interminable sadness at the intersection of life and death. Alex Mcmahon (The Handsome Family) contributed pedal steel remotely.
Hey hey! Spirits rejoice! It’s a new Dag album. And something is going on here - there’s a new Dag in town. It’s that thing when singer/songwriter Dusty Anastassiou walks on stage, talks into the mic and the room just kinda melts ‘cause everyone knows this guy has got us all covered - he’s with you and of us and he sounds at peace with the crumbling passage of your day. Well, it’s that thing, but beautifully recorded for posterity and spread across two platters of vinyl (yes two!) to warm the cockles of your broken heart.
But it’s much more too. Lifetones in the key of three - a band that’s so snug you don’t even notice there are three of them. These pups are from the same litter. They’ve got the group-think glue, Dan Ford and Dave McMillan sewing it all up seamlessly with the Dust. But you still want more! That’s the beauty of recording songs - you can have a bit more, and it’s all here friend. Field recordings of a distant storm, Nicole Thibault’s trombone, violin from Lily Tait, casiotone tinkly bop courtesy of Stefan Blair, spot-on extra vox from Liv Jansz and Francisca Castro-Merino, plaintive keys over a decaying mumbled voice - that lovely double album stretch-out.
"Big Plans (Little Hands) is about the joys of falling in love, finding peace and comfort in connecting with someone completely — and the false promise of escaping your self through someone else. Who better to represent these complex emotions than our friends the teddies?" - Dusty Anastassiou, Dag
As you read this, Dusty is most likely somewhere near a small town called Munduberra, and there’s no mistaking this album is an Australian record - think The Cannanes circa Randell Lee (or indeed Ashtray Boy) via rural Queensland and you might have a starting point musically. Maybe there is some regional AM country radio in here? I wouldn’t know. I do know Dusty used to take long drives through the deep Australian night with his Mum while Harold Budd played on the car stereo. So there’s a bit of depth beneath the mystery of Dag. “The sad old planet has seen better days" sings Captain Dusty - but as Albert Ayler let us know, music is the healing force of the universe. So get a dose of Dag in your day!
The debut single Lungs from Freyja Elsy is an epic, yet introspective look at the end of a relationship.
Freyja Elsy is an independent singer songwriter and composer with a nomadic past and a sound that pushes into the future. Creating songs with a keen ear whilst pursuing music education, she found herself within the vibrant, engaging Cardiff scene. Through both outside musical influence and internal personal conflict she started to establish a clear identity, forging a path forward to create ‘Lungs’, her first single.
Based around very real, very intimate voice recordings, ‘Lungs’ starts small and reserved, fragile in its form and structure. The track slowly unfolds and develops into rising crescendos alongside uncompromising percussion. A mixture of glitchy synthesisers and rising strings interweave around Elsy’s voice, which sits unwavering and steadfast. Her bold lyrics are strong in the face of a contrasting anguish found in the recordings nestled within the music.
With other musical endeavours in the form of collaborations within the band Blue Amber, alongside orchestral compositions performed by members of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and thematic interludes created for commercial use - this single is her first, strikeout release and sets the course for a prolific career ahead.
Lovelow is the forceful dark wave/art pop debut from DB Armitage, the stage name of East London-based multidisciplinary vocalist and video artist Dalma Berger.
Revolving around the bitter end of a love story, Lovelow authentically captures mourning as themes of inevitable hurt, imbalances between lovers, and heartfelt sadness ultimately collide with self-empowerment.
Each song in the brilliantly produced synth-fueled EP tells a different story about power and vulnerability. While “Old Bones” is about an active choice and open rebellion against heartache, “Last Summer” and “Lovelow” find Dalma learning lessons about her own womanhood after a problematic break up.
Accompanied by a dark and dynamic visual co-directed by Berger and Gareth Phillips (whose previous credits include The 1975, Wolf Alice and Pale Waves), the "Lovelow" video captures Dalma dancing and fighting with the dazzling Emma Holty, expressing nuances of love and hate.
“Expressing vulnerability excites me as a songwriter as I’ve never really explored this territory before,” says Berger. “I’ve picked these three songs because they are all coming from the same state, the state where love is low.”
Wy are a band strongest at their most vulnerable. The Malmö indie duo, Ebba and Michel Gustafsson Ågren, have showcased their musical skills across two albums, 2017’s Okay and 2019’s Softie which gained them recognition from KEXP, Line of Best Fit, NBHAP, Tonspion, CLASH and more as well as tours in Germany, Scandinavia and the UK. But what makes them stand out as a band is the raw, brutal emotion they capture in their music.
A Wy song at their best sounds like opening it all up, and letting the feelings flow where they will, letting the pain, anger, fear, hope and love steer the song. Those emotions are spun into the band’s skyscaping, cinematic sound, and turned into music that has a force behind it, a power that hits you, even when it's at its softest. And that power that illuminates the band’s songs is more present than ever on their new album Marriage which is out on May 7th, God's Lamb is the last single and comes alongside a video directed and recorded by the duo themselves.
Marriage is the first record since signing to Rama Lama Records (Melby, Steve Buscemi's Dreamy Eyes, Chez Ali etc.) and the sound of Wy moving forward and backwards at once. Leaving the more produced style of last album Softie behind, it turns to the simpler sound of their earlier work for music that’s rawer and sharper. On both the indie-rock and the pop songs of this album, there’s less between the listener and the heart of the song - this is music that’s very direct, both in theme and sound, with melodies that hit cleanly and leave nothing even trying to hide. It’s the work of a band that have grown into themselves and what they do, and making the strongest songs of their career.
That album, in a way, begins with a wedding. Ebba and Michel have been together since their schooldays, but a couple of years ago they tied the knot. The songs on Marriage have all been made since their wedding, and so in that sense the timing made it a natural title for a record that’s something of a scrapbook from the first two years of that marriage. But there’s also a deeper sense to it. Both in sound and theme, Marriage is more of a conceptual record than their earlier work. Ebba writes the band’s lyrics, and on the previous albums her themes were specific to her. But on this album, their relationship is at the heart of the songs. The lyrics have come from the experiences they’ve shared together, which they’ve then worked together into what they want to say, to each other and to everyone else. “I have always written the lyrics”, says Ebba. “But this time they feel like our lyrics, and not just my diary set to our music. We've talked a lot with each other about what we want to say. About who we are and where we can find our place in the world. The title has been in place since we started, and that was because a lot of the songs revolved around our relationship since we got married. Not so much the relationship between us, but more about the internal conflicts that appear when you’re in a long-term, safe relationship, where you’re really sure about each other, but you’re not sure about yourself”.
The journey to the record has been a difficult one. The band started work on Marriage not intending to make an album. They went into the studio with the idea of making an EP, wrote some songs, but couldn’t quite nail what they were going for - the songs didn’t quite feel right together. So they went into overdrive, wrote a bunch more songs, and suddenly found themselves with over 20, and within those 20 what they realised was an album.
Sophie Janna today releases her new single ‘Wide World’. Sophie describes her song as an hymn for the modern age. Quiet vocals and beautiful sounds make the single very refreshing to listen to.
Sophie says about 'Wide World': “This song is about not daring to tell someone that you love them. I've always been scared to express how I feel and I've spent most of my life so far pretending to be stronger and more independent than I really am. Only in music I dare to show my emotions. With this song I tried to tell someone what I didn't dare to say out loud: that I wanted them to stay with me, preferably forever, and not to go home to their own country. I was feeling all this and picked up my guitar to play a traditional song that I love - I'm a folk musician and I often play songs that are more than a hundred years old. Singing such old love songs gives me comfort, because they remind me that so many people before me have felt the same way. But when I strummed the first few chords of the song I intended to play, other words came up and formed this new song instead. "
The west Frisian Sophie Janna lived in Scotland for a while, discovered traditional folk there, and since then can be found every week at the folk sessions in her favorite cafe in her hometown Amsterdam. You can hear the influences of Scottish and Irish ballads well in her own songs. With a clear, sensitive voice and subdued strumming, she sings comforting songs that make you forget where you are for a moment. After her debut album 'Laurels', with eleven bittersweet traditional songs, Sophie Janna has now released her first EP with her own work, in which she is clearly influenced by artists such as Iron & Wine, The Weather Station, Anaïs Mitchell, and Sandy Denny.
During her solo career, Sophie Janna has performed on various stages worldwide. She was the opening act for Small Houses and she toured through Germany and America. She has also performed at many (international) festivals, such as The Brave, Tandem, Offbeat, Nest Collective Campfire Club and Knockengorroch. These are just a few examples of the highlights of her career.
"It’s a play on words I guess. Sitting inside writing on a sunday afternoon instead of out in the sun driving or riding or at the lake with my friends. Ride on Sundys is about the guilt of being sad and trying to bandage it with isolation."
The ten songs on Sara Bug’s forthcoming self-titled debut album were not meant to be shared. A culmination of seven years of her life, these songs were journal entries that reckoned with defining herself. Growing up in New Orleans, Bug imagined herself to be a successful songwriter. “I was so deep in the music. ‘Oh, I'm going to be a famous musician. When I get out of high school, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go have a career in music,’” she explains. “I think I held on to that for so long, I had finally kind of let go, like that pressure. Now it was just fun.” This eponymous project embodies Bug’s journey away from the expectations of others and her younger self, allowing her creative freedom.
Sara Bug opens with a lush, symphonic ballad about desire. “My whole life through, I want to die with you,” she sings tenderly on “Die With You.” Romantic and a bit morbid, Bug opens with the oldest song on the album and takes us to that time when the urgency of her happiness began pushing against the pressure of others’ approval. It's easy to get lost in the dreamy guitar strums and sturdy bass lines, Bug’s voice sharp and clear against the country-psych rock combination. A close listen reveals that Bug is letting the listener into the most poignant moments of the past years with sincerity and ease. She takes us on reflective motorcycle rides, whether literal or desired, for “Rosebank” and “Ride On Sundys.” She details the loss of a family member and a trip back home from her then-residence in New York on “Lotta Pride.” Inspired by the detailed storytelling of Dolly Parton and Neil Young, Bug leads across state lines and along her timeline of personal growth with unconventional, vivid song structures.
There’s a ‘beauty in tragedy’ and ‘dreaminess to heartache’ that Canadian multi-instrumentalist Esther Spiegelman — and group Let’s Be Giants — weave into their encapsulating new single, “I Don’t Mind”. Landing ahead of the Montreal-based band’s forthcoming album, Fade In / Fade Out, the song features simple lyrics with a profound message; Spiegelman both implores you to listen, and also hear what she’s feeling, what she’s wishing, and what she's needing.
Drawing on the nostalgia of 90s soundscapes — think Liz Phair asking Dolores O’Riordan to the dance, only to find out that Mazzy Starr was the opening band — “I Don’t Mind” lulls you into memories of heartbreak, but with an air of hope that you’ll survive this, too. Having fronted several outfits over her tenure as a singer/songwriter, it was Spiegelman’s assembly of Let’s Be Giants where she found her niche. After recruiting Jeremie Dallaire on guitar, Matt Wozniak on bass, and Simon Pesant on drums, songs Spiegelman had started penning began to take a life form all their own.
“Esther often writes songs about being in her own head, and in her own world, where she can view things the way she wants to,” says the band. “As an introvert, she writes a lot about what goes on in her mind, and often references not wanting to go out into the real world.
“‘I Don’t Mind’ is the perfect example of that,” they continue. “It’s especially the ‘I don’t mind, change my mind’ lyrics that provide listeners with the possibility of change and hope.”
As a song that delves into the core of ‘human spirit,’ and challenges it to leave it all on the dance floor, the subsequent music video is another brainchild of Spiegelman where she found her creativity not only in song and on screen, but also behind the lens.
The new David Wax Museum E.P is on it's way! As always this folk group with strong Mexican music influences continues to push boundaries following their NPR Tiny Desk, Newport Folk Fest, and CBS Saturday Morning appearances.
The indie-folk/dream-pop artist is putting out an EP on June 25. It’s the alter ego of Turners Falls, MA musician Max Wareham and the pastoral western Massachusetts hills are definitely palpable in his music.
He’s been influenced by magical realistic and adjacent books like Killing Comendatore by Haruki Murakami, as well as The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald and his music has a quality of wonder balancing with a sort of ambient beauty, part of which comes from the fact that it was largely recorded on cassette.
Atomic Bronco have released their first new music of 2021, dropping new single Cruel today. The punchy, lo-fi indie rock tune is the first song off the upcoming Spectrum EP, due out June 1st. Both the single and EP are available on all streaming services, as well as at atomicbronco.com.
Cruel provides an instant vibe right from the start with a catchy acoustic riff and vocals dripping with swagger before erupting into an almost grungy chorus full of attitude and finishing with a fuzzed-out guitar solo. On the Spectrum EP, Atomic Bronco sought to explore sonically across genres and ended up with a range of songs befitting of the name. Cruel provides a great introduction and offers an intriguing insight of what to expect next from Atomic Bronco.
Atomic Bronco is a retro-inspired yet decidedly modern indie/alt rock act from London. The creation of producer and songwriter Kyle Nuss, Atomic Bronco blends an interesting mix of indie, alternative, garage rock, lo-fi and classic rock. The one-man rock band is originally from the heart of rural America, but now makes guitar driven music in his East London studio.
Noah Garner, an on the rise Country music singer/songwriter has released the official video in support of his current EP and featured single of the same name, “Spring Break Town.” The video was premiered by AIM MUSIC, and it was also featured on Nashville Country TV. The message to viewers is the hope it brings up memories for people of that one time, with that one person, in that one special beach town that they never want to forget. Video content was captured in Panama City Beach, FL featuring Garner with special guest Damara Coniglione by ThreePartFilms and directed by Jordan Marking. Watch the video on the Noah Garner Music YouTube Channel.
The story behind the video is a guy meets an amazing girl while on Spring Break and has one of those hot, fast burning loves. She has to leave back home, but she never leaves his mind. When he returns to perform a show in the same town, she goes back too, and comes out to his show, and they reconnect.
Noah wanted to highlight some iconic places in and around Panama City Beach with the visuals and the production team did an amazing job capturing footage in six locations all in one day.
“The artist and team for Noah Garner are a powerhouse of talent and beautiful humanity. They are fun to work with, professional and genuine people that I will always say yes to working with,” shared ThreePartFilms - Jordan Marking. “After working with them, it always feels like family.”
“The story and video for “Spring Break Town” basically made itself as it is built into the song and it is so easy to understand, everything just fell into place perfectly,” stated Noah Garner.
Staring down the barrel of their psych-gaze outfit Creepoid’s dissolution, Anna and Patrick Troxell didn’t see an ending. Instead, they staged the reveal of their then-secret project Lovelorn. This commitment to secrecy pervades throughout Lovelorn’s debut album What’s Yr Damage. Each lyric rings like a slurred secret, every melody slips like an ace from a sleeve.
Named for a term of endearment used between Anna and Patrick Troxell, What’s Yr Damage celebrates the longstanding romantic and creative partnership between the duo. Eager to press flesh to the sonic skeletons left by Creepoid, the Troxells began to connect their broadspanning influences into a constellation of sound they’ve coined as “drug pop.” From dusky new wave synths to throbbing Detroit techno, What’s Yr Damage lies on the outskirts of conventional pop music. Using a menagerie of analog and digital instrumentation, Lovelorn’s sound is rooted in the heydays of their prime influences—Soulwax, Echo & The Bunnymen, Spacemen 3—with eyes set on a self-made future.
Today, the pair have unveiled details for their debut album (out on August 6th via 6131 Records) and have shared the whirlwind first single, “Sickness Reward.” The track is like an aural whiplash and is a meditation on failure in all of its forms.
As What’s Yr Damage cycles through its 10 tracks in a tight 35 minutes, the Troxells’ comfort amidst chaos is palpable. With their undaunted take on synth-fueled pop, it is clear that their debut was born from damage and dissolution. The end of one sound begets another, the existence of a troubled past implies a promising future, and a wound can open as a world of potential. “What’s yr damage,” Lovelorn asks. It’s up to the listener to find the truth in that question’s infinite possibilities.
