The Rishis - Graham And The Band Upstairs - Kepi Ghoulie - Alpha Cat - Jupiters Dream - Crowes Pasture
The Rishis duo of Ranjan Avasthi and Sofie Lute hail from Athens/Atlanta, and Tacoma. They are set to release their new album, August Moon, on April 20th, 2023, via Cloud Recordings. Though the duo has been together for nearly a decade, August Moon is their long-awaited debut.
The rishis are also the newest band to proudly bear the Elephant 6 logo, with many active members of the E6 collective rotating through the band's roster.
Musically speaking, August Moon is an album of gentle, lush, psychedelic songs with a hint of hazy, folk-rock. It isn't hard to imagine the rishis wandering around the subcontinent playing their songs with their friends, and everyone having a grand old time high on some lovely tea. It's hard to avoid singing along to songs like "Holiday" and "Jetstream", thanks to their catchy melodies. But August Moon isn't all folk-rock; "Holi" and "Just Between You and Me" are moody rockers that give Avasthi's songwriting muscle and make for delightful listening. Also worth noting is the Lute-sung "Make Me Love You", a country-rock ballad that will make your eyes shine. And let's not forget the closing song, "Uttar Pradesh", a tribute to Avasthi's Indian ancestral roots.
But August Moon is also an album of collaboration, as their pals also helped out with painting this sound collage. E6 alumni friends helping in it's creation include Scott Spillane (Neutral Milk Hotel), John Kiran Fernades (Olivia Tremor Control), Andrew Rieger (Elf Power), James Huggins III (Of Montreal), Andy Gonzalez (Marshmallow Coast), Peter Alvanos (Sunshine Fix and also Elf Power), Lucy Calhoun (Black Swan Network), Todd Kelly (Phosphorescent and also Great Lakes), Wild Rumpus founder Timi Conley, and co-producer Chris Byron.
August Moon is a poetic, intricate folk-pop record, that wins your heart with thoughtful lyricism, gentle melodies, and lush arrangements. It's the perfect record for the springtime, when life is blooming again and the heart is open to the simple charms of love and life.
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Atlanta Folk Band Graham And The Band Upstairs bring on the authentic on heartfelt new single "Home to You", out today February 3rd on streaming platforms. This is a band comfortable in their own skin enough to pay tribute to the classics, taking influence from Bob Dylan and Neil Young for their brand of folk songwriting. Bittersweet and written with incredible depth, "Home to You" is worthy of repeat listens.
"I’ve always liked songs that feature juxtaposition. Girl by The Beatles is one of the finest examples of this where the melody and Lennon’s vocals creates this sweet bed of breathing grass that you want to just wrap yourself up in. But when you actually listen to the lyrics you realize that the song is anything but sweet. There’s a bitterness behind the lyricism that creates this incredible contrast with the music.
That’s what we tried to do with Home To You. We tell a story about someone navigating a complex relationship while Jeff (Jeff Dei Dolori, our lead guitarist) hooks the audience in with these fantastic, ethereal guitar licks and Veronica (Veronica Roman, our backing vocalist) and I try to evoke a similar sweetness with our vocals.
It’s a song I hope has a lot of replay value where someone could hear it one way, listen to it again, and then come away with a completely different perspective on the narrative of the song."
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Punk troubadour Kepi Ghoulie, in keeping with his yearly tradition, has released a surprise album of Ramones covers for this Valentine's season! The first single is "She's A Sensation."
"Ramones In Love" take those classic Ramones love ballads with their unforgettable melodies and reimagines them with a new shine by adding features like keyboards, horns, and more! This album is available on 12" neon pink vinyl, CD, and cassette.
For those not familiar with Kepi's annual tradition, he has been known to release a song or two ahead of Valentine's Day. However, with "Ramones In Love," Kepi delivers an entire album of love songs for us to enjoy! The track choices are something Kepi has been contemplating tracing back to his teenage years when he even made a tape of all Ramones love ballads in chronological order.
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Alt-rock, alt-pop Americana songstress Elizabeth McCullough, aka Alpha Cat, crafts powerful, lyric driven songs in the vein of The Pixies and The Del Fuegos. She has mainly performed in the metropolitan cities of NY, LA and London but lives in the quiet and calming woods of upstate New York.
She’s been a critic’s darling from the go, with outlets like Spin.com and Buzzfeed showering her albums with glowing praise. Her debut EP, Real Boy, beat out Beck and Metallica for two weeks in a row on the CMJ National Add Charts. Her LP, Pearl Harbor, landed on several best of year lists while it’s follow up, Thatched Roof Glass House, received major global airplay, charting #1 on the NACC Add Chart.
Staying true to the ethos of her name, Alpha Cat’s newest album, Venus Smile ….retrograde, explores the dichotomy of intuition and power. “This record addresses the divisions in society and asks for them to be healed by addressing our commonalities,” McCullough asserts. “It’s a hopeful resolution and reconnection to a world that has become too divided, too extreme.”
On the animator: Michael Shapiro spent his childhood in the Bronx doodling, watching cartoons and learning classic art techniques from his mother. After high school, he started taking his art to the streets of New York, where without warning, New York City residents were confronted with the pervasive drawings that comprise Shapiro’s canon. Plastered on buildings, hanging in gallery windows and printed in magazines, his comics were picked up in national glossies and alternative weeklies across the country. Shapiro eventually moved to Austin, teaching himself to animate and eventually working with Johnny Depp, Michael Rapaport, Joe Ely, Russell Peters, Lily Tomlin. He now resides in his hometown of New York City, and has had his animation on Netflix, Discovery and PBS.
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Renee Lester's performance and songwriting vehicle Jupiters Dream, is the latest addition to the Nick Goovnia Music family.
Her velvety vocals and acoustic pop songs are the perfect combination for indie audiophiles and music for placement in film.
Fresh familiarity at it's finest, her music provides the groove to transport you to the the world of acoustic Pop.
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Monique Byrne and Andy Rogovin perform moving and inspirational songs that are sometimes joyful, sometimes wistful, and oftentimes poignant. These songs reflect a mutual passion for life, family, and humanity. Their intimately blended vocal harmonies are mixed with an expressive and unique instrumental style that is best described as a “banjo-guitar romance.” Crowes Pasture’s style of intimate and soulful folk transports and connects listeners through universal experiences in their “skillfully crafted, emotional songwriting” (Chris Eastburn, award-winning composer).
Crowes Pasture has made waves with two EPs and three full-length albums in just six years’ time. Their album, Slow It Down, was released in June 2019 at the legendary Club Passim. Since its release, the title track earned Crowes Pasture a #1 song and the album debuted at #5 on the Folk Alliance International Charts. Since the release of their first album, Edge of America, the duo has had eight Top 10 songs on the folk charts, including “Take Back the Red White and Blue” (January 2022), their cover of Mary Gauthier’s “Mercy Now” (June 2019), and the timely and topical song, “Quarantine” (January 2021).
Over the past few years, Crowes Pasture has performed at a number of renowned east coast music venues, including Club Passim, Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockwood Music Hall, The Bull Run, and Circle of Friends Coffeehouse, as well as performing as a supporting act for The Small Glories and The Kennedys. The duo has been twice honored with nominations as “Roots Act of the Year” by the New England Music Awards (2019 and 2022) and as “Americana Artist of the Year” by the Boston Music Awards (2019). They were named finalists for Best Group/Duo in the 2020 International Acoustic Music Awards, and for Best Group/Duo in the 2021 IAMAs for their song, “A Virtue and a Call.” The duo has toured up and down the East Coast and throughout Southern Ontario and Quebec, and is currently recording their third full-length album with award-winning producer Eric Lichter of Dirt Floor Studios.
The duo takes its name from the salt marsh/tidal flats known as Crowes Pasture, hidden away on the north side of Cape Cod, where the ocean tides recede twice a day to reveal intricate patterns on the shifting sands. This recurring cycle of creation and discovery evokes their own musical journey.
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