McDermott & North - Hunny Buzz - Margo Cilker - The Ready-Mades
McDermott & North, the captivating indie folk duo known for their heartfelt sounds and irresistible melodies release 'The Hollywood EP'. Released yesterday via Weirder Together Records, the EP is a beautiful celebration of love, connection, and the beauty of everyday moments.
Since bursting onto the scene in 2016, McDermott & North have been winning hearts with their busking performances and beautiful songs. The duo already have a stack of singles and an EP, countless tours and hundreds of hours of performing under their belts, including having played at Bluesfest, BIGSOUND and Ted X Brisbane.
The unknown slow boil of 'The Hollywood EP' began in 2021 when the duo caught the attention of acclaimed Australian singer-songwriter and producer Ben Lee, who stumbled upon the two stylish troubadours singing in perfect 60s folk harmony. Little did they anticipate that this serendipitous encounter would pave the way for a remarkable collaboration resulting in the creation of this EP and one of the first releases for the new label Weirder Together Records run by Lee and his partner, Ione Skye.
After supporting Ben Lee at a show in Brisbane, he invited them to record with him in LA. Though recording in Los Angeles wasn't feasible, McDermott & North entrusted Ben Lee with their guitar and vocal stems to complete the EP. Ben Lee rallied an exceptional team to contribute their expertise, including Joey Waronker on drums (Beck, Roger Waters, REM), Roger Manning Jr on keys (Jellyfish, Glen Campbell, U2, Broken Social Scene), and Mike Viola on bass (Panic at the Disco, Dawes, Ryan Adams). It is a credit to McDermott & North that their songs were enough to draw a team like this together.
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Budding Bristol-based band, Hunny Buzz, share their brand new video to their punchy surf-pop banger “Now I Can Get Over You” released only a few days ago. Drenched in a rich layer of grungy guitar with lead singer’s Lyd Read’s personality and panache spilling out across every second of the track. Today’s new track is the first of many in the build-up to their forthcoming Pacific Wax EP out later this year.
Speaking about the track's narrative-driven lyrics and melancholic nature, Lydia Read explains “‘Now I can get over you’ is a blow-by-blow account of when a relationship goes so wrong, there can be relief in accepting the romance is dead and moving on.”
2023 is the year to keep an eye on Hunny Buzz, who are already super tight live since they formed in 2020, and possess the vitality of British tour successes Black Honey, Dream Wife and Wet Leg. The Group is made up of singer-songwriter Lydia Read, guitarist Rowan Barfoot, drummer Billy Pedrick and songwriter, producer and bassist Ewan Base.
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Margo Cilker is set to return with her highly anticipated second LP Valley Of Heart’s Delight on September 15th via Loose. The upcoming record sees Cilker with the same group of collaborators (and a few additions) as her widely acclaimed 2021 debut Pohorylle. The 11-track set was produced by Sub Pop alum Sera Cahoone, who also contributes drums, and recorded by John Morgan Askew (Neko Case, Laura Gibson) with studio players from The Decemberists, Band Of Horses, and Beirut. Cilker and her touring band will take the new songs on the road this fall for an extensive run throughout the United States.
“‘'Keep It on a Burner’ is a stream-of-consciousness reflection,” Cilker offers. “Fittingly, I started writing it while floating down the Salmon River on a whitewater rafting trip full of rattlesnakes and wildfire smoke. I think of it as a song about playing the long game and pursuing your heart’s delight, despite life's winding waterways.”
Valley Of Heart’s Delight refers to a place where Cilker can't return: California’s Santa Clara Valley, as it was known before the orchards were paved over and became more famous for Silicon than apricots. She is the fifth generation of her namesake born there, and in this 11-song collection, family and nature intertwine as guiding motifs, at once precious and endangered, beautiful and exhausting. Cilker moved from California to the Pacific Northwest in her mid-twenties and wrote much of Valley Of Heart's Delight while living in Enterprise, Oregon, a small town near the Snake River and powered by the river’s massive, publicly-funded hydroelectric dams. The dams (part of the same system Woody Guthrie was hired to write about) provide clean electricity to much of the western United States but make it extraordinarily difficult for anadromous fish (such as Steelhead Trout) to return from the ocean and spawn in their native streams. Valley Of Heart’s Delight feeds off of this tension - how we live in and off of nature, how we live within and without family, and why we return to the places we were born. Of the forthcoming record, Cilker explains:
“I wrote these songs surrounded by the wild landscapes of the Northwest, but I was leaning toward the place I’d come from. I felt cut off from my family and the valley that held them. I spent hours thinking about my sense of belonging. I’d traveled through many places and then, when the travel stopped, I ruminated on where I had ended up. Where were you when the music stopped? I was in Enterprise, OR. And there in Enterprise, my mind drifted back to the Valley of Heart’s Delight. I wrote about family — about death and rebirth, and the arcs of love and art through a family line. There are songs that hint at missteps and redemption. There are songs about trees: in orchard rows, family trees, redwoods. And water: agricultural runoff, wild rivers, dammed rivers, baptismal flows. And there’s a [cover] song about a fish, cause it’s a damn good song and I wanted to record it.”
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Many of you know Badasonic from it's many sweet Reggae releases. We think you might enjoy their newest offering something a little different and wonderful!
Recorded on analog tape at the Retromixer studio in
Châlons-en-Champagne, France, “Tumbling Walls” blows on the incandescent
embers of 60's beat and soul, ignites minds and sets bodies ablaze,
brings awareness and a contemporary outlook.
5/5 - "This is dope. Thank you! Love the rawness and the recording style makes this even more beautiful." - Hober Mallow - 2SER 107.3 FM - Sydney, NSW, Australia
"Brilliant update of that groovy 60s French pop sound!!" - Jeffrey Jones - WJOB 88.9 FM - Reserve, WI, USA
5/5 - "Some GROOOVY stuff from this French group! Vintage and yet modern... No synth sounds to be heard!" - Dr. StrangeDub - KFAI-FM 90.3 / 106.7 FM - St. Paul, Minneapolis
"We really like the sound of The Ready-Mades. Ready made for us here at CIUT-FM, Toronto." - Ken Stower - CIUT 89.5 FM - Toronto, ON, Canada
"Loving on this sound. Ready Made for listening." - Mister G - WSUM 91.7 FM - Madison, WI, USA.
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