Frankie Rose - L.T.Leif - Annie Stokes

Frankie Rose - Sixteen Ways.

"Counting the ways that things can unexpectedly fall apart on you before anything has even happened yet! The song 'Sixteen Ways' is about anticipation and getting your hopes up while simultaneously making lists in your head about how it can’t possibly work in out in your favor” -Frankie Rose

"Sixteen Ways" (out today) is the second single from Frankie Rose's new LP Love as Projection, her fifth overall, due March 10.

After spending nearly two decades establishing herself across New York and Los Angeles independent music circles, Frankie Rose returns after six years with a fresh form, aesthetic, and ethos embodied in her new full-length album Love As Projection, out March 10 on Slumberland. Celebrated by countless critical and cultural outlets over the years for her expansive approach to songwriting, lush atmospherics, and transcendent vocal melodies and harmonies, Love As Projection is a reintroduction of her established style through the new lens of contemporary electronic pop.

Painstakingly written, recorded, and engineered through some of the most tumultuous times in history, this new collection of songs harnesses the power and propulsion of Frankie’s early DIY-centric punk days without losing sight of the immersive, dreamlike world-building she’s been known for in recent years. Her love of new wave hooks and post-punk drive remain omnipresent, elevated by her utilization of modern production and an improved, polished palate of state-of-the-art instrumentation.

It’s more than a rebirth, a refinement, a resurgence – it’s a culmination of influence, a newly-defined scope using the tools at her disposal, a long-form project that was heavily considered for half of a decade – resulting in the most personal and accessible collection of art-pop that Frankie has delivered yet, propelling her signature melodies and dense, ethereal harmonies into the future.

 

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L.T.Leif - Gentle Moon.

Musician and artist L.T.Leif has shared "Gentle Moon" the opening track to the new LP, Come Back to Me, but Lightly, out now on Lost Map Records and OK Pal.

"Gentle Moon" is a long-distance love song, sung across lockdown and two seas. There is both an acceptance of distance, and a deep, unspoken longing for something different. It speaks to the push and pull of relationship, the elliptical and powerful movements of coming together and moving away again.

Ultimately, it's about getting thrown off of your own orbit by the needs or ideas of others, and that hard work of finding yourself again through your own body. Long treasured collaborator, Dallin Ursenbach, recorded this duet onto his cell phone while in isolation. I love how it touches on the spookiness of digital interactions, especially with someone known deeply, tangibly, and through your real life lived.

Come Back to Me, but Lightly is in large part inspired by the Northern sun, with references to celestial objects and the distances therein contained, from the perspective of a human here standing and thinking on the earth. I was drawn to these as both symbols of longing and warmth, and of shared experience or connection across the abstraction of distance.

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Annie Stokes - Goldenrod.

Over the course of the pandemic, during Annie’s first pregnancy, she took an online course on medicinal herbalism and learned that the vast majority of what Western gardeners consider "weeds" are actually medicinal plants with physical and spiritual attributes. “At the time, my community was struggling with political and cultural differences that seemed destined to tear us apart,” shares Annie. “I started to think about what it would look and feel like to love the weeds in your yard, and the people in your life, without trying to curate or change them.”

“Goldenrod” comes from Annie’s upcoming EP, Wild Rose, out March 2023. Annie Stokes is a dark Americana songstress and folk lyricist from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Virginia. Raised on musical theater and her mom's oldies, she began writing poetry and short stories at a young age. When she picked up a guitar at age 20, everything clicked and she fulfilled her destiny of becoming an emotional millennial troubadour.

"I like a hook, and I like a song that dredges up specific memories and feelings, rather than generic rushes of serotonin," she says of her songwriting style. "From the beginning, I would get inspired by snippets of conversations I would hear, or certain smells, or little moments."

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Logan Springer & the Wonderfully Wild - Kassi Valazza - H.C McEntire

Logan Springer & the Wonderfully Wild - Greenbacks and Gold.

Logan Springer & the Wonderfully Wild released their Americana Rock single, “Greenbacks and Gold” a couple of days ago. It’s off the album “Crow” due out March 3. A take on the anti-work movement, the song revolves around the idea of no longer dedicating your life to working for “the man” without being able to get ahead or partaking in the fruits of one’s labor.

“Greenbacks and Gold” tells the story of a blue-collar strip mine/gravel pit worker who is fed up with breaking his back for the profits of “The Man” who only takes from his town and keeps the workers on the verge of destitution. Romanticizing stickin’ it to the man, the narrator plans to rob the bank the strip mine uses to hold their profits. Springer says, “Growing up, I heard a lot of conversations like this; a lot of laborers are disillusioned by working their lives away for a big corporation but realized they have no other options.”

“Greenbacks and Gold” centers itself amongst the seasonal imagery and rural Midwest landscapes that can be found on the album. “Crow” navigates life in an uncertain world, telling the untold stories of rural, blue-collar life – the real problems Springer, his family, and neighbors have had.

Crow extends the theme of misunderstood animals that first occurred on Springer’s solo album, “Coyote – ‘kī-yōte.” Crows are thought to be dirty, trash birds when, in reality, they are incredibly intelligent and capable of learning. Springer says, “Your typical country song is like the social media of music; it only shows the good parts. I want to show what life out in the middle is really like, without all of the polish.”

The band recorded the album at Flat Black, a studio built in a 100-year-old barn on a farmstead in rural Iowa, as an homage to Springer’s home growing up. 

Logan Springer & The Wonderfully Wild · Greenbacks and Gold

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Kassi Valazza - Watching Planes Go By.

Portland, Oregon-based artist Kassi Valazza has signed with Loose (Margo Cilker, Jim White) for her forthcoming new album Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing set to release on May 26. Now she is sharing the first single from the 10-song set, “Watching Planes Go By,” which UNCUT calls a “slow-burning mix of Americana and Paisley Underground psych” as the opening track on their Sounds of the New West Vol 6 disc.

There has been a cult-like fascination growing around Valazza since the self-release of her 2019 debut album Dear Dead Days, which she followed with a surprise digital EP called Highway Sounds last year. She is seated squarely at the vanguard of new American songwriters strengthening and broadening the sound of country and western, both bearing the torch and bending the arc of roots music.

On Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing, the singer-songwriter uses the physical world around her to paint metaphors from the soul, carrying us through her mind and heart as an effortless narrator. Her gutsy and graceful vocal poetry is backed by swirling Western psychedelia created by multi-instrumentalists from Portland band TK & the Holy Know-Nothings. Though the music plays country cousin to British folk, calling to mind greats like Sandy Denny (Fairport Convention) and Karen Dalton, a Southwestern American streak carves its way through these solemn, sweetly sung melodies like a canyon.

"Watching Planes Go By” spins a cautionary tale about the dangers of standing still in life and accepting one's own fate. The song sets a curious and cosmic atmosphere of psychedelic folk-rock as Valazza reflects on the struggles of moving on, "Autumn leaves turn to yellow / and green turns to jealousy / Watching days go by." Valazza captures the romanticism of country crooners with the intuition of a realist poet, exploring themes of love and longing through metaphors from the natural world.

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H.C McEntire - Shadows.

H.C. McEntire releases her celebrated new album Every Acre via Merge Records. Along with the release, she shares a music video for “Shadows” feat. S.G. Goodman, a quiet rumination on surrender and loss, reminiscing and moving on.

“Like several of the songs on Every Acre, ‘Shadows’ is a result of a steady and balanced assembling of instincts between me and Luke,” explains McEntire. “We slowly and remotely wove together loose threads until we had something that resembled squares of cloth, eventually collecting enough of them to start stitching a quilt. He would send me instrumental voice memo recordings of chord progressions or guitar riffs—giving them funny titles we could remember, like ‘Boy Orbison’ and ‘Swamp Creature’—and I would take those and start building a world around them, adding vocal melodies and establishing some structure and eventually lyrics. ‘Shadows’ was the first of these collaborations, and it’s a great example of how Luke and I worked together on this album.”

Co-produced by McEntire, Missy Thangs and Luke Norton, Every Acre explores the acres of our physical and emotional homes, as she grapples with existential themes of grief, loss, and links to land and loved ones with an unwavering honesty. The album has received widespread acclaim from press including Rolling Stone, Guitar World, Under The Radar, BrooklynVegan, Our Culture, The Boot, No Depression and more. Pitchfork named it one of their “Most Anticipated Albums of 2023,” and Stereogum called “Rows of Clover” “a hell of a song, a soulful folk-rock outpouring.” McEntire is currently featured on the cover of INDY Week, and her single “New View” was recently hailed by NPR Music as “a song that evokes the winsome austerity of autumn via understated instrumentation reverberating with a warmth and sonic expansiveness reminiscent of Daniel Lanois' Acadie.”

Raised in the Blue Ridge foothills of rural Appalachia before earning her B.F.A. in Creative Writing, H.C. McEntire first established a reputation for her raw, soulful voice as frontwoman of Mount Moriah and later as a backup singer in Angel Olsen’s band. Her third solo effort, Every Acre is the follow-up to McEntire’s 2020 release Eno Axis and 2018 solo debut LIONHEART.

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Megan Brickwood - Holly Henderson - Michael J. Benjamin

Megan Brickwood - Trinity River Blues.

The rising musician, singer, and songstress Megan Brickwood is excited to announce that her upcoming EP Fifth Mile will be released on February 24, 2023. To mark the occasion, the artist has shared the first single from the EP "Trinity River Blues."

"'Trinity River Blues' is the first song I wrote in an open tuning," Brickwood explains. "I became interested in open tunings studying Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake. This DADGAD tuning was the first I tried, and it completely caught my imagination.

The idea for writing a song called 'Trinity River Blues' popped into my head one day while I wandered around by the Trinity River, feeling lonely and melancholy. Some weeks later when I was back in Los Angeles, working out of my little home studio, I started writing this DADGAD song that I initially conceived of as 'Colors in the Stream.' After I’d written the whole thing, I looked over the lyrics and realized that the song I’d written was 'Trinity River Blues.'"

“The creation of the videos was an adventure,” Brickwood exclaims. “I met Hannah, the co-creator and director for the ‘Trinity River Blues’ video through mutual friends in Redding, CA and we spent a lot of time scouting locations in the areas I’d spent exploring in my youth. ‘Trinity River Blues’ was filmed in McCloud, downtown Weaverville, and at Lewiston Lake. Since both of those songs draw heavily on my experiences in this part of the world, I wanted the videos to reflect that.”

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Holly Henderson - Wendy.

With her new single “Wendy”, Holly Henderson is further teasing her second album, “The Walls”, following the release of last year’s acclaimed single “The Planes”, which Clash Magazine described thus: “bejewelled psych-pop with folk qualities, her work has a haunting after-effect that can’t be shrugged off.”

The long-awaited sophomore release from the UK alternative singer-songwriter brings a very different side to Holly’s musicality and depth. While her debut album, “Monday Green” featured Holly’s impressive rock guitar work and alternative pop anthem prowess, her new work shows a more introspective, and slightly more delicate side to her songcraft.

“Wendy” is a uniquely fresh, yet retro infused ballad, told from the story of a person leaving their dog “Wendy” at home and promising her that she hasn’t been abandoned. It begins with the familiar whimsy and folk sentiments of Holly’s arrangements, and her dreamy, ethereal storyteller vocals. But as the band creep in, and Wendy’s world grows darker and colder, the warmth of the band, as more drums, percussion, guitars, mandolins and harmonies sweep in to remind Wendy, and anyone else listening, that they are never alone.

Recorded in a farmhouse in the English countryside, Holly’s new album “The Walls” brings Holly full circle from her previous Los Angeles recorded album. Finely crafted arrangements, sonic musings, and playful themes take us on a journey with Holly as she deconstructs her Brit Pop and classic influences and reassembles them into progressive-folk wonderment.

On “The Walls”, Holly said, “This album sits within a sense of place. As a songwriter, I can only speak of my own thoughts of home and belonging. I suppose this record is a wandering eye over the fleeting moments from the last few years, of when I felt at home, and when I didn’t. When I felt like the walls were tumbling, when they kept me safe, and when they became my prison. I learned the only way of breaking these patterns, was to let people step over the threshold.

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Michael J. Benjamin - The Deal Has Long Gone Down.

Evoking the likes of Johnny Cash or Leonard Cohen, “The Deal Has Long Gone Down” is a masterclass in mature and measured music-making. With gallant vocals that weave themselves niftily amongst genial plucking guitars, the poignant new track serves as both an introduction to the artist and a testament to his mastered craft. A song stricken with a paranoia for a world spinning ever more rapidly out of control, Benjamin says of the new release:

“The Deal Has Long Gone Down is difficult to pin down. I guess it expresses my fears for the modern climate we all live in, a changing world in danger of moving towards something dark and despairing. When the fortune-teller at the crossroads loses belief, you know it’s tough times ahead.”

Staking his place as a young musician set to shake things up, Michael’s soulful songs express a hard-won sense of authority: embracing the world with an engrossing, truth-seeking style of writing which belies his still-tender years.

Like most other millennials, Michael J Benjamin grew up with the entire history of music readily available at the click of a mouse. He embraced himself in the heroes of old, immersing himself in the works of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Johnny Cash and Paul McCartney, before finding more modern realms of influence in the songbooks of Lana Del Rey, Weyes Blood and Jack Antonoff.

And while many of his musical favourites are American, Michael’s literary influences have a distinctly European flavour with Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud and Hugo all seeping into the way he looks at his art. His songs flourish in a self-made world of creeping dusk, ever-aware of the foreboding, Lynchian darkness which will inevitably follow.

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Alexa Dark - Julien Delaye - Ryan Hicks - Parks N' Recs - Alice Howe - Miesha and The Spanks - Sumaroo

Alexa Dark - Villain.

Fresh off of the back of her latest single ‘Cool For You’, Spanish/American multi-instrumentalist singer songwriter Alexa Dark has returned with brand-new track ‘Villain’, out yesterday, via AWAL. Dark’s debut EP will follow, expected for release on 24th February 2023.

‘Villain’ sounds like a classic 60s-inspired track, honing in on Dark’s influences which range from Nancy Sinatra to Portishead. A stripped back tune that would be at home on a James Bond soundtrack, Dark’s ethereal vocals and buttery lyricism envelope you, depicting a story of feeling as though she isn’t the hero in her own story, but rather watching herself self-sabotage. The track represents Dark’s desire to be good, but feeling lured in the direction of being ‘bad’ – and kind of liking it.

Dark said of the track: “‘Villain’” is realising you might be the villain of your own story. It’s accepting the shadowy parts of who you are, while hinting towards a darker, painful underlying origin story which makes the villain, the villain.”

The accompanying music video, directed by Mateo Marquez (Verité, Maude Latour), sees Dark at her most alluring in a twisted, murderous fantasy. Taking inspiration from retro Bond movies, the video aims to convey the concept of becoming the ‘villain’ that is reflected in the three-minute-long track. In an eerie dive bar, Dark (the protagonist) plays the character of an elegant femme fatale spy whose mission is to seduce and kill her lover via poison. The music video plays with the concept of time, portraying a dance of seduction throughout, while also illustrating Dark’s struggle with what she came to do and the villain she ultimately has become.

“In my song ‘Villain’, I wanted to explore the multifaceted nature of the ‘villain’ in me, and how my past obstacles, my fears of love and heartbreak, play in shaping this version of myself. I wanted this to be the lead song to my EP, as I think it captures the arc of the story I’m trying to tell throughout the seven songs - the darker side of femininity, how heartbreak and loss might shape us into being something other than ‘the hero’ in our story, and how most often times the battle between the good guy and the bad guy takes place inside of us, facing off ourselves.”

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Julien Delaye - Ancient Monster.

“At the beginning it was a solo acoustic project with only voice and guitar…then it’s gone wild !”

Julien Delaye is a  singer-songwriter from Marseilles, France.

Former frontman of the metal band Caedes, rock band The Coyotes Dessert then Canis Majoris. The pandemic having passed by, he finds himself alone with his snippets of compositions and a new acoustic guitar which will make him return to his first inspirations. Mixing Dark Folk with gritty rock, he delivers strong melodies, sometimes tinged with a dark romanticism.

A solitary and hypnotic project, freeing itself from codes and trends, that could be described as Art Rock.

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Ryan Hicks - Kaleidoscope.

I love music from the 60's and 70's and the psychedelic culture of that time period. I think a kaleidoscope best represents that era. What's more, I see beauty in a kaleidoscope with all its colours, shapes and patterns that come together to create something beautiful. Nothing dominates, but each part all works together to create something new and wonderful.

This song and upcoming album are written and inspired by the pandemic. I had time to look at myself and my place in the world. It is important for me to spread love in all I do and especially with my music. Like the colours of the kaleidoscope, all people, all ages and all cultures are beautiful. My dream is that like the kaleidoscope, all people can come together and see how beautiful the world is with all of our differences together. My new album is out on March 24th.

All the world waking up to a kaleidoscope
All the world comes together sharing love
Not losing hope

While I wanted to capture the spirit of the peace and love of the 60's/70's, musically I wanted this to sound fresh, contemporary and have a distinctive melody. The drum pattern of the verses sets-up up a satisfying and powerful chorus as musically all instruments build.

I love the idea of knowing exactly what the song is in seconds in the way Ringo Starr created drum parts that were compositions as much as the melodies and lyrics. Just as the lyric speaks of the world coming together, by the time we get to the outro we have all of the elements coming together in a beautiful wall of sound of choral voices, slide guitar and the lead vocal.

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Parks N' Recs - Peace Of Mind.

Marco DiFelice is a Canadian singer, songwriter, music supervisor, and producer. In the 90's, Marco was the lead singer of the pop-punk band, Supergarage. After the band dispersed, he found his way into the world of music supervision, where he selected music for films, adverts, and television shows including Orphan Black and Lost Girl. 

Now Marco is writing songs against the backdrop of his life as Parks N' Rec. This project — a collaboration between Marco and several producers back at his own Self Titled Studios — deals with lost love, polarizing societies, and self-renewal.

Brand new track, "Peace of Mind," offers up Parks N' Rec's spin on the original by classic rockers Boston and will be included on a full-length covers set to be released this coming spring. A well-written song with a simple melody and lyrics, it reminded Marco that good music comes out of a few basic ingredients.

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Alice Howe - What About You.

Los Angeles-based, Boston-bred, artist Alice Howe has unveiled "What About You," the playful lead single and accompanying video from her forthcoming LP Circumstance, due out April 21st.

"What About You" is a wishful thinkin' kind of song about that elusive, "perfect" relationship, one that's a deep soul connection what goes way beyond the superficial. It's about the hope of that person being out there, and honestly, do we really deserve anything less?

The golden-voiced singer-songwriter recorded “What About You” and other 10 gems on Circumstance in the hallowed halls of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where she felt the spirits of those icons whose voices once shook those walls - Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and more. The album is a gorgeous testament to the power of an artist's creative evolution, when she finds the place where she's always meant to be.

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Miesha and The Spanks - It's My Year.

Miesha & the Spanks have returned with their first single of the year ‘It’s My Year’ via Mint Records. The new release is fresh off the back of their recent singles, ‘Dig Me Out’ and ‘I Can’t Wait’, and is taken from their upcoming full-length album, ‘Unconditional Love In Hi-Fi’ slated for release 14th April 2023.

Doin’ it all for the glam, and their new home label Mint Records, the Calgary-based duet smashes through the subterfuge of self-doubt like a house of mirrors. A John Hughes movie come to life, Miesha’s siren to banshee self-actualisation manifests in an array of fervent guitar riffs and the rhythmic method of Sean Hamilton’s cardiac-arrest-reversing percussion.

Recorded at the world-renowned National Music Centre (Calgary AB) under the capable ears of producers Daniel Farrant (The Buzzcocks) and Paul Rawson, this new single and its accompanying video cast a golden glow of optimism over the future.

Flourishing alongside alt-rock show ponies Wet Leg, Alvvays, Fleshwater, Black Mountain and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Miesha & The Spanks are set to shatter expectations in 2023. It’s a new era, and Joan Jett and Cyndi Lauper are the preeminent deities of divadom. Get primed to unpack your hot pants and freestyle your way through the roaring twenties. The sparkling single, ‘It’s My Year’, pops the cork on endless possibilities with sassy, coquettish vocals and a decadent carpe diem vibe.

Speaking of the new single, Louie said: “I started this song as sort of an ode to my niece who was having a hard time with some friends in her small town, and I wanted to pump her up a little. But it also brought me back to when I was a pre-teen and having my own trouble with friends in my small town, and at first you always feel like you’re the problem, the weird one, but ultimately you’ve just got imagination and big ideas and you want more out of life. So this song’s really for all the weirdos who want more.”

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Sumaroo - No One Likes The Kid.

"No One Likes The Kid'' is the first single from Sumaroo's upcoming Piggyback EP (out March 17th).

A Canadian indie-folk artist of Mauritius descent, Sumaroo previously released 2017’s Do You Notice EP, a set of five songs that included double-tracked vocals from Sumaroo warmly tucked in with other instruments.

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Mary Middlefield - The National Honor Society - Dubmatrix - MARBLES

Mary Middlefield - This One's for You.

The Switzerland-based singer, songwriter, and composer Mary Middlefield is thrilled to share her new single "This Ones For You" and announce her forthcoming debut album Thank You, Alexander, due out on March 3, 2023.

"This One’s For You" was co-produced by Mary Middlefield alongside frequent collaborator Gwen Buord. The track demonstrates a more upbeat side to Mary Middlefield. Continuously pushing her songwriting abilities to the limit, Mary reflects on meeting her soul mate in the song with lines such as “Laying under blue skies talking to you, I haven’t met you yet, someday I’ll get to.” capturing the essence of a budding romance. As Mary continues to add personal touches to her growing artistry, the video, directed by Imogen Harrison (Peaky Blinders, Luz), reflects the story of a failed romance told through a fun-filled lens.

“It was a pleasure working with the same crew of musicians throughout the project, and we had a lot of fun improvising throughout the process of making the track," Middlefield explains. "As a child, we feel like we have to subscribe to certain stories we might come across in books or films and I wanted the track to mark a sarcastic tone to the traditional fairy tale, princess storylines we are fed.”

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The National Honor Society - In Your Eyes.

Like the rest of the world, Seattle indiepop band The National Honor Society found themselves facing the problem of isolation. Pre-pandemic, they recorded their debut album, 2020s To All The Glory We Never Had, which was well-received. So what to do for the follow-up, when the world is forced into isolation?

"This was a new process for everyone in the band as it was the first time any of us had recorded an album remotely," says frontman Coulter Leslie. "Having always historically gone to studios, there was the fear that maybe that unique studio magic or energy wouldn't be there, but what we found was that the unlimited time we had to record our parts really allowed us to explore ideas and to go in different directions that we might have, had the clock had been ticking. So I think that's why you'll hear a little more adventure in this record as compared to our first."

Thus was born To All The Distance Between Us, which is due for release April 10th via Shelflife/Discos de Kirlian/Subjangle Records, an album that carries on the band’s formula of dreamy pop and rock. Fans who fell in love with their gentle, Ocean Blue-style melodies will be happy to hear songs such as "As She Slips Away" and "Remember The Good Times," both gentle numbers that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on their debut album.

But the real reward comes from the results of the aforementioned experimenting. "Control" is a frenetic rocker with an XTC-minded urgency that wouldn’t sound out of place on current modern rock radio. "It’s Killing Me" gives Franz Ferdinand a run for their money, while "The Trigger" is a driving shoegaze inspired rocker that is relentless in its beat. Then there’s lead single "In Your Eyes," which is supple and lush in its harmonies and its gentle melody, a fine love song perfectly fit for the spring crush mixtape you know you want to make.

To All The Distance Between Us offers up nine gorgeously produced and lushly arranged indie-pop that will draw you in with its sunny disposition and will warm you with its windy, sunny melodies.

 

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Dubmatrix - Rewired (Album).

IRIE Magazine recently asked, “Is there a special meaning behind the title of your album, ReWired?” There are two meanings that tie in with one another, the first - A ritual I do with each new album project - I rewire my studio. Sometimes it’s a total rewire from top to bottom and others it’s swapping out gear, plugins, DAWs and working with new vocalists. All of these little changes can help rewire the brain and approach to creating music so the title has a double meaning.

ReWired continues the experimentation and musical development that is part of the natural progression but it also remains firmly rooted in the foundation of what has become the “Dubmatix” sound, horns, harmonies, heavy basslines, and fusion of genres - from dub to steppers,trip-hop to funk and beyond. When you look at the last several Dubmatix albums, Renegade Rocker, System Shakedown & Rebel Massive, ReWired continues the tradition of fusing, mashing, and blending styles into something uniquely Dubmatix.

GUEST VOCALISTS - Lone Ranger, Sr Wilson, Lasai, Duane Stephenson, Ras Kayleb, Jman, Hempolics, Joe Publik, Kazam Davis and Exile Di Brave, Rootwords & Barry Ashworth

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MARBLES - Cold Water.

The Norwegian band MARBLES have released “Cold Water”, the final pre-release single and closing track from their forthcoming sophomore album Humour, which will be released on February 10th, 2023. Leading with a jangly strummed acoustic guitar and sparkling synth lines, this breezy tune shows some range compared to previous Humour singles while still fitting neatly into the sound of the record overall. 

Hailing from Kolbotn, the black metal capital of Norway, the music of MARBLES sounds about as dramatically different from the stereotypical idea you might have of the music this nordic country tends to produce, with this new song being yet another example of the immaculate sonic soundscapes and good vibes they specialize in.

This new single, “Cold Water” shows Marbles building on the strengths of previous Humour singles “Heading Out”, “World Inside Me” and “One of A Kind”, continuing to bridge the bridges the gap between washed out guitar-driven dream pop ala Wild Nothing and Jay Som blended with the more upbeat and synth-y psychedelic pop of acts like Toro Y Moi and MGMT. Check out the album cover and tracklist for Humour before it is released in full on Friday, February 10th, 2023.

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Dearly Beloved - Red Telephone - Kristina Dervaitis - Surf Friends

Dearly Beloved - Trees Dream Of You.

Toronto barrage rock sextet Dearly Beloved have released their latest single, “Trees Dream Of You,” from their upcoming new album, Walker Park, due out this Friday via Sonic Unyon Records. Discussing “Trees Dream Of You,” songwriter/producer/bassist Rob Higgins called it a battle of ego vs. nature… “the majesty of forests, and their righteousness, to me, is inspiring. If only humanity could be more like a forest.”

The follow up to 2019’s Time Square Discount, which was written entirely while on the road and recorded in a two-week blitz with Daniel Rey at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606, Walker Park took shape while Higgins was writing and recording at home, in his Phoebe Street studio, to cope with the pandemic. While brutal for all, the lockdown provided a never before experienced freedom to work patiently and use the studio as an instrument itself, eventually mixing the album with bandmate and Slow Pineapple production partner Tyler Beans.

The sessions delivered thematic ambition, sonic verve, and evocative playing in spades, while never skimping on the scorched-earth riffs Dearly Beloved have become known for. The work and craft that went into the album conveys the deeply weird world in which it was spawned - “Listening back now, the record appears to reflect the absurdity of those times,” notes Higgins.

For the past 16 years, the Beloved’s collision and fusion of pop and hardcore sensibilities, melody and menace, has offered up unabashed stoner rock coiled like smoke around a magma core of psychedelic post-grunge. Walker Park anchors itself in the lessons learned and launches the band on an exciting new trajectory. “The songs started as super long bass and drum jams I built myself at home,” explains Higgins. “I’d play for like 15 minutes and record it all. Then I’d go looking for good bits. Once whittled into a form I’d send the song to the band to freak out on.” Of the 16 finished tracks arising from those sessions, 10 eventually coalesced as Walker Park, with songs selected to reflect the zeitgeist in a cohesive way while also communicating a narrative arc.

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Red Telephone - Waiting For Your Good Days.

Cardiff post-punk outfit 'Red Telephone' are set to release their highly anticipated debut album 'Hollowing Out' on the 31st March 2023. The only single taken from it 'Waiting For Your Good Days' is out now.

Hailing from Cardiff, Red Telephone’s richly layered alt-rock could have emanated from a club in Blade Runner's dystopian LA - combining angular guitars, Krautrock-inspired rhythms and New Wave-tinged synths with infectious pop sensibilities. Drawing on post punk and synth pop influences, the band has been catching the attention of DJs across BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 1, Absolute Radio and Radio X; with comparisons to the likes of MGMT, Super Furry Animals, Mitski and Berlin-era Bowie being drawn.

The band have recently appeared at BBC 6 Music Fringe Festival, Focus Wales, Swn Festival, Other Voices and Llangollen Fringe, supporting Warmduscher. With previous single releases on Welsh-based labels Libertino Records and the Popty-Ping Recording Company, the band's highly anticipated debut album is set to be released in March 2023.

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Kristina Dervaitis - Everything & Nothing.

When I released my first album, I was still in a bit of denial about my future as a musician. It still didn't seem real. I was a midlife Obstetrician/Gynecologist who had only just started songwriting and performing, and suddenly I found myself releasing music for the first time.

This time around for my sophomore album, Quickening (April 2023), things are starting to feel more real! The album was produced by Canadian singer/songwriter Matthew Barber who has worked with the likes of Noah Reid.

My new single, "Everything & Nothing," is about denial. More specifically, climate change denial. I over think, over read, over want, over need everything and nothing…

Sometimes a sign is right in front of our face, but we're too close to it to fully grasp the meaning – we look past it and tell ourselves an alternate story that's more palatable. But this can be dangerous – some signs just can't be ignored without grave consequences. Though this song may seem like an ominous warning, I hope you're able to enjoy the music and focus on the positive side of life too - Kristina Dervaitis.


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Surf Friends - Something Real.

Indie two-piece Surf Friends make their welcome return with the announcement of their first full-length project in almost four years - Sonic Waves - out digitally and on CD March 17 2023 via Flying Nun Records. Sonic Waves sees the duo of Brad Coley and Peter Westmoreland joining forces with long-time producer, Mark Howden, to take on new musical directions, whilst retaining their dreamy psych-surf energy that put them on the musical map all the way back in 2009, when they debuted their self-titled EP.

The album was mostly written and recorded between 2019-2021, and is their first full length release since their hypnotic 2019 offering, Doing Your Thing.

Surf Friends say of Sonic Waves that “the focus of the record was to keep it raw and more distorted than previous releases. Most of the tracks’ guitars had separate channels recorded via a Peavey Rage 108 distortion amp - as a side note, Jeremy Toy (She’s So Rad, Leonard Charles, Sommerset) put this together like 25 years ago for Brad when he was his guitar teacher! Mark Howden also pushed us a bit in production, which was cool.”

To celebrate the announcement of Sonic Waves, Surf Friends have revealed the album’s first sun-drenched single, ‘Something Real’. From the sound of the song’s first strums, the dynamic duo take their listeners on a visceral sonic ride that embodies the weightless, euphoric feeling of hot summer days. The song is accompanied by a self-directed music video which perfectly captures the organic, carefree sentiment that the song emits, featuring Brad’s camping adventures with his kids and a few other bits of surfing footage.

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Sabrina Sekuloski - Arborist - Erny Belle - The Minks - YOVA

Sabrina Sekuloski - Red Convertible.

Rising Sydney, Australia-based singer-songwriter Sabrina Sekuloski just shared her new track “Red Convertible.” “Red Convertible” was co-written with her father Sasha Sekuloski, a singer, songwriter, and guitarist himself, and produced by renowned producers Ken Caillat (Fleetwood Mac) and Mikal Blue (Colbie Caillat, Jason Reeves, Jason Mraz, Five For Fighting and OneRepublic).

“The songwriting process for this single started back in 2018 so it’s really nice to see this song come to life,” Sabrina Sekuloski explains. “I still remember writing the chorus, it happened really naturally and quickly. The lyrics and melody came out together and the vibe was so infectious that I started dancing in my room. I wrote the Billy Joel reference in the chorus first and just kept adding them in when we started working on the song in 2022. When there’s mention of ‘the piano man’ in the bridge, you can hear a piano being introduced which I thought was a nice touch. When I brought the song to my dad in 2022, he found an old guitar riff he’d written in 2019 that we thought suited the song - which is what you hear in the verse, it formed a cool groove for the song.”

“‘Red Convertible’ came about from a longing to escape from the mundane day-to-day activities that leave one feeling uninspired and burnt out,” Sabrina Sekuloski continues. “The title of the track was taken from the last line in the chorus which is a daydream of doing things you’ve never done that make you feel alive.”

Sekuloski sketched out the original idea for “Red Convertible” on her iPhone’s Voice Memos app back in 2018. Then in 2022, during a songwriting binge that yielded over 150 songs, she rediscovered the melody for “Red Convertible” and finished writing the tune with her father, singer, songwriter, and guitarist Sasha Sekuloski. “2022 was a crazy year for songwriting, I went through some old voice memos and just felt very inspired,” Sekuloski adds.

Bri · Red Convertible

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Arborist - Dreaming in Another Language.

Arborist, aka Belfast native Mark McCambridge, announces details of his third album An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeros released 21 April 2023. Produced by Matthew E White at his Spacebomb Studios in Richmond, Virginia and bearing all the hallmarks of his sound and that of the Spacebomb Houseband, it sees Arborist merge a driven experimentation with a classicist approach to song structure and melody, with esoteric lyrical themes born out of the fugue of the last few years and evoking a dream-state. File under John Cale, with his skill of framing a beautiful melody in a song which pushes the limits of what a song can be. Other touchstones for the album include Bill Fay, Howe Gelb, Lee Hazelwood, Dylan’s Nashville Skyline, Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born and The Go-Betweens.

First single ‘Dreaming In Another Language’ is a spiralling, looping slice of kaleidoscopic psychedelic Americana which mediates on dreams and our submission to a dreamlike state, touching on many of the album’s themes: religion, family, death, artistic life. The hypnotic nature of ‘Dreaming In Another Language,’ is perfectly accompanied by the video from director Sam O’Mahony, featuring Arborist playing a protagonist in a looping dream. “The visual reflects the song’s lyrics without representing them literally.” explains O’Mahony, “It invites the listener to disappear into their imagination and crosses the boundary between fantasy and reality”.

Arborist expands ““It taps int the song’s continuous guitar loop, there are three different versions of myself seemingly condemned to repeat the same actions over and over; from birth to death to rebirth, colliding with each other along the way.”

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Erny Belle - Island Time.

Erny Belle has shared another insight into her cinematic universe, this time with a video for fan favourite, 'Island Time' - from her debut album, Venus Is Home. The video, directed and produced by the artist herself — and made with the support of NZ on Air — was shot by prolific film-maker Ezra Simons, and showcases some of his signature photography eccentricities on a warm bed of analogue film stock.

Of the song, Erny Belle has said, "'Island Time' is an ode to the Pacific. I picture myself and the times I spent looking out at the view from Te Arai beach, from the waters edge and my sister's porch. I spent a lot of time contemplating my creative visions and the loss and prospects of love on the horizon. The chorus is a mantra on perseverance and self belief".

"Though there's a lot behind the love story, I think really it's a love song to pacific culture and beautiful brown people, maybe I needed to give myself that back".

"My good friend Navakatoa plays The Man From The Islands. He is also the bassist for the Erny Belle band, It's special that we've been able to capture ourselves at this time, I think it's really sweet we'll be able to look back at it in years to come and be reminded of everything we were doing musically at this time. It was shot at Te Arai, which is a special place to me." - Erny Belle

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The Minks - Creatures Of Culture.

The Minks are Nashville’s “psychedelic-blues” band, heavy on the rock and roll. We’re talking low-down, all the way, purse-lipped, eyes-shut, head-whirling kind of groove. In 2015, on a search for creative community, Nikki Barber started the band based on the idea that "if you don't create, you'll combust".

Just like a rock and roll circus, you never know what you're going to get, but you know it’ll be good. The band’s palpable sound has roots in every music fan’s top ten—from Lou to Patti to Creedence to Hank - but blends them into something totally original and current.

Mixed with raw, jangly instrumentation and soulful saccharine vocals, it’s as much a throwback as it is an answer to the often overlooked underbelly of Nashville’s rock and roll scene. Look for them, on tour forever, spreading the gospel of letting your hair down and having a good time. The Minks are here. Let's boogie.

 

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YOVA -  Hurt Like No Hurt.

This January, experimental pop duo YOVA have returned with the compelling new track “Hurt Like No Hurt” and a digital bundle of new tracks - out now. Described by the duo as “departing from a place where Giorgio Morodor meets John Barry, to a destination where The Stooges meet The Supremes”, the track was arranged by legendary Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey, Anna Calvi).

A cathartic listen carved from visceral lyrics and pulsing electronics that build to a transcendental climax, vocalist Jova Radevska says of “Hurt Like No Hurt”:

“”Hurt Like No Hurt” is a song about relationship ghosting, the merry-go-round of breaking up and making up, and the inevitable finality of it all. An ultimate realisation that there comes a point where no matter what, there’s just no going back; when the only choice is the inevitable grief and acceptance of loss in order to emerge as a stronger person. Sometimes no further words need to be spoken, the sound of silence is enough.”

Arriving as the first glimpse of new music from YOVA since the release of their debut album ‘Nine Lives’ last year, “Hurt Like No Hurt” is filled with YOVA’s trademark experimental magnetism while utilising oscillating electronics, cinematic mandolin strums, and clarion call-like trumpets to create something otherworldly.

Featured as part of a ‘Hurt Like No Hurt’ digital bundle which is released this January, the full track-listing also includes a stripped-back rendition of the duo’s track “Rain” (previously remixed by Erasure’s Vince Clarke), alongside an instrumental version of “Hurt Like No Hurt”.

YOVA · Hurt Like No Hurt

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The C.I.A - Emma Tricca - Villages - The Primitives

The C.I.A - Bubble.

The C.I.A.’s Surgery Channel is ripe with straightforward conviction. The trio made up of Denée & Ty Segall and Emmett Kelly have constructed a world where everything is piercing and pinpointed. Every word brings confrontation – The C.I.A. make you question what could be happening here…or what they’re after.

Ahead of its yesterdays release, they revealed a new video and single “Bubble” — a story of anxious desire. We will be consumed by what we must consume. Restraint backfires and drives a person to madness. Or maybe that’s just what they want you to think. It feels as though Denée (vocals, lyrics) is whispering directly in your ear, amplified by the suspense of tick-tocking drum machine beats. Ty (bass, percussion, back up vocals) and Emmett (bass, synth, back up vocals) paint a jarring and dissonant landscape behind Denée’s story.  Words are rhythm at The C.I.A.

The C.I.A. is communicating from an electrified, pulsating, metallic playpen that wants you to strut. Surgery Channel shows punks a new way to move while remaining loyal to the traditions of catharsis and social commentary.

Ty and Emmett’s basses could easily be swapped for bone drills and you might not be able to tell the difference. Emmett’s modular synth envisions an environment reminiscent of the instrument itself, a mess of wires and pulsing red lights. Ty’s subtle use of electronic and analog percussion fluctuates between the sound of a metal tray hitting the floor, and the swish of an ultrasound scan. At times, it projects the feeling of being probed and investigated. You could assume this reality has been lived by those at The C.I.A., though most listeners could only fear it. So... just how little of this portrayal is solely a work of imagination? 

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Emma Tricca - King Blixa.

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Emma Tricca has announced the release of her new album Aspirin Sun due out April 7th via Bella Union and is available to preorder here. To celebrate the occasion, Tricca has shared a colorful and captivating video for first single “King Blixa” directed by Francesco Cabras. Commenting on the track Tricca says: “Since childhood I have always been fascinated by folk stories. From Italo Calvino to Homer to British and French Troubadour ballads. The magical element of turning the impossible into the possible is what inspired this poem/song - like in the line, I would ask the sailors to break their solitude.”

“It felt like I was driving through tunnels,” Emma Tricca says of her fourth album – her first for Bella Union. A phosphorescent panorama of undulating color, shape and sound.

As with any transformation, it is this sense of movement that underpins Aspirin Sun and its bold new form, ebbing and flowing, continually unfurling. The tunnels led the Italian-born, London-based singer-songwriter towards something expansive and far-reaching: an entirely new and experimental collection of songs. But they also drew her closer to her late father, and her memories of him driving them both in his small white Fiat, darting through the Alps and whizzing through darkened passageways, where shafts of light flickered ahead of them in the distance.

Light and shade; past and future; love and loss. “I was in uncharted territory trying to understand what was happening to me,” Tricca says. In the winter of 2018, only months after her mystical third album St. Peter was released, her father died, submerging her in a subaqueous world of grief. “I think that the loss really informed the tunes a lot,” she muses. And the tunes quickly emerged. Tricca decided to spend a few months in New York during the summer of 2019 – and started recording Aspirin Sun in her long-time collaborator Steve Shelley’s studio.

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Villages - Play The Fiddle All Night.

Canadian folk-rock quartet Villages have shared their new single “Play the Fiddle All Night,” the next offering from their upcoming album Dark Island, out February 17 via Sonic Records. Propelled by masterful rich instrumentation and timeless Celtic music influences, “Play the Fiddle All Night” arrived with a behind-the-scenes music video.

"The song was written after reflecting on the traditional poem ‘The Dark Island,’” says Villages, made up of members Matt Ellis, Travis Ellis, Jon Pearo and Archie Rankin. “Stirring up thoughts of mortality and what of our home on Cape Breton Island would be pined for when the time comes. The song presented itself very quickly and we finished it only a few days before we were scheduled to record. There was a striking similarity in themes carried in both the poem and our tracklist, so it ultimately gave namesake to the album. The song immediately felt vital to the record and given the spontaneity of it all, it was one of the more exciting experiences in songwriting that we’ve had.”

“Play the Fiddle All Night” follows the uplifting “Love Will Live On,” which arrived with a cinematic music video and was met with acclaim from outlets including Earmilk and Atwood Magazine, who said that the track “emphasizes the charm of simple living.” Over the holidays, the band treated fans to their jubilant holiday original “Merry Christmas (From the Dowie Dens)”.

Villages’ forthcoming album Dark Island finds them penning a euphoric and reverent love letter to their native Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. The album has already garnered support from the CBC who said, “With Dark Island, the band can easily claim its own folk niche,” and Music Connection Magazine who hailed it as "a masterpiece, delivering a combination of gently harmonized vocals and maritime-shanty melodies alongside lilting instrumentals ... a soothing ethereal experience.” Produced by JUNO-winning composer and producer Joshua Van Tassel (David Myles, Great Lake Swimmers, Fortunate Ones), Dark Island results in a type of Celtic music that respects its heritage while taking sonic chances. These musical risks can be credited to early influences like indie rockers Teenage Fanclub and Belle and Sebastian, as well as their previous incarnation as acclaimed indie-rock outfit Mardeen.

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The Primitives - Panic.

The legendary indiepop band The Primitives debuted the b-side "Panic" from their new 'Don't Know Where to Start' EP. As we enter the winter season, the weather is turning cooler and grayer, but UK’s The Primitives have something to warm your heart and get your feet moving. HHBTM is proud to present the band’s latest single and first new material in five years.

"Don’t Know Where To Start" is a three minute blast of pure pop perfection; with its organ-driven melody and vocalist Tracy Tracy’s superb singing, we’re equally reminded of the late Ronnie Spector and The Muffs’ Kim Shattuck. In other words, "Don’t Know Where To Start" ticks all the Primitives’ pop charm boxes for those who know. It’s followed by the moody punk edge of "Till I’m Alive," sung by Paul Court. Also included is a live recording of "Panic," taken from the band’s 2017 Part Time Punks session. The single closes with a fuzzy acoustic version of "Don’t Know Where To Start."

The Primitives won hearts and minds in 1988 with their debut album Lovely and its Top Ten UK hit single, "Crash." They would have more charting singles over the course of the next four years, releasing two further albums before disbanding in 1992.They reformed in 2009 and have since released two albums and a handful of singles.

HHBTM Records · The Primitives - Panic

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Siv Jakobsen - Tomten - SUEP - Allie Crow Buckley - Wookalily - Bad Pelicans

Siv Jakobsen - Gardening (Album).

Acclaimed Norwegian songwriter Siv Jakobsen today releases her highly anticipated third album Gardening. Jakobsen will embark on a European tour in support of the album this February, including a newly announced London headline at The Social on 23rd May.

The first seeds of what would become Gardening arrived in Siv Jakobsen’s mind unexpectedly – unwelcomely, even. Returning to a city she once called home, her mind and body were overcome by memories – both physical and emotional – that pulled her back into a time she had thought was long buried. As she walked through her old haunts, memories of a “destructive and difficult relationship” rose up from her past like a monstrous weed. Its roots had not been exterminated and it suddenly poked through the cracks of her consciousness, five years after the fact.

She headed back to Oslo as the pandemic took hold, lockdown allowing her even more time and space to unpack and untangle her knotted thoughts. In the verdant Norwegian capital she was able to take walks in the forest just five minutes from her home, tend to her patio garden and occasionally see friends. All the while, her mind continued to process the spectre that had reared its head, words coming out onto the page, revealing a cutting new depth to her candid writing style.

Gardening is at once Jakobsen’s most emotionally intimate and her most musically expansive record. The title comes from one of the album’s flagship moments, the “crazy jungly sounding” track “Gardening” – but is a thematic link throughout the album. “This record is me doing an intense amount of emotional gardening,” she says. “I was just raking through my mind and pulling stuff out, and then it grew back again, so I pulled it out again.”

Early highlight “Romain’s Place” sets the scene for the start of this process. Jakobsen puts us into the place where she first felt the past encroaching, staring out the window of her friend’s house at the place she once called home, envisioning her ex standing there on the sidewalk; “I swear that you look just the same / You haven’t aged at all.” Unrepressed memories of anger and being screamed at float up, unbidden but undeniable; “How am I back here again, afraid again,” she sings, speaking of a place that is both literal and mental.

Siv Jakobsen · Gardening

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Tomten - Grapefruit Sea.

"I always wanted to write a kind of nightmare music hall song of some sort, a misadventure song that is still foolish and lighthearted. I had the main acoustic part of this tune and no lyrics and we got together at the Unknown and decided on a form and recorded the whole thing almost the way it is now. All the lyrics came later, I used to sit in the bleachers of the baseball field near my apartment during the beginning of the pandemic for hours into the night and work on songs and these lyrics came from that and perhaps some wine and sleep deprivation. It's like our version of "Sloop John B" with black mold poisoning, maybe a little inspiration from Eno's "Backwater" too." -Brian Noyes

Tomten are a baroque pop quartet based out of Seattle, Washington. Brian Noyes (vocals, keys, guitar) and Lena Simon (bass, vocals) (Kairos Creature Club, formerly of La Luz) met in 2008 and began demoing each other's songs at Cornish College of The Arts.

Tomten started playing shows and rearranging their sound and lineup by 2010, after Gregg Belisle-Chi (guitar) and Jake Brady (drums) joined the band. Tomten's debut, Wednesday's Children arrived in Summer of 2012 shortly before Belisle-Chi left the band. Tomten recorded their sophomore record The Farewell Party (2014) with Jason Quever of Papercuts in San Francisco and Sacramento, CA. Dillon Sturtevant (bass) joined the band as Lena departed.

The Unknown recording studio in Anacortes, WA started by Nicholas Wilbur and Phil Elverum (Mt. Eerie) has become the go to spot for the band's more recent recordings - the lush piano driven Cremation Songs (2017), and Synth Pop informed Viva Draconia (2018). Tomten's newest album Artichoke (out April 28) is a collaborative foray into psych folk, power-pop, and glam country, a balance between songs by Noyes, Sturtevant, and two co-written with Brady. Artichoke is a warm pastoral daydream, with inspirations drawn from the Madcap folk rock of the Incredible String Band, to the syrup soul of The Delfonics, the country tinge of Happy End or Gene Clark, with the gentle guitar picking of John Martyn or Bridget St. John.

Tomten · Grapefruit Sea

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SUEP - Just A Job.

Fresh for being BBC 6 Music playlisted and announcing a UK tour for Independent Venue Week’s 10th anniversary, the London (via Brighton) indie supergroup SUEP drop fresh single ‘Just A Job’, the final track taken from their debut mini album ‘Shop' following on 27 January, Memorials of Distinction.

‘Just A Job’ is a firm fan favourite at their live shows, and the closest SUEP have come to writing an anthem.  Simultaneously evoking plodding despair and stoic acceptance, it’s described by the band as “A lament and an ode to outsiders, late-risers and lost souls and a protest song against having to do the arduous tasks that tend to pile up in life” to a backdrop of 80’s Yamaha synth and drumbeat and fronted by a playfully dour Josh Harvey with backing vocals from Georgie Stott.

SUEP is led by Georgie Stott (Porridge Radio, Garden Centre) and Josh Harvey alongside George Nicholls (The GN Band, Joanna Gruesome, The Tubs), William Deacon (PC World, Garden Centre), and Ollie Chapman. Together they make oddball car-boot-sale pop songs with a sprinkling of theatrical storytelling inspired by a mutual love for Paul McCartney, Jona Lewie, the B-52s, Devo and other performative freaks enjoying themselves.

‘Just A Job’ is the third single taken from SUEP’s debut album ‘Shop' following the now BBC 6 Music playlisted ‘In Good Health’ and last years’ ‘Misery’ and ‘Domesticated Dream’, both championed heavily by Steve Lamacq and Marc Riley with the latter inviting them in to record a BBC 6 Music session on 26 January, with press coverage in Independent, Fred Perry Subculture and Clash (among many others).

SUEP have built up a strong live following playing countless gigs over the last couple of years, with their first ever headline show at London’s Stag Head selling out immediately. They’ve toured with contemporaries such as Garden Centre and Ex-Void as well as performed at 2022’s The Great Escape. SUEP are now embarking on a UK-wide headline tour as part of Independent Venue Week’s 10th anniversary celebrations.

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Allie Crow Buckley - Greatest Hits.

Los Angeles indie songstress Allie Crow Buckley recently announced her new album ‘Utopian Fantasy’ will be released on May 19th via Nettwerk. She has also shared a new single and video ‘Greatest Hits.’ With her rollicking new single ‘Greatest Hits’, Allie describes the psychedelic and euphoric track as, “Riding top down through purgatory - resigning to whatever is. The feeling of leaving your body - as one does when chaos ensues. A psychedelic laugh!”.

Video director Jeanette Getrost adds, “The forest was an important setting for this video as much of Allie’s writing of this record involved being so close both in proximity and her relationship to nature. I referenced a lot of imagery from Greek myth and Czech fairy tale films, as well as some time in the English countryside where Allie and I spent one evening watching Rock and Roll Circus and Zeppelin performances.  What derived from this was essentially a narrative on inspiration and the mystery and wonder of the creative process—the result being a wild trip in the forest.” In addition to Jeanette, Buckley enlisted renowned cinematographer Micah Van Hove (Weyes Blood, Tim Heidecker) to bring their vision to life.

Allie Crow Buckley’s music is a world unto itself. A journey from deep within the forest to the coastal cliffs. She is known for her balance of ethereal, soaring melodies, strong rhythmic elements, and heavy, rooted low end. This balance, coupled with her allegorical sense of lyricism, lends itself to being both beautifully meditative and unsettling at times.

She draws inspiration from numerous sources - from Black Sabbath to Joni Mitchell, and Todd Rundgren, to painters, and poets as well as mythology and her love of classical music from her years of formal training as a dancer. Following the release of her acclaimed debut 2019 EP ‘So Romantic’, she released her debut LP ‘Moonlit and Devious’ in 2021 to praise from The New Yorker, NPR, Under The Radar, Paste and more and has opened for Jenny Lewis and Maggie Rogers on tour.

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Wookalily - Old New Mill.

With awe inspiring four part harmonies, low bowed double bass, flutes, trumpet, banjo and more, Wookalily create a masterful and sweeping sonic tapestry that will leave audiences rapt with wonder, and wanting more.

Their debut album, All The Waiting While, and the subsequent gloriously uproarious gigs, tantalised and secured lifelong fans in Ireland, the UK and beyond. Recorded on traditional analogue equipment by the award winning producer Julie McLarnon (The Vaselines, Jeffrey Lewis, Lankum, King Creosote) Wookalilys second album, Everything is NormaL Except the Little Things Inside My Head, explores the gentle nuances of cathartic melancholy whilst retaining that essential and unforgettable Wookalily sound, five women, ten instruments.

This is an ambitious folk music. Daring to dissolve musical and generic boundaries. Irreverently intertwining the disciplines of blues, rock, punk and more to create a unique and singular musical menagerie that must be witnessed to be truly experienced.

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Bad Pelicans - Dance Music.

The Bad Pelicans release a clip for ‘’DANCE MUSIC’’, second single of their upcoming début record ETERNAL LIFE NOW to be released March on Géographie Records.

Starring cult actor from the french avant-garde Walter Shnorkell, this video embodies the raging ennui that fueled the band’s inspiration for this record. Never nostalgic, but confidently timeless, and hungry for change, Walters charismatic personna allegorizes the juvenile pulse that will perpetually push this band.

Little quote from the band about the song : The Bad Pelicans new single Dance Music has a metamodern intention, encapsulating an 80s new wave tinted approach allied with urgent Post-Punk, feedback-pilled production, portraying the "blasé" apocalyptic sound that defines their new record, Eternal Life Now coming out February 24th via Géographie Recs.

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