Cass Clayton Band - Bridal Party - Radio Drive

Cass Clayton Band released their new album entitled 'Play Nice' a few week back and it's well worth us catching up on it. The musical influences that inform the bands direction include rock, soul, funk and blues which ensures plenty of variety, more importantly the new collection of music has plenty of melodic hooks and is delivered with quality, passion and style.

We have already featured a couple of tracks from Bridal Party this year ahead of their 'Too Much' album release, and now we have the full album to enjoy. Their goal of making music they like is all apparent, as is their ability to write and perform exceptional, imaginative and notably creative pop songs.

The sixth full album from Radio Drive is 'In The Light'. Packing a fine collection of indie and alt rock tracks, the bands unpretentious natural rockers are determined and catchy throughout. 
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Cass Clayton Band - Play Nice (album).

"Play Nice is an ironic title for this album, because I wasn't really playing nice in the writing of these songs. That's a departure from the norm for me, because I've always been careful to make sure people feel comfortable. I have a triple decker filter before my thoughts hit my tongue. I didn't want to do that with the music, so I stepped away from the comfort of being liked and said what I needed to say. I believe Play Nice turned out to be more expressive, vulnerable and sensual. Even the rock-based songs have an underlying message. I definitely feel overexposed, and maybe that's the way an artist should feel. Hopefully putting it out there without a filter allows other people to feel a little freer as well."

Cass Clayton Band has become known across the region for its tight chemistry and high-energy stage presence, a reputation that has landed them on some of the best stages, shows, festivals and radio shows in Colorado and beyond. Their unique blend of rock, R&B, funk, blues and soul has a distinctly contemporary feel, and has won over audiences across age groups and genres. Cass’s 2018 album (released June, 2018) won 4 songwriting awards and garnered top reviews from magazines nationally and internationally. They were also recently voted Album of the Year 2018 in the Colorado Blues Society Members’ Choice Awards. In addition, Cass has been voted as one of the top 3 slide guitar players in Colorado and top 2 vocalists (CO Blues Society Members’ Choice Awards). In February, 2019, she was featured on the cover of Recording Magazine with a 4-page feature article. Known for a uniquely soulful and velvety vocal style, Cass effortlessly moves from gentle and contemplative to a belting range that will knock you flat.

In 2019, Cass Clayton Band is shaping up to be an exciting year. Cass was recently invited to be a voting member of the Recording Academy, and the band is headlining for numerous festivals.  They will be joining Tab Benoit on the main stage at the Brighton Blues Blast, headlining Denver Arts Festival (50,000 attending), Art Night Out  in Lafayette, Stargazers Theatre Summer Series in Colorado Springs, and co-headlining Dickens Opera House with Grammy nominated, Brigitte Purdy.

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Bridal Party - Too Much (album).

Victoria, BC art-pop quintet Bridal Party have always had the goal of making pop music they like. Now with the approaching release of debut full-length Too Much (on Kingfisher Bluez) the band find themselves at a critical moment: as songwriters and collaborators presenting their personal vision.

Principal lyricists Suzannah Raudaschl and Joseph Leroux formed Bridal Party with bassist and producer Lee Gauthier and drummer Adrian Heim in 2015. Jordan Clairmont joined on keys in 2017. Their initial EP release Hot Daze (2015) found chart success on college radio and some modest but promising support through placement on Bandcamp Weekly. Their second EP, Negative Space (2017) charted well and lead to six-figure streams of lead single Fruitless on Spotify. Beatroute (BC) magazine describes Bridal Party as “a perfect marriage of indie pop and soul.”

The band recorded Too Much over three separate week-long immersive studio visits in 2017 and 2018. This disparate recording process would ultimately undo and reform everything the band knew about their sound. A playful and unflinching lyrical voice was honed, drawing on themes of care and self-love as well as their sombre opposites. Each players’ particular handle on their instrument resonates without tuning out the chemistry of influence the members enjoy with one another.

The resultant record is a vibrant collection of songs of uncanny intimacy, thriving from experimentation in studio that remains honest to the band’s live set. Whether it’s the confessional lyricism and feathery textures of “When I’m Naked”, the plaintive riddle and bedlam of “Armour”, or the celebratory disco of the title track, Too Much shines a light on the band’s interior joys and terrors in equal measure.

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Radio Drive - In The Light (album).

The 6th full album release by Radio Drive, featuring Kevin Gullickson, is titled "In The Light".  Released earlier this month, the album is already receiving massive indie radio play and rave reviews.

Radio Drive is an Alternative Pop Rock band featuring  Kevin Gullickson.  As the engine behind Radio Drive, Kevin has won international awards and nominations for his songs and music videos. 

The music of Radio Drive is being aired on radio around the world alongside major artists and is receiving rave reviews by music critics.  He has been featured on web zines and radio shows in Europe, Canada and the USA.

Kevin’s music has landed on charts on indie stations around the world, including Canada, Germany, the UK and the South Pacific.  His music has been used on shows airing on Animal Planet, National Geographic, History Channel, NBC Sports, Fox Sports and Discovery Channel and other TV programs around the world.

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Bridal Party - Suggested Friends - Harry Heart

Bridal Party return just a couple of months after we first featured them, this time with 'Speak Easy' just ahead of their debut album release. Once again the bands art pop is beautifully melodic and imaginative, the albums looking good.

Indie rock band Suggested Friends share a music video for 'Cygnets' a deliciously melodic rocker and a slightly paranoid video.

Just a month after his first UK single 'Montaigne' Harry Heart is back with 'Work It Out'. Once again his vocals really impress, the alt rock arrangement adds further originality, the forthcoming Hands in the Hive EP, is out 6th September.
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Bridal Party - Speak Easy.

Victoria, BC art-pop quintet Bridal Party have always had the goal of making pop music they like. Now with the approaching release of debut full-length Too Much (due August 23rd on Kingfisher Bluez) the band find themselves at a critical moment: as songwriters and collaborators presenting their personal vision.

Principal lyricists Suzannah Raudaschl and Joseph Leroux formed Bridal Party with bassist and producer Lee Gauthier and drummer Adrian Heim in 2015. Jordan Clairmont joined on keys in 2017. Their initial EP release Hot Daze (2015) found chart success on college radio and some modest but promising support through placement on Bandcamp Weekly. Their second EP, Negative Space (2017) charted well and lead to six-figure streams of lead single Fruitless on Spotify. Beatroute (BC) magazine describes Bridal Party as “a perfect marriage of indie pop and soul.”

The band recorded Too Much over three separate week-long immersive studio visits in 2017 and 2018. This disparate recording process would ultimately undo and reform everything the band knew about their sound. A playful and unflinching lyrical voice was honed, drawing on themes of care and self-love as well as their sombre opposites. Each players’ particular handle on their instrument resonates without tuning out the chemistry of influence the members enjoy with one another.

The resultant record is a vibrant collection of songs of uncanny intimacy, thriving from experimentation in studio that remains honest to the band’s live set. Whether it’s the confessional lyricism and feathery textures of “When I’m Naked”, the plaintive riddle and bedlam of “Armour”, or the celebratory disco of the title track, Too Much shines a light on the band’s interior joys and terrors in equal measure.

A broad sonic landscape that shares territory with Crumb, U.S. Girls, and early work of The Cardigans, Too Much is due Friday, August 23rd, accompanied by a relentless tour schedule.

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Suggested Friends - Cygnets.

Suggested Friends are an indie rock quartet with a firm grounding in queer identity, fusing DIY punk roots with the interweaving guitars of 90s indie and a sometimes tongue-in-cheek take on the performative masculinity of 80s rock. There’s a tenderness to their songwriting, with lyrics reflecting on cultural malaise, trauma recovery and the banal absurdity of everyday life. Personal politics can come with an incisively dry sense of humour too.

Turtle Taxi is their second album and demonstrates just how far they’ve come from the raw, scuzzy sounds of their DIY debut; unrepentant in letting the pop hooks loose. The choruses are big, harmonies frequent, and guitar solos abound - this is a lush, textured leap forward. Suggested Friends are more confident, acknowledging emotional pain and exploring how this affective space elides with a more expansive sense of injustice in the world.

On "Pretty Soon Your Grave Will Be A Landfill" the earnestness and absurdity of gaslighting politicians is laid bare, through to the futility of naming social ills and not acting on them on "At Ease". The album’s title track, "Turtle Taxi", talks about the relationship between love as a labour and the focusing in on life as an opportunity for that to flourish in all directions – (‘teach ‘til I die, let this all pass by…’).

The quieter numbers on the record, such as "At Ease" or "Blooms", recall folkier inspiration such as The Weather Station and Hiss Golden Messenger, through to the alt-pop oddness of "Nilufer Yanya" and "Blood Orange". But for parallels as a socially conscious, high-energy and vulnerable punk pop band, think Martha or Charly Bliss - though they’d argue for that perfect sweet spot between Weezer and Abba!

Recorded in rural Norfolk over two separate sessions a year apart, album was able to flourish into a more collaborative effort, incorporating Faith’s wife Meghan on percussion and Sickroom Studio's Owen on trumpet - plus plenty of time to experiment with overdubs and piano flourishes to up that classic-rock vibe that simmers just under the surface.

Suggested Friends formed in late 2015 following a chance meeting at a gig between Christabel (drums) and Faith (guitar and vocals). They were soon joined by Jack on guitar, who had met Faith through an activist group in London. Mammoth Penguins’ Emma Kupa is the most recent addition on bass, having worked with Faith on a number of projects over the past four years.


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Harry Heart - Work It Out.

Still bathing in acclaim from the likes of BBC Radio 6, Amazing Radio and Record of the Day after the recent release of his last single Montaigne, Sydney via Walthamstow London artist Harry Heart shares the solemn and smooth-tongued new single Work It Out from his upcoming EP.

Earlier this year, Harry Heart was invited on his first ever UK headline tour, a total of 20 shows in just two weeks. The relentless tour-schedule proved to be worthwhile, resulting in BBC airplay and accumulating almost ​half a million streams across Spotify ​and​ Apple Music.

The second single to be released since Heart's foray into the UK is Work It Out, from the upcoming Hands in the Hive EP. Work It Out exudes indie-rock maturity with lyrical prowess, gritty guitar work, and a mix of urgency and poise in its delivery. Heart unpacks the origin of the song:

“I was listening to so much Otis Redding for a while there, I wanted to hear my take on Soul. That tempo’s a great platform for lyrics. The track talks about the strains of balancing ambitions with good relationships, trying to stay sane and keep problems at bay.”

After releasing the 2018 EP First Endorphin, Harry Heart toured Australia twice, and made his UK debut, while also performing at Australian Music Week and featuring on Apple's Best of the Week: Pop playlist.

Work It Out is just a taste of the forthcoming Hands in the Hive EP, out 6th September.

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Rebecca Rego & The Trainmen - Imperial Daze - Anna Rose - Bridal Party - Georgia Dish Boys

Rebecca Rego & The Trainmen have a third new album called 'Speaking Of Witches' which is available in full to stream just below. Rebecca Rego has fabulous vocals that lend themselves to rock as much as they do to anything Americana, the band are polished and the songs consistently good, the album is well worth a full listen at the least.

Imperial Daze have now released their Surfaces Sensibles (E.P). Just a couple of months back we featured a video for 'Minding The Haze' - Live from Electric Eel Studio, which is one of the five songs in this new collection, a mixture of psych pop and rock, that is consistently impressive.

Anna Rose first appeared on Beehive Candy in April with 'Nobody Knows I'm Here' and we follow up with 'The Chariot' where her soulful and passionate vocals are again outstanding as is her music.

From Victoria BC we have Bridal Party with 'Too Much' an art pop song that is full of melodic hooks, I like the notion that the band are keen to make pop music that they like, with songs like this that seem quite credible.

Finally from Athens GA we have a foot stomping song from Georgia Dish Boys titled 'Put My Records On', it is just so likable as it builds real anticipation for their July 9th forth album release.
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Rebecca Rego & The Trainmen - Speaking Of Witches (Album).

Last year Rebecca Rego & The Trainmen recorded their third full-length record Speaking of Witches at Bon Iver’s April Base studios in Eau Claire, Wisconsin with producer Beau Sorenson. This is their second album with Sorenson, who is based at Tiny Telephone Studio in San Francisco. Sorensen has previously worked with Bob Mould, tune-yards and Thao and The Get Down Stay Down.

Speaking of Witches follows the 2014 debut Tolono, which the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called "an album worth celebrating, from Rego's smart, attentive songwriting to her earthy and appealing Edie Brickell-like voice” and 2016’s Lay These Weapons Down, for which Smile Politely wrote "Lay These Weapons Down demonstrates impressive range, convincingly spanning several genres. All the while, the album remains cohesive and congruent. An excellent album, it's all there, composed and performed expertly."

Rebecca Rego - vocals, acoustic guitar
Eric Fitts - electric bass, acoustic bass, acoustic guitar, piano, vocals
Cory Ponton - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, septavox, vocals
Evan Opitz - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, vocals
Jack Peterson - cello
Matt Yeates - drums, percussion
Mia Carruthers - vocals

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Imperial Daze - Surfaces Sensibles (E.P). 

London psych-pop band Imperial Daze have just released their new EP ‘Surfaces Sensibles' via Tip Top Recordings. It follows the release of their debut ‘Solid Fair EP’, which was produced by Rupert Jarvis from The Maccabees and recorded in their studio.

The new EP was co-produced by the band and Rupert Jarvis and was recorded between The Drugstore (The Maccabees studio) and their own studio. A studio they spent most of 2018 building themselves, thanks to a successful crowd-funding campaign and to landing the gig of scoring a big advertising campaign. Built from scratch in a disused giant commercial freezer under a railway arch near Tower Bridge in London, it is now called The Electric Eel Recording Studio, due to the fact that the space was previously used to store eels.

Having shared stages with Mystery Jets, All We Are, The Maccabees, and Matt Maltese, Imperial Daze play a headline London show at The Victoria at the end of the month, with more dates to be announced soon. (Tuesday 25.06 at The Victoria, London).

Imperial Daze are: Al Ward (vocals/guitar), Felix Rebaud-Sauer (Bass, guitar), Facundo Rodriguez (keyboards/vocals) and Tom Sunney (drums).

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Anna Rose - The Chariot.

Ahead of her highly anticipated full-length album due later this year and appearance at Nashville's CMA Fest this week, fast-rising singer and musician, Anna Rose, has released a potent new song featuring her unique style of hard-hitting, soulful Americana. Produced by Paul Moak, the deeply honest and soulful track, "The Chariot," is available everywhere now.

"'The Chariot' is a really special song for me," says Rose. "I wrote it with Elizabeth Elkins in Nashville just a few days after one of our musical heroes passed on. Writing through the grief was an incredibly cathartic way to honor this person who had given us both so much inspiration."

The album, written and recorded in Nashville, is Rose's third and follows her praised 2016 EP Strays In The Cut. Two previous singles "Nobody Knows I'm Here," first heard in the NBC hit This Is Us, and "Sucker Puncher" were released earlier this year via White Pony/AWAL.

As a touring artist, Rose has always been a bit of a nomad, believing that home is where the heart is. For this record, home was in Nashville. "Throughout a time of deep turmoil and sadness, I found myself in Nashville a lot, writing not just for myself but for other artists and for film and television. That city slowly began to really feel like home. Working there, making art there… really helped me heal a lot of the wounds that I had collected along the way in my life,” shares Rose. “I’m eternally grateful to the city of Nashville for opening their arms to me. As a bit of an outsider, it gave me a place where I felt like I belonged for the first time really…ever."

“When I sat down with Paul for the first time, I knew something special was happening in the room. He understood not only who I am as an artist but also what I want to accomplish with my music. I am so proud of what came out from us working together.”

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Bridal Party - Too Much.

Victoria, BC art-pop quintet Bridal Party have always had the goal of making pop music they like. Now with the approaching release of debut full-length Too Much (due August 23rd on Kingfisher Bluez) the band find themselves at a critical moment: as songwriters and collaborators presenting their personal vision.

Principal lyricists Suzannah Raudaschl and Joseph Leroux formed Bridal Party with bassist and producer Lee Gauthier and drummer Adrian Heim in 2015. Jordan Clairmont joined on keys in 2017. Their initial EP release Hot Daze (2015) found chart success on college radio and some modest but promising support through placement on Bandcamp Weekly. Their second EP, Negative Space (2017) charted well and lead to six-figure streams of lead single Fruitless on Spotify. Beatroute (BC) magazine describes Bridal Party as “a perfect marriage of indie pop and soul.”

The band recorded Too Much over three separate week-long immersive studio visits in 2017 and 2018. This disparate recording process would ultimately undo and reform everything the band knew about their sound. A playful and unflinching lyrical voice was honed, drawing on themes of care and self-love as well as their sombre opposites. Each players’ particular handle on their instrument resonates without tuning out the chemistry of influence the members enjoy with one another.

The resultant record is a vibrant collection of songs of uncanny intimacy, thriving from experimentation in studio that remains honest to the band’s live set. Whether it’s the confessional lyricism and feathery textures of “When I’m Naked”, the plaintive riddle and bedlam of “Armour”, or the celebratory disco of the title track, Too Much shines a light on the band’s interior joys and terrors in equal measure.

A broad sonic landscape that shares territory with Crumb, U.S. Girls, and early work of The Cardigans, Too Much is due Friday, August 23rd, accompanied by a relentless tour schedule.

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Georgia Dish Boys - Put My Records On.

'Good Country Livin,' the fourth album from Athens, GA based Georgia Dish Boys is as much a description of the album as it is a way of life. The songs feel effortless at first, but below the surface are illustrations on the complexities of love in its various forms. Songwriters Seth Martin, and more recently, Olivia Anderson, contribute visceral takes on the subject.

The songs embody small town Georgia life with “Meme,” a tribute to Martin’s 88 year old grandmother. In “What If,” Martin assures the listener that no matter what “I’d still love ya.” The title track, “Good Country Livin,” is an honest reflection of a dysfunctional family where Martin and Anderson admit “half of us are drunk and the rest of us are in pain.”

Songs like “I Can’t Act (Like I Don’t Feel Good),” “Ain’t Losing Time,” and “Put My Records On” work as both geography and feeling, reminiscent of mid-‘70s Neil Young covering Gram Parsons between takes at a Stars & Bars barn session.

The album is a notable contrast from their previous release, ‘Nine Song Movie,’ though Martin’s voice and Rob Hibbs’ guitar are still sharp as ever. 'Good Country Livin’ pours authenticity while showcasing vast creative growth from a group that just wants us all to “be ourselves and do the best we can.” Look for 'Good Country Livin’ on July 9, 2019.

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