Elf Power - Derek Hoke - Marcus Man - Lilly Winwood

Elf Power - Clean Clothes.

Last Friday the Athens, GA-based psychedelic folk band Elf Power released their new album Artificial Countrysides via Yep Roc Records. Also released the same day is an official animated video for the new song “Clean Clothes” created by Michael Rostig. Elf Power are currently in the midst of a summer tour that will make stops in Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta and more.

Artificial Countrysides has been praised by Stereogum, Under The Radar and BrooklynVegan, who said “It finds their unique psychedelic pop/indie rock fusion sounding as great as ever.” FLOOD Magazine proclaimed, “Elf Power are far from running out of ideas nearly 30 years into their time together as a psych-folk unit,” while MAGNET Magazine said, “The songs themselves are some of the catchiest and most structurally sound Rieger has written in quite some time.”

With Artificial Countrysides, singer and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Rieger and his Elf Power bandmates — drummer Peter Alvanos and guitarist Dave Wrathgabar, with contributions from keyboard player Laura Carter — have created some of the band’s most expansive musical terrain yet. Along with a blend of fuzz-tone electric and layered acoustic guitars, Moog keyboards and lively drums, the group experimented with the sounds of marimba, Mellotron, harpsichord, synth bass and distorted drum machine loops, taking a try-it-and-see approach to recording in the studio. Artificial Countrysides is Elf Power’s 14th album across their almost 30 year career.

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Photo - Alex Berger

Derek Hoke - Wild And Free.

East Nashville-based singer-songwriter Derek Hoke has announced that his new album Electric Mountain will be released on September 9 via 3Sirens Music Group, the first release from the Music City collective 3Sirens’ label arm. Hoke has also just shared his new single “Wild and Free,” a dreamy blend of acoustic guitar and synthesizers that arrives with a lively music video.

“‘Wild and Free’ is an acoustic song that I wanted to have build and build and build,” shares Hoke. “Originally it was about 10 minutes long and we edited the end off, as it just kept going which would be too much for some people. The idea was to start small with a chorus of voices. I think of it as driving through the desert as the sun’s coming up, as the idea.”

Hoke's forthcoming record Electric Mountain finds the East Nashville music veteran stepping back into the light following his previous release, 2017's Bring the Flood, which in contrast was a bit darker and moodier. Produced by longtime collaborator and childhood friend Dex Green (Elvis Costello, Allison Russell), Electric Mountain draws on influences that range from Appalachian folk music to Peter Gabriel classics to Bruce Springsteen demos, with plenty of futuristic instrumentals in between. Hoke’s previous records have featured such talents as Robyn Hitchcock, Jason Isbell, Luther Dickinson, Elizabeth Cook, Aaron Lee Tasjan, and more. On Electric Mountain, he keeps the local Music City love going: Prudent listeners will recognize vocals from Thayer Serrano and fiddle from Lillie Mae.

Hoke has spent the better part of the last two-plus decades making a home for himself in East Nashville, whether he’s hosting $2 Tuesday at iconic venue The Five Spot or spending a quiet night alone fiddling with Eurorack synthesizers. But his musical success has been hard-fought every step of the way. Raised in Florence, South Carolina, Hoke taught himself to play and write music by ear, mimicking the sounds he’d heard on records and through airwaves. Despite not having a musical family or a local community of players, Hoke found new influences – including '90s staples like Ben Folds, Wilco, and Drivin N Cryin – through his job at the town record shop.

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Marcus Man - Aspirations.

Marcus Man is a 23 year-old independent artist from Warrington (UK) who has just released the rather splendid song 'Aspirations' along with an engaging video. He tells us "I’ve been writing and performing music for several years now, and I’ve been releasing music for at least the last two. I started off performing in my local town, then moved on to Manchester & Liverpool, before finally moving to London. My biggest influences include Damien Rice, The Last Shadow Puppets, Amy Winehouse, Frank Turner to name a few. I particularly like music that has a lyrical focus and tend to write songs with that in mind."

Regarding the new single he continues, "‘Aspirations’ is about tackling the idea of whether or not someone’s aspirations or work ethic can affect their relationships. 

While trying to be quite fun and light-hearted lyrically, I think the song is bittersweet at its core. The track was recorded at Matchbox Studios in Warrington & is part of an upcoming EP due to be released at the end of summer. Musically, it’s sort of like soft indie-rock, and I like to think it’s the perfect soundtrack to putting your feet up at the end of the day, doing nothing, & being content with being lazy!"

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Lilly Winwood - Sleep Issues.

Leading up to the writing of her new album, Talking Walls, singer, songwriter, and guitarist Lilly Winwood had all but resigned herself from continuing her music career. Burned out after her last album cycle and in the midst of a pandemic, Winwood took a job to pay the bills—but she couldn’t stop writing. She knew she was on the cusp of something important. “I’d be working in a restaurant all day and then at night, come 3 a.m., I’d be pulling half-written songs out of my apron,” she recalls. “Then it all came together.”

When Winwood decided to get sober, the floodgates opened. Talking Walls captures that tumultuous period, with Winwood literally “talking to the walls” as she looked inward with new purpose. Penned over long sleepless nights, with clear eyes and a willingness to ask tough questions, each song takes a different tack into the introspective wind, backed by a minimalist-roots sound. 

The now East Nashville-based artist (and daughter of Grammy-winning British rocker Steve Winwood) simply wrote her story and brought it to her band at Nashville’s Trace Horse studio—no producer needed. The new single “Brighter Days,” is a swaggering, pedal-steel laden track showcasing Lilly’s soulful voice and the simple, organic feel that the band landed on in the studio.

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Elf Power - Haley Johnsen - The BB House Band - Pixie Moonshine - Me Rex - Courtney Cotter King

Elf Power - Artificial Countrysides.

GA-based psychedelic folk band Elf Power released the official video for the title track to their forthcoming album Artificial Countrysides that will be released on July 15 via Yep Roc Records. The video was directed and filmed by Dickie Cox. The band will kick off their summer tour on July 13 in Milwaukee, WI  and will make stops in Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta and more. Find a full list of tour dates below or at elfpower.com.

“The title track lyrically addresses the songwriting process, and the creation of miniature worlds within songs, propelled by a frantically fingerpicked acoustic guitar line that imagines what acoustic guitar virtuoso John Fahey might sound like if he played with a rock band,” explains singer and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Rieger.

The new song followers the release of the official video for “Undigested Parts” and “The Gas Inside The Tank,” which was covered by Stereogum, Under The Radar and BrooklynVegan, who said “It finds their unique psychedelic pop/indie rock fusion sounding as great as ever.”

Rieger and his Elf Power bandmates — drummer Peter Alvanos and guitarist Dave Wrathgabar, with contributions from keyboard player Laura Carter — have created some of the band’s most expansive musical terrain yet. Along with a blend of fuzz-tone electric and layered acoustic guitars, Moog keyboards and lively drums, the group experimented with the sounds of marimba, Mellotron, harpsichord, synth bass and distorted drum machine loops, taking a try-it-and-see approach to recording in the studio.

Artificial Countrysides is Elf Power’s 14th album across their almost 30 year career. The collection centers around the gray zones where the natural world collides with the creeping encroachment of the digital realm, where the balance between real and simulated can shift from one minute to the next. “That title also describes the songwriting process, of world-building or creating an artificial landscape within a song,” explains Rieger.

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Haley Johnsen - Common Ground.

Haley Johnsen is a Portland, Oregon-born musician with a knack for genre-bending and a hard-earned career path that is uniquely her own. Raised listening to powerhouse singers such as Brandi Carlile, Grace Potter, Eva Cassidy, and Bonnie Raitt, her greatest inspirations become apparent in her soaring vocals, introspective lyricism, and cross-pollinated style of indie-pop, and bluesy folk rock music. Whether her songs muse on the aches of self-doubt, the joy that can accompany nostalgia, or simply trying to stay afloat in tough times, her bona fide songwriting combined with her performance ability is bound to evoke an emotional response. “I want my music to encourage people to push through their challenges and continue to have hope and belief in themselves and their authenticity,” she says.

Growing up as a competitive gymnast, Haley quickly learned how to be a daredevil and step outside her comfort zone. This influenced her musical journey by prompting the prolific songwriter to take inventive and unexpected risks sonically at an early age.  In the span of about three years, Haley wrote around 200 songs in her parents back shed, with the most memorable songs being added to her debut EP, Through the Blue, which was released in 2015. She followed up with her second EP, When You Lit The Sky, in 2017, along with a handful of singles and national tours. It was through her critically acclaimed 12-track debut album, Golden Days, where she gained much deserved recognition and ignited the interest of Allen Stone who appeared on the album. Later that year, Haley began touring with the power-trio sister-band Joseph and with EDM/Indie pop artist Big Wild, who she currently works with as a bassist and back-up vocalist. During her first Europe tour in January of 2019, Haley was further granted the opportunity to record an acoustic album entitled London Sessions at the Legendary Abbey Road.

Her 2021 single “Goner” was written in a bathtub in a vintage trailer in the midst of having an existential crisis. The songwriter confides, “it came to be about the romanization of nostalgia; the longing for what once was our youth and also the fear of death. It's about my own internal struggle trying to stay present and at peace with who I am now, where I am now, and realize that my childlike self is still very much alive in me. It's a reminder that I don't need to be afraid or insecure with where I am in my life.” Featuring honey-dipped vocals, breezy guitars, and sweeping 70s inspired folk rock soundscapes, “Goner” is a sun-drenched melancholic daydream.

With her release "Higher" Haley Johnsen explores "not giving up on yourself. It's that feeling of knowing that no matter what, you're going to continue growing, continue dreaming, and that in itself is the greatest high. Knowing that you've built that trust within yourself to keep going even when life has worn you down," she confides. Featuring a stirring melodic hook, orchestral percussion and dreamy slide guitar, "Higher" is the perfect anthem of self love.

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The BB House Band - Without You.

What a great feelgood-tune! Especially in these turbulent times: 'Without You', the new single by Lucerne-based The BB House Band, is a rousing short pop-ska-smasher. Kamila's voice is electrifying. Her attitude: somewhere between The Pretenders and No Doubt.

The BB House Band – the name says it all: «BB» stands for the legendary Lucerne music bar The Bruch Brothers. The 4-piece is their house band – and all those years of live experience can be heard in the sound. 

The BB House Band was founded by Patrick Archer, a rock musician from San Francisco, who's been organizing the Bruch Brother`s jam sessions for the last twelve years.

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Pixie Moonshine - Far From The Wilderness (Album).

It’s been more than seven years since Pixie Moonshine last released a collection of her moody alt-rock musings. The former leader of Toronto’s gender-bending progressive grunge group, Tripping Hazard, relocated across the ocean to Scotland following the group’s dissolution, promptly met a friendly giant, and replicated herself, twice. While doing all of that living, songs continued to percolate and coalesce, as they tend to with those permanently tethered to the muse. 

With a bit of breathing room afforded by older replicants, and overseas support from former Tripping Hazard drum beast, Scott Gray (your humble narrator, aka The World Next Door), Jennifer Once-Hall-Now-McDonald began the task of committing her rapidly growing collection of songs to record. The results of this dual continent collaboration are what we’re thrilled to share with you now. And this is only the beginning, with pre-production started on multiple albums full of backlogged material.

In Jen’s own words, Far From the Wilderness is about “Settling into a new place once the shine of adventure has worn off and homesickness has truly kicked in; throwing yourself into a new life and realizing you’ve lost yourself somewhere along the way. Also, quite a bit about missing sunshine.”

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Me Rex - Toilet Of Venus.

ME REX have shared another cut from their forthcoming EP, new single Toilet of Venus is out today via Big Scary Monsters. Hot on the heels of this year’s Pterodactyl EP, ME REX recently announced their brand-new record – Plesiosaur – out 17th June on Big Scary Monsters, alongside a UK tour with Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties.

Across the four tracks of Plesiosaur, ME REX wrap sharp wordplay around vibrant fuzzed out guitars and keys. Toilet of Venus is an extension of another track on the EP, Lager Door. While the former looks at present struggles, the latter is inherently nostalgic.

“Toilet of Venus looks at present struggles and what they will reveal. The Toilet of Venus is a scene often depicted in classical paintings, by people who could not have foreseen the way that language would change the meaning of the word ’toilet’. This kind of shift in perspective is what made me want to use it for the title of this song” songwriter Myles McCabe explains.

The band have worked hard over the last couple of years to refine the unique characteristics that make them so addictive to listen to - rhythmically charged narrations and a musical stream of consciousness. Themes of friendship, forgiveness, loss, and joy wrapped in fast paced poetic vignettes; ME REX challenge the listener’s preconception of how a song can be structured.

Beginning life in 2018 in the home of McCabe, experimenting with shouty, electronic bedroom pop, ME REX formed when he was joined by long-time friends Kathryn Woods (guitar/vocals), Phoebe Cross (drums/vocals) and Rich Mandell (bass/keys/vocals).

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Courtney Cotter King - Conversation.

"Conversation" tenderly takes one back to the initial feelings of falling in love. It perfectly describes that moment when someone has admitted to themselves (and are one conversation away from admitting to their significant other) that they could sit and talk to that person forever. ”Time goes so slowly whenever you’re gone and time it glides whenever you’re near. All that I want is to sit here with you, with no alarm clocks ringing in my ear.” 

Sweetly relatable, its message is circled by Courtney’s notable vocals and piano and an array of twirling strings, along with guitar and percussion. It will have people longing to fall in love, or thinking back to when they first fell in love and the power of that one conversation that changed everything.

Courtney Cotter King artistry drives her blue-eyed soul, singer-songwriter genre. Courtney is a mom of 3 children with a 4th on the way. She hopes to inspire moms that creativity doesn’t have to stop when kids are created. She humorously balances gigging with nursing and finger painting with songwriting. “Marriage and motherhood has opened me to songs I could have never written without these sweet souls in my life.”

CourtneyCotterKing · Conversation

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Still Corners - Elf Power - Clea Anaïs’ - Diandian

Photo - Bernard Bur

Still Corners - Far Rider.

Ahead of a massive tour throughout Europe and the US this Spring, Still Corners have released their seven-minute desert-noir odyssey, ‘Far Rider’.

With the sun at its peak a weary desert traveller picks their way across the soft sandy floor trying to forget a lost love or maybe a past best forgotten. Crystal clear guitar lines drift in and out as the bass weaves and snakes over a tight drum beat. Tessa Murray croons steady as a pulse, as the song winds like a caravan toward the orange horizon.

Tessa explains, “This song is about leaving, lost love and finding yourself somewhere on the journey, really it’s about redemption. I recently drove 6000 miles across the southwest to feel the sun on my face and think.  We used the dreamlike nature of the song to capture the landscape and a hypnotic feel to conjure up the long and lonely travel days.”

‘Far Rider’ follows on from the release of their recent single ‘Heavy Days’, and highly-praised 2021 studio album ‘The Last Exit’, which received standout reviews in NME, DIY, Uncut, The Quietus, Mojo and many more Still Corners will be heading off on tour in 2022 throughout the US and Europe to support their recent releases.

stillcorners · Far Rider

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Photo - Jason Thrasher

Elf Power - The Gas Inside The Tank.

Yesterday, the Athens, GA-based psychedelic folk band Elf Power announced they have signed with Yep Roc Records. To celebrate the partnership, the band released “The Gas Inside The Tank,” their first single release since 2017’s full length album Twitching in Time.

“‘The Gas Inside the Tank’ lyrically touches on seemingly separate but interrelated themes such as reincarnation, evolution, digital information overload, and an imagined post-apocalyptic future world of deserted cities in which inhabitants resort to siphoning gas from abandoned vehicles,” explains Andrew Rieger. “This was the first song written for an album we’ll be releasing later this year. It mixes organic and artificial elements together, with drums and drum machine mixed together, and slide guitar and organ alongside gurgling moog keyboards and synth bass.”

"We are very excited to be working with Yep Roc! So many of our friends and collaborators like Robyn Hitchcock, The Apples in Stereo, The Minus 5, and the No Ones have worked with the label, so we're looking forward to joining the Yep Roc roster,” said Elf Power.

“We are thrilled to welcome Elf Power to the Yep Roc Records roster,” said Yep Roc’s Co-General Manager Mariah Czap. “For the past 28 years, they've been such an important influence in the indie music community. Our team has known Andrew and the band since around 2004, as they've collaborated with a number of Yep Roc artists past and present over the years. We're excited to officially add them to our label family!”

Elf Power formed in Athens, GA in 1994 and have released 13 albums, two EPs, and a handful of singles, while touring North America, Europe, and Japan many times playing alongside acts like R.E.M., Flaming Lips, Dinosaur Jr., Neutral Milk Hotel, Guided by Voices, Arcade fire and many more. Albums such as 1998's Dave Fridmann-produced A Dream In Sound and 2008's collaboration with the late folk rock icon Vic Chesnutt, Dark Developments, have cemented the band’s reputation as the finest purveyors of modern melodic psychedelic folk rock around. The band became known as a member of the much heralded Elephant 6 Collective.

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Clea Anaïs’ - Stars Still Dying.

Clea Anaïs’ compositions centre on two things: their multifaceted artistic sensibility, and an emotional intelligence as sharp as a shard of bright-coloured crystal. Clea is a multiethnic artist, raised in Canada by a Mauritian dancer and a British painter.

Clea works with all kinds of interesting contemporaries in interesting places, undertaking a cross border commission in 2021 by the Canadian Consulate as part of the “Connecting Perspectives” initiative. Clea has toured in Canada, Japan, Europe, the UK, the USA, and New Zealand. Their session work spans many genres, having worked with Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire) on his project Music for Heart and Breath, attending residencies at the Banff Centre, and recording with bands like Woodpigeon, 100 Mile House, Reuben and the Dark, and Astral Swans. Clea has shared the stage with groups including members of Broken Social Scene, Dan Mangan, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Cold Specks, City and Colour, and Of Montreal, to name a few. Much of this has happened with Clea’s collaborative band RALEIGH, who Alternative Album of the Year in the 2018 YYC Music Awards.

Now undertaking new music on her own, her debut solo album, Circle Zero, recalls the genre defying production and inimitable vocals of Lana del Rey, grounded in the nostalgic groove and lush pop stylings of Beach House and Japanese Breakfast. Clea’s first two self-released singles garnered 7k views each on YouTube, with “Hazy Days” spending multiple weeks on CBC Radio 3’s Top 10 playlist. Clea creates art that moves in interesting ways; throughout there are moments that are vulnerable and these moments move you because they are some special combo of being listenable, evoking memory, and feeling new.

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Diandian - I'm Still Mi.

We are pleased to include Diandian today with the beautiful new song 'I'm Still Mi', we will let her tell us all about herself - Diandian is an Asian American cellist, singer, and engineer. As a Stanford University graduate of engineering and music programs, she uses her unique skills in the sciences and arts to create innovative pieces with the cello.

Formerly a classical cellist; she has previously won international competitions and performed at venues such as at the Bing Concert Hall at Stanford, The Grammy Museum, Tsuen Wen Town Hall in Hong Kong, Shanghai Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for SoCal Sunday Night on Classical KUSC. Her upcoming tour venues for 2022 include the Grammy Museum, LAX, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and Stanford Concert Hall.

Along with producer Taylor Franklyn, diandian creates her first independent release, "Planet Pink" featuring her singing debut, cello, and original songwriting. Diandian's first independent release. Bittersweet melancholy with soft vocals, cello, and dreamy beats.

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