Grace Inspace - The Jerry Cans - Gaygirl

Grace Inspace returns with 'Off The Grid' a song that typifies her sharp thoughtful lyrics along with a sophisticated musical backdrop for her gorgeous vocals. === The Jerry Cans have released 'Swell (My Brother)' ahead of their fourth album and it's an expansive indie rocker with plenty of engaging hooks throughout. === Today South London band Gaygirl have released 'Killing It' a track that ebbs and flows with forceful energy as their mixture of Grunge rock and pop demands attention.
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Grace Inspace - Off The Grid.

During the onset of the evolving covid-19 crisis, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Grace Inspace found herself fleeing a rental apartment in LA for the unpopulated safety of rural California. Sleeping in the back of a pick-up truck and bathing in the icy waters of the Smith River, she headed for her family homestead in the Six rivers region of the Siskiyou Mountains. Her new song, Off The Grid is the sonic embodiment of the premonitory dream you have right before everyone is donning masks and growing their own kale.

Born in California and raised in London, Grace introduced herself last year with debut EP Lazy Grace’s Apocalyptic Kitchen, pt. 1. Off The Grid is the first song in her upcoming collection, Lazy Grace’s Apocalyptic Kitchen, pt. 2, and is out now on all major platforms via AWAL.

“This song is born of two worlds and a pick up truck. It was recorded in a home studio in Los Angeles with one of my drumming heroes Stephan Perkins sitting in before all this started melting down. Now is the time for this song, these worlds are colliding; there is a great learning going on.”

“I live somewhere between central London and an extremely rural outpost in California, where the pot plants grow high and the second amendment posters sit amicably alongside rainbow flags. Peace and tolerance!”

23-year-old Grace has a mature head on her young shoulders, with politically charged character-driven lyrics amidst collaged soundscapes. She’s currently sequestered in that 100-year-old cabin in the woods, writing and recording a second collection of songs.

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The Jerry Cans - Swell (My Brother).

Iqaluit’s The Jerry Cans have always been, and will always be, a band from and for the north. But on Echoes, the JUNO Award-nominated group’s upcoming fourth full-length record, they’re not the band they used to be. The record arrives with a wash of glassy, slashing electric guitars, thundering drums, effects-warped throat singing, and darkened violin work. These are sounds of love, anxiety, desperation, and grief, and the tangled relationships between these things. It is intense and heavy, a charred, deep-blue Arctic indie rock soundscape.

From the start, The Jerry Cans—guitarist/vocalist Andrew Morrison, vocalists/throat singers/accordionists Nancy Mike and Avery Keenainak, violinist Gina Burgess, bassist Brendan Doherty, and drummer Steve Rigby—have been committed to making music that honours and dialogues with their home communities. With Echoes, they reaffirm this commitment, but do so with a collection of songs that burns their usual blueprint.

The band recorded in early 2019 with producer Jace Lasek (Besnard Lakes) at Lasek’s revered Breakglass Studio in Montreal. Here, they bucked expectation and routine. Avery Keenainak, the granddaughter of legendary accordionist Simeonie Keenainak, joined the band full-time, adding new depth and energy. Morrison ditched his acoustic guitar for an electric (Echoes is the only Jerry Cans record without any acoustic guitar), while he, Mike, Keenainak, and Burgess raided Lasek’s extensive effects pedal collection for rare and unusual sounds to tense the record’s sonic boundaries. Lasek’s cult-classic production pedigree (Wintersleep, Wolf Parade, Patrick Watson, Stars) hasn’t changed what The Jerry Cans are saying—it’s just changed how they’re saying it. Mike and Keenainak also conducted recording sessions in an igluvigak (igloo) which they constructed behind Mike’s home near Iqaluit.

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Gaygirl - Killing It.

South London band Gaygirl return today (20th May) with new single "Killing It", lifted from their debut EP Pleasurehead, out this Friday 22nd May via Permanent Creeps.

A schizophrenic grunge-pop track and the final showpiece of the EP, singer Bex Morrison said this on the ferocious new single: ""Killing It" is about feeling stuck and the flitting emotions between trying to make things okay, and being on the verge of having a complete meltdown. The extreme up-and-down contradicting lyrical content is reflected throughout the song and as it progresses, falls more and more out of control."

Pairing the raw, emotional grunge of PJ Harvey with the immersive, bold alt-pop moments of early Garbage, each of Gaygirl's 4 band members bring a unique set of influences to the table. As a unit, not only do they create a sound that is hard to pin down, but with every twist and turn – they make an impression that’s unshakable.

Speaking a little more on how "Killing It" came together when recording, Bex said: "When we play the song live it's pretty chaotic and we wanted to make sure we got that across in the studio by experimenting with various vocal and guitar effects, and just having a lot of fun with it. The process from writing to when we took it into the studio was really just playing around with lots of different ideas and inspiration, adding things in and taking things away until we knew it felt right."

Consisting of songwriters Bex Morrison (vocals, guitar) and Lewis Clark (guitar), and completed by Louis Bradshaw (drums) and Tom Coyne (bass) – Gaygirl have earned a reputation for their hypnotic and visceral live performances; playing shows with the likes of Sorry, Automatic and Calva Louise in 2019.

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Leem Of Earth - Vilma Flood - Hush Pup - Grace Inspace

Leem Of Earth return with another really fine song to share, we featured a track from their Chapter One release last October and with Chapter Two they continue to develop some intriguing and creative music. Vilma Flood's vocals are something special in their own right, add in some superb song writing and refined musicianship, and we arrive with something unique and beautiful. Hush Pup tell their story for the new song 'The Hours' a gorgeously melodic and dreamy track crammed with hooks. It's back to July last year for our first Grace Inspace feature, and the new song was worth the wait after the debut E.P, as we are treated to some fabulous protest pop that is both clever and very catchy.

Leem Of Earth - Only So Many Ways.

On Chapter Two, Florida band Leem of Earth continue the musical expedition they began on Chapter One (which was released in Oct.). This three song release expands on the sound and the story. The sound is a nod to the vibe of the best nineties bands part romance and part grunge. The band cites The Innocence Mission, Radiohead and Sunny Day Real Estate as some of their favorite bands from the period.

With Chapter Two, the band adds in otherworldly aspects. "Water" is a Peter Gabriel-style conversation with a skeleton. In "Faithful Lights", the sun and moon watch over the dreaming narrator, and the music swells and surges with synth, voice and rhythm section all keeping pace with each other. "Only So Many Ways" features guitarist B's towering electric, while N on bass and E on drums are vivid and relentless, and LM's velvety voice wraps it all up.

Producer Jeremy SH Griffith (Johnnyswim, SUNBEAMS!) lends his synth expertise and creates a couple of codas from tiny pieces of the songs. Leem of Earth's sound and vision is ethereal and not all that easy to describe, but we think that's definitely a good thing.

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Vilma Flood - Fan of You.

Vilma and famed producer Tobias Fröberg explores musical landscape way beyond the blues- and country influenced sounds of her 2016 debut album. Up coming ”Moodswinger” was recorded at Fröberg’s studio on the Swedish island Gotland in the darkest hours of December, with a constant fire going to keep the cold out.

Inspiration was drawn from the following artists, all tied together by their strong voices, dark lyrics and fragile, detailed soundscapes: Melanie Safka, Ane Brun, Leonard Cohen, Karen Dalton and Alela Diane.

The tracks were built around the pedal steel, slide guitar, big sounding drums, harmony vocals and Vilma’s vibrating, immediately recognizable voice.

”Moodswinger” will be released on April 26th, with first single ”Fan of You” out now!

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Hush Pup - The Hours.

We’re Hush Pup & we make music that sounds a lot like driving at night through the board game Candyland – soft cotton candy trees brush up against the windows of your glass car as you ride toward a friend's cabin nearby the molasses swamp.

“The Hours” is a song about kindness. It's about being sweet and slow as a practice. It’s inspired by a scene from an Allen Ginsberg documentary where he conducts a workshop that integrates spirituality into artistic practice.

Watching this, I felt as if he had created a kindness crew. “The Hours” is written from the perspective of this crew. They're taking time to be gentle & they're high on that concept. The video for “The Hours” was made by members of our kindness crew. Emma Thais Holland & Jameel Mulani combined their super-8 footage with colourful karaoke text.

Our Flower Power EP & Panacea, a romantic film-inspired album, will be released on a double cassette with Lone Hand (lonehand.xyz) in March.


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Grace Inspace - Paradise Syndrome.

English-American musician Grace Inspace introduced herself with her ‘Protest Pop” sound last year and has announced a brand new single Paradise Syndrome released on 14th February.

The single follows her debut EP release Lazy Grace’s Apocalyptic Kitchen Vol.1 which featured the singles Tame Teens, Watersource, Uncertain, CA and Go Slow. The 4-track EP was produced in part by John King of the Dust Brothers and featured Steve Perkins of Jane’s Addiction and Nick McCabe of The Verve.

22-year-old Grace has a mature head on her young shoulders, with politically-charged character-driven lyrics amidst collaged soundscapes, which address current issues in the world in a humorous and refreshing way.

Paradise Syndrome kickstarts 2019 with a unique musical style; it's melodic and catchy chorus is Capital "P" Pop, but the track also puts the "on" in conscious with a satirical message about a culture that insists on high comfort levels.Grace says; “It’s about the condition that haunts the western world; feeling unsatisfied and anxious even though all your needs are met.”

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Grace Inspace - The Brother Brothers - Value Void

Grace Inspace - Uncertain, CA.

Background - English-American musician Grace Inspace has announced new single Uncertain, CA, which follows recent releases Watersource and Tame Teens, and is out now through AWAL.

Continuing her unique “Protest Pop” sound, Uncertain, CA is as fictional as it is true to life and addresses the uncertainty of living in America. Produced by David Peters and featuring Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins, Grace takes things down a notch on Uncertain, CA, letting her vocals do the talking with a relaxed melody mixed with gentle steel drums. Grace says;

“Uncertain, CA - it’s a make-believe town, a microcosm of the state. I’m wandering through the town, the classic western stranger, the outsider, witness to this place’s constituencies and landscapes and seeing it is a land of topographical and cultural extremes - politically divided, deserted, overcrowded, majestically beautiful, scary, Paleolithic, ultra-modern. In California we are comfortable with the apocalypse and I think it’s because we know to call it by its other name, Rebirth, as well. Ultimately, like the fictitious town and very real state its named for, this apocalyptic song is optimistic.”

A lyricist and singer but also a drummer at heart, Grace plays drums and sings in a California trio Apocalyptic Kitchen. Many of Grace’s current songs began life as beats that she would play on her drum kit while singing melody lines dreamt up “on long window gazes, hours of window gazes, riding shotgun up and down the interstates in a big, lifted Dodge truck loaded with cannabis, survival equipment and guitars”. Her broad sound fuses electronic, country, hard rock and pop to create something that is musically unique and unequivocally memorable, all the while expressing matters close to her heart.

Grace has been working on two forthcoming EPs, produced in part by John King of the Dust Brothers and featuring Steve Perkins of Jane’s Addiction as well as Nick McCabe of The Verve, and will be announcing further music soon. FACEBOOK. 

The vocals are melodic, purposeful and hold a simmering level of emotion on 'Uncertain, CA' a gently paced pop song accompanied by a thoughtful musical backdrop, the steel drums giving the piece an additional layer of attractive hooks.

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The Brother Brothers - Frankie.

Background - Brooklyn-based Americana darlings The Brother Brothers have announced their debut album Some People I Know to be released October 19 on Compass Records. The Brother Brothers will embark upon a full U.S. tour this fall, including an extensive support run with I'm With Her and an album release show in Brooklyn on October 19 at Union Pool. Dates are listed below.

Identical twins David and Adam Moss honor a contemporary dissonance with the nostalgic tenderness of another time. Their stunning songcraft blends masterfully gentle guitar, cello and five-string fiddle with the sublime sort of two-part harmonies only brothers can carry. With palpably fraternal stage presence and wonderfully familiar heart, The Brother Brothers have earned repute among today's rising artists, having recently opened for Big Thief, Lake Street Dive, Shakey Graves and more.

More about the song: "Frankie" delves into David's longtime neighborhood of Red Hook in Brooklyn, the members of its community and the tumultuous development it's endured. His melodic testimony sings like a microcosm of problematic economic shift, both in NYC and across the country. In David's words:

I've looked upon the Statue of Liberty, and cherished the idea that someone can come to these shores and have the freedom to make a life unspoiled by an oppressive government or strong handed oppressor. But in her shadow I've seen money take precedent over the things I find most valuable: community, conversation, art, expression. These are the things that make us American and vibrant, but they are not things that allow us to pay our rent or buy property when faced with people who place more value in economics and finance ... value hardly ever begets values."  WEBSITE.

From the opening chords on 'Frankie' I was engrossed. The music has everything a classic Americana song needs to make it special, the vocals and exquisite harmonies take the piece even further, this really is a fabulous and timeless piece.


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Value Void - Babeland.

Background - London trio Value Void announce their debut album Sentimental, due out on 26 October via Tough Love, released on limited edition green vinyl, CD and download. Value Void are an offbeat proposition. A startling bolt from nowhere, their debut album Sentimental  is a collection of luxuriantly deep, shag pile-warm, analogue proto-punk. Paz Maddio and Marta Zabala grew up with each other in Azul, a small town south of Buenos Aires, where the seeds of this project were sown. They collaborate in the same way that Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote songs, with Marta penning lyrics then taking them to Paz to spin them in to music.

The single "Babeland" was one of those songs. As Paz explains; "it was one of the songs we made while Marta was living in London and I was living in Azul, Argentina. So basically it was one of the first songs we made before we started playing". Upon deciding to flesh the songs out for a full length, they returned to TVT studios with Euan in April this year, tweaking the mix and laying down two new songs: “Mind,” a down tempo lullaby/lament in which the band track into the territory of early St. Vincent, Grouper or Julianna Barwick, supported by a raw dirge that blossoms in feedback, and “The Deluge,” which is also reflective but structured by a roaming curiosity and big chorus seeking road movie oblivion.

Marta first came to London on tour with the super-slanted art punks Los Cripis, where she met Luke Tristram (of Cop, Score and Owner) who released their record via his Unwork label. Paz followed to join them and scrape rent from the city's bars and cafes. 

By early 2017 the three of them were holed up in practice rooms, Luke adding Evens-esque basslines that laid concrete to their minimalist guitar-lead pop songs. Originally as WVS, they started playing shows with bands that had once orbited the tiny Power Lunches venue in Hackney and, since its death, were now to be found on bills at DIY Space, New River Studios and other dusty successors of its autonomous, cheap drink, creative-friendly spirit. 

In common with bands like Shopping, rudimentary surroundings and resources fed into nonetheless ambitious, hooky work. Songs such as “Teen For Him,” a self-effacing lark importing strains of Leslie Gore and the Velvets; the minimal, Guided by Voices-reminiscent chug of “Bariloche” and “Cupids Bow,” an up tempo, Breeders-esque standout, were lynch pins of a pummeling, inspired set. BANDCAMP.

'Babeland' is an uncomplicated and immediately likable song. Value Void's music is refreshing and engaging, it could be described in part as minimalist, I would suggest it's more a case of "less is more" as passion and emotion adds to the sound.

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