Showing posts with label Kindsight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kindsight. Show all posts

MARBL - Kindsight - Allegra Krieger - Sandy Bailey - Silva & Steini - William The Conqueror

MARBL - A Song For Mom.

Tel-Aviv based singer songwriter MARBL is releasing her new single "A Song for Mom", that is part of the artist's unique piano project. "Mom has always let me paint my unique trails to walk along. She knows best how to plant the confidence and passion in me, to do whatever my heart desires the most, and quiet down the voices of fear.

She is an eternal home to me, where I can find endless support, listening, and unconditional love. "A Song for Mom", is the least I can give her as a gift." - Moria Or MARBL's music has its own widely spread range of influences like Sufjan Stevens, Laura Marling, Norah Jones, Big Thief, Iron & Wine and more. 

MARBL has already drawn the attention of dominant radio stations, music bloggers, journalists & publicists in France, the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, Israel, the USA, Japan, and more, and hit some big official Spotify playlists around the world, alongside leading TV commercials and campaigns. Nowadays, MARBL is releasing a unique piano project, in which she offers a glance into her very first musical passion - the piano, that draws the likes of Norah Jones, Tori Amos, Kate Bush.


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Kindsight - Tibet.

Danish four-piece Kindsight make music that draws from 80’s and 90’s alternative rock and combines it with the shimmering Scandinavian pop that the region has become so renowned for, resulting in a sound that is both fuzzy and melodic in equal measure.

This week the band share the new single 'Tibet'. The single follows the atmospheric 'Love You Baby All The Time' and experimental slowly building "Madhouse Breakout Multitool" and continues to expand the band's sound without losing their lovable characteristics. The band is playing Roskilde Festival on June 26th, a festival they've attended many times and as so many danes before them, partly grown up at.

About the track, Kindsight says: "Our most political love song to date, Tibet celebrates the wildest forms of conformity and anti-self-realization."

In 2022, the band released their debut LP via Rama Lama Records to praise such as "your new favourite band". Titled "Swedish Punk", it's an album packed with charming and infectiously catchy noise-jangle-pop melodies full of exuberant optimism and coming-of-age tales inspired by acts such as Pixies, Cocteau Twins, Snail Mail and Big Thief. The album was followed by tour dates in Scandinavia, UK and Germany as well as several shows at SXSW.

Atop jangling guitars, Nina Rasmussen’s distinctive voice dances somewhere between that of Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval and Alvvays’ Molly Rankin, leaving the listened renched in the nostalgic optimism of summers gone by. There’s not a single song that would feel out of place in an 00’s independent movie. The band possess an unmistakable talent for crafting disarmingly buoyant yet achingly nostalgic indie-rock songs based on the everyday.

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Allegra Krieger - Lingering.

In May, the New York-based songwriter Allegra Kreiger announced her signing to Double Double Whammy (Florist, Babehoven, Hatchie) for the release of her new LP I Keep My Feet on The Fragile Plane (out July 21st). The first single from the album, "Nothing In This World Ever Stays Still," attracted immediate attention, earning praise from outlets like FADER, Stereogum, BrooklynVegan, Exclaim, NYLON and Paste, who called Krieger "one of the best working songwriters."

This past Sunday Krieger played the release show for Greg Mendez' new LP at Purgatory in Brooklyn, and this week she's sharing a new single entitled "Lingering." "Lingering" neatly captures the chaotic possibility of city living. Rich with little details – black mold on an apartment ceiling, the smell of piss and garbage – the track has a timeless quality, and showcases Krieger's ability to imbue the outlines of everyday experience with a deep emotional resonance.

"Lingering is about new love, entering that fragile plane, shared pleasure, returning to the stasis of a room, of an apartment in a city that is always moving," Krieger explains to NYLON. "Objects sitting and hanging. Wanting something, but not wanting to want anything. Crossing the street. A nice day, a nice moment."


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Sandy Bailey - Get The Message Through.

Massachusetts-based singer-songwriter Sandy Baileyhas unveiled “Get The Message Through,” the lead single from Daughter Of Abraham, her first LP with Red Parlor Records, set for release on August 18th.

“The latest single from Sandy Bailey -a soft-country power ballad about mortality and heartbreak and everyday existentialism -is the kind of song that country music was built on,” says Hollerin their premiere. “Delivered with a faux breeziness, it’s both painfully real and bleakly comical. Her almost throwaway, conversational delivery making the lines land even harder as she ponders her grown up children leaving home, while the song slowly spirals towards a deeper truth about how disconnected and isolated we become from each other as adults....

It’s like if an AI music generator had been tasked to come up with a Carole King song that perfectly tapped into the futility of doom scrolling and the existential dread of the pre-apocalypse.”“A headline caught my eye in The Wall Street Journalthat read ‘Moms in Middle Age: Rarely Alone, Often Online and Increasingly Lonely,’” Bailey told Holler. “I thought about my love/hate relationship with social media and wrote a song about the irony of the current environment that we live in, where we are more connected than ever through the internet but also lonelier than ever.”For the video, Bailey put a team together from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

“We knew we wanted the video to have a throwback 70's feel,” Bailey explained to Holler. “In going through a bunch of vintage stock footage for ideas, the director Sofi Taylor was inspired by a video of a clean, empty kitchen. The contrast of a once vibrant house now unlived in was our inspiration for showing change, loneliness, and the passage of time.” 

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Silva & Steini - If It Was.

Entrepreneur, filmmaker and bestselling author Scott Blum has announced his next venture, FOUND, a US-based independent record label focusing on the contemporary music scene of Iceland. The label’s first signings include jazz vocal duo Silva & Steini, composer Magnús Jóhann, and punk band GRÓA.

FOUND is marking the occasion with the release of the music video for Silva & Steini’s “If It Was” from their debut album More Than You Know. The popular song already has 2 million streams on Spotify and was written by Alan Hampton (Andrew Bird, Fiona Apple, Sufjan Stevens, etc.).

The video is directed by noted Icelandic visual artist Anna Maggý and was shot in gorgeous black & white at the unique "Library of Water" location in Stykkishólmur, Iceland, a fine art installation by Roni Horn featuring large tubes of water from glaciers around Iceland. The dreamlike visuals echo the lyrical themes of memory, loss and rebirth from the evocative song. "Anna Maggý used her unique mind and talent to create and capture something magical," notes singer Silva. "She manages to make her work one of a kind because she is so passionate and knows exactly what she wants in the moment."


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William The Conqueror - The Bruises.

William The Conqueror have just unveiled the video to their new single ‘The Bruises’. Taken from their forthcoming album ‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’, out 28th July on Chrysalis Records, the track is the follow-up to last month’s single ‘The Puppet and the Puppeteer’. Produced by the band in a playground of vintage gear and mixed by Barny Barnicott (Arctic Monkeys, Sam Fender, Kasabian), the ten tracks on ‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’ marry earworm tunes with insistent, imperious, soaring rock shapes, punctuated by chorus hooks that are simultaneously nuanced and anthemic. William The Conqueror, who performed to a packed room at The Great Escape last month, head out on a European tour with Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats next week. The band will embark on a headline tour of the UK in October.

"My favourite kind of songwriting is when you have no control over what's happening” explains frontman Ruarri. “The song just arrives, finding its way through your fingers onto the fret board, as the pen wanders the page and somehow says everything you didn't realise you needed to say. The Bruises was like that. It wasn't and then all of a sudden, it was." Bassist Naomi adds, “'The Bruises' will stay with you all day. And with a verse that catchy, you don’t really need a chorus. Which is lucky.”

‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’, very nearly didn’t happen. Following the imposition of lockdown restrictions, Joseph found himself cocooned at home in Cornwall, ruminating on an uncertain creative future, watching on as his wife Mandy, a valiant mental health social worker, engaged with the all-too-real dilemmas of the pandemic-riven here and now. Her example motivated Joseph to become a temporary care worker, an experience which would provide renewed focus and influence the songwriting on the new album.


Kindsight - Güero - Lauren Monroe - Harry Kappen

Kindsight - Madhouse Breakout Multitool.

Danish four-piece Kindsight make music that draws from 80’s and 90’s alternative rock and combines it with the shimmering Scandinavian pop that the region has become so renowned for, resulting in a sound that is both fuzzy and melodic in equal measure. Next week, the band heads to the US for SXSW and ahead of that new track 'Madhouse Breakout Multitool' is released. The single follows atmospheric stand-alone single 'Love You Baby All The Time' and continues to expand the band's sound without losing their lovable characteristics.

About the track, Kindsight says: "Madhouse Breakout Multitool concerns the true story of two siblings boarding up their house somewhere in the Danish countryside to keep safe from a breakout at the local madhouse. Taking place in a bygone age when such places could be escaped."

In 2022, the band released their debut LP via Rama Lama Records to praise such as "your new favourite band". Titled "Swedish Punk", it's an album packed with charming and infectiously catchy noise-jangle-pop melodies full of exuberant optimism and coming-of-age tales inspired by acts such as Pixies, Cocteau Twins, Snail Mail and Big Thief. The album was followed by tour dates in Scandinavia, UK and Germany.

Atop jangling guitars, Nina Rasmussen’s distinctive voice dances somewhere between that of Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval and Alvvays’ Molly Ranking, leaving the listened renched in the nostalgic optimism of summers gone by. There’s not a single song that would feel out of place in an 00’s independent movie. The band possess an unmistakable talent for crafting disarmingly buoyant yet achingly nostalgic indie-rock songs based on the everyday.


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Güero - Gone Away.

Sacramento quartet Güero released their latest single “Gone Away” yesterday, from their upcoming sophomore full-length album, Wednesdays, out April 7 via Dutch Records. The guys once again tapped director Paul Bates to bring the song to life with a video.

Discussing how “Gone Away” came together, drummer Mike Ruiz noted, "This was a chord progression from Rik that came together rather quickly. There was a lot of back and forth on this song and how it should be structured… Is the solo too long? Is it long enough? Is the vibe off?... were constant talking points. Russell brought his old vox wah pedal for Shea to try out, and the vibe of the song changed dramatically. It gave it this heavy, moody, kind of dark energy that really made the first half of the song fall into place and flow into the second half.”

Güero announced Wednesdays in January with the “Streams of Light” single, which Under the Radar called it, "a lost classic reemerging from a forgotten corner of the radio.” The album was recorded live at Pus Cavern Studios in Sacramento with ace recording engineer Joe Johnson and further elevated by Oakland producer and fellow musician, Akiyoshi Ehara (The Seshen, Geographer); who amping up and dialing down dynamics added greater tones, higher fidelity, heavy delays and string arrangements.

“We always incorporate something we haven’t explored before and Aki was the maestro; he took our sound to another level. Nothing stands out as something which shouldn’t be there or what one of us wouldn’t play,” added bassist Russell Volksen.

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Lauren Monroe - Love Is Alive.

With the release of the new video, “Love Is Alive,” singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and healing artist, Lauren Monroe, continues to honor her rock roots while spreading a message of healing through music. Co-produced with Jim Scott, the single features performances by Rick Allen (Def Leppard), Beth Goodfellow, John Ginty, Dylan Rose, and more.

“Love is a living, moving and healing experience ready to be shared and lifted in one another,” she says. “If you feel the love, please unleash the powerful energy with your communities.”

That mission is intrinsic to all that Monroe does. With her husband - legendary drummer Rick Allen of Def Leppard - Monroe started the Raven Drum Foundation to serve, educate, and empower Veterans dealing with PTSD and TBI, people in crisis, and other at-risk populations. The foundation engages music as a tool for healing, allowing participants to use rhythm, mindfulness, and energy-medicine techniques as an avenue for connection and healing, and supports complementary and alternative-medicine programs for trauma recovery.

For the past two years, Raven Drum has organized the 12 Drummers Drumming online auction, with items donated by artists such as Taylor Swift, Stewart Copeland, Zac Hanson, and more, raising over $100,000. Last year, Raven Drum invited a group of drummers, Veterans, first responders and supporters to the Amazing Grace estate to experience the magic of a drum circle and the healing benefits of music and community.

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Harry Kappen - The Freedom Inside.

Dutch musician, multi-instrumentalist and music therapist Harry Kappen is known for making bold political statements and raising awareness on global issues through his music. While his previous music often calls for large-scale global change, his latest single “The Freedom Inside” is a gentle reminder for people to start a positive change from within themselves, which will ultimately impact the world.

“We all know we live in troubling times with war, climate change, indifference, etc.” Says Kappen. “There’s a lot of complaining everywhere (social media!) and declining trust in governments. If you want to change the world, stop nagging and whining at others and start to change yourself first and search for the freedom inside you to do so!”

In addition to being a notable musician, Harry Kappen is also a music therapist. He offers his services at a youth care center where music therapy is used to help young children cope with various problems and disorders. Harry also offers his expertise as a lecturer for an international master’s degree program in music therapy. Always playing with the magical power of music, Harry Kappen is a standout artist and musician who creates music from the soul, and for the soul.

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Mamalarky - Emily Breeze - Declan O'Donovan - Kindsight - Hohnen Ford - The Company Stores

Mamalarky - Shining Armor.

Mamalarky's highly-anticipated sophomore full-length, Pocket Fantasy, is due out September 30 via Fire Talk. The follow up to the band's critically-acclaimed 2020 self-titled debut LP, the album's early singles have generated a great deal of excitement, with the lead track "Mythical Bonds" earning praise from the New York Times, who said "Mamalarky make math rock sound like fun" and appearing on a new music playlist from Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, while second single "It Hurts" landed on multiple best of the week lists.

Now Mamalarky are back with a final single from their forthcoming LP, a track called "Shining Armor". Accompanied by a video animated by Alex Futtersak, who is known several striking visuals he has created for Cautious Clay and Crumb, the track is the kind only Mamalarky could have created, delivering a blend of tightly wound indie rock, wobbly, jazz-inflected wildness and moments of arresting beauty played against their most abrasive.

"This song goes out to conveniently anonymous YouTube haters," says singer Livvy Bennett. "Shining Armor is an invitation for anyone who has shit to say about how I play guitar to go ahead and reveal themselves and play a little song for us! When I wrote this I was getting a bunch of comments about my gender and appearance and how that corresponds with how I play guitar. The only response was to covert that anger into something that's genuinely so fun to play.

"Alex Futtersak (@chippy_zone) took this idea and crafted a whole world around it, where our music is essentially breaking a curse over these angry knights in armor. I actually sent him some DIY motion capture from my room so some of the moves are true to form."

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Emily Breeze - Ordinary Life.

Bristol-based indie noir-pop artist Emily Breeze returns with a bitter sweet new single Ordinary Life, dripping with brit-goth nostalgia and sad-pop synth lines via Sugar Shack Records on September 23rd 2022.

Emily’s previous single ‘Confessions of an Aging Party Girl’, received airplay from Lauren Laverne, Don Letts and Tom Robinson alongside continued support from BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Introducing in the West. Ordinary Life continues in this vein, a reflection on a gloriously misspent youth and a celebration of the magic, misery, miracles and monotony that are sewn into the fabric of everyday existence where you are the hero of your own mythic quest.

Speaking of the inspiration for the song Emily says, “It’s a quest that involves biblical first loves and tragic one night stands, epic all nighters and the quiet desperation that follows as your dreams disperse like the fronds of a dandelion clock in the cold morning air. You blink, two decades have passed and you become the thing you always despised, a three dimensional, functional adult with reasonable expectations... Or perhaps it's the theme song to the end of a John Hughes movie set twenty years after Prom night, except it's not prom night, it's Butlins and Mike Leigh is directing but Simple Minds and Souxsie Sioux are still sparkling in the spotlight, and so are you.”

Ordinary life is the opening track to Emily’s third solo album Rapture which she describes as “A collection of coming-of (middle) age stories which celebrate flamboyant failure, excess and acceptance”, due for release January 2023.

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Declan O'Donovan - Get Thee Behind the Wheel (Live at Afterlife Studios).

The musical vastness and ambivalence of Declan O’Donovan’s sound is reflected by the picturesque backdrop between his home of Whitehorse in Canada’s Yukon and the urban centres from Toronto to Montreal that he frequents. 

For over a decade, the Canadian has succeeded in creating stylistically unique fusions of the most diverse of song writing approaches. Nothing is too strange, too big or too far: alternative folk, psychedelic rock, classical piano, you name it.

Albums with an eccentric richness of ideas like his self-titled debut (2012) or the larger-than-life “Broken Sky” (2017) have made O’Donovan one of the most sought-after musicians in Canada. Comparisons range from Tom Waits to Randy Newman or Harry Nilsson, but of course don’t really do the creative maverick and his unmistakably rough timbre any justice. His new release “Get Thee Behind the Wheel” once again shows that he’s riding a wave of his own, subject to his own transformations.

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Kindsight – Love You Baby All the Time.

Danish four-piece Kindsight make music that draws from 80’s and 90’s alternative rock and combines it with the shimmering Scandinavian pop that the region has become so renowned for, resulting in a sound that is both fuzzy and melodic in equal measure. Releasing their first material in 2020, the up and coming Danish four-piece have been quick on the rise, picking up steam and their debut album, Swedish Punk, was released in March earlier this year and was followed by tour dates in Scandinavia, Germany and UK. Now they're back with atmospheric the new single Love You Baby All the Time, an indie pop gem recorded close after the album's release.

The band says: “For about 200.000 years, humanity has successfully postponed complete annihilation as each human takes part in a sort of symbiotic ritual with a person they would like to see several more of sometime in the future. “Love You Baby All the Time” seeks to present this occurrence loud and clear and with no further comments.”

Kindsight formed when front-woman Nina Hyldgaard Rasmussen and guitarist Søren Svensson bonded over a shared love of The Sugarcubes. They went on to recruit bass player Anders Prip and drummer Johannes Jacobsen and over the past few years have earned a reputation within Copenhagen’s thriving indie scene for their exciting live shows. The praised debut album Swedish Punk is finally available on vinyl, as a red limited edition.

On the album’s title, Rasmussen says “Swedish Punk’ was an off the cuff term our producer, Adam, came up with when we needed a working title for a new song we wrote during the recording sessions. Our bass player, Anders, then wrote some lyrics based on the working title and we ended up liking the whole ‘Swedish Punk’-thing so much it became the name of the album”.

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Hohnen Ford - Close To Your Heart.

London-based singer-songwriter Hohnen Ford just announced a European tour in October supporting Matt Maltese and shares her new single "Close To Your Heart" - the latest track to be heard from upcoming debut EP 'Infinity', out 26th October via Young Poet. Debut EP 'Infinity' was written and produced by Hohnen Ford herself, features writing collaborations with Matt Maltese, and was mixed by Tom Carmichael (Porridge Radio, Wu-Lu).

A prodigious songwriting and vocal talent – Hohnen Ford has made an immediate impact. Very quickly given the seal of approval by jazz aficionado Jamie Cullum, she's gone on to receive notable support from Spotify (featured in their New Music Friday and Fresh Finds playlists), alongside coverage on esteemed publications including The Line Of Best Fit, CLASH Magazine and Whynow.

Hohnen Ford's achingly sincere, yet irresistibly entertaining and romantic prose, paired with her delicate piano arrangements position her as one of the most exciting songwriters to surface in recent times. Newly released single "Close To Your Heart" is further evidence of her gift, as she contemplates the emotional intricacies of relationships. Speaking more on the lyrical inspiration of new single, Hohnen Ford said:

"Close To Your Heart is about rekindling love for your person. Daring yourself to love like it's day one, and acknowledging bad habits. Taking responsibility for your own emotions and being able to laugh at yourself - step outside the emotion in that moment to stop yourself from bickering or causing a fight and remembering why you love that person. I wrote it to remind myself to make sure the hassle and stresses of day to day life don't get in the way of my relationships."

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The Company Stores - Savannah.

The Company Stores independently releases The Family Album, their third full-length album, today September 23. The powerful and sultry voice of lead vocalist Ileana Ille captivates the audience with her ability to express raw emotion, while the band unites many influences to lay down bold grooves amidst dynamic crescendos.

“This album tells a story of everything being turned upside down; both personally and across the country,” says Matthew Marks, the primary lyricist for the band. “It is about family and understanding the triumphs, failures, tendencies, and choices of the people who came before, in order to understand how to successfully navigate where you are going.”

No Depression’s Amos Perrine writes, “The album had me from the opening track, ‘Savannah,’ which could have easily been on a Steely Dan record (notably the guitar parts), by way of the jazz group Return to Forever. The vocals by Ileana Ille glide over the instrumentation much like those of Return to Forever’s first vocalist, Flora Purim, did. Ille’s vocals are but one of the many textured layers that blend together in unexpected ways.”

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49 Winchester - Megan Knight - Kindsight - Men Without Hats

49 Winchester - Russell County Line.

49 Winchester will release Fortune Favors The Bold on May 13th, 2022 via New West Records. The 10-track set was co-produced by the band and Stewart Myers (O.A.R., The Infamous Stringdusters) with additional recording & production by Kenny Miles (Wayne Graham). Rolling Stone Country has praised 49 Winchester’s live performance while Whiskey Riff called the band “....one of the greatest up and coming country music acts out there right now.” 49 Winchester’s New West Records debut follows their acclaimed 2020 self-released III, which American Songwriter named “...a confident collection that gives voice to the band’s pure, unfettered intents” while Americana Highways called frontman Isaac Gibson’s songwriting “Unforgettable,” saying, “...together they are distinctly and proudly Appalachian — carrying on and reinventing the musical traditions of their region with a sound that is wholly and distinctively their own.”

Filmed in the band’s hometown of Castlewood, Virginia, the video features a visit to the Clinch River where their neighborhood and childhood homes were situated. It also features the once bustling downtown, with the old train station, post office, hotels still standing from the Appalachian coal boom, having become weathered by the time the band members were growing up in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. The video depicts, quite literally, 49 Winchester revisiting their roots. Frontman Isaac Gibson says, “The drone shots really show how gorgeous Southwest Virginia is. It was great to be able to capture the essence of home on video. I'm thrilled with how it turned out. I'm excited for the fans to see it and those who are from far and wide to get a little taste of central Appalachia.” SPIN also previously premiered "Annabel," the leadoff track from Fortune Favors The Bold as well.

Formed on Winchester Street in the small mountain town of Castlewood, Virginia (population: 2,045), 49 Winchester started as a group of neighborhood teenage friends set on a calculated DIY path. In 2014 they independently released their eponymous debut, followed by 2018’s The Wind, and 2020’s celebrated III. Reflecting on his early days as a jack-of-all-trades stone mason, where it was about trying to make ends meet in an effort to keep the band rolling along, frontman Gibson can’t help but be grateful for a well-earned notion at the core of the band’s ethos — anything worthwhile in life is built brick-by-brick. “Everything has to be built. And very few people are going to achieve success overnight,” says Gibson. “We didn’t start out as a bunch of hot shot pickers out of Nashville. We started out on the ground floor — very basic songwriting and instrumentation. But we kept working at it, always progressing in what we wanted to do and how we wanted to sound — each song better than the previous one, the show this evening better than last night.”

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Megan Knight - Take It To The Grave.

Nashville recording artist and pop-country superstar, Megan Knight releases her new haunting single and lyric video "Take It To The Grave".

"In this track, the woman was left feeling unloved and had acted out because of it, now as she sits in regret she wonders if she should confess her wrongs or simply keep them buried in the past forever." - Megan Knight

Megan's wide vocal range makes this song unique and personalized. The theme of this song is that some things "Are better left unsaid." These words that are left unsaid are taken to the grave with Megan. The powerful lyrics can relate to anyone with a deep dark secret.

Megan is an artist that is not afraid to be vulnerable. Music has always been a therapeutic outlet for Megan, so her songs are authentic, honest, and raw. "Take It To The Grave" relays real-time emotion, and her vocals are powerful and robust. This song is dynamic and is portrayed through a slower tempo with an acoustic guitar.

 

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Photo by Line Hvid
Kindsight - Queen Of Cowboys.

Danish four-piece Kindsight make music that draws from 80’s and 90’s alternative rock and combines it with the shimmering Scandinavian pop that the region has become so renowned for, resulting in a sound that is both fuzzy and melodic in equal measure. Releasing their first material in 2020, the up and coming Danish four-piece have been quick on the rise, picking up steam with a series of new singles over the last 18 months. On March 25th, their debut album Swedish Punk will be released, Queen of Cowboys, out now, the last single ahead of the release

Kindsight formed when front-woman Nina Hyldgaard Rasmussen and guitarist Søren Svensson bonded over a shared love of The Sugarcubes. They went on to recruit bass player Anders Prip and drummer Johannes Jacobsen and over the past few years have earned a reputation within Copenhagen’s thriving indie scene for their exciting live shows.

On the album’s title, Rasmussen says “Swedish Punk’ was an off the cuff term our producer, Adam, came up with when we needed a working title for a new song we wrote during the recording sessions. Our bass player, Anders, then wrote some lyrics based on the working title and we ended up liking the whole ‘Swedish Punk’-thing so much it became the name of the album”.

There’s a real coming of age charm to Swedish Punk. ‘Don’t You Grow Up’ was the first song the band ever wrote together. Written in “a time when we thought to be a sunny teenage rock band, you had to write songs about teenagers in the sun,” they say. Atop jangling guitars, Rasmussen’s distinctive voice dances somewhere between that of Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval and Alvvays’ Molly Rankin, leaving the listener drenched in the nostalgic optimism of summers gone by. Lead single ‘Sun Is Always In My Eyes’, an unrelenting indie-pop earworm, continues in that same vein. Recalling a time when life was carefree, the band say the track is about ‘stealing money from your mother and feigning to run away from home. Being blessed and unable to see because you've got too much sun in your eyes’.

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Men Without Hats - If the World Should End Today.

Hot on the heels of “love in the age of war,” new wave electro-pop pioneers, Men Without Hats, return with a collection of 14 new original compositions – Again (Part 2). Led by original founding members Ivan and Colin Doroschuk, Men Without Hats have been rounded out since 2016 by industry veteran Sho Murray, and augmented on this record by Colin’s daughter, soprano Sahara Sloan.

The album was recorded on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on top of the Malahat Mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean, from July 2020 to January 2021. The themes explored on Again (Part 2) reflect the band’s unique take on current affairs (“If the World Should End Today,” “The Human Race”), love (“All Into Stars,” “The Love Inside your Heart,” “When Does The Love Begin”), the meaning of life (“Just Another Day,” “Nancy’s Room,” “Where The Wild Go”), and the state of the art (“My Love,” “Heaven,” “My Own Advice”).

With a mixture of the latest digital technology and the best of the analog world (including an actual prophet 5 synthesizer that was used during “The Safety Dance” recording session), Men Without Hats continue their voyage into the world of synth-pop, with a sound forged in the past and hardened by their life experience and commitment to the future.

For the past 10 years, Men Without Hats have toured the world with the cream of 80’s royalty, playing for crowds in North and South America, Europe, Scandinavia, Jamaica, Australia, Mexico, and South Africa, in fact reaching even more people and places than the first time around. Their crossover sound and message is resonating with a new generation of fans eager to understand and appreciate the 80’s influences in their own current brand of pop.

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Lena Minder - Christine Tarquinio - Sound&Shape - Chris Tavener - Kindsight - Christine Sweeney - Twain

Photo - Victoria Byt
Lena Minder - One More Time.

Together Alone is the name of the debut album by Lena Minder, which is about loneliness in relationships. In March 2020, her plans to move back to Switzerland were thwarted by the pandemic. Instead of finding her way back to her roots, she embarked on an inner search and confrontation with herself in isolation. 

In her memories, Lena revived past relationships and critically questioned them. She began to put these thoughts into songs and tells with melancholy, nostalgia, but also a pinch of irony about the complexity of interpersonal existence.

The album contains eight songs, some of which are stylistically very different from each other. The beginning is made by the reduced, folky waltz song «Stay Around», which stands out for its sophisticated vocal arrangement. «Stolen Love» or «One More Time» can hardly be assigned to the indie folk genre. They contain elements of soul and gospel and backing vocals reminiscent of the 30s. With the title track Together Alone Lena Minder bids a brilliant, almost anthemic farewell to the journey - time to let go and time to move on. Sometimes you're less lonely alone than as a couple.


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Christine Tarquinio - Falling Free.

Australia’s Christine Tarquinio release’s inspiring new pop single, ‘Falling Free’, available on all streaming platforms on Friday 25th February 2022.

‘Falling Free’ highlights the wonderment of life, love and everything in between, via an instrumental soundscape filled with resonating guitar lines, lush strings and a beat that is sure to have you grooving, combined with the hauntingly ethereal and captivating vocals of Christine Tarquinio. It’s a song that will motivate you to take chances, despite the fear of failure.

“I wrote this song just with an acoustic guitar and it was very introspective as we were in one of our many lockdowns. I wanted to express how I was feeling at the time.  The song was very easy to write and came together over a number of weeks.” Christine Tarquinio

Working with Producer, Joshua Hennessy of Pivotal Music Melbourne, during Covid-19 lockdowns, the pair were required to adapt their process, working through the process remotely. Melbourne, Australia based singer/songwriter, Christine Tarquinio has a passion for turning the experiences of life, into a creative, storytelling musical journey, inviting listeners join her for the ride.

Having released her first single, ‘Didn’t Even Try’ in 2014, and now with seven singles and an EP under her belt, Christine has spent the years exploring the unlimited possibilities of her creativity and the freedom potential of her music, both as a solo act and in collaboration with other artists.


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Sound&Shape - How The Light Gets In.

At a time when subgenres threaten to overwhelm, Sound&Shape make pure, unfettered Rock N’ Roll. Exploring every corner of stylistic possibility within that context, S&S’s songs range from the heavy and fierce to the soothing and gentle. Frontman/songwriter Ryan Caudle’s voice can easily lull you into a false sense of security, only to have his guitars come crashing in alongside drummer Ben Proctor’s herd-of-stampeding-rhinos drumming and bassist Pat Lowry’s soul rumbling low end.

Over the course of several self-released records and relentless national touring, Sound&Shape have honed a sound both familiar and forward thinking. With enough hallmarks of the rock n’ roll history book in which they are descendants of, they honor their heroes alongside a healthy dose of eyes-to-the-future originality. Currently, Sound&Shape has amassed a mountain of new material which they look forward to bringing to the masses for many years to come.

Always striving to expand as much as possible in all directions, the band’s new album, Disaster Medicine, melds the infectious melodies of their previous work with simultaneously the heaviest and most layered, atmospheric work of their discography. Nestled in the heavy riffing and huge choruses lie some of the most personal and heartfelt lyrics of Sound&Shape’s career, supported this time not only by the core instrumentation of guitar, bass and drums, but for the first time by synths and more carefully orchestrated backing vocals.

Sound&Shape has performed at Midpoint Music Fest in Cincinnati, OH (attendance approx. 30,000) as well as shared stages in support of notable bands such as Sparta, King’s X, Fishbone, Crobot, John 5, The Spill Canvas, Tremonti, Jeremy Enigk as well as many tours on their own.

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Chris Tavener- How To Truly Win At Life.

“Answer me this, are you happy?” So sings the online life coach in Chris Tavener's pop-rock satire song for the Youtube generation.

In a modern world often focused on fostering dissatisfaction, 'How To Truly Win At Life' is a song brimming with ironic humour, and soothing melodies hiding a darker truth.

It was written during the difficult era of UK Covid lockdown, when Tavener observed a new influx of online adverts from laughably brazen, so-called life coaches hoping to take advantage of the depressing times for financial gain. The almost surf-rock sounds with a powerful infectious chorus take you away to a tropical paradise, as the exaggerated lyrics speak of a dream lifestyle.

The incredibly uplifting, guitar-fuelled energy in 'How To Truly Win At Life' is matched with subtle minor undertones of deception afoot. There's an epic instrumental arrangement that creates a musical playfulness akin to Randy Newman or Elvis Costello, with a rousing choir and buoyant guitar riffs.

The single is the first from Tavener's upcoming EP 'Easy Ways To Be Happy' that focuses on millennial frustrations and modern measures of success. The new classic-rock-influenced, five-song EP will be released later this year.

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Kindsight - Hi Life.

Danish four-piece Kindsight make music that draws from 80’s and 90’s alternative rock and combines it with the shimmering Scandinavian pop that the region has become so renowned for, resulting in a sound that is both fuzzy and melodic in equal measure. Releasing their first material in 2020, the up and coming Danish four-piece have been quick on the rise, picking up steam with a series of new singles over the last 18 months. Now, they are announcing their debut album, Swedish Punk, will be released on March 25th, 2022.  New single Sun Is Always in My Eyes is out now alongside a DIY video made by the band.

Kindsight formed when front-woman Nina Hyldgaard Rasmussen and guitarist Søren Svensson bonded over a shared love of The Sugarcubes. They went on to recruit bass player Anders Prip and drummer Johannes Jacobsen and over the past few years have earned a reputation within Copenhagen’s thriving indie scene for their exciting live shows.

On the album’s title, Rasmussen says “Swedish Punk’ was an off the cuff term our producer, Adam, came up with when we needed a working title for a new song we wrote during the recording sessions. Our bass player, Anders, then wrote some lyrics based on the working title and we ended up liking the whole ‘Swedish Punk’-thing so much it became the name of the album”.

There’s a real coming of age charm to Swedish Punk. ‘Don’t You Grow Up’ was the first song the band ever wrote together. Written in “a time when we thought to be a sunny teenage rock band, you had to write songs about teenagers in the sun,” they say. Atop jangling guitars, Rasmussen’s distinctive voice dances somewhere between that of Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval and Alvvays’ Molly Rankin, leaving the listener drenched in the nostalgic optimism of summers gone by. Lead single ‘Sun Is Always In My Eyes’, an unrelenting indie-pop earworm, continues in that same vein. Recalling a time when life was carefree, the band say the track is about ‘stealing money from your mother and feigning to run away from home. Being blessed and unable to see because you've got too much sun in your eyes’.

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Photo - Shannyn KT
Christine Sweeney - Do You Have To Go?

Christine Sweeney has one of those rare voices that makes you stop whatever you're doing and pay attention--and she's got the songwriting, guitar, and bandleading chops to back it up, everywhere from a packed, sweaty rock club to a hushed listening room. I've seen it before: literally everyone in a place will turn their heads to see who's at the mic.

To her, the R&B vocal influence isn’t unnatural in settings ranging from hushed folk stages to full band rock shows. Her music reminds her fans of Susan Tedeschi, Brandi Carlile, Sheryl Crow, KT Tunstall, or Grace Potter with music that grooves and rocks but also reveals her story.

Her new album Heart In a Hurry, out April 22, generously dashes blues, pop, Americana, folk, and yes, R&B, in sharp, open-hearted songs, some drawn from hard-earned life lessons. The message has connected with her fans; she’s had people approach her after concerts to tell her hearing her song helped with something they were experiencing. Even when telling a deeply personal story, Christine has the ability to tap into universal feelings. Heart In a Hurry tells a tale of perseverance.

Musically, the album ranges from the rolling soul music of “Feeling So Low,” the message of self-love hidden in the howling blues of “Coyote,” the catchy character studies of “Denial,” full-on New York rocker “Do You Have To Go?,” and the swinging, grin-inducing “Better Parts” (out as a single March 22). In the cathartic, crashing “Down to The River” (single out April 5), she imagines a car driven off the road and into the water and the lightning-strike thoughts that would go through one’s mind. In the heart-rending “Anywhere, Anyway,” she powerfully likens the relationship to taking turns treading water.

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Photo - Wyndham Garnett
Twain - King Of Fools.

Twain releases a new song “King of Fools” with songwriter Mat Davidson sharing that “The premise of this song is that evil is a numbness; it wonders if numbness is worse than pain.”

Under The Radar premiered “King of Fools” yesterday, calling Twain “a songwriter of uncommon emotional weight” and elaborating, “Davidson fully inhabits the role of the prophetic folk troubadour, exploring the evils of past and present with warm pastoral melodies and raw emotive vocals. He ends the song with a poignant indictment of humankind’s everlasting greed一Now I watch the fighting over the womb of the earth / Spilling blood for proverbs that they neither side have learned / And I see a bunch of children fighting over toys / How long must they die and die and die / To satisfy the king of fools?”

Mat Davidson is a prolific contributor to beloved projects including Big Thief, whose latest album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You features Davidson on six songs. He's also a current member of Buck Meek’s band. Davidson is a former member of The Low Anthem, Spirit Family Reunion, and The Deslondes and has toured as part of Langhorne Slim and Courtney Marie Andrews' live bands. He made his label debut as Twain with Rare Feeling in 2017.

The album was aptly hailed by NPR as "at once human and otherworldly,” by Consequence of Sound as “devastating, delicate, meditative” and by UPROXX as “cosmic folk, bright and sparkling, but with all the caterwauling and rough bits that the most stoic traditionalist might desire.” Twain's music resonates a transcendental weight, his performances reliably noted as raw and intensely emotional. More to come from Twain in 2022.

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Dahlia Sleeps - Renata Zeiguer - Kindsight - Josienne Clarke

Dahlia Sleeps - The Calm You Keep.

London based duo Dahlia Sleeps release new track "The Calm You Keep", the latest cut to be heard from the band's debut album Overflow, out 8th April.

A pensive, indie-rock track "The Calm You Keep" is the album's closing song and completes the record in cathartic fashion. A stunning examination into motherhood; vocalist Lucy Hill captures the poise of a mother supporting her child through mental ill-health, with the lines "I climbed into your bed, just like a child I laid and wept / You did not show your fear, you knew the sun was somewhere near".

Filled with nostalgic electric guitar and live drums it paints images of a dreamlike world - "It's a portrait of a parent providing the calm within the storm; half a Dalí-esque soundscape from within an unwell mind, half a paradise of safety”, Lucy says of the track.

Two years in the making and almost 6 years since their debut single, producer/writer Luke Hester and singer/writer Lucy Hill bring a new weight sonically to their debut album Overflow, depicting a new kind of freedom for the duo – from managing and coming to terms with mental health problems to experiencing love in all its forms despite them.

With eclectic influences ranging from electronic acts including MOVEMENT, Autechre and Burial to the lyrically poetic works of Florence + the Machine, Radiohead and The National, Dahlia Sleeps shift seamlessly between genres; from dance to electronic to pop.

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Photo - Josh Goleman

Renata Zeiguer - Sunset Boulevard.

Renata Zeiguer—the Filipino/Argentinian, Brooklyn-based artist who has recorded on albums by Cassandra Jenkins, Landlady, Quilt, Ava Luna, Mr Twin Sister, among others—today announced Picnic In The Dark, her second full-length album for Northern Spy, will release April 8, 2022.

Zeiguer takes us by the hand and leads us into her surreal storybook realm by way of lead single “Sunset Boulevard”, which arrives alongside a music video by OTIUM (Hand Habits, Widowspeak, Ana Fox Rochinski). We are guided through the metamorphosis of a caterpillar, a kaleidoscopic metaphor for the process of letting go of the seemingly safe and familiar in order to evolve and thrive.

Picnic in the Dark follows Zeiguer through a dreamworld of magical realism as she navigates her memories and seeks to confront inherited dysfunctional patterns head-on. As Zeiguer reconciles her childhood and her adult lives with careful compassion, Picnic in the Dark reveals itself as an album not only of transformation, but of healing and self-actualization.

In collaboration with co-producer and old friend Sam Griffin Owens (Sam Evian), Zeiguer sonically invokes the meeting point of memories and dreams, calling to mind Broadcast, Cindy Lee, or David Lynch’s multidisciplinary ventures. With generous splashes of spring reverb, ghostly vocal harmonies, antique drum machines, cinematic strings, and the comforting warbles of synthesized organ, all bolstered by a tight indie rock sensibility, the sonic palette of Picnic in the Dark is magically anachronistic.

 

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Kindsight - Sun Is Always in My Eyes.

Danish four-piece Kindsight make music that draws from 80’s and 90’s alternative rock and combines it with the shimmering Scandinavian pop that the region has become so renowned for, resulting in a sound that is both fuzzy and melodic in equal measure. Releasing their first material in 2020, the up and coming Danish four-piece have been quick on the rise, picking up steam with a series of new singles over the last 18 months. Now, they are announcing their debut album, Swedish Punk, will be released on March 25th, 2022.  New single Sun Is Always in My Eyes is out now alongside a DIY video made by the band.

Kindsight formed when front-woman Nina Hyldgaard Rasmussen and guitarist Søren Svensson bonded over a shared love of The Sugarcubes. They went on to recruit bass player Anders Prip and drummer Johannes Jacobsen and over the past few years have earned a reputation within Copenhagen’s thriving indie scene for their exciting live shows.

On the album’s title, Rasmussen says “Swedish Punk’ was an off the cuff term our producer, Adam, came up with when we needed a working title for a new song we wrote during the recording sessions. Our bass player, Anders, then wrote some lyrics based on the working title and we ended up liking the whole ‘Swedish Punk’-thing so much it became the name of the album”.

There’s a real coming of age charm to Swedish Punk. ‘Don’t You Grow Up’ was the first song the band ever wrote together. Written in “a time when we thought to be a sunny teenage rock band, you had to write songs about teenagers in the sun,” they say. Atop jangling guitars, Rasmussen’s distinctive voice dances somewhere between that of Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval and Alvvays’ Molly Rankin, leaving the listener drenched in the nostalgic optimism of summers gone by. Lead single ‘Sun Is Always In My Eyes’, an unrelenting indie-pop earworm, continues in that same vein. Recalling a time when life was carefree, the band say the track is about ‘stealing money from your mother and feigning to run away from home. Being blessed and unable to see because you've got too much sun in your eyes’.

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Josienne Clarke - Workhorse.

Today, award-winning singer, songwriter and producer Josienne Clarke has shared 'Workhorse', the second cut to be taken from her forthcoming EP I Promised You Light. ‘Workhorse’ is one of the most experimental tracks of Clarke’s career to date, with Sharon Van Etten and Sylvan Esso being the song’s musical touchstones. “This is the most joyous one on [the new EP], to me,” Clarke says of the song which she describes as a “weird dance acoustic mashup.” The song’s video, by Alec Bowman_Clarke, sees the artist roller-skating at a silent disco to emphasise the sheer joy of the track. “It’s just me in a massive room with loads of disco lights with silent disco headphones on just messing about to my own positivity anthem,” she smiles.

Of the track’s experimentation, Clarke says she has been “slightly flirting with synths and electronic sounds more” and using “less acoustic music” in an about turn from her usual style. “I don’t intend to  renounce my acoustic roots at all, but I feel like the old set-up in the industry was quite keen to tell me what type of music I could and couldn’t make,” Clarke explains. “I feel like ‘Workhorse’ is like: ‘What if I could do whatever I wanted? What would that sound like? That sound is this track,” Clarke says assuredly, mirroring the confidence of a track that is sure to become a standout of her career.

I Promised You Light follows on from Clarke’s critically acclaimed 2021 LP, A Small Unknowable Thing, an emotionally charged album bubbling with courage and defiance. If A Small Unknowable Thing were a sentence, I Promised You Light is the full stop at the end, or “the light at the end of that particular tunnel,” as she puts it. “People over the years have often tended to be a little intense at my merch stand, it sort of comes with the territory when you write the kind of music I do. But none more so than a lady who stood there and pleaded for me to ‘write a more positive song, one with a happy ending’” she explains. It was a request that stuck with Clarke over the years. “That’s basically what this EP is,” she says. “It’s all the positive lessons I’ve learned over the past few years and presented in my own, somewhat melancholic, way.”

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Bumper Catch Up featuring: Rubblebucket - Mollie Elizabeth - Lilly Hiatt - The Kearns Family - WILDES and St Francis Hotel - Lucette - Caroline Strickland - Mon Rayon - Lala Salama

Keeping the comments a little shorter so we can cram a few more songs in than usual, this is our first bumper catch up of some really fine r...