Lavender Diamond - Riley Downing - Runnner - Lou Heneise - Ida Maria

Lavender Diamond - Turn Around.

Los Angeles-based chamber-pop band Lavender Diamond just released a new song “Turn Around,” a bonus track from the digital re-release of Now Is The Time, their first studio album in more than 8 years out now via Petaluma Records.

“This song is about reversal - the experience of finding the end - of being in the free fall of loss and despair - and that end point being a beginning through the turning,” explains Becky Stark.  “When we were making the record I didn’t think this song should be part of it, but sometime after we were finished I realized it was my favorite one. It had seemed so raw that I couldn’t bear it.  But isn’t that the way? It can feel impossible to see the beauty in what is full of pain - but new joy can be created and found in the turn around.”

Now Is The Time was written and produced entirely by Lavender Diamond, the trio of Becky Stark, Steve Gregoropoulos and Ron Regé, Jr., and mixed by Tucker Martine at Flora Recording & Playback in Portland, OR. The album features contributions from Nathaniel Walcott (Bright Eyes), Sasami and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.

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Riley Downing - Start It Over.

Riley Downing of The Deslondes will release his debut solo album Start It Over tomorrow via New West Records. The 12-song set was co-produced by Andrijia Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff) & John James Tourville of the Deslondes. On Start It Over, Downing, Tokic, and Tourville are joined by an incredible backing band including Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs as well as session players for the likes of Dolly Parton, Elvis Costello, Jason Isbell, Blaze Foley, Yola, and more. Start It Over has been met with critical acclaim with Uncut Magazine in the U.K. describing his voice as “...like Johnny Cash with a hangover,” and exclaiming “His brain...is abuzz with sounds and ideas, which makes his solo debut a thrill.” 

No Depression said “No matter how well Start It Over fits into the current realities of the world — and it does — Downing’s voice and lyrics will continue speaking for generations to come, and in one way or another will keep conjuring memories of bygone eras” and in their 8 out of 10 Star Review, Holler stated “Once you’re on board with Downing’s elusive, often entrancing vibe, you’ll wonder why it took a pandemic for him to hit center stage.”

The Boot recently premiered the video for the album’s title track, saying “Start It Over” harnesses the beauty and power of music.” The “Start It Over” video, was directed by Joshua Shoemaker and filmed in part at Grimey’s New & Preloved Music in Nashville.

Downing has also added additional tour dates in support of Start It Over, beginning this Saturday in Athens, GA. Five special performances in Louisiana and Texas will feature his Deslondes bandmate Sam Doores as well as the Athens, GA based cosmic country band The Pink Stones.

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Runnner - Awash.

Runnner—the project of the now LA-based songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Noah Weinman—has signed to Run For Cover Records, which will release his new album Always Repeating on July 16th,  2021. A 10-track collection composed of five re-recorded versions of songs that appeared on his 2017 debut, Awash, and last year’s One of One EP, Always Repeating serves as a fresh introduction to the artist and his enchanting musical world, where he balances intimate and melancholy songwriting through the lens of hi-fi/lo-fi dynamics.

“Awash,” the album’s sweeping first single out now, embodies the feeling of being lost and adrift through its aching melody, and builds on the track’s early demo with lush choral harmonies, banjo, trumpet, slide guitar, and more. “I wrote this song in about 15 minutes, though I had been kicking the title around for a bit,” Runnner explains. “It felt like the word I was looking for, but I couldn’t get past it. I was feeling so lost & distant from everything, but I would choke on the language anytime I tried to elaborate. I eventually was able to let the song come simply and not stress the specificity too much.” 

Self-produced and recorded wherever Runnner called home at the time, Always Repeating documents a cycle of looking back and moving forward, of alienation changing to reconciliation. After leaving college, his friends, and his beloved life in Ohio, Weinman made the reluctant decision to move back to his hometown of Los Angeles; not because he wanted to, but because he wasn’t sure where else to go. It was an extremely isolating time and that existential dread pervades throughout his debut for Run For Cover Records. “I began to feel like all of the people I knew and had met maybe never really existed,” Weinman says. “I fell out of touch with everyone. It was really lonely. I wrote these songs as a way of reaching out and trying to reconnect.”

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Lou Heneise - Trial & Error (E.P).

Lou Heneise is an American singer, songwriter with roots in the city of Chicago, the rolling farmland of the midwest, and the Bible Belt of the South. All of which can be heard influencing her Electro-Acoustic-Folk-Americana EP Trial & Error

Her debut EP, Trial & Error is delicate, charming, vulnerable, and honest, merging the haunting delivery of Lou's live show with the driving force of full instrumentation.

Trial & Error is as introspective and earnest as it is catchy. Lou has captured the American heartbeat in this collection of songs.

Lou currently spends her days with her tender and wild toddler, making music, reading books and contemplating the meaning of life with her fellow artists, activists, philosophers, and poets.

Lou Heneise · Trial & Error

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Ida Maria - Dirty Money.

The opening to "Dirty Money" will immediately grab listeners and confirm that this indisputable viking punk Queen Ida Maria has retained the same rebellious attitude that got her in the game, while referencing the lifestyle of an industry's enabling that took her out of the game for a brief time.

Featuring a punk blast of garage guitar, 'Dirty Money' carries the high-energy punk-pop Ida's been widely acclaimed for with cheeky lyrics that are sugar-coated with a highly addictive chorus, addressing much more serious topics that are frustrating to her. Ida's personal experiences with greed and corruption are detailed with a racket of petulant screams, among them "Pay me all your Dirty oney/I'm your favorite monkey/watch me go!!!"

A pointed critique of capitalism, "Dirty Money" looks at the ways that money and greed corupt us all on some level, despite our best efforts to the contrary. “Everybody wants to be/Full make up and on TV/Talking ‘bout your jealousy/Mom I know I look insane/But they all promised me champagne/Swear they want me for my brain,’ Ida Maria belts out, infusing her innocent fury with snarky giggles that are reminiscent of a taunting childhood chant, as if to say, “Look at me now.”

When she’s not writing or recording music, Ida is head of her local Green Party, devoting herself to spreading a politically urgent message of ecological sustainability, which references her underlying themes to “Dirty Money” –-  making this song not only truly relevant, but also timely.

"Dirty Money” "is about stolen land and Bitcoin. It’s about the oil wars in Nigeria. It´s the mining in Congo, slavery for iPhones. Anything that the greedy human mind  turns to to try and fulfill that hole of nothingness, it’s about the Matrix. Get off the grid! Let's do something that doesn't cost money. The best things in life are for free!” Ida Maria exclaims.

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Knife in the Water - Caitlin Quisenberry - Lavender Diamond - Jack Conman - Secret Sun - Jess Locke

Knife in the Water have just released a new single entitled 'Tears Won't Make the Cotton Grow' and it's an enchanting soulful slice of moody country rock. ===== We featured Caitlin Quisenberry last month with 'Imogene' and she returns now with the energised 'Get Loud With Me' where country pop resonates powerfully. ===== Lavender Diamond make their third appearance on Beehive Candy this year with 'In The Garden' a beautiful song with exquisite vocals and a gorgeous musical arrangement. ===== From Manchester, England Jack Conman shares his brand new single 'Before You Love Me' and it really is something to immerse yourself in, with the singer songwriters vocals exuding intense emotion. ===== Secret Sun have shared a live session video for 'Little Pieces' taken from their new album 'Winter Love' released today, the song gives a good feel for what is a refined collection of indie genre spanning material ===== Jess Locke first appeared here back in July and returns this week with 'Destroy Everything' which is a more powerful indie rocker with deep atmospheric hooks.

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Knife in the Water - Tears Won't Make the Cotton Grow.

Long-time Austin noir-rock band Knife in the Water has a new single out today. It's a take on a song Aaron Blount of the band first heard on a 45 by Marvin Rainwater (released in 1973):

"Marvin Rainwater has long been a hero of ours. He cut 'Boo Hoo' with Vernon and Link Wray and “Hot and Cold” for MGM, which is an instant party if there ever was one. 'Tears' was a serious departure for him. I heard a ghost copy of the Wesco 45 a few years back and we started doing our arrangement at shows, because it felt like it was written for Knife in the Water. It’s the kind of terminal country number that you can’t turn away from, where mother nature rewards hard work and devotion with the punchline we’re all waiting for."

Knife in the Water has been quiet of late, and even quieter before that. We released their fourth album Reproduction in 2017, which was their first since 2003's Cut the Cord. The band began in the summer of 1997 in Austin. From the early stages their dark, quiet, avant-country was welcomed alongside Austin’s louder punk bands, despite the fact that their cinematic sensibilities, desolate sense of space, and woozy tension set them apart.

The Austin scene in the late 90s and early 00s was a hotbed of talent and they established themselves alongside Glorium and American Analog Set, toured with Calexico and ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, and released three records and an EP: Plays One Sound and Others (1998), Red River (1999), Crosspross Bells EP (2001), and Cut the Cord (2003).

There's no dramatic story about the long hiatus. People break up, band members quit or move away, record labels fold, but songwriter Aaron Blount kept writing. In 2015 they began recording again at Jim Eno (of Spoon)'s studio Public Hi-Fi, before building their own home studio. "It slowly dawned on us that if we were gonna keep doing records on our own eccentric schedule, we needed to build our own studio. The first song on Reproduction, "Call It A Shame," is the first song we did at our new place."

Their music is at times woefully bleak and resigned, while shot through with moments of graceful, uplifting release. Pitchfork compared their debut to the Coen Brothers’ film Blood Simple and Rolling Stone writer David Fricke wrote, "This record gets you nowhere fast, which is hardly a problem. You'll be in no hurry to leave."

This is music best heard on long drives or late nights listening alone. Whether it’s the rarity of their live shows, (two in 2019) or the 14-year gap in recorded output, this is a band that rewards patience with songs that hold up over time. Now entering their third decade of making and releasing dark, sparse music that pulses with grace and beauty, the wait is shown to be worth it.

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Caitlin Quisenberry - Get Loud With Me.

Nashville’s newest darling, Caitlin Quisenberry, continues to release riveting songs, followed by inventive music videos. CMT premiered her debut music video for her lead single, “Blue”. This was followed by “Imogene”, which was depicted in a whimsical music video cartoon, created by acclaimed Hollywood cartoonist, Tom Schneiders. Up next, is the music video for her most invigorating new single, “Get Loud With Me”. 

Caitlin gives a stellar performance, as she lures her audience into the enticing world of living life in the fast lane - full of danger, romance and adventure. This is exemplified in the lyrics, “...Get on the ride, ‘cuz it’s passin’ by, let the energy take you up so high, once you feel the rush, you can never, never get enough...”.  “Daniel Catton, a Los Angeles director who wrote the script for this one, is a savant in his field and he is anything but typical. His unique style personifies his ability to shock or do the unexpected. He works mostly in commercial film and also has several award winning independent films under his belt. Daniel brought in the very accomplished producer/cinematographer, Moises Barba, to film, as he directed. 

I became familiar with their work when I was a student at Pepperdine University. I remember their films were very intriguing and avant-garde, so I was elated when they agreed to come to Nashville to shoot my music video!” ~Caitlin Quisenberry 

It was one year ago, last October, when Caitlin’s life took a huge turn. She was planning to attend law school to become an entertainment attorney, but a video of her singing on Instagram caught the attention of a producer in Nashville. She took a chance and flew out to record 4 songs. They soon promoted her as their “Off the Row, Breakout Artist 2020”. Her first single got put on CMT and her second single grabbed spots on two Spotify editorial playlists. 

As she began spending more time in Nashville, she decided that law school would always be there, but the chance to pursue her lifelong dream of being a country artist was too good to pass up; so she moved to Music City and hasn’t looked back. “Pursing music is truly a natural culmination of everything I’ve done – From my years as an actress (most known for my role in the ABC sitcom, “Blackish”), to singing and preforming my entire life. These experiences have given me the training and confidence to make my mark in county music.” ~Caitlin Quisenberry Caitlin’s musical background got serious when she landed the opportunity to record with Multi Grammy-winning prod

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Lavender Diamond - In The Garden.

Lavender Diamond have released a new song "In The Garden," featuring Bright Eyes' Nathaniel Walcott on trumpet. The song is the third track to be taken from Now Is The Time, their first studio album in more than eight years. Now Is The Time will be released on December 4, 2020 via Petaluma Records.
"This song is a battle cry for heaven on earth!" explains Becky Stark. "It’s a song for dancing! In these days of grave transformations it helps me to experience the true heaven of the beauty of earth in the garden and to remember that we can choose to create heaven on earth if we dare."

The band captured the core of the album in just two days, relying on gut instinct to guide their every move, and while the material was written well before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the result is a particularly timely, vital collection, one that couldn’t have come along at a more necessary moment.

"I came to this realization that there’s medicine in the music itself," says Stark. "It can lift people up and heal them and point them toward transformation, and that led me to this tremendously powerful need to start writing and recording again."

Back in the studio for the first time in years, Stark and her Lavender Diamond bandmates Steve Gregoropoulos and Ron Regé, Jr. tapped into their old chemistry almost immediately. Though much had changed for each on a personal level (Stark, for instance, often found herself holding her three-year-old daughter in her arms while recording vocals), the group’s creative bonds proved as durable and potent as ever. Regé, a gifted illustrator and graphic novelist who has contributed artwork throughout the band’s history, laid a subtle yet solid foundation for the record, adding weight and body to Stark’s airy performances, while Gregoropoulos put together the album’s ornate chamber-folk arrangements, coordinating the remote recording of each orchestral part during quarantine and assembling them all into a cohesive whole.

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Jack Conman - Before You Love Me.

The new single Before You Love Me from Manchester based vegan singer-songwriter Jack Conman has been released this week.

Before You Love Me is a highly intimate song with a tender vocal performance that describes that moment when we feel most vulnerable, as we take those first steps in a romantic relationship. In terms of the record's sound, think Thom Yorke meets Jeff Buckley over at Bon Iver’s house. The single precedes the release of Jack's debut album Seventh Sense Libido, out early next year.

With well over a million Spotify streams for previous single Oxytocin, Jack has enjoyed airplay on BBC Radio 1 & 6Music, performed at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend festival, featured in Clash's coveted Next Wave & gained a loyal following after showcasing on youtube channel COLORS. His music is now getting much attention, particularly in America, Germany & the UK with strong & encouraging streaming figures.

Jack Conman · Before You Love Me

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Secret Sun - Little Pieces [Live Session].

The Montreal duo Secret Sun is back with Winter Love, a new record to be released today October 30 via Costume Records. Winter Love is a more luminous, elegant and suave recording than its predecessor Cold Coast (2014), and speaks of love that endures through life’s challenges.

Anne-Marie Campbell, the lyricist behind the songs and the singer, was inspired by the contemplative, cold, white days of winter. “Winter Love is a record about resilience, born in resilience. It’s about the strength we find within ourselves to take care of our loved ones but also the drive to make music within an industry that cares less and less about musicians’ well-being”, she says.

Dropping the needle on a Secret Sun record is the beginning of a captivating journey – like a potent daydream. Between Cold Coast’s release, shows across Canada and the birth of their two children,Simon Landry and Anne-Marie Campbell took the time to reconnect in the studio with their collaborators producer Sébastien Blais-Montpetit and François Lafontaine on the keys to record Winter Love.

“Instead of having folk demos as our starting point for the songwriting process, which was the case for our first album, we wanted to be on track with Secret Sun’s unique sound, which is both modern and outside of current trends. We laid down the basics of this record live at studio Mixart and it became the heart of our songs”, explains Simon Landry, who composed the music and played the guitars on this recording. Guillaume Ethier on the drums and Jean-François Lemieux on the bass bring a groovy and soul touch to Winter Love’s ten songs. “We moved away from bedroom music to create a more ambitious record music-wise, with a strong character”, Simon concludes.

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Jess Locke - Destroy Everything.

Dot Dash Recordings is thrilled to announce that Jess Locke's forthcoming album Don't Ask Yourself Why will be released on Friday 26 March 2021. The Melbourne-based singer-songwriter is known for penning indie guitar-pop tracks that are at times subtle and full of melancholy, at times delivered with an acerbic tongue, but always steeped heavily in narrative.

Locke shared the first taste of the record earlier this year with ‘Fool’ - a simple and raw track, seeking to partner dirty grunge guitars, a fuzzy lead, gritty vocals and a punchy rhythm section. It received airplay across Australia and beyond with radio additions at Double J, FBi Radio, RTR, & SYN, plus spins on triple j, KEXP & more.

Today, to celebrate the album announcement, Jess Locke shares a contrasting track from the album called 'Destroy Everything'. As Locke explains - "The song 'Destroy Everything' is about destruction as both a positive and negative force. Destruction of the old can be necessary in order to make way for new and better things. It can be strategic, revolutionary, inspired by a vision of what is to come next. But destruction can also be reactionary and misdirected, born out of chaos and fear and not really conducive to real change. The song is a kind of meditation on whether destruction is useful or futile or part of a natural and unavoidable cycle."

Don't Ask Yourself Why was recorded by Jess Locke and her bandmates James Morris and Chris Rawsthorne, along with producer Rob Muinos (Saskwatch, Julia Jacklin). On Don’t Ask Yourself Why, Locke invites contemplation. "I mean the phrase ironically, because really, I do want you to ask why" explains Locke. "The whole album is about human behaviour, our egos, and our ability or lack-there-of to reflect on why we act and think the way we do."

"My band and I recorded the album with Rob Muinos in a tiny studio in the back of a guitar shop in Collingwood called Clingan Guitar Tone. It was our first time working with Rob and it was the best. Chris had gotten to know Rob from working in the cafe next door and chatting in passing about music. It turned out we had a lot of common influences and it also turned out that we got along extremely well. We made the last album between a pub and a friend's house and I think Rob’s studio had the perfect cosy homely feeling to follow on from that. Rob was very invested in the process and he challenged a lot of my ideas, leading to something better than I could have imagined by myself. Mostly this was in terms of instrumentation, whether to double vocals or not, but we also worked a lot on the structure of some songs, pulling them to bits and putting them back together again and changing the key sometimes. I admit I had a fair amount of anxiety leading up to recording this record that I think stemmed from knowing I had some great songs and wanting the record to be the best it could be."

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CF Watkins - Teen Creeps - Lavender Diamond - Charlie Kaplan - Tracy Layne

CF Watkins has shared the title track 'Babygirl' ahead of the album due October 18 and it's an upbeat folk pop track that bodes well for the full collection. === Belgian indie rockers Teen Creeps have just shared 'Seeing Shapes' which is a full on and hook filled track. === Lavender Diamond announced their first studio album in 8 years 'Now Is The Time' with the new single 'This Is How We Rise'. The song itself is beautiful, with sublime vocals and a superb musical arrangement. === Charlie Kaplan has just released 'Pete Williams' ahead of his November album release 'Sunday', the song has been described as "gripping and impassioned" which is a fair and fine description. === Tracy Layne has a brand new single entitled 'Smoke And Mirrors' where her refined vocals are more than capable of powering up, adding passion and drama to a really fine song.

 

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CF Watkins - Babygirl.

Americana-pop singer-songwriter, Cf Watkins, has released “Babygirl,” the title track from her upcoming album, due out October 16, 2020, on Whatever’s Clever Records.

“Babygirl” turns the typical love song on its head - instead of focusing on romantic love, Watkins wrote the song as an ode to her best girlfriends. “When I thought of the purest love I know, these relationships were the first to come to mind,” she says. “In romance, I've always been very confused- but love was so clear, magic, and eternal with my best friends, those I called babygirl - who have danced with me in the early morning rain, laughing through the confusion.” She continues, “This is an album meant for other women to hear -- with songs that are vulnerable and powerful.”

Based in Brooklyn for the past nine years, Watkins’ Americana-pop style embodies the influences of her North Carolina roots. Performing since the age of fourteen, she has shared the stage with acts like Langhorne Slim, Future Birds, Chatham County Line, Wilder Maker, Lowland Hum, and Alpenglow. Her 2016 debut release, I Am New, as well as the single, “Frances and Jack,” were produced by Daniel Goans of Lowland Hum at White Star Studios.

For the recording of Babygirl, Watkins collaborated with Max Hart, a producer and multi-instrumentalist who has previously worked with artists like The War On Drugs, Katy Perry, and Melissa Etheridge. The album portrays her growth as both a person and a woman. “When I think about my last album, I feel I was writing songs about weakness,” Watkins says. “With this album, I made a conscious effort to write songs about the power of choosing yourself.”

cf watkins · 03 - Babygirl

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Teen Creeps - Seeing Shapes.

‘SEEING SHAPES’ is the first single taken from ‘FOREVER’, the new album by Belgian indie rockers TEEN CREEPS, set for release on 22 January 2021 on [PIAS] Recordings. One thing’s for sure; TEEN CREEPS love the 1990s! The Belgian’s 3 piece’s sound is a high five to the fuzzy guitars, melancholic vocals and fast-paced drums of era defining bands like DINOSAUR JR, SUPERCHUNK or SONIC YOUTH.

Safe to say TC’s debut album (2018) pushed the right buttons. Sophomore album ‘FOREVER’ is gearing up to be as intense as their previous outing, but with room for more melody and a little sprinkle of pop fairy dust.

‘SEEING SHAPES’, the first track to whet your appetite, kicks off with the sort of fast paced guitar riffs and frantic drumming the band’s known for, but it’s by far their most catchy release to date.

In the accompanying video we see the trio getting ready for a show: rehearsing, checking the sound and finally playing said live show. It was filmed before the covid-pandemic hit. That makes it an unintentional testament of the importance of live music. Something we can hopefully return to sooner rather than later.

The whole video was shot on old school video cameras. The VCR quality gives the video a charm and 90s touch that suits the band and their sound.

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Lavender Diamond - This Is How We Rise.

Lavender Diamond announced their first studio album in 8 years Now Is The Time with the new single "This Is How We Rise." The Los Angeles-based trio of Becky Stark, Steve Gregoropoulos, and Ron Regé, Jr. will release the album on December 4, 2020 via Petaluma Records.

"Right before our current storm of catastrophe these songs came pouring in to us. These songs of healing for a world in crisis," explains Becky Stark. "Crisis holds profound opportunity for healing and transformation. Now is the most powerful time we have ever known to transform our world and to build justice, peace and prosperity for all by living in harmony and with love for the earth, embodying the wisdom of equality and respect for all."

The band captured the core of the album in just two days, relying on gut instinct to guide their every move, and while the material was written well before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the result is a particularly timely, vital collection, one that couldn’t have come along at a more necessary moment.

"I came to this realization that there’s medicine in the music itself," says Stark. "It can lift people up and heal them and point them toward transformation, and that led me to this tremendously powerful need to start writing and recording again."

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Charlie Kaplan - Pete Williams.

New York based musician and singer-songwriter Charlie Kaplan (Office Culture) has shared "Pete Williams" – the gripping, impassioned second single from his forthcoming debut album Sunday, out November 13.

Kaplan wrote the songs on Sunday in the wake of his father's death. "Each song was an exercise in conjuring light, warmth, insight, guidance, release – my life’s absent emotional palette,” he explains. “I used music as a way to induce feelings that no longer occurred naturally.”

Despite the origin of these songs, the central coping strategy on Sunday is not escapism. On "Pete Williams," Kaplan grapples directly with loss and existential dread, while grinning back into the void. Inspired by finding his high school transcript while going through his childhood bedroom following his dad's passing, Kaplan solicits the voice of his guidance counselor: "He's a man who judges things with his heart/I came to him when shame was tearing me apart," Kaplan sings. The exuberant chorus – "Should I relax?/And take it slow?" – crystallizes a central dilemma that crops up throughout Sunday: will life ever be the same again? How can I find joy, or regain my sense of control? How can I find a new place in the world?

"Pete Williams" features Andrew Daly-Frank on guitars and Ben Wagner on drums, as well as contributions from Kaplan's Office Culture bandmate Winston Cook-Wilson on piano, and Cole Kamen-Green and Alec Spiegelman (of Cuddle Magic) on trumpet and saxophone. "Pete Williams" follows the serene "California Days," and is now available on all streaming platforms.

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Tracy Layne - Smoke And Mirrors.

From coast to coast, and across the ocean, soul singer Tracy Layne has pursued music just as much as music pursued her. This time, she's taking on Nashville as a solo artist.

“Music has followed me through all the stages of my life."

Layne moved to Nashville last year, and instantly began working on her solo debut EP. She puts a modern twist on a dark, folk vibe with her latest single Smoke & Mirrors. The soulful tune reflects on a past relationship that left her “paralyzed." Once she had the lyrics and the concept down, she reached out to her musician brother to help create something truly unique. She's coined the sound "moon-eyed soul."

“The happy fantasy I always wanted felt like it was right in front of me - only just out of reach. When the ugly reality kicked in, I was left with anger and confusion - hence Smoke & Mirrors."

Layne's upcoming EP, Smoke & Mirrors, touches on the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). The title track represents the second stage: anger. "It paints a picture of the instability I felt during my long term relationship with an alcoholic.”

She hopes for this single and EP to connect with her audience in a relatable way, and that the sound peaks their curiosity to hear more. "Each song on this record has a unique feel - so there's something for everyone. Smoke & Mirrors has a dissonant, angsty vibe that I hope draws in listeners."

Layne didn’t stop there once the song was recorded and ready to be released. She brought the lyrics to life in a music video, with husband and wife duo CreateWell LLC.

The video takes place in a dilapidated and smoky house, representing the internal confusion in Layne's mind. She finds herself searching the mirror and the house for answers, and reflecting on the burns and scars inflicted on her.

Tracy Layne · Smoke And Mirrors FGMstr2

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Lavender Diamond - Anne Freeman - Stony Sugarskull

Los Angeles based trio Lavender Diamond return after an eight year hiatus with 'Look Through The Window' and it's a really beautiful and imaginative song accompanied by a colourful video. === Anne Freeman shares 'Days Go By' a track that exudes refined indie pop with a hint of country along the way. === We have two tracks from the new 'Lioness' album from Stony Sugarskull namely 'Empty' and 'House On Fire' both of which shed some light on this collection of multi genre songs influenced from punk to Krautrock along with plenty of other styles.
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Photo - Shervin Lainez

Lavender Diamond - Look Through The Window.

Lavender Diamond return with the official video for "Look Through The Window," their first release of new music in more than 8 years. Earlier this year, the Los Angeles-based trio of Becky Stark, Steve Gregoropoulos, and Ron Regé, Jr. announced their signing to Petaluma Records and a now-cancelled tour with Bright Eyes.

"This song resounded in my heart and mind for months - it was all I wanted to sing," said Becky Stark. "It felt so mysterious - a song about such deep isolation, separation and rebirth. When the quarantine began it suddenly seemed that this song had come to speak to this moment of trial and transformation - and contained within it a prayer for the healing of our world."

The song was recorded by Jason Soda at Palomino Sound and Steve Gregoropoulos at Ransom Notes and mixed by Tucker Martine. The recording also features an 8-piece orchestra featuring Bright Eyes' Nate Walcott on trumpet and Sasami on french horn.

Lavender Diamond has been on hiatus since the release of their 2012 album Incorruptible Heart. Becky Stark is also a member of the Living Sisters alongside Eleni Mandell and Inara George, and has collaborated with John C. Reilly, The Decemberists and She & Him. In their review of Incorruptible Heart, Pitchfork stated, "It would be easy enough to call these 'side-projects,' but it's more helpful to think of Lavender Diamond as just one nook in Stark's glitter-spackled pantheon of boundless creative joy."

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Anne Freeman - Days Go By.

The new song by an indie-folk artist Anne Freeman who grew up in the Mississippi Delta, not far fro Bobbie Gentry’s hometown.

She caught the ear of Graham Hamaker (also of fat Possum) and he signed her to his new label Muscle Beach. The single “Days Go By,” was mixed by Matt Ross-Spang (John Prine, Margo Price, Jason Isbell)

She’s just starting out but she’s already played festivals in her home state and been on Mississippi Public Radio as well as American Songwriter.

Anne says, “’Days Go By’ is about struggling to cut ties with a toxic friend but constantly getting lured back in. Everyone has someone or something in their life that makes them feel incredible for a while, but eventually leads them down a dark path.”

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Stony Sugarskull - Empty / House On Fire.

The album 'Lioness' represents the female who fights for a positive change and protects the weak. The songs on this album are arranged according to a breakdown (which we're currently suffering) and the re-organization of this chaos. On the A-Side, a climax is reached with the B-Side going back to a beginning, an effort to reach a meaningful synthesis of the technological advances and an inner and societal return to nature in order to save humanity/future generations. In this album, each song is imbedded in certain healing sound frequencies. Musically, the album is an attempt of combining several music styles such as krautrock, punk- and psych rock, shoegaze, jazz, pop, or blues not only to mirror our current time but also to attempt to go ahead and create something new.

After having finished her PhD on the biophilic healing functions of music in African-American literature in London/New Orleans/Berlin, Dr Monika Demmler started her musical project, Stony Sugarskull in 2015 where she has channeled her academic music-philosophical inquiry into her creative works of songs, lyrics, and sounds. Dr Monika Demmler has produced three releases so far: Trust (EP), Gaia (EP), and Butterflies (Single), available on all major online platforms. “Trust”

The self-released “Gaia” appeared in March 2017 and was issued worldwide on vinyl, cassette, & through online digital distribution services. The work is based on the philosophical ideas of a return to Gaia, the first goddess or “mother nature,” in our overtly synthetic technologized age. The EP’s first performance was live at the 8mm Bar in Berlin after which followed additional gigs in Berlin and London (e.g. Madame Claude, Berlin, Fete de la Musique, Berlin). These performances included her local band members (Gael Pettinaroli, Colin Dayer, Dr Hans-Dirk Düngen).

Her third self-release, “Butterflies” was a single recorded by Guido Wolters at her home studio in Berlin. Following this recording, Dr. Demmler expanded her musical horizons by traveling to Los Angeles and immersing herself in that reputable music scene. It is in LA where Reid Murray (drums), Denee Lee (lapsteel guitar) and Landon Reed (bass) joined her project for live performances in the US followed up by a five-week-long European tour across the UK, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Serbia, Greece, Spain and Switzerland.

In 2020, her debut album, LiONESS; a mix of psychedelic, punk rock, krautrock style, mirroring the socio-political background/moods of the 21st century, along with the inbuilt music healing frequencies of guitar and drum sounds derived from her philosophical studies.


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