Silly Boy Blue - Lone Kodiak - Tay Temple

Silly Boy Blue shared 'Goodbye' last Friday and the attention it's getting is hardly surprising, considering just how blissfully gorgeous the song is. ===== We featured the track 'PDX '97' by Lone Kodiak back in September and they return now with another powerful and hook filled alt rocker called 'Bones'. ===== From Manchester, England we have the second single by Tay Temple which is released today, entitled 'Ladybird' this is a refined folk rock piece that impresses both vocally and through the beautifully arranged musical backdrop.

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Silly Boy Blue - Goodbye.

Silly Boy Blue reveals her brand new single “Goodbye.” Silly Boy Blue (real name, Ana Benabdelkarim) is an indie pop singer from Nantes, France who was recently snapped up by Columbia France. This brand new single follows up Ana’s previous offering - the delicate and hypnotic “Hi, It’s Me Again” - and further develops her signature as an artist who is split beautifully between glam goth, emo and bedroom pop. “Goodbye” shows a poppier side to the young musicians’ talent; Ana’s vocals shine and soar with the yearning lyrics, whilst the production holds a melodic, pulsing beat.

“Goodbye has been written after a breakup. I woke up one day and I finally saw clearly what was happening. I’ve been in a blur since so many days, and then I realized I wasn’t alone, and I wasn’t in love anymore, and I really felt the urge to move on.

That’s the day I was waiting for since the beginning of the breakup.  I needed to put this into a song, it was my day one in the movie ‘500 days of summer’.” - Silly Boy Blue

Silly Boy Blue is a young singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer based in Paris, who started her music career in the band Pégase. Ana now embodies her music through her solo work, choosing to name her project “Silly Boy Blue” after the David Bowie song that tells the story about a boy who breaks all the rules. Playing with light and shade, Silly Boy Blue sings teen pop anthems and breakup songs, and has a passion for the 90’s music, movies and style. Silly Boy Blue recently appeared on YouTube channel COLORS, featuring on Isaac Delusion’s show. She has just finished her debut album, which is set for release in 2021.

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Lone Kodiak - Bones.

Indie-rock trio Lone Kodiak has released their newest electrifying single, “Bones.” The song delivers a nostalgic message about life, love, and loss that listeners can relate to with sweeping electric guitar, cinematic drums, and haunting vocals. “Bones” is now available to stream and download on digital music platforms worldwide.

The indie-rock trio, composed of Dainéal Parker, Daniel Alden, and Joshua Harris, displays undeniable electric energy that seeps into the song. The somber track, penned by lead singer Dainéal Parker, illustrates a touching, vivid message of life’s fleeting nature. Producer Kyle Mangels perfectly captures the essence of the lyrics and accompanies the vocals with vibrant production. “Bones” prompts listeners to reflect on the finite nature of life and revel in the present moment. With poignant lyrics and layered vocals, it’s clear that Lone Kodiak is making an impact by intimate storytelling sure to bring listeners on an emotional journey. 

Parker explains that the process of writing this track was just as mesmerizing as the song itself. "‘Bones’ was a happy, happy accident. We were experimenting with intros for our live set; we took one of our previous songs, slowed it down, and reversed it (which is what you'll hear at the beginning),” Parker explains. “We were totally captivated by this melody we kept hearing, and two hours later, we had a new song. I think our best songs are ones that just kind of come together naturally without a ton of interference from us." “Bones” delivers an emotional and intimate impact that will leave listeners wanting more.

While they now reside in East Los Angeles, Lone Kodiak was established by Dainéal Parker and Daniel Alden in Portland, Oregon, where the pair met as teenagers. Since then, they have consistently produced music that rests on superb storytelling, unique guitar melodies, and unmistakable drums. With the addition of Josh Harris on drums, the band has been fervently writing and recording in preparation for their album release in early 2021. Lone Kodiak’s sound shares a stark resemblance to the bands that have acted as a source of immense inspiration, including Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure, Explosions in the Sky, and Daughter. The group remains a unique, talented group of musicians looking to share their stories with the world. Lone Kodiak has been featured on Buzzfeed, American Songwriter, Pop Matters, Stereogum, PDX Monthly, and played on KROQ, KCRW, KCSN, among others.

LONE KODIAK · BONES

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Tay Temple - Ladybird.

Manchester based Tay Temple aims to empower people by spreading awareness of areas in need of change through her songwriting, while also promoting self confidence and self-belief as that is how music has impacted her life.

With a powerful and impactful vocal that is husky yet mellow, Tay and her band have a soulful folk-rock style that pulls you in with harmonious guitars alongside relatable, personal and socially conscious lyrics. She takes inspiration from the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Avril Lavigne, and The cranberries. 

Rianne Thompson, from BBC introducing Radio Tees, described their sound as:
“Folk with a twist of contemporary with elements ofPop and Indie” after hearing their debut single ‘Millennials' which was accompanied by a self-written/directed music video. ‘Ladybird’ is their next single released today November 2nd 2020.

The song depicts the cruel beauty standards of modern society and how women are seen as no more than a pretty picture.

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Flora Hibberd - Lone Kodiak - The Bats

Flora Hibberd is back with a new single and video for 'I'm Gonna Leave You' ahead of next Friday's 'Archipelago' E.P release. Last year we had the pleasure of featuring Flora on four occasions and the new collection of songs showcases her wonderfully distinctive vocals alongside some beautiful musical arrangements. === Lone Kodiak deliver some powerful alt rock with their new song 'PDX '97'. It has all the vital ingredients for a stadium style sing-along anthem, and plenty of passion to reinforce the piece. === Back in 2017 we shared a couple of fine songs from The Bats and the long standing New Zealand indie band are back with 'Another Door' where their ability to create fresh new and fabulous songs remains intact.

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Flora Hibberd – I'm Gonna Leave You.

Flora Hibberd was born in London and lives in Paris. In 2019 she released her debut EP, The Absentee, with London-based indie Clearlight Records. Autumn 2020 sees the release of her second EP, Archipelago, recorded in Burgundy at the turn of the year. 

Flora has numerous smaller projects that you can find on Bandcamp and Youtube, including a collaborative album produced during confinement, and covers of songs by artists including Jason Molina and Townes Van Zandt. 

Archipelago will be released on September 25 2020. Recorded at New Year’s over eight days in a country house in Burgundy, the five songs travel the landscape of love and loss, the terrain of a relationship that is failing –or at least changing –where we simultaneously encounter the joy of freedom and the pain of letting go. Archipelago was arranged and produced by Paris-based Viq, who says, “Flora has a remarkable ability to generate original melodies and intriguing lyrics. 

There is something particularly moving about her deep vocal presence and the subtleties of her renditions. My work consisted only in accompanying them to territories that perhaps seemed unexpected to her –but where we finally met.”Of the EP, Flora says, “these five songs stand for a memory specific and universal. Rupture in its phases, ever-shifting and nonlinear. Love and loss and enduring love. Here, a cluster of islands in an un-distant sea.”

 

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Lone Kodiak - PDX '97.

is an east-Los Angeles based rock trio loosely inspired by (without being derivative of) Hum, Explosions in the Sky, The Cure, and Deftones. Founded in 2016, the band released 2 EPs, became a feature of LA’s independent venue circuit, and was among BuzzBands.LA’s Bands to Watch in 2018 before a serious motorcycle accident involving bassist Daniel Alden sidelined them for most of 2019. 

The unscheduled pause gave them time to reflect and refocus, shuffling their roster by adding drummer Josh Harris and returning furiously in July 2020 with “Make It a Weapon,” produced by Kyle Mangels. 

It’s the first single from their forthcoming 6-song collection, a song lead singer/guitarist Dainéal Parker described in a recent interview with BuzzBands.LA as “motorcycles and protests and getting in trouble.”

Having wrapped production just before the pandemic hit, Lone Kodiak hopes a drawn out release schedule and effective marketing of their new catalog will land them a solid tour in 2021.

LONE KODIAK · PDX '97

 

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The Bats - Another Door.

The Bats have kindly shared a second single, ‘Another Door’ from their upcoming album ‘Foothills’. Guitarist and vocalist Robert Scott has said on the single, “This song is wee ditty about opportunities both missed and taken. It came together really quickly with the band.” Although more lyrically reserved than other songs, ‘Another Door’ is fuelled by familiar and overwhelmingly lush harmonies and features a hypnotic tremolo guitar motif woven throughout. The anticipation for ‘Foothills’ to land on November 13th is ever-growing!

“When meaning falls down and we’ve all left this place. And nothing seems to fit, now we’ve left the race behind
Today”

The video for ‘Another Door’ was filmed not far from where the band recorded their upcoming ‘Foothills’ album and was a collaboration between The Bats’ very own Paul Kean, and FlowStateFPV. Acting as a snapshot of where ‘Foothills’ was immortalised, the video also plays around with hidden (and not so hidden) meanings — but what one takes from it is truly up to the viewer.

Spanning the last 38 years, The Bats have now clocked ten incredible albums; each one seeing the band evolve with new material from the prolific songwriting hand of Robert Scott —and their upcoming Foothills is no exception. Add to that tally the extra singles, b-sides, EPs, compilations and tribute songs they’ve recorded, creating a succinct setlist is a nearly impossible task.

Foothills was recorded in Spring 2018 at a country retreat pop-up studio. At that time, 15 songs were captured and immortalised in the Canterbury foothills of the Southern Alps, Aotearoa (New Zealand). Only too well, The Bats know the possibilities, potentialities and sonic vistas that arise when one takes the reins for the recording process in a beautiful place that’s on home turf.

Robert Scott, on the making of Foothills has said “Time marches on... finally, we found a gap in our busy lives and chose a week to convene. We found a house that is usually inhabited by ski field workers — Kowai Bush, near Springfield about an hour west of Christchurch and of course nestled in the foothills of the mighty Southern Alps. The songs had been written, demo’d and arranged for some time, but still with a little room for trying things out in the studio. Many carloads arrived at the house, full of amps guitars and recording gear, we set up camp and soon made it feel like home; coloured lights, a log fire, and home cooked meals in the kitchen. We worked fast, and within a few days had all the basic backing tracks done, live together in one room, the way we like to do it - it’s all about ‘the feel’ for songs like ours.”

Quiet Hollers - Juanita Stein - Lone Kodiak - Altar Eagles - Sam Carmody

Quiet Hollers - Wheel.

Background - “Wheel” is one of the more raw, atmospheric songs on Amen Breaks (out on July 7th via sonaBLAST!), and one of the bands' first to feature a Roland CR-78 drum machine, their tribute to Roland’s Ikutaro Kakehashi. It also delves into the anxious existential theme that life can change in an instant, centered around frontman Shadwick Wilde’s quasi-phobia of car crashes (which he’s seen many of in his years of touring). 

“Wheel” follows Amen Breaks’ previously released stand-out single “Medicine”, a powerful track about crippling anxiety, depression, existential malaise, and society’s attitudes toward medication and addiction, along with “Funny Ways”, a song about criminality and the self-perpetuating prison-industrial complex. Both follow the album’s core themes that draw parallels with the cultural crossovers of the 1970's, a decade marred by division, political corruption, and terrorism… issues we can all relate to these days.

Expanding their shape-shifting palate to include vintage drum machines and samples, on Amen Breaks, Quiet Hollers raise questions of spirituality, sexuality, and mental illness to its new audience in tones that range from the cinematic to the psychedelic. Website here, Facebook here.

We featured 'Funny Ways' just a couple of weeks back however 'Amen Breaks' is such an impressive album that I could not resist the opportunity to now share 'Wheel'. Despite the initially stripped back nature of the track, the richness and charm remains, with this engaging and atmospheric song.

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Juanita Stein - I'll Cry.

Background - Juanita Stein has just announced a full UK and Ireland tour to follow the release of her brilliant debut solo record, 'America', on 28th July (Nude Records).  

Juanita Stein had already announced UK festival dates this summer, including with Tom Petty in Hyde Park and at Cambridge Folk Festival, ahead of a brace of headline shows - in her adopted hometown of Brighton and in London - the week the album is released. Tickets for her new September/October headline tour dates will go on sale this Friday (30th June). See below for all upcoming dates.

The newest single to be taken from her album, which was recorded in Los Angeles with the producer Gus Seyffert (Beck, Ryan Adams), 'I’ll Cry' is available now to stream and as a free download for fans pre-ordering the album ahead of its release.

Says Stein: "'I'll Cry' is a musical ode to the all-American greats I took my cues from as a budding songwriter. Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline and the work of Phil Spector, all of whom made a significant imprint on my heart, I’m  forever  channeling that soulful sadness. I’ll Cry is a song that speaks of an impossible love, his resistance, her infatuation. Never a happy ending.” Website here, Facebook here, UK tour details on Beehive Candy's tour news page.

'I'll Cry' is melodic, gentle and very beautiful. If your going to write and perform a musical ode to some of popular musics all time greats, then it ought to be something quite special, and yes, this song is all of that.


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Lone Kodiak - Calm Down.

Background - Produced by Johnny What (BRÅVES, Nikki Reed) and mastered by Grammy Award winning, John Greenham (Ice Cube, Bastille, Katy Perry, Sam Smith), “Calm Down” is the first single from the band’s forthcoming debut double EP “Feet in the Water.” Featuring exuberant strings, driving piano, eloquent acoustic guitar which offsets the energizing electric guitars, pep rally claps, both male and female vocals, and a distinctive hook, all in a hard-to-resist 3/4 time signature. The band have dubbed the sound “campfire rock," as it is intimate and honest enough to be a bedside lullaby while yearning to be an arena smash.

“The right hand piano part is where this one started,” explains Parker. “I was goofing around, playing an old news bulletin pattern, when I almost accidentally added the 3 left hand chords." 

“Calm Down” features the graceful, transcendent voice of Alex Rhodes. “The second I heard her voice come in on ‘Astronaut’ [one of Rhodes' singles], I knew she was the one," Parker said, "there is a emotionally devastating tenderness to her voice that we instantly fell in love with.” Lone Kodiak asked her to sing on the entire EP as well as the B-side, "Living Room Editions." LA violinist, Stephan Hovsepian, provided the captivating real strings just two days before the mix was due for mastering.

The debut single embraces light and life with a gang-chant melody that will stick with listeners for days. The effervescent rhythms, compelling guitar, bouncy choruses and a brooding breakdown are a potent recipe. Lone Kodiak isn't too bashful to be catchy nor too pop to forgo meaningful lyricism. "Calm Down" captures an intoxicating moment that sets the bar high or this new trio. Facebook here.

'Calm Down' is available as a free download (just click on the Soundcloud link below), and considering the calibre of this song, that's pretty generous. I like the bands "campfire rock" description for the song, which has power and yet is intimate or perhaps personal in feel.

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Altar Eagles - Dead Letters.

Background - Altar Eagles debut E.P. is titled in eponymous fashion--"Altar Eagles." It's a nice gooey psychedelic affair, with real sentiments and emotions, excellently written songs, ear worms and hooks galore. 

Erik Alcock has been a professional songwriter since he was 17 years old.  He talked his way into a live audition with EMI Canada in his native Toronto and then proceeded to cut himself on his guitar, bled all over the auditioning executive’s office, and played terribly. He was signed on the spot. 

After getting signed Erik left home and school and spent the next two years living in a jam space.  While the experience was not all that conducive to his songwriting, Erik was able to develop his chops by playing constantly. 

His quality of life improved substantially when he joined a band and spent the next few years on tour. When the band broke up he started working with DJ Khalil, Chin Injeti and Liz Rodrigues, forming The New Royales. Since then they've written songs for  Eminem, Kanye West, Pink and a host of others, which led to several Grammy wins, having the theme for  Mission Impossible 4, the Call of Duty video game, and Jake Gyllenhall’s movie “Southpaw.” Facebook here.

'Dead Letters' is the second of seven tracks on the debut EP. We first featured Altar Eagles back in February, and having now heard the EP in full, I am impressed equally by the variety of musical themes and the overall quality of production. At the very least check the previous feature, however if you like this song go check out the EP, it's a good one.

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Sam Carmody - The Sea Has Risen.

Background - Stepping out for his debut solo release, Sam Carmody is pleased to share ‘The Sea Has Risen’, a wonderfully crafted song that tells a moving tale of love against a backdrop of mesmerising melodies. Carmody’s visceral lyrics and emotive delivery are accompanied by eddying synths and jangling guitars, recalling the experimental Antipodean pop of Nick Cave, The Go-Betweens and Crowded House.

Born in Geraldton, drawn to Perth and now based in Darwin, Sam Carmody has been active as a writer for several years across various projects. In 2012 he won a WAMi Song of the Year award for his work with Perth four-piece Warning Birds. Just last year Carmody released his first novel 'The Windy Season' and was shortlisted for the Vogel’s Award - Australia’s most prestigious literary prize for young writers. For now though Sam’s creative focus lies in his solo musical output and his desire to getting back on stage.

Co-produced by former Warning Birds bandmate Bensen Thomas, ‘The Sea Has Risen’ is the first official single taken from Carmody’s forthcoming EP ‘Shadow in the Dream’ and will be launched live with a six-piece band at Music NT’s Song of the Year Awards, for which the track is nominated in the Pop category.

Sam Carmody possesses a gifted talent that will continue to bloom as he readies his new material for a 2017 release. Facebook here.

That Sam Carmody can really sing, is conclusively answered by just this one track 'The Sea Has Risen'. The musical production is melodic and superb, however it's Sam's vocals that make this a very special song.

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