Showing posts with label Renée Reed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Renée Reed. Show all posts

MARBL - Monica Aben - Casper Skulls - emie nathan - Lydia Brownfield - Renée Reed

MARBL - Everybody's Getting Married.

Critically acclaimed Israeli Folk/Pop musician MARBL has released her new single “Everybody’s Getting Marries.”

MARBL about the song: “The new song “Everybody’s Getting Married” is a humorous song that’s winks at those who think that there’s only one right way to live. The video tells the story of a young woman running away from her wedding in the last minute. 

Tomer (who created the video) and me, wanted the situation to be as crazy and exaggerated as it can get, to make our point clear - I think that interviewing and dictating someone else’s life is much crazier and rude. People can be happy and live an amazing life with or without a wedding, with or without kids, in their own pace, due to their own wishes and life-map they draw to themselves. It’s our party, and our party only. Now go pour yourself a glass of wine and chill.“

MARBL, who also works as a vocal coach in Tel-Aviv, was able to generate a great media response worldwide with several singles and her last EP "The Flight of the Hawks". In addition to countless reviews, some of her songs have been included in editorial playlists by Amazon and Spotify.

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Monica Aben - Reasons to Reminisce.

Have you ever written a letter to the one that almost was, but never sent it? How about a letter to your future self, reminding you of the good, the bad & all the milestones in your life? What if you sent the postcard that your friend convinced you not to… would your whole life look different? Venice, California artist Monica Aben pulled the shoebox packed with letters & postcards from under her bed, and whilst reminiscing about the past, wrote a collection of songs that explores every unsent word from those pages, all encapsulated in her new EP Postcards.

This five-track release includes her latest single Reasons to Reminisce – a song that sees Monica stumbling on a thread of messages on an old cell phone to discover how much she’s changed. Through reminiscing, she realised you can learn from mistakes, feel none of the old feelings but still have appreciation for the person you once were.

Monica recorded Reasons to Reminisce with producer Justin Glasco & Ingrid Michaelson guitarist Brandon Walters. Mix duties were left to the Grammy winning Ryan Gilligan (Kanye West, Calle 13) before mastering engineer Jett Galindo (La La Land OST, Weezer) gave the release its final polish.

Other tracks on the EP include her previous two singles: CPH – an ode to Copenhagen & staying connected to your inner-self while building a life in a new city; and Kids In L.A. – about looking back on the best of times with the best of friends, while coming to terms with although life has moved on, you remain friends with your ‘besties’ from back in the day. There are also additional tracks That’s Alright – about having the courage to be yourself when changing direction, and Last Local In Venice – about how the true soul of her home town, Venice / Los Angeles has changed through recent gentrification.

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Casper Skulls - The Mouth.

Toronto's Casper Skulls are today sharing their new single and video, "The Mouth" – this track follows on the heels of recent singles tipped by FLOOD, Exclaim, Brooklyn Vegan and more arriving as the latest from their forthcoming album, Knows No Kindness, which is out November 12, 2021, via Next Door Records. The new record follows previous support from Stereogum, MTV, Brooklyn Vegan, Billboard, KEXP and more, as well as dates opening for the likes of PUP, Thurston Moore, Speedy Ortiz and Charly Bliss.

Once again latching onto the band's new direction of icy folk-inflected rock, taking cues from the likes of Neko Case, and Gillian Welch, the new single "The Mouth" peels back those heavier tones previously associated with the band to find a sound that allows singer, Melanie St-Pierre's lyrics to shine through. Expansive, dreamlike notions are still at play here with guitarist, Neil Bednis finding something more lyrical in his playing drawing inspiration from George Harrison and Neil Young. Written early on in the process of Knows No Kindness, "The Mouth" helped layout the blueprint for how the record would sound as a full piece.

Knows No Kindness is a deeply personal body of work for the band, in particular St-Pierre who tells stories of her life growing up in small-town Northern Ontario, specifically Sudbury and Massey. This new song reminisces on a park called The Mouth Park in Massey where the Spanish and Sauble rivers meet; it was a spot that was regularly frequented by St-Pierre as a child following in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother who used to go when they were growing up.

Speaking about the track, Melanie says: "The park has a bit of a legacy in my family. My grandmother used to take my mother swimming there when she was young, and later my mother would take my sister and me. Every spring hundreds of trilliums grow along the dirt road leading to the park. The protest pictured in our album art, of which my grandmother was a big part, helped save the area from having nuclear waste dumped into it. I’m very grateful for this area and go often to check on it and sometimes bird watch."



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emie nathan - white light.

Following on from this year’s debut single ‘noman’ - hailed as “pop perfection” by Wonderland, and recent follow-ups ‘upstream’ and ‘roses’, emie nathan last week unveiled her debut EP ‘white light’, set for release on November 26th ... You can now watch a video for the title track now out via Platoon.

A seven-track offering, the EP picks up the baton of nathan’s crystalline, soaring, Maggie Rogers-esque pop and fleshes it out, offering deeper insights into her internal world than ever. The first comes in the form of ‘white light’’s title track - which is now available to stream. An expansive highlight of the EP, it draws on the New York and London-based singer’s Jewish heritage, using the holiday of Yom Kippur (the day of atonement) as a stepping off point for some wider questions.

“I was inspired by the concept of “starting over” to write an irreligious song about reconciling with one’s own shortcomings and choosing to be a better version of themselves moving forward,” she explains. “Separating the religious ideology for a moment, atonement and reconciliation are two very real and widely applicable actions we as humans face all the time. I wanted to write something that encourages improvement in whatever way that manifests. When I try to envision an image of sorts that best represents self-reflection and working to right wrongs, I visualise the brightest light you could possibly imagine. It doesn’t really take shape or assume a form, it is just ever present and forceful in its shine. If we can embody this image of goodness and take it with us into our daily choices, I think we as people can do a lot better for each other and for ourselves going through the day to day motions.

“I grew up in a reformed Jewish household which meant we practised as Jews, but largely stuck to the traditional side of the religion that centres itself around family, food and song. My brothers and I have largely forged our own individual perspectives and relationships regarding our religion as we have grown up, but I think we can agree on how much of the hidden meaning can be translated as good advice for life. Make mistakes? Own them. Hurt someone? Apologise. Hurt yourself? Heal and move on.”

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Lydia Brownfield - We Are Bound.

Lydia Brownfield announces the release of the single “We Are Bound” on October 12. Through gentle strumming and Brownfield’s nurturing vocals, the single serves as a reminder that what we teach our kids is who they grow up to be. We can either lift up or tear down. It’s completely up to us. It’s off the upcoming album, Dig, due out November 19.

A plea for empathy, the song focuses on the idea that we all play a part in everyone’s life. Brownfield says, “I was feeling particularly isolated and also very frustrated, mostly within the political climate, near the end of 2019. Watching our political leaders only looking out for themselves was sad and infuriating. I wanted to write something to remind myself – we have the power to heal each other, to teach each other right from wrong and to lift up those who are down or less fortunate.”

The single produced by Fred Blitzer features Brownfield and Jeff Dalrymple on acoustic guitar, Andy Harrison on electric guitar, Jeff Martin on drums, and Phil Maneri on bass. Brownfield also added strings and piano.

The album travels the euphoric highs of being in love and the dramatic lows of breaking up and discovering internal power. Through genre-bending twists and turns of folk, punk, and pop, it explores the journey of getting caught up in someone else and losing sight of one’s journey of self-discovery.

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Renée Reed - J’ai rêvé.

Lafayette, Louisiana musician Renée Reed shares the second single and title track "J’ai rêvé" from her forthcoming digital EP coming November 2 while touring with Whitney across the US.

The song is one of two French covers on the record. "J’ai rêvé" was written and originally recorded by Joëlle Patural in 1979. The EP also includes two original songs by Renée sung in English.

Renée says this about "J’ai rêvé": "I originally found this song on youtube a few years ago, and it took my breath away. The video hardly had any information about it or the artist, Joëlle Patural, which made it even more intriguing for me. I have since tracked down a copy of the LP from 1979, and even exchanged a few messages with Ms Patural. She said she wrote the song when she was about my age and longing to travel and see the world but feeling stuck in her small hometown. I think it’s such a beautiful song, and I want it to go out into the world."

These songs were recorded during the same four-track album sessions as her stunning self-titled debut album, released earlier this year. That album garnered early praise from tastemakers Gorilla vs. Bear and Gold Flake Paint and a 7.7 Pitchfork review which describes her music as "full of dreamy, odd notes, and a sense of unreality shimmers around her songs."

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Lily Konigsberg - Bren Holmes - Renée Reed

Lily Konigsberg - Sweat Forever.

Last month, Lily Konigsberg announced her debut solo LP Lily We Need To Talk Now (which will be out October 29th on Wharf Cat). 

Following her well-received EP from 2020, It's Just Like All The Clouds, (Pitchfork described it as a collection of left-field pop that sits "at the center of a Venn diagram containing haunted dolls, Arthur Russell, and Ariana Grande" in a Pitchfork Rising feature), and a compilation of her early solo recordings culled mostly from Bandcamp and Soundcloud releases entitled The Best of Lily Konigsberg.

Recorded (like the rest of the album) with producer Nate Amos, whose project Water From Your Eyes recently released their critically-acclaimed LP Structure, "Sweat Forever" departs from the album's guitar-based first single, instead showcasing Konigsberg in a more electronic environment in something closer to her pure pop mode, bringing her unique perspective and melodic sensibility to a song about a moment of transition.

"'Sweat Forever' was the first song successfully recorded for the album," Konigsberg explains. "It's mostly about the bad part of going through a huge change in your life and the confusion surrounding that. But now I'm in the good part, so there's something to celebrate. Sweat on brother!"


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Bren Holmes - You Say.

When you’ve been a professional musician for over thirty years, you can accumulate a large trunk of songs. The tucked-away tunes that Ireland-born / Los Angeles residing Bren Holmes shares on his solo debut, Everything You Never Wanted, reveal impressive singer/songwriter talents that never got fully displayed during his lengthy tenure as bassist with the Young Dubliners. While old Young Dub fans will connect with Celtic music flourishes that course through this album, they – and all listeners – also will be easily drawn into the spirited rootsy sound that fills Everything You Never Wanted, which arrives September 17, 2021 on his own Bren Holmes Productions label.

The Dublin native and long-time L.A. resident cuts across a range of genres on Everything You Never Wanted. "I don't set out to write a particular song or music," Holmes shares. "Whatever comes out, I just go with it.” Guided by a lovely lap steel guitar, the opening track, and first single, “Sweet Talkin’ Angel” leads listeners into Americana territory, while the delightful roots pop of “You Say” and “Take It All Away” suggest a roughed-up Crowded House. Holmes follows the hooky charmer “Can’t Stop Thinkin’” by taking a darker turn with the brooding rocker, “No Return,” and he mines a spare, bluesy vein - similar to the Stones’ in “Country Honk” mode - on “Love On Your Side – LC Blues.”

While Holmes states that “there’s no particular theme to the record,” he admits that this set of emotionally rich songs is “about loss and heartbreak over a long span of time." This theme might be best exemplified on “Ugly.” Featuring a duet between Holmes and former Donnas frontwoman Brett Anderson, the song ponders a “will-you-still-love-when” question in a “roller coaster ride” of a relationship. Surviving a rocky relationship also is a motif in the album’s sole cover, a catchy reworking of “S.O.S.,” which uses mandolin and guitars to remove some of the gloss from ABBA’s original.

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Renée Reed - Tonnerre mes chiens.

Lafayette, Louisiana musician Renée Reed shares the first single "Tonnerre mes chiens" from a new four-song EP titled J’ai rêvé out November 2, 2021. While this song with a French title is sung in English, the EP also includes two French cover songs and a second English-language original.

Renée says this about "Tonnerre mes chiens": "The title of this song is a colloquial phrase in Cajun French which literally translates to 'thunder my dogs' and is used similarly to 'god dammit.' The song is about listening to someone else’s anger while feeling that my own anger is going unheard. "

These songs were recorded during the same four-track album sessions as her stunning self-titled debut album, released earlier this year. That album garnered early praise from tastemakers Gorilla vs. Bear and Gold Flake Paint and a 7.7 Pitchfork review which describes her music as "full of dreamy, odd notes, and a sense of unreality shimmers around her songs."

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Eivør - Renée Reed - Sweetlove - Deanna Faye

Eivør - Gullspunnin.

Faroese folk electronica artist Eivør has released a music video and new live version of ‘Gulspunnin’, lifted from her latest album ‘Segl’, out now. Produced by Lana Del Rey collaborator Dan Heath, ‘Gulspunnin’ is Copenhagen-based Eivør’s love letter to her childhood home on the remote Faroe Islands. ‘Segl’ - featuring appearances from Ásgeir and Einar Selvik of Wardruna - is the follow-up to Eivør’s widely-praised 2017 UK commercial debut, ‘Slør’, which triggered her debut on Later….With Jools Holland. Eivør soundtracked the latest series of Netflix/BBC flagship The Last Kingdom, and her music has previously been synched on Homeland & Game Of Thrones. The new video for ‘Gulspunnin’ is now streaming from here, with a new live version of the track also included on DSPs here.

With a title that translates from Faroese as ‘cocooned in gold’, the lyrics for ‘Gulspunnin’ were created as a poem written by Faroese poet Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs. Speaking about the track - which arrives today alongside a music video directed by Icelandic visual artist Anna Maggy - Eivør says; The main inspiration behind 'Gullspunnin' came from a certain feeling I often get when I am back at home on the Faroe Islands. There is something intriguing about the light and foggy landscapes that creates some sort of nostalgic in between state of happiness and sadness -  a longing for something intangible. I wanted to reflect this feeling and a certain timeless state of mind in this song. The poem written by Marjun tells a story about the soul, forever travelling alone but cocooned in shimmering gold. I have been fascinated by Anna Maggy for quite some time. In her work I could sense this same mood that I was in when I created the song. For me she really gave 'Gullspunnin' a visual home. It was a very deep and empowering experience to create this piece alongside these amazingly talented women.

Eivør is an artist perfectly attuned to the savage vicissitudes of nature. Born & raised in Syðrugøta, a tiny community of just over 400 people on one of the northerly Faroe Islands, Eivør grew up surrounded by the windswept landscape of the North Atlantic, a backdrop that has deeply influenced the elemental electronica she creates. ‘Segl’ - Eivør’s ninth album, since releasing her debut at just 17 - builds on these motifs, exploring the journeys we undertake, both metaphorically and physically. The title – meaning ‘sail’ in Faroese – alludes to our desire for growth and direction, and the role of fate.

Eivør immersed herself in music from 13, fronting a trip-hop band after discovering albums by Massive Attack and Portishead. Gigs soon followed, held afloat in rowing boats, in a huge cave on the island of Hestur. At 16 Eivør quit school, moving alone to Reykjavik to release her debut album and pursue classical singing training. She has since won the Icelandic Music Prize, twice - the first non-Icelandic artist to do so. Such itinerant tendencies have bled into her music, ‘Segl’ no exception. “My creative process can be very chaotic and abstract, so I need to find the space to dive deeper into it and sculpt it,” she says. “After sitting on songs for a year or more, I’d go in and edit the melody or the lyrics. Sometimes the production too. The whole album is very much about change, so it’s quite apt.” Working closely again with composer/producer Tróndur Bogason (also her husband), the extra space allowed Eivør to explore programming and production more thoroughly than ever before, focussed on a free flow of ideas, and enriching collaborations.


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Renée Reed - Renée Reed (Album).

Lafayette, Louisiana musician Renée Reed releases her debut album via Keeled Scales. The 12-song album includes the songs "Out Loud" and "Until Tomorrow" that earned her early praise last year from Gorilla vs. Bear and The Wild Honey Pie, as well as recent singles "Neboj" and "I Saw A Ghost" and the gentle psych of the French single "Où est la fée."

The songs on Renée’s self-titled debut album chronicle a three-year period. These are songs about toxic relationships, seeing ghosts, ancestral baggage and blessings, and daydreaming about love. Renée describes her music as dream-fi folk from the Cajun prairies, and this, her album, as “a whole document of me coming to terms with myself and embracing who I am without reserve.”

There is a timelessness throughout these songs, a through-line to the past, and a deep mixing of influences into something hopeful and new:

for our bones, they belong to the country
and marigolds, we will hold in our hands
and we won't know what they don't understand

Renée grew up on the accordion-bending knee of her grandfather Harry Trahan, in the middle of countless jam sessions at the one-stop Cajun shop owned by her parents Lisa Trahan and Mitch Reed, and soaked in the storytelling of her great uncle, the folklorist Revon Reed and his infamous brothers from Mamou. She was surrounded by a litany of Cajun and Creole music legends, both backstage at the many festivals of Southwest Louisiana, and on the porch of her family home.

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Sweetlove - Goodnight, Lover (E.P).

Born out of a tsunami of grief and pain, Sweetlove's Goodnight, Lover is a portrait of an artist coming into her own.

In late 2017, Sweetlove was beginning to work on new material when she was faced with three devastating losses - her oldest friend, Matt, her long-time love, David, and her cousin, Teddy, all passed away within one year of each other. She funneled her grief into collaborations with writers such as Jay Stolar (Selena Gomez, Trevor Daniel, Aloe Blacc, G-Eazy, Demi Lovato), Evangelina, Zach Berkman/The Heart Of (Ron Pope), Garen Gueyikian, and Adam Tressler, resulting in a collection of songs about “grappling with loss, coming to terms with it, missing someone, wishing you had known you weren’t going to have more time, and how to find joy again.”

Sweetlove has found her own refuge in songwriting after years of helping others showcase theirs. She sang backup vocals for GRAMMY-nominated and Tony award-winning artists, paying dues on huge stages. The daughter of a preacher and a teacher, she grew up in California’s Simi Valley and experienced music as a natural part of life –– not as a pursuit or a practice, but an extension of just being. Now, after living in West Hollywood for the last 15 years, Sweetlove has drawn from her time sharing stages with superstars and that resonant voice that readied worshippers for interpreting tongues to create something that is entirely, beautifully hers.

Produced by Justin Glasco (The Lone Bellow), Goodnight, Lover puts Sweetlove’s twin devotions to her earthy pop and the people she loves on magnificent display. Written with Stolar, the title track nods to the bluesy swagger of Shelby Lynne as Sweetlove sings to a new lover, from a distance.

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Deanna Faye - Reassure.

Metaphorically Potent & Engaging, Folk Singer/Songwriter DEANNA FAYE's “Reassure” Bears the Weight Behind Hardships of Love. Toronto-based indie folk singer-songwriter Deanna Faye poetically contrasts the light side of love and its inherent pressure with this, her new video for “Reassure.”

That latest to land from her breakthrough EP, Good To You, the song grapples with the concept of love — and how difficult it can be to grasp.

While the word, in and of itself, denotes feelings of joy and happiness, the reality behind such an emotion is that of balance; with balance comes weight, and “Reassure” exemplifies the beauty in the struggle in such a reflective way.

The instrumentation within the single instills a disheartening sensation, as the twang and reverb of the guitar march along with the pensive beat of the drums. This appropriately sets the tone of “Reassure,” as it’s a reflection of the stress and pain love can bear. Deanna Faye’s mellow and articulate vocals carry the metaphoric weight of her lyrics with innocence and conviction.

In terms of metaphors, the single is representative of Faye’s thoughts on the cycles of relationships, as well as the impulsivity of rushing into a romantic connection. She compares these experiences to pillars, in the sense that two people can pull apart yet still be close together by way of the weight they both share.

The weight, she describes, is structured around the intertwining of boundaries and desires.

“I'd been walking around the city and on hiking trails aimlessly,” she shares. “I noticed these tagged pillars that always stood out to me as being a cool piece of architecture. This is a song that illustrates the ebbs and flows. Ultimately, in a healthy relationship, the pillars still stand strong but they are always just the perfect distance apart to keep the structure sound.”

It’s been a reflective time for the emerging singer-songwriter, and the poignancy of “Reassure,” in its entirety, holds nothing short of that.

The video itself is vibrant. It revolves around a still of Faye’s face as it’s surrounded and augmented by soulful imagery that relates and reflects the song’s message. Interspersed throughout the video are live action cuts featuring the musician performing the song.

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Charlotte Spiral - The Weeping Willows - Renée Reed - Natalie D-Napoleon

Charlotte Spiral - Out Of Here.

Dark-alt pop duo Charlotte Spiral impressed with their debut EP Ideal Life in February 2020, garnering widespread critical acclaim, a Union Chapel show in support of Alice Boman, a Rough Trade Recommends showcase, and support from BBC 6 Music. A year later, they’ve teamed up with Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey (Kae Tempest, Bat For Lashes, Sia) once more for their evocative new EP, New Light. Confronting and examining loss, escapism, dissatisfaction and comparing oneself, the EP will be released on April 9th.

Today, the duo share a new track ‘Out Of Here’ which was co-produced with Dan Carey over Zoom during the first lockdown. The song addresses a recurring situation that breeds a longing for escape - “There is something about doing things over and over again in a monotonous way that makes a situation feel worse than it is, and I wanted to portray this throughout the song,” explains lead singer Amy Spencer. Sombre piano and laidback rhythms surround luscious vocals which build towards the track's powerful chorus. Here, the song’s ultimate message becomes clear as the decision is made to break an unhappy cycle and focus on taking control of one’s own destiny.

Charlotte Spiral is a collaboration between Amy Spencer and Avi Barath; two musicians that have been involved in multiple projects respectively before coming together to form the duo. Having met at Goldsmiths, the pair connected due to their mutual love of artists such as Rufus Wainwright, Julia Holter, Moses Sumney, Yann Tiersen and Beach House, and their inherent desire to write music that is lyrically driven and built upon organic piano melodies.

The group’s debut EP Ideal Life confronted themes of self-hood, self-doubt, yet ultimately self-belief. The lead track, ‘Wide Eyed’, was produced by Charlotte Spiral and Dan Carey, evincing vocals that are lush and nostalgic, soaring above ethereal piano and polished production. The release garnered widespread praise from the likes of The Sunday Times, The Line of Best Fit, Music Week and BBC 6 Music, amongst others.


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The Weeping Willows - Black Crow.

Fresh from the red carpet of Tamworth’s CMAA Awards, where The Weeping Willows took home the 2021 Golden Guitar for Instrumental of the Year (for previous outing ‘Prelude’), partners in life, love, and song Andrew Wrigglesworth and Laura Coates delve into darkness once again with brooding new single “Black Crow”. Encroaching doom never sounded so sweet.

Shivering with misgiving, “Black Crow” finds its murderous protagonist inescapably fixed by the penetrating gaze of the titular bird – harbinger of his inevitable fate at the end of a rope. Bleakly arresting, it’s yet another unmissable taste of The Weeping Willows’ long-awaited third studio album.

About the song, The Weeping Willows said, “We’ve always been drawn to the more sinister, ‘Gothic’ side of Americana music that harks back to early blues, as well as Bluegrass and ‘mountain music’ traditions. Writing Black Crow allowed us to delve deeper into this sub-genre”.

Rooted in ageless country-folk tradition, “Black Crow” deploys the most urgently up-tempo picking in The Weeping Willows catalogue to date: acoustic and slide guitar rippling like the surface of an inky tarn disturbed by a smoking gun or bloodied knife. It’s also eloquent proof that Andrew and Laura’s celebrated vocal harmony is as exquisitely suited to fatalistic tales of murder as it is to a delicate love song.

Recorded, engineered and mixed by Ryan Freeland (Justin Townes Earle, Tift Merritt, Bonnie Raitt) at Los Angeles’ storied Stampede Origin Studio,“Black Crow” thrills with all the dark storytelling majesty of The Weeping Willows’ critically acclaimed second album Before Darkness Comes A-Callin'. That album netted the duo four-star reviews from Rolling Stone, The Australian, and The Music, and confirmed The Weeping Willows as Australia’s foremost vivisectors of the human condition and the shadowy forces that bind us to the earth.

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Renée Reed - I Saw A Ghost.

Lafayette, Louisiana musician Renée Reed shares the video for "I Saw A Ghost" from her self-titled debut album out this Friday, March 26, 2021 via Keeled Scales. The dark stop-motion video was painstakingly created by Joseph Howard and Emily Curran.

About the video, Renée says: "I’ve always had a fascination with stop-motion animation and puppetry. I’ve also long-admired Joseph Howard’s work, so I was thrilled when he took up the task of bringing this video to life. The lyrics of the song dance a thin, blurry line between literal and figurative, and Joseph and his partner Emily captured the essence of that beautifully with this video. It’s so evocative. Each time I watch it I see something new."

About the song: "The song is on one hand a story about seeing a ghost, but the 'ghost' also refers to myself dealing with disappointment and sadness from a multitude of sources, and learning about myself as I get through it."

"I Saw A Ghost" follows the intricately finger-picked folk of "Neboj," the hazy psych French single "Où est la fée," and the spell-binding earworm "Fast One."

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Natalie D-Napoleon - Thunder Rumor.

For an Australian singer-songwriter entrenched in the traditions of folk/rock and Americana music, not only did writing her latest album on the front porch of her 100-year old California cottage give Natalie D-Napoleon the time and space to create You Wanted to Be the Shore but Instead You Were the Sea (due out March 26, 2021) but also the passing world served as a poignant muse.

“I sat there and wrote and wrote and wrote,” explained Natalie. “Sometimes people stopped and listened to me playing, mainly parents with kids. Guys walked up and asked what guitar I was playing. But mostly folks ignored me and kept walking. I really liked watching the world go by, offering up song ideas, while I plugged away on my instrument and sang.”

The view from her porch also gave Natalie a new perspective. “All my life I've written ‘personal’ songs.” Natalie continues. “I’ve tucked myself away and poured my emotional life into music, yet I discovered after a while it burnt me out. It wasn't always a well that was nourishing, but one that began to drain me emotionally.

“As the songs began to flow, a theme emerged — I was telling stories of women that passed me by. But these were stories that aren’t commonly told in song. Women have long been the muse in song-writing but it’s been a very one-dimensional view. Rarely have our complexities been portrayed — I wanted to change that.

“Second Time Around” is a song about the wisdom that comes with starting over and “No Longer Mine” enthusiastically celebrates the resulting liberty from ending a relationship while “Wildflowers” is a rustic front-porch song. “The songs did not come without work,” Natalie is quick to add. “But this time I decided to feed the songbird within me. I gave her water and seeds as you do to any living creature you want to keep coming back to visit.”

It wasn’t always easy going. A songwriting session in Taos, N.M. with American folk icons Eliza Gilkyson and Mary Gauthier ended in tears when Gauthier pushed Natalie to her creative and emotional breaking point.

“Mary suggested a song I played wasn’t personal enough and that I was skirting around telling the story,” she recalled. “I broke down as 25 years of grief and disappointment came to the surface. That night I howled as loud as the coyotes outside our cabin in the New Mexico desert until the early morning. I had decided I was finished with songwriting, but the next morning I picked myself up and went back to the workshop. I had dedicated too much of my life to the craft of songwriting for me to give up now.  Later that same day I wrote ‘Mother of Exiles,’ a song inspired by Emma Lazarus’ poem at the foot of the Statue of Liberty celebrating America’s embrace of immigrants — immigrants just like me.”

Through that experience Natalie found a poignant poetry in the face of adversity, which she channelled into her writing. “Thunder Rumor” is a haunting exploration of one of the most dangerous times in many women’s lives — when they decide to break free from an abusive relationship; “Reasons” explores the emotional rollercoaster of losing an unborn child; and the album’s title track is an exploration of childhood trauma and the lifelong scars it can leave.

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Renée Reed - Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band - PACKS - Jane Inc - Susan Gibson

Renée Reed - Neboj.

Lafayette, Louisiana musician Renée Reed shares "Neboj" from her self-titled debut album out March 26, 2021 via Keeled Scales.

The song follows the hazy psych of the French single "Où est la fée" released in February, and the spell-binding earworm "Fast One" released in January.

"Neboj" is originally a Czech word that Renée came across while diving into Czech animation. For Renée, this is a song about letting go and not being afraid to fall in love, to just trust her heart. The song gently unspools with brilliantly finger-picked guitar and Renée's dreamlike vocals.

Renée grew up on the accordion-bending knee of her grandfather Harry Trahan, in the middle of countless jam sessions at the one-stop Cajun shop owned by her parents Lisa Trahan and Mitch Reed, and soaked in the storytelling of her great uncle, the folklorist Revon Reed and his infamous brothers from Mamou. She was surrounded by a litany of Cajun and Creole music legends, both backstage at the many festivals of Southwest Louisiana, and on the porch of her family home.


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Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band - Too Cool To Dance.

The new album from Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Dance Songs for Hard Times, is scheduled for independent release April 9, 2021 via Thirty Tigers. Ahead of that, the band released a video (“Ways and Means”) last month and a second single, “Too Cool to Dance,” this week.

Of the “Ways and Means” song and video, Rev. Peyton explains: “It’s a personal song, like all of my songs, but the song ‘Ways and Means’ is written for all those folks that have the moves, the style, the substance, the talent, but maybe not the seed money or the famous last name.  All those people that had to work extra hard, because they didn’t get to start way ahead. Folks that have been playing catch up since they were born, and had to get really good just to make it to zero. The idea for the video was born from the lyrics, but also as a wink and a nod to those folks that know what it’s like inside of a Laundromat. There could be a lot of magic hidden inside the people that you interact with in places like a Laundromat, and my hope was to convey that.”

“‘Too Cool to Dance,’” he says, “might be interpreted as the album’s centerpiece for its message of not taking things for granted. The seize-the-moment anthem offers the chorus, ‘We may not get another chance. Oh, please don’t tell me you’re too cool to dance.’ I was thinking about all the times where I’ve been somewhere and felt too cool to dance. I didn’t want to be that way. Not being able to do anything last year, I had this feeling of, ‘Man, I’m not going to waste any moment like this in my life — ever.’”

The album as a whole conveys the hopes and fears of pandemic living. Rev. Peyton, the Big Damn Band’s vocalist and world-class fingerstyle guitarist, details bleak financial challenges in “Ways and Means” and “Dirty Hustlin’.” He pines for in-person reunions with loved ones on “No Tellin’ When,” and pleads for celestial relief on the album-closing “Come Down Angels.”

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PACKS - Silvertongue.

PACKS were an increasingly visible presence in Toronto in the first part of 2020. A string of intriguing lo-fi singles, appearing once every month or so on Bandcamp through 2019 had begun to persuade people to take notice in their hometown, where the band were sharing stages with people like Squirrel Flower and Odetta Hartman, and outside of it. Despite having rarely ventured outside of the city, and having never crossed the border into the US as a band, these early tracks caught the attention of the rising Brooklyn label Fire Talk Records, who have recently introduced celebrated acts like Dehd, Patio, Deeper and Mamalarky. Today, the band are formally announcing their debut LP take the cake, which will be released by Fire Talk in partnership with the Toronto indie Royal Mountain Records (Alvvays, Wild Pink, Mac Demarco) on May 21st.

To mark the announce the band are sharing the album's first single "Silvertongue," a track that captures PACKS at their fuzzed-out best.

"It’s easy to be lured into the comforts of past relationships," says PACKS leader Madeline Link. "What’s harder is dealing with years of exhaustion, mistrust, and always hoping. Ditch the whiplash of manipulation and decide what YOU want out of love! "

PACKS was initially a solo songwriting project of Madeline Link that she pursued between gigs as a set dresser for commercials, the band is now a four piece, composed of Shane Hooper (drums), Noah O’Neil (bass), and Dexter Nash (lead guitar). Together they turn Link’s melodically adventurous and introspective songs into the purest and brightest kind of indie rock. Anchored by Link’s voice, which brings such an easy charm to her songs that it’s easy to miss her keen ear for acrobatic vocal lines, the band’s debut is a collection of songs that marry the loose but incisive jangle of early Pavement with the barbed sweetness of Sebadoh and the wide-eyed wonder of the first Shins LP.

Written in two different settings, between the city limits of Toronto where Link was living in 2019, and the Ottawa suburbs where she was quarantined with her parents in the spring 2020, both remain complementary emblems of self-reflection and wry observation of the mundanity of daily life.

“The album is a meeting of old and new,” says Link. “Old songs from a year ago where I'm having really horrifyingly awful days at work, getting doored while biking in Toronto and flying into the middle of the street, or going on dates with guys who I'm either instantly in love with, or who end up creeping me out a bit. Those songs are more packed with that feeling of hurtling-through-time-and-space-at-breakneck-speed, manic energy. The newer songs are infused with a foggier, slower-paced disillusionment, and deal with the strangeness of a reality morphing before my eyes every day. I still try to be optimistic obviously, but these songs are really glorified coping mechanisms.”

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Jane Inc - Obliterated.

Toronto-based Jane Inc., the solo project of Carlyn Bezic who is also known for her work as part of U.S. Girls, Ice Cream and Darlene Shrugg is today sharing the widescreen, cinematic-pop of "Obliterated" – listen here. The new single, taken from Bezic's forthcoming debut album, Number One – out via Telephone Explosion Records on March 19, 2021 – follows on from previous tracks which have found tips at Brooklyn Vegan, The Line of Best Fit and Earmilk.

Written and produced by Bezic, the new project is unlike anything she has been part of previously. Beginning as a one-woman show, Carlyn wrote and produced the early songs for Number One by layering multiple instruments on top of samples and drum breaks. She later recruited recording engineer, Steve Chahley to co-produce and record drum and drum machine with Toronto drummer, Evan J. Cartwright (Tasseomancy, U.S Girls, Eucalyptus), adding saxophone by Nick Dourado (BUDi Band, Aquakultre, Fiver) and Wurlitzer by Scott Harwood (Scott Hardware).

In a lot of ways, this album is a constant self-assessment. How do our surroundings impact our depression? Does outside imagery warp our ideas of beauty and self-worth? How do we manage our unhealthy connections to social media? What can we do to better our planet? This internal dialogue often leads Number One into vulnerable territory. “I think a lot of the songs on the album deal with how we form ourselves and how that gets fragmented and complicated by the societal structures we interact with”, says Bezic. “It felt right to make a collage of pictures of me (and ads from magazines) for the cover of the album. It’s like a weird fragmented self, building up an idea of who you are based on other people's ideas of you”.

This new cut, "Obliterated" marks the closing track on the forthcoming album and an adventure into this brightly colored, syrupy alt-pop which is fashioned around downtempo percussion and woozy synthesizers. As a single, "Obliterated" continues to explore some of the album's wider themes that look at our digital footprint and how we appear to others in an online world: "Obliterated" imagines the moment that the IRL self is overtaken by the online self," says Carlyn, "leaving a serene melancholy and calm resignation"

Themes around how self-image affects our decisions and everyday lives are central Number One. Within its lyrics and boisterous rhythms is an exploration of the difficulties of self-reflection when our sense of self is constantly shifting in each new context. Jane Inc. is an outlet to escape real-world bummers and forge fantasies, a sonic journey through a complex reality. It is an extension of Bezic, a solo persona used to explore the different facets of herself and her artistry.

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Susan Gibson - Compassionate Combat.

Texas songwriter, Susan Gibson released the new single, “Compassionate Combat”, today to celebrate, thank and benefit nurses across the country and the world. Produced by Billy Crockett and recorded at his Blue Rock Studio late last year, the song speaks to the hard work, and dedication that nurses put into helping those in need. Never in our lifetime has this work been more at the forefront of our thoughts than it has been over the last year and Gibson’s song captures the feelings that so many of us share about them. So often we struggle to find a way to thank those people that do so much for us and “Compassionate Combat” serves as the perfect way to show them that we all care. It is officially available on all streaming platforms today. The video directed by Brent Tallent (linked below) is also now posted.

The song itself has had quite a journey. In the spring of 2020 as our country was realizing the impact the pandemic was having and going to continue to have, Susan was one of the songwriters approached by Carolyn Philips of Songs For The Soul, an organization that strives to support caregivers through the power of music. Carolyn asked Susan to write a thank you song to the nurses that were working so diligently to help steer the nation through these unprecedented times. Once “Compassionate Combat” was written and a demo distributed to Songs for the Soul’s network it began to take on a life of its own. 

Shortly after, a friend asked Susan to record a video telegram of the song to send to nurses in the Houston area. With no plans to record a new album and the touring industry at a halt, Gibson spent the rest of the summer and early fall in Montana on her family cabin. A November online show from The Blue Rock Artist Ranch and Studio would prove to be a pivotal moment in this song’s life. With no other new songs to showcase but having never performed the song live, Gibson decided to throw “Compassionate Combat” into the set list.

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Jillette Johnson - Renée Reed - Still Corners - Rob Kovacs - Bandits on the Run

Jillette Johnson - Forgive Her.

Jillette Johnson shares “Forgive Her,” the latest single off her forthcoming album It’s a Beautiful Day and I Love You (out February 12). Striking an intimately reflective tone, "Forgive Her" is a meditation on breaking cycles that asks us to show compassion and acceptance towards ourselves and others. Audiofemme featured the track this morning, saying “The song opens with gentle chanting and piano chords that pull at your heartstrings, then escalates into angelic singing reminiscent of a parent teaching a child.”

"This song was inspired by the complicated dynamics of mother-daughter relationships, and the importance of generational healing,” explains Johnson. “It’s about nurturing and embracing the hurt parts of ourselves, and recognizing that we are all just little kids trying to connect with each other and feel ok.”

Produced by Joe Pisapia and written entirely by Jillette, It’s a Beautiful Day and I Love You injects her intimate, piano-written songs with irreverent lyrics, buoyant pop melodies and a shot of guitar-driven, alt-rock muscle. The album has already garnered early acclaim from American Songwriter, Refinery29 and Rolling Stone, who describes the debut single “I Shouldn’t Go Anywhere” as “a spaced-out trip that recalls Harry Nilsson or Elton John at his most decadent.” Johnson has released three other singles – a rollicking ode to exes named “Annie,” an irreverent meditation on acceptance aptly titled “What Would Jesus Do” and a kiss-off to past relationships called “Graveyard Boyfriend.”

At the end of 2020, Johnson shared the first two songs from her upcoming OurVinyl session, including a haunting rendition of the Oasis classic “Champagne Supernova” as well as a stirring performance of “I Shouldn’t Go Anywhere.” She also recently launched her “Artist Brain” interview series, featuring intimate acoustic performances and conversations with other artists including Jaime Wyatt, Molly Parden, Aaron Lee Tasjan and Elle Varner. Airing live on her Instagram every other Thursday, Johnson welcomes Maggie Rose for the next episode (1/21), with more guests to be announced.

 

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Renée Reed - Fast One. 

The first single, "Fast One," from Lafayette, Louisiana musician Renée Reed's self-titled debut album due March 26, 2021 via Keeled Scales, has just been shared.

Self-labeled "dream-fi folk from the Cajun prairies," Renée released her first two songs in 2020-- "Out Loud" in May and "Until Tomorrow" in July, which Gorilla vs. Bear described as "an effortless, inspired union of the haunting folk music that Reed was raised on and a lilting, lost '60s French-pop gem."

Renée's statement on "Fast One" and her album:

"Full of anger over the shallow, shitty behavior of certain acquaintances I’ve had over the last few years, people who assume they know more about me than I do. But I leave things open to change and growth."

"This album is a collection of songs about toxic relationships, seeing ghosts, ancestral baggage and blessings, and daydreaming about love. It is about certain feelings and experiences I’ve had over my life coming to fruition in the past three years. It was all made on a four track recorder at home, in a place and in a way I feel most natural, and I believe that quality comes through in the sound."


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Still Corners - White Sands.

Still Corners will release their 5th album on 22nd January. Following on from the huge acclaim they have received for their previously shared singles ‘Crying’ and the record’s title-track, Still Corners have now released ‘White Sands’ from their highly-anticipated fifth album THE LAST EXIT, out on 22nd January 2021 via Wrecking Light Records.

A desert-noir soundtrack in miniature, ‘White Sands’ tells a classic ghost story of a phantom who roams the dunes and highways scaring travellers as they cross the land. Tessa Murray croons over a quick beat, clean-tone guitar and shimmering atmospherics.

The Last Exit will be the 5th album from Still Corners after a 13-year career that started back on Sub Pop Records in 2007.

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Rob Kovacs - Bitter Memory.

Indie-rock singer-songwriter and pianist Rob Kovacs debuts the new single, “Bitter Memory.” The song is the latest offering from Kovacs’ forthcoming solo debut album, Let Go, to be released on February 12th. With its ambitious compositional palette and hauntingly potent songcraft, the album affirms Kovacs as a fully focused and steadfast artist, evincing a commitment and creative persistence rarely seen in our ever more short attention span society.

Let Go tells the story of one relationship, in chronological order. “The songs are about love, longing, loss, desire, confusion, acceptance, pain, the struggle to let go – all that fun stuff,” Kovacs states. “Bitter Memory” concludes the album, and reflects the struggle to move on. It was written after Kovacs received an email from the ex-love that inspired the album. “Every so often she’d reach out and it’d bring me right me back. I felt weak and powerless and, in turn, angry. The reality though, which I didn’t want to admit, was I still longed for her. Seeing and reading her messages felt good. I still hadn’t let go.” Musically, the song has a different feel from the rest of the album, complete with being in a different key, indicating that things have changed over time. “There is no chorus,” Kovacs elaborates. “Just a repeating pattern of chords that last longer and get more intense with each repetition until reaching a boiling point and release and ending in the soft, resigned ending.”

Named “Best Pianist/Keyboardist” by the Cleveland Free Times, Kovacs has been widely hailed for his shape-shifting musical experimentalism, spanning history-making classical feats and audacious recreations of videogame soundtracks to crafting mesmerizing indie rock both as bandleader and now, at long last, solo artist. Kovacs has invested more than a decade in the creation of this solo debut, a brave and bittersweet song cycle written in the years following an intensely impactful romantic relationship and then recorded over an even longer span.

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Bandits on the Run - We Battle Giants.

Bandits on the Run, the NYC-based indie-pop trio anchored by three-part harmonies and unique instrumentation, announce their forthcoming EP, Now Is The Time, dropping 5/7/2021, with the release of the new single, “We Battle Giants".

In 2020, the Bandits were poised for some of their biggest performances yet - as official SXSW artists, as well as at The Kennedy Center in DC and New York’s Webster Hall - and vocalist/guitarist Adrian Blake Enscoe was slated to appear in Swept Away, the musical based on the music of The Avett Brothers. Like most of the world, they saw their plans quickly deconstructed when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. 

However, in true Bandit style, they immediately started looking for ways to find the silver living. “As Bandits, we’ve always tried to be bearers of light, positivity, and community,” explains Regina Strayhorn (vocals, accordion, melodica, assorted toy instruments). So, after sequestering themselves in North Carolina finalizing new material, they took a socially-distanced road trip west to record at the famed Bear Creek Studio in Washington State, with producer Ryan Hadlock (The Lumineers, Brandi Carlile, Vance Joy). 

“Having Bandits on the Run out to Bear Creek Studio was a really wonderful experience,” Hadlock says. “Their songwriting and interwoven vocal harmonies are beautiful and inspiring. Working with the Bandits on these songs during the pandemic this summer was definitely a bright spot in an otherwise difficult and dark year.” Of this latest single, he continues, “When I heard the demo for ‘We Battle Giants,’ I was like, ‘PLEASE let me produce that song.’ I just love the way their three voices lock in during the chorus. The Bandits are a powerful and inspiring colorful trio of magic.”

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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...