We have a beautiful new single and album from Egghunt's latest signing Lizzie Loveless, AKA Lizzie Lieberson of beloved indie-pop group TEEN.
Lizzie's songwriting feels sophisticated and refined to me in a way that reflects her years of experience in music, but without sacrificing any emotional directness. Her songs have a momentum that I find intoxicating, something you can hear in particular on "The Joke" or "Loveless" - enhanced by a rhythmic delivery and attention to words that sets her style apart from a lot of her peers. And of course, there are hooks for days. I was pretty tempted to list the whole album under "recommended tracks."
For Lizzie Lieberson, writing a song is an act of letting go. As Lizzie Loveless, the New York-based artist weaves together her experiences on the road as a touring musician, ruminates on her past relationships and offers an optimistic reprieve for the future. As a member of TEEN alongside her sisters, from 2010-2019, Lieberson has taken the past couple of years to get to know herself again. Debut solo full-length You Don’t Know marks a new beginning for the songwriter: an exhale after the transition of everything she once knew and a warm, yet poignant goodbye to the past.
Over the last five years, Lieberson has been quietly piecing together ideas and compositions for You Don’t Know, writing in-between her hectic TEEN schedule, whether it was in an old apartment in NYC, under the watchful gaze of the redwoods in California or immersed in the stunning natural beauty of her hometown in Halifax, Nova Scotia. While the record comes with the heaviness of heartache, there’s a cathartic charge under a blanket of electronic soundscapes that allow Lieberson’s meditations to manifest with a hopeful flourish.
"I set out to write a cheesy country song and I did, but Back in Nashville is for someone really special to me. But every time, it gets harder to go back to Nashville alone because truth be told I hate living in the city.
Back in Nashville is kind of about hating Nashville. It’s also about someone who’s really special to me who lives far away. Every time we see each other it gets harder to go back to Nashville alone."
The ten songs on Sara Bug’s forthcoming self-titled debut album were not meant to be shared. A culmination of seven years of her life, these songs were journal entries that reckoned with defining herself. Growing up in New Orleans, Bug imagined herself to be a successful songwriter. “I was so deep in the music. ‘Oh, I'm going to be a famous musician. When I get out of high school, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go have a career in music,’” she explains. “I think I held on to that for so long, I had finally kind of let go, like that pressure. Now it was just fun.” This eponymous project embodies Bug’s journey away from the expectations of others and her younger self, allowing her creative freedom.
Sara Bug opens with a lush, symphonic ballad about desire. “My whole life through, I want to die with you,” she sings tenderly on “Die With You.” Romantic and a bit morbid, Bug opens with the oldest song on the album and takes us to that time when the urgency of her happiness began pushing against the pressure of others’ approval. It's easy to get lost in the dreamy guitar strums and sturdy bass lines, Bug’s voice sharp and clear against the country-psych rock combination.
A close listen reveals that Bug is letting the listener into the most poignant moments of the past years with sincerity and ease. She takes us on reflective motorcycle rides, whether literal or desired, for “Rosebank” and “Ride On Sundys.” She details the loss of a family member and a trip back home from her then-residence in New York on “Lotta Pride.” Inspired by the detailed storytelling of Dolly Parton and Neil Young, Bug leads across state lines and along her timeline of personal growth with unconventional, vivid song structures.
Blurry The Explorer - Yoru Ni Yuku (feat. Tenniscoats).
Introducing Blurry The Explorer--a fearless new project lead by the experimental composer, drummer, photographer, and world-traveler Jeremy Gustin with Ryan Dugre (guitar), Ricardo Dias Gomes (bass, synth, vocal), Leo Abrahams (guitar), and their collaborators: Tenniscoats, Brian Eno, Kalmia Traver (Rubblebucket), Sarah Pedinotti (LIP TALK), CJ Carminieri (Ymusic, Sufjan Stevens), Fiona Forte, and more.
On June 18, Blurry The Explorer will release their debut, self-titled album--a playful, shape-shifting record inspired by gut feelings, miraculous experiences, and unbelievable coincidences. The soundscapes on the album bounce around each song's unique sound-world with great ease, modestly showing off this group of diverse musicians' talents while giving modernized poetic nods to their influences.
Blurry The Explorer have shared their debut single, "Yoru Ni Yuku," featuring the inimitable Tenniscoats on vocals and saxophone. Gustin describes the track as "A James Bond song that never was and never will be.” The single arrives with a video (created by Gustin) that was made by sifting through and editing together archived science and medical films from the 1940s.
The debut single Lungs from Freyja Elsy is an epic, yet introspective look at the end of a relationship.
Freyja Elsy is an independent singer songwriter and composer with a nomadic past and a sound that pushes into the future. Creating songs with a keen ear whilst pursuing music education, she found herself within the vibrant, engaging Cardiff scene. Through both outside musical influence and internal personal conflict she started to establish a clear identity, forging a path forward to create ‘Lungs’, her first single.
Based around very real, very intimate voice recordings, ‘Lungs’ starts small and reserved, fragile in its form and structure. The track slowly unfolds and develops into rising crescendos alongside uncompromising percussion. A mixture of glitchy synthesisers and rising strings interweave around Elsy’s voice, which sits unwavering and steadfast. Her bold lyrics are strong in the face of a contrasting anguish found in the recordings nestled within the music.
With other musical endeavours in the form of collaborations within the band Blue Amber, alongside orchestral compositions performed by members of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and thematic interludes created for commercial use - this single is her first, strikeout release and sets the course for a prolific career ahead.
Lovelow is the forceful dark wave/art pop debut from DB Armitage, the stage name of East London-based multidisciplinary vocalist and video artist Dalma Berger.
Revolving around the bitter end of a love story, Lovelow authentically captures mourning as themes of inevitable hurt, imbalances between lovers, and heartfelt sadness ultimately collide with self-empowerment.
Each song in the brilliantly produced synth-fueled EP tells a different story about power and vulnerability. While “Old Bones” is about an active choice and open rebellion against heartache, “Last Summer” and “Lovelow” find Dalma learning lessons about her own womanhood after a problematic break up.
Accompanied by a dark and dynamic visual co-directed by Berger and Gareth Phillips (whose previous credits include The 1975, Wolf Alice and Pale Waves), the "Lovelow" video captures Dalma dancing and fighting with the dazzling Emma Holty, expressing nuances of love and hate.
“Expressing vulnerability excites me as a songwriter as I’ve never really explored this territory before,” says Berger. “I’ve picked these three songs because they are all coming from the same state, the state where love is low.”
Wy are a band strongest at their most vulnerable. The Malmö indie duo, Ebba and Michel Gustafsson Ågren, have showcased their musical skills across two albums, 2017’s Okay and 2019’s Softie which gained them recognition from KEXP, Line of Best Fit, NBHAP, Tonspion, CLASH and more as well as tours in Germany, Scandinavia and the UK. But what makes them stand out as a band is the raw, brutal emotion they capture in their music.
A Wy song at their best sounds like opening it all up, and letting the feelings flow where they will, letting the pain, anger, fear, hope and love steer the song. Those emotions are spun into the band’s skyscaping, cinematic sound, and turned into music that has a force behind it, a power that hits you, even when it's at its softest. And that power that illuminates the band’s songs is more present than ever on their new album Marriage which is out on May 7th, God's Lamb is the last single and comes alongside a video directed and recorded by the duo themselves.
Marriage is the first record since signing to Rama Lama Records (Melby, Steve Buscemi's Dreamy Eyes, Chez Ali etc.) and the sound of Wy moving forward and backwards at once. Leaving the more produced style of last album Softie behind, it turns to the simpler sound of their earlier work for music that’s rawer and sharper. On both the indie-rock and the pop songs of this album, there’s less between the listener and the heart of the song - this is music that’s very direct, both in theme and sound, with melodies that hit cleanly and leave nothing even trying to hide. It’s the work of a band that have grown into themselves and what they do, and making the strongest songs of their career.
That album, in a way, begins with a wedding. Ebba and Michel have been together since their schooldays, but a couple of years ago they tied the knot. The songs on Marriage have all been made since their wedding, and so in that sense the timing made it a natural title for a record that’s something of a scrapbook from the first two years of that marriage. But there’s also a deeper sense to it. Both in sound and theme, Marriage is more of a conceptual record than their earlier work. Ebba writes the band’s lyrics, and on the previous albums her themes were specific to her. But on this album, their relationship is at the heart of the songs. The lyrics have come from the experiences they’ve shared together, which they’ve then worked together into what they want to say, to each other and to everyone else. “I have always written the lyrics”, says Ebba. “But this time they feel like our lyrics, and not just my diary set to our music. We've talked a lot with each other about what we want to say. About who we are and where we can find our place in the world. The title has been in place since we started, and that was because a lot of the songs revolved around our relationship since we got married. Not so much the relationship between us, but more about the internal conflicts that appear when you’re in a long-term, safe relationship, where you’re really sure about each other, but you’re not sure about yourself”.
The journey to the record has been a difficult one. The band started work on Marriage not intending to make an album. They went into the studio with the idea of making an EP, wrote some songs, but couldn’t quite nail what they were going for - the songs didn’t quite feel right together. So they went into overdrive, wrote a bunch more songs, and suddenly found themselves with over 20, and within those 20 what they realised was an album.
Sophie Janna today releases her new single ‘Wide World’. Sophie describes her song as an hymn for the modern age. Quiet vocals and beautiful sounds make the single very refreshing to listen to.
Sophie says about 'Wide World': “This song is about not daring to tell someone that you love them. I've always been scared to express how I feel and I've spent most of my life so far pretending to be stronger and more independent than I really am. Only in music I dare to show my emotions. With this song I tried to tell someone what I didn't dare to say out loud: that I wanted them to stay with me, preferably forever, and not to go home to their own country. I was feeling all this and picked up my guitar to play a traditional song that I love - I'm a folk musician and I often play songs that are more than a hundred years old. Singing such old love songs gives me comfort, because they remind me that so many people before me have felt the same way. But when I strummed the first few chords of the song I intended to play, other words came up and formed this new song instead. "
The west Frisian Sophie Janna lived in Scotland for a while, discovered traditional folk there, and since then can be found every week at the folk sessions in her favorite cafe in her hometown Amsterdam. You can hear the influences of Scottish and Irish ballads well in her own songs. With a clear, sensitive voice and subdued strumming, she sings comforting songs that make you forget where you are for a moment. After her debut album 'Laurels', with eleven bittersweet traditional songs, Sophie Janna has now released her first EP with her own work, in which she is clearly influenced by artists such as Iron & Wine, The Weather Station, Anaïs Mitchell, and Sandy Denny.
During her solo career, Sophie Janna has performed on various stages worldwide. She was the opening act for Small Houses and she toured through Germany and America. She has also performed at many (international) festivals, such as The Brave, Tandem, Offbeat, Nest Collective Campfire Club and Knockengorroch. These are just a few examples of the highlights of her career.
"It’s a play on words I guess. Sitting inside writing on a sunday afternoon instead of out in the sun driving or riding or at the lake with my friends. Ride on Sundys is about the guilt of being sad and trying to bandage it with isolation."
The ten songs on Sara Bug’s forthcoming self-titled debut album were not meant to be shared. A culmination of seven years of her life, these songs were journal entries that reckoned with defining herself. Growing up in New Orleans, Bug imagined herself to be a successful songwriter. “I was so deep in the music. ‘Oh, I'm going to be a famous musician. When I get out of high school, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go have a career in music,’” she explains. “I think I held on to that for so long, I had finally kind of let go, like that pressure. Now it was just fun.” This eponymous project embodies Bug’s journey away from the expectations of others and her younger self, allowing her creative freedom.
Sara Bug opens with a lush, symphonic ballad about desire. “My whole life through, I want to die with you,” she sings tenderly on “Die With You.” Romantic and a bit morbid, Bug opens with the oldest song on the album and takes us to that time when the urgency of her happiness began pushing against the pressure of others’ approval. It's easy to get lost in the dreamy guitar strums and sturdy bass lines, Bug’s voice sharp and clear against the country-psych rock combination. A close listen reveals that Bug is letting the listener into the most poignant moments of the past years with sincerity and ease. She takes us on reflective motorcycle rides, whether literal or desired, for “Rosebank” and “Ride On Sundys.” She details the loss of a family member and a trip back home from her then-residence in New York on “Lotta Pride.” Inspired by the detailed storytelling of Dolly Parton and Neil Young, Bug leads across state lines and along her timeline of personal growth with unconventional, vivid song structures.
There’s a ‘beauty in tragedy’ and ‘dreaminess to heartache’ that Canadian multi-instrumentalist Esther Spiegelman — and group Let’s Be Giants — weave into their encapsulating new single, “I Don’t Mind”. Landing ahead of the Montreal-based band’s forthcoming album, Fade In / Fade Out, the song features simple lyrics with a profound message; Spiegelman both implores you to listen, and also hear what she’s feeling, what she’s wishing, and what she's needing.
Drawing on the nostalgia of 90s soundscapes — think Liz Phair asking Dolores O’Riordan to the dance, only to find out that Mazzy Starr was the opening band — “I Don’t Mind” lulls you into memories of heartbreak, but with an air of hope that you’ll survive this, too. Having fronted several outfits over her tenure as a singer/songwriter, it was Spiegelman’s assembly of Let’s Be Giants where she found her niche. After recruiting Jeremie Dallaire on guitar, Matt Wozniak on bass, and Simon Pesant on drums, songs Spiegelman had started penning began to take a life form all their own.
“Esther often writes songs about being in her own head, and in her own world, where she can view things the way she wants to,” says the band. “As an introvert, she writes a lot about what goes on in her mind, and often references not wanting to go out into the real world.
“‘I Don’t Mind’ is the perfect example of that,” they continue. “It’s especially the ‘I don’t mind, change my mind’ lyrics that provide listeners with the possibility of change and hope.”
As a song that delves into the core of ‘human spirit,’ and challenges it to leave it all on the dance floor, the subsequent music video is another brainchild of Spiegelman where she found her creativity not only in song and on screen, but also behind the lens.
Nashville songwriter Sara Bug (the name is an old family nickname due to her diminutive stature) describes herself this way, with her usual wry humor: World's finest southern-kitsch artist. born in Mississippi, raised in Louisiana, stuck in Nashville. Her songs balance that humor with deep feeling, which lets them hit hard and stay light at the same time. Add in her distinctive and fantastic vocals (occasionally sounding quite a bit like Dolly Parton, as on country standout "Back in Nashville") and you have a terrific new artist to watch. Her second single is "Die With You" .
The ten songs on Sara Bug’s forthcoming self-titled debut album were not meant to be shared. A culmination of seven years of her life, these songs were journal entries that reckoned with defining herself. Growing up in New Orleans, Bug imagined herself to be a successful songwriter. “I was so deep in the music. ‘Oh, I'm going to be a famous musician. When I get out of high school, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go have a career in music,’” she explains. “I think I held on to that for so long, I had finally kind of let go, like that pressure. Now it was just fun.” This eponymous project embodies Bug’s journey away from the expectations of others and her younger self, allowing her creative freedom.
Sara Bug opens with a lush, symphonic ballad about desire. “My whole life through, I want to die with you,” she sings tenderly on “Die With You.” Romantic and a bit morbid, Bug opens with the oldest song on the album and takes us to that time when the urgency of her happiness began pushing against the pressure of others’ approval. It's easy to get lost in the dreamy guitar strums and sturdy bass lines, Bug’s voice sharp and clear against the country-psych rock combination. A close listen reveals that Bug is letting the listener into the most poignant moments of the past years with sincerity and ease. She takes us on reflective motorcycle rides, whether literal or desired, for “Rosebank” and “Ride On Sundys.” She details the loss of a family member and a trip back home from her then-residence in New York on “Lotta Pride.” Inspired by the detailed storytelling of Dolly Parton and Neil Young, Bug leads across state lines and along her timeline of personal growth with unconventional, vivid song structures.
After moving to Nashville in 2013, the pressure of perfecting a craft in a notoriously famous city for honing musical skills only added mountains of stress. “I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be awesome. I'm going to be around other musicians all the time, it's going to be inspiring and force me to work harder on my music.’ It kind of had the opposite effect for me unexpectedly,” she admits. “It feels hard sometimes to do your craft and your thing in a real way without feeling super judged or feeling if you're not at a certain level your art doesn't matter. And honestly, that's part of the reason I kind of grew apart from the idea of even making music at all. I didn't like the pressure in Nashville that I felt when I first moved there.”
As the album comes to a close we’re left with an ending and a new beginning. “Lift this weight off my shoulder, stop believing that my beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder,” she sings on “The Beholder.” Here, we’re witness to Bug accepting and working through insecurity. But the closer “Back In Nashville” mocks the pressure that led Sara Bug to initially question her musical chops. “I told myself, I wanted to write a cheesy country song about not wanting to be in like the most country city in the United States,” she laughs. Sara Bug captures a weird, but integral period of growth for the pensive musician. Her debut defines a period of questioning that Bug conquered in order to realize that music is exactly what she should be doing. That letting go can be a new kind of permission. - Margaret Farrell.
I Ya Toyah has released her latest single, Out of Order.’ The track, written, produced, and performed by I Ya Toyah and produced, mixed and mastered by Nick Palazzo, is available on all streaming platforms on February 12th. The music video for the first single, was filmed by Joel Lopez of Lumbra Productions.
‘Out of Order is the first of 5 singles of her sophomore EP, titled the same name. The EP is set to release on March 26th exclusively on bandcamp, June 18th on all streaming services, and is available for pre-order on bandcamp. Everyone who pre-orders instantly gets the streaming and download access to Out of Order the single, as well as another single in February.
This latest single features I Ya Toyah's powerful, sensual vocals, expressive lyrics, melodic guitars, aggressive synths and deep, resonating drum beats, which all come together to paint a vision of disturbia and a dystopian reality full of chaos, pain, and hope.
“I couldn't hold back, I gave it all. All my pandemic moods processed through my brain and ended up here to explode, both sonically and visually. I wrote it feeling these emotions and being unable to share them as we all used to- through the togetherness, a hug, and live music experience, says I Ya Toyah of her latest single. In the future, the pandemic will be over, but the need for this connection will remain. I hope this song will be a reminder of how we survived this dark time, and how fragile yet strong we all are- even when we are out of order.
I Ya Toyah is currently awaiting new tour dates confirmations with Stabbing Westward and her Northwest US and Canadian tour, as they got postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic spread.
Big Little Lions have been described as ‘a blissful marriage of new folk and sophisticated pop’. Prolific songwriting, infectious folk-pop style, and an offbeat, memorable live show. This award winning duo consists of Helen Austin and Paul Otten who, despite living thousands of miles apart, have found a way to connect and create music together.
Despite being in two different countries, they have found common ground to share their message. Call it destiny, or call it fate, call it a necessary progression for these modern times. Helen lives in British Columbia, Canada and Paul lives in Cincinnati, OH.
But the distance provides the necessity to create in a new way. Using technology as their ally and their differences as their strength. Their monthy single releases are their way of getting through this pandemic while all the usual album cyle release plans don’t make sense anymore. Their music is jam-packed with emotion and tight harmonies, the sound of two people working side-by-side.
The Pink Stones will release their debut album Introducing...The Pink Stones on April 9th via the New West Records imprint Normaltown Records. The 10-song set was produced by Henry Barbe (Drive-By Truckers, Deerhunter) and was recorded at Chase Park Transduction and the Barn in Athens, GA. Mixing elements of classic cosmic country, raucous rock’n’roll & indie rock, and fresh humor & heartaches, The Pink Stones are authoring a new chapter in the annals of Cosmic American Music and are within a new wave of young artists from the same college town that gave the world R.E.M., The B-52’s, Drive-By Truckers, Pylon, The Elephant 6 Recording Company, Widespread Panic, Vic Chesnutt, The Whigs, and more.
Frontman Hunter Pinkston explains that the track is “a metaphorical ballad” saying, “I wrote it in my first apartment in Athens. I was living alone and feeling pretty lonely—that ‘not a lot of friends in a new town’ sorta feeling that comes from moving away from home and losing people in the transition...It’s about ‘killing’ those feelings and memories that make you feel alone or lonely, while still being able to dig them back up when need be.”
Under The Radar previously premiered the video for the first single, “Blueberry Dream," saying the band "...conjures an other-worldly mix of country, indie, and barn-storming rock on their upcoming debut...The Pink Stones already are a fresh, left-of-field addition to the world of cosmic country." Naming the song one of the best of the week upon its release, Rolling Stone Country said “Athens, Georgia band The Pink Stones mine their town’s grand tradition of Southern jangle along with the swirl of cosmic country on 'Blueberry Dream,' from their upcoming debut Introducing… the Pink Stones. But rather than merely imitating those styles, the group injects them with something fresh and youthful, giving 'Blueberry Dream' a breezy, slacker-rock feel that hits like a ray of candy-coated sunshine."
Especially notable on Introducing...The Pink Stones is the band’s ability to intertwine joy, heartache and self-deprecating humor in songs. It’s a classic hat trick of country music that is all too easy to overplay and seem forced by modern Americana aspirants, but one which the band crafts perfectly. The end result is a fresh and exciting debut album from a great band.
While their average age is only 25, the band also features the music veteran John Neff, one of the founding members of the Drive-By Truckers, bringing his experience and sense of legacy to the group. The Pink Stones are Hunter Pinkston (Vocals, Guitar), Will Anderson (Piano, Vocals), Adam Wayton (Bass), Logan Brammer (Guitar, Vocals), John Neff (Pedal Steel), Jack Colclough (Drums).
We have a haunting new single from singer/songwriter Megan Wyler. Her first in seven years, the song is featured as the title music for Amazon Video’s new series Tell Me Your Secrets which is premiering on Friday. It starts off slow, ultimately building to a climactic crescendo that is so so satisfying.
A California native, Wyler released her 2013 debut Through The Noise while living in London. The album was praised by the likes of Nowness, Songwriting Magazine, Indie Shuffle who described her sound as “incredibly moving and luscious,” and Clash Magazine who called her music “subtle, delicate and very beautiful.”
For “The Calling” Wyler reunited with Through The Noise producer Adem Ilhan (Fridge, Silver Columns) as well as Grammy Award-winning mixer Mark Rankin (Adele, Florence + The Machine, Harry Styles), and multi-award-winning composer/producer Peter Raeburn (Under the Skin, Sexy Beast) who co-wrote the song.The song also features Alex Thomas on drums (Air, Anna Calvi, John Cale), and Matt Sweeney on guitar (Johnny Cash, Bonnie Prince Billy, Catpower). You can find more info in the press release below.
Tara was the singer/guitarist in early noughties Sydney band Guddling. After spending several years in the wilderness honing her hunting skills and dabbling in electronic music as Noot Records, she has returned to the thing she loves best.
She tells us "Lockdown hasn't been all bad - I've had a chance to crank out another rollicking tune and have a second album on the way! (I am trapped in Lisbon for the pandemic - wild, right?!)"
Tara's brand new song 'Bubble Girl', was recorded in Lisbon by Leopoldo Lopes at Sound Pressure Studios, using a virtual Aussie drummer Miles Thomas, with Tara on bass, guitar and vox. She say's "I wanted it to be fast and energetic to shake off the pandemic blues".
