Judson Claiborne have just released 'The Trimmergrant' along with a video, the song itself is strangely addictive and highly original, bet you have to give it atleast a second listen. ===== Hermitess returns with a new four song E.P entitled 'Celestial'. We featured 'Followers' from her last E.P back in June and this new collection is most welcome from this very talented artist. ===== Keegan Powell latest song 'Rock N Roll Kind Of Night' has already recieved considerable attention, that's not overly surprising as he delivers a timeless rocker with some melodic psych vibes.
Judson Claiborne, the Chicago-based project and a moniker for ex-Low Skies frontman, Christopher Salveter has this week shared his new single, "The Trimmergrant" via La Société Expéditionnaire (Strand of Oaks, Daniel Knox).
"The Trimmergrant"t' is a track that exposes the strange lawlessness behind the Redwood Curtain with Salvater lamenting the tragic disappearance of marijuana trimmers in the mountains of Humboldt County, CA. It comes ahead of the new EP, When a Man Loves an Omen which is out Nov 13.
Briefly recapping, Chris is previously known for his work as a founding member and frontperson of the Pitchfork-tipped "apocalyptic desert rock" band, Low Skies (signed to Flamethrower Records, also Russian Circles, Mannequin Men) who supported the likes of Explosions in the Sky, Neko Case and Band of Horses in their time. This new EP comes off the back of four previous releases – earlier material included a slew of noteworthy guests: members of Mute Duo, Tal National, Roommate, and Drag City Records signees – as Judson Claiborne which found the band opening for Bill Callahan, John Grant and Lower Dens.
As Judson Claiborne, Christopher dials down the apocalyptic murder ballads and desert dirges of Low Skies to find something more reflective and in-tune with his storytelling nature (earlier tracks reference tree-dwelling bank robbers, a self-immolating anti-war activist, a disappeared marijuana trimmer amongst other characters).
Hermitess is putting out another EP this year, entitled 'Celestial' it's actually out today Thursday. It's ben described as "somewhat spontaneous and a bit of a surprise!"
Celestial is a four song EP by Hermitess. Recorded in the summer of 2020 under a mixture of unforeseen circumstances, an act that was speculative and hopeful in strange times. Mostly self produced and recorded, it plots new possibilities for future creations. Celestial is the second in a series of EP’s that build upon each other both in theme and sound. Cascading harps and and voices combined with programmed beats, and unexpected instrumental touches such as pedal steel and saxophone, suggesting deep folk roots colliding with the modern times.
Hermitess releases are concepts gathered around a chosen theme, each one a small world contained like a vignette in a snowglobe. Celestial is meant as a bit of a counterpoint and companion to the Tower Ep which came out this summer. At its core Celestial is about finding orientation in a time that feels very disorienting. Like the starry void it aims to conjure, this EP speaks to being untethered and not knowing what the future holds, while taking stock of what it means to be human with a shared worldly existence.
Keegan Powell is a Toronto-based songwriter/guitarist/singer. Powell started his journey writing and recording in Teenage Kicks (Resolute/EMI) as guitarist on their debut album ‘Spoils Of Youth’ recorded with Alain Johannes (Queens Of The Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures).
While being guitarist and co-songwriter for Dine Alone Records/Captured Tracks band Chastity, Powell has also released several singles and EP’s under his own name.
His first single ‘The Door’, released 2018, was included on Apple Music’s Breaking Rock Playlist. His latest EP “Is+Was” featured singles, ‘Beginning Of Life’, featured on CBC radio 3, and ‘All The Love’, which sound-tracked acclaimed director Kazik Radwanski’s film, ‘Anne At 13,000’. Powell’s debut solo LP is slated for a 2021 release.
Sun June share a new music video for 'Karen O' along with announcing their new album 'Somewhere' due next February. Karen O is a seductive, dreamy indie rock song with plenty of atmosphere. ===== Randell Bramblett has a forty year musical career and has worked with a good number of rock and blues finest artists. With a new album due next month he gives us a stylish yet natural rocker in the form of 'Rocket To Nowhere' to mull over ahead of the release. ===== Flor and the Sea recently shared a video for 'A Candid Lie' and it's a sumptuous indie, electro song that is gorgeously arranged.
Austin indie-pop 5-piece Sun June have announced their new album Somewhere with a music video for "Karen O." The album will be released February 5, 2021 via Keeled Scales and Run For Cover.
Somewhere is Sun June at their most decadent, a richly diverse album which sees them exploring bright new corners with full hearts and wide eyes. Embracing a more pop-oriented sound the album consists of eleven beautiful new songs and is deliberately more collaborative and fully arranged: Laura played guitar for the first time; band members swapped instruments, and producer Danny Reisch helped flesh out layers of synth and percussion that provides a sweeping undercurrent to the whole thing.
They've called this album their 'prom' record; a sincere, alive-in-the-moment snapshot of the heady rush of love. "The prom idea started as a mood for us to arrange and shape the music to, which we hadn't done before," the band explains. " Prom isn't all rosy and perfect. The songs show you the crying in the bathroom, the fear of dancing, the joy of a kiss - all the highs and all the lows."
“ 'Karen O' is one of the only songs we've written that takes place over the course of a single night, and we hope we captured what it feels like when you're completely worn out but can't bring yourself to go home and go to sleep. It's about the kind of night you let heartache swallow you whole, and you find yourself heading straight toward the things you should be running away from. The actual Karen O is a hero of ours of course, and in the song, she spurs on a lonely night of reflection about what could be versus what can't. It covers some of our favorite topics-love, performance, regret, and hereditary drinking problems-and explores how we sometimes choose to heighten grief rather than reduce it. It also features a voicemail mailbox, which is unfortunate.
We shot the video out on a Texas Hill Country ranch with a spotlight ranchers use to check on cattle at night (very Texas of us). We thought the stage lights and disco ball helped draw out the connection between feeling an emotion and performing it, both for yourself and others. We got lucky and happened to shoot during a lightning storm, so we went full melodrama with it."
Randall Bramblett will release Pine Needle Fire on November 13th, 2020 via New West Records. The 12-song set was produced by Bramblett and Gerry Hansen and is the follow up to his acclaimed 2017 album Juke Joint At The Edge Of The World. In addition to his solo work over the course of his illustrious 40-plus-year career, Bramblett has recorded, performed and composed alongside rock luminaries like Gregg Allman, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Winwood, The Band’s Levon Helm, Widespread Panic, Marc Cohn, and more. With Pine Needle Fire, he recognizes a thread throughout its songs. Bramblett says it is “about time passing, or at least grappling with the realization that you don’t have an infinite amount of time left like you think you do when you’re young.
So there’s the mortality part of it. And then another part has to do with our current situation in this country. I grew up protesting in the ‘60s and ‘70s, so I’ve always felt connected to politics. Now I’m really hung up on it. And you look around and there’s a lot of people that are kind of desperate for change and for justice...or maybe they’re just desperate. They’re trying to hang on in this world. I’m one of them. Most of us are, to some degree.” These everyday people populate Pine Needle Fire, in which Bramblett provides a clear-eyed and engagingly detailed study of lives ordinary and unconventional, loves resilient and vanished and moments that have passed and are also yet to come.
Bramblett previously shared the album track “I’ve Got Faith In You,” calling the song “... genuine and trustworthy, a pierce of sunlight through those dark clouds we seem to be encountering all too often these days." “I’ve Got Faith In You” comes complete with something of a musical bonus: a slide-guitar melody performed on Duane Allman’s famous 1961/1962 Gibson SG. It’s the same one heard on the Allman Brothers’ legendary At Fillmore East and particularly famous for being the instrument played on the live recording of “Statesboro Blues.”
Bramblett said, “Pine Needle Fire is filled with people on their different journeys through life…experiencing loss, getting up before dawn to go to work, knowing time is running out, remembering lost love, hearing the wolf at the door and feeling lucky to be alive. Jason Slatton and I wrote ‘I’ve Got Faith in You’ several years ago. I thought it fit in nicely on the record as a voice of encouragement and support. We were able to borrow Duane Allman’s original Gibson SG for that session and my old friend, Tommy Talton, used it to play a beautiful slide guitar solo. Since Tommy knew Duane when they were both living in Macon, GA, using that guitar created a circle of sound and memory for us all. It helped capture the feeling of longing and hope that we needed to complete the record.”
About Candid Lie - The video’s festival setting is a familiar and bittersweet sight to all music lovers in a time of global anxiety. Two masked characters (later revealed to be band members Marc Aretz and Chaem) cavort in the crowd, intercut with performance footage of Flor and the Sea onstage. It’s a contrast that highlights their tinderbox potential, realised sonically through their exemplary future pop sound on this standout track. The new wave atmospherics, vibrant and fluid guitar fills and unforgettable refrains reveal a band who have written the atmospheric foot stomper they set out to write. Produced at their Munich studio with the help of Dieter Dolezel and mixed by Moritz Enders at the hit-making Tritonus Studio in Berlin, Flor and the Sea have created a masterly indie pop anthem that radiates the joys of summer, freedom and untrammelled optimism.
About Kings & Queens - The songs of Flor and the Sea’s debut EP Kings & Queens invite their listeners to surrender themselves to the stream of music: to dream, to dance and to defy the world’s insistent tumult for a moment. Rich in stylistic fusion, pop elements meld with electronica references throughout their songwriting, inviting a host of esoteric influences from dubstep to synth pop to trap to join them. It’s a melting pot of style that recalls the work of Flume, Miike Snow or Alt-J. Co-produced by composer Dieter Dolezel and mixed by Moritz Enders (Casper, Kraftclub), the songs are a multidimensional exploration of sound. From the lilting, mythology-evoking arpeggios of ‘Arcadia’ to the propulsive electro ambience of ‘Dark Minds’, and the bleak dystopian piano keys chiming throughout ‘Reconnect’, Kings & Queens reveals a restless group with a unique musical chemistry, one not keen on travelling the same musical road twice.
Munich-based indie/electropop duo Flor and the Sea was originally founded in 2015 as a five-piece project. With the release of debut singles ‘Hold Your Breath’ and ‘Shed No Tear’, as well as bigger live gigs at Digital/Analog Festival and the Muffat Winterfest among others, the band generated a lot of buzz in short time and was featured as ‘Band of the Week’ by the Suddeutsche Zeitung/SZ Junge Leute in early 2017. After the band split up later that year, Marc Aretz (guitar/synth) and Chaem (vox) decided to keep Flor and the Sea alive as a duo. They redesigned their sound from scratch, incorporating influences from bands like Alt J, Radiohead and Portishead. The singles ‘Dark Minds’ and ‘Reconnect’ were birthed from the rubble and led to widespread acclaim, receiving regular airplay on radio stations like Ego-FM, Bayern 3, M94.5 and BR Puls, and landing positive reviews on international blogs like Composer's Toolbox and York Calling. Capping it all, the duo performed live on Radio Fritz ‘Live on Air’ for the first time. Alongside the production of their debut EP Kings & Queens, Flor and The Sea also resumed live performances in 2019 and put together an elaborate new program with their own light show, visuals, masks, and the support of additional live musicians. A first taste of this show was presented at renowned festivals Theatron Musiksommer and Sound of Munich Now in 2019.
Lauren Hulbert returns to Beehive Candy just a month after we were first introduced to her. The new single 'Honeydew' is another beautiful, arresting and melodic song.
Speaker Face have released their album 'Crescent' this week. We have already shared two songs from the collection and are really impressed with the remaining tracks including the new single 'Call Me Out' which once again emphasizes the bands genre defying yet gorgeous music.
Lauren Hulbert has just released “Honeydew”. The light-hearted, sweet melodic journey expresses the joy and magic of opening up to pure love. Twinkling synths draw the imagination into full bloom while jingle bells shower the listener into euphoria. The single is off her upcoming EP, Superbloom, due out October 30.
Hulbert wrote the song while living with her ex-boyfriend in Ecuador. They had rented an apartment in Quito with an incredible view down a mountain valley. After traveling together for months, she says, “I think I was happy to be in one place, making a temporary home, in our own space, with a nice, friendly neighbor and a little bodega at the end of our alleyway. It was a really cute spot. We got to make a little life for ourselves. We had a lot of hope for our future together and I remember that feeling really good.” The song reflects that feeling of hope and starting each day fresh: “Honeydew first light of dawn. Start anew. A day is born. Honey, do you love me? Like the dew wash over me and I will bloom for you.”
Superbloom was inspired not only by the sound of the EP itself but also by Hulbert blooming back to life; following a dangerous foot injury while on a surf trip in Indonesia, she was practically immobile for six months and it was unclear if she’d ever be able to walk again. While the music for this EP didn’t come from the injury, it was a very dark time for her – life, as she knew it, had ended, and her artistic momentum was devastatingly quelled. Fortunately, over a year later, she has healed and credits the experience as terrifying but ultimately beneficial – one that allowed her to reassess her life, align with what’s important and has made her all the more grateful for health and opportunity – and to be performing and sharing her music again.
The Oakland, California singer-songwriter has lived worldwide- from East Coast to West Coast, and Thailand to Ecuador. Her dreamy vocals have been leaving audiences breathless for years, enchanting listeners with her warm, winsome, highly personal combination of folk, alternative country-rock, and atmospheric semi-acoustic pop. The singer has a diversified palate: while she is currently a folk-pop artist, she began competing in Bach and classical festivals as a kid. She can switch back and forth between her classically trained piano skills or self-taught guitar expertise easily. Her favorite lyrical subject is the human condition; she finds inspiration in every feeling, emotion, and situation to create lyrically dense and bona fide tracks. It’s important for Lauren to vocalize and visualize her experiences and hardships into muses to build connections and heal others.
The self-produced, genre-less album Crescent is out this week and Speaker Face have this to say about the album and the latest single. "We believe that electronic music can meld with folk and singer/songwriter music to enhance and transform it".
They continue - The record's newest single, "Call Me Out," is about patience and providing space for someone while they work through their feelings. Listen, learn, and give someone as much support as you are able. The jagged beats and nostalgic chord progression further the feel of disjointedness, while maintaining a touching and mesmerizing groove.
Lose yourself in the trancy loop of "Call Me Out" while meditating on the intimate feeling of caring for someone so deeply that you are willing to walk alongside them through their dark times. Celebrate the strength of compassion and understanding.
Our last album was an exploration of electronic music, and with Crescent, we maintained the idea of no rules while stripping away any nonsense and focusing on simplicity. There's space for the instruments to exhale, space for the beat to permeate, space for the voice to feel free.
For you to be transported and muse about a past love, a failed relationship, a joyful moment, jumping into the water from a cliff, or sitting by a campfire… that is all we could hope for.
Misty Coast have a new video for their wonderful song 'In a Million Years' where the familiar vocals of Linn Frøkedal once again shine against a rich musical backdrop. ==== Anna Krantz has shared 'Blessed Are The Free' along with a video, the song is fast flowing and melodic with hints of Americana. ==== Loaver returns to Beehive Candy with 'Apart' the final single to be taken from her October 30th, debut album 'Fern', and from we've heard so far promises to be a very creative and mixed genre collection.
Misty Coast have released a new video for ‘In A Million Years’
The video tells a sort of four-dimensional sci-fi story that takes place in a common apartment. We see three women interacting in the same spaces without crossing each other's path. Are they all different personalities of the same human being?
Like an intergalactic Kim Deal, vocalist Linn Frøkedal’s reverb and distortion laden vocals are layered over a heavenly backdrop of fuzz, drawing in the listener like a piece of debris into a black hole.
“the song represents a recurring theme on the album, and it lingers in thoughts about whether we should choose to ignore the reality outside of what we experience as our world - or if we should dare to seek a larger, perhaps unpleasant truth."
“Wake up to life in colour, don’t you want it” - Anna Krantz
‘Blessed Are The Free’ is the second song in Krantz’s “New moon new tune” series of releases. Co-written with Jessica Sharman (co-writer of Ward Thomas’s #1 song, Cartwheels) “Blessed Are The free” is an uplifting and relatable offering and follows “We Could Be High” which recently featured on RTE Radio 1’s recommends playlist.
At a time when the world was in a state of uncertainty and relative stillness, Krantz began to reflect on the concept of freedom:
“I wasn’t allowed to fly to London and see my family or show my masked smile to a stranger. I wasn’t allowed to go out for a meal with my boyfriend or grab a coffee with a girlfriend. I wasn’t even allowed to be in the same room with Jessica to write the song. Like everyone else, so much of my freedom had been removed. Yet I felt free in my spirit and happy in my heart. This me made wonder what freedom actually means and how it can be accessed from within as opposed to without.”
After sharing past stories and new insights, Sharman and Krantz created this catchy, uptempo number. Her yearning voice soars high above the track’s bouncy shuffle, creating a whirlwind of emotions set to rouse the heart and fortify the soul.
The self-produced track was played by a number of Krantz’s favourite Nashville musicians and was Mixed by Craig Alvin who mixed and engineered Kacey Musgrave’s multi Grammy winning album, Golden Hour. The perfectly crafted sincere single sets the bar high again with a timeless quality of song writing and a satisfying freshness for the ever- shifting 2020 landscape.
Malmö, Sweden, based singer-songwriter Linnea Hall started her solo project Loaver with a desire to be able to showcase all sides of her experiences and inspirations. On October 30th, debut album 'Fern' is released via Rama Lama Records. 'Apart' is the last single taken from the album and is out now.
Linnea Hall on Apart: "Apart was originally written for the Opera Festival in Brescia, Italy, in 2018. The song plays with an excerpt from Arrigo Boito’s Mephistopheles, why "he" in the end alludes to the rapture or, if one so wishes, the evil in us. Otherwise, the song is mostly a bundle of questions or reflections of the loneliness we share."
In 2019, she put out her self-titled debut EP on Birds Records. The music – experimental, smooth and dark pop at its finest – was written and recorded in Italy during 2017, in close collaboration with artists such as Giovanni Ferrario (PJ Harvey, John Parish etc.), who produced the tracks, and Emanuele Maniscalco. Through the six tracks we were drawn between the uttermost boundaries of emotions – love, hate, dreams, doubt, chaos and naivety. The new record is once again recorded in Italy but this time in collaboration with Emanuele Maniscalco and Carlo Poddighe.
Early 2020, Loaver returned with new single 'Drömmeri (om döden)' on Rama Lama Records (Melby, Chez Ali, Julia Rakel, Steve Buscemi's Dreamy Eyes). The single, a pendant to Debussy's Reverie, is a memoriam to Linnea's grandmother that was released on her death day. This was the first taste of the upcoming album that's packed with highly unique and instantly memorable tracks, like the slow burner 'Bloom With Me', the shapeshifting 'Forget All About' and captivating 'Apart'.
The debut LP 'Fern' sees Loaver develop her creative pop and experiments with trip hop, singer-songwriter, dream pop, jazz and bedroom pop elements that together with Hall's splendid vocals and personal lyrics create a hauntingly beautiful soundscape.
