Montgomery Church - Sue Foley - Dot Allison

Montgomery Church - The Great Divide.

Cielle Montgomery and James Church are Montgomery Church - a blend of acoustic folk, Americana and bluegrass influences, grown and distilled in the Snowy Mountain ranges of country New South Wales.

With their organic union of dobro and guitar, harmony vocals and thoughtful songwriting, this captivating duo are enthralling in their dynamic intimacy and offer up some of the sweetest darn sounds being heard around

Australia's alt. country scene right now! Since their formation, Montgomery Church have been quietly but quickly gathering a fan base who site their undeniable chemistry as a rare and beautiful thing to see live.

"Montgomery Church are like the Australian version of Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings but if Gillian was the daughter of Allison Krauss...sitting on a porch, with tea not whiskey... I'm a tad obsessed! The most graceful duo literally gracing stages right now!" - Fanny Lumsden

“The Great Divide” is written about a defining time in Australian history when strangers from all corners of the world emigrated to the Snowy Mountains of NSW to accomplish one of the greatest engineering feats of our time - the building of 'The Snowy Scheme'. This snapshot is seen through the eyes of a post-war immigrant worker who, along with over 100,000 others, risked their lives whilst enduring the harsh mountain climate and extreme working conditions to achieve this extraordinary conquest. Featuring Church’s hallmark sound on dobro & lead vocals as the centre piece of this track, it’s hard not to get swept up in the raw emotion and sheer magnitude of this historic tale.

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Sue Foley - Dallas Man.

Stony Plain Records announces an October 22 release date for Pinky’s Blues, the new album from award-winning blues guitarist/singer Sue Foley. Featuring several Sue Foley originals, as well as songs from some of her favorite blues and roots artists, Pinky’s Blues was recorded at Fire Station Studios in San Marcos, Texas. Joining Sue Foley (guitar, vocals) for the recording sessions were Jon Penner (bass), Chris “Whipper” Layton (drums) and Mike Flanigin (Hammond B3 organ), who also produced the album.

To support the release of her new disc, Foley will embark on an extensive tour schedule that includes both an official showcase at the upcoming September Americana Music Conference in Nashville, as well as a set at the Kessler Day Party Showcase during the conference.

Pinky’s Blues is the follow up to Sue Foley’s breakout album The Ice Queen, released in 2018. Foley’s new album is a raw, electric guitar driven romp through the backroads of Texas blues, with Foley’s signature pink paisley Fender Telecaster, “Pinky,” at the wheel. She won “Best Traditional Female (Koko Taylor Award)” at the 2020 Blues Music Awards in Memphis, was nominated for a Juno Award (Canadian Grammy), and she took home the award for “Best Guitar Player” at the Toronto Maple Blues Awards. For the last few years Foley and her band have kept a rigorous touring schedule across the USA, Canada and Europe. Some highlights were appearances at The Beacon Theater (NYC), guesting with Jimmie Vaughan (opening for Eric Clapton) at Royal Albert Hall in London, Montreal Jazz Fest, Ottawa Blues Fest (w/ Buddy Guy), Moulin Blues (Holland), NPR’s Mountainstage (with Bela Fleck), Doheny Blues Fest, and the Jungle Show in Austin, Texas.

The disc’s first single, “Dallas Man,” also bears special significance to Foley. “I realized when I wrote 'Dallas Man' it was just about all these great guitar players from Dallas and right around there,” Foley says. "I've always been infatuated with Blind Lemon Jefferson and had been reading about him and working up some of his songs. Between Blind Lemon Jefferson and Frankie Lee Sims, and then working on some Freddie King and always watching Jimmie Vaughan came the idea of 'Dallas Man.' Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan, Freddie King, T-Bone Walker, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Frankie Lee Sims, Anson Funderburgh, Zuzu Bollin, Doyle Bramhall II, Denny Freeman and Derek O'Brien all came from that area. That's almost a whole album right there!”

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Photo Maria Mochnacz

Dot Allison - One Love.

From her first album release in twelve years Heart-Shaped Scars, Dot Allison premieres the tranquil new video for "One Love," the third single from the critically acclaimed album.  "We ended up shooting the video on what turned out to be two piping hot days in July in and around Bristol & Wales " says Director Maria Mochnacz, (PJ Harvey's longtime visual collaborator). She adds, "We did keep an eye on the weather and move dates to fit to make sure we got good weather as the video was entirely weather dependent but had no idea it would be quite so hot! 

It was myself, John Minton - wonderful low fi experimental camera man and all round one man band, and Honor and Hopey Parish - I've known Honor and Hopey all their lives, from before they were born!  During one of the lockdown stages I went to sit in their garden - and they started doing a KPop dance - so I stored that memory away and asked them if they'd be up for being in this video...we drove off in John's car the four of us with my giant mirror ball packed in the boot and a whole host of other low fi lighting devices…"

"One Love" is about someone feeling unsure in a relationship, needing reassurance. "The flower metaphors are rare flowers used to signify a rare,  precious, all encompassing love.  Blood Camellia suggests flesh, veins and a pulse, Fire Lilies imbue a sense of passion and Juliette Rose seems to hint at Shakespeare,” Allison says of the single.

Heart-Shaped Scars gathers many threads of Allison’s broad interests – not just musical but literary, philosophical and her interest in science and nature are integral to Heart-Shaped Scars overall aesthetic.. Allison’s father was a botanist, and her mother a musician; eventually, the DNA of music took this former bio-chemistry student in a very different direction – and with good reason too.

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Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters - Heavy Manners - We Were Promised Jetpacks - TeenCanteen - King Park - Jessica Smucker

Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters - Dallas / Reverie.

Since April, Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters have been releasing music from their upcoming collection, The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea, a concept suite built from songs recorded under the straitened circumstances of quarantine and envisioned as a “deconstructed album,” released, not as a package, but in a series of paired singles, with each pair drawing on both of the titular concept’s two sides. 

The latest, “Dallas” and “Reverie,” finds the Organic Records artist bearing down on unanswered questions, whether they’re framed in a slowly simmering country-rocker (“Dallas”) or by the more introverted, acoustic treatment of “Reverie.”

“‘Dallas’ is kind of a tribute to our old tour van, Toby (no vehicle of mine goes without a name),” Platt notes — though, as is often the case, the ostensive subject barely makes an appearance in the song’s lyric — ”and also to all that went on in the years I spent traveling the country in that van. 

It’s weird to look back on that time and realize how young I was for a lot of it. This is a song about feeling older but maybe not any wiser…or wiser just by virtue of understanding how little you know. The track features Kevin Williams on keys and my dad, Mark Platt, on harmonica.”

Amanda Anne Platt · Dallas

 

Amanda Anne Platt · Reverie

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Heavy Manners - Flamin' First (2021 Fresh Mix).

The reason for the release of the new mix is that Heavy Manners are featured in two new Ska-centric books! In Defense of Ska by Aaron Carnes and was released in May; Skaboom! An American Ska & Reggae Oral History by Marc Wasserman was released on July 27.

Heavy Manners formed in the early 80s and both headlined and played support slots at Chicago's earliest punk, Reggae, and new wave clubs, including Tuts and Park West. They opened for a wide array of national and international acts including The English Beat, The Clash, Third World, Jimmy Cliff, The Ramones, The Go-Gos, Grace Jones, and Peter Tosh, who produced tracks for the band that would appear on a 7" record and later a CD and 12".

Heavy Manners, who have played out sporadically in the last decade, is comprised of vocalist Kate Fagan, vox/sax/keyboard player Frankie Hill, drummer Shel Lustig, guitarist Mitch Kohlhagen, multi-instrumentalist and singer Kevin Smith and bassist Joe Thomas (who replaced original bass player Jimi Robinson, who passed away in 2018).

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We Were Promised Jetpacks - Not Me Anymore.

Scottish alt-rock trio We Were Promised Jetpacks today share a new cut from their forthcoming album Enjoy The View – single ‘Not Me Anymore’ showcases a different side to the band. Moving away from the complex guitar driven rock they’ve become known for, the track offers a change of pace and a glimpse into what to expect from Enjoy The View, which is released on 10th September via Big Scary Monsters.

Talking about the track, lead vocalist Adam Thompson says; “I started this song within a few days of us having finished recording our 4th album. I had felt completely lost leading up to recording that album but after finishing recording it, I began to feel like I was turning it around and that maybe everything was going to be ok. I didn’t necessarily feel it was going to be a song for a Jetpacks record but once we got into writing this album together, we felt it that it definitely had its place along side everything else we were working on. We loved our demo version of this song so kept it pretty true to that when recording it. All the vocals were a sort of stream of thought, and we kept it that way. We were originally thinking of putting this song in the middle of the record as a bit of an aural break but by the time of submitting the track list we couldn’t see it being anywhere else but first.”

Accompanying video by Adam Keene and Mathew Marchlewski also highlights the theme of change and progression. “The concept of not being yourself anymore evokes an image that never ceases to change. An evolution of life in motion. Labels peel away and leave the underneath unrecognisable. That’s where we connected with the song, and that’s where we went” they said of the video.

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TeenCanteen - How We Met (Cherry Pie).

To mark the five year anniversary of their lauded debut album, Say It All With A Kiss, Glasgow four-piece TeenCanteen have decided to unleash This Is How It Starts, the collection of recordings that should have been their debut album four years prior.

This Is How It Starts is a raw, fresh exciting record that captures the buzz that surrounded TeenCanteen when they first burst onto the scene, it’s a record full of joyous eccentricities, delightful pop drenched harmonies and some Scottish indie pop royalty cameos to boot (Duglas T. Stewart (BMX Bandits) and Eugene Kelly (The Vaselines)), but ultimately it’s the sound of friends making music together, finding their feet and gives huge insight into the begins of an exciting band.

TeenCanteen are Glasgow formed four-piece known for their sticky soda pop harmonies, stomping beats and classic pop sensibilities, they were championed by BBC 6Music’s Marc Riley and went on to release SAY Award long listed album Say It All With A Kiss (2016) and acclaimed EP Sirens (2017).

Lead vocalist/synth player Carla Easton comments: “Having written and released five albums I can look back at this with different eyes and I think it’s good, it’s energetic, it’s the sound of four friends in a room having fun learning as they go and discovering how they sound together. This Is How It Starts is a key part of our journey and story that has been lost and overlooked.

TeenCanteen · HOW WE MET (CHERRY PIE)

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King Park - Coffee Cheques.

King Park has been turning out mercurial, high-contrast indie rock since they released their 2017 breakout track, “Stay.” Gritty and lush, the quartet’s sound mirrors the antitheses of their hometown, Hamilton, Ontario: on the one hand, blue-collar and raw, and, on the other, artful and lovely.

Following their self-released debut EP, The Light I Can’t See, King Park won the 97.7 HTZ-FM’s Rock Search 2018 contest, which helped launch other Canadian rock groups like Finger Eleven, the Trews, and Glorious Sons. The basement-to-ceiling intensity of their live show has since continued to earn them a growing and devoted following across southern Ontario.

At the heart of the group you’ll find childhood friends and musical co-conspirators Timon Moolman (vocals, guitar) and Tyler Heemskerk (bass, vocals), rounded out more recently by guitarist Brenden Campbell and the animated Nate Wall on drums.

Sneak peeks of their upcoming 2021 full-length, Everett, show the quartet exploiting its strengths. Guitars chime, drums thwack, and Moolman’s broken-up baritone—which often veers into shouted speak-sing—is ornamented one minute by barber shop harmonies, and the next by barstool gang vocals. Songs like “This is the End,” “Stuck in the Middle,” and the title track set up camp in that familiar moment after life has fallen apart, and before a way forward seems possible. King Park’s Everett promises a collection of elegies for ordinary, apocalyptic losses.

King Park · Coffee Cheques

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Jessica Smucker - Dinosaurs.

Lancaster, PA-based singer-songwriter Jessica Smucker is gearing up for the release of a new single, an irrepressibly catchy slice of synth pop called “Dinosaurs.”  The song balances melodic buoyancy provided by her five-piece band, with markedly darker themes that reflect a nagging sense of despair for a future that to her resembles a “slow-rolling apocalypse.”  

Indeed, the song wastes no time illustrating that fact as the opening lyric reads: “I thought the world would end in blood and bones...” Dark stuff for sure, but the song is not without a sense of optimism as well.  Ultimately, Smucker chooses living in the moment and embracing the hope found in nurturing a home and family and finding a fragile peace.  “Dinosaurs” will be released digitally on August 13.

Recorded at Kinsey Audio in Lancaster, PA and co-produced by Chad Kinsey and Matt Thomas, “Dinosaurs” features Thomas on synthesizers and organ, Mike Bitts (The Innocence Mission) on bass, and Paul Murr (Jeffrey Gaines, Fauna Flora) on drums. Megan Woodland Hewitt (The Wild Hymns) and Keith Wilson (Movies With Heroes) provide layered vocal harmonies and counter-melodies. The track was mixed by sound engineer and singer-writer Steve Ward (Cherry Twister), and mastered by Grammy-nominated sound engineer Philip Shaw Bova (Feist, Devendra Banhart, Angel Olsen).

The video, showcasing a stylized and slightly surreal version of her home life, was directed by Joe Terranova and produced by Reverie.

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Josienne Clarke - Alphanaut - The Hengles - Lia D'Sau - Tacsidermi

Josienne Clarke - The Collector.

“You’re the collector / You’ll keep me forever / A small unknowable thing / With you as preceptor,” Josienne Clarke sings on new single ‘The Collector’, a song inspired by writer John Fowles' novel of the same name. For her new album A Small Unknowable Thing, due out this Friday, Clarke is flying solo. No label, no musical partner, no producer. For the first time since her early beginnings, Clarke is in complete control of her songwriting, arranging, producing, release schedule and musical direction.

On 'The Collector', Clarke experimented with unusual sounds, marrying earthy folk with cutting industrial noise. Recording the sound of her phone interface via her Cornell amp, Clarke processed it using some Logic pre-sets to make a sound that eventually resembled an angle-grinder. It’s heavy noise grates and cuts, reflecting the horror of the woman’s treatment.  “Having read [Fowles’] book again, I just identified with some of the themes of it. [The protagonist] doesn’t see her as a human being. She has all this power and then none at all, because her’s was a power she’s unable to use for anything; the man’s was always greater. It’s a power that makes you really very vulnerable.”

It’s an experience the vast majority of women making music today can identify with. Despite writing a plethora of critically acclaimed songs, winning a BBC Folk Award, opening for Robert Plant on his European tour, playing prominent slots on some of the UK’s biggest festivals or even taking a leading role in The National Theatre’s revival of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good (after being personally chosen by Cerys Matthews no less), Clarke felt daily self-doubt as a result of an industry that variously gas-lit, put-down, questioned and othered. A Small Unknowable Thing is, at least in part, about recognising there are still existing structures to keep women in their place – but it’s also about having the courage to break those structures down too.

After leaving her label, musical partnership and home (Clarke moved to a small village on the outskirts of Glasgow with her husband), she started afresh. Gradually, as she slowly began to write and record once more, the album’s narrative arc emerged and Clarke found herself again. “It’s an empowered narrative, not a weak and vulnerable one,” Clarke says of the album. “It was a conscious decision to walk away from my career as it was and there’s a positive message on this record: there’s a lot of reclaiming the narrative.”

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Alphanaut - Shake the Rhythm

Avant-garde Southern Californian music collective, Alphanaut, are back with a dynamic new track. ‘Shake The Rhythm’ follows the release of lead single, ‘Virtual Love,’ along with the announcement of their album out on October 15th. 

As the second single, the bright horn section lends a big band influence, while the pizzicato chorus hook adds a playful pop element. This special album edit features a gradual chorus fade towards the end that’s taken over by a jazzy improv jam session where the musicians let go of traditional song structure and have some fun showing off their chemistry as a band.

Told through Mark Alan’s colorful vocals dripping with TLC, ‘Shake The Rhythm’ is about embracing your individuality and dancing to the beat of your own drum, even when it seems like everything is trying to stifle your shine. 

The uplifting animated video that accompanies the track is by artist, Matt Brown. Staying true to themselves and to the theme of the album, each track tells the stories of fictional characters that embrace their own unique place in the world; even if it is different than those around them.

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The Hengles - Find The Way.

The Hengles have never sounded more danceable than on their new single Find The Way! It’s going to move your feet! You just can’t stop the beat! Jingle-jangle Hengle Pop in its purest form, but with just that little extra twist, to give it that boogie feel. Bet you can’t resist a big smile on your face when you hear this golden tune. Simple as it may seem, meticulously crafted and styled in their Hok-P Studio near Amsterdam, to fit your precious ears. Yes, Pop music is a serious business!

You don’t have to Find The Way yourself, because it is already here. But if you do, remember where you heard it first!

In the past year, The Hengles have made considerable progress internationally. That resulted in airplay on radio in among others: Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, USA, UK, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Phillipines, Sweden, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Hungary and Austria. Singles from the band also entered the iTunes / Apple Music charts in: Netherlands, Finland, Belgium and Switzerland.

The distinguished gentlemen of The Hengles have more than earned their musical spurs in the past. The guys from Amsterdam played in illustrious 80s and 90s bands like Fatal Flowers, Treble Spankers, Supersub and Jack Of Hearts.

TCBYML · The Hengles - Find The Way

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Lia D'Sau - Bird.

For Lia D’Sau, songwriting is a declaration. The 18-year-old singer-songwriter explores her thoughts on womanhood, relationships and social issues with maturity and curiosity, using music as her toolkit. “Having other people write songs for me seemed daunting, terrible,” says D’Sau. “I’ve been taught to look deeper at the world since I was a child, and I have things I want to say.” 

Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, D’sau grew up listening to her parents’ favorite R&B records, with her father being a former boy band member himself. D’sau began singing at age eight, eventually attending music camp in New York City at age fifteen.

Lia is excited to share her new single, out August 13th. Here's what she had to say about it: "This song means a lot to me, especially after these last 2 years of isolation and feeling trapped: in our homes, our countries, our heads. 

I wrote this song after I came home from watching the sunset at the beach one day, which is something i started doing daily during these times, and I was listening to "good days" by SZA. I think it was the day it came out, and I just felt so free, and alive like I hadn't felt in a long time. This song is meant to be like a breath of fresh air after being stuck in a basement for a year".

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Tacsidermi - Ble Pierre.

Tacsidermi are back and how we have missed them! Gwenllian Anthony from the ‘Welsh Music Prize’ winning band Adwaith and multi instrumentalist Matthew Kilgariff have crafted a sublime pop song in ‘Ble Pierre’. Every note played is powerfully evocative of never-ending, carefree summers and romantic escape and wonder.

Tacsidermi with the support of David Newington (Boy Azooga) on drums and mixing by Matthew Evans (KEYS) find a perfect marriage of Jane Birkin / Serge Gainsbourg 60s French pop, Stereolab’s 90s dreaminess and The Happy Mondays, Paul Oakenfold infused Balearic heartbeat.

With Gwenllian’s beautiful restrained vocal delivery set at the centre of the mix the listener falls yet again under Tacsidermi’s spell!

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The Grahams - Suzanne Santo - Film School

The Grahams - Beyond The Palisades

The Grahams’ Alyssa and Doug Graham are New Jersey raised, New York bred, but Nashville based — a cross-section of regional influences that allows them to slip in and out of genres like they’re changing clothes. Their unique sound landed them at the top of the Americana charts when their first album, Riverman’s Daughter, was released in 2013, led to the critically acclaimed Glory Bound in 2016, and their affair with a more alt-pop sound on 2020’s Kids Like Us (co-produced by the late Richard Swift and Lucious’ Dan Molad).  

Their music has landed them in every major music publication and grown them a legion of dedicated fans around the world. In 2021 their music has evolved again into a nostalgia-inducing mellow gold sound with a nod to mid-century soul and classic UK pop. If that sounds like a mouthful, it’s by design. Consider their upcoming three song EP Sha La La (October 15th) a moment of bliss before the duo’s next full album, due in 2022.

A tongue-in-cheek reference to a laissez-faire approach to life, Sha La La is The Grahams’ attempt to exorcise the pains and disappointments of the last 14 months. Rather than writhing in self pity and judgement, or aspirations driven by narcissism, they decided to simply let go of trying to control or overcome the situation, liberating themselves of their anger and who they thought they were, while embracing who they may become.

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Suzanne Santo - Mercy.

Suzanne Santo shares powerful new song “Mercy” Sophomore album Yard Sale out August 27 via Soundly Music; on tour this summer and fall with Gary Clark Jr, Jade Bird, Arlo McKinley, Murder By Death

Austin, TX-based indie-rock and neo-soul artist Suzanne Santo has shared “Mercy,” the newest single from her forthcoming sophomore album Yard Sale, due out on Aug 27 via Soundly Music and follows the release of “Bad Beast,” “Common Sense,” and “Save For Love.”

“Mercy” is a powerful song that seemingly touches on specific situations, but the moral of the story is that mercy requires compassion, empathy, and forgiveness, for others and for ourselves.

The new album, Yard Sale, delves into the ideas of discarding wants, sentimental treasures, largely in the form of people and places that have lost meaning or no longer serve you. Letting things fall away to make space for better things to come.

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Film School - Said Your Name.

 "Said Your Name" is out now. Greg has this to say about the track “This is probably my favorite track on the album. I love the way Noël’s vocals glide over the top of the instruments and gently lead the listener through this breakup song.

So many breakup songs are about fucking over, or getting fucked over. The ensuing anger can almost make that type of breakup easier;  it’s black and white. This isn’t that. 

This is about a couple that still loves one another, but are changing as individuals and unable to align. I love the way Noël’s vocals glide over the top and gently lead the listener through this breakup, she really captures the situation.”

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