Posts

Foyer Red - Murray A. Lightburn - Tomten

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Foyer Red - Plumbers Unite. Brooklyn’s Foyer Red makes sweet yet abrasive songs that careen into delightfully unexpected places. The group’s potent art rock embodies a spirit of collaborative exploration, as a seemingly endless supply of ideas accrue and collide as part of a spirited musical conversation between the band’s members, a sensation that is heightened by the often literal conversation occurring between their three principle vocalists. The band started as a trio with singer and clarinetist Elana Riordan, drummer Marco Ocampo, and singer/guitarist Mitch Myers. The three would email each other song ideas and record the ones that stuck. In 2021, they started playing music together in the same room and immediately came out with the Zigzag Wombat EP, which earned high praise from outlets like Stereogum, BrooklynVegan and Pitchfork. Though they had been a band for only a few months, their self-recorded and charming debut proved that they had hit the ground running almost fully for...

Josienne Clarke - Nico Ev - Brenda - Julia Sound

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Josienne Clarke - The Birds. Indie-folk artist Josienne Clarke has shared the second taste of her forthcoming new album, Onliness. On her new album, due out on April 14th, Clarke revisits songs from her back catalogue that felt buried somehow; that had never had the spotlight she felt they deserved. Originally written back in 2008, the song first appeared on and opened Clarke's first ever solo album One Light Is Gone. Of her new single, Clarke says: "It’s about the turning of a season, the first frost of winter. The birds are making strange patterns in the sky, a signal that our days will soon be short. This version features a specific blurry guitar part, I wrote it like that to mirror the blurry movement of the birds in their weird patterns, in and out of time and sync in strange shapes and formations. I also play piano on this track which is pretty rare for me. I love it as an instrument, it's bright glassy timbre fitted perfectly for the track. I rarely play it on my m...

Gracie Horse - Laura Roy - Certain Animals

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Gracie Horse - What I'm Missing. Wharf Cat Records have just announced L.A.-based songwriter Gracie Horse as the newest addition to their roster, and shared a music video for her recent single "What I'm Missing." Gracie Horse was a founding member of Boston based rock band Fat Creeps, and has contributed to albums by Alex Izenberg (his latest, I'm Not Here), Color Green, and Jonny Kosmo (who also produced "What I'm Missing"). “What I'm Missing,” is expansive, a world inside of a song. It’s cosmic country: there are shitty motels and perfect vocal harmonies. True crime sleuths, hours spent rotting on the Internet, and poignant allusions to working in healthcare during the pandemic. “Now everyone’s spooked/at the Motel 6/eatin’ dive bar wings/in a hazmat suit,” she sings in one particularly evocative line.  It’s a stunning song: all keys, crisp pedal steel. About the track, Gracie writes: "When I moved to California I was very homesick for a ...

The Pairs - Amy Stroup

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The Pairs - Superhuman. Tied together by family and soaring harmonies, The Pairs share stories of life's hope, hilarity, and hardship. Pull up a seat around their lively kitchen table for a unique blend of music that will hug your eardrums and make you want to groove. A smattering of feelings and self-doubt, "Superhuman" tells a personal yet relatable story of realizing how we get caught up in the way we're being perceived by others instead of truly experiencing life and all the feelings that come with living. We're not perfect, so why do we put so much energy towards trying to convince people that we are? This song marks the intention to try and drop the hyper perfectionism and accept ourselves as fallible and human. "Superhuman" reminds us that we can be wrong, that we can make mistakes, that we can say things that hurt people, and that none of that makes us bad people, or unlovable. ====================================================================...

Dub Pistols - Waldo Witt - H.Hawkline - Zoe & Cloyd

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Dub Pistols - Moving On. Legendary party-starters Dub Pistols release their new single ‘Moving On’ featuring MC and D.J. Natty Campbell. After announcing their forthcoming album Frontline to be released March 10th through Cyclone Records, this notorious touring band are carrying the summer atmosphere into these winter months with their infamous blend of dub, hiphop, ska and jungle. Dub Pistols will also be playing a series of exclusive release week shows partnered with some of the UK’s best independent record stores- they will also be signing physical copies of the record. Listen to ‘Moving On’ Here. Watch ‘Moving On’ Here. Having recently celebrated their 25th anniversary, the collective release the third and final offering before releasing their forthcoming LP. New single ‘Moving On’ sits amongst multiple genres as frontman and legendary DJ, Barry Ashworth wanted to write something in a different vein to anything the band have done before. He explains, “‘Moving On’ is kind of dark w...

Bis - DAMEFRISØR - Daddy Long Legs - Bed Signs - Suzi Moon

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Bis - Shopping For Tattoos. Bis release single Shopping For Tattoos on Friday 17th February, following recent album Systems Music For Home Defence. Much like the rest of the LP, Shopping For Tattoos is characteristically infectious, described as "declamatory electro pop punk" by The Scotsman. The album was released in November 2022 and the band define it as "born out of a wistful, slightly corrupted nostalgia for a simpler era that may or may not have existed at all". It is available on vinyl, CD and digital from Last Night From Glasgow. Since their formation bis have continuously developed their sound, from their initial punk synth-pop roots to tracks crafted for sweaty nightclubs. Sci-Fi Steven, John Disco and Manda Rin first entered the scene in 1994 and were soon the first unsigned band to ever appear on Top of the Pops, playing their unmistakable Kandy Pop in 1996.  ====================================================================== DAMEFRISØR - The Grip. ...

Neev - Matt Corby - Surf Friends - Emiliana Torrini & The Colorist Orchestra - La Ratte

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Neev - Fast Patterns. Since the release of her debut single in 2019, Glaswegian artist Neev has built a reputation for discovering beauty in the small details. Her talent for storytelling and worldbuilding has earned her early support from the likes of BBC Radio 1’s Sian Eleri and BBC Radio 6 Music’s Tom Robinson, as well as a sync on BBC drama Waterloo Road.  On April 28th, the now London-based musician is set to release her debut album, Katherine, a collection of intricate indie-folk songs that pack a lyrical punch. Today, Neev has shared her new single ‘Fast Patterns’. Written from the point of view of an imperfect friend, the song is about not knowing how to be there for someone in their darkest moments. It asks how far you should go for a friend in need and at what point you need to take a step back. Buoyed by the experience of engineering, mixing and producing her 2021 EP Currants almost entirely alone whilst the country was in lockdown, much of Katherine was recorded at Nee...

My Name is Ian - Sarah Chirita - Redbud

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My Name is Ian - You Are Amazing. Determined to release a song for all special occasions, My Name is Ian are due to release a Valentine’s Day Indie ballad this year. Following on from their Halloween pop-punk offering, ‘Spooky Holiday’ last year, and 2018’s ‘Christmas Time Again’, ‘You Are Amazing’ will be out across all digital platforms on February 14th. The track, which references off-kilter romantic sentiments and pairings, has long been a staple of the band’s live repertoire, and has finally been blessed with a studio recording. The track comes as the band prepare to release their latest album, ‘GO BANANAS GO BANANAS GO BANANAS GO BANANAS GO BANANAS’, due out this summer through Bubblewrap Collective. Creatures of Cardiff, My Name Is Ian have already built a back catalogue that would have taken The Stone Roses millennia to mirror. Since 2010 their output of has dealt with break-ups, breakdowns, mysterious lion paintings and characters from the Tom Hanks movie Big. This restless p...

Tara Van der Kolk - Chris Williams and Kid Reverie

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Tara Van der Kolk - Back In Love. Tara Van der Kolk has released the second single from her upcoming album, Rise (due April 2023), the hopeful reflection on self-love that is “Back In Love.” Composed after a brutal breakup, “Back In Love” is a “self-soothing anthem” in Van der Kolk’s words, an ode to the hopeful nature of rooting oneself once again. The melodic, acoustic pop song layers Tara’s harmonies and empowering lyrics to create a peaceful, sonic cocoon. “Back In Love” reflects on the challenges of being ‘too much’ and the recognition that for oneself and for the right people, one can never be considered ‘too much’ of anything. ====================================================================== Chris Williams and Kid Reverie - Warning Bell. “Damned if I do, damned if I don’t. I’m still gonna care even if you won’t,” sings Kid Reverie in the opening line of the new Chris Williams and Kid Reverie single, “Warning Bell.” An acoustic guitar-driven groove, highlighted by swirling...

Alice Auer - That Old Quiet Lighthouse - Kalila Badali

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Alice Auer - Greek Street. British vocalist and songwriter Alice Auer returns this week with her new single "Greek Street", out now via London tastemaker label Young Poet (Conor Albert, WOOZE). With a voice to thaw the most glacial of hearts, Alice Auer first came to prominence collaborating with south London producer (and Young Poet label-mate) Conor Albert on 2021’s 'Smile' EP and her own 2022 EP 'Daydreaming'. Since those initial releases, Alice's music has been streamed over 10 million times; she has shared the stage with acts including Nia Archives and ELIZA; received shout-outs from the likes of Justin Bieber, and has established herself as the heart and soul of a burgeoning London scene that includes contemporaries James Smith, Matilda Mann and Maya Delilah. New single "Greek Street" - produced by Conor Albert and co-written with London songwriter and producer James Smith - exemplifies Alice Auer's supremely relatable and refreshingly...

Esther Rose - Nathaniel Bellows - PD Martin - Tom Jenkins

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Esther Rose - Chet Baker. Esther Rose has signed to New West Records and will release Safe to Run April 21, 2023. The 11-track set was produced by Ross Farbe in New Orleans, LA and Placitas, NM and is the follow up to 2021’s acclaimed How Many Times. Alongside longtime collaborators Farbe and Lyle Werner, Safe to Run also features the acclaimed New Orleans based band Silver Synthetic on many songs, Cameron Snyder of The Deslondes, as well as Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff on the title track, a gorgeous duet that directly merges the personal with the global, superimposing feelings of spiritual displacement onto the larger, looming dread of climate grief. Safe to Run is the quiet culmination of years spent fully immersed in a developing artistry, and presents Rose’s always vividly detailed emotional scenes with new levels of clarity and control. Her songwriting transfigures the chaos and uncertainty of a life in progress, but here she introduces a newfound pop element that a...