Marian - Teagan Johnston - Brother Wallace - Asara - Georgian - The Call & Todd Rundgren

Marian - Play Louder, Hit Harder (Album).

Marian is a music lover’s band. Guided by their collective love for lush harmonies, big riffs, and unforgettable hooks, their debut album, Hit Record, blends the best of rock music’s heyday with a fearless appreciation for the here and now. Whether you’re into the classics or keep your ear to the ground for the next big sound - you need to hear the latest from Marian. Rock and roll hasn’t sounded this sweet in too long.

Weaving together themes of adulthood’s relentless grind and the uncertainty of what lies ahead, sophomore record Play Louder, Hit Harder marks a bold reintroduction for New Brunswick rock trio Marian. Following-up celebrated 2022 debut, Hit Record (Music NB’s Song of the Year and an ECMA Rising Star Recording of the Year nominee), Marian preview Play Louder, Hit Harder with focus tracks “Rock N’ Roll” and “K-Leigh.”
 
“‘Rock N’ Roll’ is the companion song to PLHH,” said Marian’s Dylan Ward (he/him). “It captures the loudness and hardness of the record, and sits directly in the transition point between adolescence and adulthood. This song is the anthem to doubling down, sticking to your guns, and turning up the sound to block the noise.”

“K-Leigh,” meanwhile, channels the same loud, carefree rock energy, but with a gentler message. Jerry-Faye Ward, who works as a teacher in addition to being a musician, wrote the song after seeing so many children having a tough time fitting in. “It’s hard to know your worth if you don’t have anyone telling you that the things you’re insecure about are insignificant to everyone but you,” she said. “This song is for anyone who’s ever felt left out.”

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Teagan Johnston - Beat a Dead Horse.

Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist Teagan Johnston shares her latest offering, “Beat a Dead Horse,” a deeply reflective and emotionally charged single that examines the lingering impact of past relationships and the process of releasing what no longer serves you. Rooted in indie rock and singer-songwriter sensibilities, the track moves through grief, awareness, and ultimately toward a renewed sense of hope and forward motion.

The song was sparked by an unexpected moment during a psychic reading in New York City. “I’m not sure what I believe when it comes to psychics,” Teagan shares, “but something she said really hit me. She told me I was allowing old experiences of dark and painful love to dictate how I love now and in the future.” In that moment, Teagan felt a renewed urgency to step out of cycles of emotional repetition and into something more present and alive.

That sense of reflection carried directly into the song’s visual world. The accompanying video was filmed during a trip to Spain with Teagan’s parents, revisiting a place she hadn’t been since her time living there between the ages of 13-14. “Those years in Spain were before the trauma I reference in the song,” she explains. “It felt like the perfect place to reconnect with feelings of optimism and openness.”

Armed only with a digital camera, Teagan approached the shoot with a return-to-basics mindset, documenting beauty, colour, and everyday moments with a sense of curiosity and emotional clarity. The result is a visual companion that mirrors the song’s central theme: revisiting the past not to live in it, but to finally move beyond it.

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Photo - Hana Snow

Brother Wallace - You’re The Man.

Brother Wallace doesn’t just have a voice, he has command. Now, the West Point, Georgia-bred singer, pianist, and soul revivalist shares 'You’re The Man' alongside an official music video, offering a powerful new centre piece from his forthcoming debut album, 'Electric Love', which arrives this Friday, 8 May via ATO Records.

A darker, harder-hitting side of Wallace’s “Electric Love soul music,” 'You’re The Man' moves with a moody ferocity — a song that stares straight at pride, power, and the stories we tell ourselves when we think we’re untouchable. Built for big rooms and bigger feelings, it’s a performance that doesn’t blink: Wallace’s vocals land with preacher’s conviction and street-corner truth, carrying a narrative that’s both unflinching and strangely compassionate. “That song comes from someone I know personally getting caught up in a treacherous life and thinking they could somehow escape the consequences,” Wallace says. “But then of course they ended up in trouble.”
 
Now midway through a spring tour supporting St. Paul & The Broken Bones across the US, Wallace is set to arrive in the UK for the first time this May. The visit includes performances at The Great Escape and Cross the Tracks, as well as two headline shows in Manchester and London.

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Asara - Thank You, Thank You.

Following the success of his first single "Cute," Asara returns with "Thank You, Thank You," a new track announcing the release of his debut album "028 Crises," scheduled for July 3rd on the Géographie label (Dog Park, Marble Arch, etc.).

With its catchy melody, this second track is built on the groove of a drum machine derived from an old Farfisa keyboard from the 70s, which belonged to his grandfather. Balancing sweetness and gentle melancholy, the song infuses the track with a touch of humor, also present in the music video, and radiates a decidedly positive energy.

Asara is a French multi-instrumentalist artist launching her first solo project. For the past four years, she has been a member of the band Dog Park, where she has played guitar, bass, keyboards, and vocals. She now opens up a more intimate space with her solo project, Asara.

Composed throughout 2025, this debut album is structured like a sonic diary, almost a documentary, retracing this year rich in personal emotions. This collection of songs places the voice at the heart of the project, and the eight tracks that make up "028 Crises" oscillate between melancholy and rhythmic energy. Asara recorded at Studio 48L with her longtime friend and sound engineer, Baptiste Leroy.

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Photo - Aaron Farrimond

Georgian - Californian Jeans.

Manchester-based Georgian continue their fresh chapter today with the release of their cinematic new single and visualiser ‘Californian Jeans’. The single follows recent release ‘Crackled Grounds’ and is taken from their first full body of work the ‘Crackled Grounds EP’ out on 12th June via Heist or Hit (Westside Cowboy, Her’s).
 
Formed in 2024 and with three previous singles in their musical catalogue, Georgian are a five-piece outfit comprising Georgia McKiernan (vocals, acoustic guitar), James Poole, James Polglase (both lead and rhythm guitar, BVs), Connor Alder (drums) and Harry George (bass). Together Georgian have an expansive sound that reflects each of the band’s tastes, retaining a modern approach, but keeping the sound of their influences alive. Wrangling ‘60s pop, country, folk, shoegaze, psychedelia and further-flung traditional styles, their songs tell tales of navigating harsh emotional environments and lived experiences.
 
The debut ‘Crackled Grounds EP’ was laid down with producer Arno Stols at Magenta Studio in the peaceful Amsterdam countryside. Taking a leaf from Brian Jonestown Massacre’s melodic revivalism, Georgian began emulating the warm, unsettling, mysterious 60s-70s production of artists to which they had mutually become accustomed. Lyrically taking the listener to a place of escapism, the songs tell of battling the elements, female empowerment, and deep-rooted nostalgia.

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The Call & Todd Rundgren - The Walls Came Down.

We are catching up somewhat with this release on Beehive Candy, however we feel it's more than worth a share, so here's the back story & please enjoy. Critically acclaimed American modern rock band, The Call along with legendary performer Todd Rundgren announce a fiery call to action on a new studio version of The Call's "The Walls Came Down", which is out now. "The Walls Came Down" is a politically charged 1983 song orginally recorded by The Call, known for its Cold War themes and biblical Jericho allegory, featured on their album Modern Romans and popularized by its black-and-white MTV video, with singer Michael Been leading the band. The song reached #17 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock tracks in 1983.

Michael Been died of a heart attack in 2010, and the remaining band members (Tom Ferrier, Scott Musick, Jim Goodwin) reunited occasionally but never officially broke up. Taking over lead vocals, this is Todd Rundgren’s first collaboration with The Call.

Released as the lead track from the The Call’s 1983 album Modern Romans, “The Walls Came Down” landed in a world steeped in political tension. The Cold War was at its height: the Berlin Wall still divided East and West, the nuclear arms race dominated headlines, and Reagan’s “Star Wars” defense initiative was on everyone’s lips. Fear of global conflict wasn’t abstract—it was nightly news. Against that backdrop, The Call delivered a track that felt less like a pop song and more like a warning broadcast.

Four decades later, “The Walls Came Down” remains one of the most enduring political anthems of its time. It captures the uneasy heartbeat of 1983, but its message remains timeless. Every generation has its walls—literal and symbolic—and every wall eventually falls. Todd Rundgren would sometimes perform a cover version of “The Walls Came Down” in his solo concerts and get an enthusistic reactions. The remaing Call band members (Jim Goodwin, Tom Ferrier, Scott Musick) came across his videos on Youtube and reached out to see if he would like to collaborate on a new version.

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Trippers & Askers - KiKi Holli & The Remedy - Asara - Simone White - Kimon Kirk feat. Robbie Fulks - Sarah & Collin

Photo - Charlie Boss

Trippers & Askers - Kin.

Tried To Do’s is the second full length album from Trippers & Askers the songwriting and recording project of Jay Hammond (releases May 8 2026 via Sleepy Cat Records). Drafts of this record started as early as 2019. The initial idea was a Parable of the Talents concept album to follow 2021's Parable of the Sower concept album Acorn and/or an album about Hammond's hometown of Jackson, TN. 

Many moves, much traveling and many losses later the loss of his future child, the loss of his grandmother, the near loss of his father in law, and the hit of hurricane Helene in his adopted hometown of Asheville, NC - this record became a record about loss. It’s a record about ways of mourning, ways of "remembering", both with the family in which Hammond was raised as a child and the family of which he has come to inhabit multiple roles as an adult.

The songs on Tried To Do’s deal with the quotidian themes of love, family and loss through the prism of both Buddhist and Christian ways of mourning. Through songs and stories of loss in relation to Hammond's upbringing in the bible belt U.S. South, Tried To Do’s sets up a productive tension between Buddhist and Christian rituals and beliefs about mourning.

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KiKi Holli & The Remedy - Running Out of Time.

Los Angeles based indie-pop vocalist and songwriter KiKi Holli returns with her cinematic new single "Running Out of Time", out yesterday March 4th under her expanded artist name KiKi Holli & The Remedy. Rooted in indie-pop but layered with dream pop, baroque flourishes, and dark wave atmosphere, "Running Out of Time" creates a fully immersive sonic world. Lush synths and sweeping orchestration pulse beneath Holli’s voice, building a sense of urgency that feels both intimate and expansive. Her vocals move from restrained vulnerability to soaring intensity, drawing listeners into a space where time feels fragile and essential, a sonic experience meant to be felt as much as heard.

The release marks a continuing evolution for Holli. The addition of “& The Remedy” reflects the magnetic energy of her live band and her ongoing creative partnership with two‑time Grammy‑nominated producer Ethan Allen (Ben Harper, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Tricky). Together, they shape a sound that blends cinematic scale with emotional precision — immersive, transportive, and grounded in songcraft.

Her December 2025 single "Wish", the first release under KiKi Holli & The Remedy, earned widespread acclaim, landing on Atwood Magazine’s Songs of the Year 2025 list. Ladygunn praised how “from the very first listen… the artist blends emotion and strength,” and EARMILK highlighted the track’s spacious depth and captivating atmosphere, noting its exploration of hope, longing, and the tension between past and future. 

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Asara - Cute.

Asara releases her first single and music video today for the song Cute. Asara is a Parisian multi-instrumentalist artist launching her first solo project. After spending the last four years with the band Dog Park, in which she plays guitar, bass, keyboards, and sings, she is now opening up a more intimate space.

Composed throughout 2025, her first solo album is structured like an audio diary, almost a documentary, recounting the past year. The project sets the voice at the center, and the tracks navigate between melancholy and rhythmic energy influenced by the songwriting of artists like Clairo, Smerz or Blood Orange. 

The first single, “cute,” addresses the difficulty and tenderness of watching someone cry. Carried by a deliberately bright tone, the song talks about break-up without dwelling on it, and looks resolutely toward the future. A fast-paced first single, “cute” relies on an effective drum machine and a voice brought to the forefront. A small rhythmic synth and a bouncing guitar riff carry the song, in a refined but haunting production. The whole finds its inspiration in contemporary pop music, direct and melodic.

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Simone White - Blueprint.

For her latest act, White conjures a curious baroque-pop composition that is as engaging as it is enigmatic. Reminiscent of complex, non-linear outings of Laurie Andersen, Agnes Obel, or Aldous Harding “Blueprint” finds White's gossamer vocal enveloped by dancing string arrangements by neoclassical minimalist composer Brent Arnold.

A song that asks as many questions as it ever gives answers, “Blueprint” deconstructs urban settings familiar to all of us and unravels their existential mechanics, line by line. “How much do you think it weighs? Is it possible to learn from within the maze?” she wonders here. The single is accompanied by an official video, which is directed by Mark Benjamin. Layered, gliding and hypnotic, it lulls the viewer into a thoughtful reverie.

“Blueprint” is taken from Simone White’s forthcoming album ‘Letter To The Last Generation’, available on CD + Digitally on 1st May 2026 (via Ghost Palace / Cargo). Something of a lost album, ‘Letter To The Last Generation’ has floated around the internet for some years. Lost in the twilight period of those first few weeks of the pandemic as the world readjusted to a new era, the album received an extremely limited vinyl release, before disappearing into the ether. With the majority of its tracks written and recorded in the weeks before White made a major move from LA to NYC, ‘Letter to the Last Generation’ feels like a collage from an artist in a restless, transitory state.
 

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Kimon Kirk feat. Robbie Fulks - Dashboard Hula Doll. 

Kimon Kirk & Robbie Fulks are excited to announce the release of “Dashboard Hula Doll” off Kirk’s forthcoming solo effort, Bikini Jardine, due Summer 2026. “Dashboard Hula Doll” chronicles the story  of a desperate man on the verge of losing everything – everything except his guiding light, the grass-skirted hula doll perched atop the dash of his family car. 

The story unfolds over the song’s two careening minutes and humorously evokes the downward spiral of a hapless husband “half-a-way to Denver on a three day bender,” to quote one of its lyrics. “Dashboard Hula Doll” pays tribute in spirit to one of Kirk and Fulks’s musical heroes, beloved NRBQ guitarist Big Al Anderson, whose tongue-in-cheek compositions and ferocious guitar playing clearly informed the mood of the recording.  

“Dashboard Hula Doll,” written with the pioneering alt-country artist Robbie Fulks, includes a video filmed in the Southern California desert. Recorded in one live session at LA’s Sunset Sound, “Dashboard Hula Doll” features Kirk on vocals and electric guitar, Fulks on vocals and acoustic guitar, Duke Levine (Bonnie Raitt) on lead guitar, and the powerhouse rhythm section of Paul Bryan (Aimee Mann) on bass and Jay Bellerose (Robert Plant and Alison Krauss) on drums.

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Sarah & Collin - She Made The Rain.

Sarah & Collin are a Los Angeles-based duo whose music lives in the tension between light and shadow, a place where atmospheric alternative-indie, industrial edges and cinematic psych-rock coalesce into something neither fully of this world nor outside it. Their debut album, This Time, out April 10th, embodies that meeting point with remarkable clarity, creating a world that feels immersive, dreamlike and charged with emotional depth.

This week the pair have shared their new single, 'She Made The Rain'. Of the track, Collin says, "I got rain-checked, and it humbled me, hopefully. A year later I met up with her and showed her the song and she didn't like it. I never saw her again."

Vocals from either singer drift above textured soundscapes before folding into one another and revealing a layered duality at the centre of their collaboration. On stage, they’ve already been described as offering a “cinematic music experience,” with listeners drawing comparisons to the strange, magnetic tone of a David Lynch film. The album extends that atmosphere, translating it into a fully realised sonic landscape.

Alongside the recorded work, the world around This Time has been growing through a series of intentional, carefully crafted DIY performances across Los Angeles. Rather than moving through the city’s traditional venue circuit, Sarah & Collin have rooted themselves in community-oriented, artist-driven spaces - pop-up shows in homes, backyards and unconventional rooms that mirror the cinematic intimacy of their sound. These events have become one of the main generators of early buzz, drawing crowds through word-of-mouth and the duo’s reputation for transforming everyday spaces into atmospheric environments.

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