Showing posts with label Caoilfhionn Rose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Caoilfhionn Rose. Show all posts

Friday, 2 April 2021

TeenCanteen - The Armoires - Shadwick Wilde - Century Egg - Deva St. John - Caoilfhionn Rose - Saccades - Ryan Downey

TeenCanteen - How We Met.

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. ‘How We Met (Cherry Pie)’ is the lead single from the upcoming album, and it’s the shimmering ray of sunshine that heralded a warranted buzz around TeenCanteen when they formed in 2012; that sugar coated indie pop jangle, the addictive melody and those irrepressible three-part harmonies wrapped up in a sticky sweet tale of new love.

A reimagined version of the track would later go on to feature on their debut album, but this original bright sparky version of the track feels just as fresh as when people fell in love with it on the soundtrack of Karen Gillan led RomCom Not Another Happy Ending. 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 singer and songwriter Carla Easton said: “‘Cherry Pie’ was that song that just fell out of thin air, I didn’t have to think about it too much, I was just at the beginning of a new romance and was all excited, it’s a total happy, fallen for someone song.

“I think of it as the first TeenCanteen song, it was the first one writing it where I was like “wait a minute I’m onto something here”, it was just exciting, it was the first track that we went “that’s us”.

“It’s a total slushy DIY innocent indie pop love song, it’s not trying to be anything more than that, but I think that’s why so many people connected with it; it’s fun, it’s fresh, it’s raw, it’s exciting, it’s DIY, it’s indie pop and it’s long overdue release.” This Is How It Starts is due August 2021, with a vinyl release from Last Night From Glasgow/HIVE.


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The Armoires - Incognito (Album).

The unique harmonies of Christina Bulbenko and Rex Broome combine with jangling guitars, sparkling keyboards, soaring viola, and a singular sense of songcraft to create the essence of THE ARMOIRES. It's sunshine pop with a kick, tapping the rich Southern California pop rock heritage from The Byrds to X and back to hits-era Fleetwood Mac, and melding it with a twist of English psychedelia and postpunk drive. The sweet and sour vocal sound gives life to Broome and Bulbenko's sophisticated lyrics – sometimes funny, sometimes heart-wrenching, always a bit mysterious. It's a dreamlike combination of the warm and the unsettling that's captured ears and hearts wherever The Armoires travel, and is as instantly recognizable as the pair's visual profile: matching paisley attire, spectacles and platinum blonde hair.

The band is widely known as the founders and leading lights of the Big Stir collective, a global concert series and record label dedicated to the musical community based around power pop and similarly styled melodic guitar rock. But The Armoires are an artistic force of their own, constantly reinventing themselves. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the approach taken to their new album INCONGNITO: The record's tracks were released throughout 2020 and 2021 as a series of singles attributed to fictitious band of their own invention. The result is a surprising record of joyful experimentalism and playfulness that loses none of the band's signature sound, but pushes in exciting new directions. It's the band playing dress-up in order to rediscover themselves.

INCOGNITO, like its breakthrough predecessor ZIBALDONE, is a sly exploration of what the pop-rock form can be, but its reach is wider and its vibe looser. The band, completed by violist LARYSA BULBENKO, bassist CLIFFORD ULRICH, and JOHN BORACK in his debut as the band's drummer, is again aided and abetted by an impressive array of co-conspirators from across the global pop-rock scene. It's a testament to the work Bulbenko and Broome have put into nurturing that community, but it's also the sound of a band stretching out and seeing what it can become when all bets are off, and it's only the next step in their strangely compelling journey. What comes next as the typically hard-gigging band looks forward to returning to the stage in the coming months, we can only wait see. For now,  as THE ARMOIRES unmask themselves after their undercover experiment with identity, the music testifies to the fact that they're ready for anything.

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Shadwick Wilde - When All of This is Over.

“Everywhere, people were saying, ‘well, when all of this is over…’” says Wilde.  “I heard it so many times, it began to feel like a joke, or perhaps a mantra, both hopeful and meaningless.”

“I’ve never been mistaken for an optimist,” Shadwick jokes, “but we have to hold onto some kind of hope if we’re going to make it through the dark days… even if the end of one nightmare is only the beginning of another.”

Wilde recorded the song live in one take, at his home studio on a farm outside Louisville, KY.  Longtime friend Diederik van Wassenaer overdubbed the strings from his home studio in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. Rejecting the conventions of genre, Shadwick Wilde’s songs touch each other’s edges, but each brings its own distinct vision, strung together by the common thread of Wilde’s muscular poetry, emotive vocals, and unique style of upside-down, left-handed guitar playing.

Shadwick grew up in San Francisco, Havana, and Amsterdam, astride his mother, activist, poet, and filmmaker Sonja de Vries.  At 18, Wilde left high school for an invitation to go on tour as a guitarist for D.C. hardcore band Iron Cross, of Dischord notoriety. At age 23, Wilde entered an addiction recovery program, where he would write Unforgivable Things (2010), his first effort as a solo artist.  The self-released demo would go out of print and disappear, but by this time Wilde had gone on to form Quiet Hollers as an outlet for his songwriting.  Since 2013, the shape-shifting indie rock collective have released three LPs, toured Europe twice, and criss-crossed North America ad nauseam, all while flying under the mainstream radar.

In 2020, Wilde wrote three albums of new material, recording one of them with Nashville producer and former Wilco drummer Ken Coomer, along with a cast of session players.  Another LP he recorded alone, on the Kentucky farm where he lives with his partner, psychologist and visual artist Sarah French-Wilde, and their young daughter.  The third is a collaboration with current and former Quiet Hollers members.  All are intended for release in 2021.

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Century Egg - Do You Want to Dance?

Century Egg is a band of escape artists. On their debut EP for Forward Music Group, the Halifax four-piece blaze through basement pop jams carefully crafted with the desires of the listener at the front of their minds. The desire to move, to dance and be free of our walls and our traumas. Century Egg creates music to make us free.

Coming hot on the heels of their We Can Play EP, Little Piece of Hair is the band’s loudest, clearest mission statement to date. Boasting a new rhythm section of Matty Grace on Bass and Meg Yoshida on drums, Century Egg is a band reborn. Still present is the dance punk bliss of previous Egg outings, only bolder and brighter. Robert Drisdelle’s guitar swirls and soars like never before, at times channeling Thin Lizzy or the heyday of Rush before landing back at Stooges-esque punk roots. 

Vocalist Shane Keyu Song lives front and center at every turn, delivering clear incendiary vocals in both chinese and english. Matty Grace, stalwart hero of Halifax bands, keeps a steady hand on bass duties, keeping the beat driving ever forward, no looking back. Meg Yoshida behind the kit is a powerhouse addition, loud but never too fast, always on time and ever present.

These are songs about finding yourself, understanding your value in the present and celebrating the changes life delivers. This is a collection of songs about dancing and being free and rediscovering the joy in music and our lives, despite the shells around us. Century Egg makes music to remind you to be free.

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Deva St. John - Preacher.

Born in London to American parents and raised in Berkshire, Deva St. John’s sound harbours a true sense of trans-Atlanticism. Bridging the gap between the sleaze and swagger of ‘70s British rock and its much more contemporary American counterpart. Deva succeeds in breathing new life into the blackened lungs of a genre that was struggling for breath.

Both a peerless vocalist and an honest lyricist, there’s a sense of authenticity at play that stems from the lo-fi alt rock production of her recordings. It’s something that in turn bolsters Deva’s lyricism, allowing her to channel her sensitivities into her own brand of contemporary and idiosyncratic alt rock while crafting song that peer under the veneer of modern life to express something fundamentally timeless, a yearning dissatisfaction; rock n’ roll in its purest form.

Her latest single ‘Preacher’ is just that. Three minutes of blistering rock ‘n’ roll that takes aim at those in power and described by Deva as “a fast paced, high energy commentary on the people who run the 'free world’ - and how their methods may mirror the politics of religion” it’s the perfect introduction to Deva St. John for those unfamiliar, and for those that are, it’s a welcome return.

“We don’t live in the land of the free,” she continues, “we live in the land of the rich.”

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Caoilfhionn Rose — To Me.

Manchester singer-songwriter Caoilfhionn Rose (pronounced Keelin) has today shared a new song from her luscious, soulful new album Truly. 'To Me' is about feeling a connection with nature and life.

"I love going on long walks and the healing power of nature is a recurring theme in a lot of my lyrics. I have a very optimistic outlook and I find solace in the small things like being outdoors. I worked on this song a lot when I was away in the Suffolk countryside. A lot of the lyrics came about through improvising over a guitar part by band member Rich Williams. I tried not to over think or complicate the words. It’s a peaceful tune about noticing everything that is happening around you."

Truly moves through a tapestry of curious musical inflections; nods towards folk, jazz, ambient, electronica and even a subtle influence of psychedelia, it never stands still to take a breath, despite its ethereal and delicate core. Out April 9th on Gondwana Records (Mammal Hands, Portico Quartet, Matthew Halsall, Hania Rani), in Truly, the young singer-songwriter has accomplished a body of work that is both sonically and lyrically wise beyond her years.

Co-produced by Keir Stewart of The Durutti Column following Rose’s collaborative endeavours with them on their album Chronicle LX:XL, the musician’s song writing draws from a diverse palette of influences, including Building Instrument, Rachel Sermanni, Alabaster dePlume and Broadcast. Rose also professes to a love for beautiful, stripped back, piano based music, such as Dustin O’Halloran and label mate Hania Rani.

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Saccades - Older Than Tomorrow.

Saccades, the solo project of The KVB’s Nicholas Wood, is today sharing ‘Older Than Tomorrow’, the latest single to be lifted from the forthcoming ‘Flowing Fades’ album due out April 9th on Fuzz Club. Where Wood’s work as half one of The KVB trades in minimalist post-punk/coldwave, his solo material as Saccades marks a journey into escapist psychedelic pop. Following the recent singles ‘Heat’ and ‘Islands Past’, the sublime, 80s-indebted dream pop of ‘Older Than Tomorrow’ features Wood’s KVB bandmate and wife Kat Day on vocals. You can stream the song and its accompanying video here: fuzzclub.lnk.to/tomorrow

On ‘Older Than Tomorrow’, Wood says: “I wrote this song shortly after moving back to the UK from Berlin and it’s about the bittersweet feeling of leaving something behind and starting something new in life and how change can sometimes be good. It’s also about learning to accept the beauty and the flaws in the world around you. Written initially as an acoustic ballad, it ended up in a more dream-pop style with Kat’s added backing vocals. The song title is also a nod to my favourite Byrds album, ‘Younger Than Yesterday’”.

Talking about ‘Flowing Fades’, Wood continues: “I began to properly work on this album after returning from The KVB’s North American Tour in late 2019, my head filled with new inspiration for this project and a clear idea on how this album should sound. I wanted to create something soothing and immersive. Music for escapism, which can be listened to at sunrise or sunset. Even though it’s lighter and mellower than my usual output, I feel like there are strong hints of melancholia in there too, reflecting the world in which it was created.” Whilst songs like ‘Older Than Tomorrow’ and ‘Islands Past’ deal with themes like memory, nostalgia and change, ‘Like Everyday’ and ‘Heat’ are songs about lockdown paranoia and missing live music and life on the road, respectively.

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Ryan Downey - Contact.

Melbourne art-rock artist Ryan Downey shares ‘Contact’ a languorous and atmospheric single with an accompanying cinematic video inspired by films such as Solaris, High Life and Blade Runner 2049, with a subtext exploring the isolation of lockdown.

It’s the second single to be taken from Ryan Downey’s Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, Julia Jacklin) produced album ‘A TON OF COLOURS’ (14 May on Dot Dash Recordings) following the first single ‘Heart Is An Onion’ which was described as “the Cars fronted by Bryan Ferry” (Sunday Times Culture).

‘Contact’ balances the stylistic grandeur and deep humanness in Downey's raw sophisticated sound, with both these elements mirrored in the single’s accompanying video which was co-directed by Downey and filmmaker Alex Badham. The video sees a space crew - featuring Downey, his band and manager - hibernating in isolation pods, journeying towards an unknown mission but longing only for the touch of loved ones and the reality of the outside world. The poignant visual gives further weight to Downey’s emotional lyrics such as “Hold me like you want to be held when it's almost over" and "If I can't be touched right now, then I need your love."

Touching on our universal experiences of wanting to escape the cabin-fever fatigue of lockdown, the ‘Contact’ video sees the crew find respite from their tedium and heartache in the therapeutic form of futuristic vapour trips that transport their senses to another time and place.  As Downey explains "Sci-fi allows us to see our world through a heightened lens, Alex (Badham) and I had a chance with the video to capture the sentiments that a lot of us went through, and are still going through, in lockdowns.” The result is a cinematic video that takes the viewers mind out of this world whilst carrying an emotional punch.

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Sunday, 7 March 2021

Caoilfhionn Rose - Melby - William The Conqueror - The Long War - the Slowlinks

Caoilfhionn Rose - Fireflies.

Manchester singer-songwriter Caoilfhionn Rose (pronounced Keelin) has today shared a new song from her luscious, soulful new album Truly. ‘Fireflies’ echoes a message of hope that permeates throughout the album.

Talking about the new track, Rose says: “To me, ‘Fireflies’ has a nostalgic and comforting feel. It’s about feeling hopeful about the future ‘though there may be dark clouds the sun will always come’. There are references to older lyrics I have written. The line ‘free from all the chaos’ is a nod to a song I collaborated on with The Durutti Column. The song is about acknowledging the past and moving on as ‘time is always healing’.”

Truly moves through a tapestry of curious musical inflections; nods towards folk, jazz, ambient, electronica and even a subtle influence of psychedelia, it never stands still to take a breath, despite its ethereal and delicate core. Out April 9th on Gondwana Records (Mammal Hands, Portico Quartet, Matthew Halsall, Hania Rani), in Truly, the young singer-songwriter has accomplished a body of work that is both sonically and lyrically wise beyond her years.

Co-produced by Kier Stewart of The Durutti Column following Rose’s collaborative endeavours with them on their album Chronicle LX:XL, the musician’s song writing draws from a diverse palette of influences, including Building Instrument, Rachel Sermanni, Alabaster dePlume and Broadcast. Rose also professes to a love for beautiful, stripped back, piano based music, such as Dustin O’Halloran and label mate Hania Rani.

Truly came to exist due to a deep-routed need to create – even though its conception was interrupted as Caoilfhionn Rose recovered in hospital from an illness, she found strength within writing music. “In Spring 2019 I took part in a gig swap with my good friend and fellow musician Kristian Harting who is from Denmark. We played several gigs in the UK but unfortunately the Denmark part of the tour was cut short as I was taken ill. I was hospitalised for several weeks and have taken the last year out to recover” says Rose. “I gradually returned to finishing my second album” she continues. “Coming back to creating after being unwell was challenging but also therapeutic. This record marks a difficult time of my life and writing it helped get me through that. I am really grateful to have music as an outlet.” It may be this tremendously challenging period that has abetted its characterising qualities.

Rose’s beautifully restrained vocal is all at once soothing yet mesmerising. She demands and holds attention through her evident talent yet hypnotises the listener into a trance with her experimental tendencies. “After being unwell, getting back to recording helped me recover my voice after not singing for so long. Finishing bits of songs, writing lyrics and recording vocals helped me get back on my feet and get better.”


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Melby - Somewhere New.

Stockholm four-piece Melby have constantly been growing since their debut with catchy single 'Human' in 2016. In 2019, the band released their acclaimed debut record 'None of this makes me worry' which was followed by tour dates all over Europe. During the pandemic in 2020, the band have worked on new material in a new way. From these sessions, we've previously heard 'Common Sense' and 'Old Life' and now the dynamic 'Somewhere New' follows.

On 'Somewhere New', Melby continues to cement their role as one of the most interesting Scandinavian acts around, a band so home and accomplished within their sound that they're now ready to continue to experiment with it without losing their characteristic. The new material was mainly written and straight-away recorded in the studio in close collaboration with producer Alexander Eldefors, this is a completely new way for a band that previously in many cases have toured material for years before recording them. 'Somewhere New' is a track where Melby embrace their talent as songwriters, both combining multiple genres and building crescendos.

The band often gets compared to fellow Swedes Dungen and Amason but Melby’s dynamic sound, with influences from folk, psych, indie and pop, stand out. The quartet's light, semi-psychedelic folk pop is led by Matilda Wiezell’s enchanting voice which fits perfectly with Melby’s unique musical landscape - a sound that's been called "otherworldly, and wholly brilliant" by The Line of Best Fit.

The band tells us about Somewhere New: "The Somewhere New demo really set out to be this ambitious attempt at an indie song inspired by classical counterpoint composition. However, it evolved into something else when we started rehearsing it together, definitely to the better. The end result is this maxed out two-part journey spanning from low-key indie to intense psych-rock. So lean back and enjoy the ride, I guess."

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William The Conqueror - The Deep End.

South West England trio William The Conqueror released today their new album Maverick Thinker through Chrysalis Records. A record of cuts and bruises, wrapped within bittersweet leftfield rock n roll tunes, Maverick Thinker is razor sharp, dripping with the blues and an oft sardonic vocal delivery.

William The Conqueror is fronted by Ruarri Joseph, a wry, patient storyteller, who has managed enough living to portray a world-weary wisdom in his words, but balances it all with enough optimism to suggest he hasn't quite lived. Maverick Thinker is a record of short, sharp shots to the arm. Fuzzy college rock with chops, one foot lingering menacingly over the distortion pedal.

Recorded in Los Angeles at the infamous Sound City Studios, Ruarri, Naomi Holmes (bass) and Harry Harding (drums) rattled through the album's ten tunes at a breakneck speed. Which turned out to have been a good thing, because the sessions were cut short as the pandemic took grip. With the studio doors locked, the band spent a final, eerie day wandering a deserted Venice Beach before flying home early, captured by the band and featured in their video for "Quiet Life." All that chaos brings a certain unpredictability to an album that nods to some of the US lo-fi greats and yet arrives at something innately British.

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The Long War - Robot Heart.

The Long War is a shared battle story between five people who have each fought to actualize their dream of becoming musicians. 

Unified onstage, in the studio and on record, they are a shared belief, a war of attrition. A shared philosophy between five people, all on the same path, that through hard work and honesty, beautifully authentic music can be made.

"Robot Heart," the brand new single from The Long War, was inspired at a time of feeling alone and cooped up through the fall months. Staring out the window watching crows fly above as they do in Vancouver every single day at the same time to the same spot, over and over again. 

It's routine, instinctual – but in a way also mechanical, built in. "Robot Heart" alludes to our own default habits in matters of the heart and the longing to reprogram, to stop making the same mistakes.

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the Slowlinks - One Shoe.

the Slowlinks is a shared battle story between five people who have each fought to actualize their dream of becoming musicians. Unified onstage, in the studio and on record they are a shared belief, proof that the journey is worth the war.

But if not for one fateful night in Dawson City, The Long War might have never happened. It was there that singer/songwriter Jarrett Lee landed after leaving his hometown of Ottawa, a frustrated and disillusioned cover musician. He traveled across Canada trying to make sense of life. Inevitably, he ended up another lost soul drawn to the silence of the Yukon. It was there, under the northern lights, that the spell was broken. His muse was born on the horizon and the songs began to spill out of him.

An invisible pull guided Jarrett toward Vancouver and his next chapter – autobiographical tales that reflect the landscapes and places that have inspired him as well the people who have come and gone throughout it all. “I see the world as a collage of moving pictures and so I try to write and produce songs that capture the cinematic essence of life.”

Building out from this foundation of storytelling Chad Gilmour (guitar/vocals), Jess Lee (keyboards/vocals), Neil Williamson (drums) and Jonny Battistuzzi (bass) each come to The Long War through their own journeys and provide support in beautiful musical and vocal arrangements. With lasting hooks and strong melodies the band’s sophomore release UNDER A HEAVY SKY is cathartic, deeply personal and speaks to those who have both loved and lost.

Formed in Vancouver in 2016, The Long War won the 2017 CBC Searchlight Contest and their song “Breathe In Breathe Out” was listed as one of CBC Music’s Top 100 songs that year. Their first album LANDSCAPES debuted on CBC First Play and the band has been featured on Q with Tom Power and in the pages of Canadian Musician Magazine. They’ve toured across Canada performing at the CBC Music Festival in Toronto, Banff Performance In The Park as well as the reopening of Ottawa’s National Arts Centre as part of the Canada 150 Celebrations and the Break Out West stage at Folk Alliance International in Montreal.

The Long War is a war of attrition. It is a shared philosophy between five people all on the same path that through hard work and honesty, beautifully authentic music can be made.

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Friday, 5 February 2021

Caoilfhionn Rose - Paging Doctor Moon - Lord and the Woolf - Elijah Wolf

Photo - Emily Dennison
Caoilfhionn Rose — Flourish.

Truly, the luscious, soulful new album from Manchester singer-songwriter Caoilfhionn Rose (pronounced Keelin) moves through a tapestry of curious musical inflections; nods towards folk, jazz, ambient, electronica and even a subtle influence of psychedelia, it never stands still to take a breath, despite its ethereal and delicate core. Out April 9th on Gondwana Records (Mammal Hands, Portico Quartet, Matthew Halsall, Hania Rani), in Truly, the young singer-songwriter has accomplished a body of work that is both sonically and lyrically wise beyond her years. Rose today shares a first single from the album – ‘Flourish’, an intoxicating song that meditates on being present in the moment, allowing peace to come to you.

“The song ‘Flourish’ is about looking forwards with hope and possibility, ‘let it flow away, let it turn around and flourish’. It’s about finding peace and feeling wonder again” says Rose about the track. “’Flourish’ hints at the ideas of what could be, how things can unfold if you let go ‘and just be here’.”

Co-produced by Kier Stewart of The Durutti Column following Rose’s collaborative endeavours with them on their album Chronicle LX:XL, the musician’s song writing draws from a diverse palette of influences, including Building Instrument, Rachel Sermanni, Alabaster dePlume and Broadcast. Rose also professes to a love for beautiful, stripped back, piano based music, such as Dustin O’Halloran and label mate Hania Rani.

Truly came to exist due to a deep-routed need to create – even though its conception was interrupted as Caoilfhionn Rose recovered in hospital from an illness, she found strength within writing music. “In Spring 2019 I took part in a gig swap with my good friend and fellow musician Kristian Harting who is from Denmark. We played several gigs in the UK but unfortunately the Denmark part of the tour was cut short as I was taken ill. I was hospitalised for several weeks and have taken the last year out to recover” says Rose. “I gradually returned to finishing my second album” she continues. “Coming back to creating after being unwell was challenging but also therapeutic. This record marks a difficult time of my life and writing it helped get me through that. I am really grateful to have music as an outlet.” It may be this tremendously challenging period that has abetted its characterising qualities.

Rose’s beautifully restrained vocal is all at once soothing yet mesmerising. She demands and holds attention through her evident talent yet hypnotises the listener into a trance with her experimental tendencies. “After being unwell, getting back to recording helped me recover my voice after not singing for so long. Finishing bits of songs, writing lyrics and recording vocals helped me get back on my feet and get better.”


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Paging Doctor Moon - Haunted.

Rising alt indie band Paging Doctor Moon has released their second single, Haunted, available on all streaming services today February 5.

Written and performed by founding member Kirsten Heibert with production, mixing, and mastering by Julian Giaimo and features from Morgan Karabel, the track explores why we hold on to relationships that are toxic.

“Haunted is about a bad relationship that feels like Groundhog Day,” says Kirsten Heibert, founder of Paging Doctor Moon. “We wrote it on the porch while we were recording the rest of the album.”

Paging Doctor Moon’s second single is an emotional symphony paired with soulful lead vocals as the primary instrument. The track begins with a stripped and raw exploration with just vocals and guitar and builds to a fuller alternative indie soundscape flushed out with a soft electric guitar and light percussion.

Known for their deep lyricism and vocals and evocative arrangements, Paging Doctor Moon will continue to release singles this year leading up to a Spring 2021 debut album release.

Paging Doctor Moon is an alt indie band with soulful & jazzy vocals from singer/songwriter Kirsten Heibert She founded Paging Doctor Moon in Brooklyn in 2018 under a different band name They gigged in NYC for two years, regularly hitting NYC indie-staples Rockwood Music Hall and Arlene’s Grocery. RIYL: Crumb, Lianne La Havas, Sister Sparrow, Fiona Apple, Mazzy Starr, Kat Wright.

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Lord and the Woolf - Young

Lord and the Woolf is made up of a pair of rascals from the North West of England - Joe Woolf and Sam Lord.

After previously touring with bands ‘Chappaqua Wrestling, ‘Aquilo’, ’LOWES’, and ‘Shy Luv’, Sam and Joe decided to start their own project. With Joe conveniently being a producer they took to his studio to hone and create their own unique style and sound. 

Their studio writing process and attention to detail spawned a dense and interesting production aesthetic, resembling the likes of ‘Alt-J’, ‘Bombay Bicycle club’ and ‘Tame Impala.’

Following two previous singles including the euphoric ‘Etta’s Game’, this month will mark the release of their 3rd single ‘Young’ alongside a music video.

‘Young’ carries a narrative which highlights youthful lust and love, and how it can harness the power to distort our moral compass. At a point in everyone’s life, they must make a choice to either leave or stay in a life defining moment.

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Photo - Eric Michael Pearson
Elijah Wolf - Brighter Lighting.

Brooklyn-based artist Elijah Wolf has released the title track from his upcoming album Brighter Lighting due out February 26 via Trash Casual Records. The track features contributions from Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, Josh Jaeger (drummer for Angel Olsen & Fleet Foxes) and Sam Cohen (Kevin Morby, Sharon Van Etten), who also produced the album. Also today, Forbes interviewed Elijah about the new single release, stating "Rolling guitar melodies create forward motion, synths and lap steels mirror the motion of the natural world."

"This song came so naturally and I had felt like it summed up the record nicely as a whole," says Wolf. "I had spent quite some time reflecting on the experience writing my first record before this one, which was a deeply lonely and personal one. This song is about looking back on those days and how life has moved far past them. It’s about taking those experiences and moving forward."

Speaking about the video, Elijah explains: "I grew up in Phoenicia, New York, nestled up in the Catskill Mountains. Throughout my life, the geography and botanical offerings have provided great comfort for me. It is here that I gained my great wonder and curiosity for the world, as well as the place I continuously return to when things get dark and uncertain. 

Brighter Lighting is about understanding the past, so that one may look forward with wide eyes. I asked one of my closest friends, Dylan Kaplowitz, a filmmaker (also from the Catskill Mountains), to document a full day with me, revisiting these sacred places; each one with great significance to my life. I shared stories with him at each spot and he filmed it all on a Super 8 camera."

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Joe Kelly & The Royal Pharmacy - Cult Of Venus - Tora Luna

Joe Kelly & The Royal Pharmacy - Cast Me Down. Newport's Prodigal Son Joe Kelly & The Royal Pharmacy announces his 2nd album, t...