As Strawberry Alarm Clock began to approach its sixtieth anniversary, a new album began to take shape: songs about life, everyday fears, and what comes next. With each member of the band writing and singing, just as they had for all these years, a new and powerful collection of songs emerged that deserves to be heard by listeners both old and new.
Big Stir Records, located near Burbank, CA, where the band first emerged sixty years ago, is proud to present the next chapter in the band's saga. The first single, “Monsters”, coupled with “White Light”, brings the classic SAC sound into the here and now. The new songs, and forthcoming album, are the continuation of those long-ago ideas, shaped and strengthened anew by the times that they, and we, now live in.
This is not the return of Strawberry Alarm Clock. In truth, they have never even gone away over the last sixty years, as films such as Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls and Austin Powers have continued to share their sounds far beyond that Summer Of Love. Perhaps the moment has arrived again has come for a new, powerful, yet familiar sound. Once again, the time has come for The Strawberry Alarm Clock.
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Manuel K from St. Gallen (CH) is reminding us of good old power pop – in a charming way: twanging guitars, straightforward, catchy pop melodies. And of course, the essential dose of power. All those ingredients make a good power pop song.
What makes the whole project special is that Manuel K recorded the track with his Family Band, bringing together several generations. On drums, his son Jayden; on bass, his daughter Allison; and on second electric guitar, his sister Angela. The song was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Marco Jencarelli (Philipp Fankhauser, Dada Ante Portas, among others). The video production was handled by Jonas Ruppen and Manuel Maeder of Ruppen Productions (working with well known Swiss acts such as Anna Kaenzig, Mothers Pride, among others).
“Like a Flower” is now the ninth single by Manuel K, who grew up in Mels (SG) and lives in Azmoos (municipality of Wartau / Werdenberg region of Sankt Gallen/CH), and it comes with a video release. Already with his former rock band Nextmile, Manuel K had the track in his repertoire – but it has never sounded as fresh as in this new recording with his Family Band.
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| Photo - Gabby Sep |
Suffolk Alternative-Pop riser Caswell releases the hotly anticipated debut album Break/Bleed/Bloom this week. Blending elements of downtempo electronica, ethereal deampop and indie musicality with pop and EDM sensibilities, Caswell brings a sonic intelligence and melodic clarity which sets her music apart. Lush, immersive and emotive, the album showcases how well formed Caswell’s sonic identity across its 9 tracks.
Honest lyricism, atmospheric electronics, and driving bass and drums form the backbone of the album, with Caswell’s tender yet commanding vocal pulling each track forward through instantly repeatable melodies. The record moves fluidly between moods—at times intense and danceable, at others melancholic and understated—always retaining a subtle musicality. From the opener Your Type, which swells from ambient beginnings into a driving wall of bass and synth, to the stripped-back emotion of Written To Die, the haunting ambient beauty of Dorko Boda, the moody ‘My Bed’ with Passion Parade, and the floating alt-pop shimmer of Final Call, the album is varied, immaculately produced, and yet affectingly raw and real.
Speaking about the album Caswell explains: "Break/Bleed/Bloom is a collection of nine songs, split into three chapters: Break, Bleed, and Bloom. Break is about friction – those moments when something stops working and you have no choice but to change it. Bleed is the mourning period that follows, but also the release and healing that comes with it. Bloom is the beginning again: hope, optimism, self-exploration, before the cycle inevitably repeats. For me, this album is about leaning into endings instead of rushing past them. We live in a world that tells us to keep producing, achieving and moving forward, but I wanted to show the power in allowing things to die. That’s where the real growth happens.
It was written over three years, giving us the time and space to really live with the songs while living life. Collaborating with my long-time live band and producers kept it super authentic and organic too, and we’re so excited to finally share it with the world, before the next creative cycle begins."
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| Photo - Aidan Dowling |
Dublin based art-pop quartet iNNUENDO return with the new single ‘Rosemary’, offering another taste of their theatrical alternative-rock-meets-artistic-pop aesthetic drawing inspiration from the likes of Kate Bush and David Bowie, the band bring together a sound which conjures elements of CMAT, XTC, Florence And The Machine and Marina And The Diamonds.
The new single distills the band’s aesthetic into technicolour brilliance, weaving together intricate piano lines, driving drums, and theatrical, emotive vocals to create a rich and compelling soundscape. As the track surges into its shout-along chorus, the band’s gift for infectious melody shines through, carried by taut rhythms and choppy guitar that echo the spirit of The Last Dinner Party. The second verse then takes an unexpected turn, erupting into a dazzling wall of arpeggiators that inject a renewed sense of energy and vibrancy, mirroring the electric dynamism of the band’s live performances.
Speaking about the single, the band explain: “‘Rosemary’ was inspired by one of our bandmate’s old piano teachers, who was awful to him. I started noodling around with piano motifs and the song came together almost instantly, expanding once we crafted the cutting synth line after the first chorus - that really cemented the dance-y groove underneath".
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Louis O'Hara has shared his new 'Finally Stick' single, with the debut album 'A Peaceful Kind of Fun' due out 07.11 via Libertino. Of the single we are told: Opening in the glow of early love, the track captures the joy of losing yourself in someone else’s light. By the final verse, it drifts into a lower key reflecting on the exhaustion and fallout that come with endings. Arranged with piano, bass, clarinet, cello, electric guitar, and even a theremin, the song also features a spoken-word bridge inspired by 1950s vocal groups like The Capris and The Ink Spots. The result is both tender and haunting a love song that lingers long after it fades.
A Peaceful Kind of Fun is a 14-track collection that distils O’Hara’s poetic lyricism, tender folk roots, and subtle chamber-pop flourishes into a deeply personal yet quietly universal debut. Recorded with his band His Burley Chassis and produced by James Trevascus (Billy Nomates, Young Fathers, Nick Cave & Warren Ellis) in Spain, the album is shaped by themes of memory, loss, joy, and the places and people that anchor a life.
Throughout the record, O’Hara draws from family history, friendships, and rural West Wales landscapes to create songs that are intimate yet resonant. “The Kid In Me” channels recurring dreams of playing football for Wales as an ode to imagination and daydreaming. “Just Grand” (the album’s first single) is a tender farewell to his grandfather. “Sunnyhill Farm” recalls childhood summers spent on his aunt and uncle’s dairy farm. “Munnelly” traces his grandfather’s memories of the corncrake bird in rural Ireland, entwined with the fragility of dementia. Other highlights include “Magpie”, a love song to his closest friend, “Married”, written in celebration of his brother’s wedding, and “Plant a Tree”, which gathers pieces of life advice into a song of gratitude.
New single “Finally Stick” embodies the duality at the heart of O’Hara’s writing - beginning with the joy and lightness of love’s early stages before descending into the exhaustion and fallout of a relationship’s end. Its arrangement layers piano, clarinet, cello, electric guitar, and theremin, with a spoken-word bridge nodding to 1950s vocal groups such as The Ink Spots and The Capris.
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Brooklyn-based (via Los Angeles) artist Leilani Patao has released "Bird Whistle," the second single from ‘daisy,’ their label debut EP, which will be released via Audio Antihero on November 7th. Debuting in 2021 at the age of 17, Leilani showcased their rich, aching voice, shaped by a background in theatre and their youthful willingness to show vulnerability through a raw lyrical honesty across a series of DIY self-releases. 2024’s ‘But What If?’ earned them their greatest exposure to date when they were featured on The Tonight Show.
Taking its title from the name of Leilani’s much-missed childhood dog, ‘daisy’ is described by the artist as “a pure experiment” in both sound and distribution. Leilani’s ambitious production requires the listener to find the emotion within the cracks, as their range, biting words, and ear for melody push through the wash of sound in fragments. Leilani also made the decision to remove themselves from the algorithm by withholding these songs from streaming, taking control of their work, and asking:
“Is it possible to share my music properly, pay everyone who was involved, get paid myself, and not have to interact with the many systems in place that make me dread music?”
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