Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of LA pop-psych titans Maple Mars, Big Stir Records have just released an all new two track single from the band: “Couldn't Have Been A Better Time” and “Tidal Wave”, a one-two punch demonstrating both the power and the pop that have made them longtime favorites onstage and on record.
It seems impossible that it's been a quarter of a century since Maple Mars rose from the ashes of front man Rick Hromadka's beloved '90s outfit Double Naught Spies, and the new songs presented here are as full of youthful rock and roll energy as ever. But it's a reality worth celebrating, and the current lineup of the band Hromadka on vocals and guitar, Steve Berns on guitar and vocals, longtime drummer Ron Pak and returning bassist Jeff Legore do so in their customary bracing rock style.
The songs presented here display the band at the absolute top of their game, too. The A-side “Couldn't Have Been A Better Time” is a pure guitar-pop delight, with soaring hooks and a sense of palpable joy permeating the performance. The title telegraphs a look back at the band's history, but there's more going on here, however coy Hromadka may be about it. “I gave away too much personal info about some of the songs on the last Maple Mars album,” he says of the personal journey detailed in music on Someone's Got To Listen. “Gonna keep this one a secret. Although listeners can probably figure out that it's about someone special in my life.” The song simply radiates warmth, and the blend of trippy touches and Beach Boys like glee are pure Maple Mars.
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Seattle, Washington's own indie pop pioneers Tullycraft are back with two new singles "Tarrytown" & "Love On the Left Bank" off their new album Shoot the Point out now on HHBTM Records.
Over the years, Tullycraft has penned a handful of songs that practically define the twee movement in America. The chorus "fuck me, I'm twee" was the refrain that launched a thousand t-shirts. “The Punks Are Writing Love Songs” introduced bratty punk to hummingbird twee. "Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend’s Too Stupid to Know About" encapsulated an entire music scene in a single song.
And yet despite this, for most, the band exists somewhere near the edges of obscurity. Occasionally, they receive a nod (like when their album 'Old Traditions, New Standards' was featured on Pitchfork's list of the 25 Best Indie Pop Albums of the ’90s) but these spotlights don’t tend to happen as frequently as one might think.
While the mainstream has largely ignored Tullycraft, their status in the indie pop underground is undeniable. Formed in Seattle in 1995, they are considered to be one of the bona fide pioneers of the American twee pop movement. Touring relentlessly during the last gasp of the truly independent indie-underground, they influenced countless young bands. They were once called “the Johnny Appleseed of Indie Pop — making their way across the country, leaving new bands, zines, and record labels to sprout up in their wake."
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| Photo - Anna Azarov |
Beloved folk-pop singer-songwriter Rachael Sage and her longtime band The Sequins have released their uplifting new single and video “The Best Version” alongside the announcement of their new studio album Canopy, out October 24 via MPress Records. Standing as Sage’s most soulful and thought-provoking work to date, Canopy confidently spans Americana, pop, and neo-folk while exploring themes of living a purposeful and joyful life rooted in inclusiveness and equality. The new single is a lyrical, piano-pop confession that grapples with social media surrealism and imagines a blissful, unplugged state of being.
“‘The Best Version’ is a pretty different flavor musically from the rest of the album,” shares Sage on the new single. “Over the last few years, I’ve witnessed more and more people throwing up their hands and feeling so continually misunderstood on social media that they’ve had to go on ‘social media fasts’ just to feel sane.
This gave me the idea of imagining a sort of blissful, off-the-grid state of being where you might gaze into a night-sky, imagine your soulmate(s) living in other parts of the world, and feel simultaneously tiny and huge. In these chaotic times, I personally find a lot of solace knowing from being on tour that I have kindred spirits in many places now and this song expresses the gist of why I love touring so much. I think this is among the most hopeful tracks on the record and we worked really hard to reflect the hopeful, expansive feeling of the lyrics in the string arrangement.”
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| Photo - Jon Karr |
Nashville-based powerhouse Kashena Sampson has unveiled the title track of her forthcoming LP, Ghost Of Me, out on October 3. Kashena tells us “Besides being a musician, I have also been a bartender at a music venue for the past 10 years to pay my bills. It’s a great job, but there are some nights that feel like my heart is breaking,” Sampson told Chorus.fm. “Watching others live out the exact dream I’m still chasing, night after night. Having to put a smile on my face and serve industry people who’ve passed on me can be rough, and I can get real down on myself about it sometimes.
‘Ghost Of Me’ is about those moments. The times when I question my worth, and the internal struggle of not being where I would like to be in my music career,” she added. “It’s about not giving up on my dreams even though at times it feels like it’s killing me.”
“Stuck in the same place, same routine,” she sings, before a swell of gorgeous, nocturnal noise, full of swooning keyboards and atmospheric guitars, like a long-lost Roy Orbison classic reborn for a film noir soundtrack. “Ghost Of Me” follows lead single, “Rearview Mirror,” a song born of intuition and shadow work, a spiritual shake-up designed to clear the path for truth.
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