Bedolina - Melys - Avery Friedman - Hallelujah The Hills

Bedolina - We Are the Clock Ourselves Again.

Out today March 28th, "We Are the Clock Ourselves Again" is an indie rock hymn about perceiving life through your own innate sense of right and wrong. Highlighting the importance of self-reliance, Bedolina encourages those listening to march to the beat of their own "clock". Featuring keys and drums laid down by Robbie Bennett and Charlie Hall (both of The War On Drugs), the new track is the first offering from the upcoming LP Sun and Flamingos.

Bedolina is spearheaded by the Philadelphia-based Ken Gould, who crafts eerie experimental rock that furthers the band's artistic evolution. Gearing up for the release of their second album Sun and Flamingos, Bedolina once again enlisted the collaborative efforts of Miner Street Recordings producers Brian McTear and Amy Morrissey (The War on Drugs, Kurt Vile, Sharon van Etten) and engineer Joe Lambert (Thievery Corporation, The Black Crowes, Cracker) Throughout the upcoming LP, themes of surrealism, the ever-lurking future, and modern contradictions are studied in depth, creating a palette of diverse and digestible tracks.

============================================================================

Melys - Sgleinio.

Ahead of their Record Store Day UK album release, Melys launch their new single "Sgleinio" (Shine) on Friday, March 28th. The synth-infused indie pop track is the next single from their upcoming album "Second Wind," arriving on April 12th.

In the glare of the modern online world, "Sgleinio" (Shine) explores the pressures of online life and social media and the need for self-acceptance. In true Melys style, Sgleinio begins with stripped back verses that feature the old art of finger clicks and claps before its chorus bursts into life with lush layered vocals, crashing guitars and analogue synths.

“Sgleinio' came from seeing the difficulties of comparing ourselves with others online. We all have some experience of this, either personally or seeing someone close to us struggle. We put too much pressure on ourselves to project the perfect image, and I wanted to create a song that reminds us that we're enough just as we are.” Andrea.

============================================================================

Avery Friedman - New Thing.

Today Brooklyn's Avery Friedman releases the final single from her April 18th debut album. Featuring: James Chrisman (Sister. / Ciao Malz) and Felix Walworth (Florist / Told Slant).

“I wrote ‘New Thing’ in one sitting after riding the subway home alone at night for the first time since being mugged at knifepoint months prior. I was shocked and disoriented by the anxiety I experienced doing something so routine—I felt foreign to myself. It’s one of the first of my songs that I truly loved, which is part of why I chose it as the title of my upcoming record. I’m grateful for how this song continues to bring me back into my body.” – Avery Friedman.

After writing her first few songs and feeling a sense of completeness that she hadn’t felt since she was a kid in choir practice, she knew that music wasn’t something she would want to turn away from again. “I am the type of person where, when I see something and identify it, I cannot really look away or put up a wall,” she says. “I made a really conscious choice to make a practice out of songwriting and just try.”

Avery Friedman · New Thing

============================================================================

Hallelujah The Hills - Fake Flowers at Sunset (Featuring Cassie Berman).

Boston legends Hallelujah The Hills are back with their ambitious new project, DECK - a four-album endeavor featuring a who's who of indie rock. The first single, “Fake Flowers at Sunset,” featuring Cassie Berman, drops today March 28th ahead of the album’s full release on June 13, 2025.

“Fake Flowers at Sunset” is a folk song with a disco beat - a love song that remains wary of love’s intensity - breaking away from nature as an easy metaphor for human emotion. It’s a striking preview of DECK, a project that was two and a half years in the making, featuring collaborations with Craig Finn, Ezra Furman, Patrick Stickles, Sadie Dupuis, Tanya Donelly, Clint Conley, and many more. Funded independently through a dedicated fan Patreon, this is a passion project of epic proportions.

With a career spanning nearly 20 years, Hallelujah The Hills have earned praise from Pitchfork, Spin, and Aquarium Drunkard for their anthemic, genre-blurring rock. Their last album, I’m You, was called "one of the best American rock albums of recent years” by Exile Magazine, declared “a lyrical masterpiece” by Metro, and their live shows continue to draw fans from across the country.

Hallelujah The Hills · Fake Flowers at Sunset (Featuring Cassie Berman)

============================================================================

Upside of Maybe - CJ Wiley - Blessed Child Opera - Melys - Esther Rose

Upside of Maybe - Boys From The North.

Upside of Maybe is a chart-topping, award-winning band that blends rootsy pop and rock with an infectious passion for storytelling. Hailing from the vibrant town of Stratford, Ontario, this family-friendly group has taken Canada by storm with their tight harmonies, magnetic stage presence, and unforgettable live shows.

From intimate house concerts to festival stages that shake the ground, Upside of Maybe knows how to turn every performance into an experience. It’s not just about the music—it’s about creating memories and sparking genuine connections with fans. Lead singer Michael Bannerman sums it up perfectly: "When we hit the stage, it’s about more than just playing songs. It’s about forging a bond with our audience that lasts long after the lights go down."

The band’s musical evolution has been dynamic, seamlessly blending pop, rock, folk, and roots influences. What began as an acoustic-driven sound has grown into an exciting, genre-bending mix that has earned them the title of “alt-rock” trailblazers.

===========================================================================

CJ Wiley - Don't Die Charlie.

Rising Canadian singer-songwriter CJ Wiley is gearing up for the release of their debut album So Brand New on February 28th, treating fans to one final insight with ‘Don’t Die Charlie’

Building on the seamless fusion of slacker rock intensity and soul-baring Americana that defines their upcoming LP, CJ Wiley's latest single emerges as a gutting testament to survival against all odds. Their voice—equal parts grit and grace—weaves through the track, transforming personal tragedy into universal truth. It's a haunting eulogy for fallen friends that manages to find light in the darkness, balancing the weight of loss with an urgent celebration of second chances. Where many artists might shy away from such vulnerable territory, Wiley leans in, their vocals carrying both the tremor of grief and the fierce joy of being alive to tell the tale. "'Don’t Die Charlie is about my decade-long battle with addiction and the grief I still carry for the friends I lost along the way.” Wiley expands “It holds vivid memories, taking me back to high school when everything felt so chaotic, though I didn’t fully realize how dark things really were at the time. There’s a sense of guilt that comes with surviving, knowing how easily it could’ve been me who didn’t make it out. Writing this song helped me make sense of it all. It’s for anyone who’s lost someone and still feels their presence."

‘Don’t Die Charlie’ is the final insight into Wiley’s upcoming LP So Brand New, produced by Boy Golden and mixed by Grammy Award-winning engineer Mark Lawrence. Wiley's distinct voice leads the charge through a collection of songs that swing effortlessly between breezy, gripping rock and twangy country ballads. Tackling themes of queer love, grief, addiction, and the rejection of societal norms with unflinching honesty and with the album stands as a down-and-dirty-roots-rock revelation, showcasing CJ Wiley's ability to craft songs that resonate with both personal truth and universal appeal.

===========================================================================

Blessed Child Opera - Oblivion.

Oblivion marks the return of Paolo Messere's brainchild Blessed Child Opera, after a 6 years hiatus, and is also the first single taken from the new album Red Flags, to be released March 21st, 2025.

It's a longing song, passionate, with samples strings building up climax around lyrics grasping to irrational hopes, longing for sparkles able to revive connections, actually condemned to a cosmic oblivion.

It's a decadent and abysmal romanticism, akin to the bare lyricism of Sophia (Robin Proper-Sheppard), the spleen of The Smiths, the rich instrumentation of Woven Hands.
The video, directed and edited by Messere himself, is a collection of images from the area of Ragusa in Sicily where he lives, and perfectly captures – as glimpses of fields from a train's window - the transience and impermanence of everything.

===========================================================================

Melys - Santa Cruz.

Welsh Legends 'Melys' have unveiled a brand new video for latest single 'Santa Cruz' which is Out Now on all streaming platforms. Taken from their brand new album which will be released in the spring of 2025.
 
This release follows their April 2024 released BBC radio sessions (Vol 1) album that showcased sessions recorded for Huw Stephens, Adam Walton and John Peel (who the band recorded 11 sessions for). 'Santa Cruz' is the band's first new material since 2005's 'Life’s too short' album. “It's been so long; we feel like a brand-new band again….” (Andrea)
 
'Santa Cruz' was written and inspired by a recent trip to California where Andrea and Paul realised a long-held dream of driving the Pacific coast highway from San Diego to San Francisco.

'Santa Cruz' is about coming from a background of low expectation and ambition, of being told you would never be good enough or in the right social circles to realise ambition or dreams, of being told to stay in your lane. ‘Who the hell do you think you are….’

===========================================================================

Photo Char Klein

Esther Rose - New Bad.

Esther Rose will release Want on May 2, 2025 via New West Records. The 11-track set was produced by Ross Farbe (of Video Age) and recorded live-to-tape at the Bomb Shelter in Nashville, TN. Want is the anticipated follow up to 2023’s Safe to Run which was met with wide acclaim from The New York Times, Pitchfork, Stereogum, No Depression, and more. The album features appearances by the singer songwriter Dean Johnson as well as members of Video Age, The Deslondes, and Silver Synthetic.

Following the wide-open serenity of Safe to Run, Rose now leans toward confrontational arrangements full of distortion and full-band spontaneity, never sacrificing a classicist’s gift for melody that makes each song instantly memorable. “For me, these songs felt like revelations,” she explains, comparing the record to a memoir, alive with kinetic storytelling and personal insight. Ranging from stark solo performances to grungy blowouts, the album maintains a steady focus while never staying too long in one place. Vivid and bracing, she has made the most adventurous, hardest-hitting record of her career.

Today, Esther Rose shared the video for the first single, “New Bad,” which is the music video directorial debut by the artist and New York Times bestselling author Anna Marie Tendler. Rose says, “This song leaps from the speakers. It’s part grunge, part shoegaze. Working with Anna Marie Tendler was the collaboration I’ve always dreamed of. We sparked an easy, natural rapport out of mutual admiration for each other’s artistry. After I read her book Men Have Called Her Crazy, I sent her a note, saying that my unreleased album and her memoir were apparently spiritual twins. Luckily, she agreed." Anna Marie Tendler said, "We spent five days, just the two of us, traversing the desert talking and laughing about love, family, our careers, therapy, ketamine, divorce, and music, all while filming a video whose themes and visuals were predicated on the pluralism of self.

We also spent a lot of time in comfortable silence watching a golden sun set into an inky sky. On our last day, I thanked Esther for taking this chance on me. She, of course, had access to all my photographs, but there was little in terms of video work to prove my proficiency, let alone talent. I was surprised to learn it wasn't my visual work, but my memoir, which had gotten me the job. I just knew you would get what I was trying to say, Esther told me."

===========================================================================