Healyum - Cheap Alcohol.
Background - Newcomers Healyum have delivered on early promise with new single ‘Cheap Alcohol’. Previous singles ‘Lies’, ‘Three Months’ and ‘Fools Eyes’ have been supported by Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 1, BBC Introducing, and Radio X (where all three have appeared on the evening playlist).
‘Cheap Alcohol’ will join those earlier singles on the bands debut ‘Join The Party EP’ (released on July 27th). Combining London Grammar-like minimalism with a shimmering, pop-tronica edge inspired by Lorde, they’ve received glowing reviews. The music has also found it’s way onto various BBC Drama & Channel 4 TV shows, and they won the ‘Breakout Artist Award’ at the NMG Awards last year. The band’s BBC Introducing support led to them being filmed live in-session and they recently played alongside fellow Bedford-boy Tom Grennan as well as Fickle Friends and Circa Waves.
Singer-songwriter Jeaná Healy explains that if she threw a party, ‘Cheap Alcohol’ would be the soundtrack. Video director Sam Kinsella said he “wanted to capture the essence of a small London house party and some of the city's unique residential areas.
Obviously we weren't reliant on any kind of big production or location budget but it was important for that realness to translate as well... which essentially led to the guys getting really drunk on a Tuesday night and we managed to capture the night as it unfolded!” ‘Cheap Alcohol’ and the ‘Join The Party EP’ was produced and mixed by band collaborator Kristofer Harris (Belle & Sebastian, Ghostpoet, Indoor Pets). FACEBOOK.
The comparisons with Lorde and London Grammar make sense but don't let that take anything away from Healyum, 'Cheap Alcohol' is a first class song, that stands on it's own merit. Atmospheric and soulful modern indie pop, the lyrics cut to the chase, and the bands desire to capture a small London house party (it's been a good while since I have been to one of those) comes through very well with the video imagery.
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Shapes On Tape - So Much.
Background - Shapes on Tape returns with the rugged bubble gum of "So Much." With this vintage track, S on T brought it all back in house. For the first time since their classic, "Personal Enemy #1," Shapes has released a jam that was entirely written and produced by the band.
When it's Shapes on Tape, you know it's all about the hooks. Written in a evening at their rehearsal studio, the song opens with dueling hooks that combine to be more than the sum of their parts. Adam lays down an earworm of a synth line that intertwines Jason's instantly catchy guitar riff. Then Jason's unique vocals deliver an impassioned ode to his pup, Lucinda, until Adam brings all back home on the bridge.
Shapes on Tape is a Brooklyn-based Brew-Wave/Ultrapop group whose infectious hook-laden three-minute bangers represent a new era where loud guitars and synthesizers can coexist and even party together. A band that once made L Magazine implore U2 to "move over and let Shapes on Tape seize the thrown(sic)," Shapes on Tape asks the question, "What if Walter Mondale had won?"
Genre-hopping producer/multi-instrumentalist/90s groovebox enthusiast Adam Kruckenberg, formerly of Midwest glam legend Vibralux, and guitarist/poet Jason Matuskiewicz, a veteran of beloved Lexington, KY band Candidate, began collaborating in 2014, but they didn't complete their sound, best described as a sonic assault of feels, until they expanded S on T to include drum savant and overall swell guy Justin Heaverin of Noisebody and The Silver Tongues.
Matuskiewicz’s lyrics and straightforward style walk the line between high and low concept with an abrupt 3-chord frankness that never takes itself seriously, while Kruckenberg’s powerful vocals and synthetic re-imaginings take the songs to epic proportions. Combined with Heaverin's unstoppable groove, you could be forgiven for wondering when The Boss had time to do a secret collaboration with Erasure. With the help of Grammy-nominated producer and Hedwig alum Justin Craig, SoT's forthcoming album Legends in The Process is sure to be a supersonic, beer-fueled dreamscape littered with the carcasses of waves and cores. WEBSITE.
We featured Shapes On Tape a couple of times back in 2016 and then they disappeared off our radar until now. 'So Much' mixes gloriously unique vocals against a rich synth laden backdrop. Full of hooks (something this band seem to deliver consistently) this is a fabulous song with character, energy and style.
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John Mohead - Son Of The South.
Background - The name alone evokes soul. And the person behind the name does as well. John Mohead is a veteran of the music scene. A story teller that can jam. He has toured with Bob Dylan, the Allman Brothers and Little Feat. On the folk side, he has worked with Billy Joe Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Shakey Graves just to name a few.
Starting his carreer as a Nashville staff writer, landing a record deal distributed by Rounder Records, touring the world but never losing his Mississippi roots. His duck and punch vocal style is very reminiscent of Van Morrison or Lowel George. Country soul is what they call it in Muscle Shoals. He takes the William Faulkner approach and writes what he knows. This sound comes from the Mississippi. Not the mud, but the water. The blues had another baby and called it Americana from Mohead.
When John Mohead released his debut album Lula City Limits on the Rounder Records subsidiary label Okra Tone, All Music wrote: John Mohead's debut record establishes the singer/songwriter as a contemporary heir to the Delta blues. Updating traditional Mississippi blues with Southern rock and country influences, Mohead makes some intriguing music and he's a promising songwriter, as demonstrated by the overall consistency of the record.
2018 sees the release of a new full grown album with a title that really says it all, Mohead is a true “Son Of The South”. His rootsy, Delta blues-rock tunes go down like good bourbon on a summer night. His slide work dances like moths around a porch light and his original songs take the listener to a beloved, homey place.
Mohead’s music is deeply rooted in Mississippi where he makes his home. It is imbued with the inevitable influences of the blues masters who seem to sprout from the Delta as if planted by some unseen hand. A hand that loves the blues. Mohead is a homeboy, rich in Southern charm with a natural storytelling gift. He plays with passion and respect for the masters who came before him, carrying the torch with pride and purpose. WEBSITE.
Featuring the title track from the new album 'Son Of The South' this collection of music really should appeal to a wide range of music lovers. The vocal comparisons with Van Morrison are down to nature rather than any attempt to copy the man, and the musical arrangements take us on a grand tour of Americana at it's finest and all it's connotations. Let the player below continue and you will hear three more tracks from the forthcoming album, in my opinion this is a very special one.
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Saturday, 11 August 2018
Thursday, 9 August 2018
Tomberlin - Caezar
Tomberlin - Any Other Way.
Background - Tomberlin, the rising Louisville, KY-based artist, has released a video for "Any Other Way," the opener from her anticipated Saddle Creek debut album, At Weddings. On her deeply moving debut album At Weddings, Sarah Beth Tomberlin writes with the clarity and wisdom of an artist well beyond her years. Immeasurable space circulates within the album's ten songs, which set Tomberlin's searching voice against lush backdrops of piano and guitar. Like Julien Baker and Sufjan Stevens, she has a knack for transforming the personal into parable. Like Grouper, she has a feel for the transcendent within the ordinary.
Born in Jacksonville, Florida, and now based in Louisville, Kentucky, Tomberlin wrote most of At Weddings while living with her family in southern Illinois during her late teens and early twenties. At 16, she finished her homeschooling curriculum and went to college at a private Christian school she describes, only half-jokingly, as a "cult." By 17, she had dropped out of school, returned home, and begun to face a period of difficult transition in her life. The daughter of a Baptist pastor, Tomberlin found herself questioning not only her faith, but her identity, her purpose, and her place in the world.
"I was working, going to school, and experiencing heavy isolation," Tomberlin says of the time when she first began writing the songs on At Weddings. "It felt monotonous, like endless nothingness. It was a means to get through to the next step of life." In songwriting, Tomberlin found relief and lucidity she had trouble articulating otherwise. When she was 19, she wrote "Tornado" on her parents' piano, and began to develop confidence in her music. A year later, she had written enough songs to fill an album.
Throughout At Weddings, Tomberlin's lyrics yearn for stability and belonging, a near-universal desire among young people learning to define themselves on their own terms for the first time. "I am a tornado with big green eyes and a heartbeat," she sings on "Tornado," her voice stretching to the top of her range. Rich, idiosyncratic imagery - a fly killed with a self-help book, brown paper bags slashed violently open, clouds that weep over a lost love - sidle up to profound realizations about learning to be alive in this world. "To be a woman is to be in pain," Tomberlin notes on "I'm Not Scared." On "A Video Game," she muses, "I wish I was a hero with something beautiful to say."
At Weddings is laden with reverence for music itself, for the power it has to heal others and help people navigate their lives. It is a record about learning to love oneself and others without reservation, from a place of deep sincerity - a lifelong challenge whose tribulations Tomberlin articulates beautifully. "My number one goal with my music is for honesty and transparency that helps other people find ways to exist," she says. With At Weddings, this remarkable young songwriter offers up comfort and wonder in equal measure. WEBSITE.
Back in June we featured 'Seventeen' describing the song as "a seriously good singer, songwriter track, with gorgeous vocals and a beautifully crafted musical arrangement that adds even more emotion." Now we have a new video for 'Any Other Way' the opening song on 'At Weddings', a beautiful album, as is further evidenced by this adorable piece. If either of these songs have grabbed your attention, I would suggest that making a little time to explore the remaining material, will be both rewarding and delight you even more.
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Caezar - Hold On.
Background - UK natives Caezar have announced their much-anticipated debut EP ‘Hail!’ and have just shared their exciting new single with the world, titled ‘Hold On’. The group will be making their release through RG Records and have had the pleasure of having Justin Broad on board as the producer for this latest project, who has produced for names such as Jessie J, Emeli Sandé, Izzy Bizu and Corinne Bailey Rae. ‘Hail!’ also boasts mastering by formidable mastering engineer Stuart Hawkes, who’s work on artists such as Amy Winehouse, Clean Bandit, Rudimental and has been indispensable to pop music the world over. Playing alongside giant names such as Hozier, James Bay and Jack Garrett, Caezar can really hold their own in the scene and have had the pleasure of playing at the award-winning independent Barn on the Farm Festival as well as being featured on the acclaimed radio platform BBC Music Introducing, who have discovered many exceptional UK artists in the pop-rock genre such as Declan McKenna and Catfish and the Bottlemen.
Hailing from the unassuming town of Cheltenham, the two founding members of Caezar, Chris Quiqley and Rich Gills decided to take their passion for music to the next level when the pair found themselves both suffering from sports injuries that meant they would no longer be able to play rugby for their local club. It was under the lights of the rugby pitch where the two ex-players decided that they would take their previously hidden musical talents to the stage. When Zoe joined the band in 2017, the trio really found their niche. Her soft synths and sweet-as-honey backing vocals helped build on the unique crossover of pop, indie and rock elements that make up the band’s special sound.
Caezar’s single ‘Hold On’ starts off with an infectious guitar lick that sets the mood of the song - pensive but upbeat. When Chris Quigley’s vocals enter the mix, it’s easy to hear that the group can be likened to modern pop-rock heroes Imagine Dragons and Bastille. The band’s mix of skillfully-played live instruments and expertly produced electronic beats coupled with strong, melodic lead vocals creates an impressively versatile sound. While there is a clear thoughtfulness in the lyricism and delivery of ‘Hold On’, the track still manages to create an uplifting, anthemic mood, with a dash of funk thrown in, much like the work of Will Heard. The track is one that’ll touch the listener on an emotional level while still making sure that the dance floor is packed with bodies moving to the crisp, fun beats.
The band explained that, “Just because you love someone, doesn't mean it's right. ‘Hold On’ was written out of the conflicted feelings of breaking up with someone who you still love. The track was one of the first songs the band wrote, and has since come to life after years of performing the track at festivals and finally in the studio with Justin Broad.” WEBSITE.
A sophisticated yet understated guitar opening on 'Hold On' is quickly joined by some addictive and captivating vocals and background harmonies. The song is undoubtedly cool and slick, what makes it stand out is the soulful delivery and the seemingly suppressed emotion within the vocals.
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Background - Tomberlin, the rising Louisville, KY-based artist, has released a video for "Any Other Way," the opener from her anticipated Saddle Creek debut album, At Weddings. On her deeply moving debut album At Weddings, Sarah Beth Tomberlin writes with the clarity and wisdom of an artist well beyond her years. Immeasurable space circulates within the album's ten songs, which set Tomberlin's searching voice against lush backdrops of piano and guitar. Like Julien Baker and Sufjan Stevens, she has a knack for transforming the personal into parable. Like Grouper, she has a feel for the transcendent within the ordinary.
Born in Jacksonville, Florida, and now based in Louisville, Kentucky, Tomberlin wrote most of At Weddings while living with her family in southern Illinois during her late teens and early twenties. At 16, she finished her homeschooling curriculum and went to college at a private Christian school she describes, only half-jokingly, as a "cult." By 17, she had dropped out of school, returned home, and begun to face a period of difficult transition in her life. The daughter of a Baptist pastor, Tomberlin found herself questioning not only her faith, but her identity, her purpose, and her place in the world.
"I was working, going to school, and experiencing heavy isolation," Tomberlin says of the time when she first began writing the songs on At Weddings. "It felt monotonous, like endless nothingness. It was a means to get through to the next step of life." In songwriting, Tomberlin found relief and lucidity she had trouble articulating otherwise. When she was 19, she wrote "Tornado" on her parents' piano, and began to develop confidence in her music. A year later, she had written enough songs to fill an album.
Throughout At Weddings, Tomberlin's lyrics yearn for stability and belonging, a near-universal desire among young people learning to define themselves on their own terms for the first time. "I am a tornado with big green eyes and a heartbeat," she sings on "Tornado," her voice stretching to the top of her range. Rich, idiosyncratic imagery - a fly killed with a self-help book, brown paper bags slashed violently open, clouds that weep over a lost love - sidle up to profound realizations about learning to be alive in this world. "To be a woman is to be in pain," Tomberlin notes on "I'm Not Scared." On "A Video Game," she muses, "I wish I was a hero with something beautiful to say."
At Weddings is laden with reverence for music itself, for the power it has to heal others and help people navigate their lives. It is a record about learning to love oneself and others without reservation, from a place of deep sincerity - a lifelong challenge whose tribulations Tomberlin articulates beautifully. "My number one goal with my music is for honesty and transparency that helps other people find ways to exist," she says. With At Weddings, this remarkable young songwriter offers up comfort and wonder in equal measure. WEBSITE.
Back in June we featured 'Seventeen' describing the song as "a seriously good singer, songwriter track, with gorgeous vocals and a beautifully crafted musical arrangement that adds even more emotion." Now we have a new video for 'Any Other Way' the opening song on 'At Weddings', a beautiful album, as is further evidenced by this adorable piece. If either of these songs have grabbed your attention, I would suggest that making a little time to explore the remaining material, will be both rewarding and delight you even more.
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Caezar - Hold On.
Background - UK natives Caezar have announced their much-anticipated debut EP ‘Hail!’ and have just shared their exciting new single with the world, titled ‘Hold On’. The group will be making their release through RG Records and have had the pleasure of having Justin Broad on board as the producer for this latest project, who has produced for names such as Jessie J, Emeli Sandé, Izzy Bizu and Corinne Bailey Rae. ‘Hail!’ also boasts mastering by formidable mastering engineer Stuart Hawkes, who’s work on artists such as Amy Winehouse, Clean Bandit, Rudimental and has been indispensable to pop music the world over. Playing alongside giant names such as Hozier, James Bay and Jack Garrett, Caezar can really hold their own in the scene and have had the pleasure of playing at the award-winning independent Barn on the Farm Festival as well as being featured on the acclaimed radio platform BBC Music Introducing, who have discovered many exceptional UK artists in the pop-rock genre such as Declan McKenna and Catfish and the Bottlemen.
Hailing from the unassuming town of Cheltenham, the two founding members of Caezar, Chris Quiqley and Rich Gills decided to take their passion for music to the next level when the pair found themselves both suffering from sports injuries that meant they would no longer be able to play rugby for their local club. It was under the lights of the rugby pitch where the two ex-players decided that they would take their previously hidden musical talents to the stage. When Zoe joined the band in 2017, the trio really found their niche. Her soft synths and sweet-as-honey backing vocals helped build on the unique crossover of pop, indie and rock elements that make up the band’s special sound.
Caezar’s single ‘Hold On’ starts off with an infectious guitar lick that sets the mood of the song - pensive but upbeat. When Chris Quigley’s vocals enter the mix, it’s easy to hear that the group can be likened to modern pop-rock heroes Imagine Dragons and Bastille. The band’s mix of skillfully-played live instruments and expertly produced electronic beats coupled with strong, melodic lead vocals creates an impressively versatile sound. While there is a clear thoughtfulness in the lyricism and delivery of ‘Hold On’, the track still manages to create an uplifting, anthemic mood, with a dash of funk thrown in, much like the work of Will Heard. The track is one that’ll touch the listener on an emotional level while still making sure that the dance floor is packed with bodies moving to the crisp, fun beats.
The band explained that, “Just because you love someone, doesn't mean it's right. ‘Hold On’ was written out of the conflicted feelings of breaking up with someone who you still love. The track was one of the first songs the band wrote, and has since come to life after years of performing the track at festivals and finally in the studio with Justin Broad.” WEBSITE.
A sophisticated yet understated guitar opening on 'Hold On' is quickly joined by some addictive and captivating vocals and background harmonies. The song is undoubtedly cool and slick, what makes it stand out is the soulful delivery and the seemingly suppressed emotion within the vocals.
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Wednesday, 8 August 2018
Jen Awad - Hey Harriett - John Hiatt
Jen Awad - Break A Man.
Background - Grab the nearest fire extinguisher cos Jen Awad is about to set your wig alight. This half Egyptian, half Peruvian powerhouse delivers the kneecap melting soul and sass of Etta James combined with an in-your-face swagger reminiscent of Tina Turner. Self taught on vocals, piano, guitar and bass, Jen also pens the lyrics to all of her material.
Jen's ability to deliver cherubic, velvety vocals that effortlessly transition into the radical rumble of a runaway 18 wheeler doing 90 mph on an open highway is a feat in itself to witness live. Backed by an eight member band with a horn section, Jen Awad packs a combination punch that will leave your core ringing in the most delectable manner imaginable. Recently Jen Awad has been selected to play the Broke L.A. Festival, being 1 of 50 acts chosen out of 700 contenders. She has consistently filled her local L.A. venues to maximum capacity and is steadily gaining ground as a widely respected act in the L.A. music scene.
When Jen is not writing and performing her music, she is designing for her self-titled label Jen Awad, as well as the urban men's line also out of Los Angeles called "900". It is not a rare sight to behold her 8 piece band donning metallic bomber jackets Jen designed from the "900" label. A few other clients who wear Jen Awad's fashions are: Kali Uchis, Bebe Rexha, Keyshia Cole, Madame Ghandi, Ivy LevIn, Daya, India Love, Christina Milian, Ashanti, Chanel West Coast, and Crystal Westbrooks.
Jen Awad comments - "Break a Man was originally written about the fragility of men. I like to leave it up to interpretation of the listener and however they identify with the song. The origin of break a man was inspired by an article i read in esquire magazine title "100 ways to build a man". Reading the heartfelt article about men sharing their stories about their dads and those defining moments of what built them to be great men brought me to tears. Having been around so many damaged men i realized it took almost nothing to break a man. the song than progresses and discusses how sometimes a woman has to do what she has to do in order to break out of a toxic relationship even if it means hurting someone to set them selves free. its never the intent to destroy someone going in to a relationship..it just happens" - TWITTER.
With a deep breath or a sigh (I haven't quite figure out which yet) 'Break A Man' rapidly builds into a gorgeous and vital song. The passion simmers and then boils over into a classic full bodied soul masterpiece, the band and backing singers are majestic, and any fragile men had better watch out!
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Hey Harriett - Too Fast Too Soon.
Background - Forming in 2017, Hey Harriett is an indie/surf/rock band that has made leaps and bounds in the Adelaide music scene. To the outsider it may seem that Hey Harriett appeared out of nowhere but those closer to the project know that this has been a long time coming for front woman and singer/songwriter Georgy Rochow. Too Fast Too Soon is their latest single. Taking the heartache and uncertainty of young love and wrapping it in indie goodness, Too Fast Too Soon is soaked in positivity and one to get you on the dance floor.
Hey Harriett released their debut single Old Parts in November 2017, just months after they formed, proving the hardworking passionate nature of this band family. Launching the single backyard gig style, saw a humble garden in Bowden full of happy faces dancing in moonlight, drunk off a full day line up of local music.
Following the release of Old Parts, Hey Harriett have been gigging non stop. Winning over audiences in Adelaide and Melbourne this band pulls on your heartstrings whilst getting your body moving to the music. The best way to describe this band is; soaked in positivity, a band full of believers and big thinkers. Hitting the road this year for a few sneaky interstate shows, Hey Harriett is spreading their positive vibe wherever they go. Aspiring towards bigger stages in 2019, this band sits solidly in the indie rock scene.
With budding sound engineers making up the band, they are tackling recording themselves. Self producing, recording and mixing takes a little extra time but the result is a recording that is 100% Hey Harriett from start to finish. With no limits for Hey Harriett, their latest single will be launched in Willunga as Georgy turns another property into a mini festival only this time think open fires, camping village, vintage clothes, and local food and beverages. Proving herself as a band leader and event manager, this band is getting a name for their backyard bonanzas.
Rising through the ranks, Hey Harriett is quickly becoming the word on the town. Led by a fierce woman with her eye on the prize, this band pumps out indie bangers quicker than you can say San Cisco. Less than a year in from their first release, it’s going to be an exciting, wild ride with these folk. FACEBOOK.
'Too Fast Too Soon' is a vibrant indie song that keeps things simple, allowing the upbeat melodic vocals and delightfully tight music to quickly work there way under your skin.
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John Hiatt - Cry To Me.
Background - John Hiatt is set to return with The Eclipse Sessions on October 12th, 2018 via New West Records. The 11-track set is the Grammy nominated legend’s first new album in four years. It was produced by Kevin McKendree (Delbert McClinton) and features Hiatt’s longtime drummer Kenneth Blevins and bassist Patrick O’Hearn, as well as Yates McKendree (Kevin’s then 16-year old wunderkind son, who also engineered). Hiatt places The Eclipse Sessions in a lineage alongside two of his greatest works -- 1987’s mainstream breakthrough Bring the Family, which sprung from an impulsive four-day session with an all-star combo led by Ry Cooder, and 2000’s Crossing Muddy Waters, an unplanned and largely unplugged effort that garnered a Grammy Award nomination and also set Hiatt on the rootsier path he’s still pursuing today. “The three albums are very connected in my mind,” Hiatt says. “They all have a vibe to them that was unexpected. I didn’t know where I was going when I started out on any of them. And each one wound up being a pleasant surprise.”
Since the release of Hiatt’s 1974 debut, Hangin’ Around the Observatory, rarely has more than a year or two passed without a new collection hitting the shelves. But after wrapping up a year of touring in support of 2014’s Terms of My Surrender -- the singer-songwriter’s 22nd studio effort overall -- he found himself, for the first time in a long time, unsure of what would come next. “I’ve been lost before,” Hiatt says. “Although usually I have some sort of notion or clue where to go. But this time? I had no sense whatsoever.” He continues, “I wanted to spend more time with my family (which includes his critically acclaimed singer-songwriter daughter Lilly). I was aging, with all that entails or doesn’t entail. Stuff was just happening.”
During this period of transition Hiatt did compose a new song that closes The Eclipse Sessions - a dusty, road-worn meditation titled “Robber’s Highway” with the ominously prophetic lyrics “I had words, chords and strings / now I don’t have any of these things.” Hiatt explains, “I was just thinking in terms of somebody who’s out there hammerin’ away with his music, wondering what it’s all coming to. And maybe the songs just aren’t there anymore…” Fast-forward a few years, however, and it’s clear the songs are still very much there as the 11 tracks presented here demonstrate that the singer-songwriter, now 66-years-old, is only getting better with age, his guitar playing more rugged and rootsy, his words wiser and more wry.
True to its title, Hiatt and his band were hard at work on August 21st, 2017 when a solar eclipse traveled the length of the continental U.S. “I think we recorded three songs that day, and then we took a break to go outside and watch everything happen,” Hiatt says. What he observed amongst his fellow Nashvillians during that moment of totality -- his city was one of a few spots in the U.S. to be plunged into near complete darkness -- did give him pause. “It seemed everything stopped for a minute or two,” he says. “It was like a magical little bit of time, a harmonic convergence or something. Like everybody was on the same page.” NEW WEST RECORDS.
I am always pleased to feature new music from an artist or band that are older than me (something that is becoming increasingly more of a challenge). Anyhow 'Cry To Me' sees John Hiatt demonstrating that he is not without fresh new musical ideas, and with years of experience and a fine gathering of musicians, his music remains engaging, honest and lovable.
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Background - Grab the nearest fire extinguisher cos Jen Awad is about to set your wig alight. This half Egyptian, half Peruvian powerhouse delivers the kneecap melting soul and sass of Etta James combined with an in-your-face swagger reminiscent of Tina Turner. Self taught on vocals, piano, guitar and bass, Jen also pens the lyrics to all of her material.
Jen's ability to deliver cherubic, velvety vocals that effortlessly transition into the radical rumble of a runaway 18 wheeler doing 90 mph on an open highway is a feat in itself to witness live. Backed by an eight member band with a horn section, Jen Awad packs a combination punch that will leave your core ringing in the most delectable manner imaginable. Recently Jen Awad has been selected to play the Broke L.A. Festival, being 1 of 50 acts chosen out of 700 contenders. She has consistently filled her local L.A. venues to maximum capacity and is steadily gaining ground as a widely respected act in the L.A. music scene.
When Jen is not writing and performing her music, she is designing for her self-titled label Jen Awad, as well as the urban men's line also out of Los Angeles called "900". It is not a rare sight to behold her 8 piece band donning metallic bomber jackets Jen designed from the "900" label. A few other clients who wear Jen Awad's fashions are: Kali Uchis, Bebe Rexha, Keyshia Cole, Madame Ghandi, Ivy LevIn, Daya, India Love, Christina Milian, Ashanti, Chanel West Coast, and Crystal Westbrooks.
Jen Awad comments - "Break a Man was originally written about the fragility of men. I like to leave it up to interpretation of the listener and however they identify with the song. The origin of break a man was inspired by an article i read in esquire magazine title "100 ways to build a man". Reading the heartfelt article about men sharing their stories about their dads and those defining moments of what built them to be great men brought me to tears. Having been around so many damaged men i realized it took almost nothing to break a man. the song than progresses and discusses how sometimes a woman has to do what she has to do in order to break out of a toxic relationship even if it means hurting someone to set them selves free. its never the intent to destroy someone going in to a relationship..it just happens" - TWITTER.
With a deep breath or a sigh (I haven't quite figure out which yet) 'Break A Man' rapidly builds into a gorgeous and vital song. The passion simmers and then boils over into a classic full bodied soul masterpiece, the band and backing singers are majestic, and any fragile men had better watch out!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey Harriett - Too Fast Too Soon.
Background - Forming in 2017, Hey Harriett is an indie/surf/rock band that has made leaps and bounds in the Adelaide music scene. To the outsider it may seem that Hey Harriett appeared out of nowhere but those closer to the project know that this has been a long time coming for front woman and singer/songwriter Georgy Rochow. Too Fast Too Soon is their latest single. Taking the heartache and uncertainty of young love and wrapping it in indie goodness, Too Fast Too Soon is soaked in positivity and one to get you on the dance floor.
Hey Harriett released their debut single Old Parts in November 2017, just months after they formed, proving the hardworking passionate nature of this band family. Launching the single backyard gig style, saw a humble garden in Bowden full of happy faces dancing in moonlight, drunk off a full day line up of local music.
Following the release of Old Parts, Hey Harriett have been gigging non stop. Winning over audiences in Adelaide and Melbourne this band pulls on your heartstrings whilst getting your body moving to the music. The best way to describe this band is; soaked in positivity, a band full of believers and big thinkers. Hitting the road this year for a few sneaky interstate shows, Hey Harriett is spreading their positive vibe wherever they go. Aspiring towards bigger stages in 2019, this band sits solidly in the indie rock scene.
With budding sound engineers making up the band, they are tackling recording themselves. Self producing, recording and mixing takes a little extra time but the result is a recording that is 100% Hey Harriett from start to finish. With no limits for Hey Harriett, their latest single will be launched in Willunga as Georgy turns another property into a mini festival only this time think open fires, camping village, vintage clothes, and local food and beverages. Proving herself as a band leader and event manager, this band is getting a name for their backyard bonanzas.
Rising through the ranks, Hey Harriett is quickly becoming the word on the town. Led by a fierce woman with her eye on the prize, this band pumps out indie bangers quicker than you can say San Cisco. Less than a year in from their first release, it’s going to be an exciting, wild ride with these folk. FACEBOOK.
'Too Fast Too Soon' is a vibrant indie song that keeps things simple, allowing the upbeat melodic vocals and delightfully tight music to quickly work there way under your skin.
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John Hiatt - Cry To Me.
Background - John Hiatt is set to return with The Eclipse Sessions on October 12th, 2018 via New West Records. The 11-track set is the Grammy nominated legend’s first new album in four years. It was produced by Kevin McKendree (Delbert McClinton) and features Hiatt’s longtime drummer Kenneth Blevins and bassist Patrick O’Hearn, as well as Yates McKendree (Kevin’s then 16-year old wunderkind son, who also engineered). Hiatt places The Eclipse Sessions in a lineage alongside two of his greatest works -- 1987’s mainstream breakthrough Bring the Family, which sprung from an impulsive four-day session with an all-star combo led by Ry Cooder, and 2000’s Crossing Muddy Waters, an unplanned and largely unplugged effort that garnered a Grammy Award nomination and also set Hiatt on the rootsier path he’s still pursuing today. “The three albums are very connected in my mind,” Hiatt says. “They all have a vibe to them that was unexpected. I didn’t know where I was going when I started out on any of them. And each one wound up being a pleasant surprise.”
Since the release of Hiatt’s 1974 debut, Hangin’ Around the Observatory, rarely has more than a year or two passed without a new collection hitting the shelves. But after wrapping up a year of touring in support of 2014’s Terms of My Surrender -- the singer-songwriter’s 22nd studio effort overall -- he found himself, for the first time in a long time, unsure of what would come next. “I’ve been lost before,” Hiatt says. “Although usually I have some sort of notion or clue where to go. But this time? I had no sense whatsoever.” He continues, “I wanted to spend more time with my family (which includes his critically acclaimed singer-songwriter daughter Lilly). I was aging, with all that entails or doesn’t entail. Stuff was just happening.”
During this period of transition Hiatt did compose a new song that closes The Eclipse Sessions - a dusty, road-worn meditation titled “Robber’s Highway” with the ominously prophetic lyrics “I had words, chords and strings / now I don’t have any of these things.” Hiatt explains, “I was just thinking in terms of somebody who’s out there hammerin’ away with his music, wondering what it’s all coming to. And maybe the songs just aren’t there anymore…” Fast-forward a few years, however, and it’s clear the songs are still very much there as the 11 tracks presented here demonstrate that the singer-songwriter, now 66-years-old, is only getting better with age, his guitar playing more rugged and rootsy, his words wiser and more wry.
True to its title, Hiatt and his band were hard at work on August 21st, 2017 when a solar eclipse traveled the length of the continental U.S. “I think we recorded three songs that day, and then we took a break to go outside and watch everything happen,” Hiatt says. What he observed amongst his fellow Nashvillians during that moment of totality -- his city was one of a few spots in the U.S. to be plunged into near complete darkness -- did give him pause. “It seemed everything stopped for a minute or two,” he says. “It was like a magical little bit of time, a harmonic convergence or something. Like everybody was on the same page.” NEW WEST RECORDS.
I am always pleased to feature new music from an artist or band that are older than me (something that is becoming increasingly more of a challenge). Anyhow 'Cry To Me' sees John Hiatt demonstrating that he is not without fresh new musical ideas, and with years of experience and a fine gathering of musicians, his music remains engaging, honest and lovable.
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Monday, 6 August 2018
Japanese Television - Party Hardly
Japanese Television - Tick Tock.
Background - Japanese harp and synth player Ian Thorn and Bassist Alex Lawton met on tour in Europe, performing as part of a Canadian space-rock orchestra. They bonded over their shared passion for Finnish experimental band Circle, Pink Floyd, Television, Broadcast and Brian Eno, and went on to form instrumental space-surf band, Japanese Television, with James Moriaty and Tim Jones.
They put together a collection of tracks that would make their debut self-titled EP and went into “the studio” (i.e a village hall outside of Peterborough, England, armed with an 8-track) with Kristian Bell of The Wytches at the helm. The EP is out on 7th September via revered underground label Tip Top Recordings (Cassels, Sun Cop).
This week the band share first single from the EP; Tick Tock - a white knuckle ride journey through time and space. The single was given its first play last night on John Kennedy's Radio X, with John making it a 'hot one'. He said the track had "shades of Electrelane".
From the ashes of three separate psychedelic rock bands, rose Japanese Television – who formed late last year with a shared vision of creating wonky surf-rock. “Although the band is instrumental, we don't play solos. It's more about atmosphere and creating a hypnotic effect. Hypnotism through repetition, reverbs and delays, harps and fuzzboxes” Ian continues.
“The combination of extensive travelling and our shared love for psychedelic and experimental music has crept into the sound of the EP” says synth/harpist Ian. “If Country Joe represents the scenic part of the journey where you're by the coast or in the mountains in the sunshine, then Tick Tock is bombing it up the M1.”
The quartet have succeeded in capturing the raw spirit of their live performance on the EP, recording over a mere two days to an 8-track tape. “The rural location coupled with the fact that it rained constantly, meant that we were able to focus completely on getting it done in a short amount of time” they explained.
At the heavier end of Japanese Television’s brief collection of experimental tracks, is lead single from their first EP, Tick Tock. Recorded live in one take, the track harks back to ‘70s-era motorik rock, employing organs, synths and reverb-drenched guitars cascading over a hypnotic, driving bass. “Tick Tock is heavily influenced by the likes of Hawkwind and Neu!” says Ian. FACEBOOK.
Mention of Hawkwind, Pink Floyd and Neu as influences in the bands promo grabbed my attention, however at the same time it kind of set the bar rather high in terms of expectation, after all anyone can name drop. Our first taste of Japanese Television comes in the form of the instrumental 'Tick Tock'. Yes the expected components of psych, space rock and surf rock are all present, the key factor is that they are blended together beautifully with an air of exuberance and passion. The EP cannot arrive soon enough!
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Party Hardly - Terry Shure.
Background - Bustling Leeds (UK) quartet Party Hardly launch woozy, alt-rock number Terry Shure, the first track taken from their forthcoming debut EP Cycle Of Life out this autumn.
Recorded with MJ of Hookworms in his acclaimed Suburban Home studio, the band’s latest social commentary adds further credence to their songwriting capabilities with guitarist Matt Pownall discussing the release in detail:
“Terry Shure is my personal realisation of seeing people’s lives go stagnant. How over time you go from doing new and exciting things to telling the same old stories and being stuck in the past”.
Positioned firmly at the heart of the city’s thriving music scene, the rising foursome have already landed impressive support slots with acts including INHEAVEN, The Magic Gang and Trudy and the Romance as well as picking up key champions throughout the online community with their first few releases.
Upcoming debut EP Cycle Of Life sees the fuzzy outfit take another giant leap forward with their eccentric brand of indie rock and in lead single Terry Shure they provide the perfect taste of what’s to come. Produced by Hookworms’ MJ (Drenge, The Magic Gang, Honeyblood), Party Hardly’s Terry Shure is out now and available on all digital platforms. TWITTER.
'Terry Shure' is fresh and modern and yet for some reason, I get the feeling that this song could have been comfortably at home in the swinging sixties, circa the Carnaby Street era. It's alternative enough, however that doesn't stop the hooks coming in droves and making this one very addictive piece of gorgeous music.
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Background - Japanese harp and synth player Ian Thorn and Bassist Alex Lawton met on tour in Europe, performing as part of a Canadian space-rock orchestra. They bonded over their shared passion for Finnish experimental band Circle, Pink Floyd, Television, Broadcast and Brian Eno, and went on to form instrumental space-surf band, Japanese Television, with James Moriaty and Tim Jones.
They put together a collection of tracks that would make their debut self-titled EP and went into “the studio” (i.e a village hall outside of Peterborough, England, armed with an 8-track) with Kristian Bell of The Wytches at the helm. The EP is out on 7th September via revered underground label Tip Top Recordings (Cassels, Sun Cop).
This week the band share first single from the EP; Tick Tock - a white knuckle ride journey through time and space. The single was given its first play last night on John Kennedy's Radio X, with John making it a 'hot one'. He said the track had "shades of Electrelane".
From the ashes of three separate psychedelic rock bands, rose Japanese Television – who formed late last year with a shared vision of creating wonky surf-rock. “Although the band is instrumental, we don't play solos. It's more about atmosphere and creating a hypnotic effect. Hypnotism through repetition, reverbs and delays, harps and fuzzboxes” Ian continues.
“The combination of extensive travelling and our shared love for psychedelic and experimental music has crept into the sound of the EP” says synth/harpist Ian. “If Country Joe represents the scenic part of the journey where you're by the coast or in the mountains in the sunshine, then Tick Tock is bombing it up the M1.”
The quartet have succeeded in capturing the raw spirit of their live performance on the EP, recording over a mere two days to an 8-track tape. “The rural location coupled with the fact that it rained constantly, meant that we were able to focus completely on getting it done in a short amount of time” they explained.
At the heavier end of Japanese Television’s brief collection of experimental tracks, is lead single from their first EP, Tick Tock. Recorded live in one take, the track harks back to ‘70s-era motorik rock, employing organs, synths and reverb-drenched guitars cascading over a hypnotic, driving bass. “Tick Tock is heavily influenced by the likes of Hawkwind and Neu!” says Ian. FACEBOOK.
Mention of Hawkwind, Pink Floyd and Neu as influences in the bands promo grabbed my attention, however at the same time it kind of set the bar rather high in terms of expectation, after all anyone can name drop. Our first taste of Japanese Television comes in the form of the instrumental 'Tick Tock'. Yes the expected components of psych, space rock and surf rock are all present, the key factor is that they are blended together beautifully with an air of exuberance and passion. The EP cannot arrive soon enough!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Party Hardly - Terry Shure.
Background - Bustling Leeds (UK) quartet Party Hardly launch woozy, alt-rock number Terry Shure, the first track taken from their forthcoming debut EP Cycle Of Life out this autumn.
Recorded with MJ of Hookworms in his acclaimed Suburban Home studio, the band’s latest social commentary adds further credence to their songwriting capabilities with guitarist Matt Pownall discussing the release in detail:
“Terry Shure is my personal realisation of seeing people’s lives go stagnant. How over time you go from doing new and exciting things to telling the same old stories and being stuck in the past”.
Positioned firmly at the heart of the city’s thriving music scene, the rising foursome have already landed impressive support slots with acts including INHEAVEN, The Magic Gang and Trudy and the Romance as well as picking up key champions throughout the online community with their first few releases.
Upcoming debut EP Cycle Of Life sees the fuzzy outfit take another giant leap forward with their eccentric brand of indie rock and in lead single Terry Shure they provide the perfect taste of what’s to come. Produced by Hookworms’ MJ (Drenge, The Magic Gang, Honeyblood), Party Hardly’s Terry Shure is out now and available on all digital platforms. TWITTER.
'Terry Shure' is fresh and modern and yet for some reason, I get the feeling that this song could have been comfortably at home in the swinging sixties, circa the Carnaby Street era. It's alternative enough, however that doesn't stop the hooks coming in droves and making this one very addictive piece of gorgeous music.
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Sunday, 5 August 2018
Princess Chelsea - Meres
Princess Chelsea - Wasting Time.
Background - New Zealand subversive pop artist Princess Chelsea (Chelsea Nikkel) shares the second single "Wasting Time" from her forthcoming fourth studio album The Loneliest Girl, due out on 7 September via Lil' Chief. The album examines the loneliness and ultimately the artistic satisfaction a strong work ethic can bring, the result of which is this eclectic collection of pop songs. The Loneliest Girl captures moments of inspiration and madness, with lyrics that show Chelsea isn't afraid to ask the deeper questions while still maintaining a playful nature about it all. "I can’t be bothered with subscribing to any kind of 'sound,'" Chelsea says.
That becomes evident upon listening to "Wasting Time," a pop culture puzzle, sonically speaking. The song has influences of early Madonna melded with 1960s Brian Wilson that Chelsea peppers with kitschy Yamaha DX7 synths, trombone, and a choir. The music video for "Wasting Time", was shot edited and directed by Anastasia Doniants in just one day using only ten minutes of Super 8 film and a torch operated by YourFriendElectric. Some of the film was expired which caused unpredictable happy accidents like what appears to be strange lightning flashes in the sky and the iconic single art shot.
This single follows the popular "I Love My Boyfriend" a deceptively clever 60s garage rock song discussing an internal struggle with monogamy.
Princess Chelsea will be heading to Europe for a tour in September including a date at London's Shacklewell Arms on 9 September (see full tour dates below). FACEBOOK.
31.08.2018 PL – Gdansk - Soundrive Festival
07.09.2018 FR - Bordeaux - Iboat
09.09.2018 UK – London - Shacklewell Arms
12.09.2018 FR - Paris - Point Ephemere
18.09.2018 BE - Liege - Reflektor
19.09.2018 NL – Amsterdam - Paradiso / Indiestad
20.09.2018 DE - Hamburg - Reeperbahn Festival
21.09.2018 DK – Bucharest - Control Club
22.09.2018 DE – Berlin - Funkhaus / Indiesession
23.09.2018 DE – Dresden - Beatpol
25.09.2018 CZ – Prague - Jazzdock
26.09.2018 CZ – Pilzen - Andel
27.09.2018 SK – Presov - Christiania
28.09.2018 SK - Liptovsky Mikulas - Diera Do Sveta
29.09.2018 CZ – Ostrava - Cooltour
01.10.2018 CZ – Brno - Fleda
04.10.2018 CH – Geneva - Kalingrad
05.10.2018 GR – Athens - Fuzz Club
We shared 'I Love My Boyfriend' back in June and I think it fair to say that we made it pretty clear then, that Beehive Candy are rather fond of Princess Chelsea's music! With a steady methodical beat 'Wasting Time' is a mixture of carefree melodic vocals and a musical backdrop with intricate layers of sound. The video is a real bonus and works beautifully with the song.
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Meres - Feardom.
Background - Something magical has been brewing down in Launceston, Tasmania. Today, Meres emerges with sonic and visual offering, 'Feardom'. Conceived in the perfect echo chambers of Canada’s cheap motel bathrooms, Meres came into its own in northern Tasmania. The glittering brand of dreamy, fuzzed out punk explores "the dissident and the mundane".
'Feardom' is a confessional exploration of themes of introversion, feelings of inadequacy and success and arrives with an accompanying a music video by Cameron Jones, providing a glimpse into Meres’ daily life trying to learn the ropes as Producer of a Youth Dance Company and struggles with the efforts involved to make yourself presentable in the public sphere.
In Meres’ words, "I was on tour with a couple of great bands while playing bass for Isla Ka. It was one of those defining moments of feeling a jealousy in the blistering heat of Brisbane, where a musician could take their shirt off quite happily in an effort to cool off from performing excellent bloody music. And I know if I were a confident and outspoken type of person like so many of the musicians I look up to, I'd also happily take my shirt off. But I am not that type of person. I'm modest and insular and introverted. I don't want people to look at me, to listen to me, and yet I do, but that wanting that, kind of makes me feel like I am a lesser person. Like I don't work hard enough to write the best music I can or perform with enough confidence. I think watching the bands that night made me realise...maybe it was time to turn everything upside down. And I had no idea what that looked like or meant. "
Meres is the solo project of Mary Shannon, (Bansheeland, Isla Ka). Her abstract, multi-layered approach takes notes from the likes of Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz, U.S slacker rockers Bad History Month and Australian punk icon Adalita, with a dynamic live set that lends itself to solo performance featuring trash beat electronic drums and the full wrath of her four-piece band. 'Feardom' is a galvanizing first cut of what’s to come for the Tasmanian artist. TWITTER.
Described as fuzzy punk 'Feardom' is all of that and more. The passion and power go hand in hand and the vocals (albeit immersed deep within the mix) are more than capable of pumping in some potent addictive hooks.
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Background - New Zealand subversive pop artist Princess Chelsea (Chelsea Nikkel) shares the second single "Wasting Time" from her forthcoming fourth studio album The Loneliest Girl, due out on 7 September via Lil' Chief. The album examines the loneliness and ultimately the artistic satisfaction a strong work ethic can bring, the result of which is this eclectic collection of pop songs. The Loneliest Girl captures moments of inspiration and madness, with lyrics that show Chelsea isn't afraid to ask the deeper questions while still maintaining a playful nature about it all. "I can’t be bothered with subscribing to any kind of 'sound,'" Chelsea says.
That becomes evident upon listening to "Wasting Time," a pop culture puzzle, sonically speaking. The song has influences of early Madonna melded with 1960s Brian Wilson that Chelsea peppers with kitschy Yamaha DX7 synths, trombone, and a choir. The music video for "Wasting Time", was shot edited and directed by Anastasia Doniants in just one day using only ten minutes of Super 8 film and a torch operated by YourFriendElectric. Some of the film was expired which caused unpredictable happy accidents like what appears to be strange lightning flashes in the sky and the iconic single art shot.
This single follows the popular "I Love My Boyfriend" a deceptively clever 60s garage rock song discussing an internal struggle with monogamy.
Princess Chelsea will be heading to Europe for a tour in September including a date at London's Shacklewell Arms on 9 September (see full tour dates below). FACEBOOK.
31.08.2018 PL – Gdansk - Soundrive Festival
07.09.2018 FR - Bordeaux - Iboat
09.09.2018 UK – London - Shacklewell Arms
12.09.2018 FR - Paris - Point Ephemere
18.09.2018 BE - Liege - Reflektor
19.09.2018 NL – Amsterdam - Paradiso / Indiestad
20.09.2018 DE - Hamburg - Reeperbahn Festival
21.09.2018 DK – Bucharest - Control Club
22.09.2018 DE – Berlin - Funkhaus / Indiesession
23.09.2018 DE – Dresden - Beatpol
25.09.2018 CZ – Prague - Jazzdock
26.09.2018 CZ – Pilzen - Andel
27.09.2018 SK – Presov - Christiania
28.09.2018 SK - Liptovsky Mikulas - Diera Do Sveta
29.09.2018 CZ – Ostrava - Cooltour
01.10.2018 CZ – Brno - Fleda
04.10.2018 CH – Geneva - Kalingrad
05.10.2018 GR – Athens - Fuzz Club
We shared 'I Love My Boyfriend' back in June and I think it fair to say that we made it pretty clear then, that Beehive Candy are rather fond of Princess Chelsea's music! With a steady methodical beat 'Wasting Time' is a mixture of carefree melodic vocals and a musical backdrop with intricate layers of sound. The video is a real bonus and works beautifully with the song.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meres - Feardom.
Background - Something magical has been brewing down in Launceston, Tasmania. Today, Meres emerges with sonic and visual offering, 'Feardom'. Conceived in the perfect echo chambers of Canada’s cheap motel bathrooms, Meres came into its own in northern Tasmania. The glittering brand of dreamy, fuzzed out punk explores "the dissident and the mundane".
'Feardom' is a confessional exploration of themes of introversion, feelings of inadequacy and success and arrives with an accompanying a music video by Cameron Jones, providing a glimpse into Meres’ daily life trying to learn the ropes as Producer of a Youth Dance Company and struggles with the efforts involved to make yourself presentable in the public sphere.
In Meres’ words, "I was on tour with a couple of great bands while playing bass for Isla Ka. It was one of those defining moments of feeling a jealousy in the blistering heat of Brisbane, where a musician could take their shirt off quite happily in an effort to cool off from performing excellent bloody music. And I know if I were a confident and outspoken type of person like so many of the musicians I look up to, I'd also happily take my shirt off. But I am not that type of person. I'm modest and insular and introverted. I don't want people to look at me, to listen to me, and yet I do, but that wanting that, kind of makes me feel like I am a lesser person. Like I don't work hard enough to write the best music I can or perform with enough confidence. I think watching the bands that night made me realise...maybe it was time to turn everything upside down. And I had no idea what that looked like or meant. "
Meres is the solo project of Mary Shannon, (Bansheeland, Isla Ka). Her abstract, multi-layered approach takes notes from the likes of Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz, U.S slacker rockers Bad History Month and Australian punk icon Adalita, with a dynamic live set that lends itself to solo performance featuring trash beat electronic drums and the full wrath of her four-piece band. 'Feardom' is a galvanizing first cut of what’s to come for the Tasmanian artist. TWITTER.
Described as fuzzy punk 'Feardom' is all of that and more. The passion and power go hand in hand and the vocals (albeit immersed deep within the mix) are more than capable of pumping in some potent addictive hooks.
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Saturday, 4 August 2018
JP Harris - Adam's House Cat - Cosmic Strip - The Rad Trads
JP Harris - When I Quit Drinking.
Background - In today’s musical culture, the word “authenticity” seems to have lost all meaning. What used to represent something bona fide and true is now just watered-down marketing speak, stamped onto press releases without a second thought. Born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1983, JP Harris doesn’t fancy himself a musician as much as he does a carpenter who writes country songs. However, his stranger-than-fiction story begins after the eighth grade, when he left home on a Greyhound bus in the middle of a summer night. And he’s never looked back.
Released this week is an album highlight and first single, “When I Quit Drinking,” which, as its title suggests, is a tender look at one of Harris’ most personal struggles. Gossamer strands of pedal steel complement the gentle quaver in his voice, underpinning some of his most personal lyrics to date.
With his forthcoming album Sometimes Dogs Bark at Nothing (due out October 5th on Free Dirt Records), Harris is back after a four-year hiatus to remind folks what a lifetime dedicated to country music looks and sounds like. Sure to please fans of his hardscrabble earlier work, this new collection of songs finds the acclaimed songwriter and vocalist stretching himself both musically and personally.
For over a decade, Harris travelled the country, often alone, hitchhiking and hopping freight trains while making his living as a farm labourer, shepherd, woodsman, and carpenter, among many other titles. Still an in-demand carpenter to this day, Harris has been writing and performing country music for nearly ten years, releasing his debut album, I’ll Keep Calling, in 2012. He followed that release with Home Is Where the Hurt Is in 2014, which only saw his star rise both among country fans and critics at major outlets like Rolling Stone. Even Eagles frontman Don Henley referenced Harris in a 2015 interview with Hey Reverb saying that Harris made “thoughtful, authentic music.”
Working with producer and Old Crow Medicine Show member, Morgan Jahnig, Harris tapped a handful of his favorite players, sent them acoustic demos, and gave some pretty unconventional instructions: “Take five days to think about these songs. Please write notes of whatever ideas come to mind. Please don’t talk to each other about it. Let’s all just get in the studio on day one and compare notes as we go.” WEBSITE.
Natural unpretentious country with all the vital ingredients comes to us in the shape of 'When I Quit Drinking'. The vocals have just a little grit and passion, the music is given some extra melody through the pedal steel guitar, and the mood is actually quite uplifting, despite the subject of struggling to quit the bottle.
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Adam's House Cat - Runaway Train.
Background - Drive-By Truckers have announced the long-awaited arrival of 'Town Burned Down', the first-ever official release from singer/songwriter/guitarists Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood’s original incarnation as Adam’s House Cat. Recorded in 1990, but never-before-released as intended, the album arrives in stores and at all DSPs and streaming services via ATO Records on Friday 21 September.
hile Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood may have founded Drive-By Truckers in 1996, the two musicians had in fact first come together more than a decade prior. They met on August 1, 1985, the day Hood moved into a dank basement apartment in North Florence, AL shared by Cooley. The two young musicians took notice of each other’s guitars and became fast friends, drinking cheap beer and singing songs together on the flat’s shabby couch. Among those songs were originals penned by Hood, including one that took its title from the Southern colloquialism, I wouldn’t know him from Adam’s house cat. Hood and Cooley worked out a rendition of the song that quickly led to another and then another. That first collaboration eventually gave the band its moniker – Adam’s House Cat was born.
Adam’s House Cat proved rebellious from the jump, the only young band in the Muscle Shoals region playing hard rocking original music. Despite the area’s long musical tradition and legendary studio scene – including of course FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound, the latter co-founded by Hood’s dad, session bassist extraordinaire David Hood – times had changed in Muscle Shoals. No matter the cause, be it a down turned local economy or a record industry shift towards studios in Nashville and Los Angeles, the Muscle Shoals live scene in the mid-1980s was now limited to Top 40 cover bands and country and western, more likely a bit of both.
Undeterred, Hood and Cooley enlisted drummer Chuck Tremblay, more than a decade their senior but a gifted musician who after years toiling in motel lounge combos had his own personal commitment to only playing original music. A series of bass players did short time with the band before the arrival of John Cahoon, son of the mayor of Tuscumbia, AL and more importantly, a rebellious, rock-solid bassist.
On April 16, 2016, Hood, Cooley, and Tremblay convened at Barbe’s Chase Park Transduction studio in Athens to complete mixing Town Burned Down – the first reunion of the Adam’s House Cat founding members in more than 27 years. The final mixes were later mastered at Sterling Sound in Edgewater, NJ by longtime DBT collaborator Greg Calbi.
Town Burned Down can at last be properly heard the way Adam’s House Cat always wanted it to be heard, its raw soul and boisterous enthusiasm already hinting at what was yet to come. Songs like “Runaway Train” and “Cemeteries” display dark edges that surely must’ve intimated audiences in their time, but now sound startlingly heartfelt and full of fiery joy, energized by Cahoon and Tremblay’s versatile, dynamic backing and of course, the ever-present, undeniable chemistry between Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley. Drive By Truckers - WEBSITE.
I guess this will be a must for any Drive By Truckers connoisseur, but should appeal to many with just a passing interest in the band. 'Runaway Train' is a fresh sounding Americana rocker (despite it's age), the 2016 mixing has surely breathed some extra vibrancy to the track, making this a fabulous song despite any historical significance.
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Cosmic Strip - Heavenly.
Background - London shoegazers Cosmic Strip share psychedelic infused new single Heavenly, the first slice taken from their debut EP out later this summer.
Masterminded by front woman Camella Agabalyan and self-described as “music to watch girls by, music to move the stars”, the band’s mesmerising latest cut draws welcome comparisons to the likes of Beach House and Alvvays and follows on from their first few initial releases last year.
Defined as “a song dedicated to the addictive feeling of your first love”, Heavenly thrives within its carefully constructed lyricism, reverb-tinged vocals and layers upon layers of dreamy guitars, showcasing four minutes of dream pop in its purest form.
Having already commanded attention from the online community and played a string of festivals including The Great Escape, Citadel and Wilderness, the band will be celebrating the release of their first ever EP with a full UK tour later this month. Cosmic Strip’s Heavenly was released 2nd August and will be available on all digital platforms. WEBSITE.
Live Dates:
24 Aug – The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham
25 Aug – Night & Day Café, Manchester
27 Aug – Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds (This Must Be The Place Festival)
31 Aug – Sebright Arms, London (EP launch party).
'Heavenly' is a combination of dream pop and shoegaze, with a few drops of psychedelic goodness, the result of which is a splendidly catchy song. Rather than being crowded and over the top, the music has great clarity switching moods along the way and the vocals are gorgeously in tune with both the momentum and the melody of this intriguingly good song.
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The Rad Trads - Good Luck Unto Ya.
Background - New York City-based band, The Rad Trads, have shared their their lead single "Good Luck Unto Ya," off their forthcoming LP, On Tap. American Songwriter premiered the lead single's official music video with praise, stating, "Ahead of On Tap‘s release, the band has shared a video for new tune 'Good Luck Unto Ya,' a funky kiss-off track with a killer guitar solo and plenty of horns."
The band is currently finishing up the first leg of their extensive US run, which included select shows with Lake Street Dive, and they'll kick off the next run of national dates, throughout September and early October, with their On Tap LP release show on Friday, September 14th at Mercury Lounge. In mid-October, the band heads to Spain, for a run of 10 dates throughout the country. See below for details on their tour. On Tap LP is due out September 14th.
On Tap serves as the world's introduction to the diverse possibilities The Rad Trads have to offer from the studio. Revered for their live shows, On Tap sees the five songwriters pull back the curtain on their passion for arrangement and orchestration, introducing a sea of horns, harmonies, gritty grooves, and psychedelic guitar textures.
Songs like "Thumbtack" and "The Little Pie Blues" share a nod towards their playful use of acoustic instruments while powerhouses "Good Luck Unto Ya" and "Wishing Well" make for unbridled bookends. "My Place" and "Key Club" highlight the diverse sonic pallet the band has grown to embrace. The band's contagious fun-loving nature shines throughout, a feeling that their fans will find familiar. WEBSITE.
If the splendid horns, or the constantly flowing hooks don't get to you, then the funky upbeat vibes may still seal the deal on 'Good Luck Unto Ya'. The vocals are another fine element of the tracks musical armoury, and the video suggests this is a band to be seen and heard live.
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Background - In today’s musical culture, the word “authenticity” seems to have lost all meaning. What used to represent something bona fide and true is now just watered-down marketing speak, stamped onto press releases without a second thought. Born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1983, JP Harris doesn’t fancy himself a musician as much as he does a carpenter who writes country songs. However, his stranger-than-fiction story begins after the eighth grade, when he left home on a Greyhound bus in the middle of a summer night. And he’s never looked back.
Released this week is an album highlight and first single, “When I Quit Drinking,” which, as its title suggests, is a tender look at one of Harris’ most personal struggles. Gossamer strands of pedal steel complement the gentle quaver in his voice, underpinning some of his most personal lyrics to date.
With his forthcoming album Sometimes Dogs Bark at Nothing (due out October 5th on Free Dirt Records), Harris is back after a four-year hiatus to remind folks what a lifetime dedicated to country music looks and sounds like. Sure to please fans of his hardscrabble earlier work, this new collection of songs finds the acclaimed songwriter and vocalist stretching himself both musically and personally.
For over a decade, Harris travelled the country, often alone, hitchhiking and hopping freight trains while making his living as a farm labourer, shepherd, woodsman, and carpenter, among many other titles. Still an in-demand carpenter to this day, Harris has been writing and performing country music for nearly ten years, releasing his debut album, I’ll Keep Calling, in 2012. He followed that release with Home Is Where the Hurt Is in 2014, which only saw his star rise both among country fans and critics at major outlets like Rolling Stone. Even Eagles frontman Don Henley referenced Harris in a 2015 interview with Hey Reverb saying that Harris made “thoughtful, authentic music.”
Working with producer and Old Crow Medicine Show member, Morgan Jahnig, Harris tapped a handful of his favorite players, sent them acoustic demos, and gave some pretty unconventional instructions: “Take five days to think about these songs. Please write notes of whatever ideas come to mind. Please don’t talk to each other about it. Let’s all just get in the studio on day one and compare notes as we go.” WEBSITE.
Natural unpretentious country with all the vital ingredients comes to us in the shape of 'When I Quit Drinking'. The vocals have just a little grit and passion, the music is given some extra melody through the pedal steel guitar, and the mood is actually quite uplifting, despite the subject of struggling to quit the bottle.
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Adam's House Cat - Runaway Train.
Background - Drive-By Truckers have announced the long-awaited arrival of 'Town Burned Down', the first-ever official release from singer/songwriter/guitarists Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood’s original incarnation as Adam’s House Cat. Recorded in 1990, but never-before-released as intended, the album arrives in stores and at all DSPs and streaming services via ATO Records on Friday 21 September.
hile Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood may have founded Drive-By Truckers in 1996, the two musicians had in fact first come together more than a decade prior. They met on August 1, 1985, the day Hood moved into a dank basement apartment in North Florence, AL shared by Cooley. The two young musicians took notice of each other’s guitars and became fast friends, drinking cheap beer and singing songs together on the flat’s shabby couch. Among those songs were originals penned by Hood, including one that took its title from the Southern colloquialism, I wouldn’t know him from Adam’s house cat. Hood and Cooley worked out a rendition of the song that quickly led to another and then another. That first collaboration eventually gave the band its moniker – Adam’s House Cat was born.
Adam’s House Cat proved rebellious from the jump, the only young band in the Muscle Shoals region playing hard rocking original music. Despite the area’s long musical tradition and legendary studio scene – including of course FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound, the latter co-founded by Hood’s dad, session bassist extraordinaire David Hood – times had changed in Muscle Shoals. No matter the cause, be it a down turned local economy or a record industry shift towards studios in Nashville and Los Angeles, the Muscle Shoals live scene in the mid-1980s was now limited to Top 40 cover bands and country and western, more likely a bit of both.
Undeterred, Hood and Cooley enlisted drummer Chuck Tremblay, more than a decade their senior but a gifted musician who after years toiling in motel lounge combos had his own personal commitment to only playing original music. A series of bass players did short time with the band before the arrival of John Cahoon, son of the mayor of Tuscumbia, AL and more importantly, a rebellious, rock-solid bassist.
On April 16, 2016, Hood, Cooley, and Tremblay convened at Barbe’s Chase Park Transduction studio in Athens to complete mixing Town Burned Down – the first reunion of the Adam’s House Cat founding members in more than 27 years. The final mixes were later mastered at Sterling Sound in Edgewater, NJ by longtime DBT collaborator Greg Calbi.
Town Burned Down can at last be properly heard the way Adam’s House Cat always wanted it to be heard, its raw soul and boisterous enthusiasm already hinting at what was yet to come. Songs like “Runaway Train” and “Cemeteries” display dark edges that surely must’ve intimated audiences in their time, but now sound startlingly heartfelt and full of fiery joy, energized by Cahoon and Tremblay’s versatile, dynamic backing and of course, the ever-present, undeniable chemistry between Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley. Drive By Truckers - WEBSITE.
I guess this will be a must for any Drive By Truckers connoisseur, but should appeal to many with just a passing interest in the band. 'Runaway Train' is a fresh sounding Americana rocker (despite it's age), the 2016 mixing has surely breathed some extra vibrancy to the track, making this a fabulous song despite any historical significance.
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Cosmic Strip - Heavenly.
Background - London shoegazers Cosmic Strip share psychedelic infused new single Heavenly, the first slice taken from their debut EP out later this summer.
Masterminded by front woman Camella Agabalyan and self-described as “music to watch girls by, music to move the stars”, the band’s mesmerising latest cut draws welcome comparisons to the likes of Beach House and Alvvays and follows on from their first few initial releases last year.
Defined as “a song dedicated to the addictive feeling of your first love”, Heavenly thrives within its carefully constructed lyricism, reverb-tinged vocals and layers upon layers of dreamy guitars, showcasing four minutes of dream pop in its purest form.
Having already commanded attention from the online community and played a string of festivals including The Great Escape, Citadel and Wilderness, the band will be celebrating the release of their first ever EP with a full UK tour later this month. Cosmic Strip’s Heavenly was released 2nd August and will be available on all digital platforms. WEBSITE.
Live Dates:
24 Aug – The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham
25 Aug – Night & Day Café, Manchester
27 Aug – Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds (This Must Be The Place Festival)
31 Aug – Sebright Arms, London (EP launch party).
'Heavenly' is a combination of dream pop and shoegaze, with a few drops of psychedelic goodness, the result of which is a splendidly catchy song. Rather than being crowded and over the top, the music has great clarity switching moods along the way and the vocals are gorgeously in tune with both the momentum and the melody of this intriguingly good song.
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The Rad Trads - Good Luck Unto Ya.
Background - New York City-based band, The Rad Trads, have shared their their lead single "Good Luck Unto Ya," off their forthcoming LP, On Tap. American Songwriter premiered the lead single's official music video with praise, stating, "Ahead of On Tap‘s release, the band has shared a video for new tune 'Good Luck Unto Ya,' a funky kiss-off track with a killer guitar solo and plenty of horns."
The band is currently finishing up the first leg of their extensive US run, which included select shows with Lake Street Dive, and they'll kick off the next run of national dates, throughout September and early October, with their On Tap LP release show on Friday, September 14th at Mercury Lounge. In mid-October, the band heads to Spain, for a run of 10 dates throughout the country. See below for details on their tour. On Tap LP is due out September 14th.
On Tap serves as the world's introduction to the diverse possibilities The Rad Trads have to offer from the studio. Revered for their live shows, On Tap sees the five songwriters pull back the curtain on their passion for arrangement and orchestration, introducing a sea of horns, harmonies, gritty grooves, and psychedelic guitar textures.
Songs like "Thumbtack" and "The Little Pie Blues" share a nod towards their playful use of acoustic instruments while powerhouses "Good Luck Unto Ya" and "Wishing Well" make for unbridled bookends. "My Place" and "Key Club" highlight the diverse sonic pallet the band has grown to embrace. The band's contagious fun-loving nature shines throughout, a feeling that their fans will find familiar. WEBSITE.
If the splendid horns, or the constantly flowing hooks don't get to you, then the funky upbeat vibes may still seal the deal on 'Good Luck Unto Ya'. The vocals are another fine element of the tracks musical armoury, and the video suggests this is a band to be seen and heard live.
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Friday, 3 August 2018
Joy Autumn - The Kut - Odetta Hartman
Joy Autumn - Brave.
Background - Brave is her poppiest song to date and possibly her best. Her chamber-esque, Kate Bush influenced voice is still front and center, but the instrumentation, full of synths and drum machines, is intriguing and the chorus, incredibly catchy.
Written as a personal pep talk during a dark period of depression, the song ultimately became something larger—an encouragement to confront your fears, to be honest about your experiences, to reach out for help and take tremendous leaps of faith like approaching a love-interest or chasing your dreams.
“I wrote Brave when I was feeling so depressed I could hardly get out of bed. I forgot why I created music in the first place and Brave was written as a personal pep talk to myself. Depression is something that I’ve struggled with my whole life, but is not something that I’ve talked about publicly, until this song.
If I can help one person become inspired, despite their obstacles, to get out of bed, take a chance, and continue to chase after what they love, then I feel like making this record was all worth it." WEBSITE.
We shared 'Go' from Joy Autumn back at the end of May and the new song 'Brave' is equally inspiring. Once again her vocals are just so appealing and feel very personal. With some refined melodic hooks and a musical backdrop that ebbs and flows in harmony with her voice, this really is one delightful tune.
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The Kut - Hollywood Rock n Roll.
Background - The Kut debut album has landed entries at No. #7 in the UK Rock Album Chart, No. #6 in the UK Indie Breakers Album Chart & No. #18 in the UK Indie Albums Chart. This was after a mid-week sales bulletin, putting the album at No. #136 in the Multi-Genre Chart. The debut album 'Valley of Thorns' has been released alongside a string of headline tour dates, with vinyl 12 inch to follow their 22 date U.K. Album Launch Party Tour.
Rock category Finalist of the UK Songwriting Contest 2017 and Semi-Finalist of the International Songwriting Competition, The Kut, is the alter-ego of multi-instrumentalist and PhD Graduate, Princess Maha. Live, The Kut is a three-piece, featuring Diana Bartmann (drums) and Stella Vie (bass / BVs). Active on the UK and European alt.rock scene, festival performances in the last year have included Download Festival, Camden Rocks Festival, Rebellion Festival, Hard Rock Hell, Amplified Festival, Nice N Sleazy and Strummercamp among others. Meanwhile, tours have spanned the UK, Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
2017 was a significant year for The Kut. They featured as one of Kerrang! Magazine's Breakthrough Acts of the year, while 'The Kut EP' was released on 500 limited edition picture discs for Record Store Day 2017, also featuring at number 4 in Kerrang! Magazines Top 10 Record Store Day Releases, alongside Baby Metal and Gerard Way. The summer saw The Kut playing over 50 UK mainland dates, and the year ended with the band claiming the Number 1 Spot in the Beyond 50 Promotions Top 50 Under the Radar UK Bands.
2018 has seen a worldwide record deal announced with Cargo Records for the long-awaited debut album, 'Valley of Thorns'. Produced by James LeRock Loughrey (Skindred / Def Leppard / White Zombie / My Vitriol) the debut sees some of the live favourites heard on The Kut tours, and was released back in May. WEBSITE.
'Hollywood Rock n Roll' mixes some classic punk attitude with a truck load of full on, no nonsense guitar rock. The trio are powerful, potent and feisty, with the new video adding some LA vibes to the song.
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Odetta Hartman - You You.
Background - NYC artist Odetta Hartman releases her new album 'Old Rockhounds Never Die' through Memphis Industries on 10th August. Odetta has now released a new track taken from the album. 'You You' is an effusive love song to her partner, Jack, as Odetta explains: "This song illuminates the fuzzy feelings of first love. We've been blessed to have the opportunity to travel the world, exploring & playing music together. From rainbows & waterfalls in Iceland, to Medieval medinas in Morocco, we have climbed mountains & crossed rivers, blossoming our love along the way.”
'Old Rockhounds Never Die' is a bonanza of beautiful contradictions: intimate yet fiercely internationalist, spiritual and yet tangible, sweet and also sexy. It convenes with the ghosts of the past while marching relentlessly forwards. Drawn from experiences as far-flung as riding a train from San Francisco to Chicago with an old-style, rootin'-tootin' cowboy for company ('Cowboy Song'), to experiencing the intense natural beauty of Icelandic waterfalls ('Dettifoss'), it’s a record that taps into the musical traditions of the past while being a collection of songs about living in the moment.
Raised by pioneering parents on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, NYC, Odetta’s milieu was a “colourful culture of artistry,” that included early exposure to community activism, renegade film screenings, poetry readings and trips to CBGB's. Inchoate punk and hip hop were aural wallpaper, as were the 45s spinning in the household jukebox featuring her dad’s extensive collection of soul and afrobeat records, as well as her Appalachian mother’s classic country selections. A classically trained violinist with a penchant for back-porch banjo, Odetta combines these variegated sounds of her childhood with her personal passion for folk music and the musicological legacy of Alan Lomax. Lomax is writ large on 'Old Rockhounds...' at least in spirit anyway. Odetta plays all the instruments on this and her debut '222'.
And yet, 'Old Rockhounds Never Die' also embraces modernity without ever sounding incongruous. It’ll probably not surprise anyone listening to the album then that it's a co-production. Odetta writes and performs all the songs while her partner Jack Inslee is in the background bringing the digital dark arts. Experimenting with found sounds & foley, the two have developed a sonic vernacular built around playing around with a-typical instruments. FACEBOOK.
Having already featured 'Sweet Teeth' and 'Widow's Peak' in June and July, it makes perfect sense to round things off ahead of the new album with 'You You' this month. That "Cowboy Soul" sound is once again lurking around, as Odetta Hartman carves out a glorious niche, doing so in a grand and irresistible manner.
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Background - Brave is her poppiest song to date and possibly her best. Her chamber-esque, Kate Bush influenced voice is still front and center, but the instrumentation, full of synths and drum machines, is intriguing and the chorus, incredibly catchy.
Written as a personal pep talk during a dark period of depression, the song ultimately became something larger—an encouragement to confront your fears, to be honest about your experiences, to reach out for help and take tremendous leaps of faith like approaching a love-interest or chasing your dreams.
“I wrote Brave when I was feeling so depressed I could hardly get out of bed. I forgot why I created music in the first place and Brave was written as a personal pep talk to myself. Depression is something that I’ve struggled with my whole life, but is not something that I’ve talked about publicly, until this song.
If I can help one person become inspired, despite their obstacles, to get out of bed, take a chance, and continue to chase after what they love, then I feel like making this record was all worth it." WEBSITE.
We shared 'Go' from Joy Autumn back at the end of May and the new song 'Brave' is equally inspiring. Once again her vocals are just so appealing and feel very personal. With some refined melodic hooks and a musical backdrop that ebbs and flows in harmony with her voice, this really is one delightful tune.
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The Kut - Hollywood Rock n Roll.
Background - The Kut debut album has landed entries at No. #7 in the UK Rock Album Chart, No. #6 in the UK Indie Breakers Album Chart & No. #18 in the UK Indie Albums Chart. This was after a mid-week sales bulletin, putting the album at No. #136 in the Multi-Genre Chart. The debut album 'Valley of Thorns' has been released alongside a string of headline tour dates, with vinyl 12 inch to follow their 22 date U.K. Album Launch Party Tour.
Rock category Finalist of the UK Songwriting Contest 2017 and Semi-Finalist of the International Songwriting Competition, The Kut, is the alter-ego of multi-instrumentalist and PhD Graduate, Princess Maha. Live, The Kut is a three-piece, featuring Diana Bartmann (drums) and Stella Vie (bass / BVs). Active on the UK and European alt.rock scene, festival performances in the last year have included Download Festival, Camden Rocks Festival, Rebellion Festival, Hard Rock Hell, Amplified Festival, Nice N Sleazy and Strummercamp among others. Meanwhile, tours have spanned the UK, Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
2017 was a significant year for The Kut. They featured as one of Kerrang! Magazine's Breakthrough Acts of the year, while 'The Kut EP' was released on 500 limited edition picture discs for Record Store Day 2017, also featuring at number 4 in Kerrang! Magazines Top 10 Record Store Day Releases, alongside Baby Metal and Gerard Way. The summer saw The Kut playing over 50 UK mainland dates, and the year ended with the band claiming the Number 1 Spot in the Beyond 50 Promotions Top 50 Under the Radar UK Bands.
2018 has seen a worldwide record deal announced with Cargo Records for the long-awaited debut album, 'Valley of Thorns'. Produced by James LeRock Loughrey (Skindred / Def Leppard / White Zombie / My Vitriol) the debut sees some of the live favourites heard on The Kut tours, and was released back in May. WEBSITE.
'Hollywood Rock n Roll' mixes some classic punk attitude with a truck load of full on, no nonsense guitar rock. The trio are powerful, potent and feisty, with the new video adding some LA vibes to the song.
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Odetta Hartman - You You.
Background - NYC artist Odetta Hartman releases her new album 'Old Rockhounds Never Die' through Memphis Industries on 10th August. Odetta has now released a new track taken from the album. 'You You' is an effusive love song to her partner, Jack, as Odetta explains: "This song illuminates the fuzzy feelings of first love. We've been blessed to have the opportunity to travel the world, exploring & playing music together. From rainbows & waterfalls in Iceland, to Medieval medinas in Morocco, we have climbed mountains & crossed rivers, blossoming our love along the way.”
'Old Rockhounds Never Die' is a bonanza of beautiful contradictions: intimate yet fiercely internationalist, spiritual and yet tangible, sweet and also sexy. It convenes with the ghosts of the past while marching relentlessly forwards. Drawn from experiences as far-flung as riding a train from San Francisco to Chicago with an old-style, rootin'-tootin' cowboy for company ('Cowboy Song'), to experiencing the intense natural beauty of Icelandic waterfalls ('Dettifoss'), it’s a record that taps into the musical traditions of the past while being a collection of songs about living in the moment.
Raised by pioneering parents on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, NYC, Odetta’s milieu was a “colourful culture of artistry,” that included early exposure to community activism, renegade film screenings, poetry readings and trips to CBGB's. Inchoate punk and hip hop were aural wallpaper, as were the 45s spinning in the household jukebox featuring her dad’s extensive collection of soul and afrobeat records, as well as her Appalachian mother’s classic country selections. A classically trained violinist with a penchant for back-porch banjo, Odetta combines these variegated sounds of her childhood with her personal passion for folk music and the musicological legacy of Alan Lomax. Lomax is writ large on 'Old Rockhounds...' at least in spirit anyway. Odetta plays all the instruments on this and her debut '222'.
And yet, 'Old Rockhounds Never Die' also embraces modernity without ever sounding incongruous. It’ll probably not surprise anyone listening to the album then that it's a co-production. Odetta writes and performs all the songs while her partner Jack Inslee is in the background bringing the digital dark arts. Experimenting with found sounds & foley, the two have developed a sonic vernacular built around playing around with a-typical instruments. FACEBOOK.
Having already featured 'Sweet Teeth' and 'Widow's Peak' in June and July, it makes perfect sense to round things off ahead of the new album with 'You You' this month. That "Cowboy Soul" sound is once again lurking around, as Odetta Hartman carves out a glorious niche, doing so in a grand and irresistible manner.
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Thursday, 2 August 2018
Michael Nau and the Mighty Thread - Dot Dash - Joey Sweeney & The Neon Grease
Michael Nau and the Mighty Thread - When.
Background - Michael Nau will release his new, full band album ‘Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread’ through Full Time Hobby on 3rd August. ‘Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread’ is the follow-up to last year’s critically acclaimed album ‘Some Twist’ and its extension ‘The Load’ EP.
Following the release of singles 'Less Than Positive', 'Funny In Real Life' and 'You You', the band have now shared a video for album track 'When'. “The video is just a bunch of old (public-domain) home movie footage that I liked and I’ve been trying to assemble in different ways,” says The Mighty Thread drummer and 'When' video creator Graeme Gibson. “Good people moments. I found that editing visuals is a bit different than audio so I enlisted the help of an experienced documentary editor Emilee Booher to put the footage to good use.”
“There was a musical language that we created; something without a guiding pattern that you could really just jump into and see where things could go,” Michael Nau says of the process of recording ‘Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread’. He’s wildly poetic, especially when recounting his dedication to music, and the work that led to this particular collection of delicately passionate songs. “These things became the vehicle by which we traveled, giving us reason to spend most of our lives in a van of uncertainty.”
The sprawling new album was recorded in guitarist Benny Yurco’s one-bedroom apartment in downtown Burlington, Vermont. Nau and his collaborators had a cool little set up going in Yurco’s spot — drums and bass took over the bedroom, the guitar amp in the bathroom, Nau’s vocals and piano in the living room, and a vibraphone in the kitchen. It’s the first time one of Nau’s records happened all in one place, and “it feels most like a band record than ever before”. Nau and this particular group of musicians held it down together as a true team, which is why Nau named the record in their honour. FACEBOOK.
We have already featured 'Less Than Positive' and 'Funny In Real Life' and without hesitation the inclusion of the album track 'When' makes it three songs this year from Michael Nau and The Mighty Thread. It's another refined song, catchy from the opening moments, the bands natural Americana feel is there, along with something of a classic sixties vibe. The video works so well, adding a vintage dimension that complements the musics overall feel.
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Dot Dash - Proto Retro (Album).
Background - Dot Dash’s new album Proto Retro, the band’s sixth long player, is out now on The Beautiful Music. It’s the label’s 42nd release. Proto Retro was recorded at Inner Ear and The Bastille in Arlington, Virginia and produced by Geoff Sanoff (Lloyd Cole, Darlene Love, Television.)
Coming off of 2016’s amped-up, fuzzed-out Searchlights, the 12 track Proto Retro sees Dot Dash taking a poppier, janglier direction but one that retains the punky, garagey energy that has marked the band’s previous releases.
Dot Dash is a Washington D.C.-based trio -- Terry Banks (guitar & vocals), Hunter Bennett (bass), and Danny Ingram (drums.) Ex-bands within the Dot Dash orbit include power-poppy indie rockers Julie Ocean; harDCore pioneers Youth Brigade and The Untouchables; indiepoppers The Saturday People, Tree Fort Angst, Glo-Worm, and St. Christopher; plus Swervedriver and Strange Boutique.
Along the way, Dot Dash has played shows with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Richard Lloyd (ex-Television), The B-52s, The Monochrome Set, The Psychedelic Furs, The Chameleons, The Dickies, Ash, Hugh Cornwell (ex-Stranglers), The Clientele, Stiff Little Fingers, The Godfathers, The Bats, Ian Hunter (ex-Mott The Hoople), The Fleshtones, Urge Overkill, Glen Matlock (ex-Sex Pistols), The Drums, Ultimate Painting, The Trashcan Sinatras, Sylvain Sylvain (ex-New York Dolls), Drivin'n'Cryin, Frankie Rose, Tommy Keene, The Empty Hearts, Wussy, Matt Pond PA, Moon Duo, Terry Malts, Soulside, Jack Grisham (TSOL), Wax Idols, Chris Stamey (ex-dB’s), Allo Darlin', The Supersuckers, Adam Franklin (Swervedriver), X___X, The Explorers Club, D.O.A., Elf Power, Stevie Jackson (Belle & Sebastian), Eternal Summers & lots of other rocking combos. TWITTER.
Commencing with 'Unfair Weather' a two minute blast of garage rock, the album 'Proto Retro' does indeed see the trio include some notable jangle pop sensibilities alongside plenty of "play me again" hooks across the album. We featured Dot Dash once before back in January 2017, with a track from each of the five previous albums, having spoken highly of them on that occasion, let's just say that album number six, ups the stakes even further (and some!).
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Joey Sweeney & The Neon Grease - Polaroids On The Floor.
Background - The new single Polaroids On The Floor, is another joyfully raucous cut from their new album Catholic School, which is coming out September 7th.
Their new album Catholic School is so steeped in dad-rock influence (and lots of sax) that it’s wearing a Members Only jacket and trying to get a job working for the city. The album’s also a joint release between Burnt Toast Vinyl and The Giving Groove, who will be donating half of ALL profits to Rock To The Future, a 501(c)3 organization that provides music education for Philadelphia’s underserved youth, at no cost to them or their families. Rock to the Future aims to empower individuals and strengthen communities through programs that ignite passion and creativity, support academic achievement, and improve self-esteem... definitely a great cause to get behind!
Joey Sweeney is a Philadelphia-based songwriter who has been writing songs and prose since in the 1980s. His songs and records have received widespread critical acclaim over the years; of his last record with The Trouble With Sweeney, Fishtown Briefcase.
Joey Sweeney’s songwriting draws inspiration from sources as disparate as 1970s Philly nightlife folklore and Denis Johnson’s The Incognito Lounge. In their new songs, chiming guitars, classic rock sax solos and rainy bedroom Velvet Underground listening sessions all blend together. In these songs are little stories of triumph over dirty circumstance and grace under pressure, with the friendship of an urban family “street band” woven throughout. BANDCAMP.
'Polaroids On The Floor' is our second feature for the new album following 'And Soon' back in June. With plenty of passion in the vocals and an upbeat and positive musical backdrop, the song is something of a classic soul, fused with rock and roll epic!
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Background - Michael Nau will release his new, full band album ‘Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread’ through Full Time Hobby on 3rd August. ‘Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread’ is the follow-up to last year’s critically acclaimed album ‘Some Twist’ and its extension ‘The Load’ EP.
Following the release of singles 'Less Than Positive', 'Funny In Real Life' and 'You You', the band have now shared a video for album track 'When'. “The video is just a bunch of old (public-domain) home movie footage that I liked and I’ve been trying to assemble in different ways,” says The Mighty Thread drummer and 'When' video creator Graeme Gibson. “Good people moments. I found that editing visuals is a bit different than audio so I enlisted the help of an experienced documentary editor Emilee Booher to put the footage to good use.”
“There was a musical language that we created; something without a guiding pattern that you could really just jump into and see where things could go,” Michael Nau says of the process of recording ‘Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread’. He’s wildly poetic, especially when recounting his dedication to music, and the work that led to this particular collection of delicately passionate songs. “These things became the vehicle by which we traveled, giving us reason to spend most of our lives in a van of uncertainty.”
The sprawling new album was recorded in guitarist Benny Yurco’s one-bedroom apartment in downtown Burlington, Vermont. Nau and his collaborators had a cool little set up going in Yurco’s spot — drums and bass took over the bedroom, the guitar amp in the bathroom, Nau’s vocals and piano in the living room, and a vibraphone in the kitchen. It’s the first time one of Nau’s records happened all in one place, and “it feels most like a band record than ever before”. Nau and this particular group of musicians held it down together as a true team, which is why Nau named the record in their honour. FACEBOOK.
We have already featured 'Less Than Positive' and 'Funny In Real Life' and without hesitation the inclusion of the album track 'When' makes it three songs this year from Michael Nau and The Mighty Thread. It's another refined song, catchy from the opening moments, the bands natural Americana feel is there, along with something of a classic sixties vibe. The video works so well, adding a vintage dimension that complements the musics overall feel.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dot Dash - Proto Retro (Album).
Background - Dot Dash’s new album Proto Retro, the band’s sixth long player, is out now on The Beautiful Music. It’s the label’s 42nd release. Proto Retro was recorded at Inner Ear and The Bastille in Arlington, Virginia and produced by Geoff Sanoff (Lloyd Cole, Darlene Love, Television.)
Coming off of 2016’s amped-up, fuzzed-out Searchlights, the 12 track Proto Retro sees Dot Dash taking a poppier, janglier direction but one that retains the punky, garagey energy that has marked the band’s previous releases.
Dot Dash is a Washington D.C.-based trio -- Terry Banks (guitar & vocals), Hunter Bennett (bass), and Danny Ingram (drums.) Ex-bands within the Dot Dash orbit include power-poppy indie rockers Julie Ocean; harDCore pioneers Youth Brigade and The Untouchables; indiepoppers The Saturday People, Tree Fort Angst, Glo-Worm, and St. Christopher; plus Swervedriver and Strange Boutique.
Along the way, Dot Dash has played shows with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Richard Lloyd (ex-Television), The B-52s, The Monochrome Set, The Psychedelic Furs, The Chameleons, The Dickies, Ash, Hugh Cornwell (ex-Stranglers), The Clientele, Stiff Little Fingers, The Godfathers, The Bats, Ian Hunter (ex-Mott The Hoople), The Fleshtones, Urge Overkill, Glen Matlock (ex-Sex Pistols), The Drums, Ultimate Painting, The Trashcan Sinatras, Sylvain Sylvain (ex-New York Dolls), Drivin'n'Cryin, Frankie Rose, Tommy Keene, The Empty Hearts, Wussy, Matt Pond PA, Moon Duo, Terry Malts, Soulside, Jack Grisham (TSOL), Wax Idols, Chris Stamey (ex-dB’s), Allo Darlin', The Supersuckers, Adam Franklin (Swervedriver), X___X, The Explorers Club, D.O.A., Elf Power, Stevie Jackson (Belle & Sebastian), Eternal Summers & lots of other rocking combos. TWITTER.
Commencing with 'Unfair Weather' a two minute blast of garage rock, the album 'Proto Retro' does indeed see the trio include some notable jangle pop sensibilities alongside plenty of "play me again" hooks across the album. We featured Dot Dash once before back in January 2017, with a track from each of the five previous albums, having spoken highly of them on that occasion, let's just say that album number six, ups the stakes even further (and some!).
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Joey Sweeney & The Neon Grease - Polaroids On The Floor.
Background - The new single Polaroids On The Floor, is another joyfully raucous cut from their new album Catholic School, which is coming out September 7th.
Their new album Catholic School is so steeped in dad-rock influence (and lots of sax) that it’s wearing a Members Only jacket and trying to get a job working for the city. The album’s also a joint release between Burnt Toast Vinyl and The Giving Groove, who will be donating half of ALL profits to Rock To The Future, a 501(c)3 organization that provides music education for Philadelphia’s underserved youth, at no cost to them or their families. Rock to the Future aims to empower individuals and strengthen communities through programs that ignite passion and creativity, support academic achievement, and improve self-esteem... definitely a great cause to get behind!
Joey Sweeney is a Philadelphia-based songwriter who has been writing songs and prose since in the 1980s. His songs and records have received widespread critical acclaim over the years; of his last record with The Trouble With Sweeney, Fishtown Briefcase.
Joey Sweeney’s songwriting draws inspiration from sources as disparate as 1970s Philly nightlife folklore and Denis Johnson’s The Incognito Lounge. In their new songs, chiming guitars, classic rock sax solos and rainy bedroom Velvet Underground listening sessions all blend together. In these songs are little stories of triumph over dirty circumstance and grace under pressure, with the friendship of an urban family “street band” woven throughout. BANDCAMP.
'Polaroids On The Floor' is our second feature for the new album following 'And Soon' back in June. With plenty of passion in the vocals and an upbeat and positive musical backdrop, the song is something of a classic soul, fused with rock and roll epic!
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Tuesday, 31 July 2018
Alex Arpino - Johnny Payne
Alex Arpino- I Remember You (Dancing with the Devil).
Background - Alex Arpino has had a rich history in Perth music, with a decade fronting indie pop purveyors The Autumn Isles behind him, he has now set out on a solo escapade by releasing his debut self-tilted record - also to receive a hometown launch this September 1.
Following on from first taster Space Ghost (In a Puppet), current single I Remember You (Dancing with the Devil) heralds an open playing field and showcases not only his songwriter prowess, but Arpino's skills as a producer. Written and recorded in his studio, Alex Arpino handles all instrumental and vocal duties with help from Malcolm Clark (The Sleepy Jackson) on drums and has pieced together an infectious set of songs balancing the line between new wave and psych pop.
A creative force, Alex Arpino has been described as a renaissance man, whether it’s producing large scale urban art murals and delicate portrait work or constructing records, his depth of artistry and attention to detail consistently shines through. On the conclusion of The Autumn Isles in 2015, Alex spent the next few years working on a list of songs that connects to his childhood, the wide-eyed years of discovering the joy of pop music.
As a lyricist he has historically painted pictures in metaphor and existential themes. This work has been far more autobiographical, recollections of lost love, childhood hopes and adolescent adventures. There is a cinematic quality here, no more apparent than with Bright Lights Disaster, a haunting song that suggests a dystopian scene with a longing for connection and solace. Melodies and Self Deprivation a song presented across several acts, a lush foot note to the personal challenges faced in the lead up to the production of this ambitious album. FACEBOOK.
The vocals are distinct, energised and totally melodic on 'I Remember You' a clever, upbeat and very catchy pop/rocker. The video is fun and fits perfectly alongside the song, both are arranged and produced to a high standard.
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Johnny Payne - Lazy Love.
Background - Craving an escape from the endless parade of yoga mats and craft beer culture that defines my native Vancouver, I accepted the invitation of Pat Riley and Alaina Moore (of indie heavyweights Tennis) to record in their home studio in Denver, Colorado. We traded instruments and ideas, and with Beach House drummer James Barone in tow, I came out the other side with the solo EP Johnny, out September 28th.
Lazy Love is just something that came when there was nothing much on my mind. It breezed in one morning and landed on my piano. Just a couple of chords for the melody to dance around on.
There is nothing wrong with being lazy. Especially in love it is a virtue. I finished the song very quickly and made a demo which I sent to Pat and Alaina because it reminded me of them. I suppose that was the birth of this little EP.
For the video, we just wanted to film an honest performance of the song with me at the piano in a white suit. But as the day of shooting dragged on I decided to have a few drinks and I ended up, inadvertently, making the whole scene extra schmaltzy. So where I was going for a sincere John Lennon I think I wound up with more of a drunken Liberace. Fortunately, it suits the song better. I knew from the start that I wanted Alaina to appear at the end like that. Two Alaina angels on my shoulders. TWITTER.
Opening with a striking piano and vocal arrangement 'Lazy Love' gently builds into a melodic and dreamy song that oozes charm. The addition of a soaring guitar ups the power, without interrupting the gorgeous vibe this piece creates.
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Background - Alex Arpino has had a rich history in Perth music, with a decade fronting indie pop purveyors The Autumn Isles behind him, he has now set out on a solo escapade by releasing his debut self-tilted record - also to receive a hometown launch this September 1.
Following on from first taster Space Ghost (In a Puppet), current single I Remember You (Dancing with the Devil) heralds an open playing field and showcases not only his songwriter prowess, but Arpino's skills as a producer. Written and recorded in his studio, Alex Arpino handles all instrumental and vocal duties with help from Malcolm Clark (The Sleepy Jackson) on drums and has pieced together an infectious set of songs balancing the line between new wave and psych pop.
A creative force, Alex Arpino has been described as a renaissance man, whether it’s producing large scale urban art murals and delicate portrait work or constructing records, his depth of artistry and attention to detail consistently shines through. On the conclusion of The Autumn Isles in 2015, Alex spent the next few years working on a list of songs that connects to his childhood, the wide-eyed years of discovering the joy of pop music.
As a lyricist he has historically painted pictures in metaphor and existential themes. This work has been far more autobiographical, recollections of lost love, childhood hopes and adolescent adventures. There is a cinematic quality here, no more apparent than with Bright Lights Disaster, a haunting song that suggests a dystopian scene with a longing for connection and solace. Melodies and Self Deprivation a song presented across several acts, a lush foot note to the personal challenges faced in the lead up to the production of this ambitious album. FACEBOOK.
The vocals are distinct, energised and totally melodic on 'I Remember You' a clever, upbeat and very catchy pop/rocker. The video is fun and fits perfectly alongside the song, both are arranged and produced to a high standard.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Johnny Payne - Lazy Love.
Background - Craving an escape from the endless parade of yoga mats and craft beer culture that defines my native Vancouver, I accepted the invitation of Pat Riley and Alaina Moore (of indie heavyweights Tennis) to record in their home studio in Denver, Colorado. We traded instruments and ideas, and with Beach House drummer James Barone in tow, I came out the other side with the solo EP Johnny, out September 28th.
Lazy Love is just something that came when there was nothing much on my mind. It breezed in one morning and landed on my piano. Just a couple of chords for the melody to dance around on.
There is nothing wrong with being lazy. Especially in love it is a virtue. I finished the song very quickly and made a demo which I sent to Pat and Alaina because it reminded me of them. I suppose that was the birth of this little EP.
For the video, we just wanted to film an honest performance of the song with me at the piano in a white suit. But as the day of shooting dragged on I decided to have a few drinks and I ended up, inadvertently, making the whole scene extra schmaltzy. So where I was going for a sincere John Lennon I think I wound up with more of a drunken Liberace. Fortunately, it suits the song better. I knew from the start that I wanted Alaina to appear at the end like that. Two Alaina angels on my shoulders. TWITTER.
Opening with a striking piano and vocal arrangement 'Lazy Love' gently builds into a melodic and dreamy song that oozes charm. The addition of a soaring guitar ups the power, without interrupting the gorgeous vibe this piece creates.
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Monday, 30 July 2018
Sophie Morgan - Whyte Horses - Beck Pete
Sophie Morgan - Sons & Daughters.
Background - Twenty one-year-old singer-songwriter Sophie Morgan has announced her second EP Sons & Daughters will be released on 21st September, with the lead title track Sons & Daughters, out now.
Born in Liverpool and raised in Rainhill and Widnes, Sophie began playing piano aged 6 and wrote her first songs aged 9. Brought up on an early musical education of Nick Drake and Van Morrison, and later introduced to Joni Mitchell and Carole King, Sophie released her first singles Marionette and Quietly in 2016. She followed these with the release of her debut EP Annie and lead single Hey Annie last year, alongside a UK and European tour with The Waterboys, whose track The Whole Of The Moon features on the Annie EP.
Sons & Daughters was written in the same afternoon as previous single Hey Annie, with The Verve’s Simon Jones and Davide Rossi (Goldfrapp, Coldplay, The Verve). It is an emotive folk song which fully showcases Sophie’s warm delicate vocal, building to a gorgeous melody that pulls you in close like a welcome embrace. Sophie says;
“The song itself is quite simple in its nature. I think it had been something I was thinking about for a while... that we are all just somebody's son or daughter. I think remembering that can be quite reassuring. The song is a sort of rejoice, that regardless of the different lives we lead, we all begin and end at the same place.” WEBSITE.
Intimate and personal sounding from the very beginning 'Sons & Daughters' is a subtle, melodic and captivating modern folk song. The musical backdrop is creative as instruments weave around each other, and Sophie Morgans vocals glide beautifully above.
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Whyte Horses - Never Took the Time.
Background - Manchester psych-pop outfit Whyte Horses today release their first ever official video. Alongside director/producer/editor James Slater, the band have created an accompanying video for ‘Never Took The Time’. Filled with shimmery, wistful, 60s pop hues, ‘Never Took The Time’ features Leonore Wheatley and Mélanie Pain on vocals. Written by Dom Thomas and recorded by Mike Burnham at Buzz Studios, it is taken from the bands latest ‘Empty Words’ album (released via CRC records in March 2018).
The video is released just a few weeks before members of The Go! Team will join The Whyte Horses Experience (alongside La Roux, Badly Drawn Boy, Melanie Pain and St Barts Choir) at their huge multi-media, special guest-laden headline show at Royal Festival Hall on September 13th.
Talking about the show, Dom Thomas describes the Whyte Horses Experience. “We approach each gig as stand-alone event in which we attempt to bring together all of our favourite films, music, art and squeeze it into one evening. We want to create an experience, a night that feels like The Velvet Underground sound-tracking a Stan Brakhage film, or The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour with an Exploding Plastic Inevitable-inspired lightshow”.
"We’ve invited like-minded special guests to perform songs with us in a quasi TV special format, between songs from our albums Pop or Not and Empty Words. The Whyte Horse Experience is a place to hide away and forget about the outside world for a couple of hours." WEBSITE.
The music is lush and fresh on 'Never Took the Time' a dreamy psych pop song where the vocals are equally melodic and dreamy, and the hooks are everywhere.
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Beck Pete - Gently Break It.
Background - We now have the highly anticipated single from Los Angeles songstress, Beck Pete. Entitled ‘Gently Break It’ the single truly takes the listener on a ride featuring intricate hooky melodies and multiple musical scene changes all with an overall underlying indisputable element of soul. From her emotion-forward approach to sharing across all platforms to her songs stemming from her most intimate moments, everything about Los Angeles artist Beck Pete bursts with every inch of her truth. Gravitating towards unconventional melodies and authentic storytelling lyricism, the songstress curates a unique style of pop songwriting that is always rooted in experience, written from a place of yearning, and always brutally honest.
Inspired by a need to highlight the most vulnerable and extreme sides of the herself in an attempt to accept them, Pete has created an outlet for people to feel a little less alone. Combining the most feminine and masculine versions of herself, along with the most emotional and most overwhelming artistic, Pete finds herself able to thrive in these extremes and seeks to encourage others to do the same.
Fusing contemporary pop elements with rock and roll textures and unpredictable, buoyant background vocals, Beck creates an undeniably distinctive sonic landscape that listeners can truly lose themselves in, and that defies current musical landscapes. Mastered by Joe Laporta (Shawn Mendes, Leon Bridges, Imagine Dragons) and mixed by Ryan Gilligan (Kevin Garrett) Pete’s music serves at a reminder of the importance of the duality of vulnerability and strength. "I hope that every one of my songs facilitate communication. The only way that we will move forward in any capacity is to normalize uncomfortable situations. We need to normalize communication. Normalize feeling. Normalize heartbreak”, confides Pete.
Upcoming single ‘Gently Break It’ thematically sheds light on a situation that is all too common romantically, where a person convinces themselves that they are undeserving of love and therefore romanticizes the idea of playing a victim in an unhealthy relationship. Pete reveals, "I have been that girl, and can’t say that I won’t be again. I’m just hoping that this song serves a reminder of that tendency, and spreads awareness to everyone who hears it that, one, they are not alone in this cycle and two, they can break it by believing they are worthy of something positive and healthy”. Sonically the song truly takes the listener on a ride featuring intricate hooky melodies and multiple musical scene changes all with an overall underlying indisputable element of soul. WEBSITE.
Opening with a feisty bass that slowly and rhythmically drives the song forward, Beck Pete's vocals quickly add some vibrancy and emotion to 'Gently Break It'. Stripped back and with some natural rock and roll feeling, the addition of just a sprinkling of pop vibes gives this track some real edge.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background - Twenty one-year-old singer-songwriter Sophie Morgan has announced her second EP Sons & Daughters will be released on 21st September, with the lead title track Sons & Daughters, out now.
Born in Liverpool and raised in Rainhill and Widnes, Sophie began playing piano aged 6 and wrote her first songs aged 9. Brought up on an early musical education of Nick Drake and Van Morrison, and later introduced to Joni Mitchell and Carole King, Sophie released her first singles Marionette and Quietly in 2016. She followed these with the release of her debut EP Annie and lead single Hey Annie last year, alongside a UK and European tour with The Waterboys, whose track The Whole Of The Moon features on the Annie EP.
Sons & Daughters was written in the same afternoon as previous single Hey Annie, with The Verve’s Simon Jones and Davide Rossi (Goldfrapp, Coldplay, The Verve). It is an emotive folk song which fully showcases Sophie’s warm delicate vocal, building to a gorgeous melody that pulls you in close like a welcome embrace. Sophie says;
“The song itself is quite simple in its nature. I think it had been something I was thinking about for a while... that we are all just somebody's son or daughter. I think remembering that can be quite reassuring. The song is a sort of rejoice, that regardless of the different lives we lead, we all begin and end at the same place.” WEBSITE.
Intimate and personal sounding from the very beginning 'Sons & Daughters' is a subtle, melodic and captivating modern folk song. The musical backdrop is creative as instruments weave around each other, and Sophie Morgans vocals glide beautifully above.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whyte Horses - Never Took the Time.
Background - Manchester psych-pop outfit Whyte Horses today release their first ever official video. Alongside director/producer/editor James Slater, the band have created an accompanying video for ‘Never Took The Time’. Filled with shimmery, wistful, 60s pop hues, ‘Never Took The Time’ features Leonore Wheatley and Mélanie Pain on vocals. Written by Dom Thomas and recorded by Mike Burnham at Buzz Studios, it is taken from the bands latest ‘Empty Words’ album (released via CRC records in March 2018).
The video is released just a few weeks before members of The Go! Team will join The Whyte Horses Experience (alongside La Roux, Badly Drawn Boy, Melanie Pain and St Barts Choir) at their huge multi-media, special guest-laden headline show at Royal Festival Hall on September 13th.
Talking about the show, Dom Thomas describes the Whyte Horses Experience. “We approach each gig as stand-alone event in which we attempt to bring together all of our favourite films, music, art and squeeze it into one evening. We want to create an experience, a night that feels like The Velvet Underground sound-tracking a Stan Brakhage film, or The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour with an Exploding Plastic Inevitable-inspired lightshow”.
"We’ve invited like-minded special guests to perform songs with us in a quasi TV special format, between songs from our albums Pop or Not and Empty Words. The Whyte Horse Experience is a place to hide away and forget about the outside world for a couple of hours." WEBSITE.
The music is lush and fresh on 'Never Took the Time' a dreamy psych pop song where the vocals are equally melodic and dreamy, and the hooks are everywhere.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beck Pete - Gently Break It.
Background - We now have the highly anticipated single from Los Angeles songstress, Beck Pete. Entitled ‘Gently Break It’ the single truly takes the listener on a ride featuring intricate hooky melodies and multiple musical scene changes all with an overall underlying indisputable element of soul. From her emotion-forward approach to sharing across all platforms to her songs stemming from her most intimate moments, everything about Los Angeles artist Beck Pete bursts with every inch of her truth. Gravitating towards unconventional melodies and authentic storytelling lyricism, the songstress curates a unique style of pop songwriting that is always rooted in experience, written from a place of yearning, and always brutally honest.
Inspired by a need to highlight the most vulnerable and extreme sides of the herself in an attempt to accept them, Pete has created an outlet for people to feel a little less alone. Combining the most feminine and masculine versions of herself, along with the most emotional and most overwhelming artistic, Pete finds herself able to thrive in these extremes and seeks to encourage others to do the same.
Fusing contemporary pop elements with rock and roll textures and unpredictable, buoyant background vocals, Beck creates an undeniably distinctive sonic landscape that listeners can truly lose themselves in, and that defies current musical landscapes. Mastered by Joe Laporta (Shawn Mendes, Leon Bridges, Imagine Dragons) and mixed by Ryan Gilligan (Kevin Garrett) Pete’s music serves at a reminder of the importance of the duality of vulnerability and strength. "I hope that every one of my songs facilitate communication. The only way that we will move forward in any capacity is to normalize uncomfortable situations. We need to normalize communication. Normalize feeling. Normalize heartbreak”, confides Pete.
Upcoming single ‘Gently Break It’ thematically sheds light on a situation that is all too common romantically, where a person convinces themselves that they are undeserving of love and therefore romanticizes the idea of playing a victim in an unhealthy relationship. Pete reveals, "I have been that girl, and can’t say that I won’t be again. I’m just hoping that this song serves a reminder of that tendency, and spreads awareness to everyone who hears it that, one, they are not alone in this cycle and two, they can break it by believing they are worthy of something positive and healthy”. Sonically the song truly takes the listener on a ride featuring intricate hooky melodies and multiple musical scene changes all with an overall underlying indisputable element of soul. WEBSITE.
Opening with a feisty bass that slowly and rhythmically drives the song forward, Beck Pete's vocals quickly add some vibrancy and emotion to 'Gently Break It'. Stripped back and with some natural rock and roll feeling, the addition of just a sprinkling of pop vibes gives this track some real edge.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 29 July 2018
Fortuna POP! - Colour Film (featuring Caroline Brooks of Good Lovelies)
Fortuna POP! - You Can Hide Your Love Forever.
Background - Indiepop institution Fortuna POP! quit the scene last year amid much gnashing of teeth from discerning music fans, going out in a blaze of glory with five days of sold out London shows by artists spanning their twenty year tenure, before label owner Sean Price fled Brexit Britain for a new life in Tokyo, Japan.
That would have been it for Fortuna POP!, were it not for the label’s Jukebox 45s Singles Club. With one final single still owed to subscribers, Price saw the opportunity to do something special for what would be the very last release on the label. Taking one of the label’s best-loved releases, Comet Gain’s classic 2001 single “You Can Hide Your Love Forever”, as his starting point, contributions were solicited from Fortuna POP! bands past and present for a Band Aid-style cover version.
Over twenty bands contributed, with the music recorded by a crack band featuring Amos Memon of Fanfarlo (drums), Emma Kupa of Mammoth Penguins (bass), Laura Kovic of Tigercats (keys) and Paul Rains of Allo Darlin’, Ben Phillipson of Comet Gain and Sam Ayres of Flowers (all guitar) at Soup Studios in London. Mikey Collins of Allo Darlin’ then recorded percussion at Big Jelly studios in Ramsgate, and The Victorian Horns aka Gary Olson (trumpet) and Kyle Forrester (sax) of The Ladybug Transistor put down their brass parts at Gary’s Marlborough Farms Studio in New York.
Vocals were recorded in various studios and kitchens around the world, with Amelia Fletcher of Tender Trap, Daniel Ellis of Martha, Lan McArdle and Owen Williams of Joanna Gruesome, Adam Todd of The Spook School, Bill Botting and Elizabeth Morris of Allo Darlin’, Jeff Greene and Dan Greene of The Butterflies Of Love, Lisa Horton and Iain Ross of Bearsuit, Katherine Whitaker of Evans The Death, Silvi Wersing from Chorusgirl, Helen King of Shrag, Rachel Kenedy of Flowers, Pete Dale of Milky Wimpshake, Darren Hayman, Pete Astor and Simon Love all contributing. Giles Barrett at Soup Studios then made sense of it all and mixed the track.
The result is a fantastic, uplifting indiepop anthem that’s sure to be lifting the lids off indie clubs around the world this summer and for many years to come. Oh, and there’s a B-side too, in which DC Feck of Thee Comet Gain International Psychedelic Pop Conspiracy may have had more than a hand. TWITTER.
'You Can Hide Your Love Forever' is an absolute feast of all things good, indie pop style. Despite the large number of talented contributors, the song has clarity and definition throughout. Feel free to sing along and enjoy the buzz.
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Colour Film (featuring Caroline Brooks of Good Lovelies) - Open Road.
Background - Music for your mind’s eye. With songs that play like home movies rich in imagery and characters, Colour Film is the stage name of Hamilton, ON's Matthew de Zoete. The moniker embodies his idea of songs as little films, where a combination of characters, stories, and emotions create a visual element in the listener's mind.
His latest release Super 8 blends pop and folk to set six of these cinematic songs in an atmospheric soundscape conjured with producer Les Cooper (Jill Barber, Good Lovelies). Imagine Nick Drake cheering up a bit and meeting Beck.
Since 2006, de Zoete (pronounced "duh-ZOO-tuh") has released three previous albums under his own name and toured throughout North America and Europe. He has shared the stage with acts such as Serena Ryder, Great Lake Swimmers, and Whitehorse, and he's performed at festivals including North by Northeast, Canadian Music Week, JUNOfest, and Stukafest (Netherlands). TWITTER.
Smooth, gentle and uncluttered 'Open Road' drifts along with an acoustic backdrop and some gorgeous duel vocals. Folk pop of sorts, the song is accompanied by a fine video that adds a little extra imagination to a refreshing piece.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background - Indiepop institution Fortuna POP! quit the scene last year amid much gnashing of teeth from discerning music fans, going out in a blaze of glory with five days of sold out London shows by artists spanning their twenty year tenure, before label owner Sean Price fled Brexit Britain for a new life in Tokyo, Japan.
That would have been it for Fortuna POP!, were it not for the label’s Jukebox 45s Singles Club. With one final single still owed to subscribers, Price saw the opportunity to do something special for what would be the very last release on the label. Taking one of the label’s best-loved releases, Comet Gain’s classic 2001 single “You Can Hide Your Love Forever”, as his starting point, contributions were solicited from Fortuna POP! bands past and present for a Band Aid-style cover version.
Over twenty bands contributed, with the music recorded by a crack band featuring Amos Memon of Fanfarlo (drums), Emma Kupa of Mammoth Penguins (bass), Laura Kovic of Tigercats (keys) and Paul Rains of Allo Darlin’, Ben Phillipson of Comet Gain and Sam Ayres of Flowers (all guitar) at Soup Studios in London. Mikey Collins of Allo Darlin’ then recorded percussion at Big Jelly studios in Ramsgate, and The Victorian Horns aka Gary Olson (trumpet) and Kyle Forrester (sax) of The Ladybug Transistor put down their brass parts at Gary’s Marlborough Farms Studio in New York.
Vocals were recorded in various studios and kitchens around the world, with Amelia Fletcher of Tender Trap, Daniel Ellis of Martha, Lan McArdle and Owen Williams of Joanna Gruesome, Adam Todd of The Spook School, Bill Botting and Elizabeth Morris of Allo Darlin’, Jeff Greene and Dan Greene of The Butterflies Of Love, Lisa Horton and Iain Ross of Bearsuit, Katherine Whitaker of Evans The Death, Silvi Wersing from Chorusgirl, Helen King of Shrag, Rachel Kenedy of Flowers, Pete Dale of Milky Wimpshake, Darren Hayman, Pete Astor and Simon Love all contributing. Giles Barrett at Soup Studios then made sense of it all and mixed the track.
The result is a fantastic, uplifting indiepop anthem that’s sure to be lifting the lids off indie clubs around the world this summer and for many years to come. Oh, and there’s a B-side too, in which DC Feck of Thee Comet Gain International Psychedelic Pop Conspiracy may have had more than a hand. TWITTER.
'You Can Hide Your Love Forever' is an absolute feast of all things good, indie pop style. Despite the large number of talented contributors, the song has clarity and definition throughout. Feel free to sing along and enjoy the buzz.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Colour Film (featuring Caroline Brooks of Good Lovelies) - Open Road.
Background - Music for your mind’s eye. With songs that play like home movies rich in imagery and characters, Colour Film is the stage name of Hamilton, ON's Matthew de Zoete. The moniker embodies his idea of songs as little films, where a combination of characters, stories, and emotions create a visual element in the listener's mind.
His latest release Super 8 blends pop and folk to set six of these cinematic songs in an atmospheric soundscape conjured with producer Les Cooper (Jill Barber, Good Lovelies). Imagine Nick Drake cheering up a bit and meeting Beck.
Since 2006, de Zoete (pronounced "duh-ZOO-tuh") has released three previous albums under his own name and toured throughout North America and Europe. He has shared the stage with acts such as Serena Ryder, Great Lake Swimmers, and Whitehorse, and he's performed at festivals including North by Northeast, Canadian Music Week, JUNOfest, and Stukafest (Netherlands). TWITTER.
Smooth, gentle and uncluttered 'Open Road' drifts along with an acoustic backdrop and some gorgeous duel vocals. Folk pop of sorts, the song is accompanied by a fine video that adds a little extra imagination to a refreshing piece.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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