We have already featured a couple of impressive tracks from Suzy and The Lifeguard 'Anima' E.P due May 1st and now we have a third song entitled 'Loolluby', which is a calm and dreamy ballad. === We have to go back to January 2017 for the last appearance of Richard Edwards on Beehive Candy still the new song coincidentally entitled 'January' makes for a fine return, it's a beautifully textured and melodic piece. === Following on from 'Do You Love Me Lately' Emily Keener returns with 'Boats' ahead of the album, 'I Do Not Have to Be Good', due out May 22, the new song is gentle, sincere and intimate folk music.
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Suzy and The Lifeguard - Loolluby.
Mental health is seemingly being torn apart at the seams amongst the Covid-19 crisis. Suzy & the Lifeguard’s new ballad, “Loolluby,” presents a soothing elixir, while also questioning what is real and what isn’t in the battle within mental illness. “Loolluby” will be released on April 6. It’s off the EP, ANIMA, produced by Grammy award-winning recording and mix engineer, Phil Joly (Patti Smith, Lana Del Rey, Daft Punk).
“Loolluby” serves as a melancholy backdrop to its darker meaning. Paradise’s vocals comfort as they fade in and out of focus, mirroring the inner drawing in and out of a person grappling with mental illness. Keys gently twinkle, punctuating that dream-like state where the struggle with reality exists for the person suffering from mental illness and the loved ones impacted by it. “Loolluby” snaps in and out of reality as Paradises soothing vocals transform into a haunting interlude on the song’s bridge when she sings, “Wasn’t if different / didn’t it matter.” Suzy Paradise says, “It basically describes loving someone who is ‘there’ and then suddenly not; how that prompts you to question what is real.”
The chorus encapsulates the overall message of the song: “ So I keep digging underneath / You’re there deep down / You have to be / Or was I just imagining? / You seem so far away.” It enacts Bob Marley’s message, “My home is in my dome” within three key points. We can self-soothe by seeking refuge from an otherwise chaotic world by looking inward. We can find peace by not needing anything from others. And we can exude unconditional love and be happy with an experience regardless of the outcome.
The ANIMA EP due out May 1, embarks on a shadowed journey of neon nightlife and moody ambiance. Recorded in Kauai at a friend’s chocolate farm/music studio, Paradise says, “It’s vibier than the last record. It’s a bit darker overall, but it’s also still silly and fun. I feel like it’s an honest reflection of not only what I have experienced in the last five years but also the fun and magical space we were in.”
Today Richard Edwards has announced his new album The Soft Ache And The Moon will be released on June 12th. Edwards has also shared a lyric video for the single "January." Both graceful and impassioned, "January" blends introspective, searching lyrics with lush orchestration to create a compelling lead album track. Edwards is the former frontman and guitarist for Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, who released six albums between 2006-2014.
"I wrote this song, like so many on the record, while dancing alone in my house," writes Edwards. "I had an idea that by moving the body while singing, my melodies might bend and twist in ways they hadnʼt during years of sedentary writing. I was correct. The song is about a reoccurring dream when Iʼm sick."
The Soft Ache And The Moon was produced by Richard Edwards and Mike Bloom, and mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Greg Calbi (Kacey Musgraves' Golden Hour, Tame Impala's The Slow Rush). Reflecting on the album's creation, Edwards writes, "As has been the unfortunate case for the past few years of my life, upon getting started on a new record, I fell ill and had to make other plans.
I built a small studio in my house, where I was stuck for over a year of illness, and worked on finishing it long distance with my Los Angeles based band. It is more or less about things never quite getting back to normal after a personal cataclysm. And hopefully its actually about more than that, too."
Cleveland indie-folk artist, Emily Keener, announces the April 13 single release of “Boats.” Through tender, breathy vocals Keener reflects a snapshot in time, capturing what it feels to be safe and understood. It’s off the album, I Do Not Have to Be Good, due out May 22.
Keener wrote “Boats” after sailing Lake Erie on a summer night under the stars. It was her first time on a sailboat; everything was calm and there weren’t any other boats or people in sight. That peaceful tranquility exudes every note even as the chorus releases and the song concludes into a feedback-soaked space. She says, “I wanted to write a song that was so simple, just about appreciating the loves in your life and the moments we get lucky enough to end up in every now and again.”
On her upcoming album, I Do Not Have to Be Good, Keener colors her plaintive and introspective lyricism with a frailty that longs for connection and understanding. When Keener began working on the new album with Dalton Brand at WaveBurner Recording, she consciously broke away from the belief in perfection and purity as being necessary, or even possible.
Rosie Carney has released a new single 'i spoke to god' alongside her new E.P. We shared 'When I Look At You' a month ago and this is another gorgeous track from this consistently creative artist. === Maleena shares 'Don't Forget Me' and it's a refined modern pop song with beautiful vocals. === From Alla Igityan we have 'Sad Song' which may have sad sentiments lyrically, but it's also a refined and very pleasing piece.
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Rosie Carney - i spoke to god.
Rosie Carney releases new single "i spoke to god" alongside new EP i dreamed i was the night today. The EP was made in New York with Thomas Bartlett (Doveman), known for his work with Sufjan Stevens, Vagabon, Florence & The Machine and more, after the success of her debut album Bare.
‘i spoke to god’ was written in Rosie’s family home in Ireland after a 3-month tour, as she explains: “I was very heartbroken at the time and I remember it rained nonstop for a week and I literally didn’t leave my bedroom. All in all, the melody came first, fairly quickly and the lyrics followed slowly after as a poem but made up of gibberish.”
“I basically floated around my room like a ghost talking to myself,” she continues. Despite the title, she says “I’m not religious and I didn’t actually speak to god (disappointing I know), but when I did speak to myself, I pretended it was being heard by something much bigger than all of this.”
Although it comes from a place of pain, "i spoke to god" has an edge of optimism: “this song is predominantly a breakup song, but the message is very much one of self-reflection during a time of obsessing over someone who didn’t love me anymore.” "i spoke to god" follows previous single "when i look at you", an intimate cut capturing the last 10 tumultuous years of Rosie’s life which featured her bravely dancing on camera for the first time.
The EP follows Carney’s critically acclaimed debut album Bare which saw NPR write; “her songs feel lived-in and worn, conveying a bruised ache well beyond her years” and glowing reviews from The Line of Best Fit (9/10), Mojo, The Sunday Times and Uncut. "i spoke to god" is available on all online platforms April 10th alongside upcoming EP i dreamed i was the night, via Color Study, a self-described “personal pop” indie label founded in 2019 by her manager Spencer Kelley.
18-year old pop artist and high school senior, Maleena, today released a heart-wrenching video dedicated to the worldwide class of 2020, who are increasingly seeing their schools closed for the rest of their senior year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The video for “Don’t Forget Me” bounces between scenes of current-day Maleena isolated in her cap and gown and scenes of future Maleena looking through a box of memories from her senior year, including a newspaper documenting the school closures.
“It is heartbreaking to know that we, as the Class of 2020, have unexpectedly already spent our last days in our schools without a proper goodbye,” said Maleena. “But, I want to let all my classmates throughout the world that we are not alone in this. We are bonded together by these unprecedented events and we will be a stronger generation because of them. We can’t forget that and we can’t forget each other.”
Maleena began her musical career in 2010, in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. She has been involved in numerous musical groups, ranging from the hard rock band, Chip & The Charge Ups, to Pittsburgh Youth Chorus.
Maleena has been performing her own songs in shows that feature singer-songwriters since 2017. She has been writing music for the entirety of her life and finally made a breakthrough in her music career with the release of “Uninvited” in 2019. She continues to write and record her original music and plans to release a 6-song EP in 2020.
Being a software engineer by profession and a singer/songwriter by passion, I am super-blessed to enjoy two distinct yet exciting careers at the same time. Back in school life, when everyone was preparing for university, I decided to opt for vocal lessons along with getting apt at playing violin and guitar. That marked a new phase of my life. From turning on karaoke to pretend myself performing at my concert to actually recording my favorite songs and uploading them on YouTube, I eventually achieved that level where I wrote my first song.
While I love the extensive troubleshooting and technical exposure of my day job as an engineer, singing is an entirely different world for me. Having Bob Dylan, Jason Isbell, John Prine and many other amazing songwriters as my inspiration, I strongly believe in openly expressing my ideologies and personality in the songs I write.
I was born and raised in Yerevan, Armenia, and even though in the last couple of years I started performing at the local bars/pubs and having success there, in 2019 I left my comfort zone to move to Berlin, Germany. I believe being a part of a much bigger music community will bring more challenges, and will also let me learn and grow even faster.
This song is about unwanted changes that sometimes happen in our lives. It doesn’t matter if you stay strong and believe that it’s gonna work out for the best - sometimes you just can’t help but feel sad. I wrote this song a couple of years ago when I was going through something similar in my life, when I wanted to go back to the way everything was before. With everything going on in the world at this moment this feels like an appropriate time to play this song.
MYNTH just shared 'Laurel' which is the first single from their third studio album due in September, the song itself is a gorgeous mix of guitar led Electro music and lush vocals. === We had the pleasure of sharing 'Christian' byForever Honey a few weeks back and they have returned with 'Twenty-Five' which is another refreshing mixture of melodic pop and rock. === Lesley Barth first single from her forthcoming album is 'Woman Looking Back at Me' a hook filled song that combines Blondie style disco beat with reflective lyrics. === UK band Percy just released 'Love Song' accompanied with a video, the bands powerful post punk sound remains intact with addictive vocals, it's a fine taster for their next album ‘Seaside Donkeys’.
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MYNTH - Laurel.
'LAUREL’ was out yesterday April 10 and is the first single from MYNTH’s 3rd studio album (SHADES | MYNTH), which will be released in September 2020.
With their new single, the twins Giovanna and Mario have refined the sound of MYNTH, whilst maintaining their signature electronic trip hop vibe. In ‘LAUREL’ the guitar is at the forefront, creating gloomy and edgy mood, balanced with a dreamlike state of mind.
‘LAUREL’ is an unobtrusive companion on the road to nowhere on a mild spring night, providing insight into a bizarre and surreal world of sounds and images. Director of the video Gabriel Hyden worked with the twins, and all three took inspiration from David Lynch to bring their vision to life. They play with impressions of a foreign sphere. In the context of self-isolation, emotions are taking shape and embody a nightmarish feeling of oppression, which occasionally gets burst by hopeful sunrays and bright soundscapes.
It’s when loneliness and lust for life ask the protagonist for a dance, she realizes she’s trapped in her own dull and seemingly perfect world, owning everything she needs. But more and more she’s losing the ability to live in the moment. Everything moves past her, she tries to figure out what’s happening in the world, and in her loneliness she almost becomes the voyeur of these little puppets out there in the carousel that rotates ever faster. A spinning top that draws the audience into madness. "I run away, I run away" - over and over, we run away.
Forever Honey's second single "Twenty-Five" came out yesterday Friday, April 10, along with an accompanying music video.
Forever Honey is the Brooklyn-based project of Liv Price (lead vocals, guitar), Aida Mekonnen (lead guitar, vocals), Steve Vannelli (drums), and Jack McLoughlin (bass).
Finding common ground over a love of the jangly guitar-driven pop of the late ‘80s and harmony-saturated rock of the ‘60s, the four draw lyrical inspiration from personal experiences and self-reflection.
The band’s first single “Christian” was released at the end of February and appeared on Spotify’s Fresh Finds: Indie editorial playlist.
Forever Honey's debut EP "Pre-Mortem High" is slated for an April 24, 2020 release.
We are excited to share the first single, "Woman Looking Back at Me" from NYC singer-songwriter Lesley Barth. The track is a reflection on negative self-talk and chronicaling Lesley's journey of transformation as she quite her corporate job to rebuild her sense of identity.
Lesley's remarks on the "Woman Looking Back at Me":
Woman Looking Back at Me is a song I wrote on the bus after going to a friend’s holiday party where I felt super self-conscious and self-critical. I had begun meditating daily and I think that caused the flash of inspiration - all of the sudden, I thought, “wait a second, who is this bitch criticizing me nonstop in my mind?” Putting some distance between my negative self-talk and my true self was really helpful, and, you know, why not set it to a Blondies-inspired disco beat?
Lesley's remarks on the album I wrote this album during the process of completely uprooting my life, and recorded it as I was still navigating a life without structure and regular paychecks. It's an album for these uncertain times where many people feel their lives have been stripped to the bone, they've woken up from a daydream, and they weren't sure what tomorrow would bring because that's where I felt I was when I wrote it. Almost all the savings I had for quitting my job got wiped away by healthcare costs, and I had to scramble."
We urge you take some time with this heartwarming collection of beautiful songs. "Big Time Baby" is out 5/15/2020.
Yorkshire based Percy gained notoriety in the early nineties when their home brand of left-field post-punk led to a record deal with legendary Leeds label Mook Records and consequently airplay from John Peel & Steve Lamacq. They made ‘single of the week’ in Melody Maker and rode the wave of minor indie celebrity status.
Songwriter/lyricist Colin Howard (Vox / Guitars) and Andy Wiles (Bass) have continued to operate as ‘Percy’ since, undergoing several line-up changes over the years, most notably with ex-Housemartins’ Hugh Whitaker joining them on drums between 1997-2004. Whilst Colin and Andy have been together such a long time developing an almost telepathic connection, they both agree that there has never been as much energy and eclectic productivity in the band since they were joined three years ago by Jason Wilson on drums and Paula Duck on synths.
A lover of improvisation, Jason brings some real hammer to the tracks when required and amazing subtlety when space is needed. Paula's synths bring a flourish and depth that, while commonplace in the proto-indie bands of the eighties, has all been swept away by the standard modern band set-up of guitar, bass and drums.
The process for new album ‘Seaside Donkeys’ started with the invitation from Vinyl Eddie Records of York to release an album on 12” vinyl. The band were inspired with the prospect of a vinyl album as this was something that had eluded them to date. There was a conscious intent to team up with a top level engineer and studio sympathetic to the band’s sound so they recruited Isaac Minnis at Crooked Room Studios in York, who has also recently been involved with breakthrough recordings by The Howl and The Hum and Avalanche Party.
True to the band’s punk ethos the album was recorded with the full band in a live room, with minimal separation and minimal overdubs. The recording included a number of songs so fresh the band were sight-reading as they were being recorded. In some cases, the final lyrics were yet to be written and the lyrics simply improvised on the day. This purposefully delivers that fresh and immediate sound to the recording, creating a white-knuckle ride for the band and listener alike at times.
First single from the album is double A-side ‘Seaside Donkey’ and ‘Love Song’. Out on April 3rd, they are poignant and relevant to a country and planet on the brink of unchartered waters, choc-full of slang from the north-east, and clearly showcasing the depth of style and quality among the band, whilst future single ‘Will Of The People’ with its in-your-face riff and swirling synths offers an ageless rage of being dragged off into isolation in a future that obsesses over the good old days, prophetically in the UK’s recent trials.
Elsewhere on the album ‘The People Who Drank Themselves to Death’ is a witness to decades of decay in the North of England. A memento mori to larger than life characters cut down to size by a culture that expects a daily excess of alcohol. ‘Big Lil’s’ is a fanciful story of a visit to the fabled pub of the same name on the Headrow in Leeds with its mock-saloon doors and a crowd that goes quiet when you enter the room.
The whole collection represents the gritty realism of the 2020s. There are big issues out there to wrestle with, and maybe this album just says: You are not alone out there. The album photography by Paula Duck, shot over multiple visits to Scarborough on the north-east coast is a witness document of the place before the impact of CV-19 and what Brexit will become.
Camille Delean has just shared her new single 'Fault Line (Late July)'. The singer - songwriter delivers a mixture of folk and roots rock, the musical arrangement is refined and a wonderful match for her engaging vocals. === Back in February we shared 'Sondern' from Orpine who have returned with 'Two Rivers' where the duo once again delight with their creative & intimate modern folk sound.
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Camille Delean — Fault Line (Late July).
Montréal-based singer-songwriter, Camille Delean, is sharing her enticing new single, ‘Fault Line (Late July)’. In tandem with releasing new music, Delean is announcing news of her sophomore album, Cold House Burning which is due for release via the Hull, Québec-based artist-run label, E-Tron Records on June 5, 2020.
Whilst becoming something of a staple on the East Coast Canadian music scene over the past few years, supporting the likes Timber Timbre, Fink and Andy Shauf along the way, the new album trails Delean’s 2017 debut, Music On the Grey Mile, an album that introduced the artist’s distinct palette. Whereas her first record was a cumulative travelogue, a reflection of disorientated years on the move, Cold House Burning summons a present-tense examination of its opposite: a troubled settling down. Inertia brought on by illness developed a feedback loop of sorts, a spiralling sense of solitude; it was a strictly interior world decorated with isolation, homebound routines, and internal dialogues, pieced together with little victories.
With a swelling tempo and carefully sewn layers of percussion, strings and saxophone, ‘Fault Line (Late July)’ explores the perilous pitfalls that surrounded her physical and psychological state when writing. “It’s a hyper-anxious way of moving through the world,” she says. “Full of warnings, as if being alive meant getting away with something. A snapshot of a state of mind: a good place to visit, but not to linger.” Though sombre in tone, it acts as a true beacon of hope on the album, shining a torchlight through her malaise and looking it in the eye.
Written over an extended period of near seclusion at home in Montréal, the album has morphed into a true child of the city, welding together a collection of songs recorded with a pool of trusted collaborators from the city: Delean’s co-producer, Michael Feuerstack (Bell Orchestre, Snailhouse), Jeremy Gara (Arcade Fire), Mathieu Charbonneau (Last Ex, Organ Mood) Philippe Charbonneau (Scattered Clouds, Esmerine), Joshua Zubot (Land of Kush) and Adam Kinner (Land of Kush, Leif Vollebekk).
Orpine are Eleanor Rudge and Oliver Catt. Migratory birds nesting in disparate climates; singing in harmony 300 miles removed. Being outside and keeping off the internet. Mostly apart but never alone. Following brief stints in bands and singing on one another’s records, the pair lost touch. Ceasing to make music, days punctuated by silence, Eleanor made contact.
Having not seen one another for years, they ventured to a cottage in the Scottish Borders at the foot of Black Hill. With only a stove for heat and a car full of groceries for sustenance, four days of writing passed.
The result is debut album ‘Grown, Ungrown’, produced by Jonathan Coddington (The Magic Gang, Joanna Gruesome). Delicately branching and bereft of irony and cynicism, the songs have room to inflate and deflate, to meander, and shake loose like an antidote to sagging spirits. Harmonies wash against gentle strums and climb from the ambient to the anthemic as Orpine turn their backs on modern absurdity with nerve and solemnity. Like a tiny figure on the horizon casting a huge shadow on the mountain, there is a humbleness about ‘Grown Ungrown’ that projects awe without hubris.
While the bulk of the record was recorded in The Crow’s Nest in Hackney, all of the strings and brass were added at Greenman Swaler – a secret place Oliver helped some friends build when he was a teenager. Decamping from the studio to a den-like locale befits an album with a narrative that is generously autobiographical. “I’ve worked with Jonny since before we knew what we were doing so we have a good understanding of how the other works. The desk has more channels now but the relationship remains the same.” states Oliver.
First single, ‘Sondern’ is a song about grief and defeat. Written around the time of the first Brexit deadline, the title is a German conjunction that derives from an old Germanic word which meant ‘to separate’. “I liked the idea that this use of the word is outdated and it had morphed into something it was never originally intended to be – which was a lot of the criticism being levelled at the European Union on the Leave side.” Its movements lurch, and contract and expand with an inevitable seasonality, from giddy summer to lunar winter, before melting into the payload of a tender spring: “I love you. I always did.”
‘Two Rivers’ speaks of the purifying feeling of laying on the bed of the River Ouse near Mount Caburn, near Elanor’s home town. Submerged and held quietly in water, the industry of transport links dissolves to be replaced by the sunken stillness of the natural world. “Easier to be, than to be gone.” muses Eleanor. The second river, and namesake, the River Ouseburn runs down the road from Oliver in Newcastle. Two little river versions of each other, hundreds of miles apart, striving for the same creative open waters.
The record’s title is taken from the Walt Whitman poem ‘On The Beach At Night Alone’ and is intended as an expression of being between two things; the theme of duality characterises the work: knowing and not knowing, understanding and not understanding. A state of flux that Orpine have imbued into their live shows; depending on the performance, they have the ability to call upon drums, strings and horn sections, or opt for the simplicity of two voices and two guitars.
Not subscribers to the cult of modernity, Orpine choose instead to make visors with their hands and squint back to landscapes left untouched. A return to nature is favored over the fatigue of likes and followers, the hum of commerce logistics and temporal edge of diversified eating experiences. The countryside liberates Eleanor and Oliver, enabling them to view the modern world, select all and delete.
Sunshine Boys just released their second single 'Summertime Kids' taken from their forthcoming album 'Work and Love'. The Song has fresh positive rock vibes and plenty of musical hooks. === Our second helping of Diners this year comes in the form of the new single and video for 'Big Times' which oozes indie pop charm both musically and visually. === Last Friday The Roseline released their new album 'Good Grief' and it's a refined collection of Americana, folk and country rock beautifully arranged and delivered. === CIEL make their third appearance this year on Beehive Candy with 'Same Old Times With U' and once again the Brighton based band are on top form with this dream pop/rock piece.
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Sunshine Boys - Summertime Kids.
"Summertime Kids" is the second single from the Chicago band's sophomore album Work and Love, which will be released on Friday, May 1 via Room F/Pravda Records (CD and digital) and Cheap Kiss Records (vinyl).
Dag on the formation of the band - "SUNSHINE BOYS started after Freda and I were separately asked to help round out a band being assembled by our friends Brett Neveu (yes, the amazing playwright) and Rich Sparks (yes, the amazing cartoonist), based on their spiky pop tunes.
When Jason Narducy (yes, the famously elbowed musician) was unable to be a part of the team, I leaned in heavily and told Brett and Rich that we HAD to bring in Jackie Schimmel on bass. They kind of had no choice. This five-piece collective (called Sex Ritter: did you ever see us?) gelled quickly and we fleshed out and banged out Brett and Rich’s songs for a couple of really fun gigs. I think I had an ulterior motive, though, and that was to get Freda and Jackie together.
I knew that Jackie’s brilliantly melodic basslines would fit perfectly within the hypnotic and musical gallop of Freda’s drums, as well as the unkempt jangle of my guitar. We knew right away that we had something as soon as we started rehearsing with Sex Ritter, and we decided immediately that the three of us were a band. After more than a few years of not writing songs (I was busy learning a couple hundred songs by other artists for my cover band Expo’76), I began to crank out a bunch of material which Sunshine Boys set about learning in the summer of 2016. Deadlines are great motivators, and we’d asked Brett and Rich if we could open a Sex Ritter show in November (our debut!) and we worked in earnest throughout the fall.
Lauren Records recently announced the new LP from Diners and now they are unveiling a new single and video "Big Times"
Leisure World (out April 24th) is the latest album from singer-songwriter Tyler Blue Broderick, who performs with the project Diners. Not only is it the most eclectic and ambitious album in the songwriter’s (already muscular) catalog to date—it’s one of the catchiest, most realized indie pop records released in years.
"It’s the American Dream: move to Los Angeles with high hopes, scan Craigslist for a little too long, and move away with a trove of songwriting material dealing with the absurdity of the entertainment capital of the world." says Flood Magazine of Diners upcoming LP.
Like all of their work, Leisure World—which Broderick scrapped and rerecorded several times before landing on an aesthetic they found satisfactory—draws on the most enduring aspects of pop’s past. Its 13 tracks bring to mind the technicolored melodies of ‘60s pop icons like the Beatles and Zombies, the
chilled-out pop proficiency of Laurel Canyon legends like Carole King, and the wry, observational story- telling of Jonathan Richman, and, to cite a more recent artist, Jens Lekman.
But Leisure World isn’t merely a puree of a record store clerk archetype’s most coveted possessions; like all the best pop music, it gleefully somersaults across the bridge connecting the past and future, and much of Broderick’s instrumentation and lyrics feel planted firmly in the present. These are bite-sized, mid-fi symphonies replete with glorious Omichord sweeps, second-hand synths, and layers of sun-kissed vocal harmony.
Lawrence, KS-based The Roseline crafts soulful alt country in the vein of Gram Parsons, Neko Case & Conor Oberst.
Spearheaded by singer-songwriter Colin Halliburton, the sixtet has proven themselves to be a prolific, providential and important act over the past decade. They’ve secured sync placements in ABC’s Nashville & Resurrection as well as USA’s Queen of the South, press in NPR, PopMatters and No Depression, and tours all over the US as well as Poland, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium, sharing the stage with Ryan Bingham, Split Lip Rayfield and Dylan LeBlanc.
15 years in and six full-lengths deep, The Roseline are now gearing up to release their most personal record to date, GOOD/GRIEF (released last Friday). The LP was written in reponse to a tramautic year in the life of Halliburton, in which he dealt with the death of his best friend (and keyboardist in The Roseline) as well as the loss of his mother-in-law to suicide. The tracks are flush with millennial existential dread, mashing life experience with fictional narratives, set to soft country shuffles and epic barn-burning rock.
“I’m drawn to writing about subjects that are dark but perhaps make the listener feel a little less alone,” Halliburton admits. “My favorite pieces of art always do that for me.”
Brighton-based risers CIEL share reflective new single 'Same Old Times With U' ahead of debut EP ‘Movement’, set for release April 10th.
Delivering moody alt-pop with magnetism, merging shoegaze with post-punk, noir rock and dream pop, ‘Movement’ revolves around a turning point, both physically and mentally, in Dutch frontwoman Michelle Hindriks’ life, as she moved back to her adopted hometown and gained inspiration to write the songs that form the band’s debut EP.
Comprising of acclaimed lead singles ‘The Shore’ and ‘Days’, the trio’s forthcoming EP highlights their early promise and intrinsic mystique, with praise arriving throughout the online community (Clash, Dork, Gigwise) and across the airwaves (BBC 6 Music), alongside welcome comparisons to Alvvays, Cate Le Bon and Our Girl.
Now calling Brighton their home, the cultured quartet have quickly earned kudos for their exquisite live show, with extensive live plans in place for later this year, following slots with the likes of Hatchie, Sasami and Penelope Isles, and accomplished sets at Eurosonic, Le Guess Who and SPOT Festival.
Detailing their EP release, frontwoman Hindriks explained: “The whole EP is about moving away from a more introspective period in which I felt quite distant from other people and moving into a new phase of my life in which I was able to open up. We’re now releasing this EP in a time in which we are forced to distance ourselves from one another; but I feel more connected to the people around me now that I did before”.
Juniper Bush brand new album is entitled 'Healing Through A Sonic Figure'. We featured the video for 'Turn' just a few days ago and it really is a pleasure to share the full album today from this highly talented psych-rock and shoegaze band. === TheCoo have shared a video for 'If Only', a live track recorded in April last year in Amsterdam and it's a gorgeous dual vocal acoustic piece. === It's been eighteen months since we first featured Bijou Noir and they are back with a cover version of The Beatles 'Tomorrow Never Knows', a song that they creatively and sensitively put their own mark on.
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Juniper Bush - Healing Through A Sonic Figure (Album).
Healing Through A Sonic Figure, the debut full-length record from Winnipeg psych-rock/shoegaze troupe Juniper Bush is out now via Transistor 66. The album deals, in part, with finding one’s way through the other side of painful experiences towards a better sense of truth.
Of the eight songs contained on the record, five of them revolve around different phases in a troubled relationship and the challenges of returning to a partner in the throes of drug addiction. Atop chaotic, wall-of-noise chords, “Hindsight” is a dance with intuition and knowing, and “Foresight” is the loss of self that ensues. On “Turn,” vocalist/guitarist Lizzy Burt sings about the inner turmoil of a complicated love, and how patterns repeat despite life’s lessons. With the loud-quiet-loud dynamics of “Slowly,” there is a sense of resignation; and on the final tune of the suite, “And You,” the band offers the sort of swooning melancholy that will make you want to revel in gloom just a little bit longer. The lifeblood of each song is Burt’s celestial voice, capturing the agony of the experience with each fragile breath.
“Initially we wanted to release those five songs about letting go and coming back as an EP, but we continued to write,” says Burt, the group’s lead songwriter. “Music is a huge part of how I process very personal things in my life. Making this record felt like a turning point in my healing process after some pretty difficult times.”
The Coo’s journey started with a serendipitous meeting at an Amsterdam open mic, and has since evolved into a deep musical and personal relationship that bridges the North Sea. Matt Arthur (The Arthur Brothers) and Jara Holdert (Lewin) write and sing songs together in two-part harmony, reminiscent of the warm late 60s and early 70s sound of artists such as Carole King & James Taylor; Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and contemporary artists such as Angus & Julia Stone and Big Thief.
Where The Coo’s first single told the story of their meeting, ‘If Only’, the second track from their upcoming debut EP, is the first song they ever wrote together and represents the genesis of their musical collaboration. After their first serendipitous meeting in Amsterdam, contact faded for a year, as Matt went back to the UK. But a year later, when Jara decided to visit him spontaneously in London, they reconnected and wrote a song on their first afternoon. They performed ‘If Only’ that same evening at an open mic in Camden Town, marking their first ever concert together.
‘If Only’ is a warm and harmonic story of the artistic journey through isolation and guilt and the yearning for release. With subtle musical shifts, The Coo’s second single is reminiscent of early Joni Mitchell with hints of Revolver era Beatles and Big Thief.
The ever-evolving Prague-based Bijou Noir have surprise-released a commanding rendition of The Beatles' 1966 "Tomorrow Never Knows" as a "name your price" download via Bandcamp.
What happens when you break up with your entire state of being? Bijou Noir's vivid debut LP We Are Alone Together is a savvy collection of pop songs that probe tectonic fractures in identity, spirituality, fidelity and loss in the 21st century.
Bijou Noir was formed in 2013 by Augustus Watkins, a creatively restless and ambitious multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer and lyricist.
Bijou Noir's distinctive songs and videos have been called: textured, intoxicating, nifty, fuzzy, cinematic, innovative, soulful, incredibly catchy, complex, sinister, offbeat, moody, stunning, shadowy, gloomy, dark and enigmatic. Watkins and Bijou Noir, are currently based in Prague.
Sisyphes just shared 'Samsāra' and the Margate (England) band are impressive with this expansive, melodic and dreamy mixture of Shoegaze and pop sensibilities. === Another song released yesterday comes from Josh Kumra and it's entitled 'Pull Me Back In'. The singer songwriter has fabulously distinct vocals on what is a beautiful modern folk song. === We've already had the pleasure of featuring three tracks form her forthcoming album 'La Yarará' and now Malena Zavala has released another 'Memories Gone' and it's as gorgeous as the others, the album is out on April 17th, personally I can't wait.
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Sisyphes - Samsāra.
Based in Margate, Avantpop shoegazers Sisyphes are made up of former La Houle guitarist and songwriter Geoffrey Papin, Clémentine Blue (Tiger Lion), John Davies (Michael A Grammar, Traams) and Jimi Tormey (Gang).
Taking their cues from the likes of Stereolab, Broadcast and Julien Gasc, they deliver dreamlike pop songs with a touch of French synthwave. Lyrically their literary and philosophical influences shine through – gone are the days when shoegaze lyrics were just a conduit for vocal textures.
The band explain that “Saṃsāra is a Sanskrit word that means "wandering" or "world", with the connotation of cyclic, circuitous change. In short, it is the cycle of death and rebirth.”
Sisyphes’ name is taken from Greek mythology – the deceitful character who has been doomed to push a boulder to the top of a hill for eternity. While perhaps music and art could be categorized as similarly futile, these are the things that get us up in the morning to push our own personal rock once again.
New single ‘Samsara’ is available everywhere on April 3rd 2020 via A Certain Kind Records.
Singer - Songwriter Josh Kumra returns with a new EP, ‘Pull Me Back In’, out now via ferryhouse. Following up on the recently released singles; the soaring ‘Don’t Know Why’, the confessional ‘I Dare You’ and last year’s intimate ‘Stubborn Love’, the EP is an insight into Josh’s newly found creative freedom. Mostly recorded and produced by Josh in his own studio, the new body of work is an introspective journey through the emotions and mind of a young artist who found himself “falling short of the grand expectations everyone had of me and had almost lost my love for making music completely”, as he candidly concedes.
Whilst the title track ‘Pull Me Back’ is in the artist’s own words; “all about going there to come back, getting lost to be found. For me it's the song that takes the core of the other songs on the EP and brings them together in a simple but an unavoidable way.” Having topped the UK charts and performed on ‘Later… With Jools Holland’ before having released his debut album, the talented artist suddenly found himself with a major record deal and under pressure to capitalise on the sudden exposure brought by his collaboration with Wretch 32 on ‘Don’t Go’, the chart-topping single which reached #1 in the UK upon its release.
After the release of his debut album ‘Good Things Come To Those Who Don’t Wait’ and his international headline tour, Josh struggled with the idea of being the pop star people saw in him. The unexpected publicity meant losing the original idea of “writing music from my heart,” he confesses while talking about the vulnerability and sense of loss he felt. He left London for Tetbury, set up his own recording studio and started writing and recording new music in a safe space, one in which he could develop himself first before trying to please everyone else. A completely different creative process compared to “being sent around to hit makers on a daily basis, baring everything and anything personal to strangers in the hopes of writing a hit song,” recalls Josh on the dark side of the hit making machine.
‘Pull Me Back In’, is a remarkable collection of heart-wrench songs, one that is destined to set Josh as the bonafide singer-songwriter he is.
Malena Zavala has today shared blissful new track 'Memories Gone', taken from her forthcoming second album La Yarará, to be released April 17 on Yucatan Records.
Mazzy Star-style gothic chamber pop with a South American influence, ‘Memories Gone’ is about “mourning the loss of a memory that has faded away,” comments Zavala, who was born in Argentina but grew up in Hertfordshire. “I wrote it when making my first album, but I wanted to tie it all in with the Latino feel of La Yarará so I stripped it back to vocals and guitar added a ronroco arrangement. The ronroco is an Andean ten stringed guitar-like instrument that has a slight echo and somehow creates its own reverb, and I love the way it sounds on the track.”
The follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2018 debut album ‘Aliso’, ‘La Yarará’ cements Zavala as a songwriter with a unique perspective on where she’s from, where she’s headed and where her music can take us. The album draws from the various aspects, colours and shades of Latin music and culture: cumbia, Afro-Cuban, Afro-funk, Andean folk, Argentine folk, bolero-son, and reggaeton, all sung in a mixture of English and Spanish in Zavala’s passport-to-paradise voice.
Zavala recently unveiled a stylish and colourful video for the album’s sinuous title track, current single ‘La Yarará’, premiered by Notion Magazine. ‘La Yarará’ is the third single to be taken from the album following 'En La Noche' and 'I'm Leaving Home'.
After the release of ‘Aliso’ – described as “gently warped and beguilingly melancholy guitar pop” by The Guardian in their 4 star review - Zavala toured all over Europe and the UK supporting Lord Huron, Blanco White, and Men I Trust, before hitting the festival circuit. She then spent three months writing her second album in Tarifa, the southernmost point of Spain.
Zavala and her close circle of collaborators recorded ‘La Yarará’ in two weeks last September at Urchin Studios in London Fields, with Zavala producing and Dani Bennett Spragg (Baxter Dury, The Amazons) engineering.
“It’s a really beautiful, all-wooden studio, which was really important for the sound of this album,” says Zavala. “I wanted it to feel like Buena Vista Social Club. I wanted to play the room, to feel the walls and wooden floors.”
At the heart of the album is ‘Identity’, a song of rootlessness and yearning “that embodies the whole record. It’s about how I feel like I don’t belong to Argentina or England. I’ve just been travelling my whole life,” says Zavala. “So the whole concept is about how, wherever you go and whatever the experiences you have in the cultures you live in, they make up who you are and your character. So I had this idea of a person being about where they’ve been, not where they were born.”
Anna Burch new album 'If Your Dreaming' is released today. It comprises of twelve beautiful songs and is streaming in full below, her songwriting skills are notable and the musical construction of each track is imaginative on what is a really pleasing album. === Junk Drawer have just shared 'What I've Learned / What I'm Learning' a slow burning rocker that is both atmospheric and gripping. === Another new song release today this time from The Reverse with 'Kill Us All' where the lyrics intrigue to say the least, on this refreshing indie rock track. === The Sun Harmonic latest song offering is 'Sign On The Road' and it's a vibrant folk rock song that put simply, is rather catchy.
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Anna Burch - If Your Dreaming (Album).
When Anna Burch introduced herself on her 2018 debut Quit The Curse, it was with a concentrated wash of energetic, serotonin-boosting pop. Jangly guitars, blithe vocal harmonies and an occasional undercurrent of grungy fuzz all converged in seemingly straightforward songs that hid their complexities under sunny hooks. The impact of the songs was immediate and exciting, presenting narratives of confusion and upheaval with melodies so bright it was hard to do anything but smile. Two years later, Burch’s follow up If You’re Dreaming takes us down a different path than its predecessor, shedding some nervous energy in favor of a deeper exploration of an internal world.
After months on the road in support of Quit The Curse, Burch disappeared for a while. The long stretches of touring had been broken up by only a few weeks off here and there, and a month spent writing in Berlin between European dates. The time she did get to spend at home in Detroit was disrupted by several unexpected housing changes, adding to the transient feelings brought on by constant touring. When things finally stabilized, Burch encamped into a slow, thoughtful and intentional writing process for what would become the second album. Days were spent playing guitar, exploring unconventional chord changes, ruminating on song structures and allowing her subconscious to wander until lyrics materialized. Though about half of the songs were already written, this time was dedicated to taking a closer look at the loose ends of three years of ideas and seeing if there were common threads that held them together.
If You’re Dreaming was tracked with producer Sam Evian in his home studio in the Catskill mountains of upstate New York. Where the first album had been a rush of inspired songwriting followed by a drawn-out process of arrangement and mixing, Burch and Evian worked with self-imposed time limitations to establish a sharper focus and get to the core of the new songs. The work was swift but somehow more relaxed, locking into a groove of tracking the basic elements and then expanding on the arrangements with overdubs and auxiliary instrumentation. The end goal was to present not just an assortment of new songs, but craft an album that moved dynamically through an interconnected emotional arc.
With recurring themes of isolation, weariness and longing, these songs deliver that emotional arc with a delicate but uncompromising execution. Burch’s intrinsically catchy songwriting dials down the urgency of her debut a notch, taking a turn towards airy, jazz-voiced chords, floating reverb and an expansion of the sonic palate with unexpected instrumentation. The soft-rock bass grooves and understated saxophone lines of “Not So Bad” push an impressive pop structure into exciting new territory, and the sweetly melancholic “Tell Me What’s True” centers around muted electric piano, its languid but metered vibe recalling the gentler side of Carole King.
Junk Drawer - What I've Learned / What I'm Learning.
Having announced their debut album ‘Ready For The House’, out via Irish indie label Art For Blind for April 24th, Belfast quartet Junk Drawer are set to release the sprawling, opening tone-setter ‘What I’ve Learned / What I’m Learning’. Channelling the likes of Pavement, Thee Oh Sees and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and more the four-piece veer between slacker-rock, post-punk, krautrock and swirling psych across their at time chaotic, at times sanguine sound.
‘What I’ve Learned / What I’m Learning’ is the one track on the album where both main lyricists, brothers Stevie and Jake Lennox, sing lead vocals - a primer for what's to come on the rest of the record, as Jake's lucid psychedelia combines with Stevie channelling a hysterical, sardonic 'state of the nation' internal address that comes in moments of emotional volatility.
Stevie elaborates a little on the origin of the track: “The title comes from the Dunning-Kruger Effect - basically the less you know, the more you think you know, while the more you know, the less you think you know.’
The song also served as an important opportunity to open up on suppressed feelings with hitherto unexpressed candour: “It was the first time I wrote with a real purity of intent, allowing myself to let go of the irony, obfuscation and self-awareness that I felt obscured some of my previous writing, because of my complete loathing of heart-on-sleeve earnestness & sincerity. I was suffering from a lot of communication problems ,epilepsy and brain fog, and I didn't realise it until afterwards but it was an expulsion - as much of the album is”.
The Reverse are a North London band making a literate strand of indie-rock that encompasses 90’s alt, post-punk, alt-folk and a touch of the gothic, laced with quintessentially British style of delivering brutally caustic lyrics with a big slice of dark humour.
New single ‘Kill Us All’ is garage-blues guitar pop that recalls early 90’s purveyors of irreverent humour such as David Devant & His Spirit Wife and The Auteurs. In contrast to The Reverse’s last single ‘Crush My Chest With Your Hate’ which was an urgent post-punk assault on the UK’s growing anti immigration narrative, ‘Kill Us All’ takes a more minute look at human existence day-to-day. As frontman and observational lyricist Nathan Loughran explains: “‘Kill Us All’ contrasts the everyday and mundane in the lyrics "My head now hurts, I'm losing hope, breakfast's a pack of Wotsits and a can of Coke," with the stark recognition of our own mortality in the line "...and time will catch an kill us all." The song’s bass rolls, drums skip and the guitars sing to create a musical dissonance adding a juxtaposition to the darkly humorous lyrics.
‘Kill Us All’ is taken from The Reverse’s forthcoming album Which Way Out (24 April, Blang! Records). An album of both shade and light, the record moves from the occasionally vulnerable though to the outright visceral. Written about “both the personal and the political,” it includes songs that explore the vulnerability of falling in love and the fragility of the human existence through to the disturbing rise of the far-right with aim taken at The Sun, xenophobes, the Tories, Jeremy Kyle and everything in-between. All delivered with a sometimes snarling, often acerbic, and always unapologetically tongue-in-cheek style.
The Reverse have built up a live following by performing at festivals such as The Great Escape and supporting the likes of The Wave Pictures and Billy Bragg. In 2019 they performed at Standon Calling, signed a deal with Blang! Records and began sharing tracks from Which Way Out including ‘Nobody Likes You, Everybody Hates You’, ‘Nothing on Telly’ and ‘Abstract Heart.’ The latter single was one of Gary Crowley’s top songs of the year, leading to The Reverse recording a session for BBC Radio London, followed by a session for Dexter Bentley on Resonance FM. ‘Kill Us All’ is out as a digital single on 3 April, with The Reverse’s long player Which Way Out following on 24 April on Blang! Records (available on vinyl, cd and digital).
Songwriter Kaleb Hikele of the band shares: "Sign On The Road was written in one night, sitting on the piano bench as I watched a US election roll in. It's optimistic, uplifting and hopeful, with open ended lyrics that let you define your own meaning. Who knew we would need this song so badly in this isolated world we unexpectedly live in, the song is coming out just as my own city shuts down to quarantine and the irony of singing "I see this sign on the road" is heavy. I'm proud to give this song to those who need it the most today."Sign" is one of my favourite songs that I've carried with me on the road for many years now.
I've toured the song as a solo artist across the country and even recorded it as a demo with another band entirely called The Other Birds a while ago. It's taken so many years and experiences to finally sink in, to find the right place in time to be performed (with my current rock trio) and be recorded properly (live off the floor at a favourite studio of mine called The Chalet in Ontario). I'd been to The Chalet once ten years ago for my debut album and five years ago to record songs for "Winter", and I brought the same engineer from the Winter sessions to pay tribute to this past. Josh Bowman brought the perfect touch to this one studio day where we recorded all five songs live in a room together."
The Sun Harmonic is a solo folk act that grew into a rock and roll band and the main creative outlet for Canadian composer Kaleb Hikele since 2009. An eclectic songwriter and adventurous recording artist from Toronto's east end, raised in the small town of St.Thomas, Ontario. After a decade using his stage name, the artist was gratefully showcased by Canada's Walk of Fame in downtown Toronto and Festival Du Voyageur in Winnipeg 2020. Now a folk-rock trio, the group is ready to Rock and Roll more than ever.
HMS Morris return with 'Poetry' a couple of months after their very fine song 'Babanod'. The new piece builds in intensity, the vocals increasingly immersed in lush electro music are nonetheless wonderful. === oh!no?ok. return for a third time in a matter of months with 'Wheel Of Fortune' where the Salt Lake City band are in cracking form with this high octane rocker.
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HMS Morris - Poetry.
Hot on the heels of the well-received Babanod, released in early February, HMS Morris are now pleased to present Poetry. It’s the second in a series of singles due for release in 2020, and will be available from April 1st on Bubblewrap Records.
The song reflects the sliding scale of madness that results from unreciprocated obsessive love. Beginning with some light-hearted hypothetical quasi-stalking, singer Heledd Watkins then moves through self-criticism, recrimination, and finally a full-on banshee-wail of desperation.
Structurally the music is indebted to Ravel’s Bolero, a repeating ostinato rising steadily from very quiet to very loud – although in Poetry, HMS cover twice the volume in half the time, in acknowledgement of the limited attention span of the snapchat generation. Poetry will be available digitally from all the usual platforms.
Salt Lake City, Utah might be best known as the world headquarters for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That may change as a fertile counter-cultural underground music scene is slowly seeping into nationwide consciousness with artists such Neon Trees, Imagine Dragons, The Moth & the Flame, Sego, and Desert Noises. Up next, something weird and tuneful is poised to be Salt Lake City’s nice prime musical export. Self-described slacker rockers oh!no?ok. stake their claim to the mantle with the fearlessly catchy debut, randy warhole (or somethin).
oh!no?ok. is comprised of high school friends Ryan Osborn, Cole Miller, Jackson Ludlow, and local guitarist Nick Storey. The band is a year old, and has been working closely with locally-renowned producer Nate Pyfer (The Moth & the Flame, Kaskade, Sego). Lead vocalist Ryan and Nate laid the groundwork for the band’s music, though each member brings his unique flair, making the process a cohesive collaboration.
They play the kind of music you’d hear blasting forth from a suburban garage in the height of the alt-rock boom of the 1990s but they update this scruffy aesthetic with sleek but-not-too-polished production and a dose of raw skate punk. Their songs feature cleverly abstract lyrics, bold musical dynamics, experimental textures, adventurous arrangements, and sharp pop-rock hooks. This melding of tuneful and arty conjures an array of classic and current alt-rock innovators such as Weezer, Pavement, The Presidents of the United States, Butthole Surfers, and Spoon, FIDLAR, Car Seat Headrest, and PUP.
The Goldhearts have released their new E.P 'Be Strong, Be Brave, Be Bold' comprising of five tracks from which we have a video for 'Road To Roam' a song that gives a good feel for the collection of their timeless melodic indie rock. === Hannah Scott shares 'Shape' the London based songwriter is vocally powerful and passionate in what is a notable and stirring song. === From Pittsburgh we have Same with 'Bluish' a laid back indie rock song that subtly embeds some engaging musical hooks along the way. === Gentle and melodic folk accompanied by a well matched video ensures Carmanah and 'As I See You' quickly becomes a gorgeous, play me again sort of song.
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The Goldhearts - Road To Roam.
Waking from a three-year hibernation, The Goldhearts picked up where their debut album left off with the electrifying Be Brave and hook-laden Stars. Now proud to announce the release of their new EP, Be Strong, Be Brave, Be Bold is another stellar addition to the band members' collective discography, which dates back over 20 years, a handful of quintessential albums and literally countless touring miles across the globe.
Produced by Govinda Doyle (Angus and Julia Stone), Be Strong, Be Brave, Be Bold represents everything contemporary indie rock can be when built on the unshakable foundation of blistering '90s hooks. More importantly the EP is a celebration of overcoming the challenges that life presents the band as individuals and as women who write and play music.
If you know your Australian music history, it will be instantly apparent why The Goldhearts have such a knack for the '90s thing. Founded by members of beloved Brisbane band Dream Poppies (with a dash of Razel) The Goldhearts throwback to an era when the sincerity and power of punk rock had been tempered by pop sensibilities and artful songwriting... an era they were a big part of. Fast forward several years and a new EP transposes the best aspects of this heritage into a modern sound that balances the perfect amount of grungy indie with blissful coastal pop.
London-Based independent artist Hannah Scott is fast cementing her place as one of the country’s most exciting new songwriters, with her emotive songs and striking voice. Shape, the first single from her forthcoming album, showcases her powerful and personal storytelling. The song recounts how her maternal Grandmother refused to accept her Mother’s choice of husband, Hannah’s Father, threatening never to speak to her again should she marry him and staying true to her word for twenty years.
Co-written and produced with long-standing creative partner Stefano Della Casa (Ultra Music Publishing), Shape expertly combines organic, live elements with electronic sounds. The two artists have struck a perfect balance between Hannah’s traditional songwriting craft and Stefano’s unique cinematic production.
Recent highlights for the pair include being awarded funding by Help Musicians UK to go towards the production of the album, opening for Madeleine Peyroux to an audience of 2000 at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre and travelling across Ireland with Paddy Casey to open shows for him in Dublin and in a tiny Irish speaking village near Galway! Their music has also been featured on BBC Radio 2 including a live session with Dermot O’Leary, BBC 6 Music, BBC Introducing, The Guardian, MOJO and Clash Magazine.
"Pittsburgh’s Same cast a sepia tone across a ‘90s DIY-indebted style of indie rock. Their debut LP Plastic Western is at times range-y and raucous, but it also spends a lot of time being thoughtfully languid, dreamy in a night-under-the-stars kind of way." says the Alternative of the upcoming LP
From the first crackling notes of “It’s Lonely in Doggie Hell,” the opening track of SAME’s debut LP Plastic Western, the band locks into a groove that never really lets up. A quiet riff fades in from a distance then, like a radio tuning to find the right frequency, it’s quickly interrupted by a brief drum fill before a fuzz-filled bass line sets the tempo, intertwining over a languid beat. Just like that SAME sets off on a 12-song journey. But Plastic Western isn’t a sprint toward a finish line, it’s an album that takes its time to hang out, get cozy, and soak in all the weird sights.
It’s easy to play the influence game for SAME. At times, Plastic Western might sound like Weezer dripping in acid and fuzz. At other times, it feels like listening to the Pixies or Pavement in a meditative trance. But SAME—bassist/vocalist Jesse Caggiano, drummer Jamie Gruzinski, and guitarists Tom Higgins and Jake Stern—never wanted to sound like any other band.
“Originality and experimentation are things we talked about a lot early on—and still do,” says Higgins. He concedes that the “core influences do shine through,” but from the band’s earliest practices, there was a shared drive to push themselves to make music outside of any sort of box. “We didn’t want to pigeonhole ourselves into making a certain kind of music,” he adds. “A lot of people make a band and say ‘We want our band to sound like this other band that we like.’ We had all done that before. We wanted to actively stay away from that mindset.”
Like the rainforests from which their name derives, Carmanah is just as comfortable in muddy, bluesy funk as they are among light, soaring harmonies. With one album behind them and one ahead, the band is crafting a niche of its own somewhere between roots, rock and blues — a vintage blend of the intuitive and technical tied seamlessly together by Laura Mina Mitic’s dazzlingly versatile voice.
In recognition of the band’s passion for their home and the ways it bleeds into their music, producer Gus Van Go (The Arkells, Sam Roberts, Wintersleep) coined the term “West Coast Soul” to describe Carmanah’s unique sound.
The forthcoming album, Iris, was recorded between B.C. and Brooklyn as a moody counterpoint to and natural evolution from the band’s debut, Speak in Rhythms. That album’s two #1 CBC Music tracks, Roots and Nightmare, have set the tone for a new west coast sound. Now, with Iris, the band has built upon the first album’s strongest elements: its driving melodies, its contorting, energetic rhythms, its bountiful instrumentation, its lyrics that take you by the hand and lead you far, far from where you began.
The band — including guitarist and vocalist Pat Ferguson, keyboardist Mike Baker, bassist Jamil Demers, drummer Graham Keehn and backup vocalist Lo Waight — tours in a gutted and retrofitted vegetable-oil driven tour bus, an ambitious project that Ferguson has taken on himself in his backyard. The low-carbon approach is part of a broader ethos the band shares.
“I get really excited when I think about music as a way to spark action,” Mitic explains.
With stops at major festivals like Edmonton Folk Festival, Hillside Festival and Winnipeg Folk Festival, Carmanah has caught the attention of the B.C. music press. Jon Williams of The Zone 91.3 Victoria called Mitic “the Stevie Nicks of our generation,” while Vancouver’s Daily Hive recently ranked the band among B.C.’s top acts to look out for. Their music landed syncs including Heartland and Hudson & Rex.
“The thrill of making a connection with an audience — any audience — is what keeps me going,” says Ferguson. It’s already brought him and the band a long way, and today, Carmanah’s irresistible chemistry crackles each time the band takes the stage, electrifying one another as much as the audience itself
