James - Spud Cannon - Jen Fodor ft Nadia Vaeh - Seafoam Green - Megan Wyler - The Speed Of Sound

James - All The Colours Of You (Album)

UK alternative band James have released their new album All The Colours Of You. James will perform tracks from the new record and many more from their rich catalogue live this summer, across festival dates in the UK and Europe.

James’ sixteenth  studio album, All The Colours Of You was recorded in part before the Covid pandemic struck and is produced by the Grammy award-winning Jacknife Lee (U2, REM, Snow Patrol, The Killers). Matching the energy of the lyrics, Lee brought a fresh approach to James’ sound, working remotely from his studio with Booth (Lee’s Topanga Canyon neighbor) and liaising in a daisy chain with fellow band member Jim Glennie, reimagining their demos, and capturing the band in all their virtual glory.

The result is a record with the most fresh and festival ready tracks of their 39-year career, the sound of one of Britain’s best bands, deconstructed and reassembled by one of the world’s most renowned producers.

Since their breakthrough single in 1991, “Sit Down”, James have released fifteen studio albums, selling over 25 million copies in the process, and performed countless headline shows and festivals across the world. Many in the US will know James from their 1993 hit “Laid” which charted on the Billboard Hot 100, was featured as the theme song to the American Pie movies and has appeared numerous times in film and tv over the years. They continue to be a huge live draw, having sold 60,000 tickets for a UK arena tour scheduled for this November and December; a tour which has sold faster than any previous James tour. Their last US tour dates were a 2019 sold out, national run of shows with the Psychedelic Furs.

James · All The Colours Of You

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Spud Cannon - Lovely.

NY-based group Spud Cannon are sharing "Lovely," the final single off of their forthcoming new album, Good Kids Make Bad Apples. I was hoping you might get a chance to check it out and consider featuring it in some way.

Ari Bowe (keys, vox) shares, "When I wrote this song, I thought of it as the song I would write if my (then) boyfriend broke up with me. Funnily enough, I completely foreshadowed the end of that relationship -- my ex broke up with me barely a month after I wrote “Lovely.”

The verses are all about wanting to go back in time, not understanding how to move forward, and the what if’s that inevitably run through your head. The chorus came together pretty easily. During the writing process, Meg used the word “Lovely” as a stand-in before we had lyrics, and I ran with it.

That word inspired the song, and the bittersweet vibe of the instrumentals pushed me in the direction of a breakup song. But it’s also uplifting in a way: You’re going through a painful process following a breakup, and you feel consumed by the loss you’re feeling, but you know it hurts so badly because of how lovely the good times were."

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Jen Fodor - "Front Row" feat. Nadia Vaeh.

Howard Mordoh, 69, is a retired clinical laboratory scientist, a southern California native, and possibly the world’s biggest concert enthusiast. He has been a notorious fixture of the Los Angeles music scene for decades, attending five to eight concerts per week since the 1970s and always dancing to his fullest. Easily recognizable thanks to his long white hair and spirited dance style, Mordoh’s love of live concerts spans genres and venues just as long as he can keep dancing. "Howard Mordoh is a one-man dance party, always ending up in the ‘Front Row,’” Fodor explains. “This song captures the joy he exudes when dancing to live music.” With the cancellation of live concerts in 2020 due to COVID-19, Mordoh has had to get more creative to keep dancing.

The process for the song started in Henry Ingraham’s home studio because safety protocols were still in order due to COVID-19, but as the city of Los Angeles slowly reopens, they were finally able to get together with Mordoh to shoot a video for “Front Row.” The music video was directed by Jen Fodor, who also produced and directed the documentary alongside Scott Sheppard. For the music video, Nadia Vaeh, who co-wrote the song with Fodor and Ingraham, compliments the song's retro beat with her glittery gold tracksuit while she belts out catchy pop lyrics. The rest of the band is also decked out in 80’s flair, including Howard Mordoh, who dances his way to the front of the stage. As the song peaks, the band is joined on stage by Fodor and Mordoh, resulting in a full-blown dance party.

The “Front Row” music video is a reminder not to take life for granted. This is indicated by seeing how happy Howard Mordoh is throughout the video to finally be dancing to live music again. Nadia Vaeh and Jen Fodor want listeners to continue to remain hopeful and optimistic about the future of live music.

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Seafoam Green - For Something To Say.

Americana-folk-rock force Seafoam Green continue to impress with the third single from the LP, ‘For Something To Say’.

‘For Something To Say’, is the opening track of ‘Martin’s Garden’ and instantly pleases with fuzzy jam-band grit and sunshine harmonies, oozing with guitar solo twang and expansive organ vistas. It’s a rollicking journey through the band’s retro influences, flecked with their own unique twist that encompasses Americana influences and the band’s roots in Liverpool and Ireland with a nod to modern folk-rock bands like My Morning Jacket, Band Of Horses and Deadstring Brothers.

On the new single Dave O’Grady says, “For Something to Say is a glimpse of things we have seen/thought and experienced on the road; be it USA or Europe, a new story unfolds in front of us everyday and it's quite the adventure!”

“We are an old school “road band”, we love to travel and spread our music”, he explains “…plus it’s the only way we make a living…“Ive see the sun set twice today” is how it can feel when you’re on a 1,000 mile drive between shows but you've gotta to make it!”.

“I burn my feet for something to say”, - touring and travelling (especially squashed into a hatchback with gear for months) can be very hard on the mind and the body but we do it to gain and share our experiences through our music.”, O’Grady expands.

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Megan Wyler - Upside Now.

Singer/songwriter Megan Wyler has announced her first new album in eight years Upside Now, to be released July 9, 2021. Wyler has also shared the album’s ethereal title track “Upside Now” along with a video featuring dancer Indiana Woodward and directed by Goldmond Fong (Katy Perry, Maggie Rogers).

“This collection of songs is a cycle of seeking and finding - often with an unexpected outcome, but catharsis nonetheless,” says Wyler. “I am expanding/digging, coming to terms with untimely death, experiencing deepest love, emerging from heartbreak, lighting the fire of resistance, celebrating female solidarity, passion, fury, the cosmos. Lighthearted stuff like that."

A California native, Wyler released her 2013 debut Through The Noise while living in London. The album was praised by the likes of Nowness, Songwriting Magazine, Indie Shuffle who described her sound as “incredibly moving and luscious,” and Clash Magazine who called her music “subtle, delicate and very beautiful.” Closely following that album’s release, Wyler had a young son with a number of demanding medical needs. “It was my honour and privilege to make him my priority,” says Wyler. “Being a mother is and always will be my first job ahead of anything else.” During this time, Wyler found herself in a bit of a creative “freeze-over” as she calls it. “It was like I could see songs, ready to be born, but I couldn’t access them somehow.”  As things calmed down at home, however, her creative freeze began to thaw.

Now Wyler is returning in full force. Earlier this year Wyler shared Upside Now’s first single “The Calling”. The song was featured on a number of top Apple Music playlists including New Music Daily, New In Alternative, and Wax Eclectic, and was used as the opening title music of the new Amazon Original Series Tell Me Your Secrets.

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The Speed Of Sound - Replicant / The Melancholy Rose.

Now in their 4th decade, Manchester UK’s underground music veterans The Speed Of Sound return to the Big Stir Records Digital Singles, again displaying two vastly contrasting  sides of their own distinctive, distilled and deeply recognisable tones:

Replicant: Driven by acoustic guitar and exuding a joyous hip-swaying bouncing beat. Replicant playfully asks questions about the very nature of human existence. Offering a foretaste of the themes of the upcoming full length album. Here too, The Speed Of Sound draw heavily from their Science-Fiction influences. While Replicant seems to inhabit the same universe as Blade Runner it also carries another message from the corporate world. Where modern job interviews appear to have evolved into some kind of reverse Voight-Kampff Test; instead of designed to detect replicants, the purpose is to determine if the applicant has unfortunately retained any human characteristics, or will - as hoped - mechanically follow scripts and instructions. Do Androids dance to analogue music? We don’t know, but point your arm and shout along with the chorus.

The Melancholy Rose: Shimmering summer pop for shaded people; languid open and drifting, a gothically tinged piece of romanticism lies atop a sparkling guitar riff and a tale of the first rose of the year to bloom. Ahead of its time and alone, but merely the trailblazer showing the way and heralding the coming change. A celebration of the sudden bursting open of summer itself and an invitation to tune out from the background white-noise of civilisation and relax. To exist in the moment and enjoy the things around us. The Speed Of Sound are known for their power, yet this displays their soaring delicate side. Guest vocals are provided by one of pair a blackbirds that nested (and successfully fledged four chicks) among the dense honeysuckle and ivy of John A’s back garden during lockdown.

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Mazey Haze - Dakota Roundhouse - Bridget Caldwell - Mush - Nation of Language

Mazey Haze - Sad Lonely Groove.

Mazey Haze is the moniker of 21 year old Amsterdam-based artist Nadine Appeldoorn. Today she releases her debut single "Sad Lonely Groove". Dreamy guitar-driven indie-pop reminiscent of Beach Fossils, Alvvays, Jay Som and Men I Trust, debut single "Sad Lonely Groove" is an honest reflection on a moment in Appeldoorn's life where time felt like it was standing still.

"If I was further from you I’d get it all  / your face looks the same / as if I was floating around in dead air for months or days" Appeldoorn sings atop a wave of atmospheric synths, funk-filled bass lines and skittering percussion -  as she reminisces in the aftermath of a tough break-up.

Speaking on the track, Mazey Haze said: "The song is about me feeling the lowest and loneliest I’ve ever felt in my life. I hadn’t built lots of friend relationships yet and I forced myself to be alone with myself. It’s about missing the guy I thought I was in love with. It’s a stream of thoughts that were circling around in my head all the time. It was the first time that I realized I wasn’t able to be happy by myself and was very dependent in the past relationship. Suddenly I had to meet and get to know myself, something I had never done before. When I wrote this song I was still running away from it all."

A neatly delivered juxtaposition; sonically "Sad Lonely Groove" feels free and overwhelmingly positive, a cathartic reaction to the experiences that led to the initial idea for the song. Reflective, insightful, often wistful and always unashamedly honest - Mazey Haze's songs emerge from deep within, channelling an authentic expression that naturally surfaces with only the humble hope that the listener might feel less alone and more connected.

Growing up surrounded by music from ABBA, Tears for Fears, Talk Talk, Fleetwood Mac and The Bee Gees, Mazey Haze started writing songs at age 13 before recording full demos on her laptop by the age of 16 - experimenting with different genres, sounds, decades and production elements. Combining these influences with her ability to write songs that digest and express her deepest and darkest feelings, Mazey Haze is now ready to share her first creative offerings with the world.

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Dakota Roundhouse - Don’t You Say That You Love Me.

Background from Jon Fields: I'm a lyricist and producer originally from Kansas City, USA. I’ve been involved in music most of my life and have produced several CDs on my own over the years.

Dakota Roundhouse is my latest studio project. I'm working with other artists and studios remotely on an album. This single is one of the songs that will be on it. I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as I enjoyed writing the lyrics for and producing it.

What inspires my lyrics? Every good song starts with a good story and not all good stories are necessarily happy stories. I have a lot of stories to draw upon in my life.

 

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Bridget Caldwell - Pharmaceuticals.

Nashville-based indie-folk artist Bridget Caldwell has shared her debut single, “Pharmaceuticals”. The track comes from her EP, Kingmaker due out on August 6th.

While “Pharmaceuticals” takes an uptempo instrumental approach, lyrically it’s a sensitive examination of a fractured relationship.  Caldwell penned the track with songwriter Luke Preston, who was in the midst of a similar situation. What started as a conversation shared over a hardly palatable bottle of Barefoot turned into a song that speaks to the heartache of loving someone you can’t save. Caldwell explains, “We shared the feeling of despair watching these people in our lives that we loved so much just disintegrating, and thinking, ‘What can I do here?’ And coming to the conclusion of, ‘Well, not a lot.’” Caldwell continues,    “I think that's something that many people experience - but we wanted to write it in a way that didn't sound judgmental.” For the songwriter it’s the real life-observations from a relationship which taught her one of life's hardest lessons: no amount of love can will a person to change.

Bridget  learned about life’s unpredictable highs and lows growing up in Salem, Oregon. With a laugh, she describes herself as a “hammy, emotional, chaotic, child.” Cast as the lead in a school play, she got the musical theater bug early and went on to train extensively. But towards the end of high school, a severe bout of mono resulted in a surgery that significantly altered her singing voice.

Devastated but determined, Caldwell moved to Nashville to attend Belmont University and ultimately realized that her “new” voice was actually better suited for the new sound that she wanted to achieve. At the same time, watching her classmates encouraged her to expand her own skills beyond performing. “I got swept up with this group of ragtag kids, and everyone was writing songs,” she says.

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Mush - Peak Bleak.

Leeds art-rock outfit Mush share their new single “Peak Bleak” - the first glimpse from their new limited edition green 7” single that will be released as part of Record Store Day 2021, alongside the track “Clarion Call”.

Never ones to rest on their laurels, the new single "Peak Bleak" immediately follows up their hugely acclaimed second album “Lines Redacted" and sees the band further exploring the outer reaches of art-rock in truly bleak circumstances, as lead-singer Daniel Hyndman explains: “I had to buy an ebow to record this song, which left me skint for the month. The song was previously called 'peak good' but the title was changed to reflect the feeling engendered by having to spend £100.”

Mush’s new album “Lines Redacted”, which includes the BBC 6 Music playlisted single “Blunt Instruments”, received a wave of critical acclaim upon its release in February. Glowing reviews from UNCUT "One of the finest British guitar records of recent years", Pitchfork "Rallying against aggravating, absurd political realities with passion and humor", Dork "'Lines Redacted' feel as though it belongs precisely in the here and now" and more.

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Nation of Language - Across That Fine Line.

Having released one of the most acclaimed debut albums of 2020, New York City trio Nation of Language have announced their sophomore follow up, A Way Forward, and share the album’s first single, “Across That Fine Line.” Additionally, the electro-synth explorers will head out on their first U.S. headlining tour this September-October in support, along with previously announced appearances at Reading-Leeds Festival in the UK and Governors Ball in New York.

Discussing “Across That Fine Line” songwriter/vocalist Ian Devaney stated, “‘Across That Fine Line’ is a reflection on that moment when a non-romantic relationship flips into something different. When the air in the room suddenly feels like it changes in an undefinable way. It’s a kind of celebration of that certain joyous panic, and the uncertainty that surfaces right after it.

Sonically, it’s meant to feel like running down a hill, just out of control. I had been listening to a lot of Thee Oh Sees at the time of writing it and admiring the way they supercharge krautrock rhythms and imbue them with a kind of mania, which felt like an appropriate vibe to work with and make our own.”
A Way Forward is the follow up to Nation of Language’s debut album, Introduction, Presence, released in 2020 during the early stages of COVID’s merciless mayhem, naively pushed from early April to late May, with the hope that things would improve by the summer. 

While that turned out to not be the case, a flurry of raves for the album from journalists and radio stations around the world, as well as landing on year-end ‘Best of' lists from Rough Trade, Stereogum, Paste, Under The Radar, the NME, and glowing reviews from Pitchfork and the Associated Press, caused the album to reach more people than the band ever thought possible, even as they were unable to tour in support of it. “We’ve always been real believers in our live show as the best way to reach new people,” Devaney said. “When it became clear there wouldn’t be any touring, we were sure it was a death knell for the album.”

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Samantha Margret - SYBS - Jessiquoi - Sweet Crude - The Catenary Wires - Roscoe Roscoe

Samantha Margret - The Party.

Singer-songwriter Samantha Margret has released her spirited and carefree new single “The Party.” Mirroring old Hollywood glamour with a flirtatious demeanor, the track rings of seductive musicality. With subtle chirps of saxophone combined with hoppy lyrics, Margret delivers a playfully canny and sophisticated piece of music with a music video soon to follow. “The Party'' is now available to stream and download on digital music platforms worldwide.

“It’s so easy to get drawn into what everyone else thinks is cool or trendy, but that’s not really how we find joy,” says Samantha Margret. Finding affirmation on her own, “The Party” was written after Margret feared losing her voice and writing music for others instead of her own creative joy. Feeling a similar pressure, writer Juliette Reilly joined Margret in their first session, and “The Party” became a song about finding their own power and enjoying it even in the face of the judgement of others. “I don’t have to go to the party; I AM the party,” she states.

Produced by Samantha Margret and John Caviness, the song is all about doing your own thing in the face of expectation. The horns were recorded live to create a striking twist, and the song’s synth energy and gripping effects on the background vocals bring it to life. Originally jam-packed with tongue clicks and unusual percussion, Caviness took Reilly and Margret’s vision for a slow bridge and turned it into a unique, synth-horn lovechild. A product of her own vocal production, the arrangement and effects for “The Party” originated in Margret’s home studio. Once in production, the artistic touch of mixing engineer, Yang Tan, created the sparkle the single needed. The lead vocal overlaid with spoken words on each chorus makes for beautiful chaos where the spoken vocals overlap and split off from the descending melody. “Where the lyrics and sound collide, the vocals communicate a feeling and communicate power, joy, and fun,” says Margret.

Hailing from San Francisco, Samantha Margret is a songwriter, artist, and producer. Her music seeks creativity and originality while delivering authentic storytelling. Margret’s soulful ballads showcase the inspirational power of the female voice, with gripping lyrics about mental health, acceptance, and love. Her upbeat pop songs don’t shy away from a good time, and the diversity in singles shows her unique and captivating sound. Reminiscent of artists like Julia Michaels, Marian Hill, Sara Bareilles, and Andra Day, Samantha Margret blends unparalleled production with raw and intimate lyrics creating a fresh, fun, and original style.

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SYBS - Llygaid.

‘Llygaid’ is an exhilarating change of pace for a band whose adrenaline fulled anthems have made them one of Wales’ most exciting acts. Here Osian (Singer / Guitarist) and the band take us down a more reflective, jangly and at times bucolic and beautifully melancholic road.....plus it has Tubular Bells on it, an EXTRA reason to love it unconditionally!!

Osian explains the background to ‘Llygaid’: “I wrote this song during my first year of Uni, and was definitely a change of pace for me writing wise. A lot of the songs I was writing at the time where very dancey and energetic so it felt good to do a song that was more inward looking, and the lyrics definitely reflect this and generally encapsulate those last few weeks of my first year in uni.

It’s really weird listening back to this one because we recorded the final bits and bobs literally a day before I went home for lock down, a little over a year ago, which makes it even more nostalgic to me. Hopefully I’ll get to make some more memories playing this song live very soon!”

Libertino · SYBS - Llygaid

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Jessiquoi - Popstar.

Somebody help me ‘cos I wanna be a pop star! - With an unusual mix of satirical lyrics, pop-production and dark sound design on her new single Popstar, Jessiquoi examines the tribulations of all musicians willing to do whatever it takes to make it big in the music business.

"I wanted to slow down and remind myself not to take everything too seriously" says the artist. The result is a catchy and humorous take on fame-culture.

Jessiquoi is not exactly what you’d expect to emerge out of Switzerland’s underground. An Australian/Swiss producer, composer and performer, her live set looks and sounds like it belongs in futuristic Shanghai ca. 2048. Combining raw, physical energy and dance-driven beats colliding with audacious rap and resonant vocals, Jessiquoi won Demo of Year and Best Electronic at M4Music Festival, Zürich 2018. After well received performances at Gurten Festival and Zürich Openair, she progressed to international showcases in New York and mainland Europe and released her first album in October 2019, which included the award winning single The Sentry.

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Sweet Crude - Saint Patrick Park / Vertige.

New Orleans-based sextet Sweet Crude have shared two songs as part of the second installment of the band’s Dualité series. The series features double A-side singles - one in English the other in Louisiana French - released as a pair. The second installment includes “Saint Patrick Park” and “Vertige.”

“This song is named after the greenspace and baseball field in Mid-City, New Orleans,” says singer Sam Craft on “Saint Patrick Park,” “which has served as an outdoor escape from confinement for so many in the neighborhood over the last year and change. With a nod to 60's and 70's orchestral pop, Saint Patrick Park deals with the so-close-but-so-far-ness of COVID and is entirely in English. Alexis leads you in with ‘Is it just me or is there a wall where a window should be?’ and takes you on a bittersweet journey from there.”

“Vertige is French for 'vertigo' or 'dizziness', as in what happens to you when you are blindsided by crimes of passion,” explains Craft. “ In the chorus, I sing: ‘C'est pas ma faute, c'est bien la vot' si je vous garroche dans le bayou’ which is a little bit of local vernacular French for ‘It's not my fault, it's yours, if I toss you in the bayou.’ Vertige is a gritty, minor-key rhapsody and has a home in a Bond film based in Louisiana.”

“Tours? Nope. Money? Broke. Launch a blitz of bilingual bangers in 2021 because we can? Putain ouais (hell yeah, and pardon our Louisiana French),” says Craft on the origins of the Dualité series. “Through confinement and a lack of gigs, we’ve steadily built up a loyal Patreon following with whom we’ve been streaming and chatting on a regular basis. They’ve been inspiring us to keep going and to write like crazy. We show them brand new ideas, they give us feedback, and we are now self-producing and self-recording a whole new body of work for approximately zero dollars. Dualité is the result, or really the start, of this new frontier. We remain dedicated as ever to creating new avenues to celebrate our Louisiana roots.”

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The Catenary Wires - Face On The Rail Line.

A bit about the track / video from the band: "Face on the Rail Line" is set in a world where virtual connection is increasingly replacing physical connection. But where, all too often, the signal is unreliable.

It’s a love song at heart. The ‘face on the rail line’ is one of those icons on location apps – in this case an app tracking someone you desperately want to see. The icon inches its way along the line on the screen, but then disappears as phone reception is lost.

When we first played the song to the rest of the band, everyone started singing harmonies. It was impulsive, and very moving. We’ve tried to capture that feeling in the recording.

The video was made by Rob and Amelia.   It’s a kind of collage: quite abstract and mostly about shapes and textures. But there are phones and rail lines, and if you look closely, you can see Birling Gap in the background!

Indie pop comes of age. The Catenary Wires feature Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey, once of Heavenly and Talulah Gosh. These early bands, once denigrated for being ‘fey’ or ’twee’: the wrong kind of female, have been re-evaluated in recent years. Their songs, apparently sweet and fizzy, were always smarter and darker than they seemed, while the band were radically independent, and an influential part of the movement that became riot grrrl.

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Roscoe Roscoe - Jacobs Ladder.

With their explosive debut single, “Brain Retrieve” released during the height of 2020’s pandemic-tarnished summer, East London based five-piece Roscoe Roscoe return with their dreamy new single “Jacob’s Ladder,” out on Slow Dance / Missing Piece Records. MXDWN said the song “astutely mixes synth-driven modern indie pop with classic psychedelia.”

Psychedelic music has existed in many iterations, and Roscoe Roscoe are the latest to emerge from the prolific UK capital, initially noticed by many for their BBC televised performance at Glastonbury in 2019 despite having no released music. Guitarist Jacob Muna wrote the music for “Jacob’s Ladder,” “in a matter of minutes while I was playing around on the guitar watching TV. It almost wrote itself.” The simplicity and natural flow of the track is a merging of influences - the melody recalls The Beatles, updated with hazy dream pop and glimmering shoegaze. When frontman Charlie Read Clarke added lyrics and verses to the arrangement, it became apparent that there was something special there.

“The process between the very first idea and final form was a lot quicker than normal,” and the track is somewhere between a lullaby and an anthem, as celestial as the title implies. It was the obvious choice for following their debut, showcasing the band’s spectrum of sonic capabilities and serving almost as a counterpart to the heavy burst of “Brain Retrieve.” With warm, floating synths, feather-soft vocals and glowing guitars, Jacob’s Ladder reaches out like a caress, pulling us from lockdown and into a summer of love. It connects immediately.

The band met at The Brit School (following in the footsteps of Black Midi, who also formed there) and came together through a shared love of 60s counterculture and psychedelia. Rather than sheerly revivalist, however, their music comes from being part of a generation who have been able to take non-specific and widely drawn sources via the infinite bank of the internet. Other influences the band have cited include avant-pop groups Stereolab and Broadcast and there are evident echoes of Wand, Tame Impala, and Crumb in their music too.

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Trunky Juno - Meggie Lennon - The Weeping Willows

Trunky Juno - Serial Killer Vibes.

Trunky Juno warmly greets us with new single ‘Serial Killer Vibes’, a lovely slice of upbeat acoustic technicolour-pop crafted in his basement studio in the North East of England. The song expands on his already eclectic repertoire by dressing up an anxiety fuelled lyric with Trunky’s trademark charming melodic hooks and balmy tones.

Lyrically ‘Serial Killer Vibes’ is the musical equivalent of meeting a fist bump with a handshake, then calling someone the wrong name before accidentally insulting their mother whilst verbally digging a hole that seems to get deeper and deeper with every word. And even though this incident happened four years ago, its 3AM and you haven’t slept because you’re still thinking about it, asking yourself “why did I say that”. Distil all of that down into a song and you get ‘Serial Killer Vibes’.

Talking about the song, Trunky says: “'Serial Killer Vibes’ is a track that haunted me for a long time because I knew there was a good song in there, but I just couldn’t figure out how to present it in a way that allowed anyone else to see it too. It’s not really a song about serial killers at all, it’s about perspective, living inside your own head and trying your hardest not to be weird when you just are. It's an ode to painfully awkward exchanges, which is going to become very relatable once we all start trying to interact with each other again.”

Trunky Juno · Serial Killer Vibes

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Meggie Lennon - Night Shift.

Montreal-based singer-songwriter, Meggie Lennon is today sharing her new single, "Night Shift" which arrives as a radiant psych-rock intro to her debut album, Sounds From Your Lips – out July 9 via Mothland – which she's announcing in tandem. Lennon, who previously lead the award-nominated Quebec-based band, Abrdeen, is also sharing the Marielle Normandin Pageau-directed video for the new track – watch here.

The debut album arrives produced by Samuel Gemme (Corridor, Anemone, The Brooks) and features the guitar-playing of Elephant Stones’ Gabriel Lambert as well as additional contributions from her longtime friend and collaborator, Jules Henry (Super Plage). Seamlessly fusing the worlds of late 60s and early 70s psychedelia as she subtly harnesses the energy of artists like The Byrds and Tyrannosaurus Rex (later T-Rex), with early 2010-era acts such as Melody’s Echo Chamber, MGMT, and Beach House, the album, described by Lennon as "make-out dream-pop," oozes this glowing sense of optimism.

Tracks on Sounds From Your Lips flow with a breezy, laidback energy, marrying warm percussion with finessed bass lines to summon these tar-thick, sultry grooves. This lead single and album-opening track, "Night Shift", comes part-inspired by late nights coming home from bars in Montréal; sonically it works as a fitting intro for the record, demonstrating an equal balance of dreamy synth verses and a devastatingly beautiful crescendo towards the end.

Speaking about the single, Lennon says: "The first part of the song came to me while cycling home back from L'Esco after a wild night. I was on a Bixi and the streets were completely empty. I was riding fast through the night and it felt both meditative and exhilarating – this feeling is reflected in the dreamy verses and then heavier guitar crescendo at the end. When we got in the studio, I laid the lead track on the Wurli and it all came naturally. The second part, "take a glimpse outside," came while doodling on the synth. We were in the studio without windows but we both went outside and the sun blinded us, the lyrics were inspired by this."

First introduced to Quebec audiences as the leader of indie-pop/rock outfit Abrdeen, with which she released the Endless Dreams and Dreamlike Mornings EP (nominated at GAMIQ) in 2017, Lennon promoted her music throughout the province, sharing the stage with the likes of Good Morning, Elephant Stone, The Dears, Julie Doiron, Sugar Candy Mountain and Laura Sauvage. Alongside shows with up and coming names in music, Lennon performed at the likes of POP Montreal, M for Montreal and FME, as well as lending her soft voice for collaborations with Debbie Tebbs, Lucill and Super Plage.

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The Weeping Willows - Long Black Veil.

The Weeping Willows have long revelled in the darker musical traditions of the American South, populating their songs with figures desolate, desperate and doomed. It’s a penchant given its clearest outing yet with the pair’s glorious “Southern Gothic” EP.

Brand new original instrumental “Southern Gothic” is a brooding study in backwoods fiddle and dreadnought guitar, while sweetly sad lilt “Hangman (The Gallows Tree)” (featuring Bluesman Nick Charles) channels one of the tune’s most popular renderings by Peter, Paul and Mary. Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey’s immortal “C.C. Rider” – popularised by artists from Elvis to Old Crow Medicine Show – is an impassioned demonstration of The Weeping Willows’ vocal range and palpable harmonic sympathy. A signature tune for Lefty Frizzell, the mournful “Long Black Veil” showcases Laura’s exquisite falsetto, before “One Kind Favour (See That My Grave Is Kept Clean)” (written by Blind Lemon Jefferson) finds Andy wresting richly resonant tones from his guitar.Walt Aldridge’s “Ain't No Ash Will Burn” is a stirring country-folk plaint, while rounding out the EP’s dark proceedings is The Weeping Willows’ own “Black Crow” - an ominous tale of doom recorded with celebrated producer Ryan Freeland (Bonnie Raitt) at Stampede Origin Studio, Los Angeles.

The bulk of “Southern Gothic” was tracked, engineered and mixed by the inimitable Roger Bergodaz (Raised By Eagles), and features David Piltch (Willie Nelson, Don Henley) on upright bass, Luke Moller (Hayes Carll, Kasey Chambers) on fiddle and mandolin and James Church (Montgomery Church) on Dobro. Ranking among Australia’s foremost songwriters, The Weeping Willows took out the 2021 Golden Guitar for Instrumental of the Year. They’ve netted eight CMAA Golden Guitar nominations and have supported Americana greats from Iris Dement (USA) to Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real (USA).

Equal parts ornate and austere, “Southern Gothic” finds The Weeping Willows delving ever deeper into the Gothic grandeur of critically acclaimed second album Before Darkness Comes A-Callin' (2016) and serves as yet another unmissable glimpse into the duo’s highly anticipated third studio album, due out next year. “Southern Gothic” is our across digital platforms Friday 4th June 2021.

The Weeping Willows · Long Black Veil

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The Naysayers - Hanging Freud

Artwork by Dan Brown-Hozjan

The Naysayers - Yesterday.

Background from the band - We're a sub-arctic indie rock four piece from Whitehorse, Yukon. "Yesterday" is out now on Coax Records from our self-titled LP to follow on June 25, 2021.

It's a visceral song about living grief, and the helplessness of loss, reconciling the death of someone who's still alive.

"Yesterday" has evolved to include and acknowledge the grief from physically losing others in this past year to addiction, and the realization, I will never be able to say goodbye.

The video emphasizes the inherent vulnerability of the song because it's made entirely of my grandmother's personal super 8 footage from the '50s and '60s. Head over to YouTube to watch and subscribe. This song is a slow burn rock song, for screaming into the void, or for taking shelter from the storm.

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Hanging Freud - Antidote/Immune.

Glasgow based darkwave/post-punk duo Hanging Freud have just unveiled their sixth full-length album Persona Normal. The band states: "We were living between the UK and Brazil, going back and forth. These were two societies going through extreme change. The whole world was changing in a way that felt scary."

Some themes of Persona Normal deal with detachment, dissociation, what it means to be human, political issues and about strong, irrational cults. These are approached in tracks like “I beg you” and “We don’t want to sleep”. Persona Normal is also a record about transformation, and growth, accepting losses and coming to terms with the loss of innocence.

Persona Normal is available now in physical and digital formats on HANGING FREUD's label, Tiny Box. Persona Normal was written produced and recorded by the duo with mastering duties from James Plotkin (Khanate).

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Kety Fusco - Bill Fever - Smaller Hearts - Abby J Hall

Kety Fusco - Ma Gnossienne.

One year after the release of her debut album DAZED, the young Italian-Swiss harpist and composer Kety Fusco gives us a very personal version of the famous song "Gnossienne N.1" by Erik Satie. In this modern reinterpretation, which Kety has entitled "Ma Gnossienne", the harp is used in an unconventional way to generate sounds that have nothing to do with its classical timbre. 

The entire sound system is set up with sounds of vinyl scratched on metal strings, objects struck on the soundboard of the pre-sampled classical harp, and analogue effects manipulated live.

Switzerland-based Kety Fusco has embarked on a unique harp sound research. She works with Delta Electric Harps from Salvi Harps, who have taken Kety on as their official Ambassador. 

Her exploration of harp and effects technology began successfully with the debut of her album DAZED, described by Swiss critics as "a white fly". Kety Fusco has over 80 concerts throughout Europe, and she is working on the first world's sound library of non-traditional harp sounds.

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Bill Fever - Money Goes To Bloody Money.

Background from Bill Fever: I self-released my debut EP "Money Goes To Bloody Money" this month (May) through Bandcamp & CD Baby.

Over the past couple of weeks, tracks from the EP have had national airplay on Tom Robinson's BBC 6 Music Introducing Mixtape (his tip of the week), local radio play on BBC Radio Northampton, NE & CWR and featured on the most recent New Music Saturday Podcast.

The EP blends grungy indie rock sounds with a spaciness that's been described as 'a garage punk Hawkwind' (NMS Podcast) with a 'Jack White-esque freewheeling sound' (New Boots Music Blog).

To put things mildly, I've been frustrated with the political situation in the UK and these songs tackle those feelings. Having relocated from London to Kettering, my ambitions to form a new band in 2020 were put on hold by the pandemic. Deciding to carry on writing solo, I self-produced and recorded my debut 4-Track EP “Money Goes To Bloody Money” in my attic and shed in Northamptonshire. I sing and play all instruments except drums, bringing in talented session drummer Joe Montague.

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Smaller Hearts - Mean Routine.

Nova Scotia husband and wife duo Smaller Hearts announce new album Attention (out July 23), share second single, "Mean Routine."

“This song is about how we can have great ideals and big plans for who we think we are, who we want to be, and how we'll change the world—but the daily grind of going to work and paying the bills gets in the way,” said Smaller Hearts' Kristina Parlee (she/her) and Ron Bates (he/him). “The mean routine is the pattern of not getting to do the things we really want to do.”

“We drew a picture of the world we hoped to see / Held it close to heart in hopes that it would come to be,” sings Parlee, on this pining synthpop song. “And plans keep interrupting our plans.”

“‘Mean Routine’ comes back to 2020 being a big interrupted year,” Parlee and Bates said. “And being interrupted by something big that you couldn't control, you start to think about the smaller ways life pushes you away from the things you want to pursue, and how we should push back and just try to do them. After a year that kept us from our friends and our interests and our plans, ‘Mean Routine’ encourages us to try to seize the moment as we emerge into the possibility of something new."

The duo previously shared single “Double Space,” which tempers Smaller Hearts’ 1980s electro pop slant with an effective minimalism.  Releasing July 23, Attention is the band's third full-length and builds on their exploration of synth-pop sounds that both diverge and draw inspiration from the indie rock focus of their other projects (including Orange Glass, The Memories Attack, Shoulder Season & the Maynards).

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Abby J Hall - Tough Love.

Abby J Hall is a Canadian singer/songwriter from Burlington Ontario. Some of her musical influencers are: T-Swift, Julia Michaels, Alec Benjamin and Maggie Rogers. She started songwriting when she was 11 and has been passionate about it ever since. 

Her go-to instruments are the guitar, keys and ukulele. Memorable music moments include: playing her originals at The Sound of Music Festival in Burlington; at Canada’s Largest Ribfest; for the Live and Local Music Series at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre and at Canadian Music Week. 

She has been in the studio over the past year and is excited to be releasing new music over the next couple months. Everyone has a story to tell. Abby loves nothing more than to write some of those stories down and put them to music.

Abby J Hall · TOUGH LOVE MASTER

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Layla Frankel - Charly Lowry + The Heart Collectors - Late TV - Ellis

Layla Frankel - Postcards From The Moon (E.P).

With a musical style that pays homage to the spirit of the late, great Etta James (according to the site Rock at Night), Layla Frankel moved to Nashville in 2017 when she was fresh off a cross-country tour. 

Her new EP Postcard From the Moon includes the single “You Can't Love Me Like I Loved You,” which was selected as a finalist in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.

Postcard From the Moon was recorded at Startstruck Studios in Nashville, produced and mixed by Jim Kimball (who has toured and recorded with an extensive roster of artists that includes Reba McEntire, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, and Justin Timberlake), engineered by Todd Tidwell and the executive producer was Mary Johnson. The EP also features some of Nashville's top session players.

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Charly Lowry + The Heart Collectors - Navigating to Hope.

The next video in Folk Alliance's Artists In (Their) Residences series is fromNorth Carolina songwriter Charly Lowry and Australia's the Heart Collectors. Each of the ten is a pairing between a US and global artist collaborating on music to reflect on the world during the pandemic and shines a light on Folk Alliance's COVID relief Village Fund: (HERE). Lowry is a singer-songwriter from Pembroke, NC with roots in the Union Chapel Community. Charly received a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from UNC Chapel-Hill. Upon graduation, Lowry moved full-steam ahead in pursuit of a career as a professional musician.

For over a decade, Charly has attained regional and national success as both a solo artist and lead singer of alternative rock/ soul/ folk band, Dark Water Rising. In addition to performing with Dark Water Rising and The Ulali Project, she often shares the stage with funk/soul band, “The New Mastersounds”. In 2004, Charly had the opportunity to compete on the wildly popular television show, American Idol. She ventured through several rounds of auditions to make it to the Top 32.

Charly enjoys performing, meeting people, and educating others on the Native American experience. Charly served as a Lumbee Ambassador for the Lumbee people in 1997-98; traveling throughout the country to visit Tribal Nations while attending various conferences, powwows, etc. Her reign as Jr. Miss Lumbee was the catalyst that awakened her spirit to an inherent calling as a “Culture Bearer”. Lowry continues to work on her craft; immersing herself in the culture of American music and expanding her listening ear to various genres, all the while composing songs that give a personal account of her experience as an Indigenous woman walking in two worlds.

Of the Heart Collectors, John T Davis, author of ‘Austin City Limits: ’25 Years Of American Music, said, “Imagine Fleetwood Mac with more of an organic, Celtic-inflected lilt of vocals and melody and you have a rough idea of why Australia’s Heart Collectors are so instantly appealing. There is a vibrant and timeless allure to their music that is resistant to the fashion of the moment, and all the more enduring because of it. Kymrie’s voice is the stuff angel’s wings are made of.”

With the sentimentality of 70’s inspired harmonies, the Australian four piece ‘Epic Folk’ band has graced stages around the world, accomplishing three international tours and releasing four studio albums. Picked as one of the ‘Top Bands To See’ at SXSW (The Austin Statesman), this independent group have found creative ways of staying connected throughout the 2020 lockdowns and the cancellation of their USA and UK tours. The Hearts released their latest album Time To Say I Love You (2020) one single a fortnight, featured on Spotify with The Guardians “Australian Music for Isolated Times” and Sounds Australia’s “Sounds Australia Selects” playlists. In September 2020, The Hearts were selected to be 1 of 12 Australian artists for the Premier Event Global Music Match – a world wide initiative to connect musicians and industry in the face of COVID-19 restrictions.

The Heart Collectors have momentum in 2021, joining Folk Alliance International for ‘Folk Unlocked’ Private Showcases, ‘ISOL-AID Unlocked’, and the ‘Artists In (Their) Residence’ programme. Now as possibilities are opening for touring in Australia again, The Hearts embarked on a Statewide tour of Tasmania this January/February to Sold Out audiences. With soaring cello, intricate guitar, sparkling mandolin, boot banging banjo, passionate strikes of a tambourine and the thundering of the bodhran, these four charismatic performers create real musical synergy, marrying progressive folk/rock sensibilities and clean classical precision.

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Late TV - Night Tennis.

Having slimmed down from a 6-piece funk-factory to a 4-piece combo, Late TV have set about shifting their focus onto razor-sharp song-writing, atmospheric storytelling and tight shimmering grooves. The result of this attention to detail is in full force on the mooching urban fairytale Night Tennis.

Taking musical cues from Ken Nordine’s legendary ‘Word Jazz’, Cypress Hill’s soundtrack to late 90s shoot-em-up ‘Kingpin’ and the noir low-rock of Morphine, the band take disparate influences and seamlessly wrap them up into a concise 3.33 song. The track was recorded and produced by the band in London and mixed by Ed Longo (Ed Longo and Applied Arts Ensemble) at his Soundrays Studio in Berlin.

In the song, ‘Steve’ a lonesome everyman is seeking romance as he embarks on a date which gradually unravels revealing more about the trials and tribulations of his companion, rather than a moonlit walk back to hers for a nightcap. Considering the convention that love can be a game, Night Tennis rallies between two struggles, one man’s lascivious desires and one woman's ongoing battle to negotiate the cultural minefield of life in the big city.

Lyricist and Vocalist Luke J Novak explains: “I wanted to capture the electric moments of social interaction, the beats in a conversation where perceptions shift. Here we have a man who comes looking for one thing, but leaves with another; an insight into another’s perspective on the world that they both inhabit. The band laid down that bouncing groove and it was the perfect setting for the scene”.

Culling influences from jazz cats and art rockers, B-movies and trash television via Lynch and Tarentino, Late TV are the moonlighting house band for a surreal all-night dream club nestled amidst the cultural detritus of television’s after hours. Guitarist and vocalist Luke J Novak and drummer Richard ‘Beu’ Bowman left their hometown of Kidderminster and hooked-up with Chicago’s jazz obsessed Ryan Szanyi on bass and Parisian keyboard maestro Martin Coxall in London. Kick-started with the release of their brilliant Citizen single, the group then appeared at Standon Calling Festival in 2018 alongside Goldfrapp and spiritual forefather Bryan Ferry. Night Tennis is the first single to be taken from the band’s forthcoming debut album, where the group explore the postmodern wastelands of pop as high-brow/low-brow mutant junk dwellers, collecting the shards of our fragmented culture and building something both irresistibly dangerous and dangerously irresistible.

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Ellis - What if love isn't enough.

In April, Ellis announced her latest EP nothing is sacred anymore which is set for release on June 25th. Announced with the single "Hospital," the EP is the first new music from Ellis (the alias of Hamilton, Ontario musician Linnea Siggelkow) since the release of her debut LP Born Again, which arrived right as the pandemic began on April 3rd of 2020 and followed her breakout first EP The Fuzz. 

Like The Fuzz, her upcoming EP sees Ellis working as her own producer again, this time alongside Charlie Spencer (of the band Dizzy), and it is perhaps her most emotionally intimate work to date, a quality that is foregrounded on the EP's latest single "what if love isn't enough."

"I mean, this is a question I’ve asked myself a bunch, usually when I’m being a little bit dramatic which happens to be often," Siggelkow explains. "But I’ve also seen relationships fizzle out even when two people seem to really love each other. We place so much emphasis on love but I guess I just wonder about all the other stuff needed to make it last forever. I’m a hopeless romantic at heart but sometimes I’m just hopeless."

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T. Hardy Morris - Bandicoot - Good Morning TV - Doctor Lo

T. Hardy Morris - Shopping Center Sunsets.

T. Hardy Morris is set to return with The Digital Age of Rome on June 25th via the New West Records imprint Normaltown Records. The 10-song set was produced by Adam Landry (Deer Tick, Rayland Baxter) and mixed by engineer Nate Nelson. It follows the Diamond Rugs and Dead Confederate member’s 2018 acclaimed Dude, The Obscure.

After touring Dude, The Obscure, Morris had 13 new songs demoed for a new album. He was excited to get his band together to rehearse the songs before hunkering down in the studio to record...then the pandemic hit. Sequestered at his Athens, GA home with his family, Morris, like most everyone else in the past year, mulled over what was truly important to him and in response, crafted an entirely new set of songs. Enlisting a group of musicians including Drive-By Truckers drummer Brad Morgan, singer-songwriter Faye Webster and many others, Morris pulled no punches with his mesmerizing lyrics and hazy brand of southern glam rock.

Looking directly inward and captivated by the sobering realities of the pandemic, Morris has composed one of his most personal works yet. He tackles the well-worn anxieties of the past year as pandemic and political divisions ravaged America. The Digital Age of Rome is more direct than Morris has ever been and is one of his boldest records yet. Unapologetic and brutally honest, it is a necessary diary for an uncomfortable time that continues to unfold.

Morris remains Athens, Georgia’s foremost purveyor of dynamic rock-and-roll-songwriting and his blend of poetic southern outlaw storytelling is delivered in a haunting vocal howl. The sonic energy and raw emotion in his music captures the same call to adventure that helped launch other Athens-born bands (including R.E.M., B-52’s, Vic Chesnutt, The Drive-By Truckers, The Elephant 6 Collective, Pylon, and The Glands before him) and put the artsy college town on the map. Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood described Morris’ songwriting as, “distilling that subtle truth down to its very essence and expressing it in a way that cuts through the bullshit...I was immediately blown away.

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Bandicoot - Worried Blues.

For Bandicoot "Worried Blues inhabits a world of paranoia, born from a fear of lost love. It carries you down labyrinthine streets like a nightmarish memory, with a contagious strutting rhythm which never lets you stop moving along with it.”

Never missing a beat or taking time to catch their breath Bandicoot are back with a new and impressive single.

‘Worried Blues’ starts with forceful piano chords and an anguished emotional vocal from Rhys Underdown, channeling John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band primal scream as a voice from the dark. When ‘Worried Blues’ intro releases into a riff full of Talking Heads strutting art rock/ dance punk directness it leaves no doubt, Bandicoot are ‘The Sound of Young Wales!’.

 

_Bandicoot · Worried Blues

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Good Morning TV - Entertainment.

Good Morning TV started in 2016 with a first self titled EP, released by pop diggers Requiem pour un Twister, that managed to echo until miles away from their homeland, France.

At the time a solo adventure of Bérénice Deloire, the project progressively became a band as Barth Bouveret (producer for both the EP and the album), Thibault Picot (Brace! Brace!) and Hugo Dupuis joined their forces, guided by mutual harmony.

After two years of writing together, the quartet isolated itself in a peaceful home of the south of France in order to achieve their first album 'Small Talk' to be released on Géographie Recs (Marble Arch, Paper Tapes, Born Idiot). 'Small Talk' is born in this rough temporary studio, that rather resembled a weird laboratory. 

Its singular material, along with a contemporary production that both enhance a bold songwriting are casually passed by familiar choruses. With this record, Good Morning TV paints a melancholic portrait of daily disillusions and claims its own vision of pop, somewhere between Broadcast, Deerhoof or The Olivia Tremor Control.

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Doctor Lo - Claiborne Avenue.

Doctor Lo (Faber), formerly of celebrated jam band God Street Wine, shared the title track from his upcoming folk/Americana-leaning LP Claiborne Avenue last Friday. Faber is set to celebrate the release with a limited run of live shows, including a sold-out performance at Albany, NY's The Hollow on June 18 (full dates below).

June 18 - The Hollow - Albany, NY
June 20 - Gabe-Gate - Sussex, NJ
June 22 - The Tap Shack - Duck, NC
June 23 - The Tap Shack - Duck, NC (two nights!)

Doctor Lo Faber’s music exudes the warmth, grit, and enchantment of New Orleans — a city he’s called home for the past decade. A listen to “Claiborne Avenue,” the title track off his new album, reveals a number of specific NOLA settings: there’s the obvious, the street for which the song is named, as well as the iconic Magazine Street. There’s also a hat tip of sorts to The Neville Brothers, with a reference to the “Pocky Way beat;” and it name-checks Louis Armstrong, Mr. Bienville (Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the “Father of New Orleans”), and Mr. Claude Tremé (for whom the Tremé neighborhood of NOLA is named).

If it sounds a bit like a history lesson in song, well, it is. And this historical focus is fitting, given that Dr. Faber (or Doctor Lo, as he’s known in the music world) has his Ph. D. in American History, is a former history professor, and published a book about New Orleans in 2013 entitled Building the Land of Dreams. “Some of the songs are united by being my experience of living here in New Orleans for about nine years now,” Lo explains. And while he notes that his music “is not New Orleans-y,” one can’t help but almost instantly feel transported to the Crescent City while listening to it.

Seemingly a product of the pandemic – said track speaks of the “tourists [who] left without a trace” – Claiborne Avenue (the song and the album) is both observational and introspective at once. It sees Doctor Lo reflecting on the past through a nostalgic lens with a hint of regret (“I broke the rules and I paid the cost / You know nothing comes free”), and the refrain “Who knows what you might catch in the air” takes on more meanings the longer you listen.

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