Heavy Gus - Raven Shelley - Josh Rouse - Old Crow Medicine Show

Heavy Gus - Still To Be.

California-based indie/rock trio Heavy Gus have shared their new single “Still to Be” along with the accompanying music video. The latest track to be released from their debut album Notions (out August 5th via BMG Records), the infectious song finds beauty everywhere it looks. The band stated, “‘Still to Be’ is about the roller coaster of falling in love and staying there. It’s an apocalyptic ode to dying hand in hand presented as a summertime love song.”

“Still to Be” follows the release of the high energy single “Weird Sad Symbol,” that Under The Radar called “genuine live-wire indie rock sound.” The long-distance-love-song “Dinner For Breakfast” is also out now along with the group’s psychedelic-tinged debut track “Do We Have To Talk?”

Formed in the high desert town of Bishop, CA, Heavy Gus is led by singer, songwriter, guitarist Dorota Szuta along with multi-instrumentalist Stelth Ulvang of The Lumineers and percussionist Ryan Dobrowski of Blind Pilot. The band took shape during the pandemic when couple Uvlang and Szuta (a marine scientist who also has a background in music playing with Laura Gibson and Gill Landry) took a socially distanced road trip to Nashville — picking up Dobrowski in Colorado along the way — to record at The Creative Workshop. The resulting collection of songs blur the lines between grungy garage band fare, hazy desert surf, and dreamy, sun-soaked indie rock.

Their debut offering calls to mind everything from Meat Puppets and The Breeders to Yo La Tengo and Acetone in its artful balance of hope and fatalism, loneliness and desire, strength and vulnerability. While all three bandmates came to Heavy Gus from very different worlds, they fit together like puzzle pieces, bound by the kind of love and trust that can only grow from years of deep kinship. Notions was engineered and mixed by Parker Cason (Margo Price, All Them Witches, Coin) and mastered by Pete Lyman (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile).

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Raven Shelley - Sink In Solitude.

Raven Shelley tells us about herself and her beautiful new song - "I am a singer-songwriter based in Manchester. I write ethereal and poetic alt//indie-folk songs, inspired by a love of literature, poetry and visual mediums. I have a very broad range of influences, from Bob Dylan to Ani DiFranco, and Schiele to Nicolas Roeg.
 

I grew up in a rural part of the south of France, and educated myself in English Literature from a young age by raiding my parents’ bookshelves. Reading in English became my own private world, and I went on to study it at The University of Manchester. This is what impacted my desire to create lyrics that can also be described as poetry. 

I try to be honest in the music that I write; I hope that all the hurt, all the anger, all the love, everything that runs through me can be found somewhere in my songs. 

My first single, ‘Sink in Solitude’ will be released with The Animal Farm on the 24th June. It is heavily influenced by lines from Shakespeare and Shelley, and is about time passing by without achievement."

The Animal Farm Label · Raven Shelley_Sink In Solitude

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Josh Rouse - She's In L.A.

Acclaimed singer/songwriter Josh Rouse shares the summer-ready new single “She’s In L.A.,” from his upcoming album Going Places, out July 29 via Yep Roc Records. Featuring a laid-back groove, the song is accompanied by a camcorder-style music video inspired by Townes Van Zandt. Rouse recently spoke with Magnet Magazine, who called the album “feel-good strumming, off-the-cuff hooks and a mildly exotic groove that should translate perfectly to the live setting.”

"In June of 1993, I dropped out of college, planning on a move to Los Angeles,” explains Rouse. “The idea was to move there and start a band with a few friends, things you do when you're in your early 20's. I went to South Dakota for a few months to save up some money while living with my family. In late July, my bandmates decided not to go to L.A. I moved to Tempe, AZ, interning in a recording studio on an impulsive whim. While it proved to be a fruitful adventure (I also bussed tables at a Scottsdale resort), I moved back to Tennessee and re-enrolled in college six months later. I often wonder what would have happened had I gone to L.A."

Going Places came together over the last two years when Josh Rouse found himself unable to tour and hunkered down with his family in Spain. Together with his Spanish band, he began workshopping new songs in a small local venue owned by a friend, resulting in ten road-ready tracks with a looser, more relaxed vibe than his previous work. Where 2018’s Love in the Modern Age saw him take a left turn to keyboard-based retro-new wave territory, Going Places is steeped in classic guitar melodies, with touches of organ and horns, layers of backing vocals and a distinctive southern twang. Rouse has shared two previous singles, including the guitar-driven “Hollow Moon” and the 1970’s-inspired “Stick Around,” which BrooklynVegan called “a song that's warm, welcoming, unpretentious, and serves as a promising taste of the new LP.”

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Old Crow Medicine Show - Used To Be A Mountain.

Two-time GRAMMY award-winning band Old Crow Medicine Show has shared the music video for “Used To Be A Mountain” off their critically acclaimed new album Paint This Town (ATO Records). A galvanizing meditation on environmental catastrophe, the video shines a light on the impact of mining in the Appalachian region.

Along with the video, the band has announced their partnership with Cumberland River Compact, a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing water resources through education and cooperation. The partnership serves to bring awareness to the effects of climate change, connecting fans with ways to get involved in the local climate movement through local action. Cumberland River Compact will be present to share more information at the band’s upcoming June 25 performance at The Caverns Amphitheater in Grundy County, TN. 

"I’ve been playing Appalachian music in Appalachia since I was a kid. West Virginia, Kentucky, Southwest Virginia, and East Tennessee are the places I love to play most. When you saw a fiddle in these settings it always feels like a homecoming. But time has dealt a hard hand to the region that gave birth to country music, and 'Used To Be a Mountain' is a song that wrestles with the issues facing Appalachia today,” explains Ketch Secor. 

"I think that the Intrepid spirit of the mountaineers of the coal fields of the Southern Highlands and Appalachia are some of the hardest and most important for bearers of the American dream. I think that when you take away the natural beauty and destroy the ecology of places, you don't have a whole lot left to rebuild with. I know there's a lot of folks that are hurting right now in the communities of the coal fields. This song is there to both reflect that hurt and to ask the question, can we do something better for these folks? Can we do something better for these mountains, these hills, the flora and fauna, for anybody who wants to breathe clean air and drink clean water in Appalachia?"

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The Hooten Hallers - Pearl Diver - Rogue Jones

The Hooten Hallers - Heal It.

The Hooten Hallers forthcoming album Back In Business Again is due out September 9, 2022 and heres the first taste! For the past fifteen years, The Hooten Hallers have been crisscrossing the country as inveterate road warriors, bringing their peculiar vision of Americana–a fiery rock and roll fever dream birthed in Missouri’s fertile musical heartland.

They’ve put so many miles into the road that they’ve burned through multiple tour vans and left twisted metal and frayed rubber strewn across the road behind them. With their aptly named new album, Back In Business Again, the trio roar back on to the international stage with ten incendiary new original songs drawn from their many travels and inspired by the hardships that all touring musicians have faced throughout a seemingly never-ending pandemic.

There’s hope in these new songs, but tinges of madness too, driven by the raw drumming of Andy Rehm, the infernal growl and swirling guitars of John Randall, and the low rolling baritone and bass saxophones of Kellie Everett.

The Hooten Hallers have always been musical colliders, smashing together everything from pre-war jazz to Chicago blues with jaunts around New Orleans and garage rock explorations with hints of anti-racist punk and Oi!. It’s Morphine meets ZZ Top along St. Louis’ Mississippi waterfront. Produced by bassist Dominic Davis (Jack White, Greensky Bluegrass), Back In Business Again takes a match to The Hooten Hallers’ fuse and explodes the renegade power trio to the edge and back again, one vigorous, swinging, perfectly peculiar song at a time.

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Pearl Diver - Look For The Light.

Marking the Summer Solstice yesterday, “Look For The Light” is the radiant new single release by Pearl Diver. The lead single and title-track of what will be the Oxford trio’s debut EP (released 15 July), it's a stately piece of lysergic rock that nods to the classic works of Radiohead, Pink Floyd and The Beatles.

As drifting and dreamy, as it is ethereal and elatory, “Look For The Light” pairs lucid arrangements with lyrics that celebrate the transcendent nature of the human soul and the flame that flickers within all of us.

Written by lead singer and guitarist Matt Sage whilst on retreat in a hut overlooking the North Cornish sea; mesmerised by his shimmering surroundings and at one with the natural world, he found himself in a consummate state of being. As he explains: “I was in a pretty deep and peaceful space within myself, in this beautiful setting, and I wanted to try and capture something of that feeling, and to express the simple truth that we all come from Love.”

An expression of the blissful feelings he felt at that moment, the sunshine-gilded words and melodies of “Look For The Light” fell naturally into place. Just as the Summer solstice opposes winter, day opposes night; the resultant Pearl Diver release finds a band creating a beacon of light and catharsis capable of counteracting the encroaching darkness of recent times.

“It feels to me to be a necessary antidote to all the pain and suffering and woes that we create in the world, out of our separation and forgetting what it is that we really are.” says Matt. “If we can connect to the Peace that is our essential nature, we are more readily able to cherish that in ourselves, and in each other.  I am hoping that this very simple song might serve as a healing reminder of that.”

Chiming with the themes explored within the song, “Look For The Light” arrives with an affecting DIY video shot by Matt during the first lockdown. Simply filmed in his local park in Oxford, it offers a unique document of that surreal period where the balance between mother nature and humanity felt like it was shifting in her favour once more.

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Rogue Jones - Englynion Angylion.

Englynion Angylion (The Poetry of Angels) is an euphoric call to arms with a message of empowerment, liberation and rebellion. It’s Rogue Jones "getting in touch with their inner witch and embracing nature”.

This, the bands first single taken from their sophomore album, started life as a Fiona Apple / Kate Bush brooding piano-led verse before being dragged to The Loft in 70s New York by the ghost of David Mancuso. Like the music that Mancuso loved and played, Englynion Angylion is ‘soulful, rhythmic and impart words of hope and redemption.'

Rogue Jones (Bethan Mai and Ynyr Morgan Ifan) returned to their second creative home of Ty Drwg Studios with longtime producer Frank Naughton to work on the foundations of Englynion Angylion. Llŷr Pari ‘The Melin y Coed Metronome’ was on drums and mixing, Elen Ifan on cello, Mari Morgan on disco violin, recorded in Caernarfon by Gruff Ab Arwel.

The Guardian called Rogue Jones "a charmingly quirky band who deserve a cult following". By the evidence of Englynion Angylion, Rogue Jones are overflowing with charm and wider recognition won’t be far behind. As the band explained, Englynion Angylion "is our attempt at making straight-up 1970s orchestral disco but like everything we do, it comes out a little stranger. Country people trying to make big city music" and succeeding in bringing nature's rainbow palette with them to lighten the darkest of urban streets.

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Kyshona - Cat and The Queen - Rose Ranger - Hackensaw Boys

Photo - Nora Canfield

Kyshona - Rise The Tide.

Nashville-based, critically-acclaimed artist and activist Kyshona has released "Rise The Tide," today. The track is a swampy, foot-stomping anthem about how when one of us is supported and excels, the tide rises for everyone, inspired by her fellow artists, activists, and change-makers.

Of the song, Kyshona says, "Over the past three years, I have seen it all around me from acknowledgment of things that are wrong in the music industry to people lending support, giving space, and making strides. As artists in our community are finally being placed in the spotlight, with each success we have individually, we rise the tide together. This song acknowledges and celebrates that--and is meant as a call of encouragement to keep doing the work that isn’t always easy."

Kyshona's latest album, Listen, was lauded by NPR, Billboard, No Depression, Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone Country, The Bluegrass Situation, and more. Listen came out right as everything shut down, but over the past year, Kyshona has performed at Newport Folk Fest, gone on tour supporting Allison Russell, appeared on late-night television singing with Margo Price, released a song with Adia Victoria, Margo, and Jason Isbell called "You Was Born To Die," and recorded a cover of "Mississippi Goddam" with Adia and Kelsey Waldon. She made her NPR Mountain Stage debut in April, will be featured on PBS twice this year, AND she founded a charitable organization called Your Song which provides music therapy services to marginalized communities (Kyshona is a licensed music therapist and has a degree in Music Therapy from UGA!).

She's a total powerhouse who is tirelessly using her gifts to change the culture to make the world a better and safer place for everyone in it.

 

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Cat and The Queen - Leave Here Tonight.

CATQ is Cat Montgomery, Toronto-based musician and multidisciplinary artist. The keyboard aka The Queen, is Cat’s first friend and has been her primary artistic outlet.

Her musicality, live stage presence and on-camera persona is playful, raw, vibrant; she’s a straight up fire fueled rock ‘n’ roll good time when you see her perform. Her voice and stage antics are reminiscent of art rock turned stadium artists like Grace Slick, David Byrne, Kate Bush and Nina Hagen.

CATQ’s songwriting skills and performance style swim from power ballads to indie art rock to banging pop anthems. With a raw and animal stage like presence, Cat cuts up the stage. She has a powerful vulnerable yet playful and raw interactive style – engaging with audience members – feels somewhere between cabaret and punk rock. Think 70’s style Bette Midler meets raw fire of Kathleen Hanna’s Bikini Kill and the costume action of Gaga. CATQ loves to perform with her backing band THE NEW ROYALS (Graham Mackey on drums, Jess Roveda on bass) – that’s when the party is in full effect.

CATQ has produced 2 LPS (Loba Loca: 2018, I Caught a Fish: 2021) and 3 EPS (Heart For A Ride: 2019, Heart For A Ride Live-Off-The-Floor: 2019, Blizzard on Bear Mountain: 2017). A few of her tracks are featured on acclaimed web series, “Avocado Toast” and “Barbelle”, and recent indie flick, “Discretion”. CATQ and her co-producer Radio Logic Records will be scoring the upcoming feature film “Satisfaction” this coming fall.

Cat is a trained theatre artist (MFA at York University), voice and singing teacher (Centre for Indigenous Theatre) and kids show creator (The Cat in Space Show, currently in post-production). When Cat isn’t hustling gigs, as the indie artist she is, she works in film, cleans houses, takes naps and waters plants in her sweetheart Parkdale apartment.

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Rose Ranger - Confessions (Album).

"I feel that music is the most powerful medium in our culture because it is a universal language. Music has the ability to move us into our heart and out of our fears."

Hailing from Vancouver's North Shore, Rose Ranger's creative process is inextricably linked with the ocean and mountains that are stone's throw away from her front door. Combined with her love of all musical genres and her utmost appreciation for all the creative arts - the blend creates a dynamic vibrancy in her songwriting process. And that sentiment is a testament to her new music. The lush songs are an ode to self-discovery, and to the subtle yet profound moments of life - with the results being unpredictable, vulnerable, strident and sincere. “I was always musical, I didn’t really follow any one type, I absorbed it all. I grew up dancing as a kid: ballet, tap and jazz. And with dancing there is a different style of music for each dance form. With ballet it was classical, tap was mostly Broadway show tunes and jazz dancing had pop and rock. So, I’ve been influenced by a lot of different styles of music and creative art forms.”

Now with six studio albums under her belt (including a Christmas album) the multi-talented artist is thrilled to be releasing new music into the world. This year also marks the 20th anniversary since she released her debut album back in 2002. Rose Ranger’s first single on her new eight-song album Confessions, aptly titled Confession draws on a mix of musical influences from the 1990’s but with a current 2022 era production feel. The falsetto vocals on this track are reminiscent of 90’s era artists like Kate Bush and Prince combined with a catchy piano hook in the vein of Bruce Hornsby and chill lounge pop vibes of Sade. The song is a musical love letter to someone from the past where there was an undeniable chemistry and connection with but couldn’t make it work. “I think most of us have, at some point in our life felt that we weren't ready for a something because we needed more time to get to know ourselves better and figure out what we want,” she says. “Sometimes in the process of doing that we might confuse or hurt people around us because we can’t completely express what we’re feeling because we don’t entirely know either.” The artist has also released an electro pop radio remix of Confession, remixed by Grammy winning Mixer, Phil Larsen of Manhattan Clique who has worked with some of the biggest names in pop and dance music.

Rose explains, “this album similarly titled Confessions - and there are many of them, is about speaking my own truth. It’s about resiliency and learning how to find strength in vulnerability and finding one’s inner hero.” The album was produced by Juno award winner Ryan Stewart and Rose Ranger as co-producer. Together they worked in Stewart’s recording studio last summer through the peak of COVID. She shares, “we had protection glass set up between us and wore masks until we got vaccinated. Then we had the crazy summer heatwave and we were working on the hottest day of the year. At some point into recording my vocals, I started loosing my voice which has only happened to me once before in 2012 after overuse of my voice. I had to stop speaking for the month of August to save my voice for singing, so there was a lot of unpredictable changes going on.”

ROSE RANGER · Confessions

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Hackensaw Boys - Only On The Brightside.

Hackensaw Boys' latest album is out this week. After twenty years together in various forms, their first self-titled is likely their strongest. Americana UK just reviewed and said it "...will probably go down in the band’s history as a watershed moment," and we agree. 

A huge spectrum of American roots music is covered on the eleven song album. Fom indie folk to dive bar country to traditional roots their songs pack a wallop like a young David Sickmen just walked out of Virginia yesterday. 

We have a theory that it's his age, though, his wisdom, his time in the trenches, decades of perpetual touring and even his years of time away with vocal issues that make the songs as strong as they are. Some of these were penned around the time of the formation of the band. 

Steeped into some psychic medicinal tea, this brew of heady, hopeful jams could be the best effort ever from the still-punk, still-diy, still-hot band.

Hackensaw Boys · Only On The Brightside

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Why Bonnie - Thallo - Vök

Why Bonnie - Sailor Mouth / Hot Car.

New-York-by-way-of-Texas transplants Why Bonnie release two tracks, “Sailor Mouth” and “Hot Car,” off of their forthcoming debut album, 90 in November, out August 19th on Keeled Scales. Following the sunny “90 in November” and previously-released single “Galveston,” album opener “Sailor Mouth” crashes into existence with a squeal of feedback and a burst of distorted guitar. The track is “about growing around your memories. Your foundation never changes but your relationship to it is always evolving,” explains Blair Howerton. The hazy “Hot Car” is sweltering, with a hypnotic synth line mimicking the way a mental loop of dormant thoughts that surface in the warm cocoon of a car speeding towards its destination in the dead of night. Howerton elaborates: “We wanted to include a contrast to the sunny disposition of the album. ‘Hot Car’ is meant for those quiet, contemplative, solo night drives.”

90 in November is inspired by fellow Texans Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley, alt-rock like the Lemonheads and the Replacements, the eccentric pop of Sparklehorse, and Sheryl Crow. Although its tracks were mostly written in Brooklyn,  where Blair Howerton moved from Austin in 2019, they made the record in Texas in early 2021 with Tommy Read (Lomelda, alexalone).

Often, 90 in November is a trip through Howerton’s inner world, but it’s also a road trip through Texas. Often it is both at once. The songs are full of poetic, cinematic lyrics that flash like colorful scenes glimpsed from the window of a car as it barrels along an interstate highway cutting through the Lone Star State, each one a road stop revealing a different facet of Howerton’s experience. The album is a dynamic introduction to a more raw-edged indie sound from a band who have matured from bedroom dream pop into a sophisticated rock act, their evolving sound a reflection of the journey undertaken by Howerton on this vividly rendered collection of songs.

By looking back on her past with fearlessness and compassion, Howerton propels her songwriting forward into new realms of emotional sincerity and her band to new heights of sonic adventurousness. Yet no matter where the group goes from here, one thing will remain the same. “We’re a Texas band,” says Howerton. “We always will be.”

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Thallo - Carry Me.

Welsh artist Thallo returns with the startlingly beautiful single Carry Me, a mesmerising jazz-infused slice of ethereal alt-pop inspired by Thallo’s personal experience of immobility.

Carry Me is first taster from Thallo’s forthcoming English/Welsh language Crescent EP which follows on 28 October 2022. The EP is themed around Thallo’s own story of chronic pain, which at the time of writing Carry Me left her often unable to stand or walk after suffering unexplainable and debilitating knee pain. As she expands “I wrote ‘Carry On’ in lockdown which was a strange time of losing my work, social life, and then what felt like losing my body to constant pain. I felt completely hopeless and saw a familiar wave of depression approaching. ‘Carry Me’ is about this exact moment of realisation and panic.”

Musically, Carry Me was initially inspired by Thallo wanting to write “a dark ukulele song,” and ended up being improvised due to the pain Thallo was experiencing, making it, as Thallo says, “the fastest song I ever wrote”. The chords, lyrics and vocal melody were done in one take, and the arrangement created after by layering clarinets and synths before sharing the other parts of the instruments in the studio. The effect is a glorious, rich rush of multi-instrumentation and Thallo’s sublime vocal whirling in a jazz-infused dream before it’s emotive crescendo.

Thallo is Elin Edwards, based between her homelands of Gwynedd, North Wales, and London. In 2021 she released three singles, Mêl, Pressed and Preserved and The Water, receiving much early acclaim with an invite to perform at The Great Escape and play SXSW (the latter reschedule for 2023 due to her immobility). At radio she has fans in Sian Eleri (Radio 1 The Chillest Show) and Huw Stephens (BBC 6 Music, Radio Wales), with Thallo also recording a session at Maida Vale; whilst she has garnered press coverage in Wonderland, Noctis, God Is In The TV Zine, When The Horn Blows and many other blogs both UK and Stateside.

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Vök - Illuminating.

Icelandic trio Vök have shared their poignant new single Illuminating, which follows their recent releases Miss Confidence, Lose Control and Stadium and is out now via Nettwerk.

Illuminating was written with the producer Ben Christophers (Bat for Lashes) in London and is an emotive and euphoric ballad with a passionate message about love and how it can make everything shine a little bit brighter. Margrét says;

“I wrote Illuminating a couple years ago and it truly holds a special place in my heart. We did two magical sessions and finally we had a song both of us could cry to. This song is dedicated to my wonderful fiancé and how love can illuminate everything around you, like thousands of fireflies stuck in your eyes.”

Illuminating follows recent singles Miss Confidence, Lose Control and Stadium alongside the tracks Running Wild, No Coffee at the Funeral, Skin and Lost in the Weekend, all of which made up the band’s unique and lushly layered EP Feeding on a Tragedy. Recorded in their Reykjavík studios, the EP was the follow-up to their acclaimed 2019 album In the Dark, which was written and recorded by the band in collaboration with producer James Earp (Bipolar Sunshine, Fickle Friends, Lewis Capaldi).

Vök continue to cement their position as one of the most exciting and forward-thinking alternative bands right now. Following two critically acclaimed albums, Feeding on a Tragedy marked the first new musical moment in an exciting new era for Vök with lots more still to come and a new project announced soon.

Vök · Illuminating

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The Early Mays - Inky Nite - RISO

Photo - Kristi Jan Hoover

The Early Mays - On A Dying Day.

Pittsburgh-based duo The Early Mays announce their forthcoming EP,Prettiest Blue, which will release on July 1, 2022. Composed of artists Emily Pinkerton and Ellen Gozion, the pair sing Appalachian-inspired songs over a lush accompaniment of fiddle, banjo, guitar, and harmonium. Somewhere on the border between old-time music and modern American songwriting, The Early Mays have built a band with harmonies that feel like home. It’s a partnership that has shared slow-burning, perfectly paired vocals for ten years—from NPR’s Mountain Stage to house concerts all over the mid-Atlantic

“I think part of our aesthetic comes from being introspective people,” Gozion reflects, “We don’t have a flashy, fast sound, but if you let the music engulf you, there are lots of layers. Our songs give people a place to slow down.” “The Early Mays rehearsals are restorative for me,” adds Pinkerton. “The hours spent in Ellen’s living room, with coffee and dark chocolate, following the harmonies wherever they take us, laughing and just loving that exploration as much as we love singing for other people. I hope you can hear the joy of the process in Prettiest Blue.” 

From the old-time music community, The Early Mays have absorbed the culture of deep listening that’s central to playing with sensitivity. “Revivalists like us–who didn’t live and breathe Appalachian music growing up–still learn and create by ear for the most part,” Pinkerton explains. “Being able to carry hours of tunes in my head was life-changing. And there is new meaning to uncover each time you return to a field recording or slowly build a relationship with a mentor.” That practice of deep listening–and slow, careful craftsmanship–spills over into every Early Mays performance and production. The duo strives to sculpt a warm, immersive sound. 

"On A Dying Day" was written by Michigan-bred Emily, inspired by her "happy place" on the shores of Lake Michigan, where she would go to make sense of the world when things got hard (which she still does!). It's about finding redemption at the shore; the banjo mimics the waves, along with the verses that roll back and forth, each stanza beginning right as the previous one ends.

 

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Inky Nite - Raya.

Nova Sync are pleased to announce the release of 'Raya' the fourth single released by Brighton husband-wife duo Inky Nite, and the first taken from their debut 3-track EP For Raya following on 15 August. Inky Nite describe Raya as “The most treasured song on our upcoming EP.”

A dazzling concoction of twinkly synths and euphoric 80s tinged hooks á la Chvrches and M83, Raya is named after the duo's daughter and was her entrance music into the world during her birth last year. As they expand “The synths twinkled, and the drums kicked in just as she was lifted through the sunroof and held aloft Simba style for the very first time.”

Raya follows a string of singles, The Canyon, Spectres and Bad Machines released in 2020-21, which picked up support immediately from the likes of Steve Lamacq (BBC Radio 6 Music), the late great Janice Long (BBC Radio Wales), BBC Introducing, Amazing Radio, Mahogany Sessions, and Spotify's editorial team, as well receiving a flurry of coverage across tastemaker UK and international blogs.

Inky Nite began as a lockdown project from the couple’s seaside flat, where a musical cocktail of dreamy alt- pop, melody rich song writing, and 80s tinged Juno synths, shimmering guitars and vintage drum samples emerged. A sonic recipe mixing songwriting greats like Kate Bush and Blondie, with a measure of Metronomy, sprinkled with some Stranger Things soundtrack elements, a twist of Twin Shadow, and finally topped up with smattering of Blood Orange.

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Photo Aubreigh Brunschwig

RISO - New Eyes.

Tucson husband-wife folk duo, RISO, announces the release of the self-titled track, “New Eyes.” It’s off the upcoming album, New Eyes, due out July 15. Written shortly before members Matt Rolland and Rebekah Sandoval Rolland became parents for the first time, the song is a letter to their daughter, encompassing some of the most significant memories and experiences of parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.

Rebekah says, “We did a bit of free-writing individually to jot down some of the stories that our parents and grandparents have shared that have stuck with us, and we took the best of those and put them into the song.” In the first verse, Matt writes about the stars on his childhood ceiling and rocking their baby to sleep in her room for the first time. In the second verse, Matt writes about his Dad’s memories of coming to Arizona for the first time and being overwhelmed by the smell of orange blossoms, which is very characteristic of Tucson and Phoenix in the spring. A wistful reminder about how weightless the world is when you’re a kid, the final verse is about their childhood memories–Rebekah’s in Montana and Matt’s in Colorado, where they spent summers. That verse reflects how the last two years have forced a continual reckoning with the radical change in how day-to-day lives are conducted and how the earliest memories can be turned into experiences for a sense of comfort and stability.

The lyric “New Eyes” feels like an encapsulation of many of the stories and themes on the record and feels relevant to the fact that the whole world is reemerging from the events of the last two years and entering into a new reality with renewed perspective. This track speaks to that collective experience and the duo’s individual histories. Rebekah says, “We both tend to look back nostalgically, aching for a time when we had the freedom to tour for weeks at a time, spontaneously hop on a plane to a new place, spend a day in the studio without lining up childcare, head out at dawn for a trail run along the bike path near our house. As new parents, life has a different rhythm now, but it’s no less dynamic. It’s just different–the challenges and limitations are different; the pace is different; it’s more stationary and we’ve fallen into more consistent routines, which, ultimately, we really love. We’re adjusting to it, and striving to still find creative inspiration on the day to day.”

Matt says, “Music has always been a social experience for me – bands, jamming, orchestras, teaching, sharing. Becoming a father, that social aspect of music takes on a whole new character. Every rehearsal, every record, and radio playlist on the speakers, and even moments in the studio are something I’m experiencing with a new person. She’s absorbing those experiences and so far, she seems to love it. She’s an audience of one. The world became a more magical place when she learned to clap.”

RISO · New Eyes

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Jillette Johnson - Celestial North - Hippies and Cowboys

Jillette Johnson - My Closet Life.

Nashville-based artist Jillette Johnson has just released her new EP Normal Kid and released the official video for the new song “My Closet Life.” The EP arrives with a trio of music videos directed by Grant Claire that were shot over the course of a single day on a vintage Sony Betamax 88 camera. The four song EP was co-written and produced by Joe Pisapia who collaborated with Johnson on her critically acclaimed 2021 album It’s A Beautiful Day And I Love You.

“‘My Closet Life’ is about crawling out of isolation and into the company of friends who light you up,” explains Johnson. “It’s about finding your people, and allowing yourself to belong. Influences: David Byrne, Abba, MGMT.”

The Normal Kid EP draws upon late '70s new wave, early '80s synth-pop, and '90s R&B, finding Johnson turning personal revelations about childhood dreams and adulthood realities into universal pop anthems. Last month, Johnson released the official video for “Cul De Sac” which is nearing 400,000 views.

Normal Kid follows Johnson’s first full length in more than 4 years, It’s A Beautiful Day And I Love You. The album was praised by American Songwriter,  GRAMMY.com, No Depression, NPR Music, Refinery29, Rolling Stone and UNCUT, who called it “a springboard into '60s pop, '70s rock, and Noughties indie...It's an adventurous palette that suits her well.” The Nashville Scene said the album “...offers the kind of songwriting that can make a record feel truly timeless… anchored by floating piano and Johnson’s smooth, flawless vocals.”

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Celestial North - The Nature Of Light.

Celestial North’s luminary new single ‘The Nature Of Light’ was inspired by her studies as a Herbalist and by the concept of The Light Of Nature, which she describes as, ‘innate knowledge imbued within us all and accessed through intimate, synergistic and intuitive relationships within our natural kingdoms’.  Surging with a pulsing life force of wonderful cosmic pop: woven with bubbling beats, sci-fi keys, fragments of arpeggio and imbued with a euphoric rush of dreamy melodies that invoke the spirit of pagan folklore and our connections with nature and  inner hope. The song features her young daughter Iris Bluebell and was written to inspire her children to walk into an unknown future with courage and love in their hearts.

Following the success of the “wonderful space pop” (4 Songs and a dream Podcast) of her last release ‘When The Gods Dance’ — which received airplay and praise from the likes of Roddy Hart at BBC Radio Scotland, Jim Gellatly of Amazing Radio and various BBC Introducing Shows.

Hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland Celestial North is a talented, multi-faceted musician and songwriter with her songs regularly played on the BBC Introducing show.  Her reworking of R.E.M.’s ‘Nightswimming’ - recorded for a God Is In the TV Zine charity album last year, received national radio play with BBC Scotland’s Roddy Hart proclaiming it “Majestic”. The release was included in Bandcamp’s Essential Releases with ‘Nightswimming’ chosen as the Editorial Director’s personal highpoint. Following a run of early singles Celestial North was touted by Under The Radar and God Is In The TV as 'One to watch in 2021' and one of the 'finest new acts for 2021', Celestial North is currently recording her debut album which will be released in September 2022.

Celestial North · The Nature Of Light

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Hippies and Cowboys - 20 To Life.

Outlaw country meets scrappy rock ‘n roll in Hippies and Cowboys’ “20 To Life” music video. The tongue-in-cheek video covers the explosive end of a relationship and the revenge the man takes on his ex-lover. Hippies and Cowboys "20 To Life" music video dropped this week.

The newest music video release from Hippies and Cowboys, “20 to Life”, gives the audience a unique and entertaining narrative to their new song. The music video sets the song’s theme by showing the end of a relationship, bringing low background voices of the girlfriend arguing and, later, images of her leaving, giving the video a strong start. Moreover, the first few shots give viewers more background and depth to the story, showing pictures of a simple house by the woods and lake, which perfectly contrasts the more heated images.

The video then continues showing the narrative made in the song, following the woman as she leaves the house and meets another man while the guy she left behind is drinking. The story continues with images of the men going after the woman who left him, prepared to kill her, and facing the consequences of “20 to life.” Those scenes are shown to the audience from many different angles, giving them different perspectives while watching and highlighting the different reactions people may have based on situations.

Furthermore, the music videos help convey the feeling of nostalgia by showing images of an old gas station, which makes an analogy to the nostalgia he felt after she left him.

Moreover, the images of the band used in between scenes add uniqueness to the video, as it gives the audience a different perspective of the song and helps convey the band’s personality.

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The Deer - Mexican Dogs - Art Moore - Nurdjana

The Deer - I Wouldn't Recognize Me.

The Deer announce their new album The Beautiful Undead due September 9 on tastemaking indie label Keeled Scales (Katy Kirby, Sun June, Twain, Buck Meek) and share its first single, “I Wouldn’t Recognize Me” via official music video.

The Deer’s 2019 label debut Do No Harm marked a set of breakthroughs for the Austin five-piece. Bandcamp called it a “a country-rock dream machine,” while NPR described it as "haunting and gorgeous ... moody and incapacitating." The album topped the KUTX chart and earned a nomination for the Austin Music Awards’ Album of the Year. When live music took global pause, The Deer had momentum to sort. They took it to the studio, a pressure cooker not only for creativity, but suddenly, for existential contemplation. The result is an uninhibited collection reflecting upon what it means to lose your sense of purpose.

Lead single “I Wouldn’t Recognize Me” is a vibrant embrace of the endlessness of change, in fact, an energized readiness for it (All in all is falling upon us). Lyricist and frontwoman Grace Rowland considers it a letter to a younger self. Rowland shares: If I could go back and give my younger self some advice, she may not even realize it’s her. But I would tell her to care for herself like she does for the world, to take a stand for what she believes in, and to be ready for it all to change. The self is a collective of different versions of the same person, and it will always be up to that little girl - and every person she decides to be at every time in her life - to set her future self up for success, and to be kind to and forgive her past self.

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Mexican Dogs - When Its Gone.

Liverpool rock’n’rollers  Mexican Dogs have unleashed the video for new track “When It’s Gone”. The retro-tinted video arrives as the trio announce their signing to Fretsore Records for what will be their debut album, just a year after signing a deal for their self-titled debut EP (out now).

Of the recent signing, Mexican Dogs explain: “We’re honoured and thrilled to have signed our first album deal with Fretsore Records. We’re so pumped to have our music played on the likes of Radio X, BBC 6 Music, Planet Rock and Absolute Radio that this next step felt like a no brainer. We’re playing the new tracks on the road so can’t wait to get them out into the world. Looking forward to working with Ian Sephton and the team on our first big album rollout..”

With recent release “When It’s Gone” serving as a thunderous testament to a band who are going places fast, the accompanying new video is a nod to the cavorting canon of ‘70s glam-rock influences that brought the track to life.

Directed by Liverpool-based Dan Hewitson, who has previously worked for clients including BBC Match of the Day, Adidas, Liverpool Sound City and Record Store Day and directed music videos for the likes of Jamie Webster, Red Rum Club, SPINN, and Trudy & The Romance, the video sees the band deliver a playful live performance of the rugged and raucous track.

Evoking the allure of rock’n’roll of yesteryear,  the new cinematic accompaniment to “When It’s Gone” is all sepia tones and fuzzy static shots — with a healthy dose of leopard print shirts, glitter-clad drums, fur-trimmed coats and long hair hammering to rip-roaring riffs.

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Art Moore - A Different Life.

Last month Art Moore announced their debut self-titled LP which will be released via ANTI- on August 5th. A new group composed of Boy Scouts' Taylor Vick and Ezra Furman collaborators and bandmates Sam Duerkes and Trevor Brooks, Art Moore announced the record with a single called “Muscle Memory,” and today the band are back with a new track from the LP entitled “A Different Life”.

Art Moore's songs are composed like short stories, with each one functioning like a vignette, a window into an emotional circumstance. The electronic elements that gild Art Moore are subtle, but add distinctive shading to each story. The strobing synth pulse that undergirds “A Different Life” shifts the weight of the song dramatically from a heartbroken lament to something that bristles with the endless possibility that comes part-and-parcel with a breakup.

"A Different Life was inspired by the experience of daydreaming up another version of your life," Vick explains. "I can easily get caught up in the imaginary worlds in my head, overwhelmed by the endless possibilities and versions of me that exist within them. But I am most fascinated by the version just parallel to this one, the one with only a few differences or enhancements. This song is about the experience of longing for that not so far off possibility."

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Nurdjana - Do the Right Thing (Revision).

Nurdjana is a Canadian vocalist who was born and raised in the Netherlands. She’s been immersed in music ever since as a little girl she tagged along with her dad Rob de Rijcke.

He was a singer/songwriter and guitarist and when Nurdjana started singing it was only natural to start making music together.

Rob was a composer of dreamy songs full of love and sadness. Nurdjana and her dad won songwriter competitions, recorded music and played lots of gigs together. He was a modest man and modesty doesn’t bring fortune and fame. But that was not what he was after. He was only after poetry and that was what he found.

Nurdjana is a true advocate of her father’s music and after taking a break from singing when he passed away, she is back full force; determined to put her dad’s music back in the spotlight. Her sound has been described as delicate, yet soulful and jazzy.

Her first EP, ‘Coming Home,’ was released on June 14th. All songs are written either by Rob or by the duo of father and daughter, some completed by Nurdjana after he passed away.

Nurdjana · Do the Right Thing (Revision)

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Rachael Dadd - Brittany Collins

Rachael Dadd - Moon Sails.

On 14 October 2022 wildly creative free-form songwriter Rachael Dadd is to release her brand new studio album Kaleidoscope via Memphis Industries. The first taster is ‘Moon Sails’ which comes with a video directed by Narna Hue. Kaleidoscope is Rachael’s second album for Memphis Industries and follows 2019’s Flux, which was released to much acclaim and which she was touring when the pandemic struck.

Like so many people disconnected from their communities and struggling through the lockdowns, Rachael Dadd turned inwards, seeking escape through music and connection through songwriting, and her hope is that when people listen to Kaleidoscope “they will feel held and find space to breathe, grieve and celebrate.”

"Music for me usually comes from a place where I’m in a state of flow and free-child: playful and explorative and sparked by the infinite possibilities that creating it can bring,” she continues, “so kaleidoscope, a toy with infinite possibilities of shape, colour and pattern, seemed like a really good title."

Having been kissed on the cheek and told to pursue music at the age of 14 by Tori Amos, who along with Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell lit up a new universe of possibility and magic for her, showing Rachael a way to translate her own inner world into words and music, she went on to discover John Cage, Steve Reich and John Tavner. Creating avant-garde feedback loop experiments at Alton College also left a big impression on her, as did WARP artists such as Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Plaid and Broadcast, and more recently Elsa Hewitt. "I love synth worlds and it's been really great to explore this more deeply on ‘Kaleidoscope'”, says Rachael, who also draws inspiration for the new record from Bristol’s contemporary jazz scene and artists like Ishmael Ensemble and Waldo's Gift.

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Brittany Collins - The Apple.

Soul-stirring Americana artist Brittany Collins is a late bloomer who never imagined that her calling would be singing, but once she discovered it, there was no turning back. Raised in the Pacific Northwest, she didn’t step on stage to perform in public until her twenties. Her soulful voice immediately captivated audiences with its intensity and raw energy, turning her into a darling of the Northwest music scene. Collins quickly built up an impressive resume of performances from acoustic coffeehouse shows to summer festival stages before landing spots on more extensive tours throughout California. After releasing two self-produced, self-released EPs, The Hitchhiker EP and Rough Sides, Collins will release her debut album, Things I Tell My Therapist, on August 12th, 2022.

The album’s overarching theme is examining how the people who raise us and the people we encounter in our lives shape how we see the world. Every song on the album is about a specific person; sometimes, that person is Collins. The record was written primarily in late 2020 when she was going through many changes in her personal life that caused her to reflect on her relationships. The process forced her to unpack a lot of trauma. But, the good news is that she ended up healing from it for the very first time. The songs might examine times in her life when she grappled with painful memories and situations, but they are tinged with hopefulness.

“If there is a message I would want someone to take away from the album, it would be “Life is messy, you get hurt, but you get to choose the kind of person you want to be, you get to choose to grow past the hurt and be a source of light for people if you want. It’s never too late to choose to put yourself first,” explains Collins.

This album feels a little bit like Collins’ diary, primarily written during a time when she was just beginning to address and recover from trauma stemming from childhood abuse. It reflects on her own relationships, the people she encountered during her time as a social worker, and stories that compelled her. Starting out as a tongue-in-cheek title for a song she wrote while on a hike in the woods, she soon realized that the title “Things I Tell My Therapist” was painfully and comically accurate.

BrittanyCollins · The Apple

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The Orchids - Andrés Alcover - The Special Pillow

The Orchids - This Boy Is A Mess.

Sometimes it can take several years to realise what you’ve been missing.  Sometimes it can even take decades....  (If you already know all about The Orchids, well, you’re going to like Dreaming Kind a lot.)

The Orchids were making sophisticated pop music right back in the early 1990s when Sarah Records first started.  Their songs were as emotionally pure as anything else on that label, but they were always a step ahead of their peers in terms of song arrangements and musical ambition.  With a casual, unpretentious air they made writing perfect pop songs seem easy, almost accidental, and several great releases followed.  The Orchids gained a passionate following: people knew a good thing when they heard it and they hugged it close.  But now it’s time for the rest of the world to be let in on the secret.

The songs themselves are a beautiful mix of strength and gentleness.   They wrap you in a powerful embrace, making you feel comfortable and secure – and then whisper their insecurities and anxieties into your ear.  They say: ‘it’s OK to admit weakness.   It’s OK to be fragile.  That’s where true strength comes from’.  From Glasgow, and proudly Scottish, the band shares a musical lineage with other great groups from that city, from Aztec Camera to Orange Juice, Lloyd Cole to Teenage Fanclub. All bands that specialise in song-writing that that can tell big stories through small fragments, that can make the ordinary extraordinary.

Producer Ian Carmichael has helped the band create a perfectly-crafted masterpiece. He subtly accentuates the drama of the songs, with a sophisticated choreography and gloss that never overwhelms the tenderness of the music.  In ‘This Boy Is A Mess’ (the first single from the album), the lyric confesses frailty while the music gets stronger and stronger.  It is bittersweet and exhilarating at the same time. ‘I Want You, I Need You’ has harmonies as big as a house – but the yearning message remains intimate and close.  ‘I Don’t Mean To Stare’ is a sophisticated new version of the track that first appeared on the Under The Bridge compilation earlier this year.

Album opener ‘Didn’t We Love You’ daringly opens up empty spaces where the reverb of the drums is the only thing you can hear... and then floods your ears with a harmonised chorus, sweet guitar melodies and sweeping effects.  Even then, the lyrical lament, expressing the desire to live in a better place - a place unspoilt by the greedy phonies who’ve taken over – comes across as clearly as if Hackett were leaning over for a friendly chat in the snug bar of The Orchids’ favourite Glasgow pub.

Rob and Amelia (Skep Wax Records) say: “the first gig we went to after lockdown was the Preston Popfest.  It was an emotional occasion: many bands were playing for the first time in two years.  The Orchids were really special that night.  We were surprised to hear so many new songs, and such great new songs too – really powerful.   That’s the night we decided to ask if we could release their album.”

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Andrés Alcover - Where Did We Go Wrong?

Coming as a glimmering follow-up to his string of 2021 releases — including debut single “Untouchable” — the new track is a daydream-inducing cut of twinkling percussion and gently twanging guitars underpinned by Andrés’ laidback vocal delivery.

A delicate web of vintage-tinged rhythms, textured guitars and cushiony harmonies, “Where Did We Go Wrong?” stirs to life with gentle acoustic guitar plucks before blossoming into a more complex arrangement of mellow instrumentation that glimmers like a long-lost relic found in an abandoned ‘70s LA recording studio.

Written, produced and arranged by Andrés himself, the artist explains of the track’s production: “I wrote the song a couple of years ago, my time split between Spain and the UK, and recorded it at my flat in London. However, the drums were recorded in an old abandoned theatre-turned-studio in Majorca by Spanish drummer and good friend Tomi Solbas. He created the perfect sound to accompany the rest of the instrumentation, and you can really hear the room’s texture.”

Despite its gentle rhythms and dreamy melodies laced with optimism, Andrés’ lyrics grapple with more existential themes. With his earlier releases dealing with estrangement, loss and a sense of an internal search, the songwriter’s knack for melding deeper ideas with drifting instrumentals is showcased clearer than ever on “Where Did We Go Wrong?”.

Andrés Alcover · Where Did We Go Wrong?

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The Special Pillow - Mind Wipe.

The Special Pillow return with a new EP and single "Mind Wipe" which is also the title of the EP. The band have been steadily putting out eccentric weirdo psych/pop/folk over the last few years with yet another release already in the works. Mind Wipe feels a lot like those golden indie-psych years of the late 90's bringing to mind Terrastock Festivals, Elephant 6 artists like Elf Power and Fablefactory, and folks like Beavis Frond.

Mind Wipe is the latest, greatest release from The Special Pillow, a full-spectrum, string-driven sound encompassing concise ’60s-flavored pop gems, dreamy hallucinogenic reveries, and pulse-pounding propulsion redolent of your favorite antipodean indie upstarts of the ’80s. A sitcom-length salvo featuring six synapse-snapping songs that address Greek tragedy, artificial intelligence, and voluntary brain erasure, Mind Wipe will clear your consciousness of everything else.

Since 1995, The Special Pillow have trafficked in catchy and confounding songcraft that has earned them notable fans like Yo La Tengo, who covered the group’s classic “Automatic Doom” in 2015. The Pillow’s 2020 releases, the World’s Finest EP and a cover-version single of The Who’s “1921,” garnered extensive underground attention and accolades, but now Mind Wipe is here to make you forget all about that old news.

Mind Wipe is the group’s first project to be recorded at Brooklyn’s Deep Dive studio with longtime engineer Mitch Rackin. The band consists of bassist and songwriter Dan Cuddy (ex-Hypnolovewheel); Katie Gentile (Run On) on violin and viola; Peter Stuart (Headless Horsemen, Tryfles) on a remarkable selection of guitars; and Eric Marc Cohen (Fly Ashtray, Autobody) on drums and percussion.

The Special Pillow · Mind Wipe

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