Natural Traditional & Crafted: Crooked Weather - Nathan Flint

Crooked Weather - Control Your Blues.

Background - Based in East Yorkshire, England, Crooked Weather play earthy, unruly and original folk songs. The sound is lead by carefully crafted lyrics delivered by the haunting harmonies of Holly and Will.

The music on 'Long Garden' echoes the ethos of folk songsmiths before them with imagery of escape, adventure, companionship and inner searching but told from a different heart.

“Crooked Weather come from the same fertile ground which gave the world David Crosby’s immortal 'If I Could Only Remember My Name'. They are indie meets World music meets traditional British folk. Think a contemporary Incredible String Band with a 21st century mindset.”
Sid Griffin, The Coal Porters/Bob Dylan Biographer.

From the superb 'Long Garden' album, the featured track 'Control Your Blues' is a fine insight into the band and their music. The music has a natural and genuine feel to it, unspoiled by the increasingly artificial environments that surround us, it is, in my opinion, a work of art. Website (here).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nathan Flint - I Will Succeed.

Background - Nathan Flint is a solo Singer/Songwriter playing in the genre of Acoustic Folk. Nathan was born and has grown up on the the South Coast of NSW in the coastal/rural town of Wollongong. 

Nathan Began his music career at the age of 5, learning violin under the Suzuki Method. At the age of 14 Nathan started learning guitar where he joined a rock band with mates and took on the position of lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Nathan continued to play along the genre of rock throughout his high school years but also found an interest for Theatre and Musical Theatre. Nathan followed this passion and studied Musical Theatre at the Australian Institute of Music, Surry Hills, Sydney. Nathan performed the role of Tobias in The Australian Institute of Music’s production of Sweeney Todd, He also played small film roles on The Discovery Channel, in TV series such as “Behind Mansion Walls” and “Deadly Women“. 

Nathan has found a passion in the style of folk and has been busy developing himself as an artist playing a huge amount of gigs at Pubs, Clubs, Cafes and functions all of which have been directing him as an artist over the past 10 years. He has recently finished his debut album Stay Here where he composed all of the songs, and played every instrument on the album including Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Violin, Piano, Drums and Percussion.

Beautifully stripped back music, reliant totally on a mixture of story telling, comfortable vocals and a trusty guitar. 'I Will Succeed' is a fascinating introduction to Nathan, making the album a  'must hear' for my ears.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prepare To Dance Or Leap: Paint The Muse - Home Lives

Paint The Muse - Free People.

And we quote - The Los Angeles-based Alt-Dance duo, Paint The Muse, formed in 2015 and is comprised of vocalists, Elizabeth Russo - originally from the Bay Area, and Seattl-ite, Ash Wintergrass. Their dynamic first single, "Free People", on Harbour Records, encapsulates the feel-good vibes of the Summer with a cool indie-pop flavor. Its positive message and youthful energy cue this up as a dance anthem for the summer.

A nice upbeat song that demands movement from your body, however unwilling a dancer you may be. Oh to be young again...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Home Lives - Cool Waves Young Blood.

Background provided - Home Lives is the lo-fi venture of New Yorkers Mike Horgan and Brittany Cohen. Working with a number of talented heads in the NY music scene, the pair have a distinctive naïveté which is what makes them so captivating as a musical project.

Founding member Mike Horgan began Home Lives out of his desire to create hooky tunes about brazenly personal topics like childhood, love, post-college Millennial life and the human condition. They’re also very good at throwing the occasional pop culture reference in here and there as well.

Brittany Cohen is the one that makes it a duo where she adds vocals and keyboards to the mix almost effortlessly. Since their conception they’ve experimented with a range of styles which they inject into their indie rock like 50’s doo-wop, 60’s pop rock and garage rock, 80’s post-punk and synthpop, and some 90’s shoegaze and jangle pop.

The album, Cool Waves, Young Blood was recorded with Chris Daly at Salvation Recording Co. in New Paltz, NY. Daly has recently recorded artists such as Porches., Frankie Cosmos, Quarterbacks, Diet Cig and PWR BTTM. The album was mastered by Jamal Ruhe at West West Side Music. Ruhe has recently mastered albums by artists such as Titus Andronicus, Built to Spill, and Swans. Noah Bowman, drummer of Diet Cig, plays drums on the entire Home Lives EP.

A powerful in your face start leads into an equally potent song. An indie rock song leaning towards a natural garage sound that would have the bands neighbours banging on the wall. You leap rather than dance to this one.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Singers & Songwriters: Mike Wilde - Rebecca Everett

Mike Wilde - Another Place.

Background and quote - ‘Another Place’ is the debut Single from Singer/Songwriter Mike Wilde. An accomplished multi–instrumentalist and live performer, Mike Wilde spent time in Australia and on the road in Europe as a touring musician learning his craft before embarking on a career as a solo artist. 

In the 90's Wilde performed on vocals and bass with Sydney band PLUS, releasing 2 EP's. The band made a number of TV appearances, including popular TV export "Home and Away." 

Evolving from modern funk into earthy singer-songwriter, his current works reflect the individual and shared experience of returning to country, of coming home. A gifted lyricist and vocalist, Wilde’s music resonates with contemporary adult experience, with a heightened sense of performance earned through years of playing live in Australia and Europe. 

Another Place has a spooky ‘70’s storyteller vibe to it. A classic, folk “love gone wrong” narrative with crystal clear vocals. The track is offset by simple percussion and choral backing vocals that rise to an orchestral crescendo aided by some blistering guitar work before ending hauntingly, just as it began. Vocals, guitars, bass and percussion were recorded by Mike Wilde himself, additional percussion by Ian V. Jones. The track was mixed by Ian V. Jones and Mike Wilde and was mastered by Don Bartley. 

‘I was recording some live takes of my songs on vocals and acoustic guitar at home and when I came back and listened to ‘Another Place’ I could hear other sounds in my head that needed to be there on the recording. So I added the tambourine, and then the bass and the song just grew really organically from there.’ - Mike Wilde.

This is a superb debut single. Mike has a voice that resonates and matches the musicianship beautifully. The expression 'timeless' is in my opinion appropriate, and my own comparisons would be Gordon Lightfoot and perhaps a stripped back Al Stewart. Can't disagree with the 'promo' words above.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rebecca Everett - Sting Of A Kiss.

Words from Rebecca - Recording is a delicate and wonderful challenge. Sometimes you get lucky...the earth sighs, the sky cracks open and the universe echoes in approval. This project feels like one of those moments. 

It's doubtful that any of this album could exist without periods of the obscurity and loss of faith, for we have to let our former stage of faith die to move onto the next.

I think the fear of death arises because we have been programmed to believe we are an object. The creation of this album came from being in a space between loss and faith, a meditation that brings deep, dark hidden mysteries up to the surface to look at. 

The album describes and shows my struggles with these and other ideologies. The newly released single "Sting of a Kiss" is off of the Seven Shades album out on October 2nd.

Some personal and reflective opinions from Rebecca above, and not surprisingly the featured song matches some of those sentiments. The single builds with both feeling and passion, its perhaps a little insight into the composers mind, at a point in time. It's also one fine song.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Four For Tuesday: Indoor Creature - The Plaidians - Transviolet - Late Nite Cable

Indoor Creature - Present Thinking.

So who are Indoor Creature? Quoting them -Indoor Creature is a pop music project from Austin, TX composed of Caleb Fleischer (Vocals, keys, saxophone, synths) and Travis Kitchen (Drums, Bass, Guitar) with the goal of bringing people closer together and further apart.

You can find out more about the band and their music via the website (here) or over on Bandcamp (here).

Well 'Present Thinking' is a single release from a collection of twelve songs, and what a refreshing and very pleasing mixture of songs they are. Imaginative compositions are matched by some well produced music and vocals to match. I suppose indie pop would be a fair label, however they are more than capable of drifting into other styles.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Plaidians - The Follower.

Background promo words - Gary Thackrah & Justin Penkethman are Melbourne-based songwriters that share a passion for both acoustic and electronic textures. They have played many hundreds of gigs in many different bands and projects, but not many or enough together. “We’re both inspired by the same music, we just had to see what we could create together” says Gaz, “Jus & I had no plan, so we let it evolve”. 

‘The Follower’ is the first single from their debut album, which will be ready for release in February 2016. In the studio, they worked closely with producer/recording engineer Cam McKenzie (Mark Seymour) and collaborated with drummer Sean Jova Albers (The Grand Silent System, Seth Sentry). 

“‘The Follower’ is a laid back track that we really enjoyed recording and layering with synths and strings. We wanted it to sound reflective and have a real depth to it, and we’re real happy with how it turned out.” 

The song reflects on the feeling of isolation, of desire being just out of reach. Beginning with acoustic guitar and melancholy vocals, the song lifts with the string section and sets up a journey that finally builds to a full arrangement, all the while with a strong and compelling melody. 

With their single release, The Plaidians showcase how neatly they can weave acoustic and electronic sounds together in unpredictable and melodic ways: blending genres of pop, rock and electronica. Influenced by bands such as City & Colour and Radiohead, they present a sound that is as understated as The XX and the depth of Beck.

'The Follower' is a song I would liken to a vintage wine, or Oak barrel aged single malt whiskey. Not to be rushed and with so many textures and flavours, all to be sampled and enjoyed. OK so I expect other comparisons might work better, so concisely, this is quality on a good number of levels.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transviolet - New Bohemia.

The promo tells us - The self-titled debut EP from Transviolet is out now. "New Bohemia," is the EP's anthemic first single. 

Founded in New York and now based in Los Angeles, the four-piece band released its first song, "Girls Your Age," in July 2015. The startling frank coming-of-age track, which is included on the EP, rocketed to No. 1 on Hype Machine's main chart, No. 2 on the U.S. Spotify viral chart and No. 3 on the Global Spotify viral chart and now has nearly 900,000 Spotify streams.

Transviolet will play its very first show on September 29 at Neon Gold's Popshop West at The Echo, located in their adopted hometown of Los Angeles. The line-up for the sold-out show includes Alina Baraz & Galimatias and Farao. Transviolet will join Mikky Ekko on his fall North American tour, which kicks off on October 1 at Los Angeles' Roxy Theatre and includes a show at Rough Trade in Brooklyn on October 20. After the tour wraps, the band will head to London for a pair of dates.

OK so this band has already been noticed far and wide, however sometimes a good pop song is allowed on Beehive Candy, simply because it's available to stream, and we can.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Late Nite Cable - All Nite Girl.

Background - Late Nite Cable are new to the scene, but have been gaining some major grassroots traction in the blogosphere. There most recent single "All Nite Girl" was recently featured in Impose's Week In Pop as well as in Deli Mag. 

Pete Roessler and Severine Casati are current Williamsburg NY natives with the prototypical millennial angst that comes in your 20s and 30s. The subject matter of their "nightlife Passion Pit" sound includes quitting that stuffy corporate job, getting out and coming home, and the vague romanticism of flings.

Well we are a little late to the party with this song, however it's a good introduction to Late Night Cable as their self-titled debut EP is scheduled for release in early October. It's a collection of high quality synth pop songs and the production is light enough, for both vocals and music to complement each other, rather than one dominate and suppress the other. If you like the single the EP is a must.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------