Sarah Jane Scouten - Rory Lavelle - Honeymoon Disease - HOTT MT

Sarah Jane Scouten - Bang Bang.

Background - Two-time Canadian Folk Music Award Nominee, Sarah Jane Scouten has announced the release of new album When The Bloom Falls From The Rose on June 16th, including the new bluesy-rockabilly single Bang Bang.

Observant, outspoken, and at the top of her craft, the new album is a luminous body of work; one that shines a light on the wind-whipped highway of Scouten’s life as a gifted songwriter, scholar of roots music history, and travelling musician. With flavours of Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffiths, Old Crow Medicine Show and a wealth of old-time and bluegrass music, Sarah Jane’s songs are faithful to a long-standing folk music tradition, but often spill over into modern themes that are outspoken and edgy, from homelessness to midwifery to tongue-in-cheek heartache songs and unabashed Canadiana. 

First single taken from the album Every Song I Sing (released in 2016) exposes the classic country soul of Sarah Jane, equally deeply personal and written for the listener, an anthem for when you’re sad, every sad song becomes about you. New single Bang Bang scales up the beat combining the retro feel of country-folk with bluesy rockabilly; bombastic, irreverent and smutty behind a thin veneer, Bang Bang may not make sense, but it plays in the lyrical freedom that comes with the blues. Website here, Facebook here.

Whatever genre or style Sarah Jane Scouten chooses to write and perform in, she does it with real class. 'Bang Bang' is a feisty rockabilly blast, it's one of a dozen high calibre song that range from folk to country and more, sometimes with timeless character, other times with a more modern slant.

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Rory Lavelle - All These Horrors.

Background - Belfast based alt-rock singer/songwriter Rory Lavelle boasts a vocal so rich in soulful storytelling that is impossible not to be moved. With his debut album Waves scheduled for release in June, his distinctive breed of brooding, melancholic but uplifting acoustic alt-rock showcases his diverse musical influences, which include Bill Withers, David Kitt, Nick Drake and Radiohead.

From opening for Ian Brown to a packed Ulster Hall to spending long cold winter nights sleeping on the floor of a Ford Transit van at this stage Rory has done most of it if not it all. The level of prestige may peak and dip but the passion remains. “I suppose it’s just a hobby more than a job for you these days?” a fan and friend once asked. It’s neither. It simply is.

Growing up in a small border town in Ireland there was little to do but nurture an already burgeoning obsession with 60’s pop-rock. A hum and a foot-tap led to a voice and a guitar which in turn led to Rory Lavelle’s first forays into what would become a life-long career in music. Having experienced previous successes with his bands Indigo Fury and Sparks Fly Rory is soon to release his first solo long-player “Waves”. Heading up the release riotous charge of All These Horrors. With a haunting chorus that will make you want to shamelessly shake your hips in time, Rory says of the single,

A DIY artist to the core, Rory is channeling all his experiences and influences to date to craft something truly unique and mesmerizing. Website here, Facebook here.

The first of ten songs on the forthcoming 'Waves' album is 'All These Horrors'. The featured track veers toward the indie rock genre whilst the album as a whole mixes understated folk rock with more passionate and expansive pieces. Overall it's a distinctive collection of songs that work well together whilst ensuring plenty of variety throughout.


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Honeymoon Disease - Electric Eel.

Background - Honeymoon Disease are back with their new single and seven inch vinyl 'Electric Eel'. The Swedish boogie-woogie rock bands new single got all the hooks, catchiness and melodies to make an instant rock n roll classic. Electric Eel is the first new original song to be released from the band since their debut album 'The Trancendence' was released in 2015. Since then endless tours have turned the band into one of Swedens hardest working rock n roll machines. The video for Electric Eel is produced by Max Ljungberg. The band is touring Spain starting 4th of April.

"Electric Eel is about when your heart is overloading and pushes you to the limit. So settle for the shock and get ready for the take off!" - Jenna

Electric Eel gives a first glimp of what the future holds for Honeymoon Disease. The band will be entering the studio this summer together with Ola Ersfjord (Tribulation, Dead Lord, Night) to record their new album to be released in the fall of 2017 on The Sign Records. The band debut album 'The Transcendence' was released in 2015 on Napalm Records and was co-produced by Nicke Andersson (the Hellacopters, Imperal State Electric and Death Breath). The seven inch vinyl is limited to 700 copies and is available through Freight Train in bundles with patches and t-shirts. Get the record here, website here, Facebook here.

We featured Honeymoon Disease just over a month ago, and the brand new single 'Electric Eel' deserves a share. Once again the band demonstrate that they can turn up the power with some unashamed full on rock'n'roll.


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HOTT MT - Tranceforming.

Background - LA-based experimental pop duo, HOTT MT, have shared their video for "Traceforming". The song is from their forthcoming new album 'AU' (Alternate Universe,) out today Thursday, May 4th via their own label, Mutation Records.

The video was shot at their own warehouse space in Los Angeles, Non Plus Ultra, which was recently shut down. The duo says of their recent loss, "All of us at Non Plus Ultra have been together for years. Our ideals brought us together, and we built a space and a business on them. Non Plus Ultra showed us that we aren't alone in our desires. There are so many people in this town who share our values. We've made and lost spaces before, but this time we've got an incredible support system."

LA Weekly just named HOTT MT #25 on their list for "The 30 Best LA Rock Bands from the Past Decade, " and said, "They're the most ambitious psych-rock band in L.A., who stalked Flaming Lip's Wayne Coyne into a collaboration in 2012, and quietly dropped a track last year they produced for Kesha, without permission from Dr. Luke. They referred to the leak as "musical terrorism," a bold statement by the landlords of L.A.'s most interesting art space, Non Plus Ultra." Website here, Facebook here.

Our second feature for HOTT MT and again we have a rich synthy song, this time entitled 'Tranceforming'. The vocals are dreamy and melodic and the atmosphere builds as layers of music unfold.


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Rat Fancy - Swirlies - Simone & Girlfunkle

Rat Fancy - I Cant Dance To The Smiths Anymore.

Background - Rat Fancy (ex-Sweater Girls) debut new track "I Can't Dance to the Smiths Anymore" and announce new album "Suck A Lemon" released May 26th on HHBTM Records. Dreaming of a world where reruns of The Adventures Of Pete And Pete are on every channel and kids are free to be as weird as they want to be, Rat Fancy emerges with their fiercely different brand of indie pop. Hailing from Los Angeles, CA—where despite all that sunshine you might choke on the smog and ambition all around you—Rat Fancy is ex Sweater Girl Diana Barraza (vocals/guitar), Gregory Johnson (guitar / keyboard) and Gavin Glidewell (drums).

It’s a six-song EP about saying goodbye to all that, one kiss-off after another, possibly the sweetest collection of ‘fuck you’s ever committed to vinyl. Every track is a killer. Every track is a keeper. It’s the sound of being fd up on pollen and sugar, skidding through a dizzy blissful spring of laughter and loss.

The title track appears in two versions, a fast one and a slow one (just like Yo La Tengo used to do!) and they’re both capable of moving you to tears, because despite the sourness of the EP’s title, this music is almost impossibly sweet.

Subject matter veers from the ultra-personal to the paranormal. ‘I Can’t Dance To The Smiths Anymore’ isn’t about the Smiths, it’s about growing up. ‘Five Fingers’ is, quite literally, a slap in the face. Its synth-line stays in your head for days. ‘About You’ is a killer rant against small-mindedness, a manifesto for non-conformity that blends the Pixies and bubblegum into something altogether amazing.

Indiepop is in tatters and the ashes are all around us, and yet, and yet, a record this vital and brave, a record this alive, gives us hope for the future. Suck A Lemon succeeds by being smarter, sharper, and realer than its contemporaries. And if you don’t like it, I think you know by now what you can go do. Website here, Facebook here.

A fabulous song title such as 'I Cant Dance To The Smiths Anymore' deserves a fine tune to go with it. Thankfully Rat Fancy dish up a beautiful indie pop/rock track, that coming in at just over two minutes, requires an immediate replay at the very least.

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Swirlies - Vigilant Always.

Background - This August, 90s shoegaze veterans Swirlies will play their first west coast dates in 14 years, on the heels of the vinyl reissue of their Blonder Tongue Audio Baton LP (1993), which recently reached #11 on Pitchfork’s list of the 50 best shoegaze albums of all time.

Swirlies' last US appearances were in the eastern US and Canada in 2015. The lineup will include founding members Damon Tutunjian (guitar/vocals) and Andy Bernick (bass/keyboards), Adam Pierce (Mice Parade) on drums, Deb Warfield (Gold Muse) on guitar/keyboards/vocals, and Elliott Malvas (You're Jovian) on guitar and keyboards.

In January 2016, Swirlies were included on Cherry Red's definitive box-set of the early shoegaze movement: Still in a Dream. In July 2016, Swirlies released a new song ("Fantastic Trumpets Forever") exclusive to the Joyful Noise Recordings’ 2016 Flexi Disc Series. A remixed version will be released digitally in summer 2017. In October 2016, the Swirlies' 1993 classic Blonder Tongue Audio Baton LP was finally repressed on vinyl. It is currently available for purchase online and in local record stores. Copies will also be available for direct purchase from the band during the tour.

The band's members have collaborated with a number of noteworthy artists. Damon Tutunjian produced Mew's first LP, co-wrote a number of their songs, and has performed (guitar, bass, vocals, and keyboards) on all of their recordings to date. Adam Pierce has played with Mice Parade, HiM, Philistines Jr. and múm. Rob Laakso has played bass, guitar, and keyboards for Kurt Vile and the Violators since 2011. Facebook here, live dates on Beehive Candy's tour page.

As shoegaze goes 'Vigilant Always' is no wall of sound, the power can and does occasionally explode, however there is plenty of clarity and at times an alt rock feel, that just adds more passion to the track.

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Simone & Girlfunkle - Fight On.

Background - Beloved WA six-piece Simone & Girlfunkle are pleased to announce their new effervescent single Fight On, a delightfully arranged slice of indie-pop featuring the group’s signature three-part female harmonies.

Produced and engineered by Dave Parkin (Tired Lion, Bob Evans) and mastered by William Bowden (Gotye, Emma Louise), Fight On revels in upbeat, lush, wall-of-sound Belle and Sebastian style smarts while exploring themes of heartache, conflict and loss. It’s a balance the band strike effortlessly, holding space for joy and despair - offering a weight and substance to their dreamy pop spirit. 

Simone & Girlfunkle were born on one of North Perth's hazy, sun-drenched afternoons and quickly issued a self-titled EP followed by the full-length ‘Hurry, Harry’ which X-Press hailed as “A debut that has no weak points”. Their music has been heard all over TV in programs like Winners & Losers, MTV's Awkward, ABC's Giggle and Hoot and Packed to the Rafters, while diverse support from radio has been very welcoming from many at community radio, Triple J, Radio National and commercial stations Triple M and Mix FM.

As warm and captivating on stage as they are on record, Simone & Girlfunkle have appeared alongside some of Australia’s finest - Gurrumul, Holly Throsby, Wendy Matthews, Owl Eyes and more - while notching up performances at Southbound, St. Kilda Festival, State of the Art, Channel Nine's The Weekend Today Show, Nannup Music Festival and Fairbridge Folk Festival, where The Music wrote "the girls' flawless harmonies were a force to be reckoned with”. 

Combining a solid artistic vision with an antipodean sense of humour, these best mates have been busily writing, recording and sprinkling harmonic joy all over their upcoming sophomore album, due for release this year. Facebook here.

'Fight On' mixes rich and well produced music with vivacious and sparkling vocals. Production is top class allowing this indie pop song to ooze with quality and good feeling.

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Hermitess - The Charlatans - Pattern Language

Hermitess - Blood Moon.

Background from Hermitess - I’ve just released a video for “Blood Moon”, taken from my upcoming self-titled full length.

I’ve been making a series of artworks alongside the musical compositions: photographs and almost-still videos set against remote landscapes. Each of these settings depict Hermitess as a central figure in a settings that evoke the songs. The Blood Moon video was shot by my friend Tatiana Losev who helped direct the simple performance that the video depicts. The final product is meant to express a feeling: something repetitive, hypnotic, and a tad sinister.

As the name implies, this album came about at a remove from modern life. While isolated in a cabin in northern Michigan, I began to conceive of this character (Hermitess) and a set of songs that would feel at home in the wintry knee-deep snow drifts and creaking trees. Website here, Facebook here.

'Blood Moon' is one of nine tracks on the new album. This is an imaginative collection of material and the featured music video indicates the style and direction of the self titled full length. Natural folk sounds mix with deeper material, sometimes quite stripped back, other times more atmospheric and layered. Overall the music is enchanting, dreamy and desirable.


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The Charlatans - Plastic Machinery.

Background - The Charlatans have released the official video for their first album single "Plastic Machinery," featuring Johnny Marr, from their upcoming studio album Different Days, due out May 26 via BMG. The video was shot in Barcelona by filmmaker and photographer Ewen Spencer, who is also responsible for creating the Different Days album artwork. “It was great fun to make the video," explains Tim Burgess. "Barcelona is such a beautiful city - the song is about finding beauty in uncertain times and we knew there'd be some sunshine there too."

Different Days is the band's thirteenth album. Co-produced by Jim Spencer, the album was recorded at the band’s studio in Cheshire and features contributions from an array of friends... from Paul Weller and Johnny Marr to crime writer Ian Rankin and writer/actress Sharon Horgan. It follows on from the success of The Charlatans' last album Modern Nature, which drew critical praise across the board, and notched up their eighth Top Ten on the album chart, all capped off with a lifetime achievement award from Q Magazine. The Charlatans had a whirlwind 2015, completing two sold-out UK tours, world tours and popping up as unannounced opening act at Glastonbury, and headlining at the Isle Of Wight and Kendall Calling festivals amongst others.

In support of the upcoming album, The Charlatans have confirmed two signings and acoustic performances at the now-legendary Tim Peaks Diner: 05/26 - The Lowry; Salford - 05/28 - Soundcity; Liverpool. Website here, Facebook here, live dates on Beehive Candy's tour page.

The Charlatans are back with 'Plastic Machinery' giving fans of their music a taste of what is to follow. They hardly need our support, however with live dates also on there way, it's a case of any excuse to feature a band of this calibre.


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Pattern Language - By Time We Get There.

Background - ​​London’s Happy Robots Records has announced they will be releasing the ‘Total Squaresville’ mini-album from synth-electronic crafter Pattern Language. From this collection of six tracks, they are teasing the lead single ‘By Time We Get There’ with a catchy retro video by Cheyene Grow at 75 Ohms. Created using obsolete corporate video equipment from the 20th century and generating real-time video landscapes and infinite textures.  This is Pattern Language’s debut release, scheduled for release in June 2017.

Pattern Language is the new project of Chris Frain. Currently based in Boulder, Colorado, Frain was previously keyboard player for the indie-pop band The Giranimals (where he developed a love for the staple sounds of the Minimoog and Melotron instruments) and bassist for the power-prog rock trio Tanuki. In 2013, Frain decided to pursue a solo electronic music career after a chance viewing of the BBC4 documentary “Synth Britannia”, which made him fall back in love with the sound of the synthesizer.

“Each one of the pieces on this album were started from some very basic idea about sound or structure or primary influence, and yet I was surpirsed by all the twists and turns they took through the stages of composition, recording, and mixing," says Chris Frain. "It’s still fun to listen to each piece and how they took on a life of its own to become something new and unexpected, even to me.”

‘Total Squaresville’ is the ninth release on Happy Robots Records and is distributed by Cargo Records, mastered for analogue warmth on digital devices. Facebook here.

'By Time We Get There' is indicative of the layered synthy sounds to be found in this six track collection. Uncomplicated and melodic, each piece is remarkably addictive. Whether you cut your teeth on Kraftwerk or Neu, or similar artists more recent, there is a good chance this will appeal.


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Yeomans - Chloé - Los Colognes - Alan Getto

Yeomans - Just As You Want.

Background - Yeomans new single "Just As You Want" is out April 30 via NYK. This is a video for anyone who’s ever been sober at a party. It can be a strange and isolating experience to watch everyone getting gradually more intoxicated and their judgement getting cloudier without experiencing the same effects. Sometimes you have to get creative to make it fun for yourself too." - Kieran Heilbron (Yeomans).

Garage rock bands always tend to weigh heavily on the retro vibe and Toronto’s Yeomans are no exception, naming themselves after the hardworking farmers of colonial America. However, their music isn’t quite that ancient. Glimmers of 60s fuzz pedals, melodic surf, psych grooves and reverb soaked vocals haunt the Yeomans’ sound.

The band formed in 2013, during the height of the Rob Ford crack scandal. Guitarist Kieran Heilbron met then Yeomans’ drummer Jocelyn while selling “Rob Ford Smokes Crack” t-shirts to raise money for the Gawker "Crackstarter" campaign. Realizing they were both into psych and both looking for a new project they started jamming and Yeomans was born, joined by Calgarian Ian Kilburn on vocals & guitar.

Signing with NYK Records in 2016, Yeomans released “My Fish Got Drunk”, a shimmering surf instrumental, as their first single with the label in November 2016. Facebook here, Bandcamp here.

We featured the bands first single back in November last year and I had no hesitation in sharing the new single 'Just As You Want'. The sparkling surf vibes are there again, along with some psych rock overtones and a melodic hook that courses it's way through this dazzling song.


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Chloé - The Dawn.

Background - Sounding the promise of long days ahead and late nights to follow with its opening salvos, Chloé’s The Dawn heralds the return of the Paris-based DJ and producer, and a new dawn in her ever-evolving career.

Indeed, The Dawn is her inaugural release on her own label Lumière Noire, which she recently set up as a separate entity and of course for her infamous Rex Club night, which has since 2014 become a bit of a club house for Parisian electronic music fans. Operating Lumière Noire as a fully-fledged label will enable Chloé to release a new full-length album (of which The Dawn is the lead single) sometime in the next few months.

Over the ten-plus minutes of The Dawn, a spoken-word track languishes over melodic washes in a dramatic progression that evokes a novel, or noir-ish cinema – a method that the producer has taken a shine to since Take Care. This cultivation of the strange and the beautiful has become her calling card, putting her in a league with likeminded producers, who take the basic tenets of techno and inject them with their own singular poetic visions. A visual-arts analogue could be found in Noémie Goudal’s photographs which grace the EP’s cover as they will Chloé’s upcoming releases.

This stirring aesthetic gives The Dawn a slightly cerebral dimension, which is taken to new depths by Dixon’s stubbornly technoid remix. The Berlin-based whiz kid, who has over the last few years risen to the top of the international electronic music scene, inverts Chloé’s light-drenched, full-bodied production into a tense, captivating chiaroscuro. Website here, Facebook here, live dates on Beehive Candy's tour page.

'The Dawn' is ten minutes of electro bliss. The songs rhythmic flow slowly evolves through sonic alterations, whilst the spoken word lyrics act as a central piece and add to the atmosphere. Wonderful!

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Los Colognes - Sneakin' Breadcrumbs.

Background - Nashville quintet Los Colognes will release their third album The Wave on May 12th via Big Deal Media / Thirty Tigers. One of the highest and rarest aspirations in popular music is to reach for the transcendental, to access the spirit. On The Wave, Los Colognes succeeds at this – in breaking through the confines of everyday pop song lyricism to tell a holistic story. It’s not a concept piece, but it’s a brooding and joyful song cycle filled with philosophical rumination, effortless hooks, inspiring musicianship, and expansive arrangements. It’s an album perfectly suited of the current zeitgeist of unease and hope.

Unlike the live approach used to record the group’s previous records, The Wave was built from the ground up with attention to each part. There is a certain economy of space in the songs that feels deliberate, while never ceasing to be warm and inclusive. Guitar and keyboard lines drift off each other in between lyrical exchanges while Mortenson propels the beat, sometimes meditative, sometimes driving. 

The journey to finish recording The Wave was its own quest for Rutherford and Mortenson, a more deliberate process of creation and craft that shows a band becoming fully aware of its voice and its vision. Los Colognes have given us a singular collection of quietly anthemic tunes held together by philosophical reflection and damn fine rock and roll chops. The Wave is coming. Website here, Facebook here, live dates on Beehive Candy's tour page.

We featured the first track shared from the new album back in January and were pretty excited about the forthcoming release then.  'Sneakin' Breadcrumbs' pretty much confirms the optimism was well founded and only a few days now, to wait for the rest.

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Alan Getto - Into the Briars.

Background - Alternative folk rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, Alan Getto announces his debut album, Versus, due out August 2017. The LP was recorded over one long weekend at Studio 101A in Southern New Hampshire. The recordings were mixed by Simon Katz and mastered by Jonathan Wyner (David Bowie, Nirvana, Miles Davis) a Berklee professor and Chief Mastering Engineer at M-Works.

Inspired by paradoxical elements of life and examining his own transition into his current lifestyle, Getto finds a perfect balance between various dualities through his artistic expression. Having recently located to an unfinished farmhouse in Western Pennsylvania from Brooklyn, Versus presents Getto's personal confrontation with his own ambivalence. The album intentionally plays with cliché oppositions such as nature vs. the city, good vs. the bad and male vs. female. One can’t exist without the other, and for anything to exist, there must be a degree of conflict: "the versus." 

Getto's guitar-driven, simple melodies act as a backbone for the lyrical emphasis in his music. Having studied literature, theology, and philosophy in college, his lyrics pay homage to these intense, existential topics, but with a unique, irreverent spin. Tracks, "Soap In My Whiskey," and "It's Fine; You're Ugly," present Getto's blunt voice and narrative, with gorgeous melodies and organic, roots-y instrumentals. Getto is inspired by rock, blues and folk legends, such as Tom Waits and The Band, and newer folk artists including, Steve Gunn, Lady Lamb, The Tallest Man On Earth and Deer Tick. 

Once Getto had the concept, which was embodied by Leah Blanchette’s cover art, he enlisted friends to play on the album: three out of four members of the Boston “guerilla roots” band Damn Tall Buildings, along with cellist Kurt Villiard, drummer Tim Maxwell and pianist Jeff Davison.

Having previously released a live EP, All Different Times, Versus is the first full-length body of work to be released by Getto. While in Brooklyn, Getto performed around the city at various venues but has since moved out to the country, where he'll finish renovations on his farmhouse during the release of the record. Facebook here, Bandcamp here.

Alan Getto's vocals are personable and engaging as 'Into the Briars' beautifully demonstrates. The songs understated folk rock music allows the passion and power to develop through the singing, and boy it does.

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