Dreamaway have released 'American Illusion' which is a fabulous indie pop song. The lyrics are a little bit protest, the music is stylish, and the chorus harmonies are just wonderful.
Yet another high class indie band from Brighton (England) this time we have Nature TV and their latest track 'She Wants To See You Cry,' which is a polished and heartfelt affair.
ell ivy hails from Grimsby, England a town that at one time was renowned for it's huge fishing trawler fleet (nothing like a spot of history). Anyhow ell ivy deserves some attention as the new song 'Still Dreaming' is a delicious singer-songwriter piece, that reminds me a little of Beth Orton, now there's a compliment.
We have a lyric video for a fine country pop/rocker from Stephanie Owens entitled 'Slingshot'. It's very catchy and should appeal way beyond just country music lovers.
Our second feature for Mr Ben & The Bens in under month is for the new music video for 'Gravediggers Dance'. The video tells a story and is clever in it's own right, the song on the other hand is beautiful indie pop and exceedingly catchy.
Populuxe just released 'Where Did I Go Wrong'. The trio share a rhythmic and tad funky rocker and rather than over doing the power, the vocals are allowed to stand out and add further refinement to the song.
Hayley Reardon new song 'Forgiveness' is a striking indie folk song with a creative and high quality musical backdrop, something her vocals more or less demand, as they wonderfully exude emotion and genuine feeling.
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Neilson Family - TV.Neilson Family, are a jangly pop group from Portland. Today they release a video for a new single 'T.V' taken off of the album, Double Life (also out today 10/11 on Jigsaw Records).
From the band - Here's a little bit more about us and the song. Formed by four Portland music scene veterans, Neilson Family is a jangle pop band that prizes subtle guitar work, close harmonies and wry lyrics. Their new album, Double Life, uses these elements to explore persona--the ones we use in intimate relationships, at work and about town. The song "TV" is about dating a local celebrity—based on a true story!
Neilson Family was formed in an abandoned warehouse in industrial southeast Portland by four Portland musicians who may or may not be actually related. They combine chiming guitars and a driving backbeat with sweet vocal harmonies and wry lyrics to form songs that are guaranteed to get stuck in your head.
Neilson Family is comprised of singer/songwriter/ lead guitarist Jamie Neilson, bassist and backup vocalist Annie Fifer (Yellow Room), guitarist Amit Gordon (ex-Layperson) and drummer Vince LiRocchi, who found themselves crossing paths and talking song at many a basement and dive bar show.
Double Life was recorded at Halfling Studios with Adam Lee (Stephen Malkmus, Kyle Craft) and mastered by Gus Elg (Mascaras, Psychomagic). Testimonial: “If I had to pick one band to go to Olive Garden with, to share in bottomless breadsticks and soup, it would be Neilson Family.”-Ali Muhareb, booker, Firkin Tavern.
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Dreamaway - American Illusion.American Illusion is the second single from the new indie supergroup Dreamaway consisting of producers Ben Talmi (Sky Fereria,Wild Nothing, Manchester Orchestra), Cale Hawkins (Raveena, Joshua Thew) Margaret Sohn (Miss Gritt) and members of Daughter, Wilsen, etc.
This song is an upbeat, bass and synth heavy pop song dealing with political and social issues our generation experiences. This will be the follow up single to the debut single "We Get On Somehow" - These songs will appear on the debut EP from Dereamaway titled - ' We Get On Somehow- Out December 13th.
About Dreamaway - In an era when the spotlight is often cast on a single artist or personality, Dreamaway is a brand new supergroup comprised of Ben Talmi (Sky Fererria, Wild Nothing, Manchester Orchestra, Tokyo Police Club) Cale Hawkins (Quincy Jones, Linda Perry, Raveena) Dan Drohan (Maggie Rogers, Tei Shi, Olden Yolk) Margaret Sohn (Miss Grit, Flint Eastwood, My Brightest Diamond) Kate Steinberg (Elle King,Human Natural, Maelyn Jarmon).
In 2019 the group gathered at Talmi’s Greylock Records in Brooklyn to create what would become the debut EP ‘We Get On Somehow’. Four lead singers make for lush vocal arrangements with songs that spread a message of optimism to all in todays hyper-connected world in which so many people feel overworked, disillusioned, and oppressed.
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Brighton’s indie production line shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon if latest exports Nature TV are anything to go by.
Newly signed to cult indie label Heist or Hit (Her’s, Pizzagirl, Honey Moon), the dreamy quartet announce their arrival with spellbinding lead single She Wants To See You Cry, the first track taken from the band’s forthcoming EP out later this autumn.
Forming at Brighton’s acclaimed music college (BIMM) and subsequently honing their craft on the city’s live circuit, the four-piece have since opened for Swimming Tapes and will be hitting the road alongside resident do-woppers Trudy and the Romance on their UK tour throughout October.
Speaking ahead of the release, frontman Guy Bangham explained: “I wrote the song quite a while ago when I was going through a classic case of heartbreak. It’s kind of me overthinking things and playing out conversations by myself, running through previous examples and scenaries then feeling paranoid about it all, before trying to rationalise everything”.
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ell ivy is a new pop artist from a small town in the north of England called Grimsby. Being called a dreamer all her life, ell ivy puts this across in her music with lyrics that show a yearning for more. Catchy choruses, dreamy melodies and heartfelt lyrics, ell ivy’s music is crafted with her heart and soul.
Still Dreaming, the debut single by ell ivy combines the hypnotic with the grand. Lush, soft and melodic verses accompanied by acoustic guitar melodies and ambient keys subtly transform into the semi-dramatic when distant drums materialize and the fitting dream-like chorus is delivered.
ell ivy delivers a truly beautiful song with depth and emotion sung over an astounding sonic soundscape. ell ivy has been likened to artists such as, Kacey Musgraves, Phoebe Bridges & Nina Nesbitt.
“What an artist, what a way to start off. Looking forward to more material.” Chris Berrow, Presenter, BBC Introducing Lincolnshire.
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“Slingshot,” the uplifting and inspiring single by Lynchburg, Virginia native Stephanie Owens, encourages listeners to keep pushing through and bounce back when faced with hardships in life. "I am releasing a lyric video for ‘Slingshot’ because I want to highlight the empowering statements in a special way. While listening to inspiring lyrics can absolutely motivate us, I think we can sometimes better internalize things when we experience them visually. I want my fans and all who hear ‘Slingshot’ to feel that this is indeed their comeback song, so I believe this lyric video will help people really embrace these affirmations as their own!"
Owens co-wrote the song with Evan Cline, and Melissa Sheridan with production by Brad Hill, Evan Cine, and Stephanie Owens. Download and stream the music on all digital platforms, including Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and Amazon here.
When Stephanie Owens was only seven years old, she landed her first professional recording gig. She made her film debut when she was chosen to play the starring role of Faith Garrett in Finding Faith the movie, co-starring Erik Estrada. Stephanie moved from Lynchburg, Virginia to Nashville in 2013 to pursue her dream of becoming a country recording artist. In 2017, Stephanie felt that she had the right songs to release and began gathering a production team for her debut EP, released on May 18, 2018. October 2018, she made her national television debut on The Huckabee Show, where she performed and shared her eating disorder recovery story. Stephanie’s music, official music video, and story are receiving interest from national sources and have been highlighted by a number of websites and blogs.
Stephanie has also launched a School Assembly Program, in coordination with the National Eating Disorders Association, where she sings, shares her story, and talks about body positivity and social media pressures. Her new single, "Slingshot", was released on Sept, 13, 2019. "I believe that every person has been given a unique story and gift that, when shared, can leave a legacy that echoes into eternity. I will always write and release songs that communicate what is important to me and give a glimpse into my true story. I definitely want my music to be entertaining, but, more than anything, I want it to be an inspiration to those who hear it." Enthusiastically-embracing the journey ahead, Stephanie is committed to using her God-given talents to impact the world.
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Mr Ben and The Bens share a downright spooky video for "The Gravediggers Dance", taken from the forthcoming album Who Knows Jenny Jones? which is out on 25 October via champions of Lancaster's thriving music scene, Bingo Records. For The Rabbits posted a premiere, saying it "combines the gentle drift of Ultimate Painting and the tender harmonic flourish of Sweet Baboo."
Accompanied by a new video from resident Bingo Records auter Tom Diffenthal, this latest song gives fans of the idiosyncratic Lancastrian songwriter, Ben Hall, further insight into the world that is created on the album – which is the tale of shrinking violet called Jenny from an area of Sheffield called Pitsmoor in the 1970s, who gets abducted by aliens and becomes the best disco dancer in town. Depicting an otherworldly creature tending to a desolate graveyard in some unspecified period during an apocalyptic future, the video considers how we look after places that are special to us, and finds beauty and creativity in time spent alone. The song is a slightly moodier direction for the band which creates an otherworldly atmosphere.
As Ben explains: “The song is a pivotal moment in the record's narrative where the protagonist Jenny comes across the local gravedigger who claims to have been abducted by aliens. We wanted to reference that side to the story in the film but indirectly, so I created this character 'The Beast' who sort of acts as the caretaker of graveyards long after the human race has disappeared.”
The video for "The Gravedigger’s Dance" features Bingo Records' Lloyd Bent as the beast. Tom Diffenthal was the director of photography and Zac Barfoot fed everybody with some very good pasta.
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Populuxe is one of those trios that seems much bigger than it is (or maybe gets bigger the closer you look), artfully fusing incongruence and style into smartly dressed glam rock with substantial thematic undertakings. Their newest LP, Beauty in the Broken Place, is a concept album, bordering on rock opera turf - a wide scope, high fidelity sweep grounded by a collective love of Curtis Mayfield, Sly Stone, and Stevie Wonder, and held aloft by an equal love for the complex, shiny dirt of King Crimson, Zappa and Zeppelin; it’s warm and close, with the humanism, defiance, and clear-eyed compassion that defined much of the rock and R&B records of the early 70’s.
The multi-faceted LP holds a mirror to the current Western cultural crisis through the prism of the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre on October 27, 2018, when Shabbat morning services were interrupted by a terrorist assault, resulting in 11 dead and 7 injured. “It’s an event that clearly has much broader implications,” band Spearhead Rob Shapiro reflects. “The massacre hit me hard, and I was incredibly moved when people congregated in Prospect Park that night and spontaneously sang Kaddish (the Jewish prayer of mourning.) That was the moment when the title sort of announced itself to me (“beauty in the broken place”), and within hours I started writing, and then the material and arc just started to pour out. I did my best to ride the biggest wave I ever caught.”
Shapiro (an award-winning narrator and voice actor as well), is joined by Berklee School-trained bassist Mike Mallory and international drummer/percussionist Mark Pardy – a first-call drummer for major theater tours (with endorsements from Sabian cymbals and signature ProMark sticks). They form the tight-knit and deftly musical sound that has defined the band for over a decade. What you hear on a Populuxe record is a bedrock of the three of them listening to each other and reacting in real time -- an authentic musical conversation, often first takes with no attempts at grid-compliant perfection. An apocryphal anecdote -- the title track was recorded at the end of a very tiring day, when Rob had pneumonia, and was cutting the session in pajamas; it’s the one and only take, live bass, drums and guitar.
That’s how it works with them, and with material coming at break-neck speed, diversity, and complexity, they banded together to craft their most ambitious record to date. Beauty in the Broken Place is due out on October 27, the year anniversary of the massacre.
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Amidst a slew of European tour dates, Hayley Reardon is announcing the release of her new single and video "Forgiveness". The emerging indie-folk artist says, “'Forgiveness' is a song about demanding some sense of accountability for the way we treat people and the planet.
I wrote it thinking about "Mother Earth" as the original mother -- the mother of all mothers -- and how in many ways she bears the greatest burden of all." The single comes after the September release of "Everything Else". "Forgiveness" is available for streaming or download on all major platforms.
Hayley is an emerging indie-folk singer-songwriter who has travelled the globe with intimate performances of her music. Her raw artistry boasts a lyrical and melodic weight far beyond her years, and her music has been described as “brilliantly moving folk/pop with a lyrical depth and soul” (Performer Magazine) and “a melancholy little masterpiece” (American Songwriter Magazine). After officially showcasing at last year's International Folk Alliance Festival, Reardon released her album Where I Know You that illustrated her understated depth and wisdom far more in common with the likes of Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams, and Tracy Chapman than many of today’s young pop singer/songwriters.
Through her soft guitar picking and distinctively rich voice, Reardon eloquently recalls the folk tradition of yesterday with an unmistakably modern acoustic sound that fans have come to adore around the world. Hayley is currently on tour in Europe through the end of October.
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