Rosie Carney - Maleena - Alla Igityan

Rosie Carney has released a new single 'i spoke to god' alongside her new E.P. We shared 'When I Look At You' a month ago and this is another gorgeous track from this consistently creative artist. === Maleena shares 'Don't Forget Me' and it's a refined modern pop song with beautiful vocals. === From Alla Igityan we have 'Sad Song' which may have sad sentiments lyrically, but it's also a refined and very pleasing piece.
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Rosie Carney - i spoke to god.

Rosie Carney releases new single "i spoke to god" alongside new EP i dreamed i was the night today. The EP was made in New York with Thomas Bartlett (Doveman), known for his work with Sufjan Stevens, Vagabon, Florence & The Machine and more, after the success of her debut album Bare.

‘i spoke to god’ was written in Rosie’s family home in Ireland after a 3-month tour, as she explains: “I was very heartbroken at the time and I remember it rained nonstop for a week and I literally didn’t leave my bedroom. All in all, the melody came first, fairly quickly and the lyrics followed slowly after as a poem but made up of gibberish.”

“I basically floated around my room like a ghost talking to myself,” she continues. Despite the title, she says “I’m not religious and I didn’t actually speak to god (disappointing I know), but when I did speak to myself, I pretended it was being heard by something much bigger than all of this.”

Although it comes from a place of pain, "i spoke to god" has an edge of optimism: “this song is predominantly a breakup song, but the message is very much one of self-reflection during a time of obsessing over someone who didn’t love me anymore.” "i spoke to god" follows previous single "when i look at you", an intimate cut capturing the last 10 tumultuous years of Rosie’s life which featured her bravely dancing on camera for the first time.

The EP follows Carney’s critically acclaimed debut album Bare which saw NPR write; “her songs feel lived-in and worn, conveying a bruised ache well beyond her years” and glowing reviews from The Line of Best Fit (9/10), Mojo, The Sunday Times and Uncut. "i spoke to god" is available on all online platforms April 10th alongside upcoming EP i dreamed i was the night, via Color Study, a self-described “personal pop” indie label founded in 2019 by her manager Spencer Kelley.

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Maleena - Don't Forget Me.

18-year old pop artist and high school senior, Maleena, today released a heart-wrenching video dedicated to the worldwide class of 2020, who are increasingly seeing their schools closed for the rest of their senior year due to the coronavirus pandemic.  The video for “Don’t Forget Me” bounces between scenes of current-day Maleena isolated in her cap and gown and scenes of future Maleena looking through a box of memories from her senior year, including a newspaper documenting the school closures.

“It is heartbreaking to know that we, as the Class of 2020, have unexpectedly already spent our last days in our schools without a proper goodbye,” said Maleena.  “But, I want to let all my classmates throughout the world that we are not alone in this.  We are bonded together by these unprecedented events and we will be a stronger generation because of them.  We can’t forget that and we can’t forget each other.”

Maleena began her musical career in 2010, in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. She has been involved in numerous musical groups, ranging from the hard rock band, Chip & The Charge Ups, to Pittsburgh Youth Chorus.

Maleena has been performing her own songs in shows that feature singer-songwriters since 2017. She has been writing music for the entirety of her life and finally made a breakthrough in her music career with the release of “Uninvited” in 2019.  She continues to write and record her original music and plans to release a 6-song EP in 2020.

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Alla Igityan - Sad Song.

Being a software engineer by profession and a singer/songwriter by passion, I am super-blessed to enjoy two distinct yet exciting careers at the same time. Back in school life, when everyone was preparing for university, I decided to opt for vocal lessons along with getting apt at playing violin and guitar. That marked a new phase of my life. From turning on karaoke to pretend myself performing at my concert to actually recording my favorite songs and uploading them on YouTube, I eventually achieved that level where I wrote my first song.

While I love the extensive troubleshooting and technical exposure of my day job as an engineer, singing is an entirely different world for me. Having Bob Dylan, Jason Isbell, John Prine and many other amazing songwriters as my inspiration, I strongly believe in openly expressing my ideologies and personality in the songs I write.

I was born and raised in Yerevan, Armenia, and even though in the last couple of years I started performing at the local bars/pubs and having success there, in 2019 I left my comfort zone to move to Berlin, Germany. I believe being a part of a much bigger music community will bring more challenges, and will also let me learn and grow even faster.

This song is about unwanted changes that sometimes happen in our lives. It doesn’t matter if you stay strong and believe that it’s gonna work out for the best - sometimes you just can’t help but feel sad. I wrote this song a couple of years ago when I was going through something similar in my life, when I wanted to go back to the way everything was before. With everything going on in the world at this moment this feels like an appropriate time to play this song.

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MYNTH - Forever Honey - Lesley Barth - Percy

MYNTH just shared 'Laurel' which is the first single from their third studio album due in September, the song itself is a gorgeous mix of guitar led Electro music and lush vocals. === We had the pleasure of sharing 'Christian' by Forever Honey a few weeks back and they have returned with 'Twenty-Five' which is another refreshing mixture of melodic pop and rock. === Lesley Barth first single from her forthcoming album is 'Woman Looking Back at Me' a hook filled song that combines Blondie style disco beat with reflective lyrics. === UK band Percy just released 'Love Song' accompanied with a video, the bands powerful post punk sound remains intact with addictive vocals, it's a fine taster for their next album ‘Seaside Donkeys’.
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MYNTH - Laurel.

'LAUREL’ was out yesterday April 10 and is the first single from MYNTH’s 3rd studio album (SHADES | MYNTH), which will be released in September 2020.

With their new single, the twins Giovanna and Mario have refined the sound of MYNTH, whilst maintaining their signature electronic trip hop vibe. In ‘LAUREL’ the guitar is at the forefront, creating gloomy and edgy mood, balanced with a dreamlike state of mind.

‘LAUREL’ is an unobtrusive companion on the road to nowhere on a mild spring night, providing insight into a bizarre and surreal world of sounds and images. Director of the video Gabriel Hyden worked with the twins, and all three took inspiration from David Lynch to bring their vision to life. They play with impressions of a foreign sphere. In the context of self-isolation, emotions are taking shape and embody a nightmarish feeling of oppression, which occasionally gets burst by hopeful sunrays and bright soundscapes.

It’s when loneliness and lust for life ask the protagonist for a dance, she realizes she’s trapped in her own dull and seemingly perfect world, owning everything she needs. But more and more she’s losing the ability to live in the moment. Everything moves past her, she tries to figure out what’s happening in the world, and in her loneliness she almost becomes the voyeur of these little puppets out there in the carousel that rotates ever faster. A spinning top that draws the audience into madness. "I run away, I run away" - over and over, we run away.

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Forever Honey - Twenty-Five

Forever Honey's second single "Twenty-Five" came out yesterday Friday, April 10, along with an accompanying music video.

Forever Honey is the Brooklyn-based project of Liv Price (lead vocals, guitar), Aida Mekonnen (lead guitar, vocals), Steve Vannelli (drums), and Jack McLoughlin (bass).

Finding common ground over a love of the jangly guitar-driven pop of the late ‘80s and harmony-saturated rock of the ‘60s, the four draw lyrical inspiration from personal experiences and self-reflection.

The band’s first single “Christian” was released at the end of February and appeared on Spotify’s Fresh Finds: Indie editorial playlist.

Forever Honey's debut EP "Pre-Mortem High" is slated for an April 24, 2020 release.

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Lesley Barth - Woman Looking Back at Me.

We are excited to share the first single, "Woman Looking Back at Me" from NYC singer-songwriter Lesley Barth.  The track is a reflection on negative self-talk and chronicaling Lesley's journey of transformation as she quite her corporate job to rebuild her sense of identity.

Lesley's remarks on the "Woman Looking Back at Me":

Woman Looking Back at Me is a song I wrote on the bus after going to a friend’s holiday party where I felt super self-conscious and self-critical.  I had begun meditating daily and I think that caused the flash of inspiration - all of the sudden, I thought, “wait a second, who is this bitch criticizing me nonstop in my mind?”  Putting some distance between my negative self-talk and my true self was really helpful, and, you know, why not set it to a Blondies-inspired disco beat?

Lesley's remarks on the album I wrote this album during the process of completely uprooting my life, and recorded it as I was still navigating a life without structure and regular paychecks. It's an album for these uncertain times where many people feel their lives have been stripped to the bone, they've woken up from a daydream, and they weren't sure what tomorrow would bring because that's where I felt I was when I wrote it.  Almost all the savings I had for quitting my job got wiped away by healthcare costs, and I had to scramble."

We urge you take some time with this heartwarming collection of beautiful songs. "Big Time Baby" is out 5/15/2020.

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Percy - Love Song.

Yorkshire based Percy gained notoriety in the early nineties when their home brand of left-field post-punk led to a record deal with legendary Leeds label Mook Records and consequently airplay from John Peel & Steve Lamacq. They made ‘single of the week’ in Melody Maker and rode the wave of minor indie celebrity status.

Songwriter/lyricist Colin Howard (Vox / Guitars) and Andy Wiles (Bass) have continued to operate as ‘Percy’ since, undergoing several line-up changes over the years, most notably with ex-Housemartins’ Hugh Whitaker joining them on drums between 1997-2004. Whilst Colin and Andy have been together such a long time developing an almost telepathic connection, they both agree that there has never been as much energy and eclectic productivity in the band since they were joined three years ago by Jason Wilson on drums and Paula Duck on synths.

A lover of improvisation, Jason brings some real hammer to the tracks when required and amazing subtlety when space is needed. Paula's synths bring a flourish and depth that, while commonplace in the proto-indie bands of the eighties, has all been swept away by the standard modern band set-up of guitar, bass and drums.

The process for new album ‘Seaside Donkeys’ started with the invitation from Vinyl Eddie Records of York to release an album on 12” vinyl. The band were inspired with the prospect of a vinyl album as this was something that had eluded them to date. There was a conscious intent to team up with a top level engineer and studio sympathetic to the band’s sound so they recruited Isaac Minnis at Crooked Room Studios in York, who has also recently been involved with breakthrough recordings by The Howl and The Hum and Avalanche Party.

True to the band’s punk ethos the album was recorded with the full band in a live room, with minimal separation and minimal overdubs. The recording included a number of songs so fresh the band were sight-reading as they were being recorded. In some cases, the final lyrics were yet to be written and the lyrics simply improvised on the day. This purposefully delivers that fresh and immediate sound to the recording, creating a white-knuckle ride for the band and listener alike at times.

First single from the album is double A-side ‘Seaside Donkey’ and ‘Love Song’. Out on April 3rd, they are poignant and relevant to a country and planet on the brink of unchartered waters, choc-full of slang from the north-east, and clearly showcasing the depth of style and quality among the band, whilst future single ‘Will Of The People’ with its in-your-face riff and swirling synths offers an ageless rage of being dragged off into isolation in a future that obsesses over the good old days, prophetically in the UK’s recent trials.

Elsewhere on the album ‘The People Who Drank Themselves to Death’ is a witness to decades of decay in the North of England. A memento mori to larger than life characters cut down to size by a culture that expects a daily excess of alcohol. ‘Big Lil’s’ is a fanciful story of a visit to the fabled pub of the same name on the Headrow in Leeds with its mock-saloon doors and a crowd that goes quiet when you enter the room.

The whole collection represents the gritty realism of the 2020s. There are big issues out there to wrestle with, and maybe this album just says: You are not alone out there. The album photography by Paula Duck, shot over multiple visits to Scarborough on the north-east coast is a witness document of the place before the impact of CV-19 and what Brexit will become.

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Camille Delean - Orpine

Camille Delean has just shared her new single 'Fault Line (Late July)'. The singer - songwriter delivers a mixture of folk and roots rock, the musical arrangement is refined and a wonderful match for her engaging vocals. === Back in February we shared 'Sondern' from Orpine who have returned with 'Two Rivers' where the duo once again delight with their creative & intimate modern folk sound.
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Camille Delean — Fault Line (Late July).

Montréal-based singer-songwriter, Camille  Delean, is sharing her enticing new single, ‘Fault Line (Late July)’. In tandem with releasing new music, Delean is announcing news of her sophomore album, Cold House Burning which is due for release via the Hull, Québec-based artist-run label, E-Tron Records on June 5, 2020.

Whilst becoming something of a staple on the East Coast Canadian music scene over the past few years, supporting the likes Timber Timbre, Fink and Andy Shauf along the way, the new album trails Delean’s 2017 debut, Music On the Grey Mile, an album that introduced the artist’s distinct palette. Whereas her first record was a cumulative travelogue, a reflection of disorientated years on the move, Cold House Burning summons a present-tense examination of its opposite: a troubled settling down. Inertia brought on by illness developed a feedback loop of sorts, a spiralling sense of solitude; it was a strictly interior world decorated with isolation, homebound routines, and internal dialogues, pieced together with little victories.

With a swelling tempo and carefully sewn layers of percussion, strings and saxophone, ‘Fault Line (Late July)’ explores the perilous pitfalls that surrounded her physical and psychological state when writing. “It’s a hyper-anxious way of moving through the world,” she says. “Full of warnings, as if being alive meant getting away with something. A snapshot of a state of mind: a good place to visit, but not to linger.” Though sombre in tone, it acts as a true beacon of hope on the album, shining a torchlight through her malaise and looking it in the eye.

Written over an extended period of near seclusion at home in Montréal, the album has morphed into a true child of the city, welding together a collection of songs recorded with a pool of trusted collaborators from the city: Delean’s co-producer, Michael Feuerstack (Bell Orchestre, Snailhouse), Jeremy Gara (Arcade Fire), Mathieu Charbonneau (Last Ex, Organ Mood) Philippe Charbonneau (Scattered Clouds, Esmerine), Joshua Zubot (Land of Kush) and Adam Kinner (Land of Kush, Leif Vollebekk).

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Orpine - Two Rivers.

Orpine are Eleanor Rudge and Oliver Catt. Migratory birds nesting in disparate climates; singing in harmony 300 miles removed. Being outside and keeping off the internet. Mostly apart but never alone. Following brief stints in bands and singing on one another’s records, the pair lost touch. Ceasing to make music, days punctuated by silence, Eleanor made contact.

Having not seen one another for years, they ventured to a cottage in the Scottish Borders at the foot of Black Hill. With only a stove for heat and a car full of groceries for sustenance, four days of writing passed.

The result is debut album ‘Grown, Ungrown’, produced by Jonathan Coddington (The Magic Gang, Joanna Gruesome). Delicately branching and bereft of irony and cynicism, the songs have room to inflate and deflate, to meander, and shake loose like an antidote to sagging spirits. Harmonies wash against gentle strums and climb from the ambient to the anthemic as Orpine turn their backs on modern absurdity with nerve and solemnity. Like a tiny figure on the horizon casting a huge shadow on the mountain, there is a humbleness about ‘Grown Ungrown’ that projects awe without hubris.

While the bulk of the record was recorded in The Crow’s Nest in Hackney, all of the strings and brass were added at Greenman Swaler – a secret place Oliver helped some friends build when he was a teenager. Decamping from the studio to a den-like locale befits an album with a narrative that is generously autobiographical. “I’ve worked with Jonny since before we knew what we were doing so we have a good understanding of how the other works. The desk has more channels now but the relationship remains the same.” states Oliver.

First single, ‘Sondern’ is a song about grief and defeat. Written around the time of the first Brexit deadline, the title is a German conjunction that derives from an old Germanic word which meant ‘to separate’. “I liked the idea that this use of the word is outdated and it had morphed into something it was never originally intended to be – which was a lot of the criticism being levelled at the European Union on the Leave side.” Its movements lurch, and contract and expand with an inevitable seasonality, from giddy summer to lunar winter, before melting into the payload of a tender spring: “I love you. I always did.”

‘Two Rivers’ speaks of the purifying feeling of laying on the bed of the River Ouse near Mount Caburn, near Elanor’s home town. Submerged and held quietly in water, the industry of transport links dissolves to be replaced by the sunken stillness of the natural world. “Easier to be, than to be gone.” muses Eleanor. The second river, and namesake, the River Ouseburn runs down the road from Oliver in Newcastle. Two little river versions of each other, hundreds of miles apart, striving for the same creative open waters.

The record’s title is taken from the Walt Whitman poem ‘On The Beach At Night Alone’ and is intended as an expression of being between two things; the theme of duality characterises the work: knowing and not knowing, understanding and not understanding. A state of flux that Orpine have imbued into their live shows; depending on the performance, they have the ability to call upon drums, strings and horn sections, or opt for the simplicity of two voices and two guitars.

Not subscribers to the cult of modernity, Orpine choose instead to make visors with their hands and squint back to landscapes left untouched. A return to nature is favored over the fatigue of likes and followers, the hum of commerce logistics and temporal edge of diversified eating experiences. The countryside liberates Eleanor and Oliver, enabling them to view the modern world, select all and delete.

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Sunshine Boys - Diners - The Roseline - CIEL

Sunshine Boys just released their second single 'Summertime Kids' taken from their forthcoming album 'Work and Love'. The Song has fresh positive rock vibes and plenty of musical hooks. === Our second helping of Diners this year comes in the form of the new single and video for 'Big Times' which oozes indie pop charm both musically and visually. === Last Friday The Roseline released their new album 'Good Grief' and it's a refined collection of Americana, folk and country rock beautifully arranged and delivered. === CIEL make their third appearance this year on Beehive Candy with 'Same Old Times With U' and once again the Brighton based band are on top form with this dream pop/rock piece.
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Sunshine Boys - Summertime Kids.

"Summertime Kids" is the second single from the Chicago band's sophomore album Work and Love, which will be released on Friday, May 1 via Room F/Pravda Records (CD and digital) and Cheap Kiss Records (vinyl).

Dag on the formation of the band - "SUNSHINE BOYS started after Freda and I were separately asked to help round out a band being assembled by our friends Brett Neveu (yes, the amazing playwright) and Rich Sparks (yes, the amazing cartoonist), based on their spiky pop tunes.

When Jason Narducy (yes, the famously elbowed musician) was unable to be a part of the team, I leaned in heavily and told Brett and Rich that we HAD to bring in Jackie Schimmel on bass. They kind of had no choice. This five-piece collective (called Sex Ritter: did you ever see us?) gelled quickly and we fleshed out and banged out Brett and Rich’s songs for a couple of really fun gigs. I think I had an ulterior motive, though, and that was to get Freda and Jackie together.

I knew that Jackie’s brilliantly melodic basslines would fit perfectly within the hypnotic and musical gallop of Freda’s drums, as well as the unkempt jangle of my guitar. We knew right away that we had something as soon as we started rehearsing with Sex Ritter, and we decided immediately that the three of us were a band. After more than a few years of not writing songs (I was busy learning a couple hundred songs by other artists for my cover band Expo’76), I began to crank out a bunch of material which Sunshine Boys set about learning in the summer of 2016. Deadlines are great motivators, and we’d asked Brett and Rich if we could open a Sex Ritter show in November (our debut!) and we worked in earnest throughout the fall.

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Diners - Big Times.

Lauren Records recently announced the new LP from Diners and now they are unveiling a new single and video "Big Times"

Leisure World (out April 24th) is the latest album from singer-songwriter Tyler Blue Broderick, who performs with the project Diners. Not only is it the most eclectic and ambitious album in the songwriter’s (already muscular) catalog to date—it’s one of the catchiest, most realized indie pop records released in years.

"It’s the American Dream: move to Los Angeles with high hopes, scan Craigslist for a little too long, and move away with a trove of songwriting material dealing with the absurdity of the entertainment capital of the world." says Flood Magazine of Diners upcoming LP.

Like all of their work, Leisure World—which Broderick scrapped and rerecorded several times before landing on an aesthetic they found satisfactory—draws on the most enduring aspects of pop’s past. Its 13 tracks bring to mind the technicolored melodies of ‘60s pop icons like the Beatles and Zombies, the
chilled-out pop proficiency of Laurel Canyon legends like Carole King, and the wry, observational story- telling of Jonathan Richman, and, to cite a more recent artist, Jens Lekman.

But Leisure World isn’t merely a puree of a record store clerk archetype’s most coveted possessions; like all the best pop music, it gleefully somersaults across the bridge connecting the past and future, and much of Broderick’s instrumentation and lyrics feel planted firmly in the present. These are bite-sized, mid-fi symphonies replete with glorious Omichord sweeps, second-hand synths, and layers of sun-kissed vocal harmony.

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The Roseline - Good Grief (Album).

Lawrence, KS-based The Roseline crafts soulful alt country in the vein of Gram Parsons, Neko Case & Conor Oberst.

Spearheaded by singer-songwriter Colin Halliburton, the sixtet has proven themselves to be a prolific, providential and important act over the past decade. They’ve secured sync placements in ABC’s Nashville & Resurrection as well as USA’s Queen of the South, press in NPR, PopMatters and No Depression, and tours all over the US as well as Poland, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium, sharing the stage with Ryan Bingham, Split Lip Rayfield and Dylan LeBlanc.

15 years in and six full-lengths deep, The Roseline are now gearing up to release their most personal record to date, GOOD/GRIEF (released last Friday). The LP was written in reponse to a tramautic year in the life of Halliburton, in which he dealt with the death of his best friend (and keyboardist in The Roseline) as well as the loss of his mother-in-law to suicide. The tracks are flush with millennial existential dread, mashing life experience with fictional narratives, set to soft country shuffles and epic barn-burning rock.

“I’m drawn to writing about subjects that are dark but perhaps make the listener feel a little less alone,” Halliburton admits. “My favorite pieces of art always do that for me.”

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CIEL - Same Old Times With U.

Brighton-based risers CIEL share reflective new single 'Same Old Times With U' ahead of debut EP ‘Movement’, set for release April 10th.

Delivering moody alt-pop with magnetism, merging shoegaze with post-punk, noir rock and dream pop, ‘Movement’ revolves around a turning point, both physically and mentally, in Dutch frontwoman Michelle Hindriks’ life, as she moved back to her adopted hometown and gained inspiration to write the songs that form the band’s debut EP.

Comprising of acclaimed lead singles ‘The Shore’ and ‘Days’, the trio’s forthcoming EP highlights their early promise and intrinsic mystique, with praise arriving throughout the online community (Clash, Dork, Gigwise) and across the airwaves (BBC 6 Music), alongside welcome comparisons to Alvvays, Cate Le Bon and Our Girl.

Now calling Brighton their home, the cultured quartet have quickly earned kudos for their exquisite live show, with extensive live plans in place for later this year, following slots with the likes of Hatchie, Sasami and Penelope Isles, and accomplished sets at Eurosonic, Le Guess Who and SPOT Festival.

Detailing their EP release, frontwoman Hindriks explained: “The whole EP is about moving away from a more introspective period in which I felt quite distant from other people and moving into a new phase of my life in which I was able to open up. We’re now releasing this EP in a time in which we are forced to distance ourselves from one another; but I feel more connected to the people around me now that I did before”.

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