Taxiway - Rebecca McCartney - Joel Jerome - Zach Churchill - Big Little Lions

Taxiway - Four Star.

Taxiway releases “Four Star,” a song for late-night lonely hotel rooms, October 21 on Seven Plates Records. It is off the album, Absence, due out November 5. The single partially inspired by the film “Up in the Air” depicts a drunken conversation with a hotel’s front desk and the broader message that everything is temporary.

The song tells the story of a man who travels frequently for his job and learns that his company plans to lay him off and replace him with the overseas workers he’s been training. He runs up an enormous hotel room service tab and charges it to his company credit card out of spite. The song’s rolling snare gives a marching undercurrent of war waged on the soon-to-be-former employer. It serves as a reminder that a comfortable way of life can be one phone call away from completely falling apart. And corporate America will cut you loose without a second thought if it results in a temporary boost in their stock price.

The album is bookended by songs where the narrators feel unseen, unnoticed, and unappreciated. The characters in these songs aren’t just looking to leave; They want other people to *feel* their absence. The songs and atmospheric music that accompanies them, invoke the lonely, unfamiliar world of airports, hotels, offices, and empty city streets, centered by narrators whose lives are in a state of transit.

taxiway · Four Star

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Rebecca McCartney - Just Air.

Rebecca McCartney returns to the city where she was raised by a family of musicians and nerds, now with her own sound and much to say. She grew up immersed in NYC’s classical music world and her early songwriting eventually led to the release of an indie-folk record under the duo name Garden Party (2020) with her close friend, Jakob Leventhal. 

Now, after a college career studying jazz and playing in an R&B band, McCartney is preparing to release her genre-bending debut EP, How You Feel. Calling on her eclectic musical influences and experiences, the upcoming record generates an edgy, ethereal sound that celebrates McCartney’s buttery vocals and absorbing lyrical insights.

Rebecca is stoked to share her new single out on October 22nd. Here's what she had to say about it: "I wrote this song about a relationship that was softly suffocating. It was the feeling of, I love this person, but being with them takes up more of myself than I'm able to give, and I need to figure things out with a little more space. Like most of my songs, it started with me processing my emotions with my guitar and my voice, then turned into a more ambient soundscape when we produced it in the studio, something that was more evocative of the mellow sorrow of the song".

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Joel Jerome - When You Land (Porta One Demo).

LA’s “Behind-the-Scenes Indie King” (LA Weekly) Joel Jerome has released the demo version of his new single “When You Land” as a stripped down, solitary performance. An off-the-cuff take, the “Porta One Demo” leans in close with its heartbreaking narrative, and without the orchestral flourishes of the polished studio version manages to find its own delicate wings to soar.

An artist who is no stranger to the other side of the board, Joel has a long history of recording himself and others, adding, “My life in recording music began with a simple four track and I still believe there is magic that it imparts on any sound, an intimacy and almost private one on one conversation with the listener. It’s like listening to someone singing to you over an answering machine message.”

Joel Jerome first gained acclaim with his pioneering South Bay indie band dios (malos), founded with his brother Kevin in Hawthorne, CA, also the hometown of The Beach Boys and Redd Kross. The release of their self-titled debut album in 2004 led to the placement of their music in the Fox series and early-aughts cultural juggernaut The O.C. Jerome has since established himself as a producer, engineer, mentor and champion for scores of up and coming LA bands such as Cherry Glazerr, while continuing to write, produce and release his own music.

“‘When You Land’ is about waiting for someone to come back from a dark place” Jerome commented. “Questioning your stamina in doing so. Hanging on to hope even though you know it may be pointless. Ultimately it's about the tender torture of unconditional love.”

Jerome’s first full-length album with Dangerbird is due out next year and is a stunning showcase for his vast gifts as a singer, songwriter and lyricist. Recorded and produced by Jerome and mixed by Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Beck, Kurt Vile), the album shines a light on his creative journey as well as the unique mix of influences that shape his work: the timeless melodic pop (Beatles, Kinks, Beach Boys) and classic 70’s-era Mexican singer-songwriters that surrounded him growing up.

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Zach Churchill - Bartender.

Emerging singer-songwriter, Zach Churchill, has just released his debut single, “Bartender.” The California native opens up about a near-death experience in a powerful ballad. The song is written out of gratitude for the bar manager who saved his life after finding him dying of an overdose on the bathroom floor. “Bartender” is available to download and stream on all digital platforms worldwide.

Zach Churchill balances raw, honest lyrics with moving instrumentals, resulting in a gut-wrenching portrayal of his battle with addiction. The swelling guitar alongside a driving drumline will captivate his audience as they are engulfed in the emotional undertones that vibrate through each verse. “In 2014, I overdosed on heroin at a bar after performing there,” Churchill explains his inspiration for the single. “Everyone left, and the bar closed. The bar manager was getting ready to leave when he saw the lights still on in the bathroom. He went to turn them off, but the door was locked. He got a key from the back office and returned to find me on the bathroom floor, dying.” The release coincides with National Substance Abuse Prevention Month and “Sober October”; two causes that hit home for Churchill. “If [the bartender] had just gone home that night without checking the bathroom, I wouldn’t be here today,” he states. “I have been sober from all drugs and alcohol ever since that event and it has completely changed my life. He gave me a second chance.” The song was written by Zach Churchill and Julian Coryell, who also produced and played on the track. Churchill also recruited Stevie Blacke on strings and Eva B. Ross on backing vocals to complete the sound.

With an expressively vulnerable voice, singer-songwriter Zach Churchill breathes life, love, and gratitude into absorbing narratives. His folk-rock style is influenced by legendary alternative and rock artists such as Elton John, Radiohead, and David Bowie. He attributes his vocal inspiration to jazz musician Chet Baker and Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant. Churchill began singing as a child, learned how to play the acoustic guitar at age 13, and began writing songs a few years later. He earned a degree in Music Industry Studies from CSUN after studying vocal performance at Saddleback College and CSUF. "Bartender" is the first single off of his debut collection, Heartbreak and Hope.

“Bartender” is a folk-rock ballad that embodies the pain of living with addiction and the hope that recovery provides.

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Big Little Lions - Beat You Up.

Big Little Lions continue their monthly releases with 'Beat You Up' (not in that way!).

"Beat You Up" is a calming song written as advice to ourselves, our loved ones and anyone else who beats themselves up over even the smallest things. A song telling us all to be kind to ourselves.

Beat You Up was written, recorded and produced by Big Little Lions who are Helen Austin and Paul Otten.

Hey, you don't have to worry
it’s only human to get it wrong
Hey I know that you're sorry
I want you to know that you’ll always belong
You let it beat you up again
Beat you up again
I wanna wake you up again
Wake you up again
So forgive yourself
Like I forgive you
You know, it’s so far behind us
and it’s time to walk with grace
I know you try to be flawless
But it’s such an impossible weight
You let it beat you up again
Beat you up again
I wanna wake you up again
You let it beat you up again
Beat you up again
I wanna wake you up again
So hey, let go of the worry
Look for the better days ahead
we’re all on a difficult journey
so take care of the words in your head
You let it beat you up again
I wanna wake you up again
You let it beat you up again
Beat you up  again
I wanna wake you up again
Wake you up again
So forgive yourself
Like I forgive you

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Pieta Brown & JT Bates - Beauty Pill - Log Across The Washer - Ovlov

Pieta Brown & JT Bates - Is/Was.

Beloved singer/songwriter Pieta Brown has teamed up with acclaimed percussionist/producer JT Bates (Bonny Light Horseman, Big Red Machine, Taylor Swift) for two new singles to be released through Righteous Babe Records. Today they shared the first single “Is / Was,” a slow-burning experimental ballad anchored by Brown’s stirring guitars and dreamy vocals and Bates’ innovative beats and ethereal instrumentation.

“We made ‘Is / Was’ out of musical fragments, across space and time,” said Brown. “For me, music, memory and dreams make the world more coherent. One day when I was feeling extra isolated during the heart of the pandemic I sent some fragmented guitar recordings to one of my all time favorite drummers, JT Bates. We played some musical ping pong with the fragments: adding, taking away, exchanging…and then all of a sudden we had a coherent piece. It had a beginning and an end. When I heard the instrumental track I flashed on a song I had written one night in Paris in an apartment that had a blue door and was 59 stairs up. Why did I count the stairs? Why did I flash on this song when I heard our track? I sang what I could remember of the momentary Paris song about hope, and somehow it all connected and became ‘Is / Was.’”

"Pieta and I have made a lot of music together, so it felt very natural to proceed remotely,” stated Bates. “I got to dig through a folder of her ‘fragments,’ select a couple of things, and build on top of them. Very fun way to work! I'm very proud of this music and excited to share it.”

About the video, Pieta added, “To connect even further out, I sent ‘Is / Was’ to choreographer/dancer Veronica Tundis (Rome, Italy) and she responded with a mesmerizing dance that she said was about ‘a person lost in memories in a place that doesn’t fit the memories she’s lost in.’”

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Photo - Morgan Klein

Beauty Pill - You Need A Better Mind.

Washington, D.C.-based band Beauty Pill today announced their new EP Instant Night out December 3, releasing on limited edition vinyl, CD and digitally via Northern Spy Records and available to preorder here.

Alongside the announcement the band is sharing the official video for "You Need A Better Mind". On the track, Beauty Pill's Chad Clark says:

"The Roland TB-303 is an old Japanese synthesizer that was designed to convincingly mimic the sound of a bass guitar.  It was introduced in 1981, it sounded like a toy and failed miserably, and it was ultimately discontinued in 1984. It makes freaky, wiggly, cartoony sounds.  It sounds fuck-all like a bass guitar. Why am I telling you this?  One ended up in my hands for a week. I did a lot of silly stuff with it.  I did come up with this one worthwhile riff, which I built a song around.  The song is called "You Need A Better Mind."

"It was recorded with my band in a single take at the end of a recording session for another song. We were tired. None of us cared that much if we failed. The fun spirit you hear in this song is mostly exhaustion… that kind of punchy exhaustion you get late at night when you’ll laugh at anything. The lyrics were inspired by the spooky/funny 10-minute movie “Rachel”. "The song is about the scourge of American loneliness. It is by far the fastest, easiest song Beauty Pill has ever created. We hope you like it."

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Log Across The Washer - Listen to Xasthur.

Log Across The Washer Shares "Listen to Xasthur" off Upcoming Album It's Funny How The Colors, out 11/12/21 on Crash Symbols With a titular nod to the black metal band Xasthur, this bent pop nugget is about time as the most precious commodity.

About It's Funny How The Colors: Music being made with an absolute indifference to commercial viability has been a feature of the cultural landscape for decades. But there’s still an undeniable thrill that bubbles up whenever the algorithm or the universe serves up art that is idiosyncratic, deeply personal, and uncompromising.

That’s the dominant feeling drawn out through each listen to It’s Funny How The Colors, the latest effort from Tyler Keene’s Log Across The Washer project. Self-produced and self-recorded in the humble practice space that Keene rents in Bushwick and in his South Orange, New Jersey basement, the album is a woozy and melodic collection of unbound pop that drifts from clattering blues to sunburst synths. It’s the rare album that feels both thoughtfully considered and entirely ad-libbed. “I find it really fun to create without the guardrails that exist if you think too hard,” Keene says. “I’m definitely more of a ‘first idea’ kind of writer. Just run with it and don’t question too much. It’s more about the excitement in the process than the finished product. I get so much joy out of creating something new.”

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Ovlov - The Wishing Well.

Last month, Ovlov emerged from a long layoff following their beloved 2018 LP TRU to announce their 3rd full length Buds, with a track called "Land of Steve-O." Described by NPR as a "track that transcends into an unhinged, euphoric catharsis before fading and forcing us back into reality," the single was warmly received by outlets like Stereogum, FADER, Uproxx, Paste, MTV and BrooklynVegan, and set the stage for the Connecticut band to release one of the more anticipated full lengths of the fall on November 19th via longtime label home Exploding In Sound. 

Today, Ovlov are sharing their second single from the LP, a track called "The Wishing Well," alongside a Stereogum feature that dives into the band's history, and speaks to some of their peers about their enduring influence.

Combining the band's signature squall with singer/guitarist Steve Hartlett's engaging sense of melody and backing vocals provided by Erin McGrath of Exploding In Sound label mates Dig Nitty, the track explores the way society treats people who are experiencing mental health issues.

"'The Wishing Well' is about how much I dislike and disagree with certain ways cops and some people of the DIY indie rock scene respond to a situation involving a person with mental health issues," explains Hartlett. ""Ideally, only people who are well educated in mental health should be dealing with these situations, with methods that attempt to avoid harm on anyone involed, rather than these blanket procedures that are only designed to punish and seem emotionless."

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Twin Rains - HotKid

Twin Rains - The Garden.

Gardens are rich in symbolism: they can represent fertility and abundance, but also entropy and decay. With our new single, I wanted to write about this twofold nature—the cyclical pattern found in all of existence—from the perspective of human relationships.

Kaleidoscopic, lush and dreamy, this song is a reverie, a daydream. It is a story about the bittersweet nature of love and beauty, and how I can't seem to experience either without an awareness of their inevitable breakdown. But the mood of "The Garden" isn't sad, it celebrates this mystery.

We travelled to the Château de Villandry in France's Loire Valley to shoot the song's video several years back. We had only a day to shoot after scoring a flight deal to Paris but each of the pieces fell into place when the Chateau granted us permission after telling us they loved the music and our videographer, Fred Yurichuk, was able to book a last minute flight.

"The Garden" was written in a burst one afternoon but was nothing but a rough demo when we travelled to France to film the music video; therefore its recording took influence from the visuals as we set to perfect the final version of the song.

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HotKid - Mirror Mirror.

The guitar-driven, indie rock/dream pop/psych act, HotKid, is the work of Canadian producer/songwriter/ lead guitarist, Shiloh Harrison. Harrison is also a co-founder of boutique indie label, Fortune Stellar Records.

Harrison’s soothing vocal delivery and ability to write enduring pop songs has helped nurture a cult fan base around the globe. HotKid has appeared live as a two, three, and four-piece band on stages across Canada and the US with the likes of July Talk, Dilly Dally, and Sloan, as well as at notable festivals such as NXNE, CMW, Riverfest Elora, and the Toronto Festival of Beer.

HotKid’s 2017 single, “Caught In The Light,” from the Late Night Mornings LP, received steady air play on CBC3, satellite radio, college radio, as well as commercial radio attention. Her 2015 video for “Here 4 U” appeared regularly in rotation on Canadian network television (Much Loud), as did 2013 track, “Rip It Into Pieces.” Catalogue track, “Yours and Mine,” from the 2010 EP, Under The Street Light, continues to receive consistent satellite radio play and playlist adds.

HotKid has worked with JUNO Award-winning producer, Adam King (Ria Mae/Lowell/Tegan and Sara), as well as Canadian underground icons, Ian Blurton (Public Animal/C’mon/Change Of Heart) and Rick White (Eric’s Trip/Elevator/Unintended). These two different worlds of pop production and raw live band based music inform HotKid’s ability to create a sonic blend all its own.

Fortune Stellar Records · 2 Mirror Mirror

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The Lagoons - Scott Klein - Astrid Williamson - Tilde

The Lagoons - Madness (w/ Jelly Ellington).

The Lagoons are the DIY musical project of Southern California-raised, jazz-trained, multi-instrumentalist brothers Ryan and Joey Selan. The duo writes, produces, and records their music out of their home studio. They released their debut album Midnight Afternoon in 2020, notching millions of streams alongside praise from fans and critics alike. 

It came on the heels of years of tastemaker support that found them featured everywhere from Ones To Watch to Paste Magazine’s studio sessions, all the while topping 50 million streams on their breakout single “California.”

On the live circuit, The Lagoons have sold out multiple headline tours with stops everywhere from Los Angeles to New York, supported by a range of artists including Tim Atlas and Future Generations. With the recent release of “Snowy Mountain,” subsequent release of “Daybreak,” and plans for more singles throughout 2021, The Lagoons have a prolific year in store.

The Lagoons · Madness (w/ Jelly Ellington)

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Scott Klein - Jesse.

A Canadian-born singer/songwriter with laconic and cordial delivery, blends britpop vocals and Delta ruckus riffs with rusty Lo-Fi country. Klein's debut album Jesse's Hotel is picturesque and sensual that cuts to scenes of lust to dreams of dark romance. The songs are a well thought out lyrical moan that coax the listener from pain to madness, creating a channel between a dreamful whisper and a sinful confession. 

The percussive guitar notes are a folky parallel to Klein’s haunting tenor voice laid out, looking down at underbelly of the America’s. He is reverberating a style lonely and clear, like the sadness of Morrison , ,jangle of Neil Young and the poise of Marc Bolan. With lead singles such as “Sunshine” (written for our next lover who died tragically) and “What’s my name”(questions himself inside a dream) his New sound calls across to the underground British scene back to California. 

This album hides damaged personal conflict and darkness behind a thumping Western twang, transmitting a signal that will leave you blue. This self released album features avant-garde four time Juno winner, Warner music product, Dine Alone records and former guitarist of the Sheepdogs Leot Hanson, is proficient and dirty on lead guitar from track to track. 

This self produced and co-produced album with Aspen Beveridge whom also is a product of Warner music drenched the tracks with his talent as a multi instrumentalist. The record was recorded on the prairies of Saskatchewan and mastered in Toronto by Harry Hess.

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Astrid Williamson - In Gratitude.

Scottish singer-songwriter Astrid Williamson announces details of her ninth album Into The Mountain – to be released on her newly re-launched label Incarnation Records - and shares the album’s first single 'In Gratitude'.

The stirring 'In Gratitude' was inspired by writings Williamson found in a folder intriguingly titled Into The Mountain, capturing moments from a year-long tour she undertook with Dead Can Dance in 2012-13. These, a mix of poetry, music, and journal, were developed on an acoustic piano across ten separate nights and form the forthcoming new record of-the-same-name.

As Williamson expands “My intention was to stay as close as possible to these initial sparks of inspiration rather than relying on already well-worn paths of development that I might have found more familiar or comfortable.”

First single 'In Gratitude' is described by Williamson as “part letter to a lost, or perhaps hoped for lover, part diary from the life of a touring artist.”  The song’s rich alt-folk soundscapes and the vivid emotional intelligence of both Williamson’s lyrics and emotional delivery offer an intensity befitting of the song’s themes of gratitude, desire, loss, reflection, and acceptance. It makes for a compelling and powerful listen and is indicative of the Into The Mountain record as a whole, which moves from the darkly confessional to the joyously beautiful to reflect Williamson’s own life experiences.

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Tilde - Say That Our Love.

Swedish singer Tilde, born to a Swedish mother and British father, brings her own special blend of soul and contemporary pop that warms the heart and draws inspiration from iconic voices such as Donny Hathaway, Nina Simone, Amy Winehouse and many more.

Growing up in Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden, she began writing music at an early age. Attending different music schools and playing local venues with different bands as she went along. As one of Sweden's biggest musical scenes; Gothenburg, which has quite the history of producing big names (like José Gonsalez, Håkan Hellström and Laleh), offered quite a lot of opportunities for young artists to emerge and Tilde was no exception. Gathering a lot of attention and coming close to signing a deal with major labels. 

However, just as things were looking bright she was diagnosed with a severe illness that ultimately put her promising career on hold. Fast forward a few years and some time spent abroad in Spain and South America recovering from her condition she arrived back in Sweden in 2017 to pick up right where she left off. The next year she recorded what would become her debut album.

The Album,“Nothing Gold Can Stay”, was released to great reviews with the largest newspaper on the west coast Göteborgs-Posten dubbing it “Timeless” and including the title track in the Top10 of their “Best of the decade – from Gothenburg” list. Since then, she has impressed audiences in her native Sweden and abroad with her captivating voice and compelling songwriting and is currently about to release her second offering following her debut called “Pink Moon” on November 19th.

Tilde · Say That Our Love

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