Scrunchies - Ben Talmi - Monophonics

Scrunchies - Parallel.

Dirtnap Records recently announced the addition of Scrunchies to their roster, and now the band is back with a new single called "Parallel."

"We wanted “Parallel” to be like "Squirrel Song" by Shellac, and have these jarring, uneven measures to the verses." says Scrunchies vocalist and guitarist, Laura Larson, adding "I was also very interested in having Danielle do this Kim Gordon-esque deadpan call-and-response vocal delivery in the bridge, almost as a juxtaposition to the song's loose theme of both self-imposed and external hope + idealism vs turbulence + obstruction of being a woman making art during late stage capitalism."

Scrunchies is a Minneapolis, MN-based rock band formed by Laura Larson (she/her; guitar, vocals) and Danielle Cusack (she/her; drums, vocals). Larson earned notoriety early on, leading brash punk band Baby Guts. She is also currently a member of seminal dance-punk drums and bass trio, Kitten Forever. Cusack, raised by veterans of the 70s NYC art and music scene, also came to prominence in the Twin Cities music scene as a teenager with her indie grunge rock band, Bruise Violet.

Larson and Cusack began Scrunchies after mutual admiration of each others' bands as well as a short stint together in a Buzzcocks cover band called Buzzcuts (with Clara Sayler of Babes in Toyland). Both are passionate about encouraging young women and queers to find empowerment in playing music and embracing a DIY ethos.

Dirtnap Records · Parallel

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Photo - Josh Goleman

Ben Talmi - Ralph & Mary.

Berkshires, the new album from Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter/producer Ben Talmi. According to the artist, Berkshires is "a love letter to my hometown of Pittsfield, MA nestled between the mountain ranges and valleys of Berkshire County."

Ben is best known as an orchestral arranger for artists like Wild Nothing and Manchester Orchestra, but it's his nostalgic, down-to-earth songwriting that takes center stage here. Lead single "Ralph + Mary" bounces along with charming fingerpicked guitar and Talmi's signature string arrangements anchoring the track.

Ben notes, "Ralph & Mary'' is a true story about my grandparents who served in WWII and used my grandfather's GI bill to fund their diner, “The Sugar Bowl” which they ran for 40 years." Much of the album is dedicated to friends and characters from Talmi's childhood, and his appreciation for Pittsfield and the surrounding area shines throughout the album's eight tracks.

At its best, this record reminds me a lot of Belle and Sebastian with a hefty dose of Paris 1919-era John Cale thrown in as well. Many tracks (especially the lovely "Canoe Meadows") make brilliant use of a string quartet, and I really love Talmi's excellent ear for a catchy melody. In an age where screens and information anxiety seem to be inescapable, I hope that listening to this album makes you think back to a simpler time and place in your lives.

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Photo - Emily Sevin

Monophonics - Warpaint.

Today, Bay Area-based Monophonics announced their upcoming full-length Sage Motel, out May 13th via Colemine Records. The world's premier psychedelic soul band, Monophonics, cordially invites you to attend the grand re-opening of the once thriving, once vibrant establishment, the legendary Sage Motel. A place where folks experience the highs and lows of human existence. A place where big dreams and broken hearts live, where people arrive without ever knowing how they got there. It's where individuals find themselves at a crossroads in life. The album announcement comes with a video for the first single “Warpaint.”

What started as a quaint motor lodge and a common pitstop for travelers and truckers in the 1940s morphed into a bohemian’s hang by the 1960s and 1970s. Artists, musicians, and vagabonds of all types would stop there as seedy ownership pumped obnoxious amounts of money into high end renovations, eventually attracting some of the most prominent acts of the era. But when the money ran out, The Sage Motel devolved into a place where you rent by the hour.

Sage Motel, Monophonics' fifth studio album since 2012, tells its story. Once again produced by brilliant bandleader Kelly Finnigan, the album captures a timeless sound that blends heavy soul with psych-rock. With their previous album, It’s Only Us, selling over 10,000 physical units and garnering over 20 million streams, Monophonics have built a reputation over the past decade as one of the most impactful bands in the country. It’s Only Us was praised by Billboard, FLOOD, Cool Hunting, and American Songwriter, who said “Take some Norman Whitfield-era Temptations, add Sly and the Family Stone circa There’s a Riot Goin’ On’s greasy funk, inject early 70s Curtis Mayfield Superfly, Marvin Gaye vocal dynamics and Isaac Hayes’ Hot Buttered Soul dust, sprinkle in a pinch of Isley Brothers’ silky ballads and you’ve got a reasonable aural idea of the ballpark Monophonics are playing in.”

“Warpaint,” the leading single from Sage Motel, reveals the vices of each resident and confronts the struggles of substance abuse and addiction. Their warpaint becomes compulsory to face the day, tolerate the struggle, get through the hardest parts of the world, humanity, life and to fight the good fight. Cloaked in heavy riffs and robust vocals, “Warpaint” gives you the first look through the doors of the Sage Motel.

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Good Wilson - Jesse D'Kora

Good Wilson - Bats From The Buffet.

Good Wilson remain true to their signature vibe on their new track "Bats from the Buffet": feelgood soundtrack meets serious self-irony. The single is about an honest reflection of the "Butterfly Effect," the infectious madness that defines the third decade of the 21st century. 

The song is thus a contemporary document of the previous years, but at the same time a statement, a heartfelt "Foff" to all idiotisms.

In "Bats From The Buffet" Good Wilson have processed pent-up frustrations, caused by inequalities, injustice, fake news, egocentrism and unsolidarity. So, all those qualities and things that the pandemic has brought to light. Packaged in a soft, tongue-in-cheek indie-pop track, "Bats From The Buffet" is meant to remind you that it's okay to be angry sometimes.


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Jesse D'Kora - You might not be.

Jesse D’Kora makes indie / dream pop music with a style that is inherently lofi as he writes, records, mixes and masters all of the music in his spare bedroom in Salford (UK). Jesse tells us "I have embarked on a musical journey this year whereby I am going to release a single every month, ‘you might not be’ is the 3rd instalment and chosen song for March 2022.

Inspired by a documentary on The Talking Heads, this release is a little different to the others. I wanted to make something a bit weird and incorporate ideas and sounds from other genres and styles.

Lyrically it's inspired, like many of my other songs, about getting older, particularly the context is in view of having a conversation with a younger version of yourself. Often it’s easy to focus on the regrets and the mistakes and think how you would do things differently if it all could be redone, but ultimately without the mistakes the knowledge to do what's right so we are ultimately bound to follow the same path."



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49 Winchester - Megan Knight - Kindsight - Men Without Hats

49 Winchester - Russell County Line.

49 Winchester will release Fortune Favors The Bold on May 13th, 2022 via New West Records. The 10-track set was co-produced by the band and Stewart Myers (O.A.R., The Infamous Stringdusters) with additional recording & production by Kenny Miles (Wayne Graham). Rolling Stone Country has praised 49 Winchester’s live performance while Whiskey Riff called the band “....one of the greatest up and coming country music acts out there right now.” 49 Winchester’s New West Records debut follows their acclaimed 2020 self-released III, which American Songwriter named “...a confident collection that gives voice to the band’s pure, unfettered intents” while Americana Highways called frontman Isaac Gibson’s songwriting “Unforgettable,” saying, “...together they are distinctly and proudly Appalachian — carrying on and reinventing the musical traditions of their region with a sound that is wholly and distinctively their own.”

Filmed in the band’s hometown of Castlewood, Virginia, the video features a visit to the Clinch River where their neighborhood and childhood homes were situated. It also features the once bustling downtown, with the old train station, post office, hotels still standing from the Appalachian coal boom, having become weathered by the time the band members were growing up in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. The video depicts, quite literally, 49 Winchester revisiting their roots. Frontman Isaac Gibson says, “The drone shots really show how gorgeous Southwest Virginia is. It was great to be able to capture the essence of home on video. I'm thrilled with how it turned out. I'm excited for the fans to see it and those who are from far and wide to get a little taste of central Appalachia.” SPIN also previously premiered "Annabel," the leadoff track from Fortune Favors The Bold as well.

Formed on Winchester Street in the small mountain town of Castlewood, Virginia (population: 2,045), 49 Winchester started as a group of neighborhood teenage friends set on a calculated DIY path. In 2014 they independently released their eponymous debut, followed by 2018’s The Wind, and 2020’s celebrated III. Reflecting on his early days as a jack-of-all-trades stone mason, where it was about trying to make ends meet in an effort to keep the band rolling along, frontman Gibson can’t help but be grateful for a well-earned notion at the core of the band’s ethos — anything worthwhile in life is built brick-by-brick. “Everything has to be built. And very few people are going to achieve success overnight,” says Gibson. “We didn’t start out as a bunch of hot shot pickers out of Nashville. We started out on the ground floor — very basic songwriting and instrumentation. But we kept working at it, always progressing in what we wanted to do and how we wanted to sound — each song better than the previous one, the show this evening better than last night.”

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Megan Knight - Take It To The Grave.

Nashville recording artist and pop-country superstar, Megan Knight releases her new haunting single and lyric video "Take It To The Grave".

"In this track, the woman was left feeling unloved and had acted out because of it, now as she sits in regret she wonders if she should confess her wrongs or simply keep them buried in the past forever." - Megan Knight

Megan's wide vocal range makes this song unique and personalized. The theme of this song is that some things "Are better left unsaid." These words that are left unsaid are taken to the grave with Megan. The powerful lyrics can relate to anyone with a deep dark secret.

Megan is an artist that is not afraid to be vulnerable. Music has always been a therapeutic outlet for Megan, so her songs are authentic, honest, and raw. "Take It To The Grave" relays real-time emotion, and her vocals are powerful and robust. This song is dynamic and is portrayed through a slower tempo with an acoustic guitar.

 

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Photo by Line Hvid

Kindsight - Queen Of Cowboys.

Danish four-piece Kindsight make music that draws from 80’s and 90’s alternative rock and combines it with the shimmering Scandinavian pop that the region has become so renowned for, resulting in a sound that is both fuzzy and melodic in equal measure. Releasing their first material in 2020, the up and coming Danish four-piece have been quick on the rise, picking up steam with a series of new singles over the last 18 months. On March 25th, their debut album Swedish Punk will be released, Queen of Cowboys, out now, the last single ahead of the release

Kindsight formed when front-woman Nina Hyldgaard Rasmussen and guitarist Søren Svensson bonded over a shared love of The Sugarcubes. They went on to recruit bass player Anders Prip and drummer Johannes Jacobsen and over the past few years have earned a reputation within Copenhagen’s thriving indie scene for their exciting live shows.

On the album’s title, Rasmussen says “Swedish Punk’ was an off the cuff term our producer, Adam, came up with when we needed a working title for a new song we wrote during the recording sessions. Our bass player, Anders, then wrote some lyrics based on the working title and we ended up liking the whole ‘Swedish Punk’-thing so much it became the name of the album”.

There’s a real coming of age charm to Swedish Punk. ‘Don’t You Grow Up’ was the first song the band ever wrote together. Written in “a time when we thought to be a sunny teenage rock band, you had to write songs about teenagers in the sun,” they say. Atop jangling guitars, Rasmussen’s distinctive voice dances somewhere between that of Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval and Alvvays’ Molly Rankin, leaving the listener drenched in the nostalgic optimism of summers gone by. Lead single ‘Sun Is Always In My Eyes’, an unrelenting indie-pop earworm, continues in that same vein. Recalling a time when life was carefree, the band say the track is about ‘stealing money from your mother and feigning to run away from home. Being blessed and unable to see because you've got too much sun in your eyes’.

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Men Without Hats - If the World Should End Today.

Hot on the heels of “love in the age of war,” new wave electro-pop pioneers, Men Without Hats, return with a collection of 14 new original compositions – Again (Part 2). Led by original founding members Ivan and Colin Doroschuk, Men Without Hats have been rounded out since 2016 by industry veteran Sho Murray, and augmented on this record by Colin’s daughter, soprano Sahara Sloan.

The album was recorded on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on top of the Malahat Mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean, from July 2020 to January 2021. The themes explored on Again (Part 2) reflect the band’s unique take on current affairs (“If the World Should End Today,” “The Human Race”), love (“All Into Stars,” “The Love Inside your Heart,” “When Does The Love Begin”), the meaning of life (“Just Another Day,” “Nancy’s Room,” “Where The Wild Go”), and the state of the art (“My Love,” “Heaven,” “My Own Advice”).

With a mixture of the latest digital technology and the best of the analog world (including an actual prophet 5 synthesizer that was used during “The Safety Dance” recording session), Men Without Hats continue their voyage into the world of synth-pop, with a sound forged in the past and hardened by their life experience and commitment to the future.

For the past 10 years, Men Without Hats have toured the world with the cream of 80’s royalty, playing for crowds in North and South America, Europe, Scandinavia, Jamaica, Australia, Mexico, and South Africa, in fact reaching even more people and places than the first time around. Their crossover sound and message is resonating with a new generation of fans eager to understand and appreciate the 80’s influences in their own current brand of pop.

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P.E. - Jenny Berkel - Pillow Queens - Greenness

Photo - Vince McClelland

P.E. - Contradiction of Wants.

P.E.'s sophomore album, The Leather Lemon (Wharf Cat Records, out March 25, 2022), ushers in a new era for the New York band. A wild ride through chewy bubblegum pop, sweeping synthetic orchestrations, and mutant club beats, the album slides ever closer to the fully-realized pop sensibility only winked at with their debut album Person (2020) and subsequent releases.

Digging into mystery, romance, and sex appeal with The Leather Lemon, the group — composed of members of Pill (Mexican Summer/Dull Tools) and Eaters (Dull Tools/Driftless) — centers its sound within a Bermuda Triangle of dance music, electronic composition, and experimental rock. Members Jonathan Schenke, Bob Jones, and Jonny Campolo play within pop parameters, building upon free-form collaboration to create a fluorescent groove machine that harnesses the energy of their frenetic live shows. 

Singer Veronica Torres explores her softer side, expanding her vocal repertoire from spoken word and jagged growls to cherubic and sensuous psalms. Sax virtuoso Benjamin Jaffe’s chiseled experimental tone is heard in an extended solo of true romance in “Tears in the Rain,” a somber surrealist duet penned by Torres and Andrew Savage, singer/guitarist of Parquet Courts.

Recorded primarily at Schenke’s Studio Windows in Brooklyn, NY, The Leather Lemon was cultivated from a fertile creative period between spring 2020 and summer 2021, which also yielded 2021’s acclaimed The Reason For My Love E.P.

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Jenny Berkel - Kaleidoscope.

The internet with its rabbit holes, slipperiness, and propensity for mis- and disinformation inspired me to write "Kaleidoscope." 

I wanted parts of this song to evoke the same tense, frantic feeling that the internet can sometimes give, paired with a chorus that lifts its way out of that mood. The accompanying "Kaleidoscope" music video was filmed at Halifax's indoor theatre for Shakespeare 

By The Sea. Director Meg Hubley (they/she) of Phyllis Rising Productions came up with the idea of setting it in a steadily shrinking room. The strange and surreal figure in the video is played by Mads Higgins (they/them), a circus performer, who moves around the room in a series of graceful and eerie poses.

The lyrics of "Kaleidoscope" evolved extensively as time went on. Given that this song considers the importance of care and precision in language, I felt even more attentive to the lyrics than usual.

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Pillow Queens - No Good Woman.

Dublin's Pillow Queens are getting set to release their sophomore album Leave The Light On, their first release on Royal Mountain Records (Wild Pink, Alvvays, US Girls), which is due out on April 1st, and today the band are sharing the album's final pre-release single, a track called "No Good Woman."

Preceded by the singles "Hearts & Minds" and "Be By Your Side", which have seen praise from outlets like The Guardian, NPR, Stereogum, Consequence, BrooklynVegan, Uproxx, DIY and Clash who described "Hearts & Minds" as "Pillow Queens at their most out-going," the single arrives at an exciting moment for the band who are about to make their debut on American shores. Their first shows will take place at SXSW (full details can be found below), before they trace their way across the continent, with their New York debut at Mercury Lounge recently selling out over a month in advance.

This song is one which is very narrative based, though not in a linear way. It’s written more from the perspective of someone looking upon the scenarios of those around them," explains singer Pam Connolly. "It tries to convey a perpetual hopelessness of debt and striving for an ideal that can never be achieved. It’s pretty much a song about Sisyphus."

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Photo: Justyna Neryng & Tobias Slater-Hunt

Greenness - Destroy/Enjoy.

Brighton-based Anglo-French duo Greenness, (Cécile Frangi and Graham Pratt), announce the release of their debut album Sunrooms on 20th May 2022 via Frangi’s label One Fern Records, and share first single ‘Destroy/Enjoy’.

‘Destroy/Enjoy’ is a playful indie-pop song celebrating Earth’s re-birth, inspired by a dream Frangi had about the apocalypse. As Frangi expands:  “Earth was rebooting itself on a giant computer screen. It was a strange, but joyous occasion, as if humanity was being given a second chance. There was something very ominous about it, this electricity in the air, but it was also exhilarating.”

‘Destroy/Enjoy’ accompanying video explores themes of escaping the 9-5 and enjoying life and nature whilst you can which is a theme that peppers their debut album. It’s an apt first taster for the album Sunrooms, a record in part a product of the environment in which it was created (in lockdown) and one inspired heavily by the duo’s lifelong love of nature. Greenness describes the title, Sunrooms, as:

 “A place that provides shelter from the elements while offering a clear view of surrounding landscapes, a space to reflect, breathe and feel, so that we can go back out with more strength to embrace the weather.”

Inspired by looking out at the world from their home studio in lockdown and the paradox of humanity in chaos whilst nature bloomed, the album also explores wanderlust versus the need to anchor oneself to a home, as French-born Cess Frangi explains: “Sunrooms (in part) follows our personal story travelling across France and the UK on a quest for a place to call home, trying to find the spark of everyday magic and hoping for human progress.”

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