Foyer Red - Murray A. Lightburn - Tomten

Foyer Red - Plumbers Unite.

Brooklyn’s Foyer Red makes sweet yet abrasive songs that careen into delightfully unexpected places. The group’s potent art rock embodies a spirit of collaborative exploration, as a seemingly endless supply of ideas accrue and collide as part of a spirited musical conversation between the band’s members, a sensation that is heightened by the often literal conversation occurring between their three principle vocalists. The band started as a trio with singer and clarinetist Elana Riordan, drummer Marco Ocampo, and singer/guitarist Mitch Myers.

The three would email each other song ideas and record the ones that stuck. In 2021, they started playing music together in the same room and immediately came out with the Zigzag Wombat EP, which earned high praise from outlets like Stereogum, BrooklynVegan and Pitchfork. Though they had been a band for only a few months, their self-recorded and charming debut proved that they had hit the ground running almost fully formed with a distinct, tongue-in-cheek, de-constructive take on indie rock.

Instead of sticking to their guns and re-treading similar ground, Foyer Red reinvented itself as a five-piece, adding singer and guitarist Kristina Moore and bassist Eric Jaso, and became a fixture of the NYC scene in 2022, sharing stages with artists like Cola, Empath, Babehoven, Why Bonnie, Peaer, Momma, Mamalarky, and Diane Coffee.

In December, the band announced their signing to Carpark Records (The Beths, Cloud Nothings) and today Foyer Red have returned to announce their debut LP Yarn The Hours Away, which will be released on the label on May 19th. To mark the announce the band have shared the first single from the record, a track called "Plumbers Unite!"

 
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Murray A. Lightburn - Once Upon A Time In Montréal.

Murray A. Lightburn, the longtime frontman of Montreal’s acclaimed The Dears, will release his deeply personal new album 'Once Upon A Time In Montreal’ on 31 March via Dangerbird Records. Ahead of that Murray is pleased to share the title-track single, along with a video created  by the production team at 4-VU.

Lightburn lightheartedly jokes that 'Once Upon A Time In Montreal' is an audio version of a biopic, inspired by the passing of his father - a jazz musician from Belize who moved to Montreal via New York to reconnect with his teenage sweetheart.

Discussing the new single and album title-track, Murray says: "After getting an education in Jamaica and England, my mom got a job in Montreal as a nurse. My father was living in New York. They had dated back in Belize and reconnected years later in New York. My father didn’t really want to leave for Montreal, but he did. And it was hard for him: the harsh winters, the language barrier, the colour of his skin.

He was a skilled musician but that was barely going to keep the lights on — never mind feed a growing family. His lack of formal education, and his lack of French, limited his opportunities. Nevertheless, he just wanted to be with her. So he figured out a way, and that’s what his life was mostly about, I think — what I’ve deduced. Maybe there’s way more to it and that’s the romantic version, but it’s a version at least I can understand. Nothing else computes. My parents stayed married for 56 years.”

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Tomten - Mind How You Go.

Tomten are a baroque pop quartet based out of Seattle, Washington. Brian Noyes (vocals, keys, guitar) and Lena Simon (bass, vocals) (Kairos Creature Club, formerly of La Luz) met in 2008 and began demoing each other’s songs at Cornish College of The Arts.

Tomten started playing shows and rearranging their sound and lineup by 2010, after Gregg Belisle-Chi (guitar) and Jake Brady (drums) joined the band. Tomten‘s debut, Wednesday’s Children arrived in Summer of 2012 shortly before Belisle-Chi left the band. Tomten recorded their sophomore record The Farewell Party (2014) with Jason Quever of Papercuts in San Francisco and Sacramento, CA. Dillon Sturtevant (bass) joined the band as Lena departed.

The Unknown recording studio in Anacortes, WA started by Nicholas Wilbur and Phil Elverum (Mt. Eerie) has become the go to spot for the band’s more recent recordings – the lush piano driven Cremation Songs (2017), and Synth Pop informed Viva Draconia (2018). Tomten‘s newest album Artichoke (out April 28) is a collaborative foray into psych folk, power-pop, and glam country, a balance between songs by Noyes, Sturtevant, and two co-written with Brady.

Artichoke is a warm pastoral daydream, with inspirations drawn from the Madcap folk rock of the Incredible String Band, to the syrup soul of The Delfonics, the country tinge of Happy End or Gene Clark, with the gentle guitar picking of John Martyn or Bridget St. John.

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Josienne Clarke - Nico Ev - Brenda - Julia Sound

Josienne Clarke - The Birds.

Indie-folk artist Josienne Clarke has shared the second taste of her forthcoming new album, Onliness. On her new album, due out on April 14th, Clarke revisits songs from her back catalogue that felt buried somehow; that had never had the spotlight she felt they deserved. Originally written back in 2008, the song first appeared on and opened Clarke's first ever solo album One Light Is Gone.

Of her new single, Clarke says: "It’s about the turning of a season, the first frost of winter. The birds are making strange patterns in the sky, a signal that our days will soon be short. This version features a specific blurry guitar part, I wrote it like that to mirror the blurry movement of the birds in their weird patterns, in and out of time and sync in strange shapes and formations. I also play piano on this track which is pretty rare for me. I love it as an instrument, it's bright glassy timbre fitted perfectly for the track. I rarely play it on my music as I have the services of keyboard experts like Matt Robinson but I recorded the piano myself just to give an idea of the kind of part I was thinking and Matt liked it and said we should keep mine, so we did.”

In her own words, Josienne Clarke viewed her 2021 album – A Small Unknowable Thing – as a leap into the abyss. Finally free from the industry structure that had been built around her over the preceding decade and more, she released the album via her own label, Corduroy Punk Records. Free from her previous role as one-half of a duo and losing the genre constraints she was quickly and lazily placed within, she came out of that chapter emboldened – but still not truly free.

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Nico Ev - Angeline.

Nico Ev wrote this song during lockdown, she tells us  "The challenge of being apart from loved ones and missing out on family connections was very difficult.

It was particularly hard to accept that I was missing out on watching the little ones in our family grow and flourish in their formative years. I'm grateful to have the sound of their laughter back in my life."

Some well deserved quotes about Nico - "Nico definitely deserves to be heard beyond her online performances." - "Every time I've seen Nico play, her musical talent, combined with her warmth, sincerity and relaxed interaction with the audience, has resulted in a great gig."
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“I love the varied mix of her original songs with both little and well-known covers, the upbeat energy and vibrancy of her playing.” - “A unique and lovely voice.”

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Brenda - Cease and Desist.

Emerging Glasgow trio Brenda release Cease and Desist, the first single from their upcoming self-titled debut album with Last Night From Glasgow. The single is out 24th February, the album follows in July.

Brenda are Litty Hughes on guitar, Apsi Witana on drums and Flore de Hooge on synths. They’ve created a buzz by gigging across Glasgow - their energetic sets described as the type that “end up seared onto your brain after a single viewing” with their “impudent, inventive and extremely DIY punk-pop” (The Scotsman). Dreamy synths, witty lyrics and unapologetic enthusiasm - Brenda is your new favourite band.

“The most exciting set of the evening came from Glasgow all-female trio Brenda…their name daubed on a collapsing bedsheet behind them, like they were signalling to the media from the roof of a prison riot.” - The Scotsman

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Julia Sound - I Don't Wanna Change (featuring Larissa Tandy).

Today Julia Sound have released their new single "I Don't Wanna Change" from their upcoming album "Nothing Above The Blue Sky" (set for release on May 12 Via Boomsmack Records)

Julia Sound is a collective led by Lin Gardiner, a British-Canadian BC-based artist, composer, musician and producer. Julia Sound released their debut album ‘Heal’ in the summer of 2021 to critical acclaim. They are set to release a second full-length offering ‘Nothing Above the Blue Sky’ in May of 2023.

‘Nothing Above The Blue Sky’ is a collection of evocative, ethereal, vocal-led electronica, with 10 new songs including features by Kinnie Starr, Edzi’u and Larissa Tandy, amongst others. Different singers feature on each track, all pulled together by Gardiner. The lyrical component of the songs leans into subjects perhaps shied away from in more commercial projects - stories of loss, war, mental health as well as hope.

Inspiration for Julia Sound’s name is from an unexplained sound discovered by scientists in the 90’s. The sound, which scientists named ‘The Julia Sound’, is mysterious and dark - which can also be said for this project's tone and mood.

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Gracie Horse - Laura Roy - Certain Animals

Gracie Horse - What I'm Missing.

Wharf Cat Records have just announced L.A.-based songwriter Gracie Horse as the newest addition to their roster, and shared a music video for her recent single "What I'm Missing." Gracie Horse was a founding member of Boston based rock band Fat Creeps, and has contributed to albums by Alex Izenberg (his latest, I'm Not Here), Color Green, and Jonny Kosmo (who also produced "What I'm Missing").

“What I'm Missing,” is expansive, a world inside of a song. It’s cosmic country: there are shitty motels and perfect vocal harmonies. True crime sleuths, hours spent rotting on the Internet, and poignant allusions to working in healthcare during the pandemic. “Now everyone’s spooked/at the Motel 6/eatin’ dive bar wings/in a hazmat suit,” she sings in one particularly evocative line.  It’s a stunning song: all keys, crisp pedal steel.

About the track, Gracie writes: "When I moved to California I was very homesick for a long time, and the pandemic didn’t help. I missed my old friends and family and all the stuff we used to get into. I tried to go out and make new friends but I am really shy and at times it was such a disaster, it was hard to connect with people here- there is sort of a cultural difference between east and west coast for sure-how people talk and socialize. I started to get pretty attached to the nostalgia of my life back in Massachusetts.

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Laura Roy - Odyssey.

Two time Grammy nominated, Canadian artist, producer and songwriter Laura Roy is back with a brand new release 'Odyssey', the second single off of her newly announced EP to be released in March. This is Laura’s debut release after receiving two Grammy nominations as a contributing songwriter on Doja Cat's 'Planet Her' album in 2022.

Laura received recent support from BBC Radio, CBC Radio and Spotify Editorial Playlists: Chilled R&B Weekly, Fresh Finds, New Music Friday, R&B Weekly, R&B Fresh Finds & R&B Rising.

Produced and written with UK artist/producer Geo Jordan, this stunning new track features driving drums, emotive guitar riffs, soaring, soulful vocals and impactful lyricism. Her voice has been described as “gentle lava”. Raw, pure, vulnerable and soulful.

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Certain Animals - Miracles.

Miracles is a delicate ballad in which the pantheon of musical inspirations of Certain Animals is amply showcased. It is a song with a positive feel and a melancholy undertone, going from cheerful honkytonk piano to moody strings and back again.

Certain Animals sings about the eternal balancing act between hope and fear about what tomorrow will bring, and does so with a magical musical mix that lies between the poppy work of Electric Light Orchestra and the vaudeville numbers of Queen from the 1970s. Miracles, like the band itself, always tries to bring a loving touch and shares her love for music with the listener with this lushly orchestrated and pop song peppered with McCartnian melodic bass lines.

Certain Animals has now reached a larger audience in their home country of the Netherlands. The band has already been invited twice to play songs live on national TV and numerous times on national radio.

TCBYML · Certain Animals - Miracles

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The Pairs - Amy Stroup

The Pairs - Superhuman.

Tied together by family and soaring harmonies, The Pairs share stories of life's hope, hilarity, and hardship. Pull up a seat around their lively kitchen table for a unique blend of music that will hug your eardrums and make you want to groove.

A smattering of feelings and self-doubt, "Superhuman" tells a personal yet relatable story of realizing how we get caught up in the way we're being perceived by others instead of truly experiencing life and all the feelings that come with living. We're not perfect, so why do we put so much energy towards trying to convince people that we are? This song marks the intention to try and drop the hyper perfectionism and accept ourselves as fallible and human.

"Superhuman" reminds us that we can be wrong, that we can make mistakes, that we can say things that hurt people, and that none of that makes us bad people, or unlovable.

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Amy Stroup - Break The Feeling.

Singer-songwriter Amy Stroup creates the kind of songs that transport listeners. Known for her ability to tap into rich, emotional honesty and vivid storytelling, the self-proclaimed “song farmer” will release her fourth solo album, Since Frank, on June 23. The album's next single, "Break the Feeling,” out today, explores presence and grounding.

“Walking, hiking, and trail running multiple times a week are ways of exercise, yes, but more ways that I ground myself ritualistically,” Stroup says. “Movement helps me shake off what holds me up and at the end of a trail I never felt quite the same as when I started.”

Since Frank finds a cohesive sound thanks to producer Chad Copelin (LANY, Broncho, Ben Rector) and his expert hand at transforming live tracking into an expansive finished product, with drips of overdubs and drum samples created by James McAlister (The National, Taylor Swift, Sufjan Stevens). These handmade elements frame a range of songs Stroup wrote with herself in mind—a change from the hundreds of songs she's written for TV and film, which include backing moments on How I Met Your Father, This Is Us and Grey's Anatomy, among many others. According to Billboard Magazine, she is one of the most licensed women in music today with her work in campaigns for British Airways, Google and Nike, to name a few.

Since Frank, a 10-song collection, covers a wide range of subjects, ultimately settling on what it means to find a way to be okay on the inside. Stroup wrestles with the kind of heaviness—and reprieve—that lives inside all of us: the album begins with the lush strings of “Valley,” a stream of consciousness about how love can lift us from the depths of melancholy. “Night Wave” struggles with intrusive thoughts; there is a yearning for a fresh start on “A New Life” (feat. Broncho), and a certainty of unconditional love in “As Long As You're With Me (feat. Andrew Belle). The album ends with a resounding and hopeful message: “We'll All Be Alright.”

“These songs feel like freeze frames of pivotal emotional moments of me finding a safe place to live from inside my own body,” Stroup says. “I've done a lot of experiential therapy, self-nurturing work and beyond, to get to a more true place to live from, and a lot of the songs capture the process and pivotal points on that continued journey.”

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