Running is a song I wrote about my tendencies to procrastinate and leave things until the last minute. It works along with someone who travels for work like a musician or a truck driver and the life of constantly going and working towards the next destination.
The video was filmed by Jack Dunlap, Robert Mabe, Mason Wright, Elizabeth Baker, and Scott Davis. It was filmed at a live show at Bluegrass in the Barn at Capon Crossing Farm in Hampshire County, WV. Jack Dunlap, Robert Mabe, Alex Kimble, Mason Wright, Danny Knicely, and the crowd attending the show appear in the video.
Jack Dunlap & Robert Mabe have been touring the country together since 2019; though collectively have performed and recorded with the likes of Larry Keel, Gina Furtado, Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike, Scythian, Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley, Bud's Collective, The Fly Birds, Dry Mill Road, Old Town Flood, Shannon Bielski & Moonlight Drive, Tim, and Savannah Finch and The Eastman Stringband, Lonesome Highway, Circa Blue, and Jakobs Ferry Stragglers, to name a few.
The band currently features Jack on guitar, Robert on banjo, Alex Kimble on bass, Mason Wright on fiddle, and Danny Knicely on mandolin. All masters of their instruments play a mix of original tunes, classic bluegrass numbers, jazz favorites, and covers anyone would recognize. With roots planted firmly in bluegrass, they stretch their sound in ways that all audiences will enjoy and leave the performance wanting more.
Rychey is a songwriter, producer, keyboard player, drummer and vocalist based in UK. He describes the new song as follows ‘Tis a tale of a Wagon train protector (who has his own issues) looking after the safety of the travellers and pilgrims heading out West in the US, back in the day.
Rychey continues "To give you an idea, the chorus goes something (well completely) like this…
Different folks got their reasons for travelin' out west, Some reasons, better than others. Some men running away from their wives and their lives, Some women runnin' off with their lovers Then there's the cardsharp who owns Wagon 3, That useta belong to me…"
This is a beautiful song that quickly draws the listener into both the story line and the gentle musical undercurrent. Describing the song as Country-ish “Wagon Train (Elopin’ and hopin’)” is all of that, but with a tenderness that feels genuine as the singer lives the part.
A funk-laden guitar pop anthem filled with hazy melodies that flutter and float like the last rays of sun dipping behind the horizon on a languid summer day, “You’re An Animal” arrives as the first new music from Parliamo this year.
Taking primary inspiration from the laid-back electronica-infused indie pioneered by the likes of Primal Scream, Super Furry Animals or Blur, with a healthy dose of the dazed guitar-pop rhythms reminiscent of Swim Deep or Peace also detectable amidst its sunny substance matter; “You’re An Animal” finds the band facing up to our fear of failure with a fizzing new release.
As vocalist Jack Dailly explains of the track: “The lyrics [of “You’re An Animal”] centre on projecting your own failures and insecurities onto someone else in an argument: when you really should be having a go at yourself, you deflect the blame and double down. It quickly became an effective live number, with loads of people who had seen us live asking us when it would be released.”
Initially written over two years ago, “You’re An Animal” has been finessed to perfection at live shows and their home studio ever since. The final version was recorded, mixed and produced by Jamie Holmes at Castle of Doom Studios in Glasgow in 2023.
Her first new music of 2023, the “Fantasy” // “Galore” AA-side single arrives as Freya begins to etch out the successor to her acclaimed debut album ‘Beast’. Toying with that which tempts us in both lucid fantasies and shadowy realities, these two bold, dark and exhilarating new tracks find Freya Beer delving into what drives our deepest desires and showcasing two very different sides of her artistic abilities.
“You stretched your pegs out wide, slightly confused my appetite” teases Freya on “Fantasy” as she opens up the floor to a track of rapacious sexually-charged spills and raw garage rock thrills. Told through tactile, tantalising prose and prowling proto-punk riffs, this latest cut finds Freya celebrating the uncensored version of ourselves we become in our wildest daydreams. As Freya elaborates:
“Fantasy is an unfiltered exploration of self-discovery and expressing your thoughts in a fictional world. I wanted to write a song that emotes raw emotion and tells the listener to embrace their feelings in a positive way.”
On the flipside, “Galore” is an altogether more salacious affair that explores what can happen when those fictional pursuits and carnal desires boil over into real world infatuations with uncertain consequences. As Freya explains: “Galore is about people who are infatuated with something, almost bordering on ‘obsession’. The line “I’m your galore, you don’t want anyone else babe” depicts how this obsession is becoming a feeling of escapism and creating a fictional storyline for themselves.”
Letting loose a runaway freight train of jumpy guitar rhythms and primal percussive rumblings, the new single from the duo of Jova Radevska and Mark Vernon is one intended to heighten the senses and toy with what drives our fears and failings. As Jova explains:
“”Feel Your Fear” is about the human’s fallible nature to form addictions in order to alleviate pain. We can do this with a person too: we can believe that their company will save us from the challenges we are facing and we cling to that, when in fact we haven’t addressed the real cause of those feelings. It is often our insecurity and un-dealt trauma that makes us cling to people/substances, addictions in general.”
Citing ESG, Gang of Four, King Sunny Adé, and early Talking Heads as being amongst the subliminal influences that played into the track, “Feel Your Fear” sees YOVA deftly update their dynamic brand of alternative pop music with hints of garage rock, Afropop and funk to gripping effect.
Produced by Mark Vernon and arranged by Rob Ellis, the track was recorded between Dorset and London and also features Daniel O’Sullivan of Grumbling Fur on bass and features the legendary Terry Edwards (PJ Harvey) on saxophone. Intending to create an unshakeable feeling of restlessness, Jova Radevska’s airy vocals toe a fine line between playful and impending, while its haunting baritone sax, sinuous bass, and meticulously timed blasts of trumpet and organ all play their part in the unsettling fabric of “Feel Your Fear”. As Vernon adds: “The sonic tapestry and rapid tempo of this track is written to convey a sense of heightened urgency: the impending sense of emotional claustrophobia and resulting fear is echoed in the narrative of Jova’s lyrics. A sense of one last rushed midnight dance before emotions inexorably spiral out of control and time literally gets swallowed up before our eyes.”
A hidden gem from the frozen heart of Toronto, Canada, art school dropout and Sony Music Publishing artist La Faute (aka Peggy Messing) is releasing her third single “The Crown” from her upcoming debut Album, “Blue Girl Nice Day”.
La Faute is Messing’s dark, dreamy solo project. A visual artist, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter originally from Winnipeg, Canada, she explores themes of surface vs. depth, longing, betrayal, mourning and desire. Using tenor electric guitar and obsolete hardware samplers, she created her captivating live show and released her debut EP just before the pandemic. She chose to pause performing live due to her health, and returned to focusing on creation, finding workarounds to the problem of isolation. She connected with fellow artists and producers in France, the UK, Canada and the US to create music during this time, most recently with LA-based Topher Mohr who produced her upcoming album.
She received unanimous praise for the first single from the album, ‘Blue Girl Nice Day’, in February 2023, an unsettling, haunting song inspired by the Milgram experiments of the 1960s. The song was accompanied by an eerie video that showed the artist making a bed in a windswept field with looming power lines in the background. Her second Single, “Watercolours” was equally highly praised, and featured a video of Messing night driving in the rain and getting drenched in a cold downpour. She has become increasingly interested in filmmaking, art-directing and shooting music videos for each song herself, inspired by French new wave and film noir aesthetics.
North Wales alt-pop quartet Hourglvss, made up of best friends Katie Benbow (vocals / keyboard), Sophie May Williams (vocals / keyboard), Rosie Hamilton (guitar) and Lauren James (drums) are the newest infectious girl gang you will want to be a part of. This week they share their infectious new single 'Calling'. Operating out of Benbow’s ‘Vintage Hearts’ clothing warehouse; complete with pink floors, a giant lipstick, alien mannequins, and heaps of vintage garments, these four women have created a safe space for their own unique Hourglvss universe.
Hourglvss was first formed back when Sophie became a customer of Katie’s vintage clothing website. The pair instantly hit it off and found they had almost everything in common. After attending a Tame Impala gig, the pair began playing music together, covering songs at Katie’s house. It was there that they discovered they had something special.
Soon after, Rosie and Lauren joined the band, and the sisterhood was locked in. “It’s a girl gang, people come up to us after our gigs and want to be our friends, we are building a community for everyone.”
Nashville singer-songwriter Jill Andrews just released a brand new single called "High Fives" along with an official music video. Co-written with her Hush Kids bandmate and frequent collaborator Peter Groenwald, "High Fives" is a nostalgic song inspired by childhood friends and finding immense joy in the simplest of things. The video was directed and edited by Joshua Britt and Neilson Hubbard.
“I’ve always been a big fan of elaborate handshakes,” stated Andrews. “I once created a routine with a friend of mine that lasted upwards of five minutes and involved a whole lot of synchronized dancing. Near the four and a half minute mark, we would find ourselves in a crab-walking position preparing for our final move. It was a grand high five followed by a nonchalantly spoken ‘see ya’ as we crab-walked out of each other’s view. This move proved to be tricky for us bipeds so we kept missing contact on the high five. In my opinion, there is nothing more unsettling than this. So we had to start the whole routine over again until we finally got it right. This could take all day.
But when you’re young, what else do you have to do? My favorite kinds of friends know how to dive deep into the fun-loving sides of themselves. They may have learned and performed all of Janet Jackson’s ‘Rhythm Nation’ dance routine with me at one point or another. They may have helped me develop a couple’s inline skating routine in a freshly paved parking lot somewhere in East Tennessee. It seems like these types of friends are harder to find as an adult. Everyone gets so tangled up in bills, kids, and home repairs. I’m lucky to still have a treasured few in my life. And for those who really know me, I hope they still see that silly girl, whose favorite thing to do is laugh so hard that she loses control of her limbs.”
"High Fives" follows the release of "Dark Days," Andrews first new studio release in over two years. A sprawling reflection on the complexities of simultaneously looking back and moving forward, "Dark Days" was featured by The Bluegrass Situation and Ghettoblaster among others.
Tom Emlyn released his new single 'Broken Mirror' a few days back. The follow-up to 'Like a Cigarette' it's the second of three singles leading up to the album ‘Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 1’ released on the 5th of May 2023. Mastered by Charlie Francis (R.E.M., Pixies) 'Broken Mirror' is a semi-fictional ballad of lost love set against the backdrop of the Welsh landscape with a heavy dose of irony and imagism.
"And beauty is a curse/ But ugliness is worse/And loneliness is always" Sighs Emlyn bittersweetly on this wistful poetic song rich with detail, as spindly guitars, waltzing fiddles and harps, orbit around his tender vocals. Beguiling and anthemic, introspective yet universal 'Broken Mirror' speaks to the human experience of lost love.
Emlyn says: "This was a song I wrote after I came back from traveling in about 2015. It was a bit of a prototype for some of my other songs like Empire or Under the Weather, which try to use the Welsh landscape as a metaphor for a breakup. It's not really as biographical as it sounds, there's a lot of fiction in there too. It also deals with the choices you make in life and realising that there are many ways to look at a situation. It's quite conversational and imagistic."
Folk femme fatale singer and theatre actress Sarah Segal-Lazar has been making music since before she could talk. Folks say she took her first steps in ¾ time.
She wrote “Even Miami Is Cold” after a trip to spend time with her long-distance boyfriend, but within two days she realised it was like a romcom gone wrong.
The line that started it all – “Baby when I’m with you even Miami is cold” – feels like something Katharine Hepburn would fire back at Cary Grant. It’s a good reminder that even the most specific and personal stories can still live in poetry.
“I was so stressed that I spent a good chunk of the trip shivering, even though it was 30 degrees out,” Sarah explains. “Needless to say, by the last night, we had called it quits. I flew back to Montreal, half heartbroken and half bewildered.”
Josienne Clarke has released “Anyone But Me,” the final single from her new album Onliness (songs of solitude and singularity), out today Friday, April 14th via Corduroy Punk Records. Darkly urgent, with distorted guitars reframing its folk origins to create a whole new sound for Clarke, “Anyone But Me” is a study in possessiveness. The song’s grim and ominous music video directed by Alec Bowman_Clarke is a fitting visual companion as it follows the end of a marriage. “Maybe I just watched too many Hitchcock films in lockdown, but when I was commissioned to make a video for this song, I knew exactly what I had to do” explains Bowman_Clarke. “Bob Gallagher, the maker of Josienne's wonderful 'Chicago' video, was kind enough to grant me permission to use his character, and Chris Newman jumped at the chance to reprise his role. I'm very grateful to them both for helping bring this vision to life.”
The “Anyone But Me” video has earned early support from film festivals across the world–it’s currently a semifinalist in the London Indie Short Festival and the San Jose Independent Film Festival, and has been selected by the Tokyo International Short Film Festival and the Roma Short Film Festival. “Anyone But Me” follows previous album singles “The Birds,” “The Tangled Tree,” and “Words Were Never The Answer”.
Written, arranged, and produced entirely by Clarke, Onliness is the follow-up to 2021's A Small Unknowable Thing–her first LP released via her own label–and presents a career retrospective viewed through new eyes and ears. The LP arrives about five years after she left her contract with Rough Trade Records and is ultimately a striking overview of an artist who has beautifully traversed their own path, no matter how rocky it became. Throughout the process, Josienne was clear that she wanted the album to work on its own terms, that it could stand tall as a brand new chapter even to those unfamiliar with the initial recordings. She also wanted to approach each new song as a singular exercise, to follow the instincts that she’s honed over the past few years.
"Goodbye" first came to fruition when singer-songwriter Yulia Bizyukova decided to do some spring cleaning in her flat. From the ashes appeared an external hard drive with various unfinished tracks - one of which recovered a skeletonized version of "Goodbye".
At the time, the track contained only a few lines of a verse and chorus. After tweaking "Goodbye" for a couple weeks, Yulia sent it to Andy Baldwin, for mastering at Metropolis Studios. The end result is a captivating display of shoegaze layered underneath lush vocals that gently embrace the listener's ears.
Yulia Bizyukova was born and raised in the barren landscape of Barnaul, Siberia, where it snows for a third of the year and freezing cold winters can last up to five months. At age 10, Yulia taught herself guitar and began writing songs that drew inspiration from the melancholy she witnessed.
Everything by Electricity accredits Slowdive, Tangerine Dream, and Joni Mitchell, as some of their biggest influences. Prior to the pandemic, Everything By Electricity's rich sound enabled them to support Helen Marnie of Ladytron on tour.
Glasgow trio Brenda release Microscopic Babe, the second single from their upcoming self-titled debut album. Microscopic Babe is out 14th April, following recent single Cease and Desist.
Brenda are Litty on guitar, Apsi on drums and Flore on synths. They’ve created a buzz by gigging across Glasgow with their post-punk, dream-pop. Their energetic sets described as the type that “end up seared onto your brain after a single viewing” (The Scotsman). The combination of their dreamy synths, witty lyrics and unapologetic energy is truly infectious.
The album is released 28th July and will be launched with a gig at The Glad Cafe in Glasgow with support from label-mates Casual Worker. The Brenda album is available on blue vinyl and digital by Last Night From Glasgow.
‘Everything was gone: I was on my own…’ ‘Runaway’ by Marlody is a melancholy pop song about being on the brink of oblivion: contemplating the beauty of nothingness but stepping back just in time.
As with many of Marlody’s songs, if you concentrate to her mesmerising keyboard and her exquisite melodies you’ll be okay: they will keep you safe from the sheer drops either side of you.
‘Runaway’ is the third single from Marlody’s acclaimed debut album ‘I’m Not Sure At All’.
Marlody is from Ashford, Kent, UK. Her next live performance are: 23 April 2023: London (Camden), The Green Note. 20 May 2023: London, Bush Hall: Le Salon de Heavenly, afternoon show. 27 May 2023: London (Forest Gate), Tracks E7. 1 June 2023: Folkestone (Kent), Folklore. 17 June 2023: Rolvenden Layne (Kent), The Skep: Words and Music Festival.
Formed in Cardiff, Sock make guitar-driven alternative rock, taking inspiration from psychedelic music. Known for their creative melodic arrangements and blending of genres, the band describe their music as “a rather progressive affair”.
Following on from the bands debut album ‘Fresh Bits’, in 2018, their much anticipated self- titled follow up is out this April. The album features Jacob on Rhythm Guitar & Vocals, Billy on Lead Guitar, Sam on Bass & Keys, and Simon on Drums & Percussion.
Produced by the band, the album was recorded during the pandemic and sees the music move into a heavier and more refined sound.
Change Your Mind is the second track released from their self-titled second album, which is out on the 28th April through Bubblewrap Collective.
