Monday, 3 July 2023

Paris Paloma - Allison Lorenzen - Alex Nicol - Gal Musette

Paris Paloma - yeti feat. Old Sea Brigade.

Singer-songwriter Paris Paloma has released her enchanting new single “yeti,” the anticipated follow-up to her break-out single “labour”. Featuring vocals from acclaimed indie singer/songwriter/producer Old Sea Brigade, the song offers a unique perspective on the transformative power of closure in a relationship.

Guided by her captivating vocals and lyrical prowess, Paris takes listeners on an emotive journey through the complexities of human connection. “‘yeti’ is about the quiet, healing realization that comes with giving oneself closure after a relationship; when you’ve moved through a period of intense intertwinement - almost obsession - with another, and what feels like the vast chasm of time and space between that passion, and the point of indifference towards them that is reached in the healed-over aftermath.

It’s not a spiteful, false indifference, nor a bitter apathy, but a breathing-out of sorts, when those feelings let themselves out quietly in the night, without saying goodbye or marking the day. The gentle accompanying vocals from Ben Cramer of Old Sea Brigade completes the presence of both parties, who share in this realization, so these two people become eerily connected in their acceptance of how far apart they have grown,” elaborates Paris.

 

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Allison Lorenzen - MTO.

Colorado-based Allison Lorenzen's latest track "MTO (More Than Once)" is out now. Weaving some of the most muscular guitar work we've heard in Allison's work around her buzzing synths and rafter-reaching vocals, "MTO" sounds like the final climax of a Mark Fischer-influenced hauntological prom scene. Leaning into the well-deserved Julee Cruise and Kate Bush comparisons, the resonant core of "MTO" is a meditation on the cyclical way patterns retreat and return several times before we recognize them - and make choices to either embrace or change them.

The grace for self required for this work is one that Lorenzen is well acquainted with. After a nomadic stint following the breakup of her band School Dance, Allison wrote this song while contemplating how this era in her life would close. This led her operating a hot springs in Southern Colorado where sojourners come to rest and recuperate.

"MTO" was written and recorded in the shipping container that doubles as Allison's living quarters and recording studio. Following on the heels of 2022's "The Fourth Cycle", and her beloved cover of "Glycerine" with Midwife, "MTO" presages a follow up to 2021's critically acclaimed solo debut record Tender released on Whited Sepulchre Records.

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Alex Nicol - Hollywood.

Emerging like the score of a silver screen classic that never was, the Montreal artist’s latest single ensnares with all the potency and poison of its namesake. Casting strings of a knife-edge tension against the unexpected twists that unfold with its dramatic key changes, “Hollywood” finds Nicol play a starring role in a song of downbeat and disturbing Lynchian thrills.

A song about living with the tension of unrealised aspirations while striving for gratitude in the present, “Hollywood” hits home like a bruised lament for what could have been and what may never be.

“I’ll never go to Hollywood, I’ll never be a star” sighs Nicol, seemingly stepping into the well-trodden shoes of an actor down on their luck and feeling the weight of the world. Yet for all the despair that surrounds its lead protagonist, a cathartic chorus adorned with glimmering and atmospheric arrangements finds Nicol offer a silver lining of hope; a contentment to be found in the acceptance of our fates. Mirroring some of the resentments and realisations that have earmarked chapters of his own life story, Alex explains:

“Lyrically, “Hollywood” is a reflective song in which I begrudgingly accept that I have failed to find success yet, with Hollywood symbolizing the fame-in-youth narrative that, because I am no longer young, I will never be able to claim. But if the verses are where I list all the things I will never do, in the choruses I remind myself of all that nourishes me at home, and how far I have come. I have always considered myself a late bloomer, and Hollywood ends optimistically: me and the great blue sky, and all the opportunity that it conveys. Hollywood is a signpost in my path as a musician, marking the end of my youth, in which I was ravaged by self-doubt, and the beginning of my next chapter, in which the sky's the limit.”

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Gal Musette - Into the Blue.

Gal Musette is the artist name used by Grace Freeman, who began writing piano and guitar based lyrical compositions and performing at open mics in her home city of San Clemente, CA at the age of 10. Her graceful approach to melody-driven indie-folk has captured audiences all over Southern California.

At age 14, inspired by The Magnetic Fields’ triple album 69 Love Songs, Gal recorded her own collection titled 70 Love Songs, which caught the attention of the band, and won her an opening slot on a few of their Midwestern U.S. tour dates. In more recent years, Gal has opened for several renowned artists such as Macy Gray, Suzanne Vega, Todd Snyder, and Donavon Frankenreiter. While her artist name is taken from bal-musette, the accordion-based, waltz-style French instrumental music, Gal’s primary inspiration is drawn from songwriters including Joni Mitchell, Regina Spektor, Björk, Cocteau Twins, Burt Bacharach, Big Thief and The Cure.

In October 2021, Gal released her debut album, Backwards Lullaby, featuring a vocal duet with one of her biggest musical inspirations, Rufus Wainwright. The record explores the pangs of hopeless romances and unrequited love, what it’s like to move beyond idealized love into the acceptance of what is real and constant, as well as the cyclical nature of life and love in relationships. In July 2022, Gal released an orchestral EP consisting of three re-imagined cuts from Backwards Lullaby featuring the musicianship of Via Mardot a talented multi-instrumentalist based in Detroit, Michigan.

Gal's latest single "Into the Blue" is a breezy, euphoric song immersing the listener into a free-flowing and dreamlike aura of kaleidoscopic sounds and hopeful narratives. Gal confides, "Into The Blue" is "about letting go of all the expectations I clung on so tightly to, and attempting to break the delusional patterns of my mind, self-loathing and narrow minded thinking. The catharsis of realizing the lack of control I have even over my own mind."

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Saturday, 1 July 2023

McDermott & North - Hunny Buzz - Margo Cilker - The Ready-Mades

McDermott & North - The Hollywood EP.

McDermott & North, the captivating indie folk duo known for their heartfelt sounds and irresistible melodies release 'The Hollywood EP'. Released yesterday via Weirder Together Records, the EP is a beautiful celebration of love, connection, and the beauty of everyday moments.

Since bursting onto the scene in 2016, McDermott & North have been winning hearts with their busking performances and beautiful songs. The duo already have a stack of singles and an EP, countless tours and hundreds of hours of performing under their belts, including having played at Bluesfest, BIGSOUND and Ted X Brisbane.

The unknown slow boil of 'The Hollywood EP' began in 2021 when the duo caught the attention of acclaimed Australian singer-songwriter and producer Ben Lee, who stumbled upon the two stylish troubadours singing in perfect 60s folk harmony. Little did they anticipate that this serendipitous encounter would pave the way for a remarkable collaboration resulting in the creation of this EP and one of the first releases for the new label Weirder Together Records run by Lee and his partner, Ione Skye.

After supporting Ben Lee at a show in Brisbane, he invited them to record with him in LA. Though recording in Los Angeles wasn't feasible, McDermott & North entrusted Ben Lee with their guitar and vocal stems to complete the EP. Ben Lee rallied an exceptional team to contribute their expertise, including Joey Waronker on drums (Beck, Roger Waters, REM), Roger Manning Jr on keys (Jellyfish, Glen Campbell, U2, Broken Social Scene), and Mike Viola on bass (Panic at the Disco, Dawes, Ryan Adams). It is a credit to McDermott & North that their songs were enough to draw a team like this together.

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Hunny Buzz - Now I can get over you.

Budding Bristol-based band, Hunny Buzz, share their brand new video to their punchy surf-pop banger “Now I Can Get Over You” released only a few days ago. Drenched in a rich layer of grungy guitar with lead singer’s Lyd Read’s personality and panache spilling out across every second of the track. Today’s new track is the first of many in the build-up to their forthcoming Pacific Wax EP out later this year.

Speaking about the track's narrative-driven lyrics and melancholic nature, Lydia Read explains “‘Now I can get over you’ is a blow-by-blow account of when a relationship goes so wrong, there can be relief in accepting the romance is dead and moving on.”

2023 is the year to keep an eye on Hunny Buzz, who are already super tight live since they formed in 2020, and possess the vitality of British tour successes Black Honey, Dream Wife and Wet Leg. The Group is made up of singer-songwriter Lydia Read, guitarist Rowan Barfoot, drummer Billy Pedrick and songwriter, producer and bassist Ewan Base.

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Margo Cilker - Keep It On A Burner.

Margo Cilker is set to return with her highly anticipated second LP Valley Of Heart’s Delight on September 15th via Loose. The upcoming record sees Cilker with the same group of collaborators (and a few additions) as her widely acclaimed 2021 debut Pohorylle. The 11-track set was produced by Sub Pop alum Sera Cahoone, who also contributes drums, and recorded by John Morgan Askew (Neko Case, Laura Gibson) with studio players from The Decemberists, Band Of Horses, and Beirut. Cilker and her touring band will take the new songs on the road this fall for an extensive run throughout the United States.

“‘'Keep It on a Burner’ is a stream-of-consciousness reflection,” Cilker offers. “Fittingly, I started writing it while floating down the Salmon River on a whitewater rafting trip full of rattlesnakes and wildfire smoke. I think of it as a song about playing the long game and pursuing your heart’s delight, despite life's winding waterways.”

Valley Of Heart’s Delight refers to a place where Cilker can't return: California’s Santa Clara Valley, as it was known before the orchards were paved over and became more famous for Silicon than apricots. She is the fifth generation of her namesake born there, and in this 11-song collection, family and nature intertwine as guiding motifs, at once precious and endangered, beautiful and exhausting. Cilker moved from California to the Pacific Northwest in her mid-twenties and wrote much of Valley Of Heart's Delight while living in Enterprise, Oregon, a small town near the Snake River and powered by the river’s massive, publicly-funded hydroelectric dams. The dams (part of the same system Woody Guthrie was hired to write about) provide clean electricity to much of the western United States but make it extraordinarily difficult for anadromous fish (such as Steelhead Trout) to return from the ocean and spawn in their native streams. Valley Of Heart’s Delight feeds off of this tension - how we live in and off of nature, how we live within and without family, and why we return to the places we were born. Of the forthcoming record, Cilker explains:

“I wrote these songs surrounded by the wild landscapes of the Northwest, but I was leaning toward the place I’d come from. I felt cut off from my family and the valley that held them. I spent hours thinking about my sense of belonging. I’d traveled through many places and then, when the travel stopped, I ruminated on where I had ended up. Where were you when the music stopped? I was in Enterprise, OR. And there in Enterprise, my mind drifted back to the Valley of Heart’s Delight. I wrote about family — about death and rebirth, and the arcs of love and art through a family line. There are songs that hint at missteps and redemption. There are songs about trees: in orchard rows, family trees, redwoods. And water: agricultural runoff, wild rivers, dammed rivers, baptismal flows. And there’s a [cover] song about a fish, cause it’s a damn good song and I wanted to record it.”

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The Ready-Mades - Tumbling Walls (Album).

Many of you know Badasonic from it's many sweet Reggae releases. We think you might enjoy their newest offering something a little different and wonderful!

Recorded on analog tape at the Retromixer studio in Châlons-en-Champagne, France, “Tumbling Walls” blows on the incandescent embers of 60's beat and soul, ignites minds and sets bodies ablaze, brings awareness and a contemporary outlook.

5/5 - "This is dope. Thank you! Love the rawness and the recording style makes this even more beautiful." - Hober Mallow - 2SER 107.3 FM - Sydney, NSW, Australia

"Brilliant update of that groovy 60s French pop sound!!" - Jeffrey Jones - WJOB 88.9 FM - Reserve, WI, USA

5/5 - "Some GROOOVY stuff from this French group! Vintage and yet modern... No synth sounds to be heard!" - Dr. StrangeDub - KFAI-FM 90.3 / 106.7 FM - St. Paul, Minneapolis

"We really like the sound of The Ready-Mades. Ready made for us here at CIUT-FM, Toronto." - Ken Stower - CIUT 89.5 FM - Toronto, ON, Canada

"Loving on this sound. Ready Made for listening." - Mister G - WSUM 91.7 FM - Madison, WI, USA.

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Friday, 30 June 2023

Jay Wood - Bekah Bossard - bdrmm - Sparkle*Jets U.K. - Tilia

Jay Wood - Oh Well.

West Australian alt-indie acoustic singer-songwriter, Jay Wood releases her highly anticipated single, ‘Oh Well’ today June 30th, 2023. This captivating single – A prelude to the 1st September release of EP, ‘Respire’ - serves as a testament to Jay's resilience and determination following a life-altering car accident that left her with a Catastrophic Traumatic Brain Injury, and embodies her unwavering spirit, inspiring listeners with its uplifting message. 

“[The song] began as a cute upbeat song professing heartfelt intentions toward her but morphed into more of an optimistic song with a lament of the love gone by, hence the weaving of the phrase “oh well” throughout.” – Jay Wood

Through her lyricism, reminiscent of the meaning injected through the songs of Phoebe Bridges and Missy Higgins, Jay expresses herself with raw honesty, quirkiness, and a "no holds barred" approach. Her songs fill listeners with unique and enlightened thoughts about love, life, and the human experience. By sharing her own challenges and triumphs, she creates a profound connection with her audience, encouraging them to find strength within themselves.

Jay Wood’s upcoming EP, 'Respire,' is the culmination of years of perseverance and resilience. Relearning the melodies and tunes from her lost memories was a painstaking process that required daily Functional Neuroscientific Therapy. Overcoming multiple health setbacks pertaining to her Brain Injury, Jay defied the odds to craft an EP that embodies her triumphant spirit. 'Respire' symbolises the power of choosing to embrace life, cherishing every breath and living with love and gratitude.

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Bekah Bossard - Venus.

Bekah Bossard shares “Venus,” a song that couldn’t get more personal to her, where she asks all the questions she wishes she could have asked her mother, who unfortunately lives with MS  (multiple sclerosis).  Bekah will be hosting an awareness night called “Venus” for the MS Society - the UK's largest charity for people affected by MS – on July 1st at The Old Library in New Cross where she’s invited several important guests.

Speaking about the song, Bekah said “I grew up hearing wild stories about her life in London in her 20s, falling in love with my dad and moving to LA with him, and their years traveling the world with the charities they worked for. As she deteriorated and became almost non-verbal, I relied on those stories to feel closer to her. The song came out of longing to be able to have those conversations with her. i hope anyone who hears this can sense how dynamic and loving she is. and that through this release, awareness is raised for the MS Society who offer support to those with MS & are researching an ultimate cure.”

Ed Tait, Executive Director of Engagement and Income Generation at the MS Society, says: “We’re so grateful to Bekah for using her talent to share such personal experiences and raise much-needed awareness about MS. Over 130,000 people live with MS in the UK. It’s relentless, painful and unpredictable, and can also have a huge impact on family and loved ones.

“Our vision is a world where no one has to worry about their MS getting worse. And money raised from events, like Bekah’s, help to bring us one step closer to achieving this. Bekah’s “Venus” event on July 1st will bring together an amazing line-up of talent who have all volunteered to come together to perform alongside artists and makers volunteering to sell their work on the night for a donation to the cause as well. Performing live alongside Bekah include poets Savannah Brown and Ella Monnerat plus fellow musicians Kitty Fitz and Amelia Lawn. Market stalls come from Doomsday Press, Ellie Redfern, Engelspark Bags, Hopeworld, Shut Up Shay and Knightsill.

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bdrmm - I Don't Know (Album).

While the world became socially distanced in 2020, Hull’s post-shoegaze, dream pop, heavy guitar effects quartet bdrmm made the kind of impact with their debut album any young band would dream about. Released on the small Sonic Cathedral label in July that year, Bedroom was hailed as “a heady, forward-thinking shoe gaze distillation” by Clash magazine. Mojo said that the band tread the “queasy tightrope of prime Cure, Ride etc. with real dexterity.” The Guardian proclaimed “one of the underground hits of lockdown,”, while NME awarded the album five solid stars and called Bedroom nothing less than “a modern day shoe gaze classic.”

The stunning debut was championed by the likes of Huw Stephens, Lauren Laverne, Steve Lamacq and John Kennedy, entered the Official UK chart three times, ended up in Rough Trade’s Top 10 albums of 2020 and turbo-boosted the band’s Spotify following, which now reaches just short of 300,000 listeners each month.

Three years on, the band’s new album I Don’t Know takes the adventure somewhere else. It’s contemporary shoegaze in a way but much, much more. Again recorded at The Nave studio in Leeds with producer Alex Greaves (Working Men’s Club, Bo Ningen), the band’s trademark effects-laden guitars and motorik Neu! grooves have now been augmented by piano, strings, electronica, sampling and even occasional dance beats. Fragile ambient pieces line up against pulverising guitar chords, sometimes within the same song. There are ambient washes and delicate piano pieces, while influences or reference points veer from Radiohead to My Bloody Valentine to the Cure to Brian Eno - perhaps - the minimalist classical of the likes of Erik Satie. Whatever has produced it, it’s a bigger-sounding, more tuneful, really rather fantastic second statement by four young men who are rightly sure about what they’re doing and loving every minute of it.

“We’re still coming from the same place, but the influences have got much broader,” confirms singer-guitarist Ryan Smith. His younger brother Jordan (bass, now also keyboards) has been checking out Steve Reich and Boards Of Canada and says, “A lot of it is just us gaining confidence, and also not wanting to retread old ground. We’d made the guitar record. So we were thinking, ‘What else can we do?’”

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Sparkle*Jets U.K. - Best Of Friends (Album).

Sparkle*Jets U.K., beloved icons of the Turn-of-the-Century Southern California guitar pop scene, are most assuredly back. BIG STIR RECORDS is proud to announce not only the June 30 release of the band's first album in over 20 years, Best Of Friends, on 2-LP Vinyl and CD in record stores everywhere and streaming worldwide, but a veritable multimedia renaissance for the band throughout 2023. Bringing back not just the vibes of the scene that birthed them but the songs as well, SJUK's jaw-dropping new double album is both a love letter of a tribute to the artists with whom they shared stages, and a thrilling revelation of those lost sounds to those who missed them the first time around.

Already heralded by the lead single, a cover of THE Masticators' “He's Coming Out”, Best Of Friends boasts 21 sparkling, punchy, hook-filled tracks across its four sides of wax, all originally recorded by the band's sterling peers on the late '90s LA pop scene. Each track is lovingly served up in the inimitable SJUK style, and the full album is almost dizzying in its rush of pure power pop delight.

It's a full-circle return for the Long Beach-based trio, consisting now as then of vocalist-guitarist SUSAN WEST, bassist JAMIE KNIGHT, and singer/multi-instrumentalist MICHAEL SIMMONS who also takes most drumming duties for the current edition of Sparkle*Jets U.K. (with Joel Valder sitting in on three tracks). The band has hardly been dormant for the decades since releasing their two widely admired albums In, Through And Beyond in 1998 and 2001's Bamboo Lounge, nor have they ever gone their separate ways. In addition to Simmons' continuing output as a solo artist (the acclaimed 2018 album First Days Of Sumer) and with Popdudes, SJUK joined the Big Stir Records family in 2019 for a special 7” tribute to Big Star recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis with Jody Stephens on board. And all three 'jets have been a part of creating the extraordinary (and very much pop-rock oriented) music program at Huntington Beach High School. The band's 2023 renaissance, though, is something altogether bigger, and this new collection is just the start, with a full album of SJUK originals already completed for release next year.

But we're here to talk about Best Of Friends, whose mission is right there in the double meaning of its title: it consists of songs by the band's true friends from the late '90s and early 2000s LA pop scene, and it serves as a veritable “Best Of” collection for those unfamiliar with that era's delights. Destined to have a reach beyond its impact as a superb pop rock record, Best Of Friends is more of a multi-media event than a simple album release. Along with the singles and their inevitable companion music videos, the album's publicity campaign incorporates a weekly podcast (also entitled Best Of Friends) which captures Sparkle*Jets U.K. in candid conversation with the artists covered on the album, bridging the gap between the fondly remembered adventures and recordings of yesteryear and the fresh, bracing versions on the new LP.

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Tilia - Peaceful Warning.

Escape and uprooting, the hope to find the courage to become happy elsewhere. Tilia packs all this on her current single 'Peaceful Warning' to the ethereal appeal of Dream Pop, dissecting her emotional world in catchy melodies.

In the fall, the experienced songwriter from Zurich will release her new EP. 'Peaceful Warning' is already the second foretaste of it after 'Ever Ever'. 

After two albums and tours in Switzerland, Germany and Austria, Tilia took time off four years ago to devote herself to other artistic projects.

So long, until the distance to the music hurt and space for new music arose.

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Wednesday, 28 June 2023

Briscoe - Jess Nolan - Viv & Riley

Briscoe - The Well.

Rising Americana-folk-rock band Briscoe is set to release their debut album 'West Of It All' on 15th September via ATO Records. Produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats), the album features a collection of folksy hooks and bold songwriting that bridges the gap between classic American roots music and its modern-day incarnation.

The band started on the University of Texas/Austin campus, with free backyard performances which quickly led to sold-out gigs at Antone's Nightclub and The Continental Club Gallery. Comprised of bandmates Truett Heintzelman and Philip Lupton, they built their fanbase the old-school way, by constant touring and authentic engagement with the audience. The Texas natives wrote 'West Of It Al'l as graduation loomed in the distance, funnelling the stories of their college experience — from heartbreak to hard-won lessons to weekend trips into the rural countryside — into a raw, rugged blend of classic and contemporary influences.

As Briscoe continued to perform and grow their fanbase, a wider audience began to take notice. They soon opened shows for Noah Kahan and Ruston Kelly and were selected for dates with Zach Bryan and Caamp. And after recently graduating from UT, Briscoe has a packed touring summer, filled with festivals alongside some of music’s biggest names on Bonnaroo, Winnetka Music Festival, Fairwell Festival, Catbird Music Festival, Iron Blossum Music Festival and more. A career highlight happens for Briscoe when they take the stage before The Dave Matthews Band at the Gorge on 1st September. The band will headline a tour this Autumn as well. A full list of tour dates is below and on their website HERE.

To record the album with Cook in North Carolina, Heintzelman and Lupton added drummer Matt McCaughan (Bon Iver) and multi-instrumentalist Phil Cook (Megafaun, Hiss Golden Messenger). Cook plays bass on the sessions as well and encouraged Briscoe to explore their sound. "Brad was very adamant about highlighting the parts of our sound that are different from everything else out there," Lupton remembers. "He's very forward-thinking. Truett and I would come into the studio and track something, and we'd think it sounded like a blend of several bands we love, and Brad would say, 'No, boys, it sounds like Briscoe'".

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Jess Nolan - Emergency Landing.

Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jess Nolan has released a new single “Emergency Landing” “Taking days off and spending time alone helps me show up more fully for thepeople around me. Instead of viewing it as selfish, I now see it as a sacred step in community care. My hope is that we can all give ourselves a high level of compassion for our own needs so that we can better serve others,” she added. “Take a breath! We don’t need permission to care for ourselves.”

“Emergency Landing” is Nolan’s first release since signing with Righteous Babe Records; the label was founded by fiercely independent icon Ani DiFranco, who describes it as “a people-friendly, sub-corporate, woman-informed, queer-happy small business that puts music before rock stardom and ideology before profit.” "I love Jess's voice, her melodies, they lift me,” DiFranco says. “So happy to welcome her into the RBR family.

Poet and psychoanalyst Clarissa Pinkola Estés said, “Do your art. Generally, a thing cannot freeze if it is moving. So, move. Keep moving.” These were words artist Jess Nolan has lived by over the course of the last three years. As everything in the world came to a halt, she kept her creative mind in motion -writing, drawing, singing, and painting her way through the unknown, pursuits Nolan has always relied on to help alchemize her surroundings

 

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Viv & Riley - Kygers Hill.

A bittersweet nostalgia lies at the heart of Imaginary People, the new album from Viv & Riley, coming September 15, 2023 on Free Dirt Records. Over ten tracks, the pair applies an indie roots sheen to newly composed pop gems. Rooted originally in the folk tradition, the pair reframe the production into experimental territory, crafting songs that speak to finding a path forward into adulthood in an uncertain world.

Gifted songwriters and multi-instrumentalists, Vivian Leva and Riley Calcagno’s first album under the name Viv & Riley is a subtle masterpiece of thought and reflection. The album brings a reflectiveness to summertime jams that speak of uninhibited joy and creative camaraderie. Coming on the heels of their acclaimed earlier albums that showed preternaturally talented songwriting from such young artists, now the songs have caught up with their lives. Now in their mid-20s, the two are building a life together, creating a supportive community, and looking back on everything they’ve been through.

Based out of Durham, North Carolina, they’ve tapped into the area’s eclectic and collaborative music scene, recruiting Alex Bingham of Hiss Golden Messenger to produce the album. Bingham brings a sunny, lush sound to Viv & Riley’s music, moving beyond their earlier country roots and toward a layered sound and sonic experimentation. The songwriting has evolved as well, from the world-weary, stripped-down country songs they’re known for to indie songwriting at turns sweetly sad and gently sardonic.

Ultimately, Imaginary People is about carrying and honoring our pasts, about letting that inform our new steps forward. No matter how much we might cling to where we are, sometimes we need to uproot and take a leap of faith, to open ourselves up to new experiences and ideas in order to grow and blossom. (CLICK ON VIDEO AND WATCH DIRECTLY ON YOUTUBE)

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Anna Smyrk - ZOCO - Howling Bells - TCBYML

Photo - Michelle Grace Hunder Anna Smyrk - This is a Drill . Naarm/Melbourne based singer-songwriter Anna Smyrk shares a poignant moment o...