Caoilfhionn Rose - Paging Doctor Moon - Lord and the Woolf - Elijah Wolf

Photo - Emily Dennison

Caoilfhionn Rose — Flourish.

Truly, the luscious, soulful new album from Manchester singer-songwriter Caoilfhionn Rose (pronounced Keelin) moves through a tapestry of curious musical inflections; nods towards folk, jazz, ambient, electronica and even a subtle influence of psychedelia, it never stands still to take a breath, despite its ethereal and delicate core. Out April 9th on Gondwana Records (Mammal Hands, Portico Quartet, Matthew Halsall, Hania Rani), in Truly, the young singer-songwriter has accomplished a body of work that is both sonically and lyrically wise beyond her years. Rose today shares a first single from the album – ‘Flourish’, an intoxicating song that meditates on being present in the moment, allowing peace to come to you.

“The song ‘Flourish’ is about looking forwards with hope and possibility, ‘let it flow away, let it turn around and flourish’. It’s about finding peace and feeling wonder again” says Rose about the track. “’Flourish’ hints at the ideas of what could be, how things can unfold if you let go ‘and just be here’.”

Co-produced by Kier Stewart of The Durutti Column following Rose’s collaborative endeavours with them on their album Chronicle LX:XL, the musician’s song writing draws from a diverse palette of influences, including Building Instrument, Rachel Sermanni, Alabaster dePlume and Broadcast. Rose also professes to a love for beautiful, stripped back, piano based music, such as Dustin O’Halloran and label mate Hania Rani.

Truly came to exist due to a deep-routed need to create – even though its conception was interrupted as Caoilfhionn Rose recovered in hospital from an illness, she found strength within writing music. “In Spring 2019 I took part in a gig swap with my good friend and fellow musician Kristian Harting who is from Denmark. We played several gigs in the UK but unfortunately the Denmark part of the tour was cut short as I was taken ill. I was hospitalised for several weeks and have taken the last year out to recover” says Rose. “I gradually returned to finishing my second album” she continues. “Coming back to creating after being unwell was challenging but also therapeutic. This record marks a difficult time of my life and writing it helped get me through that. I am really grateful to have music as an outlet.” It may be this tremendously challenging period that has abetted its characterising qualities.

Rose’s beautifully restrained vocal is all at once soothing yet mesmerising. She demands and holds attention through her evident talent yet hypnotises the listener into a trance with her experimental tendencies. “After being unwell, getting back to recording helped me recover my voice after not singing for so long. Finishing bits of songs, writing lyrics and recording vocals helped me get back on my feet and get better.”

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Paging Doctor Moon - Haunted.

Rising alt indie band Paging Doctor Moon has released their second single, Haunted, available on all streaming services today February 5.

Written and performed by founding member Kirsten Heibert with production, mixing, and mastering by Julian Giaimo and features from Morgan Karabel, the track explores why we hold on to relationships that are toxic.

“Haunted is about a bad relationship that feels like Groundhog Day,” says Kirsten Heibert, founder of Paging Doctor Moon. “We wrote it on the porch while we were recording the rest of the album.”

Paging Doctor Moon’s second single is an emotional symphony paired with soulful lead vocals as the primary instrument. The track begins with a stripped and raw exploration with just vocals and guitar and builds to a fuller alternative indie soundscape flushed out with a soft electric guitar and light percussion.

Known for their deep lyricism and vocals and evocative arrangements, Paging Doctor Moon will continue to release singles this year leading up to a Spring 2021 debut album release.

Paging Doctor Moon is an alt indie band with soulful & jazzy vocals from singer/songwriter Kirsten Heibert She founded Paging Doctor Moon in Brooklyn in 2018 under a different band name They gigged in NYC for two years, regularly hitting NYC indie-staples Rockwood Music Hall and Arlene’s Grocery. RIYL: Crumb, Lianne La Havas, Sister Sparrow, Fiona Apple, Mazzy Starr, Kat Wright.

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Lord and the Woolf - Young

Lord and the Woolf is made up of a pair of rascals from the North West of England - Joe Woolf and Sam Lord.

After previously touring with bands ‘Chappaqua Wrestling, ‘Aquilo’, ’LOWES’, and ‘Shy Luv’, Sam and Joe decided to start their own project. With Joe conveniently being a producer they took to his studio to hone and create their own unique style and sound. 

Their studio writing process and attention to detail spawned a dense and interesting production aesthetic, resembling the likes of ‘Alt-J’, ‘Bombay Bicycle club’ and ‘Tame Impala.’

Following two previous singles including the euphoric ‘Etta’s Game’, this month will mark the release of their 3rd single ‘Young’ alongside a music video.

‘Young’ carries a narrative which highlights youthful lust and love, and how it can harness the power to distort our moral compass. At a point in everyone’s life, they must make a choice to either leave or stay in a life defining moment.

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Photo - Eric Michael Pearson

Elijah Wolf - Brighter Lighting.

Brooklyn-based artist Elijah Wolf has released the title track from his upcoming album Brighter Lighting due out February 26 via Trash Casual Records. The track features contributions from Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, Josh Jaeger (drummer for Angel Olsen & Fleet Foxes) and Sam Cohen (Kevin Morby, Sharon Van Etten), who also produced the album. Also today, Forbes interviewed Elijah about the new single release, stating "Rolling guitar melodies create forward motion, synths and lap steels mirror the motion of the natural world."

"This song came so naturally and I had felt like it summed up the record nicely as a whole," says Wolf. "I had spent quite some time reflecting on the experience writing my first record before this one, which was a deeply lonely and personal one. This song is about looking back on those days and how life has moved far past them. It’s about taking those experiences and moving forward."

Speaking about the video, Elijah explains: "I grew up in Phoenicia, New York, nestled up in the Catskill Mountains. Throughout my life, the geography and botanical offerings have provided great comfort for me. It is here that I gained my great wonder and curiosity for the world, as well as the place I continuously return to when things get dark and uncertain. 

Brighter Lighting is about understanding the past, so that one may look forward with wide eyes. I asked one of my closest friends, Dylan Kaplowitz, a filmmaker (also from the Catskill Mountains), to document a full day with me, revisiting these sacred places; each one with great significance to my life. I shared stories with him at each spot and he filmed it all on a Super 8 camera."

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Moontype - Doohickey Cubicle

Moontype - About You.

Moontype have announced their debut LP Bodies of Water, which will be released on up and coming Chicago imprint Born Yesterday Records. The announcement arrives on the heels of the release of the band's debut single "Ferry" in December which received an overwhelming response, earning comparisons to Galaxie 500 and Beach House in The New York Times and earning praise and even some "most anticipated LPs of 2021" nods from outlets like FADER, MTV, Stereogum, NPR, Paste and Bandcamp. To mark the announce of the LP the band are sharing a second single "About You."

"When I wrote ‘About You’ I was sitting in my apartment missing my friend who had gone abroad for the semester and thinking about all the moments that made our friendship so special," explains singer/bassist Margaret McCarthy. "The glue between us started to form while on tour, walking through Richmond VA for hours one night past confederate monuments and art on building walls. The friendship began as a crush but it slowly melted into something more lasting - we made a synth together, we wrote songs together - and I really just wanted to be around them most of the time! There was this feeling of being two magnets, pulling towards each other, but the pull doesn’t stay that strong forever and I wanted to remember what it felt like at the start. I’m grateful I wrote it down in that way because now me and my friend fall in and out of touch but every time we play that song I remember how special they are and how important they are to me."

The three players in Chicago’s Moontype orbited each other for years before they came in phase. Bodies of Water, their debut album for local label Born Yesterday, documents travel, insecurity, friendship, and the titular element—all of which are representative of the band members’ strong connection to place and to one another. “Being rooted in the landscape became important to me while studying geology, which completely changed how I think about the world,” offers songwriter, vocalist and bassist Margaret McCarthy of the album’s central themes. The arrangements themselves feel like open-hearted negotiations; sparse fingerpicking gives way to saturated tube-screaming as naturally as the changing of tides. Over twelve tracks, Moontype revels in the woozy concoction of its many influences, but always lands on punchy hooks, shifting between arrangements both spacious and mystifying without abandoning their conversational warmth.

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Doohickey Cubicle - Sign Here.

Doohickey Cubicle (formerly Booty EP) are a dream-inducing synth-pop duo that ooze with creativity. Whether it’s their energetic and visually stunning live shows, their self-produced singles or their wealth of DIY music videos, they’re always up to something, and it’s always interesting.

Since 2017, Doohickey Cubicle – made up of Alli Deleo on keys/vocals and Francis Hooper on guitar/synth – have been creating art in multiple mediums, and always from the ground up. Beginning as a small project that mostly focused on self-recorded off-the-cuff late-night jams with humorous vocal improvisations, the group didn’t take themselves too seriously (hence the original, or current name). That being said, after a handful of shows, the duo began to realize that the audience felt differently, as they were visibly taken back not only by their ethereal musical presence, but by their captivating projection visuals, which have since then become a staple for the band’s live show. It wasn’t long after that they released their first EP What What and the Who Now? followed by the single Mascarpone in 2018, showing a new focus towards their work, and no lack of inspiration or momentum after being discovered as an up-and-coming power duo in Vancouver’s indie-pop scene. Since then the group has played festivals like Reeperbahn (Hamburg), Linecheck Festival (Milan), POP Montreal (Montreal), Music Waste (Vancouver), Rifflandia (Victoria, BC), Fringe Festival (Vancouver), and Westward Festival (Vancouver). They’ve toured in Italy the last two years in November, along with shows in Berlin and London, a Pacific Northwest tour, and shows in Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and NYC.

More recently, the duo released their new single Airbag with an accompanying music video on April 17th, which will be on their self-released debut LP Don’t Fix Anything 😉, due out in March 2021. Recorded between Montreal and their home studio The Juniper Room, and self-produced as always, Don’t Fix Anything 😉 is without a doubt their most ambitious musical venture to date, with countless collaborations with notable artists, multiple single releases, remixes, and numerous additions to their already towering arsenal of music videos.

Doohickey Cubicle · Sign Here

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The Besnard Lakes - POOLS

The Besnard Lakes - Our Heads, Our Hearts on Fire.

Nearly five years after their last lightning-tinted volley, magisterial Montreal psych-rock band, The Besnard Lakes, have sworn off compromise, split with their long-standing label, and completed The Besnard Lakes Are The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings (out now!) – a searing, 72-minute suite about the darkness of dying and the light on the other side.

The album’s newest single, “Our Heads, Our Hearts On Fire Again,” has that 3/4 waltz The Besnard Lakes love so much – the same 3/4 waltz that their song, “Disaster,” rested upon. It’s also a bit of a lament about how sad the band was when they parted ways with Jagjaguwar

They have passed through death and they’re here to tell the tale. Nearly five years after their last lightning-tinted volley, the magisterial Montreal psych-rock band have sworn off compromise, split with their long-standing label, and completed a searing, 72-minute suite about the darkness of dying and the light on the other side.

The Besnard Lakes Are The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings is the group’s sixth album and the first in more than 15 years to be released away from a certain midwestern American indie record company. After 2016’s A Coliseum Complex Museum – which saw Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas attempting shorter, less sprawling songs – the Besnards and their label decided it was time to go their separate ways; with that decision came a question of whether to even continue the project at all. What use is a band with an instinct for long, tectonic tunes – rock songs with chthonic heft and ethereal grace, five or 10 or 18 minutes long? How do you sell that in an age of bite-sized streaming? How do you make it relevant?

“Who gives a s..t!” the Besnard Lakes realized. Ignited by their love for each other, for playing music together, the sextet found themselves unspooling the most uncompromising recording of their career. Despite all its grandeur, …The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings honours the very essence of punk rock: the notion that a band need only be relevant to itself. At last the Besnard Lakes have crafted a continuous long-form suite: nine tracks that could be listened together as one, like Spiritualized’s Lazer Guided Melodies or even Dark Side of the Moon, overflowing with melody and harmony, drone and dazzle, the group’s own unique weather.

Here now, the Besnard Lakes finally dispensed with the two/three-year album cycle, taking all the time they needed to conceive, compose, record and mix their opus. Some of its songs were old, resurrected from demos cast aside years ago. Others were literally woodshedded in the cabanon behind Lasek and Goreas’s “Rigaud Ranch” – invented and reinvented, relishing this rougher sound. Some of that distortion makes its way into the final mix: an incandescent crackle that had receded from the Besnards’ more recent output.

Rightly – nay, definitively! – The Besnard Lakes Are The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings is a double LP. “Near Death” is the title of the first side. “Death,” “After Death,” and “Life” follow next. It’s literally a journey into (and back from) the brink: the story of the Besnard Lakes’ own odyssey but also a remembrance of others’, especially the death of Lasek’s father in 2019. Being on your deathbed is perhaps the most psychedelic trip you can go on: in Lasek’s father’s case, he surfaced from a morphine dream to talk about “a window” on his blanket, with “a carpenter inside, making intricate objects.” That experience pervades the album, catching fire on the song “Christmas Can Wait”; elsewhere the band pays tribute to the late Mark Hollis and, on “The Father of Time Wakes Up,” they mourn the death of Prince.

In these scorched and pitted times, as the world smoulders, there might be nothing less trendy than an hour-long psych-rock epic by a band of Canadian grandmasters. Then again, there might be nothing we need more. …The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings is a bright-blazing requiem: nine tunes that are one tune and six musicians who make one band – unleashed and unconstrained, piercing and technicolour. At the end of the golden day, the Besnard Lakes are right where they should be.

Flemish Eye Records · The Besnard Lakes: Our Heads, Our Hearts on Fire Again (EDIT)

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POOLS - Looking for Trouble.

The latest addition to the Swedish musical pipeline is the charming americana duo, POOLS.

The two-piece outfit is the collective vision of multi-instrumentalist Fredrik Forell and lead vocalist Arvid Hällagård. Reminiscent of bands such as The National and The Tallest Man On Earth, POOLS combine americana, folk and gospel to create something quite remarkable.

POOLS marks the end of a journey for the pair, who used to function as the electro-pop group WYRES in addition to Arvid’s place within stoner rock band Greenleaf. However, it is also symbolic of their new beginning; the arrangements might be delicate, but their artistic intensity remains the same.

Their forthcoming album You & Us is a collection of poignant and haunting lullabies that landscape themes of loss and rumination, inspired by the divorce Arvid was going through as the album was taking shape. With the release of their debut record on the horizon, POOLS share their latest track ‘Looking For Trouble’ following the tender outpour of their last single ‘Walk’.

Pondering the future, ‘Looking For Trouble’ is a soft ballad, crafted by gentle piano, brushed snares and hearty vocals, detailing the prospects that could lie ahead for Arvid’s daughter. He says the track is about “…how when she gets older will go out to some bar and dance her way through the night, looking for trouble, which is actually the love that we all need and crave.”

‘Looking For Trouble’ will be available to stream on 28th January 2021 with debut album You & Us coming April 30th 2021 via Something Beautiful.

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Gracie Nash - Timid, the Brave - Kill The Giants

Gracie Nash - Sippy Cup.

Gracie Nash is too young to remember the halcyon eras of classic pop songcraft, but she does remember what these songs meant to her growing up during the early 2000s era of fizzy divas and boy bands. Songs from the 1950s through the 1970s were an escape from painfully complex school dynamics. These songs gave Gracie hope, comfort, and courage. Today, the New York-based artist gives back with well-crafted and lushly orchestrated modern vintage pop songs.

Her songs perfectly encapsulate her eccentricities, tying together her playfulness and poetic sensibility as a lyricist, her theatrical musicality, and her love of influences such as Billy Joel, the Beatles, Motown, disco, Joni Mitchell, Carol King, and ELO. Her talents came full bloom while in college, and she graduated from NYU Steinhardt with a Master's Degree in Songwriting. Since then, Gracie has been a featured singer with the string group Little Kruta, and a featured artist with the New York Nashville Connection. Today, outside of her artist’s career, Gracie is a private guitar/voice/ukulele/songwriting teacher, and a Teaching Artist with the Metropolitan Opera Guild.

Gracie shares: I wrote “Sippy Cup” about 3 years ago when I was in the midst of the NYC dating scene.  I had met a few nice guys, however the same issue kept creeping up: transparency. If you know me, you know that I’m the epitome of an open book. I treasure honesty & transparency so much in all my relationships... and yet I found myself swept up in these unfulfilling flings with mysterious & aloof men. One of the most notable romances was with a smooth-talking banjo player who constantly kept me on my toes. Inevitably, the affair fizzled out. At first I wondered what was wrong with me, why didn’t he want to open up to me? But upon reflection...I realized it wasn’t me at all. 

I was catching up with my cousin & he asked me what had ever happened with the banjo player. Without skipping a beat I said “You know, it was like, I was a glass of water...and he was just a sippy cup.” And as the words came out of my mouth I knew that line had to go into a song. I imagine most people have dated a Sippy Cup at some point or another. While we’re trying to start clear & healthy relationships (a la a glass of water) we end up paired with a small & opaque person (a la a sippy cup). It happens to the best of us! I hope that my song “Sippy Cup” helps those who are looking for love have a good laugh at the ones who got away. PS. Just in case said banjo player is reading this...it’s water under the bridge and I truly wish him the best! If anything I’m grateful for the song inspiration."

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Timid, the Brave - St. Maria.

Timid, the Brave is the solo moniker for Canadian songwriter Tim Selles. His 2011 self-titled debut EP, recorded with Scott Orr of Other Songs, was named one of iTunes Canada’s “Best Of” that year. 

After growing somewhat tired of the grind of solo performances and simple recordings, Selles recruited a handful of other Hamilton musicians to lend their talents to 2017’s LP, Firesale. 

The forthcoming record, Vuja De, builds on that communal transition, featuring Nate Wall (King Park) on drums and percussion, Ethan Rooney (The Good Hunters) on bass, and Gareth Inkster on pretty much everything else. 

Set for a Spring 2021 release, the upcoming record chronicles the cyclical nature of life, exploring the possibility of finding new meaning in familiar experiences.

Other Songs · Timid, the Brave - St. Maria

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Kill The Giants - Like The Sun.

Like The Sun is the first single from the new album Arcadia  by St Albans' collective Kill The Giants. The tracks is a retor slice of 80's electro funk.

Arcadia is their 4th album and is inspired by their love of the 1980's, amusement arcades and video games.

The band have received rave reviews from the likes of Hotpress, Steve Lamacq from BBC 6 Music & John Kennedy from Radio X.

Kill The Giants have mixed up genres at will on their previous albums but have gone back to the electronica of the 1980's for Arcadia. The album is influence by 80's pop, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and New Order.

The first single from the album is When i Feel Alone which is dedicated to all those who suffer from depression.

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Aistè - Strictly Elizabeth - Kue Varo - Cousin Mouth - Heavy Feather - Belle Tower

Aistè - Where You're Going Today.

Rising independent pop powerhouse and 2021 One To Watch Aistè has released new single ‘Where You're Going Today,’ premiered on Hayes FM, and the accompanying official music video, premiered on A1234. Completed during lockdown, both the track and the video are entirely written and produced by Aistè herself.

The gorgeous visuals for ‘Where You're Going Today’ see Aistè reconnect with the pure and uncontaminated freedom, both physical and creative, that she found herself drawn to during the pandemic.

While waiting out the stay-at-home orders in her hometown in Lithuania, she started exploring her connection with the innocent child that she once was, free from the routines and chaotic energy of her daily life back in London. She found inspiration in the introspective and nostalgic feelings that surfaced, and this, combined with the creativity and restlessness that burst at her seams while in lockdown, produced a powerful moment of soul-searching and contemplation that she artfully translated into music.

‘Where You're Going Today’ is born out of the persistent feeling that there must be something larger, something almost holier than the capitalistic games we are trapped in, and that reconnecting with the child that lives within and guides each one of us is the best way to awaken ourselves from the stupor we've been living under.

"Change is inevitable, this much we've learned in 2020," says Aistè about her journey with new music. "We’ll change homes, countries, partners, ourselves in the pursuit to achieve our dreams and thus fulfilment. When all is said and done, after all these transformations, do we still remember the person who dreamed those very dreams? Is he, is she still around?"

'Where You're Going Today’ follows the release of latest singles, magnetic and futuristic ‘Mojo' and anti-capitalist anthem 'Money Is Life,' the official video for which was nominated in the Best Director category at the 2020 KlipVid Awards. After testing the waters with previous tracks ‘My Only Friend’, ‘Say When’, and 'This Will Happen’, as well as the bewitching ‘Blue Dawn’, Aistè breathes a new creative fire.

 

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Strictly Elizabeth - These Little Things (I Get From You).

Strictly Elizabeth, announced today the launch of her second track from her monthly Full Moon Series, with the release of “These Little Things (I Get From You)” available now via all digital platforms. This is the second installment of new music to be released on the full moon since it launched last month.

Produced and Mixed by musician Ira Ingber, “These Little Things (I Get From You)” is a previously unreleased song of her own composition released via her own Data Water Records with virtual distribution by Dash/Go. 

“We launched the Full Moon Series in the spirit of releasing what is complete to make room for new creative action and collaboration,” said Jessica of Strictly Elizabeth. “This month’s track, “These Little Things (I Get From You)” is about the person you become through habit and patterns of behavior.”

This is a deeply personal track for Jessica, who started to see that she was imitating the men she was in love with and wrote this song about that piece of self-discovery. She found that although she is much more aware of it now, it’s still a deeply ingrained pattern from childhood. The video for this song explores this theme.

The Full Moon Series next installment will be released on the next full moon, February 27, 2021 and subsequent full moons throughout the year. This series is a platform to release what’s complete and make room for new creative audio and visual pursuits coming from Strictly Elizabeth this year.

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Kue Varo - No.

"As the only female-presenting member in a lot of past projects, I was often designated the 'mom role,'" said Kue Varo songwriter, Katrina Spreen (they/them). "As much as this identity was imposed, I enabled it, and had to come to terms with my inability to say 'no.' Sometimes when you mean to do right by someone, it can be misplaced, and you have to learn to do right by yourself first."

"No" hails from Kue Varo's debut LP, Daffodil-11, which Spreen recorded at Montreal's St Zo Studio. The album features Matthew Spreen on rhythm guitar, Chris Dadge (Alvvays) on percussion, Scott Munro (Preoccupations) on synth, and Rena Kozak (Child Actress) on bass and production duties.

"Daffodil-11 is a reference to Kurt Vonnegut's Slapstick, which is my absolute favourite book of all time," said Spreen. "It’s roughly about human decency for human decencies sake, without attachment to outcome. This album starts with an angry introduction to the planet, and ends with me trying not to bury her. It’s a very vulnerable and sometimes uncomfortable undressing."

The seven songs on Daffodil-11 each have one of two personalities attributed to them.

"Although I believe strongly that traits assigned a gender are silly, I enjoy exploring duality in the form of gender to help come to terms with what was imposed onto me," Spreen said. "Gender presenting is a fun visual way for me to do so through my art. Each song on this album has one of two personalities attributed to it: the mod princess light and magnificent of the 1960’s and the grungy 1970’s/90’s beatnik poet/failed artist who is bitter and feels entitled to be. These traits simultaneously exist within me and it’s incredibly liberating to lean into them as a form of expression and creativity."

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Cousin Mouth - New Memories.

Detroit’s psychedelic R&B outfit, Cousin Mouth, has released a new music video for their single, “New Memories,” an introspective story of facing your past, present, and future. The track is about learning to overcome past experiences and use them to find inner peace. “New Memories” is the first single off their upcoming album, MayflowerPeacemakerHolyredeemer, which is available for digital and vinyl pre-order now. “New Memories'' is available for viewing on YouTube and for streaming on Spotify.

Directed by Zach Hagy, the video starts with a groovy, persuasive guitar intro that shows Cousin Mouth’s lead singer Alex Burns, entering an old Cadillac. He takes a compelling drive through different parts of town, curiously passing by different versions of himself. The past experiences, selves, and relationships we all live with weigh on the present versions of ourselves. “This song is some of my reflections on how we confront and coexist with the past and how it affects our present and future,” says Burns. He eventually is face to face with himself and “The Muses,” who are played by background vocalists Supercoolwicked (Morgan Hutson) and Salakastar (Aja Dier). Burns is forced to battle the reality of what is in front of him and reflect on the life he wants to lead. The ability to overcome and live peacefully with this conflict is the central message Cousin Mouth wants to portray.

Cousin Mouth is the brainchild of songwriter and producer Alex Burns. Their sound is inspired by artists like James Blake, D'Angelo, and Todd Rundgren; moody and sultry R&B with some pop influence. The tone of their recently completed upcoming album, MayflowerPeacemakerHolyredeemer, reflects their signature groove, beat-based style mixed with a psychedelic-dreamy sound. When naming the band, "Mouth" came from Burns being a singer foremost, and "Cousin'' comes from the familial connection they access through music and the community that it builds. This is their second studio album following their 2018 debut album, Medusa released by Detroit record shop and label Paramita Sound.

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Heavy Feather - Love Will Come Easy.

Root rockers Heavy Feather are back with new music. Their upcoming sophomore album "Mountain of Sugar" is to be released by The Sign Records in spring 2021. The third single leading up to the album is entitled "Love Will Come Easy" and is out now on all streaming platforms.

When Heavy Feather's first album "Débris & Rubble" (2019) was released, it became praised by both press and audience; taking the band out to tour Europe. Now it ́s time for their second album, "Mountain of sugar"; an even rawer, heavier, and harder release than the previous one, still with the root rock and psychedelic touch at the very core.

“Mountain of Sugar” consists of 11 roots-rock tracks oozing with a 70‘s sound and feel, filled with attitude and raw vocals from blues singer Lisa Lystam. Catchy hooks and roaring guitar riffs are based on influences from the greats of the 60s and 70s, drawing inspiration from bands such as Free, Cream, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. The band then adds their own unique touch to the tracks, creating a unique and intricate sound that few can deny.

2020 started off with the band going into the No Regrets Fonogram Studio in Stockholm to record an album filled with soul and creativity. Still with musical roots in the '60s, the result was a rock album with a modern twist that undoubtedly fills a void on the rock scene today. Just like their first album, this one was also recorded together with the producer Erik "Errka" Petersson. With some help from Pink Floyd's former mixer table, he gave the songs completely new dimensions. In addition, the band had the honor to work with Magnus Lindberg, who has previously mastered bands such as Lucifer and Imperial State Electric.

Heavy Feather's single "Love Will Come Easy" is out now on all digital platforms. Their album "Mountain of Sugar" will be released by The Sign Records on April 9, 2021 on vinyl, CD and digital format.

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Belle Tower - Small.

Belle Tower is the lo-fi indie folk rock project of Tiohtià:ke/Montreal + Xwilkway/Halfmoon Bay based artist, Isabella Harned. Belle Tower is the genesis of Harned’s solo writing endeavours, after being an original member of the Montreal indie folk band, Saint Lo.

Isolation, solitude, pain, love and healing are key themes at the heart of Belle Tower’s collection; songs that explore heavy and vulnerable subject matter such as childhood trauma, resisting the male gaze, and embracing one’s identity.

With contributions from main collaborators Ben Robertson (Winona Forever, Schwey), Scott Boudreau (Mauno), and strings from Audreanne Fillion (Lovelet, Feelings Meetings, Crusssh), Belle Tower showcases ethereal vocals, dreamy guitar lines, and varied layered instrumentation resounding a sonic lightness in the upcoming EP ‘tend to’, out April 27th, 2021.

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