Friday, 26 February 2021

Charlotte Jacobs - Hannah Scott - Ladderman - Adwaith + Massimo Silverio - Francis Lung - Petey and Miya Folick

Charlotte Jacobs - Other Half.

Charlotte Jacobs is sharing the music video for her new single, "Other Half". Charlotte describes the track as, "I think this song is about being close to another half- which can be another person, but I think also another part of yourself, and I think the images used in the video translates the music really well."

Brooklyn-by-Belgium vocalist Charlotte Jacobs transposes her world into music. Sights, movements, sounds and places coalesce, reflecting the artist’s surroundings in lush electronic unison. Born and raised in her parents’ art gallery in a small village in the Flanders countryside, Jacobs’ dense avant-pop arrangements pull influence from visual art, poetry and contemporary dance, converting one artistic medium into another. After spending several years performing in Belgian electronic trio SEIREN while studying jazz vocals at The Royal Conservatory of Ghent, Jacobs began writing her own material, experimenting with vocal manipulation and unorthodox song structure.

Despite performing with multiple collaborative projects, as well as composing video game and film scores, it wasn’t until Charlotte Jacobs relocated to Brooklyn in 2017 when she began to thoroughly find her voice. It was there she embarked on a new eccentric musical exploration, collaborating with New York’s cohort of producers and artists while delving into the textures, shapes and colors of her own vocals in her Crown Heights bedroom. 2019 saw the release of Jacobs’ debut Fishtale EP, a lurid collection of forward-thinking pop tied together with the help of producer and engineer Zubin Hensler (Half Waif, The Westerlies, Hannah Epperson). Influenced by jazz vocalist Betty Carter, Bjork’s vocal-centered Medulla and Tirzah’s wheezing pop loops, Charlotte Jacobs’ music upends expectations, subverting tradition through playful fusions of style and genre.

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Hannah Scott - Drawn To Darkness.

London-based independent artist Hannah Scott is fast cementing her place as one of the country’s most exciting new songwriters, with her emotive, personal songs and striking voice. Hot on the heels of her recent sync success which saw her song No Gravity open an episode of Grey’s Anatomy, she releases Drawn To Darkness,the fourth and final single from her forthcoming Help Musicians-funded album. 

The song expresses the beauty and depth she finds in sadness. Co-written and produced with long-standing creative partner Stefano Della Casa (Ultra Music Publishing), Drawn To Darkness expertly combines organic, live elements with electronic sounds. 

The two artists have struck a perfect balance between Hannah’s traditional songwriting craft and Stefano’s unique cinematic production. Further highlights for the pair include opening for Madeleine Peyroux to an audience of 2000 at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre and travelling across Ireland with Paddy Casey to open shows for him in Dublin and in a tiny Irish speaking village near Galway! Their music has also been featured on BBC Radio 2 including a live session with Dermot

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Ladderman - The Huntress Obeyed.

It is pure melancholy that is transformed here into a bittersweet fairy talesque Brothers Grimm style. With 'The Huntress Obeyed' a new indie band from Lucerne enters the music scene: Laddermen.

Singer and guitarist Leopold Oakes hails from Texas, where he played in several indie and hardcore bands which taught him to express emotion through music.
In 2019, Oakes left Texas to redefine the concept of home, as well as his musical work, in Switzerland. Together with musicians from previous projects, they created «Laddermen», a construct of melancholic, dark and haunting rock music.
'The Huntress Obeyed' is a spherical post-punk song about cocaine addiction in Austin, Texas and the darker side of the excessive party scene there.

Laddermen will release their debut album later this year. Their haunting songwriting and deep dramaturgy, for which they draw inspiration from English bands, should splash the indie scene with another palette of color.

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Adwaith + Massimo Silverio - Nijo (Yn y Swn).

This week sees the launch of an international partnership between the National Eisteddfod and the SUNS Europe Festival – the European Festival of Performing Arts in European Minority Languages. The partnership is a celebration of music rising above linguistic borders, with the first project combining Welsh with Friulian, the indigenous language of Friuli, northern Italy.

This first collaboration features Welsh band, Adwaith and Friulian musician, Massimo Silverio, with the song, Yn y Sŵn (Nijo), released on 26 February.
Two versions of the song have been recorded, a Welsh and bilingual version in Welsh and Fruilian, and both Adwaith and Massimo Silverio feature on both versions. The word ‘Nijo’, the title of the bilingual version, is an ancient Friulian word meaning ‘Nowhere’, and when writing the words, Massimo Silverio thought of all the feelings, words and language which ultimately reach ‘Nijo’.

Welcoming the partnership with the SUNS Europe Festival, National Eisteddfod Chief Executive, Betsan Moses, said, “This partnership between the Eisteddfod and the SUNS Europe festival shows how we can successfully collaborate with other countries and cultures across the world.

“I’m confident that the fact that we’re both festivals celebrating minority languages binds us together, and I hope this is a solid foundation for us to further develop this relationship and other projects in the future. We’ve created something quite magical with this first collaboration, and I’m sure everyone will agree that the song – be that the Welsh or bilingual version – is amazing.”

Leo Virgili, SUNS Europe’s Artistic Director, added, “I want to thank the Eisteddfod for this brilliant idea. Collaborating with Wales at this specific time has even more importance for us. We strongly believe in a Europe that goes beyond Brexit, banks, and state agreements. A real Europe able to express proudly its diversity, sharing the power of indigenous languages and cultures.”

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Francis Lung - Bad Hair Day.

Francis Lung (ex-WU LYF) is announcing his second album, Miracle (out June 18 via Memphis Industries) with this first single, "Bad Hair Day".

This is the second album from Tom McClung – the real name behind the Francis Lung moniker – following his 2019 debut, A Dream Is U, which scored support at the Times, MOJO, Uncut, NPR, Best Fit, Paste Magazine and more. He recorded the new album at the idyllic Giant Wafer studios in rural Wales before self-producing in collaboration with Brendan Williams (Dutch Uncles, Kiran Leonard) and Robin Koob (who co-arranged and performed strings). 

The opportunity to self-produce and maintain that creative control is something that somewhat plays into the album's deeply personal themes which represent a period of introspection for Francis as he reflected on his own struggles with mental health, substance (ab)use and, relationships.

There's something disarming about the breezy, sunny art-rock and power-pop, but underneath that, Miracle is a cathartic process for Lung which finds him tackling these demons in a brutally honest and open manner; the album is intended to celebrate the healing process whilst being aware of and accepting of the darker sides of the human psyche. This first single, "Bad Hair Day" demonstrates Francis' step-up in widescreen, kitchen sink power-pop, a sound not too far from Pet Sounds and Brill Building pop.


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Petey and Miya Folick - Haircut.

The Los Angeles-based artist Petey and Miya Folick released a new single “Haircut” via Terrible Records. The duo co-wrote the song and recorded it together in Miya’s apartment, and also collaborated on an official video for the track in Petey’s backyard featuring Folick shaving her own head.

“Haircut is a very fun song I wrote with my friend Miya about getting an extreme haircut and not wanting to talk about it,” explains Petey. “I hope you like it. it was really fun to make. We recorded it in Miya’s apartment.”

“Petey started this song and showed it to me. I immediately related. Just scroll through my feed to see a history of emotional haircuts. I really love the way it turned out. And it’s one of my mom’s favorite songs that I’ve made!” said Miya Folick about the track.

After signing to the Los Angeles-based Terrible Records (Claud, Empress Of, The Voidz) in late 2019, Petey has released 3 EP’s (Car Practice, High Life From The Bottle on the Beach, and Checkin Up on Buds) as well as 2 singles. Petey and Miya Folick previously collaborated on his single “California - Prius Edition” which appeared on High Life From The Bottle On The Beach. UPROXX said, Petey is a unique creature, combining elements of emo, electronic, and folk music into a sound that is unmistakably Petey.

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Wednesday, 24 February 2021

Laurr - Danny Golden - The Stars of Disaster - The Catenary Wires

Laurr - Sell My Soul.

Singer songwriter Laurr shares a mystical lyric video visual for latest single release "Sell My Soul."  

"The inspiration behind Sell My Soul came from what people did or would be willing to do for money during quarantine in April. I myself had to work three jobs to keep from feeling insecure in a time of uncertainty. While others decided to take some unsavory paths, which were also very tempting to me. In the end, would those less savory paths be worth "selling your soul" over, and what is the dollar really worth? With the help of my producer/co-writer Corey Lawson, I feel we were able to capture the meaning of the lyrics with a driving bluesy melody and dark tone,” Laurr explains.

The alternative country songstress premiered the lyrical visual on Music Crowns. Laurr’s musical inspirations derive from the wide spectrum of genres her parents would listen to throughout her life. From Sublime, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Amy Winehouse, to Jamey Johnson and Johnny Cash.

Growing up in a small town, Laurr never thought she would be chasing such big dreams. From the big Utah mountains to the hills of Tennessee, she has had quite the journey as a songwriter and artist. Growing up, Laurr always had a huge imagination and would use my fireplace as my stage, and whatever furry creatures were around as an audience. They would not only listen to her made-up songs, but also my interviews with Ellen DeGeneres, and Jay Leno. Although she loved my imaginary stage, in school other kids would get frustrated at her, because it always seemed she was the main character in any school performance. She would say the best part about this journey is getting to reopen that imagination and revive her small-town child star persona as she grows into a musical artist.


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Danny Golden - I Can't Change.

Austin-based musician Danny Golden announced an April 23rd release date for his new EP Changes. The announcement comes with the first single “I Can’t Change” — Under The Radar praised the song’s “inviting melodies and plainspoken lyrical approach” along with its “towering layers of shoegaze guitars and crashing percussion.”

Changes follows Golden’s 2018 full-length Old Love. “It’s been over two years since I last put out new music, and I felt that ‘I Can’t Change’ had to be the song to break the silence,” Golden says. “The period between my last record and now saw me dealing with a lot of changes in my life, and in my approach to making music; I don’t think that’s more evident anywhere than on ‘I Can’t Change.’”

The song starts with a cymbal crash from Jeff Olson (White Denim, Balmorhea) and a wall of electric guitar sound courtesy of guitarist Ben Brown (PR Newman). These players along with Sam Pankey (Balmorhea, Mother Falcon) on bass, Mary Bryce (Smiile) in backing vocals, and Spencer Garland (Black Pumas, Matthew Logan Vasquez) on synth make up the EP’s core backing band. Other collaborators include David Ramirez (who produced the EP song “L.A. County”), and John Michael Landon (who produced “I Can’t Change” and “Alien”).

“I Can’t Change” is at once abrasive and inviting, like a friend pulling up with the aux at full volume. Your senses are a bit overwhelmed, but you know you want to get in, and that you’re bound for a good adventure. “The song is an expressionistic postcard and a story of supplication,” Golden says. “You can agonize all you want about choices in your life, but either way, change is going to happen to you. Taking what’s dealt to you and allowing change within yourself determines your quality of existence. I think we all experience periods of listlessness and malaise, often when we’re seeking answers without knowing the questions. Recording ‘I Can’t Change’ was a chance for me to give lyrical and sonic form to feelings that had been too abstract to understand.”

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The Stars of Disaster - Hey Dorkmeyer.

The Stars of Disaster started playing together in February 2019, in Pittsburgh. They’ve been playing out since May 2019. The songs started coming in 2014, when Anthony Schiappa came home. He’d made a go of it as an airline baggage handler in upstate New York, an academic in NYC, and an exile in Scandinavia. Back in his Steubenville, OH, basement, trying to stave off the terrors of clock-punching and memory. That’s when he rediscovered his childhood love of making loud music.

He started recording the songs in Pittsburgh, with friends old and new. They were done guerrilla style: in friends’ apartments, in Anthony’s sister’s house, in clubs during off-hours, anywhere. Eventually, they had a record: Love Won’t Save You.

To come alive onstage, the record needed a band. And it has one: Kate Daly (the hi-frequencies) on bass, David Brockschmidt (Benefits) on drums, and Chicago native Jesus Geoffrey Martinez (Burning Luck) on lead guitar.

Anthony’s main influences are Guided by Voices, early R.E.M., and early Ween. Amid these touchstones, you will hear Anthony’s own style. It’s a blend of claustrophobic themes and non-stop get-down that Kate calls “composed mania.” Mike Baltzer of Benefits calls the aesthetic “Rust-Belt garage psych.” Joe Tarowksy from Action Camp says “It’s like Teenage Fanclub came from the Ohio Valley.

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The Catenary Wires - Mirrorball.

There are times where you end up working with a band which had a huge impact on your youth and helped shaped your tastes over the decades, and while The Catenary Wires only started in 2014. The main two people behind the band Rob Pursey and Amelia Fletcher have made music as Heavenly, Marine Research, Tender Trap, and more providing  a blueprint for the indie-pop scene over the last thirty years. This new Catenary Wires "Mirrorball" is set to be a classic and essential listening like the rest of their catalog. Both Rob & Amelia are available for interviews, guest editor features, mixtapes, you name it. Being in the UK under lock down they have time to make your interview or feature dreams a reality. Just let me know. I also have a few copies of the vinyl single promo copy wise that will be able to ship in mid-March, but it will be first dibs kinda set up.  Hope you enjoy this new single as much as I do.

The Catenary Wires formed in 2014, initially as a duo. Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey had previously been in Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, Marine Research and Tender Trap. The first Catenary Wires album "Red Red Skies" (Elefant/Matinée Recordings, 2015) was a marked departure from the fuzzy sixties-inspired girl-group pop of their earlier bands. It was more acoustic, emotive and melancholy.

The band have just completed their third album, to be released in June 2021. The first single "Mirrorball" is a love song inspired by eighties discos. It will be released on Shelflife (US) and their own new label, Skep Wax (UK and rest of world).

The band’s name refers to the chain of curves made by the overhead cables seen suspended from pylons or above electric trains, cables that can seem to lead you off to somewhere different and unknown. Mirrorball takes two lonely single people, and takes them for a night out in an 80s disco. Surrounded by divorcees and middle-aged drunks, will they be too shy to talk, or will they find some love action? Is this going to be heaven or hell?

This is definitely the most positive and the most romantic duet The Catenary Wires have ever released. With delicate – and not so delicate – musical tributes to the 80s, Mirrorball starts off skeptical, but ends up falling in love with the music of a decade that was pure, unsubtle, tasteless and synthetic. The 80s disco turns out to be heavenly!

Rob and Amelia (ex Talulah Gosh, Heavenly) started The Catenary Wires as a duo, but they’re a full band now - and this record really feels the benefit of inspired contributions from Fay Hallam (keyboard), Ian Button (drums) and Andy Lewis (bass).

The Catenary Wires write songs for grown-up indie kids. They don’t pretend to be 23 any more, but they do remember what it felt like. The song is a combination of joy and regret, innocence and experience. MIRRORBALL is the first single from upcoming album Birling Gap.

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Tuesday, 23 February 2021

Wy - The Storm Petrels - The Phoenix Foundation

Photo - Lamia Karic
Wy - Dream House.

Wy are a band strongest at their most vulnerable. The Malmö indie duo, Ebba and Michel Gustafsson Ågren, have showcased their musical skills across two albums, 2017’s Okay and 2019’s Softie which gained them recognition from KEXP, Line of Best Fit, NBHAP, Tonspion, CLASH and more as well as tours in Germany, Scandinavia and the UK. But what makes them stand out as a band is the raw, brutal emotion they capture in their music.

A Wy song at their best sounds like opening it all up, and letting the feelings flow where they will, letting the pain, anger, fear, hope and love steer the song. Those emotions are spun into the band’s skyscaping, cinematic sound, and turned into music that has a force behind it, a power that hits you, even when it's at its softest. And that power that illuminates the band’s songs is more present than ever on their new album Marriage which is out on May 7th, Dream House is the first single.

Marriage is the first record since signing to Rama Lama Records (Melby, Steve Buscemi's Dreamy Eyes, Chez Ali etc.) and the  sound of Wy moving forward and backwards at once. Leaving the more produced style of last album Softie behind, it turns to the simpler sound of their earlier work for music that’s rawer and sharper. On both the indie-rock and the pop songs of this album, there’s less between the listener and the heart of the song - this is music that’s very direct, both in theme and sound, with melodies that hit cleanly and leave nothing even trying to hide. It’s the work of a band that have grown into themselves and what they do, and making the strongest songs of their career.


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The Storm Petrels - Seasons (E.P).

The Storm Petrels are a four piece indie pop band who came together in 2020 to bring some joy to these dark days.   

The brainchild of songwriter and producer Pip Dusalle, they herald from both sides of the Atlantic and bring influences from as far afield as Belly, the Breeders, and Abba! The band have just released their first EP - Seasons - with a song for each season.  

It begins with the upbeat optimism of Spring, moving on to the jangly guitars and catchy melodies of Summer, then the sweet lyrical nostalgia of Autumn.  

The EP finishes with Winter - an intense ballad about love, loss and loyalty. Their music comes from the heart with the aim of lifting and inspiring during these challenging days.

The band contacted us directly and I have to say this really is a superb collection of songs. I'm all for upbeat, positive and heartfelt music, The Storm Petrels are all of that, along with being original and notably creative.

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Photo - Ebony Lamb
The Phoenix Foundation - Beside Yourself (with Fazerdaze).

New Zealand sextet, The Phoenix Foundation have shared "Beside Yourself" featuring fellow NZ talent, Fazerdaze (out via Memphis Industries).

The band returned late last year with their sixth album, Friend Ship, which secured some positie reviews at MOJO, Uncut, PopMatters, American Songwriter, KEXP and more – it featured some neat collabs with Tiny Ruins, Nadia Reid, Anita Clark and the NZ Symphony Orchestra becoming something of a celebration of the NZ music scene, really hammering home the sense of community that exists. 

This new single acts as a continuation from that release, enlisting another NZ talent in the form of Fazerdaze (who released her Pitchfork-tipped debut album, Morningside in 2017). Adding somewhat to this NZ feel of the recent record, the band have collaborated at length with Taika Waititi previously, scoring the acclaimed soundtrack for Hunt For The Wilderpeople as well as providing tracks for Boy, Eagle versus Shark and What We Do In the Shadows – in October, the band were in conversation with Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords fame.

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Monday, 22 February 2021

Chris Pellnat - Mister K - Bobby Parent

Chris Pellnat - Crossing (Album).

Chris Pellnat is a songwriter from Hudson, NY, USA. In addition to solo work and collaborations, he also plays electric guitar in the band, The Warp/The Weft.

His new album released a few days ago is called 'Crossing'. Chris explains why that's the album title.

"Why Crossing”?

Crossing the line

Crossing over

Crossing the rubicon

Crossing the divide...

"You get the idea: This album is about moving on to something new and unexpected - musically, spiritually and as part of the natural arc of life. But it’s not a dreary lecture - it playfully upends indie norms in a distinctive way, with lots of dulcimer, vibraphone and guitars."

Chris and the band The Warp/The Weft have been featured here a number of times in the past. I never tire of hearing new music from either party, the freshness, creativity and warmth is always notable. Although these day's I rarely comment on new material (it's a given that I like it - see the comments on the top of the sidebar), I'm happy to make Chris Pellnat and the new album an exception.


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Mister K - Tamarak.

Lorette West, MB's folk-pop musician Kevin Roy Kratsch — known professionally as the cosmic Canadian balladeer that is Mister K — has just released his debut album, In Event of Moon Disaster, and single “Tamarack” — available now!

To celebrate, Mister K has recorded a live, acoustic rendition of the song from the comfort of his own backyard in the region of Lorette West. The powerful performance of “Tamarack” features the aspiring musician’s wife Avery on backup vocals and guitar — and their adorable bulldog Luna, for emotional support.

Mister K points out that one of the sonic “easter eggs” found in the new album comes from his little canine companion; every time the word “moon” is sung on In Event of Moon Disaster, Luna rings a bell.

“If you listen hard enough,” he adds.

Overall, In Event of Moon Disaster is described as a musical journey through highs and lows, or “a pendulum swung through the hardship of darker days” (like the song), according to Mister K. Inspired by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s ultimately about overcoming adversity, emerging from the darkness and finding the light at the end of the tunnel; or even some sense of hope.

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Bobby Parent - Dogs.

“I saw an angel in the marble and I carved till I set him free” – a Michelangelo quote that would be etched in my mind as I started on my new journey in sobriety. A journey that, at first, would reveal the painful truth about myself and then reveal the genuine beauty and generosity of others. Finally with all my desperation and vulnerability revealed and all my substantial failures confessed, I could be free. Free to have others lead me, free to have others teach me, free to start over.

The album, Real Love, is in part about that spiritual journey and in part about the rediscovery of music and art. I wrote these songs to help me heal and to help me grow. “Emotionally insecure, wrought with fear, anger and self-doubt…all of it, buried under an ego designed to deceive and manipulate the truth of who I was to others and to myself” – this is the harsh and critical self-analysis where the story of Real Love begins.

Addiction and alcoholism defined almost my entire adult life. They were the tools I would use to self-medicate from a disease I didn’t know existed, or at least one that I couldn’t dare admit to having. A disease that eventually, would destroy, from the outside in, everything I ever knew or cared about. My family, my friends, my career, until it had nothing else to destroy but me. By the end of the chaos, with everything and everyone that was ever important to me, injured and gone, I was left with one critical question. How do I move on from here?

The answer was one step at a time with the encouragement and generosity of friends. The potential that my story could perhaps help others, as others had helped me, fuelled me as I embarked on this recording project to tell my story. Not a story about rags to riches or infamy to greatness but just one of hope. For all those that have or still wander the depths of chaos and despair, the self-destructive calamity that is addiction, as I have, there is a way out of that darkness, there is light, there is hope. There is that angel in all of us. This is my story of Real Love.

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Sunday, 21 February 2021

Sarah McQuaid - Joce Reyome - The Gracious Losers - Crocodyle

Sarah McQuaid - Charlie’s Gone Home.

For the second and third singles of her new album and video series The St Buryan Sessions, Cornwall-based singer-songwriter Sarah McQuaid delves deep into her back catalog to resurrect “Charlie’s Gone Home”, the first original song she ever recorded as a solo artist, then jumps forward again with “The Day Of Wrath, That Day”, a powerful instrumental composition for electric guitar.

Originally recorded on her 1997 debut album When Two Lovers Meet, “Charlie’s Gone Home” wasn’t a brand new song even then, Sarah recalls. “I’d actually written it back when I was still living in Philadelphia, so it would have been the late 1980s or early 90s. I can remember very clearly the day I wrote it – back in those days I was still thinking of myself not as a songwriter but as a folksinger who happened to write an occasional song when inspiration struck, so to speak.

“I remember reading an interview with some poet whose name I can’t remember, where she said that when she felt a new poem starting to arrive it was like an oncoming train, and she had to rush to her desk to be there ready with pen and paper when the train pulled in to the station.

“Well, this song hit me exactly like an oncoming train, only one that was barrelling along at full steam with whistles blaring. It really knocked me for six, and I remember just sitting on the sofa crying and trying to wipe the tears off my guitar so they didn’t mark the finish – not because it was a sad song but just from the overwhelming emotional impact of writing it.

“It’s been kind of a special song for me ever since, and a lot of people have told me it’s a special song for them, too – at least two different people said ‘Well, I hope “Charlie’s Gone Home” is going to be on it’ as soon as I told them about the project.”

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Joce Reyome - Cross My Heart.

From Joce: Allow my new single "Cross My Heart" to transport you to summertime. This will be one to listen to at max volume, driving in the car on a comfy summer night.

When I was first starting to write my own music, it was very tame and folky, just me and an acoustic guitar. I really wanted to explore other genres, and started listening to some Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Earl Hooker to feel that sound that comes from an old soul. And all of a sudden, this straight blues idea came to mind, and I said "Damn! I gotta get on this!"

It was a fantastic experience working with Erin Costelo and Colin Buchanan (Paper Lions) on this song. In my day-to-day life I am very easy-going, almost to a fault. When it came time to say "yes" or "no" or "I don't like that" during recording, I struggled a bit. But I learned very quickly that only I know what I want it to sound like, and nobody is going to know if I don’t tell them!

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The Gracious Losers - Loath To Leave.

Glasgow-based Folk outfit The Gracious Losers have done the near-impossible, cutting a full record with a 15-piece band. As one-man acoustic shows and sparse live sets dominate the musical landscape, Gracious Losers, headed by songwriter and guitarist Jonathan Lilley, have succeeded in draping listeners in a full-bodied orchestral experience on their new album “Six Road Ends,” while leaving ample room for vulnerable stripped-down moments and opportunities to get down.

The Gracious Losers are a 9-piece supergroup, featuring members of Sister John, Thrum, God Help the Girl, The Parsonage, Sporting Hero and the Berie Big Band, The Gracious Losers draw on their shared and disparate musical influences including celtic folk, 70s psychedelia, and outlaw country. The album title, 'Six Road Ends' refers to an arcane place in Northern Ireland, where six rural roads haphazardly converged at one perilous junction. The crossing no longer exists, and thus has assumed a mythical quality despite once being very real - a place of stuckness, hesitation, and risk. Lilley’s intricate songwriting reflects these themes, feeling at times planted in an intersection and at others moving lightspeed toward uncertainty.

The lead single “Loath to Leave,'' premiering on Here Comes the Flood, follows the throughline of impermanence with a lightly plodding funk groove, unexpectedly melancholy lyrics, and decaying organ frills alluding to a peaceful evaporation. Wailing slide guitar propels listeners along as the track evolves through what feels like time and space. The track’s video underscores the detachment from spacetime, as Lilley and vocalist Amanda McKeown fluctuate freely between chairs in a “perpetual state of magic” before disappearing altogether. The duo can be seen in a state of waiting in a liminal living-room, passing the time by checking watches or kicking the ground, before resolving the tension created by transitional moments with a sense of relief.

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Crocodyle - Passenger Seat.

With precision, drive, and wit, three-piece garage rock band, Crocodyle, has a unique ability to articulate the otherwise inexplicable.

Coming off the release of their last single, “I Feel Good,” which set the internet positively abuzz last summer, Crocodyle is dropping their newest track, “Passenger Seat,” along with its accompanying video. “This song is a direct address to all your special someones,” shares Crocodyle.

“Whoever makes you feel like the coolest version of yourself, whoever is the easiest to laugh with, whoever feels best by your side. It’s nice to have somebody who you know you can run to when nobody else makes sense, and ‘Passenger Seat’ is a rocker dedicated to whoever that is for you.”

The video for “Passenger seat” was filmed in and around residential Nashville under the artistic guidance of Seth Endelman. Endelman is a Nashville-based videographer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and label owner.

“Passenger Seat” is the latest single from Crocodyle’s forthcoming EP, Sharing a Twin Bed, which is set for release in April. Sharing a Twin Bed was produced by Lincoln Parish, the former lead guitarist for Cage the Elephant. Parish left Cage the Elephant in 2013 to follow his passion for producing.

“Crocodyle hits every note that defines punk rock for me,” says Parish. “Their music is young, energetic and fun whilst still maintaining pop sensibilities of artists well beyond their years, I’m excited to see what’s next for these dudes!”

Crocodyle has played in cities all over the US and toured the UK, making a stop in Ireland. Spotted at a small club in Dublin, they were invited to do two sets at Ireland's "Coachella," Electric Picnic, headlined by Kendrick Lamar and The Prodigy.

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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...