Paul Shepherd and Owen Marchildon have spent the last twenty years in the Toronto music scene, playing in various different projects, sometimes together and sometimes separately. While thinking on a new project, Val Calam was invited to join and collaborate with the pair. Calam was just the lift Shepherd and Marchildon needed. After several dinner parties with endless music listening, they discussed their strengths and aspirations and High Wasted came to fruition.
Together, they blend simple punk tones and exploratory lyrics that push towards a velvet induced frame of mind, approaching the recording process with an energetic, transcending mentality.
High Wasted’s debut single, “Germ Free High Fives,” showcases the band’s sonic capabilities and musical lyricism. It’s energy is peddled by a tattered charm, a feeling of pleasant dizziness, that may leave the listener to encompass decades of past classics.
We have some sunny dreampop from the French indiepop band Pastel Coast. The first single "Sunset" debuted at Austin Town Hall early last week with the video debut last Friday at French outlet Magic Revue Pop Moderne. A track that brings to mind American dreampop bands like the Drums, Wild Nothing, and Craft Spells.
From the shores of Boulogne-sur-mer, Pastel Coast are looking toward the sea. Quentin Isidore and his band surf waves of indiepop with waves of crashing guitars, taking influences from bands like Phoenix and Air, with their own fresh "à la française” sound.
After their debut album, Hovercraft, the band was nominated in the TOP 10 emerging French artists for the Paris’ Ricard price foundation and for the auditions of the "Inouïs du Printemps de Bourges", Pastel Coast are coming back in 2021 with a new opus entitled Sun that will be released on Shelflife / Groover Obsessions on June 4th.
Norway’s Frøkedal & Family share Set Your Spirit Free, an awakening both sonically and spiritually, and the third taster taken from forthcoming album ‘Flora’ which follows 14th May, Fysisk Format.
Lauren Lavern once described Frøkedal as sounding like “Fleetwood Mac getting on pretty well with Joni Mitchell”. It’s a description apt for new single Set Your Spirit Free melding as it does Frøkedal’s indie-rock heritage (I Was A King, Harrys Gym) with folk traditions, taking roots instrumentation, a meandering melody and Frøkedal’s gloriously ethereal overlaid vocal and building it skywards, layer upon layer heavenwards.
However, Set Your Spirit Free also inhabits its own transcendental and somewhat magical world, it is a song described by Frøkedal as “the dam that bust.” Born on day seven of ten consecutive days in the studio, it marks the turning point where the chronology of the studio diary disintegrated with the song triggering an experimental free-falling and unstoppable avalanche of overdubs, cümbüş, whistle piano, high strung, congas, chimes. “Shortly afterwards, the studio diary mentions something about paranoia” explains Frøkedal, “but the way I remember it, this was one of the happiest days we spent in the studio.”
Set Your Spirit Free was born out of a deep human connectivity, it’s the organic, heartfelt and intuitive sound of Frøkedal & Family letting loose and setting themselves free.
“We know the mind is able to move mountains. That the souls of all living things are connected through invisible links. There is a language that is understandable to all creatures. This is the song we sing to those of you who have forgotten.” - Frøkedal.
The Felice Brothers released their first new single in two years "Inferno" alongside an official video composed of found footage edited by Ian Felice. The song, out today via Yep Roc Records, reflects on the half-forgotten memories that shift and morph in the mind as we age, and is their first new music since the release of their critically-acclaimed 2019 album Undress.
"This song, more than anything, is about the persistence of certain mundane memories, and how they take on hidden meaning and significance, how their symbols become part of our inner lives, and how they are transformed in our minds," explains Ian Felice. "It’s also about youth and growth and transformation. Memories of the film are obscured through the lens of time. Does Jean Claude Van Damm actually ride a motorcycle along the banks of the Rio Grande? I don’t recall, but still I have this image in my mind. I just remember how horrible the movie was. The two characters in the song are transformed into swans in the final verse, in a dream, as they are swept into the fire of another, more frightening reality."
"Inferno" was produced by The Felice Brothers, engineered by James Felice and Nate Wood, and mixed by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Phoebe Bridgers). The song also sees the continuation of the new lineup of the band that debuted with Undress, consisting of Ian Felice, who shares songwriting and vocal duties in the band with his brother James Felice, bassist Jesske Hume (Conor Oberst, Jade Bird) and drummer Will Lawrence.
The Felice Brothers’ Undress was acclaimed by No Depression, Consequence of Sound, American Songwriter, Paste Magazine, PopMatters, Talkhouse, and Rolling Stone who called it “their best album in years.” NPR Music said “With Undress, The Felice Brothers' folk-rock sound and vision has matured and focused, and the band does its best at making sense of our modern times.”
New Skin. It’s not just a title. It’s a state of mind, an accurate summation of the position in which Ivor Novello Award-winning songwriter Scott Matthews finds himself with the release of his seventh studio album on May 14th 2021. The man who specialises in conveying the emotional complexities of love and loss in sparse, warm-hearted acoustic songs has shed another skin. Reborn in a new guise, circumstances have forced fundamental reinvention.
Covid-19 was the catalyst. A life-changing event that forced Matthews to reassess, he decided to scale a musical Everest, setting himself new challenges, digging deeper than before to find new ways to communicate through song. Unable to tour or collaborate with musicians, he had only his own head space in which to operate. And so, he created ‘New Skin’, a daring and audacious record swathed in Eno-esque electronica and Thom Yorke-centric uncovering that channels the driving energy of ‘80s Springsteen. Rock and ambient. Acoustic and electro. Matthews fuses insistent guitars and pulsing beats with the sort of angular, early ‘80s synths that Vince Clarke pioneered. It is bold and fearless, experimental, and compelling. ‘New Skin’ inhabits a rare terrain.
The first track to be unveiled from the album, the title track ‘New Skin’ picked up Radio X & BBC 6 Music Breakfast Show airplay plus support from a plethora of music blogs and sites, winning over critics and fans alike to Scott’s new sonic exploration, including legendary former Cocteau Twins member and Bella Union boss Simon Raymonde, who has subsequently invited Scott to perform at his next ‘Lost Horizons’ show later this year.
Second single from the album ‘Wait In The Car’ explores the human fear of nothing lasting forever, while portraying a euphoric energy that drives the listener into feeling they can break free. With its soaring synthesizers and ambient electric guitars resonant of the Cocteau Twins, the emotional resonance and driving energy of ‘Wait in the Car’, will inhabit a place in every soul as Matthews masterfully interlaces melancholy and euphoria.
The director of the ‘Wait In The Car’ video, Damien Hyde, unearthed the beautiful 8mm home movies filmed by Ellwood P. Hoffmann. They were masterfully shot and such a beautiful celebration of life. The portrayal of a life’s potential lost opportunities and the fleeting nature of our experiences informed the decision to play the movies backwards. In Damien’s words, ‘The home movies are, to me, a testament of bravery in the face of fear. This is an allegorical road movie. The tenderness and joy in some of these scenes is truly remarkable. Those fleeting moments of beauty captured, and replayed and repurposed decades later, are the by-products of endless rumination, doubt and vulnerability.’
It's been 14 years since the release of Matthews’ stunning debut, ‘Passing Stranger’, a record that prompted tours with the Foo Fighters, Robert Plant and Rufus Wainwright and earned his Ivor Novello for the timeless ‘Elusive’. Since then, through the daring ‘Elsewhere’ and the immersive ‘What the Night Delivers’, through his affectionate ‘Home’ Part I & II song cycle and his thoughtful and elegiac ‘The Great Untold’, Matthews has refined his craft. Having mastered the art of the song, he’s given himself permission to take flight by making a record that will surprise and astonish, delight and mesmerise.
Yet for all his adventures in electronica, ‘New Skin’ is at heart a record of classy songs. Yes, the treatment is different. Yes, it will take listeners into a new space, just as it provided Matthews with new aural adventures. Yet above all, it’s a collection of songs written by one of our greatest craftsmen.
Australian eclectic chamber indie folk sister duo Charm of Finches have just released “Treading Water”, the single is a part of their upcoming full length album set for release later this year.
“Treading Water” captures the bittersweet reminiscing of a relationship that was mutually ended. The journey takes the listener across the city of Melbourne, while navigating across the trickier emotional terrain as they transition from lovers to friends. The song features tender layered vocals, dreamy melodies, and creative instrumentation that is soul-bearing, immersive, and fluid. The duo are signed to AntiFragile and have found success being added to official Spotify playlists including Fresh Folk, Lush + Etheral and Acoustic Spring among others.
Melbourne sister duo, Charm of Finches, sing haunted folk tunes about love, grief and whispering trees with their signature tight sibling harmonies and chamber folk sound. Mabel and Ivy Windred-Wornes emerge from an eclectic musical childhood of Celtic strings and busking old-time tunes.
Their debut album “Staring at the Starry Ceiling", produced by Nick Huggins of Little Lake Records and featuring the duo's signature angelic vocal harmonies and captivating chamber folk sound, was praised for its candour and originality and named one of the best releases of 2016 by ABC Radio National. Their sophomore album “Your Company” in November 2019 on their independent label Conversations With Trees, they toured Australia widely. This album was Melbourne's PBS Radio Album of the Week and winner of the Best Folk/Singer-Songwriter Album in the Independent Music Awards (IMA).
The duo has won many awards nationally and internationally and their music has featured on Australian TV. Their influences include Sufjan Stevens , Gillian Welch, Danish songstress Agnes Obel and First Aid Kit as well as the incredible home grown talent in their local Victorian folk scene.
New York’s Simone is revealing the 3rd song “everything/nothing” from her upcoming pure pop love lessons EP which will come out this summer. At 16, after releasing her first alt-pop track "Kissing Strangers" earlier this year and she revealed “Boy Of My Dreams”. Simone writes with a cinematic eye here, capturing the rough edges of modern relationships in vivid detail.
Simone explains the song: “everything/nothing” tells a story about a young love from its beginning to its end. In the chorus, I play with the clichés of teen romance by contrasting them with the anxiety and pain that comes along with it. On the surface, the song is a classic love story, but there are a lot of underlying messages about the pressure and confusion that comes with being a teenager.”
At 10 years old, her worldview opened up to become a performer when she sang 2 self-written songs at an open mic in Nashville, TN. Needless to say that from an early age, New York-based Simone has set her vision on sharing her love for music. “Kissing Strangers”s arrangements are sonically rich to match, mixing radio-ready pop hooks with indie rock grit and singer/songwriter intimacy. “Kissing Strangers” is a buoyant, brilliant earworm exploring the rise and fall of young love in all its exhilarating, heartbreaking transience. About “Boy Of My Dreams”, she said: “it’s a song I wrote after ending a relationship that really damaged my perception of love.”
Born and raised in New York City, Simone first fell in love with Broadway as a youngster. By the age of ten, she’d already appeared in a slew of musicals, and by the time she hit middle school, she was writing her own songs and performing regularly at New York open mic nights, such as Sidewalk Cafe. It was at one of those early performances that Simone caught the attention of a New York-based producer, and soon she found herself recording in a proper studio and making waves across Spotify and social media. With a mix of mesmerizing performance clips and down-to-earth, straight-to-camera videos documenting daily life, she quickly went viral on TikTok (247k followers), racking up millions of likes from fans around the world who could relate to both her unabashed ambition and dry, self-deprecating sense of humor.
Simone’s musically diverse songwriting styles from acoustic teary to pop bops will be part of her upcoming full love lessons EP this summer. Besides writing, she hosts a weekly podcast Is This Thing On?.
Heralded Scottish rock band We Were Promised Jetpacks share brand new single ‘If It Happens’, and announce a 7” featuring the track to be released via Big Scary Monsters on June 29th. The new track signifies a change in musical direction for the band. ‘If It Happens’ is all at once grand yet restrained – sonically reflective of its lyrical examination of the bigger picture of life and how that can be boiled down to a simple phrase; “If it happens, it happens.” Lead singer Adam Thompson explains:
“I feel that ‘If It Happens’ expresses a lot about what I had been trying to get across to myself. It was all part of my new mindset of trying to be more positive about what I have and not always thinking about what I don’t. It’s about embracing the idea of happiness, doing what you can to encourage it and generally be a lot more ‘c’est la vie’ about everything. If it happens, it happens; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. What can you do?”
Since releasing 2018’s ‘The More I Sleep The Less I Dream’, We Were Promised Jetpacks’ Adam Thompson, Sean Smith and Darren Lackie have embraced change head-on. Amicably parting ways with founding member Michael Palmer the following year, they knew they would likely need to go through a sonic transition.
Entering 2020 as a trio with a handful of songs written and a successful US tour under their belts, the world around them came to a sudden halt. Yet despite the unquestionable uncertainty that the lockdown brought, it also proved to be a blessing in disguise. Fifteen years into their career, the trio are more focussed than ever.
With versions of this song being passed between the band members remotely, they found the collaborative process engaging and rewarding. “Writing together this way allowed us to stay in contact all the time, talk about the song and what we were individually and collectively trying to achieve with it. Even though we were unable to be in the same room, this way of working allowed us to create together and communicate more directly,” says Adam. “Having music to focus on during lockdown assured us that we wanted to keep writing songs together for many more years.”
“We’re all very appreciative of the people who are listening to us,” Darren says. “It pushes us to keep getting better.” Nodding to both the band and their ever-loyal fans, Adam agrees. “It is very much our band, and we do this because we can do it together.”
"Supersonic" is the second single off of Spud Cannon's forthcoming LP, Good Kids Make Bad Apples, out June 25th via Good Eye Records.
Recorded as a part of an all-nighter, one-take, not-campus-approved sessions on a squash court at the band's now alma mater, Vassar College, "Supersonic" captures the band's family dynamic
Ari Bowe (keys, vocals) details; "Since the girls write all the lyrics, we always end up writing about the guys in the band. It’s almost like a rite of passage, and for us it’s a fun way to get our feelings out there. There are a lot of songs about Jackson, but this song is Ben’s debut as our subject!
It’s about us all being worried that Ben (with his newfound party persona) would get himself in more trouble than he could handle. Hence 'Good luck doing time for a big smile.' The lyrics definitely embody a sort of cheeky warning to our beloved Ben.
While he was pissed at first, he came to understand where the lyrics were coming from, and the song is now one of his top tracks from Good Kids.”
David Climaco Garcia - Down By Her Riverside Home.
David Climaco Garcia announces the release of the gentle Americana tune, “Down by Her Riverside Home” on May 6. Built on a traditional Irish ballad song structure, the single provides an interlude from grief through the comforts of nature.
The single was released exclusively on Bandcamp in honor of Earth Day. Before the official May 6 release, proceeds will be donated to the non-profit wilderness advocacy group, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. The single is off the album, Between the Devil and Me, due out this summer.
Written about the upper Gila River that flows through 45 miles of pristine wilderness, it tells the story of a widow who lived on the river with her daughter, who was lost in a tragic accident. Soothing vocals and instrumentals mimic the woman wandering the river’s banks, trying to find solace and commune with her lost child amongst the trees.
An open, droning sound and a signature Celtic fiddle part played by Garcia’s wife, Nikelle Garcia, contributes to the interminable sadness at the intersection of life and death. Alex Mcmahon (The Handsome Family) contributed pedal steel remotely.
Hey hey! Spirits rejoice! It’s a new Dag album. And something is going on here - there’s a new Dag in town. It’s that thing when singer/songwriter Dusty Anastassiou walks on stage, talks into the mic and the room just kinda melts ‘cause everyone knows this guy has got us all covered - he’s with you and of us and he sounds at peace with the crumbling passage of your day. Well, it’s that thing, but beautifully recorded for posterity and spread across two platters of vinyl (yes two!) to warm the cockles of your broken heart.
But it’s much more too. Lifetones in the key of three - a band that’s so snug you don’t even notice there are three of them. These pups are from the same litter. They’ve got the group-think glue, Dan Ford and Dave McMillan sewing it all up seamlessly with the Dust. But you still want more! That’s the beauty of recording songs - you can have a bit more, and it’s all here friend. Field recordings of a distant storm, Nicole Thibault’s trombone, violin from Lily Tait, casiotone tinkly bop courtesy of Stefan Blair, spot-on extra vox from Liv Jansz and Francisca Castro-Merino, plaintive keys over a decaying mumbled voice - that lovely double album stretch-out.
"Big Plans (Little Hands) is about the joys of falling in love, finding peace and comfort in connecting with someone completely — and the false promise of escaping your self through someone else. Who better to represent these complex emotions than our friends the teddies?" - Dusty Anastassiou, Dag
As you read this, Dusty is most likely somewhere near a small town called Munduberra, and there’s no mistaking this album is an Australian record - think The Cannanes circa Randell Lee (or indeed Ashtray Boy) via rural Queensland and you might have a starting point musically. Maybe there is some regional AM country radio in here? I wouldn’t know. I do know Dusty used to take long drives through the deep Australian night with his Mum while Harold Budd played on the car stereo. So there’s a bit of depth beneath the mystery of Dag. “The sad old planet has seen better days" sings Captain Dusty - but as Albert Ayler let us know, music is the healing force of the universe. So get a dose of Dag in your day!
The debut single Lungs from Freyja Elsy is an epic, yet introspective look at the end of a relationship.
Freyja Elsy is an independent singer songwriter and composer with a nomadic past and a sound that pushes into the future. Creating songs with a keen ear whilst pursuing music education, she found herself within the vibrant, engaging Cardiff scene. Through both outside musical influence and internal personal conflict she started to establish a clear identity, forging a path forward to create ‘Lungs’, her first single.
Based around very real, very intimate voice recordings, ‘Lungs’ starts small and reserved, fragile in its form and structure. The track slowly unfolds and develops into rising crescendos alongside uncompromising percussion. A mixture of glitchy synthesisers and rising strings interweave around Elsy’s voice, which sits unwavering and steadfast. Her bold lyrics are strong in the face of a contrasting anguish found in the recordings nestled within the music.
With other musical endeavours in the form of collaborations within the band Blue Amber, alongside orchestral compositions performed by members of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and thematic interludes created for commercial use - this single is her first, strikeout release and sets the course for a prolific career ahead.
Lovelow is the forceful dark wave/art pop debut from DB Armitage, the stage name of East London-based multidisciplinary vocalist and video artist Dalma Berger.
Revolving around the bitter end of a love story, Lovelow authentically captures mourning as themes of inevitable hurt, imbalances between lovers, and heartfelt sadness ultimately collide with self-empowerment.
Each song in the brilliantly produced synth-fueled EP tells a different story about power and vulnerability. While “Old Bones” is about an active choice and open rebellion against heartache, “Last Summer” and “Lovelow” find Dalma learning lessons about her own womanhood after a problematic break up.
Accompanied by a dark and dynamic visual co-directed by Berger and Gareth Phillips (whose previous credits include The 1975, Wolf Alice and Pale Waves), the "Lovelow" video captures Dalma dancing and fighting with the dazzling Emma Holty, expressing nuances of love and hate.
“Expressing vulnerability excites me as a songwriter as I’ve never really explored this territory before,” says Berger. “I’ve picked these three songs because they are all coming from the same state, the state where love is low.”
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, God's Lamb is the last single and comes alongside a video directed and recorded by the duo themselves.
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.
That album, in a way, begins with a wedding. Ebba and Michel have been together since their schooldays, but a couple of years ago they tied the knot. The songs on Marriage have all been made since their wedding, and so in that sense the timing made it a natural title for a record that’s something of a scrapbook from the first two years of that marriage. But there’s also a deeper sense to it. Both in sound and theme, Marriage is more of a conceptual record than their earlier work. Ebba writes the band’s lyrics, and on the previous albums her themes were specific to her. But on this album, their relationship is at the heart of the songs. The lyrics have come from the experiences they’ve shared together, which they’ve then worked together into what they want to say, to each other and to everyone else. “I have always written the lyrics”, says Ebba. “But this time they feel like our lyrics, and not just my diary set to our music. We've talked a lot with each other about what we want to say. About who we are and where we can find our place in the world. The title has been in place since we started, and that was because a lot of the songs revolved around our relationship since we got married. Not so much the relationship between us, but more about the internal conflicts that appear when you’re in a long-term, safe relationship, where you’re really sure about each other, but you’re not sure about yourself”.
The journey to the record has been a difficult one. The band started work on Marriage not intending to make an album. They went into the studio with the idea of making an EP, wrote some songs, but couldn’t quite nail what they were going for - the songs didn’t quite feel right together. So they went into overdrive, wrote a bunch more songs, and suddenly found themselves with over 20, and within those 20 what they realised was an album.
Sophie Janna today releases her new single ‘Wide World’. Sophie describes her song as an hymn for the modern age. Quiet vocals and beautiful sounds make the single very refreshing to listen to.
Sophie says about 'Wide World': “This song is about not daring to tell someone that you love them. I've always been scared to express how I feel and I've spent most of my life so far pretending to be stronger and more independent than I really am. Only in music I dare to show my emotions. With this song I tried to tell someone what I didn't dare to say out loud: that I wanted them to stay with me, preferably forever, and not to go home to their own country. I was feeling all this and picked up my guitar to play a traditional song that I love - I'm a folk musician and I often play songs that are more than a hundred years old. Singing such old love songs gives me comfort, because they remind me that so many people before me have felt the same way. But when I strummed the first few chords of the song I intended to play, other words came up and formed this new song instead. "
The west Frisian Sophie Janna lived in Scotland for a while, discovered traditional folk there, and since then can be found every week at the folk sessions in her favorite cafe in her hometown Amsterdam. You can hear the influences of Scottish and Irish ballads well in her own songs. With a clear, sensitive voice and subdued strumming, she sings comforting songs that make you forget where you are for a moment. After her debut album 'Laurels', with eleven bittersweet traditional songs, Sophie Janna has now released her first EP with her own work, in which she is clearly influenced by artists such as Iron & Wine, The Weather Station, Anaïs Mitchell, and Sandy Denny.
During her solo career, Sophie Janna has performed on various stages worldwide. She was the opening act for Small Houses and she toured through Germany and America. She has also performed at many (international) festivals, such as The Brave, Tandem, Offbeat, Nest Collective Campfire Club and Knockengorroch. These are just a few examples of the highlights of her career.
"It’s a play on words I guess. Sitting inside writing on a sunday afternoon instead of out in the sun driving or riding or at the lake with my friends. Ride on Sundys is about the guilt of being sad and trying to bandage it with isolation."
The ten songs on Sara Bug’s forthcoming self-titled debut album were not meant to be shared. A culmination of seven years of her life, these songs were journal entries that reckoned with defining herself. Growing up in New Orleans, Bug imagined herself to be a successful songwriter. “I was so deep in the music. ‘Oh, I'm going to be a famous musician. When I get out of high school, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go have a career in music,’” she explains. “I think I held on to that for so long, I had finally kind of let go, like that pressure. Now it was just fun.” This eponymous project embodies Bug’s journey away from the expectations of others and her younger self, allowing her creative freedom.
Sara Bug opens with a lush, symphonic ballad about desire. “My whole life through, I want to die with you,” she sings tenderly on “Die With You.” Romantic and a bit morbid, Bug opens with the oldest song on the album and takes us to that time when the urgency of her happiness began pushing against the pressure of others’ approval. It's easy to get lost in the dreamy guitar strums and sturdy bass lines, Bug’s voice sharp and clear against the country-psych rock combination. A close listen reveals that Bug is letting the listener into the most poignant moments of the past years with sincerity and ease. She takes us on reflective motorcycle rides, whether literal or desired, for “Rosebank” and “Ride On Sundys.” She details the loss of a family member and a trip back home from her then-residence in New York on “Lotta Pride.” Inspired by the detailed storytelling of Dolly Parton and Neil Young, Bug leads across state lines and along her timeline of personal growth with unconventional, vivid song structures.
There’s a ‘beauty in tragedy’ and ‘dreaminess to heartache’ that Canadian multi-instrumentalist Esther Spiegelman — and group Let’s Be Giants — weave into their encapsulating new single, “I Don’t Mind”. Landing ahead of the Montreal-based band’s forthcoming album, Fade In / Fade Out, the song features simple lyrics with a profound message; Spiegelman both implores you to listen, and also hear what she’s feeling, what she’s wishing, and what she's needing.
Drawing on the nostalgia of 90s soundscapes — think Liz Phair asking Dolores O’Riordan to the dance, only to find out that Mazzy Starr was the opening band — “I Don’t Mind” lulls you into memories of heartbreak, but with an air of hope that you’ll survive this, too. Having fronted several outfits over her tenure as a singer/songwriter, it was Spiegelman’s assembly of Let’s Be Giants where she found her niche. After recruiting Jeremie Dallaire on guitar, Matt Wozniak on bass, and Simon Pesant on drums, songs Spiegelman had started penning began to take a life form all their own.
“Esther often writes songs about being in her own head, and in her own world, where she can view things the way she wants to,” says the band. “As an introvert, she writes a lot about what goes on in her mind, and often references not wanting to go out into the real world.
“‘I Don’t Mind’ is the perfect example of that,” they continue. “It’s especially the ‘I don’t mind, change my mind’ lyrics that provide listeners with the possibility of change and hope.”
As a song that delves into the core of ‘human spirit,’ and challenges it to leave it all on the dance floor, the subsequent music video is another brainchild of Spiegelman where she found her creativity not only in song and on screen, but also behind the lens.
The new David Wax Museum E.P is on it's way! As always this folk group with strong Mexican music influences continues to push boundaries following their NPR Tiny Desk, Newport Folk Fest, and CBS Saturday Morning appearances.
The indie-folk/dream-pop artist is putting out an EP on June 25. It’s the alter ego of Turners Falls, MA musician Max Wareham and the pastoral western Massachusetts hills are definitely palpable in his music.
He’s been influenced by magical realistic and adjacent books like Killing Comendatore by Haruki Murakami, as well as The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald and his music has a quality of wonder balancing with a sort of ambient beauty, part of which comes from the fact that it was largely recorded on cassette.
Atomic Bronco have released their first new music of 2021, dropping new single Cruel today. The punchy, lo-fi indie rock tune is the first song off the upcoming Spectrum EP, due out June 1st. Both the single and EP are available on all streaming services, as well as at atomicbronco.com.
Cruel provides an instant vibe right from the start with a catchy acoustic riff and vocals dripping with swagger before erupting into an almost grungy chorus full of attitude and finishing with a fuzzed-out guitar solo. On the Spectrum EP, Atomic Bronco sought to explore sonically across genres and ended up with a range of songs befitting of the name. Cruel provides a great introduction and offers an intriguing insight of what to expect next from Atomic Bronco.
Atomic Bronco is a retro-inspired yet decidedly modern indie/alt rock act from London. The creation of producer and songwriter Kyle Nuss, Atomic Bronco blends an interesting mix of indie, alternative, garage rock, lo-fi and classic rock. The one-man rock band is originally from the heart of rural America, but now makes guitar driven music in his East London studio.
Noah Garner, an on the rise Country music singer/songwriter has released the official video in support of his current EP and featured single of the same name, “Spring Break Town.” The video was premiered by AIM MUSIC, and it was also featured on Nashville Country TV. The message to viewers is the hope it brings up memories for people of that one time, with that one person, in that one special beach town that they never want to forget. Video content was captured in Panama City Beach, FL featuring Garner with special guest Damara Coniglione by ThreePartFilms and directed by Jordan Marking. Watch the video on the Noah Garner Music YouTube Channel.
The story behind the video is a guy meets an amazing girl while on Spring Break and has one of those hot, fast burning loves. She has to leave back home, but she never leaves his mind. When he returns to perform a show in the same town, she goes back too, and comes out to his show, and they reconnect.
Noah wanted to highlight some iconic places in and around Panama City Beach with the visuals and the production team did an amazing job capturing footage in six locations all in one day.
“The artist and team for Noah Garner are a powerhouse of talent and beautiful humanity. They are fun to work with, professional and genuine people that I will always say yes to working with,” shared ThreePartFilms - Jordan Marking. “After working with them, it always feels like family.”
“The story and video for “Spring Break Town” basically made itself as it is built into the song and it is so easy to understand, everything just fell into place perfectly,” stated Noah Garner.
Staring down the barrel of their psych-gaze outfit Creepoid’s dissolution, Anna and Patrick Troxell didn’t see an ending. Instead, they staged the reveal of their then-secret project Lovelorn. This commitment to secrecy pervades throughout Lovelorn’s debut album What’s Yr Damage. Each lyric rings like a slurred secret, every melody slips like an ace from a sleeve.
Named for a term of endearment used between Anna and Patrick Troxell, What’s Yr Damage celebrates the longstanding romantic and creative partnership between the duo. Eager to press flesh to the sonic skeletons left by Creepoid, the Troxells began to connect their broadspanning influences into a constellation of sound they’ve coined as “drug pop.” From dusky new wave synths to throbbing Detroit techno, What’s Yr Damage lies on the outskirts of conventional pop music. Using a menagerie of analog and digital instrumentation, Lovelorn’s sound is rooted in the heydays of their prime influences—Soulwax, Echo & The Bunnymen, Spacemen 3—with eyes set on a self-made future.
Today, the pair have unveiled details for their debut album (out on August 6th via 6131 Records) and have shared the whirlwind first single, “Sickness Reward.” The track is like an aural whiplash and is a meditation on failure in all of its forms.
As What’s Yr Damage cycles through its 10 tracks in a tight 35 minutes, the Troxells’ comfort amidst chaos is palpable. With their undaunted take on synth-fueled pop, it is clear that their debut was born from damage and dissolution. The end of one sound begets another, the existence of a troubled past implies a promising future, and a wound can open as a world of potential. “What’s yr damage,” Lovelorn asks. It’s up to the listener to find the truth in that question’s infinite possibilities.
