Background from the band - We're a sub-arctic indie rock four piece from Whitehorse, Yukon. "Yesterday" is out now on Coax Records from our self-titled LP to follow on June 25, 2021.
It's a visceral song about living grief, and the helplessness of loss, reconciling the death of someone who's still alive.
"Yesterday" has evolved to include and acknowledge the grief from physically losing others in this past year to addiction, and the realization, I will never be able to say goodbye.
The video emphasizes the inherent vulnerability of the song because it's made entirely of my grandmother's personal super 8 footage from the '50s and '60s. Head over to YouTube to watch and subscribe. This song is a slow burn rock song, for screaming into the void, or for taking shelter from the storm.
Glasgow based darkwave/post-punk duo Hanging Freud have just unveiled their sixth full-length album Persona Normal. The band states: "We were living between the UK and Brazil, going back and forth. These were two societies going through extreme change. The whole world was changing in a way that felt scary."
Some themes of Persona Normal deal with detachment, dissociation, what it means to be human, political issues and about strong, irrational cults. These are approached in tracks like “I beg you” and “We don’t want to sleep”. Persona Normal is also a record about transformation, and growth, accepting losses and coming to terms with the loss of innocence.
Persona Normal is available now in physical and digital formats on HANGING FREUD's label, Tiny Box. Persona Normal was written produced and recorded by the duo with mastering duties from James Plotkin (Khanate).
One year after the release of her debut album DAZED, the young Italian-Swiss harpist and composer Kety Fusco gives us a very personal version of the famous song "Gnossienne N.1" by Erik Satie. In this modern reinterpretation, which Kety has entitled "Ma Gnossienne", the harp is used in an unconventional way to generate sounds that have nothing to do with its classical timbre.
The entire sound system is set up with sounds of vinyl scratched on metal strings, objects struck on the soundboard of the pre-sampled classical harp, and analogue effects manipulated live.
Switzerland-based Kety Fusco has embarked on a unique harp sound research. She works with Delta Electric Harps from Salvi Harps, who have taken Kety on as their official Ambassador.
Her exploration of harp and effects technology began successfully with the debut of her album DAZED, described by Swiss critics as "a white fly". Kety Fusco has over 80 concerts throughout Europe, and she is working on the first world's sound library of non-traditional harp sounds.
Background from Bill Fever: I self-released my debut EP "Money Goes To Bloody Money" this month (May) through Bandcamp & CD Baby.
Over the past couple of weeks, tracks from the EP have had national airplay on Tom Robinson's BBC 6 Music Introducing Mixtape (his tip of the week), local radio play on BBC Radio Northampton, NE & CWR and featured on the most recent New Music Saturday Podcast.
The EP blends grungy indie rock sounds with a spaciness that's been described as 'a garage punk Hawkwind' (NMS Podcast) with a 'Jack White-esque freewheeling sound' (New Boots Music Blog).
To put things mildly, I've been frustrated with the political situation in the UK and these songs tackle those feelings. Having relocated from London to Kettering, my ambitions to form a new band in 2020 were put on hold by the pandemic. Deciding to carry on writing solo, I self-produced and recorded my debut 4-Track EP “Money Goes To Bloody Money” in my attic and shed in Northamptonshire. I sing and play all instruments except drums, bringing in talented session drummer Joe Montague.
Nova Scotia husband and wife duo Smaller Hearts announce new album Attention (out July 23), share second single, "Mean Routine."
“This song is about how we can have great ideals and big plans for who we think we are, who we want to be, and how we'll change the world—but the daily grind of going to work and paying the bills gets in the way,” said Smaller Hearts' Kristina Parlee (she/her) and Ron Bates (he/him). “The mean routine is the pattern of not getting to do the things we really want to do.”
“We drew a picture of the world we hoped to see / Held it close to heart in hopes that it would come to be,” sings Parlee, on this pining synthpop song. “And plans keep interrupting our plans.”
“‘Mean Routine’ comes back to 2020 being a big interrupted year,” Parlee and Bates said. “And being interrupted by something big that you couldn't control, you start to think about the smaller ways life pushes you away from the things you want to pursue, and how we should push back and just try to do them. After a year that kept us from our friends and our interests and our plans, ‘Mean Routine’ encourages us to try to seize the moment as we emerge into the possibility of something new."
The duo previously shared single “Double Space,” which tempers Smaller Hearts’ 1980s electro pop slant with an effective minimalism. Releasing July 23, Attention is the band's third full-length and builds on their exploration of synth-pop sounds that both diverge and draw inspiration from the indie rock focus of their other projects (including Orange Glass, The Memories Attack, Shoulder Season & the Maynards).
Abby J Hall is a Canadian singer/songwriter from Burlington Ontario. Some of her musical influencers are: T-Swift, Julia Michaels, Alec Benjamin and Maggie Rogers. She started songwriting when she was 11 and has been passionate about it ever since.
Her go-to instruments are the guitar, keys and ukulele. Memorable music moments include: playing her originals at The Sound of Music Festival in Burlington; at Canada’s Largest Ribfest; for the Live and Local Music Series at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre and at Canadian Music Week.
She has been in the studio over the past year and is excited to be releasing new music over the next couple months. Everyone has a story to tell. Abby loves nothing more than to write some of those stories down and put them to music.
With a musical style that pays homage to the spirit of the late, great Etta James (according to the site Rock at Night), Layla Frankel moved to Nashville in 2017 when she was fresh off a cross-country tour.
Her new EP Postcard From the Moon includes the single “You Can't Love Me Like I Loved You,” which was selected as a finalist in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.
Postcard From the Moon was recorded at Startstruck Studios in Nashville, produced and mixed by Jim Kimball (who has toured and recorded with an extensive roster of artists that includes Reba McEntire, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, and Justin Timberlake), engineered by Todd Tidwell and the executive producer was Mary Johnson. The EP also features some of Nashville's top session players.
Charly Lowry + The Heart Collectors - Navigating to Hope.
The next video in Folk Alliance's Artists In (Their) Residences series is fromNorth Carolina songwriter Charly Lowry and Australia's the Heart Collectors. Each of the ten is a pairing between a US and global artist collaborating on music to reflect on the world during the pandemic and shines a light on Folk Alliance's COVID relief Village Fund: (HERE). Lowry is a singer-songwriter from Pembroke, NC with roots in the Union Chapel Community. Charly received a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from UNC Chapel-Hill. Upon graduation, Lowry moved full-steam ahead in pursuit of a career as a professional musician.
For over a decade, Charly has attained regional and national success as both a solo artist and lead singer of alternative rock/ soul/ folk band, Dark Water Rising. In addition to performing with Dark Water Rising and The Ulali Project, she often shares the stage with funk/soul band, “The New Mastersounds”. In 2004, Charly had the opportunity to compete on the wildly popular television show, American Idol. She ventured through several rounds of auditions to make it to the Top 32.
Charly enjoys performing, meeting people, and educating others on the Native American experience. Charly served as a Lumbee Ambassador for the Lumbee people in 1997-98; traveling throughout the country to visit Tribal Nations while attending various conferences, powwows, etc. Her reign as Jr. Miss Lumbee was the catalyst that awakened her spirit to an inherent calling as a “Culture Bearer”. Lowry continues to work on her craft; immersing herself in the culture of American music and expanding her listening ear to various genres, all the while composing songs that give a personal account of her experience as an Indigenous woman walking in two worlds.
Of the Heart Collectors, John T Davis, author of ‘Austin City Limits: ’25 Years Of American Music, said, “Imagine Fleetwood Mac with more of an organic, Celtic-inflected lilt of vocals and melody and you have a rough idea of why Australia’s Heart Collectors are so instantly appealing. There is a vibrant and timeless allure to their music that is resistant to the fashion of the moment, and all the more enduring because of it. Kymrie’s voice is the stuff angel’s wings are made of.”
With the sentimentality of 70’s inspired harmonies, the Australian four piece ‘Epic Folk’ band has graced stages around the world, accomplishing three international tours and releasing four studio albums. Picked as one of the ‘Top Bands To See’ at SXSW (The Austin Statesman), this independent group have found creative ways of staying connected throughout the 2020 lockdowns and the cancellation of their USA and UK tours. The Hearts released their latest album Time To Say I Love You (2020) one single a fortnight, featured on Spotify with The Guardians “Australian Music for Isolated Times” and Sounds Australia’s “Sounds Australia Selects” playlists. In September 2020, The Hearts were selected to be 1 of 12 Australian artists for the Premier Event Global Music Match – a world wide initiative to connect musicians and industry in the face of COVID-19 restrictions.
The Heart Collectors have momentum in 2021, joining Folk Alliance International for ‘Folk Unlocked’ Private Showcases, ‘ISOL-AID Unlocked’, and the ‘Artists In (Their) Residence’ programme. Now as possibilities are opening for touring in Australia again, The Hearts embarked on a Statewide tour of Tasmania this January/February to Sold Out audiences. With soaring cello, intricate guitar, sparkling mandolin, boot banging banjo, passionate strikes of a tambourine and the thundering of the bodhran, these four charismatic performers create real musical synergy, marrying progressive folk/rock sensibilities and clean classical precision.
Having slimmed down from a 6-piece funk-factory to a 4-piece combo, Late TV have set about shifting their focus onto razor-sharp song-writing, atmospheric storytelling and tight shimmering grooves. The result of this attention to detail is in full force on the mooching urban fairytale Night Tennis.
Taking musical cues from Ken Nordine’s legendary ‘Word Jazz’, Cypress Hill’s soundtrack to late 90s shoot-em-up ‘Kingpin’ and the noir low-rock of Morphine, the band take disparate influences and seamlessly wrap them up into a concise 3.33 song. The track was recorded and produced by the band in London and mixed by Ed Longo (Ed Longo and Applied Arts Ensemble) at his Soundrays Studio in Berlin.
In the song, ‘Steve’ a lonesome everyman is seeking romance as he embarks on a date which gradually unravels revealing more about the trials and tribulations of his companion, rather than a moonlit walk back to hers for a nightcap. Considering the convention that love can be a game, Night Tennis rallies between two struggles, one man’s lascivious desires and one woman's ongoing battle to negotiate the cultural minefield of life in the big city.
Lyricist and Vocalist Luke J Novak explains: “I wanted to capture the electric moments of social interaction, the beats in a conversation where perceptions shift. Here we have a man who comes looking for one thing, but leaves with another; an insight into another’s perspective on the world that they both inhabit. The band laid down that bouncing groove and it was the perfect setting for the scene”.
Culling influences from jazz cats and art rockers, B-movies and trash television via Lynch and Tarentino, Late TV are the moonlighting house band for a surreal all-night dream club nestled amidst the cultural detritus of television’s after hours. Guitarist and vocalist Luke J Novak and drummer Richard ‘Beu’ Bowman left their hometown of Kidderminster and hooked-up with Chicago’s jazz obsessed Ryan Szanyi on bass and Parisian keyboard maestro Martin Coxall in London. Kick-started with the release of their brilliant Citizen single, the group then appeared at Standon Calling Festival in 2018 alongside Goldfrapp and spiritual forefather Bryan Ferry. Night Tennis is the first single to be taken from the band’s forthcoming debut album, where the group explore the postmodern wastelands of pop as high-brow/low-brow mutant junk dwellers, collecting the shards of our fragmented culture and building something both irresistibly dangerous and dangerously irresistible.
In April, Ellis announced her latest EP nothing is sacred anymore which is set for release on June 25th. Announced with the single "Hospital," the EP is the first new music from Ellis (the alias of Hamilton, Ontario musician Linnea Siggelkow) since the release of her debut LP Born Again, which arrived right as the pandemic began on April 3rd of 2020 and followed her breakout first EP The Fuzz.
Like The Fuzz, her upcoming EP sees Ellis working as her own producer again, this time alongside Charlie Spencer (of the band Dizzy), and it is perhaps her most emotionally intimate work to date, a quality that is foregrounded on the EP's latest single "what if love isn't enough."
"I mean, this is a question I’ve asked myself a bunch, usually when I’m being a little bit dramatic which happens to be often," Siggelkow explains. "But I’ve also seen relationships fizzle out even when two people seem to really love each other. We place so much emphasis on love but I guess I just wonder about all the other stuff needed to make it last forever. I’m a hopeless romantic at heart but sometimes I’m just hopeless."
T. Hardy Morris is set to return with The Digital Age of Rome on June 25th via the New West Records imprint Normaltown Records. The 10-song set was produced by Adam Landry (Deer Tick, Rayland Baxter) and mixed by engineer Nate Nelson. It follows the Diamond Rugs and Dead Confederate member’s 2018 acclaimed Dude, The Obscure.
After touring Dude, The Obscure, Morris had 13 new songs demoed for a new album. He was excited to get his band together to rehearse the songs before hunkering down in the studio to record...then the pandemic hit. Sequestered at his Athens, GA home with his family, Morris, like most everyone else in the past year, mulled over what was truly important to him and in response, crafted an entirely new set of songs. Enlisting a group of musicians including Drive-By Truckers drummer Brad Morgan, singer-songwriter Faye Webster and many others, Morris pulled no punches with his mesmerizing lyrics and hazy brand of southern glam rock.
Looking directly inward and captivated by the sobering realities of the pandemic, Morris has composed one of his most personal works yet. He tackles the well-worn anxieties of the past year as pandemic and political divisions ravaged America. The Digital Age of Rome is more direct than Morris has ever been and is one of his boldest records yet. Unapologetic and brutally honest, it is a necessary diary for an uncomfortable time that continues to unfold.
Morris remains Athens, Georgia’s foremost purveyor of dynamic rock-and-roll-songwriting and his blend of poetic southern outlaw storytelling is delivered in a haunting vocal howl. The sonic energy and raw emotion in his music captures the same call to adventure that helped launch other Athens-born bands (including R.E.M., B-52’s, Vic Chesnutt, The Drive-By Truckers, The Elephant 6 Collective, Pylon, and The Glands before him) and put the artsy college town on the map. Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood described Morris’ songwriting as, “distilling that subtle truth down to its very essence and expressing it in a way that cuts through the bullshit...I was immediately blown away.
For Bandicoot "Worried Blues inhabits a world of paranoia, born from a fear of lost love. It carries you down labyrinthine streets like a nightmarish memory, with a contagious strutting rhythm which never lets you stop moving along with it.”
Never missing a beat or taking time to catch their breath Bandicoot are back with a new and impressive single.
‘Worried Blues’ starts with forceful piano chords and an anguished emotional vocal from Rhys Underdown, channeling John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band primal scream as a voice from the dark. When ‘Worried Blues’ intro releases into a riff full of Talking Heads strutting art rock/ dance punk directness it leaves no doubt, Bandicoot are ‘The Sound of Young Wales!’.
Good Morning TV started in 2016 with a first self titled EP, released by pop diggers Requiem pour un Twister, that managed to echo until miles away from their homeland, France.
At the time a solo adventure of Bérénice Deloire, the project progressively became a band as Barth Bouveret (producer for both the EP and the album), Thibault Picot (Brace! Brace!) and Hugo Dupuis joined their forces, guided by mutual harmony.
After two years of writing together, the quartet isolated itself in a peaceful home of the south of France in order to achieve their first album 'Small Talk' to be released on Géographie Recs (Marble Arch, Paper Tapes, Born Idiot). 'Small Talk' is born in this rough temporary studio, that rather resembled a weird laboratory.
Its singular material, along with a contemporary production that both enhance a bold songwriting are casually passed by familiar choruses. With this record, Good Morning TV paints a melancholic portrait of daily disillusions and claims its own vision of pop, somewhere between Broadcast, Deerhoof or The Olivia Tremor Control.
Doctor Lo (Faber), formerly of celebrated jam band God Street Wine, shared the title track from his upcoming folk/Americana-leaning LP Claiborne Avenue last Friday. Faber is set to celebrate the release with a limited run of live shows, including a sold-out performance at Albany, NY's The Hollow on June 18 (full dates below).
June 18 - The Hollow - Albany, NY June 20 - Gabe-Gate - Sussex, NJ June 22 - The Tap Shack - Duck, NC June 23 - The Tap Shack - Duck, NC (two nights!)
Doctor Lo Faber’s music exudes the warmth, grit, and enchantment of New Orleans — a city he’s called home for the past decade. A listen to “Claiborne Avenue,” the title track off his new album, reveals a number of specific NOLA settings: there’s the obvious, the street for which the song is named, as well as the iconic Magazine Street. There’s also a hat tip of sorts to The Neville Brothers, with a reference to the “Pocky Way beat;” and it name-checks Louis Armstrong, Mr. Bienville (Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the “Father of New Orleans”), and Mr. Claude Tremé (for whom the Tremé neighborhood of NOLA is named).
If it sounds a bit like a history lesson in song, well, it is. And this historical focus is fitting, given that Dr. Faber (or Doctor Lo, as he’s known in the music world) has his Ph. D. in American History, is a former history professor, and published a book about New Orleans in 2013 entitled Building the Land of Dreams. “Some of the songs are united by being my experience of living here in New Orleans for about nine years now,” Lo explains. And while he notes that his music “is not New Orleans-y,” one can’t help but almost instantly feel transported to the Crescent City while listening to it.
Seemingly a product of the pandemic – said track speaks of the “tourists [who] left without a trace” – Claiborne Avenue (the song and the album) is both observational and introspective at once. It sees Doctor Lo reflecting on the past through a nostalgic lens with a hint of regret (“I broke the rules and I paid the cost / You know nothing comes free”), and the refrain “Who knows what you might catch in the air” takes on more meanings the longer you listen.
Recording artist, Emily Kate perfectly bridges the gap between country and pop with her unique sound and lyrical storytelling. Born and raised in Toronto, Emily Kate’s love for music started at a very young age. She grew up inspired by her musical family and influenced by Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Kelsea Ballerini, and Danielle Bradberry.
Pulling from real life experiences, her music conveys relatable thoughtful messages weaved with fresh, soulful melodies. Her meaning filled lyrics coupled with her warm sound is often described as Kelsea Ballerini meets a motivational speaker.
“I want to be able to say something with my music. For people to connect with themselves and feel inspired when they listen…while also having fun.” – Emily Kate
Working with CMAO nominated Producer of the Year, Shawn Moore, her anticipated debut EP All In, reveals a strong willed female artist, sure to impact the lives of current and future fans. Giant, the first single off her EP, became available August 7, 2020 and its empowering message has gained popularity amongst her fans and also Canadian Country Radio. Having over 500 plays on Sirius XM and many other stations across Canada.
Keeping up with the momentum, Emily Kate released her next single off her EP, All In, which has reached Top 50 on the Sirius XM charts. This song has touched that relatable experience when we sometimes pick the wrong guy, and makes you want to hold up a lighter while you sing and sway. The second last song, Space, showcases a more vulnerable side. The soaring lyrical story centres on Emily Kate’s strong belief that every little thing in our lives happens for a reason. It’s all about timing and Space brings that metaphor to life throughout the stellar songwriting and effortless production overlay.
Kelly McMichael is known for her commanding vocals, classic songwriting, and unique ability to conduct powerful musical forces whether making bedroom beats, rocking a Gibson SG or serenading softly on the piano. She has fronted RENDERS, Thelma & Louise, and The Gloss and Rouge.
Her debut full-length album Waves (available now) displays a wide range of rock sounds and marks a transition from her electronic-based project ‘RENDERS’. It has taken years to find the right circumstances to bring these arrangements to life, and she finally found them by the ocean with the support of engineer, co-producer and drummer Jake Nicoll (The Burning Hell), and multi-instrumentalists Maria Peddle and Sarah Harris (Property) from St John's.
After years of experience and searching for the right pieces, I've created a collection of my best songs played with my favourite musicians infused with the magical energy on this whacky and amazing island of Newfoundland. It's a celebration of resilience, marked by this ridiculous cover photo of me - tired and proud on a cranky horse, smelling the salty air, wondering what magical surprises are in my future, remembering the golden fields of my rural Ontario past. - Kelly McMichael.
Neighborhood Brats is a California punk band formed in 2010 by vocalist Jenny Angelillo and guitarist George Rager. Originally based in San Francisco, Rager and Angelillo relocated frequently around and between northern and southern California during the band’s formative years.
In 2013, publicity, positive reviews and regional US touring attracted enough attention for the band to begin touring Europe, which would become a mainstay for the band’s road activity. By the end of 2019, the band had completed five European tours, and multiple headlining and direct support tours throughout the United States and Canada.
In 2021, Neighborhood Brats will release their third LP, Confines of Life, which was recorded in 2020 as Los Angeles shut down in response to the incoming pandemic. The album will be released on May 28th via Dirt Cult Records in the US and Taken By Surprise Records in Europe.
Today, Breathe Panel have announced that their new album will be released on September 17th on FatCat Records via the sharing of title track ‘Lets It In’. With members divided between London and Brighton, Breathe Panel come together to produce music that is as effortless as their name suggests. Recorded live to tape by esteemed producer Ali Chant (Aldous Harding, PJ Harvey, Katy J Pearson), Lets It In was recorded with no agenda other than the enjoyment of making music together. The resulting album is ultimately positive in outlook, centering around themes of falling in love, moments in places, light, breathing, walking, urban living and finding beauty in a sometimes heavy environment.
Living together in a shared house in East London, frontman Nick Green and lead guitarist Josh Tyler would start writing songs together as an escape from the restlessness of the city. “A sort of meditation from the mess”, says Nick. With the arrival of the lockdown, their immediate surroundings became even more vivid and influential as spring turned to summer last year. “I've been reading about Psychogeography and the weird link between where you are and how you feel and how sometimes those two things can align to make you feel like you're in a sweet spot just for a split second or an afternoon,” explains Josh.
Nowhere is the essence of the album found more precisely than on the album’s title track which documents a relationship blossoming at the first signs of the summer. “The single highlights what I was seeing at the time; light, windows, day-to-day goodness and being in a good place,” explains Nick. “Once that song came together I felt like we'd landed on the sound of the album,” says guitarist Josh. “I was struggling to write a line for it but it slowly began to flow in a practice in Alex's kitchen. I like how it's a turn of phrase that feels close to something you might say on a daily basis but never think twice about,” he continues.
For a band who are at their most comfortable writing songs together in a living room, swapping drum kits for cushions, it’s unsurprising that the music Breathe Panel produce is as rejuvenating to listen to as it is for them to produce. The result is a second album that sounds real and present in the moment, evoking the moments in time in which it was made, calling to mind the warm 90’s indie-rock of bands like Acetone and The Sea and Cake. Breathe Panel is here to soothe the collective soul in 2021.
