Steadily earning a reputation as Southern California’s preeminent emerging surf/reggae/ska band, San Clemente-based Tunnel Vision grew up in a beach-town with instruments in their hands and surfboards under their feet, emulating the surfer legends of reggae rock who came before them.
So when they were invited to join Ballyhoo and The Expendables (as the two iconic bands hit the road performing each other’s songs on this year’s ExpendaHoo tour), the supporting act decided to get into the spirit of things with a tour-influenced cover of their own. Tunnel Vision gives a nod of respect to their musical lineage as they reimagine their favorite surf-inspired Expendables tune with their new single “My Way Out” (out now on LAW Records).
“We really love the concept behind the tour, with The Expendables doing Ballyhoo songs and vice versa, so we are feeding off of that synergy with this single,” says Tunnel Vision lead singer and guitarist Hayden Hanson. “‘My Way Out’ is a cover of one of our favorite Expendables songs. We grew up listening and relating to this song since we were kids ...and we started learning to play it as soon as we picked up our instruments. We're just so stoked to be part of the tour; to get a chance to play with these bands every night and to release our own version of this song that means so much to us is surreal.”
“My Way Out” is a song that conjures romantic imagery of what it’s like growing up in an idyllic little beach town, where surfing is both the daily agenda and the day’s escape. But it is an imagery that carries the familiarity of home for the members of Tunnel Vision.
Self-produced recording artist, Carson Hoy, sweetens his confrontational lyrics with dreamy synth pop.
Engaging repressed emotions with lyrics like, “My dream was to be a stuntman,” from his first single, “Night Drive,” Carson tells how the joy of life is removed after one’s dreams have been abandoned and the curative remedy is to free yourself by taking a “Night Drive.”
Verse One:
"The best thing I did was walk out on you I was so damn stressed out I knew I would be so left out lampooned There would be no pleasure for you I would way more rather do the things I like Then we could stop all the lies and we'd be alright We could wave goodbye to this cartoon life And by the look in your eyes this'll be the night."
‘Bubbly Cool Drink’, the new single from Norwegian art-pop outfit Mall Girl, represents an exciting new chapter for the buzzed-about band. A string of infectious singles released in 2020, including ‘My Sweet Mall Girl’ and the fierce ‘Bad Girl’, cemented the bands reputation as an act to watch in the alt-pop arena. Now they are gearing up to release their debut album in Spring 2022, via Norwegian label Jansen Records.
Members Iver Armand Tandsether, Hannah Veslemøy Narvesen, Eskild Myrvoll and Bethany Forseth-Reichberg were forced to get creative when the pandemic hit, side lining best-laid plans to flesh out some songs before heading into the studio together.
"Because of COVID regulations and the four of us living in two different cities, we changed the way we worked with the songs quite radically in the months leading up to the studio recording,” Narvesen says. "We’ve always been very oriented towards the live performance of the songs, including when we compose them together in our rehearsal space. That way of working has led to some challenges when recording, as you end up listening to the songs in a different manner and might figure out you should have done everything differently."
While some put their creative endeavours on hold, Mall Girl opted to try something different. “We actually ended up ‘remote composing’ big parts of the album, with everyone working from their own home studio and bouncing ideas back and forth,” Narvesen explains. "This was a very welcome change of workflow for us, and it led to us writing some songs which probably wouldn’t have turned out that way had we been together in the same room."
Boston-based indie pop wunderkind I.You.She, AKA Aayushi Kumar, is gearing up for the release of a buoyant new song “sink!.” The song, produced by respected local Seattle musician Jake Crocker (her hometown), integrates irrepressibly catchy hooks with lyrics that illustrate the despair of a young person caught up in a sense of disillusionment with her life and an eventual realization that everyone is in the same boat. Kumar exhibits a remarkable mastery of melody and lyricism in only her second single as a solo musical artist—she’s currently a freshman at the Berklee College of Music. “Sink!” will be released digitally October 29.
Says Kumar: “I don’t believe in perfectionism but I really believed in this song and wanted to give it my all. In general, this person feels like their life is a mess and they feel a sense of emptiness. To me the song is really about how struggle in life is inevitable. If I had to have one tagline for the song it would be ‘The grass is greener on the other side, but what if we were underground?’ I don't think this song is a negative one even though it may come off that way on a surface level. I think it's realistic and shows how struggling is inevitable and ok. We always think we're sinking but sometimes don't realize that everyone else is as well.”
I like to stay informed on the local artists from Seattle and Jake, the featured artist and producer of ‘sink!,’ was a Seattle-based musician who I really looked up to. He was a dream collaborator, and after some email/phone exchanges we started the process of working on the current version of “sink!”. I’m a freshman at the Berklee College of Music, The journey has been a long one but I feel so proud of this song and am excited to introduce my sound to the world.
Century Egg is a band of escape artists with a focus on playing visceral punk rock. Today the Halifax, Nova Scotia-based quartet are sharing their new single, "Moving On" which makes up the first half of a double A-side single release, the second of which will follow next month. The new track is released via Forward Music Group.
Following previous spots opening for the likes of Lido Pimienta – a self-proclaimed fan of the band with Robert Drisdelle, guitarist in Century Egg producing a track on her Polaris Prize-winning album, La Papessa – Partner, Julie Doiron, and more, Century Egg will be performing at Toronto's Handlebar on November 14 and La Sala Rosa as part of M for Montreal (Mothland's stage) on November 19 to celebrate the release of these new tracks. This new single, "Moving On" further cements their inspirations taken from Asian pop and rock artists such as Faye Wong, Jun Togawa, Spitz, Cui Jain, Pu Shu, along with the driving post-punk rhythm section and blistering guitar work taken from The Stooges, Thin Lizzy, etc.
Speaking about the new single, Century Egg says: "This is a song about trying to detach yourself from your past and let go of the trauma that holds you back from finally feeling better."
Century Egg is made up of singer, Shane Song (she/her), bassist/backing vocalist, Matty Grace (she/her/they/them), guitarist, Robert Drisdelle (he/him) and drummer, Megumi Yoshida (she/her). Away from Century Egg, Song works as a visual artist/video game artist, Grace plays in numerous bands including Cluttered (tipped by Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!), Drisdelle plays and arranges with Lido Pimienta (amongst other projects) and Yoshida performs in Bad Vibrations, Dog Day, Not You and more.
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 No Gravity open an episode of Grey’s Anatomy, she releases her Help Musicians-funded sophomore album, Drawn To Darkness.
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.
Hannah draws much of the inspiration for her music from her affinity with Italy. A year living and working on an olive press in rural Tuscany in her late teens provided the backdrop to her early work and she has found her musical home with writer-producer and multi-instrumentalist Stefano, who she met in London but may well have met years earlier when passing through the train station in Italy he was working in!
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 O’Leary, BBC 6 Music, BBC Introducing, The Guardian, MOJO and Clash Magazine.
The Portland, Oregon based country-soul group The Delines have announced their third studio album, The Sea Drift, will be released on February 11, 2022 via their new American label home Jealous Butcher Records.
The stunning first single and opening track of the album “Little Earl,” is out today accompanied by a music video directed by Jordan Mosser. “Little Earl” is the perfect introduction to the sights, sounds, and characters that populate the vivid world The Delines have conjured in The Sea Drift, their most cinematic and visual album yet. Written by songwriter and author Willy Vlautin, and performed by lead singer Amy Boone, “Little Earl'' is a tender and moving song that manages to blend soul, country, folk and indie rock into a sound that feels warmly familiar yet totally unique. “Little Earl” is the first track from a collection of songs The Delines describe as “songs and stories found drifting up and down the Gulf Coast.”
“‘Little Earl’ was one of the first tracks I brought to ‘The Sea Drift’ rehearsal sessions, and as it turns out the one that helped create the sound and feel of the entire record,” Vlautin writes. “It’s a soul/Tony Joe White inspired groove, and Cory Gray’s horn and string arrangements set the cinematic tone for two brothers who get in a shoplifting-gone-wrong incident at a mini-mart outside of Port Arthur, Texas. I love songs that just drop you in the middle of a scene and that’s what we tried to do here.”
Ahead of the live dates, Someone shares the new video for album track ‘Empathy’. It is a song indicative of Someone’s debut album Shapeshifter as a whole, which weaves suave, cinematic psych-pop with an intimate, acoustic song writing style inspired by the likes of Joni Mitchell, befitting of the album’s introspective themes of isolation, escapism, and mental health.
Someone describes ‘Empathy’ as “A track about feeling disconnected with the world around you.” A darker psych-pop song inspired initially by American politics (namely the horrors of Trump administration) but one which dispels its shadowy hues as the song climaxes, like the sonic equivalent of the sun shining through breaking clouds.
The video, created by Someone shows a statue-like figure who stands unchanging as the rest of the world is built up and broken down around it. It was inspired by the sculptures of Nicolas Party at Dijon’s Consortium Museum which appear as torsos rising from the floor in the middle of the room, as if they’ve been cemented to the ground. As Someone expands” I wanted the statue-like figure in the video to be buried in the ground. Like a tree, like part of the earth itself”.
Toronto-based singer-songwriter Julian Taylor is releasing a new, standalone single today, a cover of a song called “100 Proof,” written by a friend of his, Toronto-based musician and award-winning music teacher Tyler Ellis. The single bridges the gap between Taylor’s next album, which is in the works, and his award-winning 2020 release, The Ridge, which scored him worldwide critical acclaim and eight award nominations in 2020 and 2021, including two Juno Awards, the Polaris Long List, and two Canadian Folk Music Awards, in which he won Solo Artist of the Year.
“100 Proof” is an allegory of a man and the love he has for his family and the pearls of wisdom that he leaves them, and Ellis wrote the song as an antidote to the difficult times of May 2020 as headlines spoke of Black Lives Matter protests, the pandemic, and social isolation.
“This song is a guide for somehow managing it all,” Ellis says. “Telling the truth about how you feel is ok; asking for help is ok and is not a sign of weakness. And, like Jackie DeShannon said, ‘let kindness be your guide.’ I wanted to acknowledge those internal struggles that everyone goes through and to say that you're not alone, you can reach out, and no matter how dire things seem there is hope.”
Tidal Wave is a seven-piece art rock band known for their powerful soundscapes and diverse instrumentation.
Formed in 2018, the group met each other working and performing in the local live scene in Toronto. This eclectic group of songwriters was initially put together by guitarist and lead vocalist Connor Young who assembled guitarist Marco Carboni, guitarist and producer Marcus Retterath, drummer and keyboard player Mike Poisson, violinist and vocalist Joey Assaad, violinist Brittany Iwanciwski, and bassist Kyle Texiera.
Whether you are listening to their recorded or live material, the band meticulously layers it’s elements to give the music a full wall of sound with forward momentum. It is an ever present atmosphere composed of rich textures of guitars and synthesizers, with a delicate balance between soaring string lines and strong vocal melodies. The name of the band rather accurately depicts the overall tone of an unrelenting unstoppable force.
Tidal Wave evokes the melodic elements of indie rock bands like Arcade Fire, while creating compelling production-heavy ambient synth and guitar textures comparable to Godspeed! You Black Emperor and My Bloody Valentine. In 2020 they released their single “Our Silhouettes” on all streaming services and will be releasing their EP in the fall of 2021.
Touching is the artistic alias of songwriter and producer Michael Falk. From his home in Winnipeg, the multi-hyphenate musician has organized festivals, run a studio, and operated a record label, juggling countless roles within the local scene. As a performer, he has toured with acclaimed acts including Les Jupes, The Liptonians, and rapper/CBC host Ismaila Alfa. Yet since becoming a father, Falk has consolidated his lifelong pursuit into a renewed, singular focus: Get back to making music. And lots of it.
Spring 2020 saw the release of Touching’s debut album, Isolation Blues. Sharing 10 songs over 10 weeks, the project was unveiled serially with a one-shot video for each track filmed and released every seven days. With its relatable lyrical themes of loneliness, depression, and disconnection, Exclaim! described the collection as “a greatest hits of pandemic moods.”
Hot on its heels comes littleworlds, a new album aiming to disinfect the darkness with sunlight. The sophomore release from Touching is built on feelings of hope, simple joys found amidst conflict, and the anticipation and fear of becoming a parent. Its 12 songs were written during the same period as Isolation Blues as Falk stepped away from touring and various other collaborative projects. Using this opportunity to build a studio in his basement, he centered his efforts on writing and recording.
“I bottomed out last year and had a desire to reconnect with my own path of self-fulfilment,” Falk explains. “The only way to become a role model for my son was to show him that I know how to walk the walk by living the life that I want to live. You can tell kids whatever you want, but in the end they’ll look up to what you actually do.”
At the heart of littleworlds is Falk’s rich baritone. His striking voice soars with the passion of Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison, coasts with the coolness of Marker Starling’s Chris A. Cummings, and plumbs the emotional depths of Richard Dawson. Musically, the album injects the downtempo electronic ambience of Massive Attack (“I’m inspired by their late career stuff that no one thinks about,” laughs Falk) into the high drama indie-rock of Editors, Manchester Orchestra, or We Were Promised Jetpacks.
After her Spain tour in early October, Lena Minder is now ready with the fifth single to her new album!
'Fear of Falling' describes the fear to go new ways - although you actually know that it is high time. Often we move in comfortable, familiar patterns, from which to break off we struggle. The song describes this conflict, but at the same time gives you the feeling that it is also ok to be in this dilemma.
Lena has been working on her debut album since early 2020. Her aspiration: to reinvent herself. Inspired by the decision to part with her former stage name (Liv Summer), she sets out to find her own personal sound and mostly produces herself. Together with Cameron Laing, she records her visions in 'The Famous Goldwatch' studios in Berlin. She calls her style "Nostalgic Pop" and experiments with vocal elements and self-recorded loops.
Chicago based artist, Jennifer Hall, has released a brand new single/video titled “Why Cut Time” which creates quite an atmosphere between the desolate Chicago lakefront shots, the plucking/swelling synthscapes, and Jennifer’s powerful vocal delivery.
Artist Jennifer Hall aims to draw you into her musical landscape with no reservation, where emotions run high and vulnerability reigns.
Not one to shy away from sharing her pain and deepest secrets, Jennifer’s 2015 self-titled EP leans heavily into grief and loss, self doubt and inner turmoil, and unexpected love and her readiness (or lack thereof) to receive it. Commonly identified as a vocal powerhouse, Jennifer masterfully brings to life the most raw and exposed of emotions.
Shortly after the release of Jennifer’s 2015 EP, the independent Chicago artist hit the road, touring for over 3 years and playing in 31 states, including beautiful Hawaii. After years of touring and reaching digital milestones like 1 million Spotify plays, Jennifer went into a much needed creative hibernation to recharge.
New York City-based artist, Nisa, has just shared "Cold," the second single to be lifted from her new EP, Time To Plant Tears which is set for release on December 2, 2021. This new single follows recent tips from the likes of Consequence, Our Culture, Audiofemme and more with this body of work following on from her self-released debut EP, Guilt Trip which landed earlier this year.
Early in 2021, the 22-year-old – full name Nisa Lumaj – began work on a new collection of songs that would make up the forthcoming EP, Time To Plant Tears. The title takes its name from the final stanza of an Elizabeth Bishop poem called Sestina. Working together with collaborator and producer, Ronnie Di Simone, the songs were recorded between Brooklyn's Studio G and the Brick Box studio. The new EP demonstrates Nisa's penchant for intimate storytelling cast against the backdrop of glistening, cinematic soundscapes reminiscent of Angel Olsen, Indigo De Souza, Japanese Breakfast and Soccer Mommy. In describing the mood of the EP, Nisa has said that the songs are centered around “confrontation and focus; weathering internal and external changes; desire, and emotional rebirth.” Intersecting cinematic and poetic frames of reference, it lands between what is said and what is felt.
"Cold," which arguably marks the EP highlight and was written with frequent collaborator, Fritz Ortman, draws on 80s inspired guitar tones whilst further demonstrating Nisa's growing understanding of songwriting and melody. Speaking about the writing of the song, Nisa explains: "Fritz —my close friend and frequent collaborator—wrote “Cold” with the Cars’ “Just What I Needed” in mind. We demoed it a few different ways before deciding to fully lean into the 80s with the chorus, and brought it to Ronnie [di Simone], producer, who came up with the thunderous, Adrien Beluga-inspired solo."
The accompanying video was shot in Stony Point, New York with the director, Ben Klein. Speaking about the visual for "Cold", Nisa says: "For the "Cold" music video, Ben and I wanted to see what would happen if we combined the "hell hath no fury" trope with our favorite elements of classic Halloween slasher movies."
The Chicago-based project of brothers, Nolan and Carter Dickson, Noir Disco, share "Los Angeles," the latest track to be lifted from their forthcoming debut, NOW! 2073, which is out December 3, 2021, on Terrible Records. "Los Angeles" arrives following recent tips from Brooklyn Vegan, Northern Transmissions, Clash, Pigeons & Planes and more, further helping to portray the duo's genre-hopping approach to music, something they dub as Noir Disco – inspired by the Film Noir aesthetic – that fuses punk with modern psych-rock, indie rock and electronica.
The new single "Los Angeles" perpetuates this sense of cosmic country, nosedibing between genre to produce something that is truly idiosyncratic. Catapulting you into a different universe from the outset with the bombastic opening – "Los Angles! The city of shiny plastic faces, in shiny plastic places!" – the song then turns through warbling bass, fuzzy guitar and twinkling piano; at times summoning comparisons to The Doors and other times the funk-indebted electronica of Todd Terje. It's a unique fusion of neon-soaked electronica and syrupy psych.
Speaking about the new single, "Los Angeles", Nolan Dickson says: “Songs like “Los Angeles” were made with an awareness that every single person wants to feel like the main character in their own movie. If you close your eyes and listen to these songs then you’re going to star in a pretty cool piece of theatre, trust me!”
The pair, who sing and play alongside their friend, Henry Miller have developed something of a cult following over the year; NOW! 2073 marks their grandest project yet, signposting the band’s evolution into a new freeform way of creating. Taking direct inspiration from artists like David Bowie, Kate Bush and The Doors, the new music similarly submerges you in cartoonish art-pop landscapes (think “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” if it was made by Arcade Fire during their Reflektor era) that seem to evolve in real-time.
Katy Kirby is a songwriter and indie rock practitioner with a writerly focus on unspoken rules, misunderstandings of all kinds, and boredom. She has just released a new video for the gorgeous song 'Juniper'.
Kirby was born, raised, and home schooled by two ex-cheerleaders in small-town Texas, where she started singing in church amidst the soaring, pasteurized-pop choruses of evangelical worship services. After high school, Kirby moved to Nashville, where she managed to graduate college with a rapidly expanding circle of artistic allies, an amorphous collection of leftist beliefs, and a few handfuls of songs.
After a series of painful failures to complete a record that reflected the temperament of those songs, Kirby finally turned to dear friends and co-conspirators to form a band capable of constructing a satisfying full length.
Willie tells us - "I'm excited to share "Need Your Love," a song that captures the live vibe of my band: upbeat, rowdy, and very old school."
He adds - "My single has that rowdy, angsty mood of being young and restless as we follow two people who want to break out of the confines of their current world and experience something more daring."
In our opinion the song is all of that, the simmering energy and slick guitar break along with a no nonsense pulse are all notable on what is a mixture of old school rock & roll with modern & fresh production. This is a come & see us live song, if ever there was one!
At the heart of Hamilton, ON group King Park, you'll find childhood friends/musical co-conspirators Timon Moolman (vocals, guitar) and Tyler Heemskerk (bass, vocals), accompanied by the animated Nate Wall on drums. The trio's new album, Everett (out this Friday October 29th), is a collection of elegies for ordinary, apocalyptic losses.
Fitting together lyrically and thematically, Everett is not so much a story of heartbreak about not getting the girl, but more about being heartbroken that something beautiful could end up so hurtful – that so much love could turn into hate. It's a story of being stuck in a moment, unable to move forward – surrounded by fear, guilt and shame.
Title track, "Everett," sets the theme for the entire record as it tells a coming-of-age story, speckled by the loss of innocence. It's a snapshot of a time when the rigorous set of black and white lines one grows up believing in finally faded away, forcing re-evaluation.
