Nicky Egan - Personal Space

Nicky Egan - This Life.

Yesterday Nicky Egan announced her new full-length This Life, out June 3rd via Transistor Sound/Colemine Records. The announcement comes with the album’s title track — “This song, for me, represents the journey that we experience going from life on this plane to the next, and the beautiful, heartbreaking, incredible transition in between,” Egan told Jazziz. Born and raised outside of Philadelphia and currently based in Los Angeles, Egan has performed all over the country fronting her own musical projects and performing as a hired-gun for Chicano Batman, Tune-Yards, Carla Morrison, Turkuaz, among others.

After graduating from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Contemporary Writing and Production, Egan spent 7 years in Brooklyn, her early years here spent touring as part of powerhouse funk ensemble Turkua. After squeezing into old vans and sleeping on floors on DIY tours with the band, she’d then return to the city to make extra cash nannying and waiting tables. After parting ways with Turkuaz to focus on her solo career, Egan independently released three of what she dubbed “digital 45’s,” premiering an A/B side each month, with a video attached to each A side, accompanied by a release show and live screening. These digital 45’s became a 7-song EP, The 45 Homestead Project, which was released via Ropeadope Records, garnering much praise from tastemakers like American Songwriter, Okayplayer and Performer Magazine.

While at a crossroads in her own project, during a time when she’d have to re-evaluate some tough relationships, Egan received a call from the manager of Los Angeles psych-soul staple, Chicano Batman, looking for a keyboardist and vocalist to join them on their Spring tour. Egan packed a few suitcases, a hat box, and relocated to LA. What was supposed to be a spring run turned into four years of Egan playing keys and singing as a touring member with the band, performing alongside the likes of Portugal The Man, Vampire Weekend, Jack White, and Khurangbin.

In between tour stretches, Nicky Egan has been stealthily plugging away with New York based producer and Dap-Kings guitarist, Joe Crispiano. Beginning with demos written and recorded in Joe’s Staten Island apartment while his neighbor banged on the ceiling, the project came to fruition as a full-length. The album was recorded in part with their friends at the inimitable Diamond Mine Studios, and partially in Dumbo, Brooklyn at an unnamed dungeon where the two spent one too many hours drinking double espressos, margaritas, and building vocal booth forts. Driven by honest confessional songwriting and influenced by your favorite classic soul sounds, the record was recorded to 8 track tape, and features a who’s who of NY’s most sought after players including Homer Steinweiss, Victor Axelrod, Brian Wolfe & Elizabeth Pupo-Walker, to name a few.

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Personal Space - Long Live The New Flesh.

Personal Space are sharing "Long Live the New Flesh," the 2nd single from their new EP, Still Life. It follows "Enron's Trip."

The Cronenberg-inspired single, according to the band is, "basically about how technology transforms the body, how it reshapes our desires, how it can be used as a tool of control, or — maybe, potentially? — liberation...It maps on to a theme of technology in the song, specifically the cycling from enchantment to horror with social media that I think is a pretty common experience for all of us, especially during the 2020 lockdown when we were all stuck at home for so long."

Brooklyn/DC-based Personal Space are a conundrum: indie without a scene, prog disdaining complexity, a dad band without dads. Their 2021 LP, A Lifetime of Lesuire, found the band fretting over downward mobility, preoccupied with ethically sourcing their groceries, and hoping, against hope, that humanity can still find its way to a very chill, socialist utopia.

Still Life is the natural progression as Personal Space grapples with lost connections in a pandemic, tech-bro hustlers and finding the joy in our whirring 2022 realities. The band will celebrate the EP with a release show w/ P.E. and Gold Dime at the Sultan Room on June 5th.

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Blunt Chunks - Chelsea Rose - Mise en Scene

Blunt Chunks - BWFW.

The Toronto-based project, Blunt Chunks, helmed by Caitlin Woelfle-O'Brien (Jaunt) has just shared its "BWFW", the latest to be lifted from the forthcoming debut EP, Blunt Chunks which is set for release on May 6, 2022, via Telephone Explosion Records. Featuring Scott Hardware and members of The Weather Station, Luna Li, Broken Social Scene, Hooded Fang and more, the new EP, which was announced with "Natural Actors" (tipped at Brooklyn Vegan, KCRW, CBC Radio, Exclaim and more) last month, grapples with the many functions of heartache, using music as a mechanism to memorialize the past and the first step to breaking a cycle of self-neglect.

Produced by David Plowman (The OBGMs, Islands) and Nathan Burley (Young Clancy), the EP harnesses a weightless style of guitar-driven pop where Woelfle-O’Brien blends spacious psychedelic country with the unignorable churn of 90s alternative rock. The result is a record deeply uncomfortable with secrets. Woelfle-O’Brien opts to honour — with a Dolly Parton-esque devotion to clarity — her motivations for past entanglements, both devastating and exalting. And yet, the EP rings with quiet optimism, steadfast in its search for the kind of love that’s attentive, honest, and transformative.

This new single signposts a change in Caitlin's approach to music switching out some of the intimate soounds for something a little heavier and more adjacent to the alt-rock tones that occasionally litter the EP. Speaking about the new single, she says: "I wrote this one while in Berlin in 2019. I was visiting a lover and he really made me feel unwanted. I ended up leaving his place and staying at a friend's warehouse art studio where I was much freer to create. I had gone out to Berghain and ran into his friends and ended up joining them at a concert... and I was secretly doing drugs in the bathroom alone because I felt so out-of-place and insecure. That was a “teetering on the edge of mental-breakdown” kind of night."

"I wrote the song the next day in the warehouse with all that anger and sadness. Originally the song was much more grungy and Nirvana-esque on a de-tuned open tuning, but as we produced it we drew on the Avril Lavigne vibes. This was a really fun, epic recording process. It’s an obvious SMASH lol, so we were all really excited to get our pop-punk dreams fulfilled and just go all out. Vocals are from the studio demo because I happened to have a strong vocal day so we just kept those. I wrote the second verse on the spot the day we recorded the demo, as originally it was just one verse."

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Chelsea Rose - Down The Street.

Truth or Consequences, the debut album from L.A. artist Chelsea Rose, is a sophisticated pop record with a timeless sound touching on bossa nova, jazz, and 60s pop, with deep lyrical introspection reminiscent of the classic 70s singer-songwriter canon.

Rose spent her twenties fronting sunshine pop group Summer Twins with her sister Justine (Easy Love), releasing two full-length LPs and touring as far afield as Japan and Brazil before abruptly coming to an end when a pipe burst in her home studio the night before the band’s final show, flooding the room filled with instruments and other gear. But rather than giving up on music, Rose took this as a sign from the universe that it was time to move on.

“I feel like Summer Twins was a younger version of me,” she says. “This record is like an older version that has been through a little more, been through a lot of heartbreak and facing the reality of growing up, and living in LA and struggling with making a living being an artist, and keeping that dream alive.”

Rose has created a collection of songs that feel sunny and familiar, but still brim with a worldly, authentic sensibility. Throughout the pandemic, Rose learned a lesson in patience, taking the time to ensure that every track on Truth or Consequences was a true reflection of her artistic vision and the hard-won confidence that comes from committing fully to it.

The message of Truth or Consequences is right there in the title—take a chance and live your truth, or bear the consequences…and so it is on the buoyant “Let Go,” where Rose offers counsel to anyone struggling to believe in their own dreams: “Reach out your hand/ It’s yours to have.”

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Mise en Scene - Nicer.

Winnipeg’s Mise en Scene share “Nicer”, their first new music since their 2020 LP Winnipeg, California. The single perfectly captures the essence of Stef Blondal Johnson and Jodi Dunlop’s sound – sun-drenched alt-rock with an enviable chemistry and effortless hooks.

“This song was born out of turbulent times,” explains Stef. “It is about being stuck in a relationship low-point where you are always fighting, you can’t get on the same page or see eye to eye, and you just wish you could both be a little nicer to each other. You wish you could find that love again so that you can get past this hard time. “

“On a larger scale,” continues Stef, “I feel this song is relatable to today’s social climate. We are coming back into the world after years of being locked up and we are impatient with each other, we have been cruel to each other. We need to find the energy within our exhaustion to be nicer to each other, we all know we need it.”

“Nicer” was produced byJohn Paul Peters (Begonia, Comeback Kid) at his studio, Private Ear Recording. The accompanying lyric video features Jodi and Stef’s 3-month-old puppies. In the video the pair are seen learning how to play with each other without hurting each other on Lake Winnipeg as a metaphor for the song’s lead line “Could you be a little nicer to me”.

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ROWSIE - Temple Invisible

ROWSIE - Danish Queen.

ROWSIE [pronounced rosy] sound like a car crash between Lou Reed, The Replacements and Dinosaur Jr, while listening to the best indie rock mixtape you made when you were seventeen… or still are. It was an idea sowed a long time ago in New York - but got lost due to the need to pay rent. Now, the rent is paid and Rowsie has been conjured… it is not an idea, it is a fact. 

The band got started when lead singer/guitarist Rothenberg moved to London from New York. He went searching for live music in clubs like the ones on the Lower East Side and Brooklyn in NYC. Places that spawned The Hold Steady, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Strokes… bands who did what he always wanted to do; made rock music on their own terms without a care in the world for who they were compared to. Sharing roots in the NY underground scene… pure energy and honest expression through sound. 

Unfortunately, not a lot was left in London’s indie rock scene, legendary clubs were closing every week…so he decided to create something himself, on Denmark Street and on the Kings Road in Chelsea. Rowsie then emerged; an English baroque pop singer-songwriter, a Canadian filmmaking composer and one of London’s coolest teenage jazz drummers got together. They all were playing in different scenes, different genres, different genders, and different cultural generations. They made no sense together at all! But when they played together after a long COVID isolation, immediately a musical vein was struck that demanded to be explored, and they have done just that. 

In the summer of 2021 they started to play, write, and record. This April 2022 sees the release of their first (EP or two singles) on Ivy RecRods, a new singles label, recently launched to champion a freshly ripened indie scene tripping out onto the refurbished surrounds of London’s Tin Pan Alley. 

In May ROWSIE are travelling to Mexico with Freddie Cowan of the Vaccines to play together as he launches his first solo project. ROWSIE also play a monthly residency at Sixty Sixty Sounds on Denmark Street as well as gigging in and around the capital. International tour for 2022 has dates already in the bag for Mexico, Canada, US and Japan. ROWSIE is hitting the road to work… and in autumn a debut album will be released, plus many more singles from some exceptional talent finding their way onto Ivy RecRods.

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Photo - Radu Aldea

Temple Invisible - Over My Feet.

Temple Invisible have unveiled their arresting new single “Over My Feet”, taken from new ‘Chiasm’ EP coming next month. Fusing chiffon vocals with impending electronic beats, “Over My Feet” comes as the third single plucked from Temple Invisible’s forthcoming ‘Chiasm’ EP, and boasts the breadth of the genre-defying duo.

Showcasing the two-piece’s knack for creating evocative electronic-tinged tracks that are as dark as they are diaphanous, “Over My Feet” feels eerie and overcast yet optimistic and inviting all at once.

Speaking of the inspiration behind the track, vocalist Irina Bucescu explains: “”Over My Feet” is like a walk in the forest. It draws its roots from the deep and rich life of the underground — the mycelium. As you progress deeper into the forest, you connect with the life force, inside out, and blend the deeper and more disturbing truths into a multi-layered view of reality. The metamorphosis of death can be a beautiful thing when you walk in the forest.”

With its opening moments unfolding like a silken ballad — gauzy vocals and gentle key taps wind themselves around one another with cushiony ease — the docile ambience is soon underpinned by swirling electro rhythms that steadily threaten to erupt, before overflowing into a meticulous amalgam of rippling instrumentals.

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Mear - Tom Jenkins - Charm Of Finches - Charlotte Rose Benjamin

Photo - Jen Squires

Mear - I'll Love You.

Mear is an indie pop collaboration between singer-songwriter Frances Miller and electronic composer Greg Harrison. Together, their music combines catchy melodies and poignant lyrics with their shared love of experimental music. Their  debut LP Soft Chains was released on Friday. 

"I'll Love You," tells a make-believe story about a breakup during the apocalypse. The song itself is meant to take on a cinematic feel. Miller was inspired by blockbusters like Armageddon and Titanic. The idea of leaving someone you love behind, the idea of heroes, and the sacrifice that people make for others left a weirdly profound impact on her.

We wanted this song to take listeners on an emotional journey. The song has three distinct sections which could be best interpreted as Anticipation, Storm/Conflict, Loss/ Mourning. We also wanted to leave space for the music to tell a story when the lyrics are absent, which allowed us to emphasize the moods of these sections. – Greg Harrison

Soft Chains was self-produced and recorded in Harrison's home studio in Toronto and was a result of the band being able to experiment and explore their sound over the years. There is a prominent theme of personal struggle and growth with mental health. Mear's shared experiences allowed them to pour everything they had to offer into these songs.

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Tom Jenkins - Magic Mushroom Island.

Following his recent signing to Xtra Mile Recordings, ex-Straight Lines frontman Tom Jenkins has unveiled an anthemic new single that veers towards fresh sonic territory. Straying slightly from his acoustic folk-tinged roots, “Magic Mushroom Island” is an exhilarating new cut with larger-than-life instrumentals and an exultant earworm chorus. Building to an electric crescendo with roiling riffs and a colossal guitar breakdown that nods to the legendary works of Led Zeppelin, Jenkins is also joined at the track’s climax by esteemed Motorhead guitarist Phil Campbell.

Where previous single “Back Roads” was a softly simmering country-tinged track that paid homage to Jenkins’ affinity for agriculture, “Magic Mushroom Island” bubbles over with blistering vocals and rip-roaring riffs. Buoyant and broiling in equal measure, the track’s influences are as multifarious as its sound, with everything from cult Leonardo DiCaprio film ‘The Beach’ to hallucinogen-hungry university students and iconic rock artists of old cited as influences.

Speaking on the story behind the single, Tom explains: “When writing the new album I wanted to slightly break the singer-songwriter mould and go against the indie-folk sound of my first album. “Magic Mushroom Island” draws influences from some of my favourite rock bands, such as Fugazi, Silverchair and Manic Street Preachers.

Lyrically, the song is a celebration of strangers in the depth of lockdown. I had not left my farm in the hills of the South Wales Valleys or seen a soul for weeks, until a number of random people started showing up and scouring the fields. Apparently word was getting around a local uni that our fields were rich in Magic Mushrooms and it was quite the hot spot. It reminded me of the film ‘The Beach’ which influenced the title. This random occurrence did bring much joy and laughter with strangers to a somewhat lonely time.”

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Charm Of Finches - River.

Ahead of their first-ever UK headline tour - Charm Of Finches - are releasing a spine-tingling rendition of Joni Mitchell’s classic single: “River”. Nodding to one of the natural world’s most beautiful and life-nurturing features, the release of “River” coincided with this year’s Earth Day.

Adorned with the hymnal vocal harmonies and spacious arrangements that define the duo’s trademark sound, Charm of Finches conjure a breathtaking version that showcases the band’s singular talents, while also paying fitting homage to one of the all time songwriting greats.

Initially recorded as an exclusive for their Patrons last year, the track is now being made available as part of an upcoming acoustic EP entitled ‘Bluest Colour’, which will feature a mixture of covers and alternative versions of previously released tracks. Full release details will be revealed in due course. 

Speaking about the choice of cover, Mabel and Ivy Windred-Wornes say: “We’ve been listening to a lot of the artists from Laurel Canyon and that era for a secret project we are working on. We’ve loved diving into the lyricism of Joni Mitchell, and felt an immediate affinity with the lyrics “I wish I had a river so long, I would teach my feet to fly” - we have had itchy feet to travel with our music since forever, and now, with our UK/Europe tour finally upon us, we get to fly… Our song “Canyon” carries the same longing to leap into the unknown, to get going on an adventure. ”

 

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Charlotte Rose Benjamin - Louis.

Brooklyn-based artist Charlotte Rose Benjamin self-released her debut album Dreamtina. Taking influence from the likes of Liz Phair, Sheryl Crow and Courtney Barnett, Benjamin pairs roaring guitars with blunt and honest lyrics about love and heartache and the blurred line in between. Benjamin has also released a music video for her single “Louis.”

“My straight male friend had this running joke where he would refer to hot neighborhood girls as ‘Tina’s,’” says Benjamin, explaining the inspiration behind the album’s title. “‘Coffeeshop-Tina’ was the cute girl who worked at the coffee shop, a  girl literally riding by on a bike was ‘BLT (Bike Lane Tina).’ ‘Dream-Tina’ obviously meant dream girl,'' she continues. “The ‘Dreamtina’ concept is kind of a study on wanting  to be desirable. I’ve never felt like the cool girl at the party and as far as I’m concerned, romantic love is the most important and exciting thing in the entire  world. I still feel like a teenager in that way.”

For her debut album, Benjamin chose to go without a label, which, she says, “is an amazing amount of work and money, but I made absolutely no compromises and I’m  prouder of it than anything I’ve ever done before.” Self produced alongside her bandmates, Nardo Ochoa, Matti Dunietz and Zoe Zeeman, the album was funded by Benjamin’s day-job working as a model in New York. Under the Radar broke the news of the album in February, premiering the pyromaniac-puppet-show video for her song “Satisfied,” calling the song “an irresistible power pop hook, paired with instantly quotable lyrics.” 

Vanyaland reviewed her single “Slot Machine,” simply calling it “a catchy ass song.” The album’s singles have received praise from Clout Magazine, God Is In The TV, We All Want Someone to Shout For and more. Early singles “deep cut” and “Cumbie’s Parking Lot” were released last year and spent more than 10 weeks featured on Spotify’s Fresh Finds: Indie playlist. Most recently, Benjamin played alongside Japanese Breakfast and Weyes Blood as part of The Unfinished Fest at SXSW.

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Tamar Berk - John Salaway feat. Chelsea Gilliland - Terry Emm

Tamar Berk - June Lake.

The indie pop singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Tamar Berk has released the music video for “June Lake” the focus track from upcoming full length album Start At The End, which was just released yesterday. Following the release of her acclaimed debut solo album The Restless Dreams Of Youth, which was recently nominated for Best Pop Album and Album of the Year 2021 at the San Diego Music Awards, this new album was written and recorded during the pandemic lockdown and in the wake of the death of Tamar’s father, but Start At The End is not as morose or downtrodden as that subject matter would imply, as Tamar has found a way to create liberating, emotionally captivating indie pop / rock catharsis from personal tragedy.

Unlike previous singles from the album “Tragic Endings” and “your permission” (the latter of which was featured on NPR’s new music friday playlist), “June Lake'' is one of the softer and more introspective tracks on the album, and indie folk ballad that shows off the range of styles Tamar is able to incorporate into this new album. Discussing her inspiration behind this song, Tamar writes “‘June Lake’ is track 5 off of my new album “Start at the End.” 

It’s a song about my deep desire to escape to an ever-elusive destination that I always talk about but never get around to. Though June Lake is a real place, I’ve never actually been there...and so in my mind, it’s become a symbolize for a place that might exist or only exists in my mind…it’s about the confusion of wanting to move forward but also go back, and actually feeling stuck and unsure of which step to take. My dad passed away last June and so in many ways…’June' is always going to have a significance for me.”

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John Salaway - Toxic Lovesick feat. Chelsea Gilliland.

Since moving to Nashville in the early 2000s, John Salaway has become one of the city's most accomplished musicians, holding down a weekly residency at BB King's Blues Club while also playing shows with Peter Frampton, Ben Folds, Anderson East, Zach Williams, and Denny Laine from the Moody Blues and Paul McCartney's Wings. 

He's a multi-instrumentalist who can easily switch between drums, guitar, and piano. With 2021's Salvation, he was able to show the full range of his abilities, recording the album with members of the Foo Fighters, Cage the Elephant, Smashing Pumpkins, and Peter Frampton's Band.

His forthcoming single, "Toxic Lovesick," featuring Chelsea Gilliland of Nashville rock band CHLSY, has a unique origin story. "CHLSY and I were pitted against each other in the Lightning 100 Music City Mayhem competition. We both admired the other's song submitted to the competition," explains Salaway. "I ended up winning the round, but we decided to get together and collaborate and this song is the result. Chelsea made a post on Instagram about noticing a pattern of being attracted to toxic relationships so when we got together to co-write, I thought that should be what we wrote about."

Along with playing all of the instruments on the track, Salaway produced "Toxic Lovesick" at his Murfreesboro, TN studio Music First Productions.

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Terry Emm - Wish You Were here.

‘Wish You Were Here’, the new single from Hertfordshire singer-songwriter Terry Emm is both a trip down memory lane and the start of a new era for the artist.

His first release since 2018’s ‘Ornate’ EP, the poignant single sees Emm revisit a song from his second album from over ten years ago, with new collaborator Lukas Drinkwater (Emily Barker, Annie Howie, Jacob & Drinkwater) on production duties and adding new instruments. The track is now taken in a stunning new direction with a carefully crafted velveteen 70s vintage sound that tugs on the heart strings with its wide-eyed sentiments of love and loss.

“The song is a reworking of a track called ‘Here’ from my 2012 ‘Petals Fallen Off The Sun’ album”, says Emm. “That album was my ‘difficult second album’ in many ways and I always felt like ‘Here’ was one of my best songs that hadn’t quite been realized yet and one day I’d revisit it. The idea stuck with me for some time, niggling away, so I felt like it must be done. So now, in a way to introduce myself back into the world of music, I thought why not touch on the past but also bring things up to date at the same time.”

Like all of his previous works, the single draws lyrically on Emm’s unique take on the world and again exhibits his non-routine way of structuring and composing songs. Now wrapped in a classic Americana singer-songwriter coat, with Lukas Drinkwater’s superb Fender Rhodes & double bass flourishes, ‘Wish You Were Here’ has been enriched.

“Every recording is subjective and captures a creative moment in time as it is and that’s what can make re-visiting songs years later in a new production setting really fun. When demoing material, I always end up with so many versions of songs and you almost want to release all of them with all their variations.” Emm explains. “Lately, I have also been relating to this particular song’s themes again and it has been cathartic to open up to it again. It felt like the song maybe had more to say or do somehow in the world at this time”, he adds.

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