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Michael Nau and the Mighty Thread - Dot Dash - Joey Sweeney & The Neon Grease

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Michael Nau and the Mighty Thread - When. Background - Michael Nau will release his new, full band album ‘Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread’ through Full Time Hobby on 3rd August. ‘Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread’ is the follow-up to last year’s critically acclaimed album ‘Some Twist’ and its extension ‘The Load’ EP. Following the release of singles 'Less Than Positive', 'Funny In Real Life'  and 'You You', the band have now shared a video for album track 'When'. “The video is just a bunch of old (public-domain) home movie footage that I liked and I’ve been trying to assemble in different ways,” says The Mighty Thread drummer and 'When' video creator Graeme Gibson. “Good people moments. I found that editing visuals is a bit different than audio so I enlisted the help of an experienced documentary editor Emilee Booher to put the footage to good use.” “There was a musical language that we created; something without a guiding pattern that

Alex Arpino - Johnny Payne

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Alex Arpino - I Remember You (Dancing with the Devil). Background - Alex Arpino has had a rich history in Perth music, with a decade fronting indie pop purveyors The Autumn Isles behind him, he has now set out on a solo escapade by releasing his debut self-tilted record - also to receive a hometown launch this September 1. Following on from first taster Space Ghost (In a Puppet), current single I Remember You (Dancing with the Devil) heralds an open playing field and showcases not only his songwriter prowess, but Arpino's skills as a producer. Written and recorded in his studio, Alex Arpino handles all instrumental and vocal duties with help from Malcolm Clark (The Sleepy Jackson) on drums and has pieced together an infectious set of songs balancing the line between new wave and psych pop. A creative force, Alex Arpino has been described as a renaissance man, whether it’s producing large scale urban art murals and delicate portrait work or constructing records, his depth of art

Sophie Morgan - Whyte Horses - Beck Pete

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Sophie Morgan - Sons & Daughters. Background - Twenty one-year-old singer-songwriter Sophie Morgan has announced her second EP Sons & Daughters will be released on 21st September, with the lead title track Sons & Daughters, out now. Born in Liverpool and raised in Rainhill and Widnes, Sophie began playing piano aged 6 and wrote her first songs aged 9. Brought up on an early musical education of Nick Drake and Van Morrison, and later introduced to Joni Mitchell and Carole King, Sophie released her first singles Marionette and Quietly in 2016. She followed these with the release of her debut EP Annie and lead single Hey Annie last year, alongside a UK and European tour with The Waterboys, whose track The Whole Of The Moon features on the Annie EP. Sons & Daughters was written in the same afternoon as previous single Hey Annie, with The Verve’s Simon Jones and Davide Rossi (Goldfrapp, Coldplay, The Verve). It is an emotive folk song which fully showcases Sophie’s warm

Fortuna POP! - Colour Film (featuring Caroline Brooks of Good Lovelies)

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Fortuna POP! - You Can Hide Your Love Forever. Background - Indiepop institution Fortuna POP! quit the scene last year amid much gnashing of teeth from discerning music fans, going out in a blaze of glory with five days of sold out London shows by artists spanning their twenty year tenure, before label owner Sean Price fled Brexit Britain for a new life in Tokyo, Japan. That would have been it for Fortuna POP!, were it not for the label’s Jukebox 45s Singles Club. With one final single still owed to subscribers, Price saw the opportunity to do something special for what would be the very last release on the label. Taking one of the label’s best-loved releases, Comet Gain’s classic 2001 single “You Can Hide Your Love Forever”, as his starting point, contributions were solicited from Fortuna POP! bands past and present for a Band Aid-style cover version. Over twenty bands contributed, with the music recorded by a crack band featuring Amos Memon of Fanfarlo (drums), Emma Kupa of Mamm

Grace Inspace - The Brother Brothers - Value Void

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Grace Inspace - Uncertain, CA. Background - English-American musician Grace Inspace has announced new single Uncertain, CA, which follows recent releases Watersource and Tame Teens, and is out now through AWAL. Continuing her unique “Protest Pop” sound, Uncertain, CA is as fictional as it is true to life and addresses the uncertainty of living in America. Produced by David Peters and featuring Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins, Grace takes things down a notch on Uncertain, CA, letting her vocals do the talking with a relaxed melody mixed with gentle steel drums. Grace says; “Uncertain, CA - it’s a make-believe town, a microcosm of the state. I’m wandering through the town, the classic western stranger, the outsider, witness to this place’s constituencies and landscapes and seeing it is a land of topographical and cultural extremes - politically divided, deserted, overcrowded, majestically beautiful, scary, Paleolithic, ultra-modern. In California we are comfortable with the

Ace of Wands - Jan Mittendorp

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Ace of Wands - 10,000 Feet. Background - Drawing on a background of rock and roll, classical violin training and folk music, we expand our songwriting to incorporate facets of cinematic soundscapes, pop melodies and interlocking guitars and vocals. Our debut single, “Grown From Good,” included a download code card embedded with wildflower seeds and accompanied by a glass jar of full of soil. The wildflower download cards encouraged our audience to engage with their environment and communities while consuming music. “10,000 Feet,” our new single and video, is being released today as a digital download, and is accompanied by an 8″ balsa wood glider. We are particularly interested in the idea of play as a philosophy by which to engage our music and our community. Facilitating an audience’s ability to move beyond the passive act of listening to the music is a central component of everything that we create together. Filmed and directed by Samuel Scott, “10,000 Feet” is the second insta

Armies - Mothers

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Armies - Young Criminals. Background - There's no voice quite like Dave Gutter's, a weathered coffee-and-cigarettes growl that can turn vulnerable to vicious and crackles like a vintage Fender amp when he screams.  That voice is the result of the thousands of shows over the last 20 years fronting Rustic Overtones, the funky, psychedelic Maine rock institution that, to a certain crowd, are as synonymous with the state as Moxie soda and going "upta camp." Gutter pays the bills as a songwriter; he's had tracks on recent albums by Aaron Neville, Tedeschi Trucks Band and in the Netflix show Narcos. His latest project, Armies, started as one of those gigs when he was hired to write a series of duets that were to be used in commercials and films.  The project fell apart, so Gutter took his poppiest songs ever into darker directions. He teamed up with friend Anna Lombard, whose understated, ethereal vocals defined records by folk group Gypsy Tailwind. WEBSITE .

Brooks Thomas - Sarah Nixey

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Brooks Thomas - Good Sleep. Background -  Brooks Thomas are an experimental electro-pop group based in the Bronx. Fusing elements of R&B with classic soul and electro-pop, Brooks Thomas is sharing their lead single “Good Sleep”, the first taste of their new album Poison. The brainchild of Danny McDonald, Brooks Thomas concocts unconventional electronic R&B that's inspired by classic soul and artists like Dirty Projectors and Miguel - disparate influences that share a common thread: intensity of feeling. Exploring new ways to reach those emotional heights, Danny began programming beats, pushing Brooks Thomas's bassist Rocky Russo towards experimenting with pedals to change the textures, and having their dual singers Colleen Cadogan and Arianne Lombardi create three-part harmonies that deviate from the standard 1-3-5. What they recorded at home became a script for their live performances, where fresh colors and depths would be discovered as they translated the digita

Polyplastic - Night Flight

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Polyplastic - My Prescription. Background - LA-based, post-punk band Polyplastic share their music video for "My Prescription" off their just released EP, Not No. Polyplastic is the project of Los Angeles natives Charlie Ellis and Emily Ibarra. Inspired by his time as a welder in North Philadelphia, Ellis’s songwriting is influenced by industrial and post-punk genres, marrying lyrical melodies with angular guitar lines and a driving rhythm section. With a few bare-bones demos, the band started playing shows in LA and touring the US, supporting acts such as Wolf Alice, Ryley Walker, Draemings, and Tennis System. Polyplastic have released a few one off singles over the past few months, leading up to the release of their EP, Not No, due out June 29th. The band will be touring nationally, in support of the EP. TWITTER . Earlier this month we shared 'Next Slide' by Polyplastic and commented that - "The band develop intriguing post punk orientated music where th

We Were Promised Jetpacks - Haiku Salut - Basement Revolver

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We Were Promised Jetpacks - Hanging In. Background - Scottish rock mainstays We Were Promised Jetpacks have shared emotionally wrought new single ‘Hanging In’ and announced a brand new album, their first in four years, to be released on 14th September via Big Scary Monsters. The band will also embark upon an enormous tour in the UK, EU and US throughout September, October and November. The More I Sleep The Less I Dream marks a new chapter in We Were Promised Jetpacks’ career. It’s about going back to the heart of who they are, a high school band that never stopped. It’s about four people who have grown up together, making a conscious choice to keep writing music and seeing where that takes them. “The album is so much about us going back to our basics and relying on our instincts.” Mike says. “There’s a range of songs that span everything we do as a band, and we’re the connection between them. It feels like this album is us.” The musicians connected with producer Jonathan Low (The

Dyan - Guerilla Toss - Lewisburg

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Dyan - Absence. Background - "Absence is about leaving, but not before inquiring about doubt." the band explain. "It could be about being in love with a person whose loyalty is to someone or something else, realizing it, and then you move on. Or holding on to what you want to hold on to, even if it's painful."  Minimal, inventive, and introspective, Dyan’s music offers more than you’d typically expect from the now-common guitar/synths/drums trio - which makes sense, as the trio is about as uncommon as you’ll find. Dyan was started by Alexis Marsh (singer/guitarist/bassist) and Sam Jones (guitarist/synths), a film scoring duo who fell in love and got married...and then, perhaps unexpectedly, got divorced. The growing and healing from those divides fueled the songs on what became the group’s debut album, Looking For Knives, which the two continued to create despite the fraught emotional territory. But the real twist was the addition of the third member: Dan D

Treetop Flyers - Super Paradise - Andy Pratt - Delta Will

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Treetop Flyers - Sweet Greens & Blues. Background - "Sweet Greens and Blues" is the new single by Treetop Flyers, which is taken from their forthcoming eponymous third album, due out on 24 August via Loose. The video, directed by long-time collaborator Sam Ford, was shared by Folk Radio, who said;“The video has that vintage look and feel and it perfectly encapsulates that glorious 60s tinged West Coast Americana with a British twist. With warm, rich harmonies, and a summery groove, the song oozes soulfulness." Originally formed by Reid Morrison, Laurie Sherman and Sam Beer, in recent years Treetop Flyers have settled in to a refreshed band line-up. “Sweet Greens & Blues” was initially recorded for their previous album Palamino, but it never really quite came together until new drummer Rupert Shreeve came on board and they were able to capture the feel of the song that they had been searching for. On the new record they are also joined by saxophonist Geoff Th