Brendan & the Strangest Ways make their second appearance here in less than a month with 'We Can Beat Mercury' another fabulous country rocker. === The Hideaways power up with 'Luminescence' a dominant rocker where even the reprises throb with angst and power. === We have already featured the first two singles and now Clem Snide returns with the third entitled 'Some Ghost' preety much ensuring the forthcoming album 'Forever Just Beyond' is a must hear. === Finally today we have Nicole Atkins and 'Domino' a fabulous modern pop song with an addictive groove throughout.
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NYC's rock & roll outfit The Electric Mess serve up a vibey, dark psych-pop single and accompanying music video titled "Last Call". A haunting chorus and memorable break combine for an immersive tune. It comes off their upcoming fifth full-length The Electric Mess V (Soundflat Records) due out April 17th.
"Last Call" opens with a bright guitar lick, quickly moving into an addictively catchy bass groove. Vocalist/keyboardist Oweinama Biu wastes no time jumping into a lyrical tale - pulling listeners ever deeper. "Last Call is dark and poppy, and gets great reactions at our shows," shared the band, making it a natural single ahead of their upcoming release.
Guitarist Dan Crow wrote the song a number of years ago, "about some things that went down in the house I lived in my senior year at college." The lyrics reflect on the outcomes and consequences of choices, lost friends, and what's left at the end of the day, asking "what are you going to do now?". The song came together with heavy sonic inspiration from The 13th Floor Elevators.
The accompanying video was inspired from 80's style MTV music videos, cutting between story-line shots and the band's performance. The band utilized local spots throughout New York City for a DIY approach to further bring the track to life, letting listeners still take their own interpretation
The Electric Mess defy a singular genre, blending elements of 60's garage, 70's punk, psychedelic pop, new wave, and high energy rock and roll into all of their performances. Lead vocals are shared between Biu and front-woman/rhythm guitarist Esther Crow, providing fantastically unique powerhouse of vocal teamwork. The band has a signature sound, yet always keeps listeners on their toes for what's to come.
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Channelling the shifting perspectives we encounter over periods of change, ‘Somewhere Better’ is the latest scratchy, sunny indie-rock gem from Brighton quartet Beachtape. It’s being used to announce a new EP, ‘Bigger Picture’, out via CRC Records on April 10th, ahead of which they’ll be heading out to Austin to perform at SXSW.
The four-piece occupy a similar space to Happyness or Willie J Healey in recourse to the stilted, slacker-Americana of Pavement, Wilco and Dinosaur Jr, with a distinct beach-pop sheen adopted from their Brighton base. Their songs cover the fuzz of early-20s anxiety, a transitional phase of life with peaks and troughs dictated by paradoxical moments of drive and listlessness.
The gradual drift into changing circumstances, and the way this offers pause for thought, is the theme in the cross-hairs specifically on ‘Somewhere Better’:
“It’s about change. The inevitable changes in our future, and reflecting on changes from our past. The idea of something feeling so significant in the moment, but becoming so insignificant over time and vice versa. Our lives in and outside of the band have changed a lot over the last year and we’re all in completely different places to what we may have imagined a year ago.”
Whilst the band’s usual laidback style remains, there’s an added sense of subtle urgency, born out of its last-minute addition to the EP: “We wrote this song the day before we got in the studio and had to get a last minute practice the night before to figure out the parts. It was fresh and unprepared, and was the moment we found the final puzzle piece to this EP.”
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"In the City" is the first single taken from Yusuf Sahilli’s new album Let’s Do That due out June 5th, 2020. The single comments on consumption in modern society and how difficult it is to break the cycle. Russian animator Gosha Loshadkin brings the story to life by using Icarus from Greek mythology as he battles to make a healthy, well-balanced living - but will he be able to resist the temptations of modern life?
Let's Do That is completed by a video trilogy all animated by Gosha, starting with "Icarus Falling" (21 June 2019) followed by "In the City" (6 March 2020) and finishing with "You're It" (5 June 2020).
“It makes fun of music videos where artists try to show off their wealth with scenes like women in a pool being showered with money,” says Yusuf on the video for "In The City". “The song criticises the bank system that offers loans to people but also shows a society in a hamster wheel working from 9-5, never able to pay off their interest rates. We never see the horizon or the big picture in the city. Everything's fast and volatile. Too much noise. With light pollution now we can’t see the stars anymore. For centuries the saying "looking at the stars" was standing for hope. Especially in Berlin, there are so many contrasts. People try to live healthier lives, there are so many yoga clubs opening up, sometimes several in the same street. At the same time we're seeing more and more pubs and fast food outlets. We live healthily and then we reward ourselves with junk food, cigarettes and alcohol.“
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Brendan & the Strangest Ways announces the release of the “We Can Beat Mercury” video directed by Omeri Monroe (Tuneworks Media). Through a talent-show-gone-wrong, the video takes on the satirical struggle of an independent musician trying to find an audience. The single is off the album due out later this year.
As any talent show observer knows, it’s often spectacle that grabs attention above everything else. While Brendan Shea earnestly sings his song of hope and optimism, it’s the spectacle surrounding him that gets the judges nodding their head in approval. Nothing is too over the top: ballet and sequined dancers, kickboxers, hoop jugglers all join the mix.
Shea says, “The video pokes fun at the song’s message. ‘We Can Beat Mercury” was intended to be hopeful, optimistic and earnest.’ The video allowed an opportunity to reinterpret those ideas and tell a story where the protagonist, while perseverent, never gets to overcome his obstacles.”
About Brendan & the Strangest Ways - Brendan Shea adopted the moniker Brendan & the Strangest Ways to create music for the restless spirit. Heartfelt reflections comprise the songs: loves and losses experienced over countless miles traveled in search of something that always felt just a little out of reach. Early in 2019, Brendan and the Strangest Ways broke ground on the sophomore album Are We Sure The Dawn Is Coming? at County Q in Nashville. In October 2019, Brendan connected with veterans of Buffalo’s alternative country scene and former members of the band Bareback Jack: Tommy Bijak (electric guitar), Pete Wilson (drums), Paul Belardi (bass) and Kenny Blesy (steel guitar) to reform the Strangest Ways. The members backing Shea on Brendan & the Strangest Ways have done stints in Nashville recording and playing live. In their previous band, they opened for Marty Stuart and Charlie Daniels.
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A combination of raging guitars and driving rhythms alongside dark electronic and subtle trip-hop influences … The Hideaways return with new single ‘Luminescence’. Produced by Matt Glasbey (Editors, Marmozets).
"I reckon Luminescence is a spot on example of what we're about musically" says frontman Danny Pugh. "When we're writing we always try to stick a few left turns in tunes that might catch people off guard a bit. That's what we wanted to get from mixing the psychedelic, eerie choruses with all the snarl and noise in the verses. Then for the outro we just wanted something massive that'd give everyone a proper melodic smack in the face".
The Hideaways also continue to build their reputation as a ferocious live act, having supported established names like Shaun Ryder and Little Comets alongside sharing stages with such up and coming bands as Fangclub, BERRIES and Football FC.
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Clem Snide, the moniker of Eef Barzelay, shares the new single "Some Ghost" from his first album in five years, Forever Just Beyond, out on March 27 via Ramseur Records/Thirty Tigers. Scott Avett, who produced the record, co-wrote and provided harmonies on the new single as well. "I have not had much luck over the years in my (few) attempts at co-writing," states Barzelay. "But with this one Avett and I just vibed hard and it came together as quick as you please! We both share a deep respect for the unknowing part of the process. It all starts in the dark but then the door was unlocked all along."
"Some Ghost" is the third single from Forever Just Beyond. The second single "Don't Bring No Ladder" was spotlighted by Nashville's Lightning 100 while the first single "Roger Ebert" was described by Rolling Stone as "a pretty, probing ballad that contemplates the mysteries of life...Clem Snide uses Ebert’s epiphany to make something that is wildly abstract, both relatable and comforting”.
Roger Ebert's wife Chaz even heard the song and wrote on RogerEbert.com thanking Eef for the song about her husband, "I was astonished and moved when I listened to 'Roger Ebert,' the new song inspired by words of my late husband, which serves as the lead track on Forever Just Beyond. If Roger's words in any way served as an inspiration to Clem Snide to not give up, it makes my heart overflow with joy. And Clem Snide (Eef Barzelay), I bet Roger appreciates it too."
The road to Forever Just Beyond, Barzelay’s stunning new album under the Clem Snide moniker, was an unlikely one, to say the least. “About ten years ago, everything just seemed to fall apart,” he explains. “The band bottomed out, my marriage was crumbling, I lost my house, and I had to declare bankruptcy. That started this process of ego death for me, where I realized the only way to survive would be to transcend myself and to try to find some kind of deeper, spiritual relationship with life and with being. Once I committed myself to that, miraculous things started to happen.”
Some miracles were financial (a superfan in Spain, for instance, sent Barzelay an unsolicited thank-you-for-the-music donation that covered the exact amount he desperately owed his bankruptcy lawyer); other miracles were more intangible. Roughly four or five years ago, as Barzelay struggled with how and if to carry on, a fan sent him a video of Scott Avett singing a Clem Snide song in front of a massive audience. Shortly after that, another fan sent an interview in which Avett raved about Clem Snide’s music. It seemed like a sign from the universe. “I had just hit this low point where I realized I couldn’t do it alone anymore,” says Barzelay. “I passed along a little message and a new song I wrote to The Avett Brothers’ manager, and Scott wrote me right back to say what a fan he was.”
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During the writing of her upcoming album 'Italian Ice', Nicole Atkins experienced a freak sinkhole accident turned life-altering revelation that led her to a new mantra: “Don’t be a bystander. Take action. Speak up. Make something. Live.” To this effect, the Jersey Shore-bred musician had a bold idea she’d typically brush off as unattainable: fuse the funky strut of her beloved French Electro music with the Italian Ice’s analog-focused Boardwalk Soul. And do it in Muscle Shoals, AL.
Atkins channels this fresh sound and attitude into 'Domino', a genre-pushing mission statement for living fully in trouble times. Citing additional inspirations like Prince and 'Miss You' by The Rolling Stones, Atkins delivers a groove-heavy pop gem with the utmost swagger: “I’m not gonna play / Safe and sound / When the world comes tumblin’, tumblin’ down.” In that respect, 'Domino' is not only the radio single off 'Italian Ice', but the vehicle for its central themes.
Like each of the eleven tracks on Italian Ice, 'Domino' was recorded at the hallowed Muscle Shoals Sound Studio with a group of her “best musical friends” – who just happen to be Jim Sclavunos and David “Moose” Sherman of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Dap-Kings’ Binky Griptite, and drummer McKenzie Smith (St. Vincent, Midlake) – along with Spooner Oldham and David Hood of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Co-produced by Nicole and Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes), Italian Ice also features special guests Britt Daniel, Seth Avett, John Paul White and Erin Rae, and songs co-written with Daniel, Hamilton Leithauser and Carl Broemel.
Nicole Atkins is a songwriter and performer with a fearless and frank style. Fans of Atkins’ previous release Goodnight Rhonda Lee include Rolling Stone (which before named her a “Top 10 Artist to Watch”), Uncut, Mojo, NPR, and American Songwriter. In addition to writing, recording, and playing music, the Nashville-by-way-of-Asbury Park musician is an art school graduate who specialized in wildlife illustration and is an active painter. Nicole has also shared her original artwork with fans through her newly-launched Patreon page, Natkins Funhouse. Fans who join will have access to items from Nicole including hand-designed monthly calendars and seasonal 8x10 art prints - as well as exclusive content like unreleased videos, demos and brand new covers. Step inside the Natkins Funhouse on Patreon here: www.patreon.com/natkinsfunhouse
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