Josienne Clarke - Anna Sun - The Delines - The Wild West - Amy Jay

Josienne Clarke - Driving at Night.

When award-winning singer, songwriter and producer Josienne Clarke was performing at a show prior to lockdown, a moment meeting a fan afterwards remained fixed in her memory. “There was this one woman who came up to me at the merch table in tears. She was a fan pleading with me to write something in the style of how I write, but more positive,” Clarke recalls, saying that while the fan had been visibly touched by her emotive, melancholic songs, she was craving something more joyous. The fan told Clarke she was going through her own difficult time. “She wanted something with hope, something with a bit of light in it,” Clarke recalls.

This is where Clarke’s new EP, I Promised You Light was born. After the release of her critically acclaimed album A Small Unknowable Thing earlier this year (which earned four-star reviews from the likes of The Financial Times and MOJO), Clarke set about her next project with the words of her fan front-and-centre. “It stayed with me,” Clarke says of her message. “It made me really think: do I need to try and frame things more positively? Maybe I haven’t been able to in the past because I’m still working through things – my work is very autobiographical and cathartic – but I’m only now just finding more positive threads through new experiences and what I’ve learned over this last year.”

Clarke has certainly worked through a lot. Rejecting the male-dominated system, in 2020 Clarke ripped everything up and started again. She went solo and for the first time she was in complete control of everything from her songwriting to arranging and production – and she even released on her own label, Corduroy Punk. The result, after years of being told women couldn’t do all those things in a patriarchal industry, was an album variously described as “the sound of an artist in full bloom”, “a remarkable, impeccable collection” and “her finest work to date.” The experience gave her confidence to try a new direction on her latest EP.

Lead single, ‘Driving At Night’, saw Clarke going directly back to a time she lost her own way. “It’s essentially a song about escaping,” Clarke says, explaining it was about driving away from the last ever gig she performed as part of a duo at the interval. “I literally drove for hours across Europe. I wanted as much physical space between me and my previous career as possible at that point. The feeling of release of having finished that final gig was huge, as was the exciting air of possibility that came about having left behind a thing that was so difficult for me for a long time. It was like a literal lift: I felt everything would suddenly be easier now.” The song’s message, she says, is simple: “it’s – just leave,” she laughs. “It’s alright to leave because all this other great stuff awaits you if you just walk away.”

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Anna Sun - What A Shame.

(New York, NY) On the new single, “What A Shame,” Anna Sun delves into a deeply personal story, capturing the trauma of loss through a filter of enthralling vocals and explosive energy. The song is the latest single from the indie-pop-rock trio’s upcoming self-titled debut EP, due out January 14, 2022. 

“What A Shame” was written as a catharsis for lead singer Samantha Aneson as she was losing her mother to dementia. “I’ve grown to love the dichotomy of pain and lightness in art. How one can make the other so much more pronounced,” Aneson reflects. “I was in a place (am forever in a place) of begrudgingly agreeing to this reality that’s been forced upon me. Having to move forward without railing against existence for doing something that once seemed so unimaginable. Having to find light in my nightmare.”

As evidenced in this single, the core of Anna Sun’s appeal lies in Aneson’s diary-like songwriting. Drawing on her background in theatre, her songs dig much deeper into relationship dynamics than the average pop song, all while remaining exceptionally catchy.

Across its six tracks, the Anna Sun EP manages to capture the triumphs and anxieties of being alive in such a strange time. Sometimes thought-provoking, sometimes heartbreaking, these songs always seem to find an underlying sense of optimism, a reflection of their writer’s personality.

Originally Aneson’s bedroom project, Anna Sun has since grown into a collaborative trio including drummer Nikola Balac and bassist Andrew “Shwogs” Shewaga, who previously played alongside Aneson in the folk-rock band, Satin Nickel. When that group disbanded in 2020, Aneson began adding original indie-pop-rock songs to her repertoire and recruited her former bandmates to bring them to life, marrying classic pop aesthetics with adventurous modern production. Making music that is meaningful and accessible is a rare thing these days, but Anna Sun seems to have achieved a perfect formula for their unique brand of expression.

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Photo - Summer Luu

The Delines - Past The Shadows.

Portland, Oregon based country-soul group The Delines share the second single and video from their upcoming album, The Sea Drift, which will be released on February 11, 2022 via their new American label home Jealous Butcher Records. 

The new single, titled “Past The Shadows”, is a sultry and smoky ballad that wraps the heartbreak of its lyrical themes in a warm blanket of horn arrangements and tenderly played keys. The song is accompanied by a music video of the full band performing “Past The Shadows” in the studio, highlighting the rich backing instrumentation that serves as the bedrock for The Sea Drift as well as Amy Boone’s spellbinding vocal performance at the center of it all.

Speaking on his inspirations for “Past The Shadows”, songwriter Willy Vlautin said “I was thinking about that self-destructive dream of never having to live like anyone else, of not having to be a part of regular society. That pull of living like a vampire, the romance of it, the freedom of it, but also the darkness of it. We wanted the song to be a seduction itself, easy and catchy, warm and velvety but underneath is a world of scars and failure.”


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The Wild West - Comes A Time.

Calling themselves The Wild West, six of the most treasured female singer-songwriters in Los Angeles forged a strong bond of friendship that led them to write and record their first single “Better Way.” The empowering message of the ensemble’s first single is shared equally by its members, all of whom have enjoyed significant success as solo artists: (pictured above L-R) Manda Mosher, Deb Morrison, Amilia K Spicer, Tawny Ellis,  Pi Jacobs, and Heather Anne Lomax.

Touted by Relix as a “Female supergroup,” The Wild West is currently working on their upcoming EP and were listed in Holler Country's The 10 Best Emerging Acts of Americanafest “They offered an impressive performance boasting no shortage of verve and variety - it would be hard to find a combo with a greater degree of talent or tenacity. Clearly, this bunch is ready to rumble.”  --Holler Country

They were also touted in No Depression’s Guide to Americanafest. with Amos Perrine is quoted as saying, “…the definite highlight promises to be The Wild West, six of the most highly respected female singer-songwriters in Los Angeles: Tawny Ellis, Pi Jacobs, Heather Anne Lomax, Amilia K Spicer, Deb Morrison, and Manda Mosher. Expect fireworks.”

All six members of The Wild West write, produce, and oversee the recording process for songs they bring to the band. They take turns singing lead while supporting each other instrumentally and topping each song off with The Wild West's signature harmonies.

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Photo - Katrina Sorrentino

Amy Jay - Commute.

Amy Jay has released the single, "Commute," taken from her upcoming album, Awake Sleeper, to be released on 2/4/2022.

Exploring the boundaries between acoustic and synthetic, minimalist and ornate, Awake Sleeper echoes a breathtaking cross-pollination of introspective songcraft, surprising textures, and hypnotic soundscapes. The album was produced by Amy's longtime collaborator, Jonathan Seale of Mason Jar Music, known for his work with Feist, Fleet Foxes, Aoife O'Donovan, and more, as well as his solo efforts released under the moniker Son of Cloud.

Jay's day-to-day life in New York City profoundly influenced Awake Sleeper, which you can probably pick up from "Commute." "Another mundane morning commute with train thoughts. I am a stranger in this city even though I've known it for over a decade, even though I see the same faces in the same train cars day after day. The window of the train car was left open that morning, and the tracks were screeching and air blowing so loud I couldn't think about anything else," she says of the birth of the song. "Ironically, I rarely listen to music or podcasts on the train, so I looked around to see if anyone else noticed or was bothered by the sounds. Everyone looked like zombies... heads down on their phones, completely consumed. I realized this sound is not the loudest' sound' in the room. Their phones are. And even if I screamed at the top of my lungs, I'm not sure I would break through the noise to get anyone's attention."

Amy Jay · Commute

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Selci - Violent Vickie - KAELI - In The Pines - KAVYA

Photo - Annabeth Trondsen

Selci - Ghost.

Calgary-based art-pop artist Selci released their latest single “Ghost,” mixed by Sylvia Massy, with a stunning visual accompaniment, directed by the artist herself. Watch + share via YouTube. “Ghost” offers a first taste into what will be a fruitful 2022, as Selci puts the finishing touches on a two-part album project, details of which will be announced next month.

Discussing “Ghost,” Selci noted that, “it’s about being ghosted - literally and figuratively. The first verse is about the elusiveness of truth. This feels augmented in our current reality with the lack of trustworthy sources and the influx of political conspiracies. The second is about being ghosted by a love interest and washing it away with liquor. The third is an outcry - it gives me the feeling of falling to my knees in surrender to the things that I cannot control in this life. This song is very much a response to the political climate of the past two years. It takes the laments of modern life and compares them to ghosts.”

For Selci, the pairing of music to the visual, is a natural extension of expression. “The video for ‘Ghost' recreates famous 19th century paintings of mythological women,” they noted. “In contemporary styling we recreated Charles Mengin’s ‘Sappho', Waterhouse’s 'Echo and Narcissus', and Mallais’ ‘Ophelia'. Contemporary dancers dance like ghosts in front of giant human-like statues in Calgary, known as 'The Brotherhood of Mankind'. In its time, it was created as a celebration of colonization, framing it as a gift to the rest of the world - a dated and simply incorrect view of colonization, and continued harm it has brought to Indiegneous peoples.

Continuing with that theme, the scenes of women dancing in red dresses is an intended nod of awareness to the inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada. The final scene - featuring a woman, apple in hand, being clutched by another hand from below, is a commentary on the Garden of Eden, and forced assimilation into the Catholic Church.”

“Ghost” follows Selci’s September single “Type and Send.” The two tracks show the versatility and dynamic range of Selci’s sonic palette. And with a two-part album set for 2022, the Selci is ready to take on the world.

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Violent Vickie - Get To Me (Fragrance Remix).

After touring Mexico, Violent Vickie returns with “GET TO ME” (Fragrance Remix) , a gothy-y dance remix of her "sad girl" song by the French producer and remix artist known as  Fragrance.  “GET TO ME” (Fragrance Remix)  is the first track off of Violent Vickie's Division Remixes LP which will be out in February of 2022.

Violent Vickie is a Los Angeles based Dark Synth-Riot artist consisting of Vickie and co-producer/recording guitarist E.  Vickie has toured with Hanin Elias of Atari Teenage Riot and has shared the stage with Trans X, The Missing Persons,  Jessie Evans (The Vanishing),Them Are Us Too, Pastel Ghost and Aimon.  She has toured the US, Mexico, Canada & Europe and played Insted Fest, Solidarity Fest, Shoutback Fest & Gay Prides and Ladyfests.  

Vickie’s tracks have been released by Crunch Pod, Emerald & Doreen Recordings (Berlin), Riot Grrrl Berlin, & LoveCraft Bar (PDX).  Her track "The Wolf“ was featured in a National Organization for Women film and she was interviewed for the documentary “GRRRL”, part of the museum exhibit “Alien She”.  Her LP "Monster Alley” was voted best album by KALX and her tracks have been remixed by 25+ artists.  Violent Vickie's Division LP was released in September 2020,  followed by a remix album of "Under The Gun" in February 2021 and a cover of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire in July 2021.  Violent Vickie’s “Division” Remixes LP will be out in February 2022.

 

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KAELI - No Mans Land.

 “There is no other time when I feel more alive. Being on stage, singing about what I have experienced and felt, and getting to share that with people who feel the same way, it’s a feeling like no other” says KAELI. New to the music scene, but not unfamiliar with the stage, KAELI is a singer-songwriter from London. Beginning her career by treading the boards in theatre, and eventually touring arenas worldwide as a featured vocalist for film star Hugh Jackman, it hasn’t been a conventional route into the music industry. But 2021 sees KAELI finally find her own voice. Combining soaring vocals, and honest lyrics with an effervescent pop sound, KAELI hopes to bring her lively energy and openness to every track.

KAELI is signed by Abubilla Music, and plans to release her debut EP in late 2021. Growing up to Scottish parents in a small village in Hertfordshire, KAELI never wanted to be in the spotlight. In fact, it wasn’t until her parents saw how crippling her shyness was that they decided to put her into drama and singing classes at the age of 8. It all went downhill from there. Coming into her own, a young KAELI found her passion and spent her free time performing and taking classes, or listening to the soundtracks of her favourite musicals and Disney movies. It was where she felt most at home, feeling theemotion of every song that these characters were singing.

It was a purely natural progression for her to pursue performing as a career, and after attending prestigious schools such as LAMDA and the Guildford School of Acting, KAELI went on to have a successful stage career in the West End, performing in shows such as ‘Les Misérables’, ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and the original cast of ‘Tina the Musical’. However, her career took a new turn after being asked to join Hugh Jackman on his 2019 world arena tour of ‘The Man. The Music’. The Show, as one of his featured singers.

Performing in venues such as Madison Square Garden, the Hollywood Bowl and the O2, KAELI travelled across the US, Europe and Australia, playing to packed out houses alongside the Hollywood star. Whilst touring, KAELI would use spare moments on the bus to work on new music and demos, as she found herself more and more inspired by her travels and experiences. Encouraged by the team on the tour, and Hugh himself, KAELI decided to pursue her songwriting further, and reached out to London label Abubilla Music on her return. She signed to the label in 2020, after some time developing her writing with the team, and began writing her debut EP. “This EP explores the different genres of music that I love, whilst also allowing me to explore where I fit in this musical world. I think each song shows a part of me, a part of how I respond to the world and to relationships, and paints a really vivid picture of who I was when I wrote each song. I see it as a kaleidoscope of 

KAELI, that’s helped me uncover exactly where I want to sit with my next record. I can’t believe I’m talking about my next record already but I feel so fired up now that I can’t wait to start writing it with this new found clarity. I just hope this first one gives everyone a taste so they’re hungry for more!”

KAELI · No Man's Land

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In The Pines - Jeez Louise.

Cincinnati, Ohio quartette In The Pines announced that their third full-length studio album, Impossible Daze, will be released on January 28, 2022 via Soul Step Records. To mark the announcement of Impossible Daze, the band has shared “Jeeze Louise," a laid-back and lo-fi cut that highlights the band’s proclivity towards immersive and atmospheric vocal harmonies.

“‘Jeeze Louise’ was one of the tunes where we knew exactly how we wanted it to sound, but we weren’t sure of the best way to go about it,” says guitarist & vocalist Michael Shular. “We wanted it to sound like it was done out on the front porch, real loose, just like we were pickin’ around, having a good time. We wanted a low fi sound so our engineer decided to run it through a cassette player in the front room of the studio using an old 50’s Altec broadcasting mic. While we were recording he was pressing on the tape to give it that warbly old school sound. It was really satisfying hearing the final result, it had exceeded our expectations and has become a favorite of ours.”

“The verses allude to some of the more exciting parts of love - the feelings of excitement and courage in a happy new relationship,” says bassist & vocalist Patrick Zopff. “Those images are contrasted with the chorus, which is a desperate apology. (“Babe I’m awful sorry, oh jeez Louise!”) It’s supposed to evoke the feeling of surprise and shame upon the realization that you can hurt someone despite the best of intentions. All of this is performed with a little whimsy, sincerely bittersweet… We chose to strip down the arrangement to just banjo, guitar, and vocals, to make it feel like four friends drunkenly singing together on the porch on a warm summer night.”

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KAVYA - Know Me Better (E.P).

KAVYA's new 4 track EP depicts the artist’s diverse creative interests ranging from fashion, art, music, and acting all of which make her thrive and are integral in shaping the person she is today.

‘Know Me Better’ is KAVYA’s humble attempt to share her personality, interests, dreams, and vulnerability with her audience through her music. In February 2021 in association with VH1 Supersonic plug-in, 'Know Me Better’ the documentary was released which highlighted Kavya's relationships with the women in her life, her interest in art, cinema, visual identity followed by a live performance. Through the next three months, we delve into her different creative worlds and bring to the forefront all the things that make her come alive.

KAVYA (Kavya Trehan) is a 27-year-old singer-songwriter from New Delhi, India who’s been performing since the age of 14. Over the course of time, she’s collaborated with some of the leading producers in India and toured with her band, MOSKO. Her solo project is a celebration of raw emotion and her roots, where all songs have been developed from guitar parts and trusty voice notes. In order to constantly evolve as an artist, in 2016 she started writing music using Ableton. Since then, she is on a relentless spree of releasing her own material that has more of an R&B, electronic, and indie-pop feel.

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Eucereon - Alice SK - Pierce Turner - Scarves

Eucereon - Go.

Eucereon is a UK/US based DIY singer, songwriter, and producer. Improvised guitar riffs, beats, and vocals shaped through her loop station along with personal and introspective lyrics create the ambient landscape of the music. Eucereon now unveils her haunting new offering ‘Go’. The folk-tinged indie ballad combines wistful vocals and a foreboding guitar line with delicate synths, creating a melancholic soundscape to capture the dark themes of the track. 

“Go is about codependency masquerading as love, and the fear of leaving when you're made to feel you can not leave. The context of the song is based on one particular evening, as many of my songs are. ” Eucereon explains.

Using her loop pedal to create layers of guitar riffs and vocal harmonies, she created the somber atmosphere of the track. This song went through several different sets of lyrics before the ones it ended up with, coming from an improved stream of consciousness technique Eucereon often uses when writing lyrics.

With a global effort behind the track, ‘Go’ was written in Denmark, produced in the UK, and now released in the US. Eucereon’s music is an intimate reflection of uncertainty and perseverance. The performances are intimate and immersive, taking the audience on an ethereal journey through music and visuals while making them move with beat.

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Alice SK - Run Away.

London artist Alice SK's new single “Run Away” is a striking vintage-noir track about being trapped in our minds and how this can lead to us being our own worst enemy. Alice’s haunting, soulful voice sounds classic yet modern through the influence of cultural icons, such as Ella Fitzgerald & Joni Mitchell, and present-day acts, like The Strokes, to create something fresh.

The single comes from Alice SK’s forthcoming debut EP “Electric”, produced by Muca (Los Bitchos, L.A. Salami). “Run Away” is the fourth track to be unveiled from the EP, following the release of Muca’s single “Until We Meet Again” and Alice’s tracks “Another Girl's Man” and “Hidden Paradise”. Alongside Brazilian bossa nova legend Roberto Menescal, Alice featured on “Until We Meet Again” which caused a stir during the summer and the track will also be released as part of the EP package.

Written in lockdown, when we all had a lot of time to reflect on life, relationships, and our own thoughts, “Run Away” captures the moment at when we start to overthink and analyse and start on a self-destruction landslide without realising that it’s happening. The track’s production has an organic feel and an unsettling intrigue with a vinyl crackling backdrop and dark enveloping moods that build to great effect. Portishead vibes are blended with the uniqueness of Alice’s deep and low vocal tones as the track grows out of control.

On the track, Alice says, “The track is meant to start off as being quite reflective and then as it continues and spirals more into our deeper thoughts and the subconscious, it becomes increasingly more desperate as we get a greater sense of not being able to escape.”

 

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Photo - Chris Schoonover

Pierce Turner - Where It Should Be.

The legendary Irish-born/NYC-based performer Pierce Turner releases a new single titled “Where It Should Be” off his forthcoming album, Terrible Good, which is set for release on February 25 via StorySound Records. The album was made in collaboration with another Irish-New Yorker, Gerry Leonard (David Bowie, Rufus Wainwright, Suzanne Vega). “Where It Should Be” is a soulful celebration of life with Leonard’s ambient-like guitar entwining with the serene strings provided by guest David Mansfield (Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Review, Johnny Cash, Lucinda Williams). American Blues Scene premiered the music video saying “the theme of mortality runs through the song, but so does the promise of a new day.”

“We all live in hope, illogical hope, but real as anything that we can touch or feel,” says Turner on the inspiration behind the song. “We always believe that there is a bright sun up ahead somewhere, even on our darkest day. Life is all around us, it’s a constant distraction, and that itself is life itself, blinding life. We assume the world will do a normal turn, and that everything will be where it should be, and it is.”

An Irish-American musician in the truest, and most literal, sense, Pierce Turner lives half the year in his hometown of Wexford, Ireland, and the other half in his longtime adopted hometown of New York City. Both places are reflected in his songs, which frequently move between these two different worlds. Since he began his solo career in the 80’s, he’s worked on a broad range of projects including writing for opera, scoring movies, and composing a contemporary Mass. His genre-bending songwriting has led Turner to collaborate with legendary producer John Simon (The Band, Leonard Cohen, Cass Elliot) on 1991’s Now Is Heaven and composer Philip Glass on projects such as 1986’s It’s Only a Long Way Across and “Yogi with a Broken Heart.”

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Scarves - Heavy Eyes.

Over the past few years, and through a few different iterations, Seattle-based math-rock emo-punks Scarves has established themselves as, “One of the city’s top notch rising acts,” according to KEXP. In that same paragraph, the words “jarring” and “abrasive” also appear so that starts to paint a picture of the dichotomy that has been at play for the band and its frontperson/founder Niko Stathakopoulos.

Their last LP, Dinner Dates for the End of Days, offered individual portraits of end-times that found the light through the darkness. Three years later, a lot has changed for the...uh...but Scarves are still here for all of our sakes.

Stathakopoulos shares of the song: "'Heavy Eyes' is a song about two things. The first is celebrating the absurd joy you can only find by spending your most hopeless moments with someone you truly and deeply love. The second is about feeling envy that you didn’t write that one part in ‘Friday I am in Love’ where Robert says, ‘It’s such a gorgeous sight to see you eat in the middle of the night’ because that might be the most romantic sentiment ever penned.”

 

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Teeniest - Alyssa Gengos - Gabrielle Metz - Buster Baer

Teeniest - A Hand to Hold Forever.

Beehive Candy are really fond of these two artists music whether together as Teeniest or apart in other ventures. This song is no exception as the (and we quote) "acoustic-guitar-based and thematically seems all warm & fuzzy, but the accompanying vibraphone and eerie science fiction/horror undertones create a rather unsettling vibe."

The video notes tell us: This music video for this song is inspired by the virtual reality game, Lone Echo 2, an emotional highlight of which is two friends holding hands. In this outer space adventure, the two friends are Captain Olivia Rhodes and her assistant robot, Jack.

Excellent writing and voice acting (Troy Baker and Alice Coulthard) really give Jack and Liv vitality and personality. Olivia has a fully-realized human character. Through banter, jokes, and working side by side, she becomes your friend -- this emotional connection is the real surprise in VR.

When she is in peril, you feel a visceral need to come to her aid. Of course you know it's all a digital illusion. But the magic of VR happens because the immersive illusion becomes "real.”  What fascinates me are multiple levels of perception, illusion, and meaning in VR, and the Lone Echo games raise interesting questions about consciousness, artificial intelligence, and human connections.

A hand to hold forever in this world
A hand to hold forever

A simple question: what do you want?
Shouldn't have to answer with excuses and caveats
I pursued everything and I felt no fear
At the end of the line everything is clear
All I really need is

A hand to hold forever in this world
A hand to hold forever

It was unexpected, out of the blue
Didn't fear rejection - you knew what was true
The world was no longer what it seemed to me
Just a simple gesture was everything to me
All I really need is

A hand to hold forever in this world
A hand to hold forever

The end is coming, I'm gonna disappear
Memories are flooding, some I hold so dear
One surpasses everything, stands outside of time
Feeling the warmth of your loving hand in mine.
Oh I think I found it

A hand to hold forever in this world
A hand to hold forever.

 

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Photo - Morgan Hamilton

Alyssa Gengos - Cheerleader of The Universe.

During this past year, when the stimuli from the outerworld ceased, Alyssa Gengos was having some weird-ass dreams. In one that stuck with her, she dreamt that an old school bully was being kind to her. “That was a very strange dream for me to have because I don't think about this person really ever,” she says. 

“But it reflected to me that I have this really deep desire to be liked.” So poignant was this realization that it makes two appearances on her debut full-length Mechanical Sweetness, which melds her dreams and personal nostalgia into a new-wavey indie rock homecoming album.

Quote from Alyssa: “Cheerleader of the Universe” is sort of surreal; it’s a bunch of associated phrases that form a comforting lullaby. I think of the Cheerleader as the fairy godmother inside my own head. My grandma was a cheerleader, and so was my mother, and I became one in high school as well. I never really wanted to do that as a kid – I just kinda fell into it because my friends and I decided we’d all do it together. 

Still, I felt like I was doing some service continuing this cheerleader mythology that my grandma had started. Now, facing the next chapter of my life, I call upon the Cheerleader of the Universe for guidance. The music video is dreamlike, matching the sentiment of the lyrics. In it, I frolic across a Southern California beach in a dress I sewed myself.

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Gabrielle Metz - More Hearts Than Mine.

Gabrielle Metz bares her vulnerable side in her cover of Ingrid Andress’ “More Hearts Than Mine”.  If there was ever a perfect cover song for Metz, this is it. Not only does this song showcase her beautiful range and vocal inflections, but it also conveniently brings to light her attention to the vocal details paired with her ability to transition into character in order to correctly convey the emotional experience of this song. 

She grabs the listener from her first note and keeps us mesmerized until the final note. Her sometimes gritty vocal combined with her emotional delivery is exceptional.  The deliberately honest lyrics are perfectly conveyed with the silvery vocals from Metz matched with a beautifully simplistic piano line (Damon Fichter, Nashville, TN and produced by George Alexander, Nashville, TN). 

If they were to break your heart, they’d be breaking a lot more hearts than just one. “The first time I listened to Ingrid’s song I was immediately transported into her world and felt a deep connection to the lyrics.  I typically do not record covers but I have been itching to record this song since 2019.”  - Gabrielle Metz

Gabrielle has been nominated for Alabama Music Awards Best Female Country in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. She has also been nominated for Alabama Music Awards Best New Artist in 2018 and 2019. Gabrielle is also on Country Sways 2021 Artist to Watch.

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Buster Baer - Sleepy Baby.

Indie-pop artist Buster Baer has just released a new song, “Sleepy Baby.” The track serves as a sweet little ode to the sleepiest of lovers with gentle, romantic lyrics, an upbeat melody, and a swinging beat. The tune matches Baer’s vintage style perfectly, creating an aural experience that will leave his audience moving and grooving to the warmth of his music. “Sleepy Baby” is a reminder from Buster Baer that it’s ok to not be ‘on’ all of the time and to get some sleep. The track is now available on digital music platforms worldwide.

“Sleepy Baby” is more than just a cute little diddy. Buster Baer describes his inspiration for the song: “Almost every single romantic partner I’ve had seems to have picked up some weird guilt about falling asleep while we’re hanging out. I don’t know who made them feel like they had to be a performing monkey, but having a person feel comfortable enough to sleep around you is an extremely intimate and beautiful thing.” Baer, who produced the track and played all the instruments himself, expands, “I just wanted to provide some evidence to the collective unconscious that there are lovers who won’t expect you to deny your biological necessities for their egos, and I did it by producing huge, glorious cascades of violins and trumpets, which I didn’t know how to play prior to recording."

Hailing from Hermosa Beach, CA, Buster Baer is a uniquely gifted multi-instrumentalist. Baer’s love of music first led him to the drums at age 12, but he did not get serious about music until years later. He moved to New York for college to pursue beat poetry, where he first learned the guitar, and later, the bass guitar. From there, his musical journey took him to New Orleans and San Francisco before landing back in LA. Inspired by Bootsy Collins and The Beatles, Buster Baer aims to push the boundaries of music and “give people a smile or a tear when they need one shaken loose.”

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Sweet Tempest - Faye

Photo - Tina Dubrovsky

Sweet Tempest - Modern Justice.

"This is our song about worldwide misery and we would love for you to dance to it” – Sweet Tempest

‘Modern Justice’ is the 2nd song in a trilogy of new tracks with accompanying videos directed by Matthew Thorne. It is a closer look into a series of gritty, grubby, thought-provoking vignettes filmed in Eastern Europe in stark but nonetheless nuanced contrast to the bright lights and sleek surfaces of the songs.

“This song is about the strange and almost perverse situation, wherein one is sat here in the center of Europe where things could be considerably worse, and reading, seeing or hearing about the immense amounts of injustice inflicted upon people around the world. Modern Justice’s’ original inspiration was a different kind of power imbalance: the demonstrations about democracy in Hong Kong and how screwed they seemed and, it turned out, were. Worst of all, the disheartening realisation that to some extent, you’re completely disconnected from it, sometimes even stimulated by it.” In close connection to the statement of the song the music video for ‘Modern Justice’ documents the lives of young Bulgarian bodybuilders who nonetheless remain powerless.

Drenched in 80s synths rewired for the 2020s, ‘Modern Justice’ is a bold statement of intent from Berlin-based duo Sweet Tempest. Musically recalling artists like Lykke Li, Little Dragon and La Roux, with Pet Shop Boys’ literate pop and Stevie Nicks’ otherworldliness among further crucial ingredients. The meaning of the song with the accompanying video is indicative of how Sweet Tempest never shy away from difficult topics, whether political, social, or indeed personal.

Contradictions surround Luna Kira and Julian Winding, originally formed in Copenhagen. Aside from that ambiguous moniker, there’s the fact they want people to dance to songs about inequality and prejudice, and the way those songs are sometimes superficially frigid yet always warm-hearted beneath. If you ask them who inspired them, too, they’re as likely to point to Tom Waits as Ace of Base (though only the latter’s first album. It’s important to make that distinction.) And then there’s their personal history, an ‘Are they? /Aren’t they?’ soap opera which went on for over a decade.

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Faye - Alexandria.

Indie Rock musician Faye has released her latest single “Alexandria.” The song is about being in love with someone you can’t have. In an age of heavy production, Faye embraces an authentic garage sound with a focus on lyrics and a raw vocal that blends with smooth electric guitars and drums as she sings of Alexandria, the girl we’ve all wanted to be at some point in our lives.

“This one night, I came back from hanging out with the guy who was in love with Alexandria. I was really sad, because he would tell me all of these things, compliment me, and basically lead me on, and then run right back to her,” says Faye. “But I sat down —  it was like, 1am, and this idea for a song popped into my head which was to not make it about me being sad or losing the guy but to revolve the story around her. I wrote it in about 15 mins. It’s definitely one of my more vulnerable songs.”

“Alexandra” was written and performed by Faye and produced by Jon Fintel at Relay Recording and features Jon Leonard on guitar, Jared Knutson on guitar and drums, and Jenna Jaworski  on bass.

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Yard Arms - Noir Disco - North Mississippi Allstars - Winter Grain

Yard Arms - Pirouettes.

After the successful release of their recent single ‘Hollow Ankles’, Bristol-based melancholic pop duo Yard Arms return with follow up single ‘Pirouettes’, released today.

Forming in 2018, their first year saw them release their hauntingly beautiful debut EP ‘Maiden’, soon followed up by their sophomore EP ‘A Glossary of Broken Humans & Beating Hearts’. Their third studio EP 'Sanctuary Lines', described by Atwood Magazine as a "heart-on-sleeve exhaust of emotion" was released in June of 2020.

Pirouettes - recorded, mixed and mastered with long-term collaborator and producer Josh Gallop (Phoxjaw) at Stage 2 Studios in Bath - is a playful insight around the concept of karma and the fragility of modern day brain health. ’They’re probably thinking this scene is senseless as well’ encapsulates the track’s theme and the idea that everyone is just as clued-in or perhaps as clueless as the next.

“It’s how we present this to one another that seems to be a great irony”, says frontman and lyricist Noah Villeneuve, who throughout this track, shows an unwavering ability to move between sugary-sweet power-anthem choruses and moments of lyrical tenderness.

Musically, Yard Arms are demonstrating what has become somewhat their signature ’sound’ in this track, evoking the classic 80s influence of The Cure and Echo & The Bunnymen with more present day indie acts such as The National, Bleachers and Death Cab For Cutie. A short two minutes-thirty burst of pulsating indie pop melancholia with synth laden, alt-romance-rock. The accompanying music video follows the band throughout their most recent UK run of dates alongside the likes of The Slowreaders Club, Phoxjaw, The Nightmares and The Inspiral Carpets’ Tom Hingley.

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Noir Disco - Settin' Sons.

The Chicago-based project of brothers, Nolan and Carter Dickson, Noir Disco, are today sharing the video for "Settin' Sons" alongside the release of their debut album, NOW! 2073 which is out now via Terrible Records (Hubert Lenoir, The Voidz). The new single which closes the album follows previous support from Brooklyn Vegan, Northern Transmissions, Clash, Pigeons and Planes and more. It further cements the trio's spellbinding take on punk, psych-rock, indie-rock and electronica forging a truly unique sound.

"Settin' Sons," which premiered via Under the Radar Magzine earlier today, opens with spangled acoustic guitar before erupting into something bigger introducing warbling electric guitar and programmed drum beats. It finds the trio leaning into their psych-rock-adjacent sounds more than anywhere else on the record, producing one of its more tender, introspective moments.

Speaking about the making of the new single, the band explains: "The song is Carter’s take on what NOW! 2073 opening track ‘workCHANGEchangeWORK’ means to him. Carter wrote "Settin' Sons" on his guitar and then began recording it with Henry, after which Nolan, who happened to take mushrooms about an hour before they started recording, stumbled upon the guitar takes and began to add every other instrument without thinking about it, to which Carter & Henry came home, looped the improvs then structured the song. Carter’s vocal recording process on Settin Sons was a special moment for the band because it was then we realized that Carter is Rocky, Nolan is Mick and Henry is Pauly, characters from the American classic movie series Rocky."

The brothers 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.

 

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Photo by Jason Thrasher

North Mississippi Allstars - See the Moon.

North Mississippi Allstars will release Set Sail on January 28th via New West Records. The 10-song set was produced by Luther and Cody Dickinson and follows their Grammy Award Nominated 2019 album Up and Rolling, which was met with wide critical acclaim. Set Sail features an appearance by Stax Records legend William Bell on the album standout “Never Want To Be Kissed” (which Bell also co-wrote and co-produced).

After 25 years, twelve albums, four Grammy Award nominations, and sold out shows everywhere, North Mississippi Allstars open up their world once again on Set Sail, welcoming other family into the fold. As sons of the legendary producer and musician Jim Dickinson, Luther and Cody Dickinson started the band in 1996 as a loose collective of like-minded second-generation musicians who shared a local repertoire and regional style. Over the years, the lineup has shifted by design, and with Set Sail, they mined the talents of Jesse Williams on bass and Lamar Williams, Jr., the son of Allman Brothers bassist Lamar Williams, Sr, on vocals. During the Allman Betts Band Family Revival, the Dickinsons first linked up with Lamar, becoming fast friends and collaborators, paving the way for Set Sail.

“The chemistry we have with this lineup is powerful,” observes Luther. “We are all second-generation musicians and share a telepathic, relaxed ease about creating and performing. I believe music is a form of communion with our loved ones and conjuring this vibe with members of musical families can be inspirational. Lamar and I are like-minded. I’ve never had the pleasure of working with a singing partner like Lamar. He has a true-blue quality in his musicality that will pull you in and break your heart. At the same time, Jesse grew up playing music with his brothers and his father—as did we. He plays like a sibling. I’m drawn to musical families, regardless of style. Playing with second- or third-generation players allows us an easy unspoken musical dialog. It’s not a big thing; it’s just what we do. We never had to figure out what it means and takes to be a musician. We all inherently know.” He continues, “Each generation has to reinvent itself and shed the skin of the elders. On Set Sail, we feel as if we’ve once again ‘broken the code,’ and know what we want and how to get it.”

Today, Holler premiered the video for the album highlight “See the Moon," saying "Like the timely arrival of superheroes. Just when you needed them most, North Mississippi Allstars return with a lively injection of positivity and uplifting roots funk to rescue us all." Of the song, Luther Dickinson says “The last verse was improvised in the studio, on the mic, and touches on our belief that music is a celebration of life. It’s a joy to sing with Lamar Williams, Jr. and Sharisse Norman.  We have been touring hard, and are so grateful to be back on the road. Music is essential and we are honored to serve." See the “See the Moon” video directed by Joshua Shoemaker.


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Winter Grain - Hollywood & Hard.

LA-based folk pop duo Winter Grain released their new EP, Hollywood & Hard, along with focus track "Pages." This marks the second project with Grammy award winning producer Ryan Hadlock (Brandi Carlile, Vance Joy, The Lumineers.) Winter Grain consists of married couple Kate and Secily Anderson, who found love with each other shortly after experiencing the chemistry between themselves as musicians/collaborators, and then as humans.

Hollywood & Hard was recorded at Seattle’s Bear Creek Studio in October 2020, with the help of musicians Elliott Klein (electric guitar,) Taylor Carroll (drums,) and Dune Butler (bass,) with guest features from Adam Neely (bass on “Pages”) and Ryan Hadlock (mellotron on “Pages.”) This marks the first release where Secily and Kate can finally call themselves a duo, confidently claiming Winter Grain for themselves. They felt that “In the past, we had both been set on letting a large group of collaborators define who we are and we finally found the time to come to terms that this project is mainly the two of our hearts.”

With influences ranging from Bonnie Raitt, Fleetwood Mac, The Milk Carton Kids, to First Aid Kit, Kate and Secily trade off vocals that weave together stories of nostalgia, growth, frustration, love and all the in-betweens. The anthemic single “Fists” is a timely call to action released in January of this year. Kate Anderson explains, “With all of the political turmoil and civil unrest, we both felt the growing importance to not only point out the tensions, but remark on how easy it is to let something good like a spark turn into something destructive. It became a song that tried to capture both our sadness and our hope.”

Using music as a cathartic outlet, Kate wrote the acoustic country ballad, “Passenger Seat” in remembrance of the 3 years her biological mom left her family from the pivotal ages of 9-12. Winter Grain comments that when they perform this song, it “captures both joy and sadness: joy of a mother who realized her kid wanted nothing more than to be with her mom, sadness of a kid whose mom took three years to turn the car around." While coming to terms with leftover emotions, Kate was able to find closure in the moment her mom told her the song had become one of her favorites. Her mom said that "she could really hear how badly I wanted to be in the passenger seat,” Kate explains. "I just cried in disbelief, as I had very intently meant to convey the sadness reflected in that empty seat."

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Massage - Blooms - Ziemba - Wilma Nea

Massage - I'm Going In A Field.

Just a few months after releasing their acclaimed second album Still Life, Los Angeles indie-pop band Massage returns with Lane Lines — a six-track EP out December 10 on Mt.St.Mtn. (Cindy, Flowertown, Blues Lawyer) that finds the quintet expanding on their Sarah-meets-Creation Records sound with new touches of soft psychedelia, Feelies-ish frenzy and Haçienda-era escapism.

The band didn’t plan to follow Still Lines so quickly. But after the pandemic further delayed that multi-year project, Alex Naidus (guitar, vocals, former Pains of Being Pure at Heart), Andrew Romano (guitar, vocals), Gabrielle Ferrer (keyboards, percussion, vocals), David Rager (bass) and Natalie de Almeida (drums) leapt at the chance to make music together again in real life and started gathering on random summer evenings in the tiny rehearsal-space studio of producer-composer Andrew Brassell (Susanna Hoffs) with no clear goal in mind.

Lane Lines is the surprise product of those informal sessions — a flash of pent-up creative energy that serves as both a companion piece to Still Life and an exploration of textures and influences that didn’t quite fit the full-length but have always been deeply embedded in the band’s DNA, with new echoes of 1980s artists that sought to refract the 1960s through their own skewed prisms: Flying Nun, the Paisley Underground, The Feelies covering The Beatles, “Second Summer of Love” New Order.

“The songs on Still Life and Lane Lines seem to straddle the line between indie and pop without exactly being ‘indie pop,’" Romano says. “To me they feel more like descendents of ‘college rock’ — a moment that lasted from about 1986 to 1991, right before the underground and the mainstream converged, when it seemed like any scrappy indie band might stumble across a hit.”

Mt.St.Mtn. · Massage - I'm Going In A Field

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Blooms - Focus.

Blooms first burst onto the scene in 2014 with her dark blend of electro-pop and debut EP, ‘If’. Since then the Irish born artist has won the acclaim of the likes of Wonderland Magazine, Noisey, Complex and Clash Magazine. Having honed her craft over the years, Blooms now returns with an ethereal new offering ‘Focus’. The dark indie-pop track incorporates hushed vocals and frosty synths which capture the emotion and longing behind the track’s meaning.

"It's about loving someone but not knowing if you're in love with them. It's about questioning why you can't focus on them or feel the love they have for you, about feeling guilty for not being grateful for what you have" - Blooms shares

The new release follows on from Blooms’ most recent offering ‘Text Me When You Get Home’, a haunting and poignant track that sought to raise awareness on the issue of women’s safety. The track highlighted the hard-hitting reality of all the actions that women and girls feel they must take themselves to try and stay safe in a culture of male harassment and violence against them.

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Photo - Ian Torres

Ziemba - Set In Ice.

El Paso-based artist, Ziemba – a moniker for songwriter, producer, vocalist and pianist, René Kladzyk – is today sharing a duo of singles, "Set in Ice" and a cover of the holiday favorite, "I'll Be Home For Christmas," the latter of which arrives with a technicolor video directed by Kladzyk. These two tracks follow on the heels of last month's release, "Fear" arriving as another installment of Kladzyk's forthcoming album, Unsubtle Magic which is due out next Friday, December 10 via Sister Polygon Records.

The holiday season is a horrible time to be grieving. Family gatherings and omnipresent nostalgia can amplify a loved one’s absence, becoming constant reminders of what is lost. René is acutely aware of that feeling. After Kladzyk’s father suffered a stroke in December 2019 and died on January 2, 2020, Christmas associations were radically and permanently transformed. Unsubtle Magic navigates the holiday season through the lens of grief; journeying “a year and a day” from the initial loss through the following Christmas, a grim anniversary.

"Set in Ice" and "I'll Be Home For Christmas" provide two crucial cornerstones to the record. The former is a reinterpretation of a song that her father wrote in December 1974 while he worked as a touring musician under the moniker Aurel Roy. 

When discussing "Set in Ice," René explains: "He [my father] wrote hundreds of songs during his 12-year music career, but when my mom got pregnant he quit music entirely and got a 9 to 5 job at an automobile manufacturing factory in rural Michigan. Growing up, he seldom talked about that chapter of his life -- as a kid I was always curious about it and would try to pry stories out of him. He mostly would just say he didn’t remember, or that it felt like another life. But when I started working as a touring musician he was so proud of me, something I think is a rarity for parents of broke musicians. He would comment on how difficult what I was doing was, and started to share more stories from that time in his life with me. Beyond being his kid, we formed a new bond around our shared trials as working musicians. He was a trusted (and sometimes brutal) advisor and a constant cheerleader. After he died, his songs and lyric notebooks became an important gateway for me to continue expanding my relationship with him. His version of "Set in Ice" was an unadorned piano ballad, but I reimagined it as a driving song, picturing him at the wheel on long solo road trips. It has an endless quality to it that I identify with: “get up every morning just to sing these songs.” Covering his songs feels like a form of magic, a way to bring him back for just a moment, or to catch a glimpse of a version of him I never knew in this life."

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Wilma Nea - Days Like This.

With her dynamic expression, shaped by influences from Fiona Apple, Ane Brun and Kate Bush, Wilma Nea debuted with the EP "Issues" in 2020 and quickly received a warm reception from a united group of critics, including The Line Of Best Fit, NBHAP, Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter. As Wilma gets ready to release her debut album "This Too Shall Pass" on March 4th, it's with an equal force. 

Now she releases the single "Days Like This" taken from the upcoming album with an accompanying music video in a moody 60's setting. In the video we see Wilma portraying entrapment and being stuck in old patterns.

"It was really fun to shoot all the scenes, especially the dancing. I love the world we built and I think all the scenes really speak. For example, at the end there's a little sequence where I control myself as a puppet with hand movements, which I think represents taking control in a cool way."

The video is directed, filmed and edited by Ebba G. Ågren, based on concepts from Wilma and Ebba. It was filmed in the summer of 2021 at Studio Stor in Malmö. The choreography is by Monica Malmén.

On the upcoming album "This Too Shall Pass", where Wilma also debuts as a producer, we hear an artist exploring stories about daring to communicate her needs, daring to let go and start breathing again. An honest, raw and naked portrait of relationships, the importance of self-respect and growing as a person.

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Black Bordello - The Sully Band - Chrissi Poland - Mae Mae

Photo - Lou Smith

Black Bordello - Drones.

Peckham, London based band Black Bordello today release new single "Drones" and announce their new EP 'White Bardo', out March 2022 via Hideous Mink Records (Opus Kink, Fake Turins, Body Horror). With inspirations ranging from PJ Harvey and Björk to Aphex Twin and David Bowie, Black Bordello's carnivalesque blend of art-rock, punk, jazz and Turkish psychedelia is a wholly unique aural experience.

Recently supporting the likes of Goat Girl and L.A. Salami as well as being handpicked by The Libertines to support them on their November UK tour, Black Bordello are a truly captivating live proposition. Regularly appearing on the London underground circuit alongside fellows risers Opus Kink, Blue Bendy, Modern Woman, Malady, Honeyglaze and Robbie & Mona, they have organically garnered a reputation as one of the most exciting live acts in the country.

The band's self-titled debut album was released in 2020 to a small but fervent wave of acclaim from publications including So Young Magazine ("It takes very little persuasion to fall under Black Bordello’s spell") and Loud And Quiet ("...simply calling Black Bordello's self-titled debut album 'genre-defying' doesn't do it justice. This album is an exercise in world building.")

The band announce their first body of work since their debut album, new EP 'White Bardo' - out next March via tastemaker indie label Hideous Mink Records. The announcement coincides with the release of new single "Drones" along with an accompanying video directed by Lou Smith. Written during lockdown 2020, (somewhat illegally) in a basement underneath a closed pub, "Drones" opens with a theatrical descending bass line, before erupting into a roar of magisterial brass, fizzing synth runs, and frenzied percussion.

Discussing the initial inspiration behind the track, vocalist Sienna Bordello said: "The idea for 'Drones' came about after I watched a documentary about a Drone pilot. He was a gamer who had been headhunted by the US military and recruited into the military workforce. He was given a gaming station with Xbox-like controllers and vintage screens which showed simplistic colours, much like the platform arcade games of the 80s and 90s. He was given missions like ‘cut the grass’, ‘trim the weeds’, ‘tidy this area’. After his service was done, he suffered PTSD when the realisation that he’d been controlling the distribution and attack of drone missiles on civilians sank in. I thought of this as an interesting subject matter for the song, namely because we were in a global pandemic and all life as we knew it had been halted, yet at the same time the UK and US (amongst others)  governments had put more money into military than ever before, and had recruited more troops to attack parts of the middle east throughout our so-called ‘international emergency’. I was gobsmacked that they were passing needless military operations whilst the world was distracted by the pandemic. Every person in this situation is a puppet, but who is pulling the strings?"

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The Sully Band - When The Battle Is Over.

On March 11, 2022, The Sully Band, voted Best Live Band at the 2020 San Diego Music Awards, will release their debut LP, Let’s Straighten It Out, conceived in the hallowed halls of Henson Recording Studio in Hollywood, California (formerly A&M Studios). With Let’s Straighten It Out, Sully and his bluesy, nine-piece beast of a band take us on a journey through the ups, downs, and all-arounds of love by way of 10 classic ‘60s and ‘70s soul, blues, and R&B tunes. The album will be released via Belly Up Records, and marketed and distributed by Blue Élan Records.

This labor of love album was recorded in only five jam-packed days, with “mostly-live” versions of carefully curated love-themed songs that made a mark when they were originally released and yet also feel relevant today. Sully’s soulful, heartfelt vocals cut across layers of horns and guitars that take the listener on an emotional arc of joy, disappointment, struggle, and redemption.

Multiple Grammy Award-winning producer Chris Goldsmith (Blind Boys of Alabama, Ben Harper, Charlie Musselwhite, Big Head Todd) provided the musical curation that makes up Let’s Straighten It Out. Treasured tunes like Billy Preston’s “Nothing from Nothing” and Jackie Wilson’s “Higher and Higher” share the tracklist with lesser-known nuggets like “Hallelujah, I Love Her So” by Ray Charles; the title track, first recorded by Latimore in 1974; Shuggie Otis’ “Ice Cold Daydream”; and “I Wish It Would Rain,” first made a hit by The Temptations. Acclaimed San Diego soul singer, Rebecca Jade, shared vocal duties with Sully on Mac Rebennack (aka Dr. John) and Jessie Hill’s “When the Battle Is Over,” while on “If You Love Me Like You Say,” the late Albert Collins is evoked by Anthony Cullins, the 20-year-old guitar sensation from Fallbrook, California.

Anchored by Grammy Award-winning slayer of the bass, James East (Eric Clapton, Elton John, Michael Jackson, and many others), The Sully Band is composed of seasoned, accomplished players who hail from diverse locales like Japan, Panama, and the island of Lemon Grove. The horn section features sax-flute-harp-man Tripp Sprague (Kenny Loggins, The Little River Band, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, The Four Tops) and trumpet and flugelhorn player Steve Dillard (The Righteous Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd).

Sully himself is an enigma. He caught the music bug at age six after picking up a nylon-string guitar and playing the first few chords of “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” with his dad. In high school, the barrel-chested, all-American football player rocked out to Boston and Foreigner with his buddies, starred in every show-tune-laden musical theatre production through college, and ended each day with James Brown or Stevie Wonder on his Pioneer receiver.

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Chrissi Poland - Destination Home (E.P).

Becoming a parent completely changes one’s perspective. Singer-songwriter Chrissi Poland chronicles her journey through music and motherhood in her upcoming EP Destination Home. Vocalizing the raw balance of being an active touring musician and a new mom to a two-year-old baby girl, Poland speaks her truth about life within her contemporary styled tracks.

Poland’s passion for music was fueled when she was born into her musically inclined family and has only flourished since then. Rooted in Poland’s shift of view when she embarked on motherhood, Destination Home shares how this journey has influenced her music and all aspects of life. The songwriter’s honest mid-tempo EP highlights the universal ups and downs of parenting while striving to achieve one's dream. Hoping to inspire parents across the globe with this intimate project, Poland shares:

“When I began to write the songs for what would become Destination Home, I was a new mother and had just come off of my first tour since my daughter had been born. After growing and carrying this little human, suddenly she was out in the world, and then a handful of months later, I was out in the world, without her. What an unsettling, strange and often at times debilitating feeling, to suddenly be away from her for stretches of time. And so goes the plight of every working mother around the world, no matter what field of work.” Poland continues, “I remember being on a plane with tears streaming down my face as I wrote the words to 'Destination Home,' grappling with feelings of guilt and anxiety, of general unease."

A personal and yet recognizable sentiment, the multifaceted musician aims to let her story be heard while inspiring others to believe in their own dreams as well as in themselves. Poland shares: “The whole EP turned out to not only be a letter of love to my daughter, but to mothers and caregivers. To all the mothers and caregivers everywhere who are forging ahead with their careers and also being loving parents and guardians, I see you! This is for you.”

Chrissi Poland · Destination Home

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Mae Mae - Apple Boy.

Atlanta-born and Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Mae Mae will soon announce the release date and track list for her debut EP, Gummy Heart Eyes. 

She has released the second single from that record, “Apple Boy” a fizzy pop song with a stylishly groove.

“Apple Boy” joins Mae Mae’s previously released debut single from Gummy Heart Eyes, “Squishy” a song that Consequence called “an easy, playful, sunny ode to a happy afternoon” and lies “somewhere between cutesy and dreamy.”

 

 

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