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Photo - Kristi Jan Hoover The Early Mays - On A Dying Day. Pittsburgh-based duo The Early Mays announce their forthcoming EP,Prettiest Blue, which will release on July 1, 2022. Composed of artists Emily Pinkerton and Ellen Gozion, the pair sing Appalachian-inspired songs over a lush accompaniment of fiddle, banjo, guitar, and harmonium. Somewhere on the border between old-time music and modern American songwriting, The Early Mays have built a band with harmonies that feel like home. It’s a partnership that has shared slow-burning, perfectly paired vocals for ten years—from NPR’s Mountain Stage to house concerts all over the mid-Atlantic “I think part of our aesthetic comes from being introspective people,” Gozion reflects, “We don’t have a flashy, fast sound, but if you let the music engulf you, there are lots of layers. Our songs give people a place to slow down.” “The Early Mays rehearsals are restorative for me,” adds Pinkerton. “The hours spent in Ellen’s living room, with coffee

Jillette Johnson - My Closet Life. Nashville-based artist Jillette Johnson has just released her new EP Normal Kid and released the official video for the new song “My Closet Life.” The EP arrives with a trio of music videos directed by Grant Claire that were shot over the course of a single day on a vintage Sony Betamax 88 camera. The four song EP was co-written and produced by Joe Pisapia who collaborated with Johnson on her critically acclaimed 2021 album It’s A Beautiful Day And I Love You. “‘My Closet Life’ is about crawling out of isolation and into the company of friends who light you up,” explains Johnson. “It’s about finding your people, and allowing yourself to belong. Influences: David Byrne, Abba, MGMT.” The Normal Kid EP draws upon late '70s new wave, early '80s synth-pop, and '90s R&B, finding Johnson turning personal revelations about childhood dreams and adulthood realities into universal pop anthems. Last month, Johnson released the official video for

The Deer - I Wouldn't Recognize Me. The Deer announce their new album The Beautiful Undead due September 9 on tastemaking indie label Keeled Scales (Katy Kirby, Sun June, Twain, Buck Meek) and share its first single, “I Wouldn’t Recognize Me” via official music video. The Deer’s 2019 label debut Do No Harm marked a set of breakthroughs for the Austin five-piece. Bandcamp called it a “a country-rock dream machine,” while NPR described it as "haunting and gorgeous ... moody and incapacitating." The album topped the KUTX chart and earned a nomination for the Austin Music Awards’ Album of the Year. When live music took global pause, The Deer had momentum to sort. They took it to the studio, a pressure cooker not only for creativity, but suddenly, for existential contemplation. The result is an uninhibited collection reflecting upon what it means to lose your sense of purpose. Lead single “I Wouldn’t Recognize Me” is a vibrant embrace of the endlessness of change, in fact, an

Rachael Dadd - Moon Sails. On 14 October 2022 wildly creative free-form songwriter Rachael Dadd is to release her brand new studio album Kaleidoscope via Memphis Industries. The first taster is ‘Moon Sails’ which comes with a video directed by Narna Hue. Kaleidoscope is Rachael’s second album for Memphis Industries and follows 2019’s Flux, which was released to much acclaim and which she was touring when the pandemic struck. Like so many people disconnected from their communities and struggling through the lockdowns, Rachael Dadd turned inwards, seeking escape through music and connection through songwriting, and her hope is that when people listen to Kaleidoscope “they will feel held and find space to breathe, grieve and celebrate.” "Music for me usually comes from a place where I’m in a state of flow and free-child: playful and explorative and sparked by the infinite possibilities that creating it can bring,” she continues, “so kaleidoscope, a toy with infinite possibilities of

The Orchids - This Boy Is A Mess. Sometimes it can take several years to realise what you’ve been missing.  Sometimes it can even take decades....  (If you already know all about The Orchids, well, you’re going to like Dreaming Kind a lot.) The Orchids were making sophisticated pop music right back in the early 1990s when Sarah Records first started.  Their songs were as emotionally pure as anything else on that label, but they were always a step ahead of their peers in terms of song arrangements and musical ambition.  With a casual, unpretentious air they made writing perfect pop songs seem easy, almost accidental, and several great releases followed.  The Orchids gained a passionate following: people knew a good thing when they heard it and they hugged it close.  But now it’s time for the rest of the world to be let in on the secret. The songs themselves are a beautiful mix of strength and gentleness.   They wrap you in a powerful embrace, making you feel comfortable and secure – an

Fresh - Why Do I. 'Raise Hell' - the forthcoming new album from London punk band Fresh - resolves with our protagonist breaking free of a toxic relationship, joyously riding into the sunset singing doo-wops. It’s the first time on the album that the inner conflict settles, and contentment takes precedence. The band have shared the album's closing track 'Why Do I' as a single today, with their new full-length set to hit virtual shelves on 1st July via Specialist Subject. “Sadness and self-doubt are acknowledged and present on ‘Why Do I’, but they don’t hold power over you anymore. There’s power in starting from scratch” says lead singer and principal songwriter Kathryn Woods. She expands; "Think Nicole Kidman signing divorce papers in 2001-vibes. There’s a real catharsis and joyous presence to this song, upbeat do-woop vocals, guitar riffs with a touch of delay and soaring lead vocals make it a great note to end the record on." Fresh have been an unwaverin

Brodie Dawson - Will I Ever. Singer-songwriter Brodie Dawson has released her latest single,“Will I Ever,” the fourth off her next album Wholehearted.  “Will I Ever” follows Dawson through her very personal and vulnerable journey of overcoming her separation from her husband. It features country guitar grooves, live instruments, sultry and powerful vocals, and empowering lyrics. “I wrote this the summer my husband and I separated. My heart was devastated, and I was so lost, but hellbent on finding myself again. A beautiful couple I know on Hornby Island offered me their cabin for the weekend as a little writing retreat. So I packed up my dog, my guitar and my journal and spent the entire weekend at the ocean, thinking, crying, writing and playing,” says Dawson. "For the longest time it was more of a groove song than anything, and it only had one verse. I actually wrote the second verse the night before recording it in the studio in Nashville!” The track was written and performed

Elizabeth M. Drummond - Crisis. Getting lost in a window into somebody else's own existential crisis shouldn’t feel as joyful as it’s made to sound in Elizabeth M. Drummond’s sensational first steps as a solo artist. In her aptly named debut single out today titled “Crisis”, you’ll find a track that runs on the pure adrenaline that came from her own self-realisations and the honest reactions that followed.  Drummond was formerly a member of the critically acclaimed band Little May, who toured with The National & City and Colour, whilst headlining their own headline shows across the globe. Speaking about the song Drummond said, “I wrote Crisis when I had moved cities after leaving Little May and a long relationship. I felt like everything I ever identified with had just exploded in front of me. I also realised I had been living on auto-pilot for as long as I could remember, and that I had been ignoring what I actually wanted for my life. At this point, I had started to feel a h

Lydia Luce - Matter of Time. It’s no secret that an artist’s surroundings directly influence their output, but in the case of Lydia Luce’s new single “Matter of Time,” it isn’t so much about the beautiful nature in which the song was written. Moreso, Luce’s ethereal tune focuses on what might become of her Eden with the upward trend of wildfires and climate change. Written during her time as an artist in residence on Orcas Island off the coast of Washington—only a couple of months after a series of devastating heatwaves in the Pacific Northwest—it was greatly apparent to Luce that her refuge was threatened. “I was on this incredibly beautiful island immersed in nature thinking about the effect of climate change in that area. In that moment, I was grateful to be able to be there and experience the beauty,” she says, recounting the genesis of “Matter of Time.” “I tried to stay present and really absorb it all because every year we are seeing changes to our world.” “I want to stay in the

Certain Animals - All Is Over Now. 'All Is Over Now' proves that Certain Animals dares to become more and more personal, and is less anxious to show her true colours. What emerges is sometimes soft, sometimes sweet and longing for a recent past. Smooth and polished, like the late seventies period from which the song borrows inspiration, but always with an edge.  With vintage artistry and a Wurlitzer which would have suited a Supertramp record, the band describes the drifting apart of two lovers, without forgetting to shine a positive light on such a situation.  Incredible close-harmony, befitting The Beach Boys or The Beatles, and falsetto choirs echoing the sound of Electric Light Orchestra records, are complemented by an array of musical talent in the form of clarinets, flugel horn and a Hammond organ. All dressing this track up to perfection.  After mourning a loss and nearly drowning in nostalgia, Certain Animals breaks free in the final phrase and closes the song with tas

The Local Honeys - Better Than I Deserve. Linda Jean Stokley and Montana Hobbs, better known as the beloved Kentuckian duo, The Local Honeys, have a gifted way with words—particularly the playful colloquialisms and regional idiosyncrasies from their home in the Bluegrass State—that simultaneously connects the past and present, old and new. They bind stories with warm vernacular that makes those in-the-know feel warm and welcome and those not, well, flat out curious to hear more.  The Local Honeys’ newest is “Better Than I Deserve” from their upcoming self-titled album (out July 15th via La Honda Records), of which the title itself was an everyday motto of Hobbs’s Papaw; a positive answer for the oft-asked question, “How are you doing?” A moody two-step, “Better Than I Deserve” tells the story of Montana’s grandfather who was an orphan, a U.S. naval pilot, and a war survivor. “‘Better than I deserve’ was his motto in life and carried him through many hardships,” says Hobbs, who built t