Pollyanna Blue - Ariana Delawari - Ora Cogan - Bandits on the Run

Pollyanna Blue - Sapphire Lake.

Bristol-based alt-rock two-piece Pollyanna Blue are pleased to announce the release of their upcoming debut studio EP ‘Trials and Tribulations’ on June 23rd 2023.

Formed in the summer of 2019, Pollyanna Blue is led by Zoe Collins (guitar and vocals) and Rich Earle (Bass and vocals). Although based in different cities, the pandemic forced the band to really utilise the digital age, writing tracks back and forth online before travelling to Bristol to complete them in person.

Their name was inspired by a self help book ‘Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway’, which talks about a nickname ‘Pollyanna’, typically given to a person who is deemed overly optimistic. That ethos, blended with the waves of difficult emotions life throws at you, creates a concept of musical  juxtaposition within a 90s/00s alt rock atmosphere which sees the duo wield their self discovery, vulnerability and love of music to create something authentic and raw to connect with anyone experiencing some type of hardship.

Following up on the April release of their latest celebrated single Stray, comes their debut studio EP Trials & Tribulations, recorded with Ash Scott (Memorist, Harper, Aniimalia). The title of the EP was inspired by personal and abstract experiences, from the trials of being in a band that started right before a pandemic, to the personal tribulations of battling with your own mental health.

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Ariana Delawari - Cloak Of Lies.

Ariana Delawari is an Afghan-American musician, activist and filmmaker. Her film We Came Home (2013) documents her family, her travels to and from Afghanistan over a ten year period, in which Delawari recorded her first album. That album, Lion of Panjshir, was released on David Lynch’s record label to great acclaim.

The events that transpired during the recording of her new album, I Will Remember, were even more personally significant and traumatic, as Delawari’s mother and brother-in-law both passed away and she saw her home country fall to the Taliban. Delawari explains:

“I started to write about my mother, about living and dying, Earth and Heaven, Afghanistan and my life growing up in America, refugees, love of different forms, and about the social justice and environmental justice themes that my mom taught me about which shaped my own activism as well. I never could have imagined that COVID-19 would hit a few months before she died, and that I would lose her during quarantine. I’ll never forget the day I wheeled her up to a nurse in a hazmat suit at a sidewalk and couldn’t even kiss her goodbye.”

“I never could have imagined that just as I was finishing the album, a little over a year later, we Afghans would lose Afghanistan to the Taliban. Afghanistan is my whole heart, it is the cause of my entire lifetime and all of my activism. I am a very loud anti-Taliban Peace Activist, so the fall of the country was my biggest nightmare coming true.”

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Ora Cogan - Cowgirl.

Ora Cogan has announced the August 25 release of her new album Formless via Prism Tongue Records. Along with the announcement the cinematic singer-songwriter shares the VHS/Super 8 video for the first single “Cowgirl”,  a haunted acid trip of intense sorrow, deep solitude, and dark nights of the soul.

“Cowgirl” is a psychedelic, country slow jam reckoning with social isolation in grief. The ghostly guitar lines blanket ethereal vocals to create a twilight landscape of deep solitude, setting the stage for show work or a saloon brawl.

Formless, finds beauty, absurdity, humor, and unlikely joy in the bleakest of times. Cogan’s smoky, psychedelic approach to gothic country and hazy folk merges with post-punk, groove, psych rock, and traditional balladry. With a singular voice as much sensation as sound, Ora Cogan seeks out new realities within the smoke-and-mirrors labyrinth of our cruel society.

“Writing this album was a very much a lifeline… transformative and healing,” Cogan recalled. “Re-calibrating an internal compass constantly thrown off by the magnetism of a deranged world.”

Raised by a photographer and a singer-songwriter on the islands of Canada’s Pacific coast, where she once again resides, Cogan shaped her approach to music far from big-city scenes. Her childhood home played host to a constant stream of artists as it served as a professional recording studio. Cogan absorbed a myriad of influences from Édith Piaf, Ladino and Rumbetico to Karen Dalton, and American country blues, all feeding into her glacial and cinematic yet tinglingly intimate sound.

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Bandits on the Run - Radio.

Known for their vivacious performance style, genre-defying sound, soaring harmonies, and ability to make music-magic happen everywhere from subway platforms to concert halls, Bandits on the Run kick off a tour with the release of “Radio” and an appearance at Milwaukee Summerfest, opening for Deer Tick and The Avett Brothers.

Formed upon a chance encounter while busking in the subways of New York City, Bandits on the Run have become modern troubadours, the flower children of the digital age. The Brooklyn-based indie-pop-Americana trio is anchored by three-part harmonies and eclectic instrumentation, including accordion, cello, melodica, and a suitcase-kick-drum. Since their first release, 2017’s, The Criminal Record, they’ve received accolades from NPR Music’s All Songs Considered, American Songwriter, NPR Weekend Edition, and the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project. Their most recent EP, 2021’s Now Is The Time, was produced by Ryan Hadlock (Brandi Carlile, The Lumineers). This year has seen a new phase in Banditry, with band members Adrian Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd, and Regina Strayhorn jointly producing their own recordings for the first time.

“‘Radio’ was written at a time when I felt like I was living in a funhouse mirror... I was dealing with intense feelings of anxiety, dissociation, and dread about the state of the world and the state of my place in it. Many songwriters talk about songwriting as therapy, and I suppose that's true in this case, though it felt a bit more like expelling demons -- and does simultaneously reveling and revolting in your own inner world of absurdity count as a coping mechanism? Who's to say? I do know the bones of this song poured out of me all at once, and afterward, I felt lighter, freer,” Shepherd says. “I shared it with Adrian and Regina the very day it was born, and their brilliant care and thoughts and arrangements crafted it into the beautiful wild entity it is today. We've performed this song out many times (after I got over the weirdness of singing a Bandits song without a cello in my hand), and many folks have come up to us after shows and expressed a kinship with this song, and gratitude for giving a safe space to work out some darkness and dance with their own skeletons.”

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Old Crow Medicine Show Feat. Willie Watson - Phonosonics

Old Crow Medicine Show - Miles Away (Feat. Willie Watson).

Old Crow Medicine Show announces the August 25 release of their new album Jubilee via ATO Records. Arriving as the two-time GRAMMY award-winning band gears up to celebrate their 25th anniversary, Jubilee finds the group once again co-producing with Matt Ross-Spang (Drive-By Truckers, St. Paul & the Broken Bones) and recording at their own Hartland Studios.

The album features appearances from legendary soul singer Mavis Staples and singer/songwriter Sierra Ferrell. Along with the announcement, the band shares the debut single “Miles Away,” a sweetly reflective track co-written by bandleader Ketch Secor and bluegrass virtuoso Molly Tuttle, with guest vocals from Old Crow Medicine Show co-founder Willie Watson.

About the debut single, Ketch Secor explains: “This is one of those rearview songs where objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. 25 years of making music on the road means you’re always coming back to the same places as a different person; there’s a reminder of your past self and the choices you made back when. Molly Tuttle and I wrote this one together and when it was through, I asked my Old Crow co-founder Willie Watson to make his first appearance on an Old Crow record in years. After all, this is a song about amends, of bygones being bygones, and of renewal.”

“Miles Away” marks the first time Willie Watson has recorded with Old Crow Medicine Show in over 10 years. He will hit the road with the band this fall, performing as an opening act in addition to joining them on stage.

While songs like “Miles Away” embody a bittersweet gravity, much of Jubilee harnesses the unruly exuberance that Old Crow Medicine Show unfailingly channels into their live show. The new album finds the band doubling down on their commitment to creating roots music that bears an undeniable urgency, encompassing everything from jug-band tunes to Irish folk songs to exultant gospel jams. The result is a wildly expansive body of work showcasing the dazzling musicality and poetic yet powerfully trenchant storytelling that has made Old Crow Medicine Show one of the most potent and influential forces in American roots music for more than two decades.

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Phonosonics - End of the World.

End of the World is the newest single from Canada’s West Coast Roots Reggae veterans, the Phonosonics. Historically focusing on Rocksteady and Early Reggae, the band began internalizing a more 80’s-inspired sound when they were tapped to backup Sister Nancy in 2019 and subsequently Yellowman in 2020 (sadly cancelled due to COVID 19). Rehearsing these sets allowed the band to branch out into a new vibe, and one inspired by the events of our time.

This new track is a darker one, but still with a positive and conscious message: “the sickness divides us, together the cure, no on should be alone at the end of the world.” With an infectious hypnotic rhythm, spacey dubbed-out harmonies and blazing horn lines, it is sure to please on the radio and in the dancehall.

The world has become divided, but we can still come together united. As the lyrics say “there’s no storm we can’t weather if we come together as one.” Hoping all of our beloved fans and DJ friends can come together and enjoy this new one from the Phonosonics.

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M. Ward feat. First Aid Kit - Swansea Sound - TAYLR - M. Rider

M. Ward - too young to die (feat. First Aid Kit).

M. Ward is sharing 'too young to die' feat. First Aid Kit today, the final pre-release track from his upcoming album ‘Supernatural Thing’, out this Friday. In the song’s new video, Ward is a security guard working the graveyard shift who starts to see the ladies of First Aid Kit appear in his security camera’s video feed.

"First Aid Kit are sisters from Stockholm, and when they open their mouths, something amazing happens,” Ward said of working with them. “It was a great thrill to go to Stockholm and record a few songs there.  The sound from blood-related harmony singers is impossible to get any other way – The Everly Brothers, The Delmores, The Louvins, The Carters, The Söderbergs - all have the same kind of feeling in their vocals."

In addition to First Aid Kit, the album is filled with guest stars - Shovels & Rope, Scott McMicken, Neko Case, Jim James and others — who enliven the album with surprises. Eight of the album’s ten songs are Ward originals, but there is also an unusual Bowie choice, “I Can’t Give Everything Away” from Blackstar, and a live rendition of Daniel Johnston’s “Story of an Artist.” “Bowie and Johnston are constant sources of inspiration for me, have been for I don’t know how many years,” Ward offered.

‘Supernatural Thing’ is M. Ward’s first new music in three years, but in 2020 M. Ward released two albums. On April's ‘Migration Stories’, Ward was inspired by the immigration journeys he’d heard from friends or read about in newspapers, as well as what his own grandfather had to go through when immigrating to the US from Mexico. For the December album ‘Think of Spring’ he covered classic Billie Holiday tunes, as she is an artist he’s greatly inspired by. “Instead of the small jazz bands or orchestration she relied on, M. Ward pares the songs to just his voice and guitars, making them sound even starker than they once did,” said Rolling Stone.

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Swansea Sound – Keep Your Head On.

The first single taken from the forthcoming LP ‘Twentieth Century’, Keep Your Head On is a duet between Hue (The Pooh Sticks) and Amelia (Talulah Gosh/Heavenly), with a seriously rousing, singalong chorus.

Set in a humble Adult Education class, it’s an anthem for everyone who fears for the Twenty-First Century – a song for anyone who’s struggling to keep their head above the rising tide of digital disinformation and political deceit.

It’s positive and it’s upbeat, despite the odds.  It might remind you a bit of Britpop hit Common People - although, in Keep Your Head On, the woman has a voice, and she’s more interested in education than getting off with her optimistic male counterpart.

Keep Your Head On will be released on all digital platforms and as a very limited lathe-cut 7” single.  Only three copies of the physical single will be made available.  The first will be offered as a raffle prize at Swansea Sound’s gig at The Lexington on 30 June.  The second will be given at random to a customer who pre-orders the album on Bandcamp.  The last copy will be given away at the Twentieth Century album launch gig at Rough Trade East on 9th September.

The new album ‘Twentieth Century’ will be released on 8th September (Vinyl LP, CD, Digital). It features twelve glorious bursts of indiepop agitprop!

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TAYLR - The Blue.

Self-taught Calgary artist TAYLR is no stranger to self reflection and deep internal exploration that bold, technicolor songwriting is born from.  Taking bits and pieces of R&B, jazz, folk, and indie pop, “the thinking person’s songwriter” succeeds in creating hearty melodic recipes.

Their single “The Blue” is a gloomy minimal yet empathetic single inspired by a previous relationship that was bound in deliberate aversion.

“The two of us knew things needed to change and work needed to be done on ourselves and what we had built, but we made a silent agreement to put the blinders on and focus all of that energy into renovating our home. I wanted the song title to be the exact shade of blue that we painted our kitchen cupboards during this escapade but it felt too niche..”

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M. Rider - Little Things.

Croatian electronic-pop singer and producer M.Rider is back with her brand-new single and video for ‘Little Things’. The single is taken from her forthcoming album, due to drop later this year.

‘Little Things’ started off as a sonic adventure on a Prophet 12 synth. From there, M.Rider created a beat on her Roland TR-8  – the usual four-on-the-floor house beat  – which inspired the first version of the song. The single explores ambivalent, evolving feelings underlying in relationships that just aren't meant to last. Illuminating emotions that quietly simmer beneath the surface, the track indicates something is amiss before erupting like a volcano. With hints of New York underground house music, the final version (co-produced with Ant Whiting and featuring synths by Vincent Taurelle (Air) and violin by Lucy Wilkins (Bryan Ferry, Tindersticks)), encompasses a raw and punchy house track edge that has been softened with her signature dreamy, melodic pop sound.

Speaking of the new single, M.Rider said: “It's a song about all the little things that are felt but are often ignored within a relationship. We keep these feelings, this voice of intuition, buried somewhere underneath and we keep going with the story we want to believe in... And these little things, little signs, quietly whisper the truth to us – if only we would listen.”

Joanna Petkiewicz (concept, direction, additional footage) explained the accompanying music video: “The idea for the video came from a format of theatrical monologue (in English ‘soliloquy’, where the audience hears the actors thoughts). Visual inspirations draw upon Flemish baroque portraits that are only bust-length, and where characters stare into space or gaze mischievously or alluringly in a direct manner at a viewer, which makes it feel more like a conversation or exchange. Another big inspiration was also the flower motif, that originally also came from still-life flower paintings from the same era as the portraits. What they have in common is very often the lighting and the blurring of physical context as they often have a very dark background, which allows imagination to add a story. I was also inspired by some of Sally Potter’s Orlando headshots, that follow similar aesthetics and she translated them beautifully into a moving image.

I wanted to retain the lyrical intimacy of the song by slowing it down visually so it contrasts with its dance rhythm. The character is mostly quite still, like in the paintings…Such an effect was achieved thanks to filming and editing by Robin Lochmann, a very talented cinematographer from Ireland. We chose a vintage look which also opposes the atmosphere of a modern electronic pop song.”

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Loupe - Sara Lew - Bo Milli

Loupe - Do You Ever Wonder What Comes Next? (Album).

Amsterdam indie rock quartet Loupe share their hotly anticipated debut album Do You Ever Wonder What Comes Next? - released June 16th via Excelsior Records. The band are also set to tour the UK later this year with indie-rock breakouts Lovejoy.

Recorded with producer Arne van Petegem (Moss, Styrofoam) and mixed by Beau Sorenson (Death Cab For Cutie, Sparklehorse), the album showcases the bands rich and intricate soundscapes as well as their effortlessly gliding lead vocals, catchy melodies and captivating, story telling lyricism. Atmospheric yet punchy - packing musical depth and beauty, the 13-track release showcases the band's ability to create truly spellbinding music.

The band’s singer and lyricist Julia (vocalist) explores themes of young adulthood, life in the big city and human relationships over a weave of rousing harmonies, free-flowing rhythms and expressive vocals. Besides Julia, the band consists of Jasmine guitar, Lana bass and Annemarie van der Born drums.

Do You Ever Wonder What Comes Next? is an exploration of growing up in the modern age, both within the songwriting and through collaborations with artists from other disciplines. The vibrant collage-like album artwork created by Ukrainian graphic designer Karaska shows the band standing on top of a building, as colors and images spread around them.

According to Julia, much of the material revolves around finding something to hold on to amidst the heat of the hustle and bustle, and adjusting to a new busy environment full of impulses. “For me it was all a kind of transition, with 'on the one hand 'the new life and all the cool things that come with it. And on the other hand, the uncertainty of being alone in the big city and the adult world.”

Loupe · Do You Ever Wonder What Comes Next?

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Sara Lew - Shady Light.

Sara Lew’s new single ‘Shady Light’ is set to shine on the earth’s surface with its release on June 16th, 2023, as a precursor to her upcoming album ‘LOUD’, which she is getting ready to release in autumn 2023. ‘Shady Light’ is the second single to come from the new album, following 'Out of Nowhere', which picked up a lot of playlist additions around the world, as well as and airplay on Amazing Radio and Louder Than War Radio and a video premiere with Vents Magazine.

‘Shady Light’ is a real indie ballad. It's about standing together in a relationship, constantly learning from each other, and sharing with each other and continuing to do so even though life is rushing by with different goals and ambitions.

On the song, Sara explains, “It’s about standing together in a relationship even in a heavy storm when everything else is falling apart around you. It’s about daring to experiment and be vulnerable and stand on new land together. And though there still must be food on the table and the family must endure, to have the ability to seek refuge together in the very close moments, in love, in moments and special spaces of timeless being, where everything else is suspended.”

“I wrote the song after a long summer holiday where there was finally some peace, after a long and intense period.", She adds.

Sara Lew's upcoming album “LOUD” is all based around the development of life. It’s about when young people become adults and experience personal confrontations with the past, in which family stories of shame and taboo culture arise from the subconscious. It explores how to rein in anger and grief, to keep your head above water and be a role model for your own children when life all falls apart and how to protect love and togetherness when everyday life rolls on. Essentially, it’s an album about living in the present moment with love for life's stories, memories, moments of happiness but also life’s unforeseen, manifold trip wires.

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Bo Milli - Making Friends.

Bergen, Norway-based indie-rock rising star Bo Milli has returned with her new single "Making Friends" ahead of a busy schedule of festivals this summer. The new single follows a string of standalone tracks released across the past 12 months which has seen her tipped as one the next breakout musicians to come out of Norway.

Re-creating the chaos and indiscipline of nights out in Bergen, "Making Friends" tracks the expectations, contradictions and drama of nocturnal social interactions through a haze of tumultuous indie-rock.

Co-produced by Odd Martin (Sigrid, Sløtface) and Magnus Skylstad (AURORA), "Making Friends" opens with a rumbling bass line, with Bo Milli recalling precise moments of discourse amidst the cold Bergen night life: "I've been wondering when it will get under my skin / I bet you're waiting for it to kick in".

Speaking more on the inspiration behind "Making Friends", Bo Milli said: "The song is about a yearning to connect with people and have some sort of meaningful experience motivating a night out. It's about a shallow but euphoric feeling after a certain amount of drinks that every stranger in the room is my friend, all the while I've lost track of the friends I actually wanted to get to know better."

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Vines - Ellie Burke - The Pink Stones Feat. Nikki Lane

Vines - I don't mind.

Brooklyn composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Cassie Wieland released the lead single "I don't mind" from her upcoming debut LP as Vines, titled Birthday Party, out August 18th.

There’s dejection in “I don’t mind,” but also a growing assuredness. The first time Wieland sings “I’ll fall apart if I need to, I don’t mind,” her voice sounds tender and soft, even a little distant. But with each emphatic repetition of the simple-yet-potent lyric, which acts as the backbone of the song, her voice fills out, growing into a full chord accompanied by steady piano and glimmering electronics. It’s not unlike the moment when you realize you need to feel the feelings you’re bottling up—and the rush of calm that comes once they’ve finally been released.

Wieland founded Vines as a way to break out of the performer-composer hierarchy, opting for more collaboration and a closer connection to her fans. Vines has already made waves on Tiktok covering indie pop favorites using a vocoder and uniquely processed vocals. She continues this trend on Birthday Party, including a heart-wrenching, some how even more melancholic version of "The World at Large" by Modest Mouse.

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Ellie Burke - Filtered Reality.

Liverpool singer Ellie Burke is using her university music dissertation 'Filtered Reality' to raise awareness about mental health. ‘Filtered Reality’ takes you into Ellie’s world and insecurities caused by social media and how it has affected her in a negative way, from the filtered images, stories and narratives that lead to unrealistic expectations and lifestyles.

Ellie Burke wrote Filtered Reality as part of her university music dissertation to raise awareness about the negative impact of social media. Ellie took a specific approach by researching individual accounts of people who have suffered and are still suffering from mental health problems due to cyberbullying and comparison to filtered realities portrayed online.

"One girl spoke about how social media exasperated her eating disorder due to the negative content surrounding her disorder that was easily accessible. Another account discussed how cyberbullying ruined their mental health and wellbeing. One influencer spoke about how she suffered with anxiety due to Instagram because she was sharing her life in unhealthy ways, ways that weren’t the real her, and people were influenced by her unrealistic lifestyle. This is where my idea for ‘Filtered Reality’ came from." - Ellie Burke

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The Pink Stones - Baby, I’m Still Right Here (Feat. Nikki Lane).

The Pink Stones will release You Know Who on June 30 via Normaltown/New West Records. The 11-song set was co-produced by Henry Barbe & frontman Hunter Pinkston and features guest appearances by Nikki Lane, Teddy and the Rough Riders, John James Tourville of The Deslondes, and Annie Leeth. You Know Who is the follow up to their 2021 debut Introducing…The Pink Stones, which was met with critical acclaim. The Pink Stones, a six-piece outfit creating some of the most shimmering, melancholic Southern rock in years...Introducing doesn’t just tell us who The Pink Stones are, it gets us tickled for what they’ll do next."

The Pink Stones previously released the Joshua Shoemaker-directed video for the first single, “Who’s Laughing Now?” which features the actor, writer, and comedian Chris Crofton. The song, which features Teddy and the Rough Riders, hides its aching heart behind a big sing-along chorus. The band also previously shared the album highlight “Someone You Can’t Move” as well.

Made up entirely of Athens musicians who play in other bands around town (including former members of the Drive-By Truckers and The Glands), The Pink Stones match their frontman’s vast musical vocabulary while adding their own twists to spacey honkytonk, pedal-to-the-metal trucker anthems, and ecstatic gospel.

“This record was me trying to take everything I love as a listener and a player and shove it all into one thing without it sounding random,” says Pinkston, former punk turned cosmic country auteur, describing the boisterous, ambitious You Know Who. Ostensibly they play country music, yet all the pedal steel sobs, the two-steppin’ rhythms, twangy harmonies, and lyrics about broken hearts and long days on the road are launchpads for wild experiments and unexpected stylistic forays.  “There’s obviously a lot of country and rock in our music, but there’s a lot of gospel and soul and psych and dub. I really wanted to get all of those things living peacefully together in one record.” Especially notable is The Pink Stones’ ability to intertwine joy, heartache and self-deprecating humor in songs. It’s a classic hat trick of country music that is all too easy to overplay and seem forced by modern Americana aspirants, but one which the band crafts perfectly.

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MARBL - Kindsight - Allegra Krieger - Sandy Bailey - Silva & Steini - William The Conqueror

MARBL - A Song For Mom.

Tel-Aviv based singer songwriter MARBL is releasing her new single "A Song for Mom", that is part of the artist's unique piano project. "Mom has always let me paint my unique trails to walk along. She knows best how to plant the confidence and passion in me, to do whatever my heart desires the most, and quiet down the voices of fear.

She is an eternal home to me, where I can find endless support, listening, and unconditional love. "A Song for Mom", is the least I can give her as a gift." - Moria Or MARBL's music has its own widely spread range of influences like Sufjan Stevens, Laura Marling, Norah Jones, Big Thief, Iron & Wine and more. 

MARBL has already drawn the attention of dominant radio stations, music bloggers, journalists & publicists in France, the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, Israel, the USA, Japan, and more, and hit some big official Spotify playlists around the world, alongside leading TV commercials and campaigns. Nowadays, MARBL is releasing a unique piano project, in which she offers a glance into her very first musical passion - the piano, that draws the likes of Norah Jones, Tori Amos, Kate Bush.

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Kindsight - Tibet.

Danish four-piece Kindsight make music that draws from 80’s and 90’s alternative rock and combines it with the shimmering Scandinavian pop that the region has become so renowned for, resulting in a sound that is both fuzzy and melodic in equal measure.

This week the band share the new single 'Tibet'. The single follows the atmospheric 'Love You Baby All The Time' and experimental slowly building "Madhouse Breakout Multitool" and continues to expand the band's sound without losing their lovable characteristics. The band is playing Roskilde Festival on June 26th, a festival they've attended many times and as so many danes before them, partly grown up at.

About the track, Kindsight says: "Our most political love song to date, Tibet celebrates the wildest forms of conformity and anti-self-realization."

In 2022, the band released their debut LP via Rama Lama Records to praise such as "your new favourite band". Titled "Swedish Punk", it's an album packed with charming and infectiously catchy noise-jangle-pop melodies full of exuberant optimism and coming-of-age tales inspired by acts such as Pixies, Cocteau Twins, Snail Mail and Big Thief. The album was followed by tour dates in Scandinavia, UK and Germany as well as several shows at SXSW.

Atop jangling guitars, Nina Rasmussen’s distinctive voice dances somewhere between that of Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval and Alvvays’ Molly Rankin, leaving the listened renched in the nostalgic optimism of summers gone by. There’s not a single song that would feel out of place in an 00’s independent movie. The band possess an unmistakable talent for crafting disarmingly buoyant yet achingly nostalgic indie-rock songs based on the everyday.

Rama Lama Records · Kindsight - Tibet

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Allegra Krieger - Lingering.

In May, the New York-based songwriter Allegra Kreiger announced her signing to Double Double Whammy (Florist, Babehoven, Hatchie) for the release of her new LP I Keep My Feet on The Fragile Plane (out July 21st). The first single from the album, "Nothing In This World Ever Stays Still," attracted immediate attention, earning praise from outlets like FADER, Stereogum, BrooklynVegan, Exclaim, NYLON and Paste, who called Krieger "one of the best working songwriters."

This past Sunday Krieger played the release show for Greg Mendez' new LP at Purgatory in Brooklyn, and this week she's sharing a new single entitled "Lingering." "Lingering" neatly captures the chaotic possibility of city living. Rich with little details – black mold on an apartment ceiling, the smell of piss and garbage – the track has a timeless quality, and showcases Krieger's ability to imbue the outlines of everyday experience with a deep emotional resonance.

"Lingering is about new love, entering that fragile plane, shared pleasure, returning to the stasis of a room, of an apartment in a city that is always moving," Krieger explains to NYLON. "Objects sitting and hanging. Wanting something, but not wanting to want anything. Crossing the street. A nice day, a nice moment."

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Sandy Bailey - Get The Message Through.

Massachusetts-based singer-songwriter Sandy Baileyhas unveiled “Get The Message Through,” the lead single from Daughter Of Abraham, her first LP with Red Parlor Records, set for release on August 18th.

“The latest single from Sandy Bailey -a soft-country power ballad about mortality and heartbreak and everyday existentialism -is the kind of song that country music was built on,” says Hollerin their premiere. “Delivered with a faux breeziness, it’s both painfully real and bleakly comical. Her almost throwaway, conversational delivery making the lines land even harder as she ponders her grown up children leaving home, while the song slowly spirals towards a deeper truth about how disconnected and isolated we become from each other as adults....

It’s like if an AI music generator had been tasked to come up with a Carole King song that perfectly tapped into the futility of doom scrolling and the existential dread of the pre-apocalypse.”“A headline caught my eye in The Wall Street Journalthat read ‘Moms in Middle Age: Rarely Alone, Often Online and Increasingly Lonely,’” Bailey told Holler. “I thought about my love/hate relationship with social media and wrote a song about the irony of the current environment that we live in, where we are more connected than ever through the internet but also lonelier than ever.”For the video, Bailey put a team together from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

“We knew we wanted the video to have a throwback 70's feel,” Bailey explained to Holler. “In going through a bunch of vintage stock footage for ideas, the director Sofi Taylor was inspired by a video of a clean, empty kitchen. The contrast of a once vibrant house now unlived in was our inspiration for showing change, loneliness, and the passage of time.” 

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Silva & Steini - If It Was.

Entrepreneur, filmmaker and bestselling author Scott Blum has announced his next venture, FOUND, a US-based independent record label focusing on the contemporary music scene of Iceland. The label’s first signings include jazz vocal duo Silva & Steini, composer Magnús Jóhann, and punk band GRÓA.

FOUND is marking the occasion with the release of the music video for Silva & Steini’s “If It Was” from their debut album More Than You Know. The popular song already has 2 million streams on Spotify and was written by Alan Hampton (Andrew Bird, Fiona Apple, Sufjan Stevens, etc.).

The video is directed by noted Icelandic visual artist Anna Maggý and was shot in gorgeous black & white at the unique "Library of Water" location in Stykkishólmur, Iceland, a fine art installation by Roni Horn featuring large tubes of water from glaciers around Iceland. The dreamlike visuals echo the lyrical themes of memory, loss and rebirth from the evocative song. "Anna Maggý used her unique mind and talent to create and capture something magical," notes singer Silva. "She manages to make her work one of a kind because she is so passionate and knows exactly what she wants in the moment."

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William The Conqueror - The Bruises.

William The Conqueror have just unveiled the video to their new single ‘The Bruises’. Taken from their forthcoming album ‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’, out 28th July on Chrysalis Records, the track is the follow-up to last month’s single ‘The Puppet and the Puppeteer’. Produced by the band in a playground of vintage gear and mixed by Barny Barnicott (Arctic Monkeys, Sam Fender, Kasabian), the ten tracks on ‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’ marry earworm tunes with insistent, imperious, soaring rock shapes, punctuated by chorus hooks that are simultaneously nuanced and anthemic. William The Conqueror, who performed to a packed room at The Great Escape last month, head out on a European tour with Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats next week. The band will embark on a headline tour of the UK in October.

"My favourite kind of songwriting is when you have no control over what's happening” explains frontman Ruarri. “The song just arrives, finding its way through your fingers onto the fret board, as the pen wanders the page and somehow says everything you didn't realise you needed to say. The Bruises was like that. It wasn't and then all of a sudden, it was." Bassist Naomi adds, “'The Bruises' will stay with you all day. And with a verse that catchy, you don’t really need a chorus. Which is lucky.”

‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’, very nearly didn’t happen. Following the imposition of lockdown restrictions, Joseph found himself cocooned at home in Cornwall, ruminating on an uncertain creative future, watching on as his wife Mandy, a valiant mental health social worker, engaged with the all-too-real dilemmas of the pandemic-riven here and now. Her example motivated Joseph to become a temporary care worker, an experience which would provide renewed focus and influence the songwriting on the new album.

Sofie Winterson - Naomi Psalm - Pretty

Sofie Winterson - Southern Skies (Album).

Amsterdam-based musician Sofie Winterson shares her new album Southern Skies co-produced by Benny Sings via Excelsior Recordings featuring previous singles "Jump", "Lost You To A Boy" and new single, closing track "Perfect Goodybe". The project is a continuation and expansion of her and Sings' 2019 collaborative EP Moral, but also offers a glimpse into what Sofie can do when left to her own devices.

Created in primarily Benny Sings' canal-hugging studio in Amsterdam, the upcoming album, Southern Skies was formed as an act of stripping-back and growing as a songwriter. Sofie’s last full-length album Sophia Electric instead acted as a way to expand her work as a producer. Her varied influences, from the soul and folk she grew up on to the dream-pop of her university years can all be heard as part of the album’s eclectic palette which leans in a more minimal direction than before.

Sofie says: "In the opening track ‘Hours’ I sing the words ‘Southern Skies’, that’s where the title of this record comes from. From a very young age I had a helicopter view on life. I, for example, was well aware of the fact that I was too young to experience certain things the way I would probably do when I would be older. Like I realised that I wasn’t yet ready to see the full value in those beautiful ‘Southern Skies’ that I saw when driving through the south of Europe.

The songs are about passing time, the wish for boredom, feeling helpless towards choices your friends make, about doing something better or different and about meeting new people and creating an image of that person from your own perspective before getting to know them. So the songs are written from this helicopter view and by seeing it this way and being able to put it into words in my songs, life makes sense to me."

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Naomi Psalm - Fantasy.

“Naomi Psalm is of the rare breed of singer/songwriters that with just a guitar and a voice, she can transport you into the emotion of the lyric, and that is not a common thing at all”- Bernie Larsen Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/musician (guitarist) and has produced for Melissa Etheridge, Jackson Browne, Rickie Lee Jones, and Lucinda Williams.

This free spirited Florida girl began turning her poetry into songs in her early teens. Yet highly influenced by the 90's female indie scene, she has a sound of her own. Her powerful vocals reminiscent of Alanis Morissette will move you as you absorb each lyric as if it were written for you. Naomi’s songs have bits of introspection, as well as fun and quirky twists.

She has released 4 full length CDs, 2 EPs , 5 singles, and several music videos. Her latest full length record was released in September 2022. Her award winning music has taken her to 32 countries as well as countless tours in the Northwest. She currently resides in Boise, Idaho. Fantasy is a self-produced song about romantic obsessions

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Pretty - Food For The Moon.

Pretty have released their 2nd single "Food For The Moon" from their upcoming EP "Citrus Magic" (out July 28).

Pretty are people who appear onstage with lots of noise and then leave. This half-silly, half-serious sentence summarizes the band’s ethic and sound, from their early inspiration by Toronto’s 2010s-era DIY punk scene, to their current fascination with psychedelic sound and culture, elements that fuse into a highly distinctive, dark and frenzied sonic landscape. The Torontonian band had a busy 2022, recording their second EP and follow-up to their debut album Sertraline Dream (2020); playing headline sets to increasingly large and enthusiastic crowds and being featured acts for Exclaim! Magazine’s Class of 2022, Canadian Music Week and Sarnia’s Empty Fest. If you dig getting warped and discovering another side of yourself, you won’t want to miss Pretty.

Torin: “The title comes from this phrase I found in a book, something about the moon living off of our emotions, basically farming us in a sense for sustenance - very occult. I can’t remember what book it came from and have been driving myself insane trying to find it again. The song itself was written in the days following a break up, working with the feeling of futility, loss, and emotional torture that comes with that sort of thing. It’s two people who are both dealing with their own things and it gets in the way of them being together - and hey, what does it matter anyways, we’re all just food for the moon in the end."

Amy Stroup - Claudia Cappelletti - Jeremie Albino

Amy Stroup - Valley.

Since Frank, indie singer-songwriter Amy Stroup's fourth solo album, out June 23, works to find a way to be okay on the inside; relatably, Stroup struggles with the heaviness that lives inside all of us—and then finds a way to move beyond it. “Valley,” out now, introduces listeners to the album with its resplendent strings, and posits the idea that shifting perspectives and remembering small joys, like the people (and pets) we love, can be the key to creating a calm inner life.

Since Frank and its 10 songs find a cohesive sound thanks to producer Chad Copelin (LANY, Broncho, Ben Rector) and his expert hand at transforming live tracking into an expansive finished product, with drums by James McAlister (The National, Taylor Swift, Sufjan Stevens).

Known for her ability to tap into rich, emotional honesty and vivid storytelling, Stroup wrote these songs with herself in mind—a change from the hundreds she's written for TV and film. The self-proclaimed “song farmer” is closing in on 1,000 sync credits, which include backing moments on How I Met Your Father, This Is Us, Shameless and Netflix's upcoming Choose Love, among many others.

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Claudia Cappelletti - Mine.

Claudia Cappelletti is an Italian singer/songwriter whose music has taken her around the world, giving her the nickname of “the Nomad of the world”. Having graduated from the CPM Music Academy in Milan, she then went on to sing at luxury hotels internationally, wowing audiences with her charismatic and explosive performances, before making her way to the States where she lived for several years. Her time spent there is where her sound became influenced by American rock and indie bands including Band of Horses, Bleachers and The Killers.

Over the last few years, Claudia Cappelletti focused on her own music, creating a new five-track EP, alongside acclaimed producer Ryan Hadlock (The Lumineers, Vance Joy, Brandie Carlile, and many others) at the Bear Creek Studio in Seattle.

Her latest single “Mine” showcases some of her strongest and most empowering work to date. Speaking on women’s rights, Claudia Cappelletti joins the fight for equality, sharing, “As I traveled as a singer around the world so many times I got to live in underdeveloped countries where many women and girls continue to experience discrimination because of their sex and gender. I can’t deny the anger I felt for the injustice those women have to face in their everyday’s life.”

“Mine” is Claudia Cappelletti’s way of inspiring and uniting all the people around the world to fight for the rights for women to live free from violence and discrimination, to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, to be educated, to own property, to vote and to earn an equal wage. The lyrics give a voice to women who can’t express their own voice. The track showcases real speeches from politicians and girls around the world who talk about women rights, including Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai who said “I speak not for myself, but so those without a voice can be heard. Those who have fought for their rights. Their right to live in peace. Their right to be treated with dignity. Their right to equality of opportunity. Their right to be educated."

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Jeremie Albino - Tears You Hide.

Buzzy Americana artist-to-watch Jeremie Albino has released his highly anticipated sophomore album, Tears You Hide. No Depression has called it “perfection,” and “one of the best releases to come out this year.” Albino also recently announced a Fall U.S. Headline Tour, and his is a show you won’t want to miss. The series of dates kicks off October 10 in Boston and will make stops in New York City, DC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Nashville, Atlanta and more.

Recorded entirely live off the floor, Tears You Hide is a catalog of feelings from time-passed that serves up an ode to family, resilience, and the road ahead. The deeply personal nature traverses Albino’s development as an artist and captivating songwriter.

The artist found support from the team instrumental in the production of his earlier work - The Rosehall Band, his original backing band, and Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes), who co-produced his critically acclaimed debut full length. The importance of working with a supportive and collaborative community is something that he knows the value of not only in his music but also from his days working as a farmer in Prince Edward County.”

Earlier this month, Jermeie released a captivating live performance video for “You I’m Waiting On” that was shot and directed by longtime creative partner and collaborator Mark Klassen. The video transports viewers back in time to the historic Owl’s Club in Toronto. The old legion hall, frozen in time, serves as the ultimate backdrop and perfectly pairs Jeremie’s soulful golden sound with the memories painted on the walls.

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headboy - Organ Morgan

headboy - Was It What You Thought (E.P).

London trio headboy release their debut EP 'Was It What You Thought', out yesterday 9th June via Blitzcat Records. Swaying from lo-fi bedroom tones to tumultuous blasts of snarling post-punk, headboy's blend of influences, ranging from Sleater-Kinney and Radiohead to Modest Mouse and Grizzly Bear informs the immediacy of their sound, whilst the band also note the impact of post-punk and no wave acts á la Gang Of Four, Orange Juice, Pixies and Television.

Consisting of guitarist/bassist and vocalist Mars West (they/them), bassist/guitarist vocalist Jess Collins (she/they) and drummer Oli Birbeck (they/them), headboy's debut EP 'Was It What You Thought' was born amidst a period of acute political turbulence. Rediscovering and reflecting on the importance of friendship and loyalty during that time, ending with a heartfelt treatise on loss and vulnerability; ultimately the EP forms a study into the often cyclical, yet always unpredictable nature of life itself.

An examination of knowing and not knowing, 'Was It What You Thought' was written during 2022 and recorded over that summer at Hackney Studios in East London with producer Joe Futak. The EP's four tracks draw on the community-led London scene they've become a key cog in after a year of intense gigging. "We pretty much condensed every emotion we’ve felt in the past two years into 14 minutes. There are moments of anger, fear, and sadness, but also moments of joy, or acceptance, at least," guitarist and vocalist Jess added.

With racing stories of passion, intimacy and connection ("Reservoir"), societal distress and government blunders ("Sheep's Skin") and taking refuge in friendship  ("Cement" and "Jackal Lake"), headboy deliver their shrewd social observations through a lens of deceptively dark, climactic post-punk. 

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Organ Morgan - The Argument.

Organ Morgan is the moniker of songwriter and guitarist and ex-Blaenavon drummer Harris McMillan. This week he releases new single "The Argument" and announces his debut EP 'Figurehead' will be released on 20th July on London based label Everybody's.

Organ Morgan's debut EP 'Figurehead' was recorded and produced (over the course of 2 weeks in 2022) at Black Bay Studios, an ex-crab processing factory on the Hebridean Island of Great Bernera, Scotland.

Gracefully intertwining Laurel Canyon-esque harmony-drenched passages with intricate, towering indie-folk instrumentals, Organ Morgan's music is spacious, grandiose and romantic all at once. New single "The Argument" opens with McMillan's warm vocal weaving between bowed double bass, before swelling into its bracing folk-rock second section, as he retells and reimagines the stories surrounding a coastal meeting point...

Speaking more on the lyrical inspiration behind the "The Argument", McMillan said: "‘The Argument’ was inspired by a beachfront cafe in Brighton called ‘The Meeting Place’, it was usually deserted on rainy days but would call out order numbers for invisible customers over the tannoy. I started imagining the stories that might lead to a meeting there and one particular idea of two lovers trying to stay cross with each other during the course of an argument became the song."

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Off Judy - Moving Into Tucson - Bush Tetras - The Tiger Moths

Off Judy - Under The Weather.

With their nonchalant and carefree attitude, this raucous Byron Bay-based garage surf rock trio, Off Judy, are releasing their latest single, 'Under The Weather' with its accompanying music video today Friday, June 9. Formed as a duo, Off Judy originated with singer and guitarist Finn Mcildowie and drummer Thomas Cameron-Duncan. They have since welcomed the addition of drummer Axl Delandro and Thomas Cameron-Duncan’s transition to bass, solidifying their powerful lineup and expanding their sonic possibilities.

'Under The Weather' is the exhilarating new track that showcases Off Judy's fusion of sun-kissed punk and invigorating surf shack anthems. The song effortlessly combines infectious melodies with euphoric energy, creating a proverbial earworm. 'Under The Weather' has their punk roots shining through with a raw rock foundation that bursts with chant-worthy chorus. Masterfully, they have found a sweet spot between a palatable indie rock bop and a punk-laden belter.

The song reflects the struggles of being in a dark place and emphasizes the importance of supporting one another through difficult times to ultimately emerge stronger together. With Men’s Health Week starting on Monday, June 12th, the boys thought now was a fitting time to release the track. Finn Mcildowie speaks on the meaning behind the track:

“We’ve all found ourselves in dark places. Whether it’s a momentary bad headspace or it feels more like an endurance race with no finish line. This song came to life while I was stuck in a quarantine hotel in Hamilton, New Zealand, which undoubtedly influenced its emotions. However, the message is pretty clear—Be there for your mates, let them know they’re not alone. Lean on each other through the shit times and come out better on the other side.“

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Moving Into Tucson - It Should Have Been You.

It Should Have Been You. And why not? But reality isn’t always as straight-forward as that. Missed opportunities and luckily also second chances are both daytime realities of our real life. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But there is always hope. Always. Even beautiful things can come out of this. See the eponymous new single of Moving Into Tucson. It’s fresh, it’s pop, it’s everything you want from your favorite band. Almost anthem like.

Moving Into Tucson is entering new territories with this second single and heading to even greater promises. But that’s for the near future. First this great new track. It Should Have Been You don’t you think? Definitely!

Moving Into Tucson is basically the side effect of the COVID epidemic. Why, you will ask. Well for the simple reason that the band was formed during the pandemic. Can you call Moving Into Tucson a band? Well, yes as in, it's a band, with a singer, guitarist, bassist, drummer etc. But also no because it's not a band as usual. Band members do not come from the same city or even country, but from different parts of the world. When the world was in lock-down and many were forced to stay at home, there wasn't much left for musicians to do other than work from home. But, how? And better, with whom? Like for many, Zoom video brought a solution. Fortunately, we live in an advanced digital world and a lot is possible without necessarily having to be somewhere. Only someone who arranges it. This is where the label TCBYML, the label of the various artists in the band Moving Into Tucson, stepped in.

Result, twenty songs composed over a period of 18 months. These have now been brought together, mixed, mastered and provided with artwork. In 2023, five of them will be released as singles and together with eight more songs will form the album "Distraction" that will see the light on November 24 of this year. A great initiative that may be followed up in 2024. Who's to say.

TCBYML · Moving Into Tucson - It Should Have Been You

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Bush Tetras - They Live in My Head.

The legendary no-wave punk band Bush Tetras have released the title-track from their upcoming LP, They Live in My Head, out July 27th on Wharf Cat Records. It's a jangly and jagged barn-burner, "about people living in your head rent-free and how life is not all it seems," the band writes in a statement. "Not quite a ballad, with its wild fast choruses, kind of like falling off a cliff."

On the heels of the album announcement and a sold out show at Brooklyn's Union Pool, the New York Times selected the lead single "Things I Put Together" as the first track on their weekly music roundup, proclaiming them "a quintessential Lower East Side post-punk band." Bush Tetras has been credited as the band that "bridged the gap between the Ramones and Sonic Youth" (NY Post), and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore said they are "without a doubt, one of the greatest rock-and-roll groups born and bred in New York City." Needless to say, Bush Tetras have made an enormous impact on rock 'n' roll in New York City and beyond.

Their first album in 11 years, They Live in My Head was produced by Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth, who is now the band's drummer, joining them after founding member Dee Pop passed away in 2021. Also joining the band on bass is Cait "Rocky" O'Riordan of The Pogues and Elvis Costello. You can catch the new Bush Tetras lineup at their album release show on September 15th at Greenwich Village venue Le Poisson Rouge.


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The Tiger Moths - Dreaming Of Yesterday.

The Tiger Moths release their debut album 'When Sunshine Departs' on June 16th 2023. It includes the current single 'Dreaming Of Yesterday' which has garnered numerous excellent reviews.

An established live act on the London scene, The Tiger Moths reached the Grand Final of the Isle of Wight Festival New Blood Competition in 2021 - making it to the last 20 acts from more than 5,000 who applied.

'When Sunshine Departs' was recorded at the band's home studio in North London, produced and engineered by the band's keyboard player, Alex Rosenberg. While the roots of the Tiger Moths' sound can be traced back to the heydays of the 60s and 70s, the band aim to forge a modern twist on the Americana genre by infusing it with other influences.

In large part, the songs for this album were written during the pandemic. Overall, 'When Sunshine Departs' is a snapshot in time of a band who came together during troubled times to create a record that offers a fitting reflection of that period.

Music Elevator PR · The Tiger Moths - Dreaming Of Yesterday

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