Stella Donnelly dies, Krief busks, Inoculated Canaries sneak, Buddy & Julie Miller make it and more in today’s Roundup. On with the show!
1 Australian indie-popster Stella Donnelly is living it up in the colourful and comedic new video for her song Die, an incongruously joyful and sunny track from her recently released album Beware of the Dogs. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Stella told us she wrote Die as a song for her to run to,” say the directors. “There’s a stark contrast between the title of the song and it’s actual mood and musicality. We wanted to make a video that complimented the upbeat spirit while still touching on the idea of death. Couldn’t have done it without our dog Thinly.” Run for it:
2 Former Dears guitarist Patrick Krief — who only uses his last name for his solo work — takes to the streets of Las Vegas in his video for Tonight, a lushly invigorating, Beatlesque pop-rocker that serves as an enticing preview of his June 7 album Dovetale. It’s a winner. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “A few months ago, casting director/producer Bruno Rosato reached out to me via Instagram. He really wanted to get involved with visuals for my music on some capacity. I liked what he had to say, and we met up soon after. He introduced me to director Kate Yablunovsky, who sent me a treatment for the Tonight video while I was in Vegas. We ironed out the concept over a couple skype calls. She also gave me some much needed acting tips. Once the general outline was set, we called DOP Gabriel Ng, who flew in from Seattle to do the shoot. Shooting a music video in downtown Las Vegas is exactly what you might imagine it to be.” Roll the dice:
3 Let’s be honest: The Inoculated Canaries is a terrible band name. Thankfully, they are far from a terrible band. The New York crew quartet actually pack a decent pop-rock punch — complete with horn section — in the video for their bouncy single Sneakers. So I’m almost willing to let them off the hook for that awful handle. Almost. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “I don’t know that we had a clear vision for the song from the start,” Michael Rubin says. “I woke up at 3 o’clock in the morning and just wrote the melody for the chorus. We had a huge fight over the outro of the song, but ended up chopping it out and rewriting it. After we made that first cut the song started to fall in place. I’d say this is my favorite one To play live, it grooves.” Get your kicks:
4 I have heard of Yacht Rock, but Yacht Rap is a new one on me. If you’re in the same boat — you see what I did there? — Hurricane Party can sort it out for you. The Florida duo drop their debut LP Juice on July 5 — but first, here’s the warm, breezy single Pamplemousse and its kitschy-cool animated video. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “When explaining the origin story for the track and consequent video, the duo shares that “we were chilling at Johann Sebastian Bach’s tomb in Leipzig, Germany. While sitting in the pew listening to someone play a giant pipe organ, Rick started dreaming about having sex in the cathedral. That was where the idea for this video started.” Of course:
5 Roots-rock MVPs Buddy & Julie Miller seem to spend most of their time lending their considerable talents to other artists. Thankfully, every now and then they join forces to make a new album of their own. Their long-overdue latest — and first in a decade — is Breakdown on 20th Ave. South, due June 21. Get a taste of what’s in store with the swampy I’m Gonna Make You Love Me. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “I wrote the song I’m Gonna Make You Love Me as a message to Buddy, because we kept putting off making our album because he was so busy,” Julie says of the song that set the stage for Breakdown on 20th Ave. South. “In my mind I thought I was always about to get back to work with Julie, but in reality I kept getting put off,” Buddy says. “I apologized a lot. I look back, and I realized I was neglectful. It was a mistake I wish I hadn’t made. What Julie and I create together is fulfilling to me in a way nothing else is, and I should have nurtured it more.” Better late than never:
6+7 One new song is good. Two are better. So British musician and producer Kelly Lee Owens doubles your pleasure by releasing a pair of new cuts — the syncopated shapeshifter Let It Go and the spooky grooverider Omen — from her upcoming 12″ single. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Let It Go is a high energy club track, featuring hard-hitting beats and Owens’ feathery vocals. “While working on my second album, I had my Room 1 Fabric DJ set coming up, so I decided to make a track for fun, to play out. There’s no better way of testing out new stuff than on that legendary sound system,” says Owens.” Once is not enough:
8 We’ve all been there: You didn’t have time to do laundry. You ran out of clean clothes. So you ended up re-wearing the previous day’s duds. But did you ever think to turn the experience into a slow-moving indie-rock number? No? That’s the difference between you and Australian singer-songwriter Carla Geneve, whose song Yesterday’s Clothes comes from her self-titled June 7 EP — and isn’t really about laundry when you get right down to it. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Yesterday’s Clothes is about falling out of love with someone and feeling guilty about it. I wrote it at time when I was burning the candle at both ends and had no energy left to try to deal with the end of a relationship. Most of the words came when I was doing a long drive back from some gig or another in regional WA. I’d been up all night and had to be somewhere the next day, so I hadn’t had a shower or changed clothes. When you’re on your own driving for hours and hours it’s hard to avoid thinking about stuff that you don’t want to, so I guess I wrote the song to try to come to terms with my thoughts and situation.” Try it on for size:
9 Brooklyn electro-pop singer-songwriter Elliot Lee is not to be confused with the British footballer of the same name. Not that you’d be likely to mix them up after hearing her excellent single Upside Down, which falls somewhere on the sonic, stylistic, musical and emotional spectrum between Billie Eilish and Twenty One Pilots. Which ain’t a bad place to be. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Upside Down is about feeling like you are at the bottom of the world, always in the worst headspace and always running into obstacles in the path toward a fulfilling life, and wishing it could all be the exact opposite. The empowering track emits an uplifting feeling through its crispy beats and fast-paced vocals.” Goallllllllllllll!
