Walrus get smoked, Christopher Paul Stelling makes memories, Collapsing Scenery have proof, Fox Medicine pony up and Midnight Shine get lonely in today’s Roundup. I turned on the furnace for the first time today. A little part of me died.
1 Out of weed? No worries. Just feast your senses on Half Smoke, the trippy new animated video and single from Halifax garage-psych quartet Walrus (and director/illustrator Chad VanGaalen). The effect is pretty much the same. At any rate, it oughta hold you until their Oct. 18 second album Cool To Who drops. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Vocalist Justin Murphy says: “We had been robbed in San Fran after our window was smashed in the van, then after a show in San Diego we had a day and a half to make it to Chicago. We did it. Then we had to play Moline, Illinois after and we had run out of money. I had run out of money, and we had the best band blow-up to date. I was sure it was done. My clothes had been stolen, I was bumming cigarettes. But it could always have been worse.” It was actually this tour that led for the band’s infamous Avis Rental Car story when they were banned for life for exceeding 20,000KM in three weeks.”
2 In a way, memories are kind of like the ultimate home movies of our life. Though I doubt yours look as pretty as singer-songwriter Christopher Paul Stelling’s are portrayed in the nostalgically surreal, homespun video for his song Have To Do For Now, a tune that will presumably appear on his untitled new album due out in 2020. Hopefully you’ll remember all of that six months from now. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “It’s about the fear of losing memories and the relief of letting memories go,” Stelling explains. “When imagination starts spinning out and we return to the center, back to the present, where everything is a bit calmer. For me this was the end of something and the beginning of something entirely new.”
3 A lot of bands like to avoid making political statements in their videos. Collapsing Scenery are not one of those bands. At least, not if their video for the track Queen of Proofs — a cut from their tellingly titled recent release Stress Positions — is anything to go by. And it definitely is. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Stress Positions is a forward-looking album with strong state-of-the-world lyrical content. In the tradition of so many defining electro duos – whether Suicide, Pet Shop Boys or Underworld – Collapsing Scenery’s architecture is entirely of their own creation. They’ve built their own world and live in it.”
4 Portland indie-duo Fox Medicine call their sound Bubblegum Doom. What exactly is that, you ask? Well, find out for yourself by sampling the glory of the oddball twosome’s latest single and video — the magnificently titled Comfort Pony. It also happens to serve as a taste of their Nov. 8 album Procedures Mystiques. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Neezy Dynamite (guitar/vocals) says, ” This video is about magic and returning to nature, rather than upholding some materialistic ideals.”
5 Lonely Boy is the fourth video from Indigenous rockers (and Friends of Tinnitist) Adrian Sutherland and Midnight Shine. But the latest track from their High Road album is also a collection of firsts: It’s the first music video featuring performance footage by the full band, and their first to include actors. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Shot in Winnipeg over the May long weekend, Lonely Boy is about the loss of a father, says Sutherland: “This song is probably the most personal I’ve written, and wasn’t easy to write. I believe it was a way for me to let go of certain pains, and be able to move forward in a better way. Even though we can’t change the past, it’s still important we move ahead in life.”
6 Here’s something you don’t come across every day: An Iranian singer covering a Scottish dream-pop outfit. The former is Azam Ali, the latter is Cocteau Twins, the song is question is Shallow Then Halo, it comes from her first English album Phantoms — which arrives tomorrow — and the video is right below. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “As my album began to take shape, I realized I was subconsciously tapping into so much of the music from the ’80s and ’90s that had inspired my musical journey,” reflects Azam on her decision to cover Cocteau Twins. “My reason for wanting to cover a CT song was out of sheer love for their music, the influence they had on my life and art, and a desire to pay tribute to artists who had shown me the profound potential of music to reach sublime depths. So it is from this place of reverence that I attempted not to cover the song per say, but to sing and produce it as if it were a part of me and my personal expression. I truly internalized it and made it my own. I also particularly chose one of their less popular songs as a silent nod to other hardcore CT fans.”
7 German death-doom metallions Nailed to Obscurity have been slaves to the road grind lately. So no wonder their latest video for the track The Aberrant Host — from their latest album Black Frost — has been assembled from live footage. It’s the next best thing to being there. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Our shows in support of Black Frost have been nothing but awesome. The shared atmosphere between the band and audience at the shows was really special — no matter the place or festival nor the time of day. The live video for The Aberrant Host provides a little insight of what people can expect from us. The song itself creates the image of the destructive or even corrosive behavior of a person that destroys the life of another one without realizing that this act affects its own existence, too.”
8 What goes around comes around. Especially in the revolving video for Peterborough singer-songwriter Evangeline Gentle’s romantic Sundays, presumably the final preview of their self-titled (and Jim Bryson-produced) album being released Friday. Yes, that’s right: It’s a song called Sundays, being released on Thursday to promote an album that comes out on Friday. Deal with it. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Ethereal memories of a love story come in waves as Evangeline performs to us, unaware of the world revolving around them,” says video director Rob Viscardis. “What emerges is what seems like the origin story of a long-time love, but as images of the two blissful lovers are contrasted with a sudden separation, we are left longing for something that is perhaps too good to be true.”
9 You know the old saying: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. That includes romantic heartbreak. Russian-born, Los Angeles-based soul-pop singer-songwriter Cooper Phillip clearly knows that. And she shares the lesson in her latest track and video Thank You Heartbreak, a preview of her upcoming full-length Speak in Tongues. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “I believe we underestimate ourselves often and our fear takes over. My goal is to show people that they are stronger and can do much more then they think they can”, she admits. Using true life stories, hardships and experiences, the songwriter emits authenticity and courage throughout her music.”
10 You’ve probably seen Planet of the Apes. But are you familiar with the Jogging Path of the Apes? No? Well, you’re in luck: Toronto avant-garde artist Output 1:1:1 takes you there with his video for the song Issue at Track Level, the first single from his upcoming EP Retroactive Rock. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Being on a busy subway platform is a nerve wracking experience. I’m terrified of being inadvertently shoved onto the tracks by people quickly moving from one place to the other,” Daniel Janvier, the man behind Output 1:1:1 reveals. “Do those people continue shoving through others to get where they’re going? What about the people who stop and look? Surely somebody would do something, right? I don’t see this as a moral call to arms but an expression of fear. I don’t think the guilty culprit or culprits in the song are intentionally malicious. They weren’t out to hurt anyone. They have somewhere to be and there’s some object in their way. It’s not that they’re evil, it’s that they’re indifferent. That can be much worse.”
11 No puppet. No puppet. They’re the puppet. Well, actually they’re The Funeral March of the Marionettes. But the post-punk goth-rockers aren’t stringing anyone along with their latest cut Blood on the Wire. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Blood on the Wire is about the futility of trying to find the answers to a problem when it is already too late. You can take that however you want… I think it is applicable to a lot of situations these days for many people. I don’t want to lead anyone to any specific meaning, I think you take from it what you need at the time.”
12 There’s mob rule. And then there are Mob rules. The latter kind — translated into Italian, naturally — seem to be what underground rap collective Clipping are dealing with in their crime-show lyric video for La Mala Ordina, a new single from their Oct. 18 release There Existed an Addiction to Blood. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “This is Clipping’s transmutation of horrorcore, a purposefully absurdist and creatively significant sub-genre that flourished in the mid-90s. If some of its most notable pioneers included Brotha Lynch Hung and Gravediggaz, it also encompasses seminal works from the Geto Boys, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and the near-entirety of classic Memphis cassette tape rap.”
13 It’s never too late to promote your next album. Even when it comes out the next day, like Hayden Thorpe’s Diviner. For those who can’t wait the few precious hours to hear new music from the singer-songwriter, here’s a lyric video for the song Full Beam. Get your fill. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Full Beam was the final track to emerge from the Diviner sessions, featuring drums from Stella Mozgowa, backing vocals from Josephine Stephenson and an outrageous saxophone performance from Matana Roberts. It was designed to be a moment of ecstatic release from the brooding songs that preceded it and as serves a calling card for what is to come.”
14 With winter inching ever closer, you might not need to be reminded that freezing cold is imminent. Thankfully, you have nothing to fear from the New York indie-punk outfit Freezing Cold, whose debut album Glimmer arrives Sept. 27. For a warmup, here’s the single Parentheses. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Listening through Glimmer and standout tracks New Ways to Wait, Parentheses, Teenage Insights, and Squint to See, Freezing Cold defy simplistic genre comparisons. The only thing that the listener can be sure of is that these songs are inward in their thinking and played close to the chest. Their influences are as varied as the members, which shines through in the varied pace and approach of Glimmer.”
15 It’s a long way from Austria to outer space. But that’s where Berlin’s melodic techno master Nhoah finds himself journeying on his latest single Between Vienna And The Stars. Want to go along for the ride? Sure you do. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Because of my live shows and DJ gigs, I am regularly in different cities. These short stays influence my artistry very much. The people in the streets as well as the audience on the dance floor are the most important factors, but also the districts where I live in the city, my breakfast, the subway, the nights, the skyline that appears with the first sunbeams, the posters on the walls and the music that comes from the cafés. Very often I’ve written songs directly after the shows, often in the morning before I fall into bed. Each of these tracks has become like a travel diary for me.”
