Josie Cotton starts the holidays early, Patternist play with your mind, The Ah tear up, Sam Miller ages gracefully and more in today’s Roundup. I shoveled the walk today — so naturally, it started showing about an hour later.
1 | Josie Cotton | Every Day Like Christmas
THE PRESS RELEASE: “My publisher hilariously told me it was a Christmas emergency that I write a Christmas song so I attempted to do that with more than a little trepidation,” says musical legend Josie Cotton about her surprise Christmas song Every Day Like Christmas. “It was important to me to give it meaning and not be horribly corny or too Pollyanna-ish about the state of the world. Yet keep the feeling of wonder about it all.” Thankfully, Every Day Like Christmas is neither of those things. The classic sounding holiday track reflects a pastiche of supreme Spector magic that only someone like Josie can deliver authentically and without nostalgic artifice.”
2 | Patternist | Feature’s Dead, Angela
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Pacific Northwest-based indie pop artist Patternist is debuting a music video for Feature’s Dead, Angela, the latest single off his recent full-length I Don’t Know What I’m Doing Here. Patternist’s Gabe Mouer says: “Feature’s Dead, Angela is about this obsessive need to feel like you always have the moral and intellectual high ground, and how that type of grandstanding is exacerbated by social media. It’s such an emotionally and cognitively taxing state to be in, and I think it can spill over to how we form relationships outside of these online avatars. When we decided we wanted to do a video for the track, the challenge was how to take the core thesis of the song and try to add some levity to it. Don’t we all sort of secretly wish there was an easy way to get people to see the world the way we do, to accept our opinions as fact and make all our interactions both on and offline easier and less stressful?”
3 | The Ah | Watermelon Tears
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The Ah announced his sophomore full-length Mere Husk will be released on Jan. 31. Lead single Watermelon Tears provides a glimpse into the imaginative and playful solo work of Jeremy Gustin, a sought-after drummer, musician and composer who has worked with David Byrne, Albert Hammond Jr., Kimbra, Delicate Steve, Rubblebucket, Marc Ribot, Sam Amidon, Daniel Rossen, and many more. Jeremy shared thoughts on creating the track: “I knew I wanted to add sounds or samples in the middle section and I experimented a lot with no luck. Ironically, as the songs title has tears in it, laughter seemed the best fit for the track. But having one person laugh wasn’t quite right so I started experimenting by adding baby’s, old people, and even some animals laughing. Somehow that seemed to work. Perhaps watermelon tears are the kind of tears you get when you laugh really hard. Sweet tears.”
4 | Sam Miller | The Stage of Aging
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Sam Miller is a man of unique talents. A rare musical soul who thrives in our modern day of synthesizers and microchips, but who would be equally content playing Bach fugues in a cathedral filled with orangutans. His musical output is driven by curiosity and exploration, noticeably lacking the self-aggrandizing spirit of so much pop music. With his most recent album, In One Place at a Time, Miller slyly sings the voice of your inner thoughts. No paradox is safe. He reflects on regret, lost opportunities, and love, but does not dwell on any one idea too long. Soon enough he is pointing out the pointlessness of such fixations. “By the time that I made it, I’d gone too far,” he laments. Keep moving. The moment is passing. You are still in it.”
5 | Renee Lamy | Poison
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Renee Lamy has released her latest single. Poison is a pop electronic song and is Renee’s third original release. Renee says, “There is something sort of freeing about this song and in the same sense binding. It is about a love that, despite you knowing probably isn’t the best thing for you, you just are too happy in the moment to care. My overall feeling in this song is that you love who you love, and you can’t help who you fall in love with. And maybe you’re going to fall in love again and again but if you are happy now then enjoy it, no matter what other people think.”
6 | Nykki | Lost My Mind
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Pop artist on the rise Nykki unveils the fearless visuals for her recently released single Lost My Mind. The track sees the multi-talented artist teaming up again with writer and producer Tim Deal to deliver a stomping EDM-laced pop bop with a killer hook, over which the magnetic singer lays bare the cycle of emotions she went through following a breakup. Nykki explains, “in Lost My Mind I allowed myself to explore my darkest emotions. The song focuses on the time I lost myself after a breakup and the impact it had on my mind. Sometimes we do things we thought we would never do for anyone and that’s what this song is about.”
7 | Tyra Jutai | Still Good
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Tyra Jutai is establishing herself as an unexpected, captivating presence in the alternative music scene. Her sharp wit and poetic performances bring the audience into her divine little empire. Tyra’s debut single Still Good is a powerful track that blends self-composed cinematic production with inquisitive, enticing lyricism.”
8 | Vance Gilbert | Another Great Day Above Ground
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Vance Gilbert defies stereotypes. It’s little wonder then that he also exceeds expectations. In this case, those two qualities go hand in hand. “I’m black, I sing, I play an acoustic guitar, and I don’t play the blues,” Gilbert insists. That may be a broad statement, but it rings with truth. It all come to full fruition on Gilbert’s upcoming album, the appropriately named Good, Good Man, out Jan. 24. Recorded with an A-list support cast that includes bluesman and singer/songwriter Chris Smither, Al Green’s organist Stacey Wade, Tommy Malone of The Subdudes on guitars, Mike Posner on backing vocals, and Celtic harpist and vocalist Aine Minough, it sums up the strengths that Gilbert’s always had at his command — that is, a gift for compelling melodies, insightful lyrics, a witty and whimsical point of view, and the ability to maintain an inherent humanity that translates to his connection with his audiences. In short, it’s Gilbert at his very best, a set of songs that deserves to bring Gilbert the wider recognition that’s eluded him for far too long.”
