The Bloody Hell bring the evil, Blind Staggers party on, Katie Gately waltzes, Molina sees Venus and more in today’s Roundup. Don’t go away until you scroll down to the last track. It’s a keeper.
1 | The Bloody Hell | Evil Everywhere
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Halifax punk rockers The Bloody Hell share their latest music video Evil Everywhere. The video is the band’s answer to Billy Joel’s classic social commentary hit We Didn’t Start the Fire. This is The Bloody Hell’s scathing yet tough and cheek commentary on today’s current culture’s decline, combined with a hard-hitting and impactful video (that was originally banned by YouTube). The band adds: “The video is sure to get your heart pumping, your toes tapping and the mind racing. It’s not safe for work, and not for the faint of heart.” The Bloody Hell is what would happen If George Thorogood sang for The Misfits but all the songs were written by Tom Petty. Super catchy horror rock songs about drinking and heartache played at punk rock speed.”
2 | The Blind Staggers | Used to Party
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Chicago’s The Blind Staggers, a party band that knows the morning after, pull from their roots of classic rock, country, and punk to create a sound that is truly their own. Singing sad songs wrapped in a solid rock ‘n’ roll riff is their specialty. Their new album Doing Alright… Considering is set to release on Feb. 28. The powerful and soulful voice of Laura Wilburn and the gruff swagger of Damien Christian Wilburn has won over audiences nationwide. Lucky enough to be playing alongside their family, the rolling thunder wizardry of Laura’s brother Shrek on bass and Braden Selsback’s drums create the pulse of this rock ‘n’ roll machine, while Tony Lee (both Laura’s husband and Damien’s brother) shines on lead guitar.”
3 | Katie Gately | Waltz
THE PRESS RELEASE: “On Feb. 14, electronic musician and producer Katie Gately will release Loom, her new album dedicated to her mother who passed away in 2018 due to a sudden onset of a particularly aggressive form of cancer. Today, she presents a new single/video, Waltz. It originated after Gately listened to Leonard Cohen’s (her late mother’s favorite artist) Take This Waltz on repeat for an entire day. The track pulses with a demented survivalist’s mulishness, and reflects the sleepless headspace Gately was in when her mother’s health began a rapid decline. The accompanying video directed by Samantha Shay was filmed at an abandoned Catholic convent and stars famed modern dancer Bobbi Jene Smith opposite Gately who appears in her own video for the first time ever. “When I listen, I see images that correlate to a zebra on a bad LSD trip,” says Gately. “But I feel that its absurdity honors the chaos of losing someone you love more than time, space or measure. And so perhaps my message is: it’s okay to feel like a drunk zebra when your heart is breaking. Or… to quote the far greater poet Leonard Cohen: ‘When things get really bad, just raise your glass and stamp your feet and do a little jig. That’s about all you can do.”
4 | Molina | Venus
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Molina unveils a visually compelling and skillfully executed live version of the song Venus from the EP Vanilla Shell, due for release this Friday. With her elastic and articulate alternative pop music, Molina has established herself as an original voice on the alternative pop scene and been subject to praise along the way from acclaimed music blogs. The new live session of Venus features Molina and her live band in an otherworldly space tailored to Molina’s universe: a room equipped with a large beautiful clamshell (which is also used live), drapes and abstract sculptures, all of which emphasize Molina’s distinctive visual and sonic universe.”
5 | Porches | Do U Wanna
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Porches, a.k.a. Aaron Maine, is back with a new album, titled Ricky Music and due out March 13. Featuring contributions from Mitski, Zsela, and Dev Hynes, and with co-production by Jacob Portrait, Ricky Music expands on the Porches discography by delivering 11 emotionally open, cracked-glass pop songs. About the album, Maine says: “My new album, Ricky Music, was written and recorded between Dec 2017 and the spring of 2019. Mostly in New York at my apartment, but some of it in Chicago, Los Angeles, and various cities while touring around Europe. This record is an account of the beauty, confusion, anger, joy and sadness I experienced during that time. I think I was as lost as I was madly in love. In these songs I hear myself sometimes desperate for clarity, and other times, having enough perspective to laugh at myself in some of my darkest moments.” With the album announcement comes a new song – Do U Wanna – and a video for the song directed by prior collaborator Nick Harwood. “Do U Wanna is a song about looking at yourself and realizing the disparity between how you’d like to act and how you actually act. The fun you vs. the isolated you. I feel like with the refrain I’m almost taunting myself to get up and do something.”
6 | Chastity | Strife
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Whitby native Chastity AKA Brandon Williams shares the video for Strife taken from his album Home Made Satan which came out last autumn. Chastity continues to act as a young voice for revolutionary thought, action and song. He explains, “Holden, who plays the devil in the video, is a great and imaginative young illustrator. He has an Instagram where he sells all of his drawings and puts money made toward causes he’s passionate about. He’s 10 years old, the kid is wicked. All the drawings in this video are his.”
7 | The Almost | Tame a Lion
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The Almost, the brainchild of Underoath drummer/vocalist and multi-talented artist Aaron Gillespie, have shared a live, acoustic video for the single Tame A Lion. The Almost are currently on a headline tour in support of their new album Fear Caller, out now.”
8 | Nap Eyes | Mark Zuckerberg
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Nap Eyes will release their new album, Snapshot of a Beginner, their most concentrated and hi-fi effort to date, on March 27. Throughout the album, there’s an immediately noticeable leap in arrangement and muscle, one that still holds the raw, nervous energy and the earnest, self-deprecating poetry that make Nap Eyes an enduring cult favorite. The music still brings to mind the bucolic ennui of the Silver Jews and Daniel Johnston’s jittery naïveté, but the new sheen and maturity also now brings to mind the wide-angle appeal of The Jayhawks and the addictive brightness of Green Day’s Kerplunk! Lead single Mark Zuckerberg is a hi-fi jangle-pop earworm that, at its outset, sounds like it could be the theme song from Party of Five. Less a takedown of any one specific, capitalist tech fascist than it is a poem about the confounding and beautiful swirl of modern life, it is their thoughtful, incisive Hit for The People. “Transcendence is all around us,” Chapman repeats, a freeing incantation and a gift to us all as the coda slows and expands.”
9 | Matt Megrue | Here’s To The World
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Continuous evolution is the name of the game for Charleston, SC songwriter, Matt Megrue. From fronting the Atlanta pop-punk outfit, The Unusual Suspects, to the indie rock stylings of Loners Society, to now releasing music eponymously blending punk, emo, Americana and 80’s pop-nostalgia, no two records ever sound the same. Today he debuts a lyric video for a new track titled Here’s to the World. Matt says, “My first solo LP, The Mourner’s Manual is Loss. Love. Anger. Hope. Longing. Vulnerability. Spirit. May you find a little bit of that here. Think less, feel more. Yours en mourning.”
10 | Neal Francis | Don’t Call Me No More
THE PRESS RELEASE: “I just wanted to be honest about everything, from my musical influences to my story,” muses Neal Francis. After years of dishonest living — consumed by drugs, alcohol, and addiction — such sincerity is jarring from the 30-year-old Chicago-based musician. Liberated from a self-destructive past and born anew in sobriety, Francis has captured an inspired collection of songs steeped in New Orleans rhythms, Chicago blues, and early ’70s rock n’ roll. His music evokes a bygone era of R&B’s heyday while simultaneously forging a new path on the musical landscape. His debut LP Changes came out in September, and his new single Don’t Call Me No More arrives today.”
11 | Bimbo Jones & Thelma Houston | Turn Your World Around
THE PRESS RELEASE: “With over 80 #1’s across the US and UK, the production duo of Marc JB and Lee Dagger known as Bimbo Jones have been dropping hit records for over 20 years. For the duo’s latest single, they’ve collaborated with the Grammy winning legendary soul and R&B singer Thelma Houston to deliver Turn Your World Around. Turn Your World Around has been a few years in the making from the production team. Originally written in London with the help of Sharon Woolf who provides backing vocals, the track was developed into a monster house track with the addition of Houston’s vocals. Bimbo Jones’ nostalgic disco-house production perfectly complements Houston’s energetic vocal performance, creating a dance anthem that feels both vintage and modern at the same time.”
12 | Ezra Furman | Every Feeling
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Following the success of last year’s Twelve Nudes, Ezra Furman announces Sex Education OST, songs from season 1 and 2 of the hit Netflix TV show. The 19-track LP will be released this Friday, Jan. 24. To celebrate Furman has shared Every Feeling, the standout track from Season 1. Every Feeling was inspired by a bad bout of depression: “I was so bored of having these feelings year after year, I just wanted to feel them all and get them over with.”
13 | Alcest | Protection (Ben Chisholm Version)
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Last year, influential French “blackgaze” duo Alcest released their sixth studio album Spiritual Instinct. Warmly received by press and fans alike, the album scored the band their highest chart position in several countries. Today, the band presents an alternate version of their haunting track Protection, remixed by longtime Chelsea Wolfe collaborator Ben Chisholm. The song was included alongside two other tracks on the bonus EP that was only available with deluxe versions of Spiritual Instinct, but is now being made available digitally for the first time. On the new single, founder Neige comments: “It was a real pleasure for us to have Protection remixed by the multi-instrumentist and producer Ben Chisholm. His take on the song left us speechless as he gave it his very own style; a totally new sound, atmosphere and structure. We absolutely loved his approach.”
14 | The Heavy Eyes | The Profession
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Memphis-based psychedelic blues rock veterans The Heavy Eyes will release their long-awaited new full-length Love Like Machines on March 27. In advance of its release, the band is pleased to unveil first album teaser The Profession. From the opening roll of the drums to the rip-roaring fuzz of the chorus, The Heavy Eyes delivers a walloping testament to their take-no-prisoners ethos.”
15 | The No Ones | No One Falls Alone
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The No Ones, the new bi-continental collaboration featuring Scott McCaughey, Frode Strømstad, Peter Buck, and Arne Kjeisrud Mathisen, will release their full-length debut album, The Great Lost No Ones Album, on March 27. The first single, No One Falls Alone, is out now. Stretching from Norway through Athens, Georgia to the northwest corner of the United States, and consisting of members from R.E.M., I Was A King, The Minus 5, The Baseball Project, etc., The No Ones are classic two guitars, bass, and drums, sounding like what you might expect, only different, more-so, and better! With music by the collective and lyrics by McCaughey about abduction, interstellar mysteries, witchcraft, climate change, gentrification, and the desolation of the soul, their vocal harmonies and psychedelic flourishes fuse the sunny turbulent sounds of the ‘60s with the darkness and decay of present day.”
