Dead Tired have the white stuff, Forever blur the lines, Cigar take some getting used to, Tycho set their sights on sunset and more in today’s Roundup. Well, that was easy.
1 | Dead Tired | White Caps
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Hamilton’s Dead Tired premiere an animated video for White Caps today. Rich in detail, every 5 seconds of the video took approximately 24 hours to produce. Loosely based off Neuromancer, a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson, the characters exist in a similar world. About the video, Motion Designer and 3D Generalist Andrew Pierce explains, “I wanted to play with the lyrics, ‘I thought I was free of it but it sucked me back in.’ and bring them to life visually.” The storyline follows a young man in a dystopian future who becomes a hermit. He never leaves his basement and lives his life almost entirely within a simulation. The trauma begins to affect his physical body in reality, and he pushes it too far after becoming addicted to the resulting pain, ironically in an effort to feel alive.”
2 | Forever | Blur
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Forever – the recording project of June Moon – will release her new EP Close To The Flame on Feb. 14. Today, she shares the second single Blur, produced by Ouri. Blur is sultry and dark. The accompanying video was self-directed by Moon. “The Blur music video is a supernatural haunted film,” she says. “It tells the story of a mysterious ghost who turns into an angel on The Mountain, captured on black and white film.” Close To The Flame captures both the grandeur and grotesqueries of love and loss — including twisted romance and personal struggle. Forever whispers confessions about love and desire with a featherlight touch, refracting pop with glimpses of trip-hop, downtempo, R&B and house productions.”
3 | Cigar | We Used To
THE PRESS RELEASE: “West Coast punks Cigar are premiering a new single We Used To off their upcoming full-length, via their recent Bridge City Session, which was recorded in Portland last November. Guitarist/vocalist Rami Krayem says, “I have been a fan of the work the team at Bridge City Sessions does for a while now. We had been in touch in the past about possibly doing a session, but the members of the band live in different cities on the West Coast so it has been a challenge to coordinate. In early November of 2019 we did some West Coast dates with Good Riddance and came through Portland, OR and we were able to set up a session with the Bridge City Sessions team. As usual, the Bridge City Sessions team did a great job and we’re pleased to share our new single, We Used To, from our upcoming full length.”
4 | Tycho | Outer Sunset
THE PRESS RELEASE: “After releasing their Grammy-nominated album Weather last year, Tycho are back with a new album Simulcast, which is due Feb. 28. Simulcast features highly anticipated, bespoke instrumental reworkings of Weather album tracks, previously vocal-led by singer-songwriter Saint Sinner. Tycho have taken the essence of the originals and recorded new, alternative versions of those recordings, creating new material from those much loved tracks. Speaking about the new record, Scott Hansen of Tycho said “A Simulcast is the transmission of a program across different mediums and in different languages. With these two albums I wanted to present the same ideas in two languages, one more literal and the other more open to interpretation. Simulcast expands on the concepts laid out in Weather but shifts into the abstract with instrumental soundscapes in place of lyrics, opening up a visual space and translating the message into a new language.”
5 | Honey Harper | Something Relative
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Honey Harper welcomes the new decade with a new song and accompanying visual. Something Relative is a haunting, melancholic ode to loss, depression and friendship. The video, which acts as a sparse, yet powerful companion to the single, sees Honey Harper backlit and crooning to a sorely missed friend, the golden light behind him bouncing off of surreal elements including a piece of broken glass and raining glitter. Speaking on his inspiration behind the new single, Honey Harper shares, “This song is about my friend Zeb, someone who I both greatly admired and barely tolerated. He created a boxset of full-length records before the age of eighteen and once performed all of them locked in a cage. He was both inspiring and irritating. He would have hated this song but loved that it was about him.”
6 | Austra | Risk It
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Austra announces her return with the blistering new single Risk It, her first new music since 2017’s Future Politics. On Risk It, she pitches her voice up over a chorus of brass instruments to capture the desperation in feeling scared to leave a relationship. Austra sings, ‘I feel ashamed / It feels insane to seek you endlessly / Late night Remedy / But girl, I just can’t let you go.’ Jasmin Mozzafari, director of the video, says “I wanted to construct a narrative piece that takes place over the course of one night, focusing on a protagonist caught at the inevitable crossroads that exist when love falls apart. Ultimately, I saw Risk It as a song about the fear of being vulnerable. At the beginning, the protagonist tries to do anything to evade this feeling; by the end, they are forced to face it.”
7 | Mikano | It’s Alright
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Emerging French-Cameroonian hip hop artist Mikano drops a new cut, It’s Alright, the second instalment from his forthcoming mixtape, Melting Balloons, planned for release in Spring 2020. The new single reveals a different side of the rapper: In Mikano’s own words It’s Alright is “a party song about hype girls in clubs looking for that star life. Even though what they’re doing can be frowned upon, who are we to judge? It’s alright, girl do you.”
https://youtu.be/FAdtqwsNZOk
8 | Køde | Stars
THE PRESS RELEASE: “A couple of months after the official release of their debut album, the new sensation of the Swiss alternative/indie musical scene Køde – creating something unique, evolving between noise, power-wave, dream-pop, indie/grunge and shoegaze, just unveiled a brand new musical video illustrating the song Stars.”
9 | Great Electric Quest | Seeker Of The Flame
THE PRESS RELEASE: “San Diego rock ‘n’ roll warlords Great Electric Quest have returned with their blazing hot Live From Freak Valley album this March 27. With Live At Freak Valley, Great Electric Quest are about to establish their mighty reign over the heavy rock underground for good. If headbanging to their first two albums Chapter I and Chapter II wasn’t enough, you are about to experience the exhilarating force of their live shows through this absolutely must-have live record. Clocking in at one full hour, the band delivers with maestria those epic vocals, high-flying solos, proto-metal grooves and jam-laden turnarounds they are known for: electricity instantly fills the air while the crowd jubilates… You’ve just been thunderstruck by the sheer awesomeness of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s saviours Great Electric Quest.”
10 | James Righton | Edie
THE PRESS RELEASE: “After coming to prominence as the frontman of the Mercury Prize-winning Klaxons, recording with Arctic Monkeys, and crafting his Shock Machine project, James Righton is now set to release his debut solo album The Performer on March 20. Today Righton shares the album’s second single, Edie, an ode to his young daughter. “Edie is a song I wrote for my daughter when she was a baby,” Righton explains. “She seemed so fragile and small in a world that seemed so big and terrifying. I wanted to tell her that everything would be ok.”
11 | Union Duke | Left Behind
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Webster’s Dictionary defines Union Duke as a raucous collision of alt-rock and twang, bringing crowds to their feet with songs from the heart. In the two years since their last record, Golden Days, Union Duke has been steadily travelling and unravelling across the country, and they’re ready to share the lessons they’ve learned with a slate of new music. The band’s new song Left Behind features their trademark harmonies and driving rhythm in a track about love, distance, and heartache.”
