Badguyswin needle you, Pottery do time, Sonic Dawn take the hits, Banshees are alright, Porridge Radio circle, Ohmme play by the numbers and more in today’s Roundup. Anything good on TV tonight?
VIDEO OF THE DAY
1 | Badguyswin | Needle Beach
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Nirvana and Soundgarden may be no more, but the members of Canada’s Badguyswin are here to serve up your guilty pleasure for an era of rock n’ roll that’s knocking on doors and making its comeback. Heavy driven grunge-inspired loud amps, blended with clean vocals, plentiful harmonies, and driving rhythms are what fuels this Grand Forks, B.C. band to keep things stuck in your head for days to come! The band’s debut full-length Cowards (due out April 10) was written to give the listener an experience that doesn’t repeat itself over 12 tracks. Their debut single/music video Needle Beach is ready to be revealed. “This song came together easily. We had been searching for a very rhythmic groove to insert under the guitar riff. Once Zak added the pulsing kick drum to the steady thumping bass riff we all squealed in delight. Our goal of creating a fun video to represent the vibe of the music while contradicting the lyrical content of the song resulted in the Alien Pool Party idea, stemming from Alex’s persistent insistence on having sexy aliens in some sort of minimal clothing atmosphere. Aiming for an old school look with psychedelic overtones; we definitely achieved it.”
SONG OF THE DAY
2 | Pottery | Take Your Time
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Pottery are sharing their new song Take Your Time, a hyperactive Andy Gill-indebted dance-punk track. The accompanying video adds Devo-level world building to their commentary on the shadier side of recreational drug use. Take Your Time is from the band’s debut LP, Welcome To Bobby’s Motel, out April 10. The album is an acid trip through the dreamworld of a fictional Bobby character. Beginning as an inside joke between the band members, Bobby and his “motel” have grown into so much more. They’ve become the all-encompassing alt-reality that the band built themselves, for everyone else. So, in essence, Bobby is Pottery and his motel is wherever they are. But you don’t go to Bobby’s Motel for the glamour and a good night’s sleep, the minibar, or the full-service sauna. You go to Bobby’s Motel to feel, to escape, to remember, to distract. It’s filthy and amazing and you dance, and you love it.”
ALSO ON THE PLAYLIST
3 | The Sonic Dawn | Hits Of Acid
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Denmark’s psychedelic rock figurehead The Sonic Dawn debut their cheerful new video for Hits Of Acid, taken from their impressive fourth album Enter The Mirage, out March 27. Surround yourself with the warmth and cheerfulness of their psych blues sound now! Past, present and future melt into one on Hits of Acid. It sounds like the warm colors of a Californian seventies sunset, but leads the listener into somewhere in the eternal now. “We dreamed up a summer hit for an imaginary best summer, where sunshine evaporates the clouds on your mind. A summer of love … Living in the moment, grooving on the track.” says frontman Emil Bureau.”
4 | The Banshees | It’s Alright
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Liverpool four-piece indie-rock band The Banshees have been out and about creating quite the buzz as one of the most exciting live bands around. With each member bringing their own experience (and it is quite the team of players) and influence to the band and the music, The Banshees are not holding back in 2020 — they are taking it by storm. The new single It’s Alright was inspired by the people in our lives who think they know you but at the same time, they just can’t work you out. They wait until the most creative moments to get in your head and make you second-guess what it is you are doing. Not to mention — they have the worst sense of timing. We all have those people we love or care about in our lives. How can we have it all without sacrificing or hurting others in the process? We figure it out and make it all happen — so It’s Alright.”
5 | Porridge Radio | Circling
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Brighton, UK-based band Porridge Radio releases a new single/video, Circling, from Every Bad, their forthcoming album out March 13. Circling is led by rhythmic piano and Dana Margolin’s expressive vocals. Its accompanying video, directed by Rachel Winton, Ben Cole, and Tash Lever, features the band. “A lot of the songs on Every Bad are centred around the sea, and Circling was one of the last songs focused on the water that I wrote for the album,” says frontwoman Margolin. “I was thinking on the idea of willing things to be okay by repeating that they are, because I need them to be. I tried to follow the feeling of the flow of waves, and how they keep coming in endlessly, washing everything away without judgment, and then bringing it back again.”
6 | Ohmme | 3 2 4 3
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Ohmme — the Chicago-based band of Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart — will release their new album, Fantasize Your Ghost, on June 5, and today present their lead single/video, 3 2 4 3. The song tackles the terrifying realization of needing to make a change. The song opens with the two singing in transfixing harmony, “Looked in the mirror the other day / Caught my reflection / My mouth had moved a different way / The muscles were straining.” Their deft scene-setting and the way their disparate voices blend together heightens the song’s inherent anxiety. Its accompanying video, filmed in Mexico City and directed by Alejandra Villalba García, features the pair. “Sima and Macie explained to me that the song was about seeing the landscape/neighborhood change in front of your eyes even though you don’t want it to change,” says García. “I thought that the first half of the video should be about them staying still trying to resist change as the scenery around them changes quickly. The tall dark figure represents change and how it keeps getting closer to them until there’s no escape. When they fight with another version of themselves, the newer versions are the ones that win because they embrace change.”
7 | Tops | Colder & Closer
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Montreal four-piece Tops are sharing a new song and video. Colder & Closer is a shimmering yet lean pop production with lyrical meditations on the social isolation that often plagues casual intimacy. The Mashie Alam-directed visual artfully represents this by following singer Jane Penny through an alternating lens of thermal and normal vision. Speaking on the video, Alam says: “Jane had this really amazing vision where she hoped to convey the feeling of being immensely close to someone. The choice of using thermal footage was made because we wanted to see, feel, and immerse ourselves into the varying temperatures of the body as it heats up, cools down, responds to touch, and feels alone. We created a movement composition that travels between a live action world and a thermal world! The idea was to visually explore the dynamic of being far (in the live action world) and being close (in the thermal world)! Eventually the juxtaposing jumps between the two worlds merge into an immersive thermal universe to evoke a climactic sense of closeness from where there is no return.”
8 | Buscabulla | NTE
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Buscabulla has announced their long-awaited debut album, Regresa, set for release on May 8. The band has also shared a new single and video, NTE, (No Te Equivoques or Don’t Get It Wrong) alongside the album announce. The NTE video is the band’s first official performance video, and is set on the Aguadilla waterfront. Directed by artist and photojournalist Chris Gregory-Rivera and filmed by local cinematographer Frank Elias on 16mm film, the video shows the band set up in front of a slowly descending sunset performing the song, while Raquel wears a disguise hinting at the song’s theme of misdirection. The song speaks in a spirit of defiance, with the band coming back home amidst social and economic turmoil, reclaiming their own narrative and forging an identity in uncertain times.”
9 | James Elkington | Late Jim’s Lament
THE PRESS RELEASE: “English-born, Chicago-based songwriter and guitarist James Elkington will release his new album, Ever-Roving Eye, on April 3. Today, he presents a new single from the album, Late Jim’s Lament, with its accompanying video. Late Jim’s Lament is a white-knuckled nightmare about being late (because he’s rarely on time) and about being “late” (because of an even greater fear of being dead before he gets everything done). “No matter how I drive I know I can’t out-drive the hearse, ’cause it’s too late in my mind and getting later all the time,” sings Elkington, sounding not unlike his hero Davy Graham shouldering his way into a Joy Division rehearsal. The song, driven by Nick Macri’s sly upright bass and Elkington’s acoustic guitar, culminates in a stunning, flamenco-inspired solo.”
10 | Sameer Cash | Driveway Moment
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Written in between bar shifts and soundchecks and recorded in a garage behind a Chinese restaurant in downtown Toronto, Sameer Cash’s new single Driveway Moment is the result of the kind of heartbreaking, and redemptive work that compels us to be better. Produced by Matthew Bailey, engineered by Chris Stringer (Timber Timbre), mixed by D James Goodwin (Kevin Morby, Craig Finn), and mastered by Philip Bova Shaw (Feist, Andy Shauf), Driveway Moment is Cash’s first single since his rebirth as a solo artist. “Driveway moments are the small glimpses between the big adventures,” says Cash. “They are the moments that I have lived in most of my life. Those are the times where you really grow and learn. When you’re not thinking so much, but merely existing, and feeling the weight of everything in front of you, and all the things you’ve left behind.”
11 | Liam Kirby | Romanticized
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Liam Kirby grew up listening to ’60s music, and hearing Syd Barrett as a teenager inspired him to write his own songs. Most of these were written using a half-broken keyboard, which was already of poor quality before some of the notes ceased to work. Even so, his passion couldn’t be stifled, and so he continued to use his broken keyboard to write the majority of his songs throughout his twenties. He fell in love with the super melodic music of people like Brian Wilson and Nick Drake, and it’s this influence that can be heard in his music today, including his latest single Romanticized.”
https://youtu.be/xu4njETANMY
12 | Emmett Kai | Tiger Balm
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Brooklyn songwriter/producer Emmett Kai revealed Tiger Balm — the third single in a string of gradually released new music. Tiger Balm is a summer anthem in the making, anchored by the upbeat tempos of his previous work and accented by laid-back, somber vocal melodies that serve as a perfect counterbalance. Emmett Kai says: “Tiger Balm is a song dedicated to my imagination. Alexandra and I wanted to make a special video for this song, something that depicted imagination.” Over the first half of 2020, Emmett will be releasing new music, waterfall-style, eventually building into a larger release under a different name — allowing fans to witness the album gradually come together right in front of their eyes. In doing so, Emmett is embracing the new meaning of an “album” in the streaming age and taking advantage of the uniquely modern ability to create and adjust a project in real time.”
13 | Alexandra Lost | Modern Feelings
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Alexandra Lost is the brainchild of Jane Ehrhardt and Simon Paradis, two veterans of the Quebec City music scene armed with vintage synthesizers and well-crafted verse. Ehrhardt and Paradis are partners in both music and life. Together, they have nearly four decades of accumulated experience in the realms of independent music. The band’s new single Modern Feelings is a bright, bouncy track that brings together orchestral pop and smooth funk. It’s been paired with a summery video with touches of psychedelia.”
14 | Miya Miya | Underwater
THE PRESS RELEASE: “U.K. band Miya Miya are ready to carve out a name for themselves with Underwater – their debut single released independently today. Simultaneously being released alongside a stunning, intriguing music video, Underwater combines anthemic stadium pop with polished electronic sounds. The soft opening chords lead the way towards an explosion of glittering electric guitars, huge bass grooves and emotive vocal harmonising to bring the lyrics to life. Underwater is the first taste of the captivating sounds to come from an undeniably talented collective stepping out into the spotlight who are sure to pick up heat through an array of enthralling ear-worms in the pipeline for 2020.”
15 | Emma Charles | Connecticut
THE PRESS RELEASE: “LA-based folk pop singer/songwriter Emma Charles shared the gorgeous, nostalgia-inflected video for her new single Connecticut. On the fourth song taken from her just released EP Connecticut, Charles pulls out all of the emotional stops on a heartfelt performance that maps out the musician’s journey from her hometown to a new life in California. Says Charles: “Connecticut is such a personal song for me so it was important that the video represented this visually. As this is my first EP release, I wanted to present myself in the most honest and true form possible. So what better way than to dig out old family videos and take the audience on my personal journey of growing up in Connecticut and then bringing them with me as I drive across the country and move to LA. This video was all shot by friends and family, beautifully edited by Deb Foster and the concept was executed by Marina Piche.”
16 | Thunderbird Divine | Happenings Ten Years Time Ago
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The Philadelphia-based space hippies of Thunderbird Divine will put forth their second release, The Hand of Man, on March 28, alongside a documentary of the recording sessions. A companion recording, a cover of The Yardbirds’ Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, is available for free download via the band’s Bandcamp site. “We tracked and mixed that one ourselves,” says guitarist / vocalist / multi-instrumentalist Erik Caplan. “We relate to The Yardbirds more and more as we continue writing. That band was stuck between being known as bluesy rock act and a progenitor of psychedelia and studio experimentation. This cover is a tribute to their brilliant work.”
17 | Rafael Anton Irisarri | Peripeteia
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Over the years American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri has become ubiquitous within the spheres of ambient, drone and electronic music. Whether through his celestial long-form albums or lauded audio engineering credentials for countless artists and labels, Irisarri’s dedication to his craft is unwavering. While Irisarri’s compositions typically thread through oceanic symphonies with tape loops, bowed electric guitar and vast washes of overdriven sound, his debut album for Dais Records, Peripeteia, incorporates metal and classical influences that emphasize Irisarri’s melancholic tendencies. These overtures, coupled with his signature layers of distortion, conjure complex environments of dissonance and harmony. In Irisarri’s own words, “My previous works internalized exterior forces or circumstances, trying to make sense of the world. Peripeteia reverses that approach, focusing on the personal in order to tell a wider human story.”
18 | Same | It’s Lonely in Doggie Hell
THE PRESS RELEASE: “From the first crackling notes of It’s Lonely in Doggie Hell, the opening track of Same’s debut LP Plastic Western, the band locks into a groove that never really lets up. A quiet riff fades in from a distance then, like a radio tuning to find the right frequency, it’s quickly interrupted by a brief drum fill before a fuzz-filled bass line sets the tempo, intertwining over a languid beat. Just like that Same sets off on a 12-song journey. But Plastic Western isn’t a sprint toward a finish line, it’s an album that takes its time to hang out, get cozy, and soak in all the weird sights. It’s easy to play the influence game for Same. At times, Plastic Western might sound like Weezer dripping in acid and fuzz. At other times, it feels like listening to the Pixies or Pavement in a meditative trance.”
19 | Little Dragon | Are You Feeling Sad?
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Little Dragon shares their incredible new single, Are You Feeling Sad?, featuring much-loved, Grammy-nominated singer Kali Uchis. The track is a standalone track released ahead of their latest album New Me, Same Us, out March 27. Says the band, “We are super excited Kali features on this track. All of a sudden, at the end of last year, this version appeared in our emails like a beautiful Christmas gift. She put her twist on it and gave the track an amazing energy. Did we mention we also love her?!”
20 | Adeline Hotel | Solid Love
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Adeline Hotel — the psych-folk/indie rock project led by guitarist and vocalist Dan Knishkowy — have announced a new album, Solid Love, out May 8. On Solid Love, Knishkowy is joined by guitarist Ben Seretan, bassist Andrew Stocker, pianist Winston Cook-Wilson (Office Culture), drummer Sean Mullins (Wilder Maker), vocalists Brigid Mae Power and Matt Kivel, and a host of others. Solid Love, the title track, is out now. “It’s about catharsis and the release of the creative energy we all store up, just waiting to be used,” Knishkowy writes. “Finding joy within the struggle and feeling love crystallize over time.” It opens like one big bloom; a sudden view appearing at the peak of a mountain.”
21 | Caleb Landry Jones | All I Am in You / The Big Worm
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Actor and musician Caleb Landry Jones will release The Mother Stone, his sprawling and psychedelic debut album, on May 1. Today, he releases its second single, All I Am in You / The Big Worm. All I Am in You / The Big Worm begins with low and muscular vocals, brightening as the instrumentation morphs with vivid synth, brass, percussion, and keys. “The beat was inspired by Dale Hawkins’ Susie-Q,” says Jones. The Mother Stone is built from abrupt detours and schizoid shifts of voice. Shaped by the marks left by Jones’ formative encounters with The Beatles’ White Album and Syd Barrett’s solo work, The Mother Stone is a parade led by multiple unreliable narrators who rail against the universe, profess their love and vacate the stage before we can ask them a question.”
22 | Grid | Decomposing Force
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Grid — Brooklyn noise jazz trio comprised of Matt Nelson (Tune-Yards, Battle Trance, Elder Ones), Tim Dahl (Child Abuse), and Nick Podgurski (New Firmament, Feast of Epiphant) — announced their new album Decomposing Force will be released April 24. Brutal Kings, the album’s lead single that is out today, delivers an initiating thrust, a brief glimpse of coherence, torn in two by corrosive psychedelic fission. It is the genesis of Decomposing Force’s descent into pandemonic new age annihilation. Built on the tenets of weight, difficulty, challenge, collaboration, and adaptability, Grid constructs and confronts the oppressive dark — not with transcendent opposition but with an embrace, diving deeper in as a way through. Decomposing Force is sonic catharsis of the highest and harshest caliber.”
23 | Sataray | Saturn
THE PRESS RELEASE: “One-woman dark ambient project Sataray has unleashed a chilling new single entitled Saturn. The track was performed, recorded, and mixed by Sataray. “This song was originally created for a ritual performance, with the energy of the planet Saturn and its energetic influence in mind,” notes Sataray. “Saturn is already very much a part of me, but over the last year its influence has been especially intense and transformative in my life — and this song is ode to that.” Sataray intones whispers, deathly vocals, and mournful incantations within a realm inhabited by exquisite synth lines, masterful ambience, entrancing production, and hypnotic rhythms. The artist has been active since 2006 through many different incarnations, including live performances and recording collaborations with Seattle experimental musician celadon.”
