Katie Von Schleicher spins her wheel, Adeline Hotel make a strange video, Artie Shepp, Raw Poetic and Damu The Fudgemunk share a learning experience, Sampa the Great makes a cinematic return and more in today’s Roundup. I do not know what a Fudgemunk is. And I’m not sure I want to.
1 | Katie Von Schleicher | Wheel
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Katie Von Schleicher releases Wheel, the standout single off of her forthcoming album, Consummation, due May 22. Throughout Wheel, jangly guitar, uptempo percussion and Von Schleicher’s airy vocals contrast melancholy lyrics: “I’m alone in the house // with your mark all around // all cold windows, like suffering.” The accompanying video, directed by V. Haddad, was composed remotely during our present isolation and features self-shot footage of Schleicher and other womxn / non-binary artists joining a group performance of Wheel. “I feel really lucky to collaborate with V. on the video for Wheel,” says Von Schleicher. “She came to me with a real understanding of the record’s subtext, and her vision compliments the song so well. Her decision to donate her fee to support people who are vulnerable, isolated, and doubly affected by this pandemic was part of her initial pitch. It’s beautiful of her to offer that.”
2 | Adeline Hotel | Strange Sometimes
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Adeline Hotel is the psych-folk/indie rock project led by guitarist and vocalist Dan Knishkowy, joined by guitarist Ben Seretan, pianist Winston Cook-Wilson, bassist Andrew Stocker, drummer Sean Mullins (Wilder Maker), with guest vocalists Brigid Mae Power and Matt Kivel, and a host of others. The band have released Strange Sometimes, the third single from Solid Love, out May 8. The video was filmed in isolation (and in rollerblades) on Long Island, with direction from Knishkowy’s partner Chrissy Ziegler. Written during a period of deep restlessness, the song examines old habits through a new lens, questions ingrained beliefs, and looks at the fine line between becoming comfortable in your skin vs. losing yourself in it. Knishkowy writes, “The song feels poignant to me again right now, stuck inside as spring begins blooming, with endless time to think about what a privilege it is to be bored, when so many do not have the luxury.”
3 | Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic and Damu The Fudgemunk | Learning To Breathe
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic, and Damu The Fudgemunk are pleased to announce their new collaborative album Ocean Bridges, out May 22, alongside the album’s lead single, Learning to Breathe. Entirely improvised, Ocean Bridges was intentionally created without any direction, resulting in a finished product with natural energy, a conversation of ideas that transcend genre. The album blends live improvised music, jazz, hip-hop, and many other musical directions into a one-of-a-kind sound. Learning to Breathe is a blend of urgent bass, tense percussion, and Raw Poetic’s distinctive delivery and rumination on legacy: “Put legacy in my tone/blood in the banjo, my bones/my voice the new saxophone/this Philly shit can’t be cloned/now watch the pass take a form – it’s a passing of the torch,” says Poetic. “The only thing a new life form learns on its own is breathing. Learning to breathe.”
4 | Sampa The Great | The Return: A Short Film
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Zambian-born, Botswana-raised and now Melbourne-based artist, Sampa The Great continues her unstoppable rise with the release of The Return: A Short Film. It serves as a moment-by-moment reflection on the powerful musical and personal evolution behind her debut album The Return, released in September 2019 to widespread acclaim. Sampa says: “I knew when the album was being made it was a very important time for me musically and personally. My debut album was, in a sense, a release of control of the sound direction. Going back to root inspirations stronger than ever before with a clear and concise definition of all I am as an artist and as a person. With all that, myself and my team knew the experience and journey had to be documented. Everyone behind the album, from executive producer, to artists, to studios, management and team stg. As well as the people behind the music videos, directors, producers, cinematographers and the Zambia team. We put everything together in the spirit of home — and it’s only the beginning.”
5 | The Know | Someday Maybe
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The Know began in late 2018 when Daniel Knowles suggested to his wife, Jennifer Farmer, that instead of traveling home for the holidays (to the UK and Texas respectively) that the LA-based transplants stay put and try to create music together, just the two of them. This would be the married couple’s gift to themselves. For the next few weeks, they isolated themselves in their home studio with no real plan except a mutual love of Beach House, Julee Cruise, Ye Ye, The Jesus and Mary Chain, ’60s girl groups, dream pop, and the evocative storytelling lyricism of Patsy Cline and The National. Someday Maybe is about the potential you feel when you first meet someone you connect deeply with. The debut EP entitled wearetheknow is set for release May 18.”
6 | eleven7four | Where It Hurts (Feat. Tayla Parx)
THE PRESS RELEASE: “New Zealand hip-hop duo eleven7four have announced that they will release their debut album What’s The 1174? (Side 1) on June 19. Today, the duo, composed of twin brothers Shingi and Muche, shared their new song Where It Hurts (feat. Tayla Parx) along with its music video, which they shot in Los Angeles. “A lot of people would never have thought we’d be in New York writing an album with Tayla Parx, one of the most talented artists/songwriters in the world,” Shingi and Muche said. “This song is basically that journey for us, from the airport to the studio, being in New York for the first time, it was a sensory overload. The amount of people, the sounds, the lights, and it’s hard not to notice the crackhead on the sidewalk trying to sell you drugs & bootleg mixtapes. We got a taste of it all and loved every second, and we wanted to convey that in this song.”
7 | Riell | First
THE PRESS RELEASE: “There’s a first for everything! And today marks the release of Canadian dance pop artist Riell‘s first “real” pop song, aptly titled First. Destined to be a sing out loud break-up anthem for years to come with its powerful ‘I’m loving myself first’ chorus, First is the third single to be released from Riell’s debut album Paradise, which will be out on Oct. 31. “I wrote First at the end of summer, one week after moving to England for a semester abroad, in my tiny dorm room on an old, beat up guitar that I bought at a second hand store for 10 pounds,” says Riell. “I was changing everything about my environment, so I was inspired to think about altering my perspective on past and future relationships. Instead of asking if I was good enough for somebody, I wondered what it would be like to ask if they were good enough for me. The video jumps from flashback clips from the past 2 videos, as well as foreshadowing clips from an upcoming video, to shots of some of the most beautiful places I could think of: an altering of perspective.”
8 | Astari Nite | Capulet Loves Montague
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Miami Goth Rock/Post-Punk artists Astari Nite have released the music video for their song Capulet Love Montague. The music video for Capulet Love Montague was inspired by a nightmare vocalist Mychael had when Astari Nite was writing their new album Here Lies. “I’ve always imagined what it would be like to capture a dream on film, especially one that mirrored words that I was able to desperately tear out of my head. I found beauty in a peculiar abyss of what some call reality, though for me, it was only an alluring nightmare that I had to eventually wake from.” Here Lies will be released May 8.”
9 | Seth Glier | Til Further Notice
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Grammy-nominated Seth Glier is a singer-songwriter, producer, and multi instrumentalist. His critically acclaimed, emotionally dense catalog of work often draws upon traditional roots music, experimental instrumentation, and moody atmospheres that result in soulfully intelligent stories that can alternatively fight the power or break your heart. His new single entitled Til Further Notice was written after hearing the tragic news of John Prine’s death. Simple piano melodies set the backdrop for Glier’s warm vocals and emotive lyrics. Glier shares, “We’ve heard the words Til Further Notice a lot in the past few weeks. They’ve become a signal of prolonged uncertainty and a mantra as we shift to a new rhythm in our daily lives. Never have I felt a time where we are all collectively so emotionally exposed to this feeling of uncertainty. I believe that uncertainty is the place where hope lives and crawls out of from time to time.”
10 | Beauty Pill | The Damnedest Thing
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Beauty Pill shared The Damnedest Thing, the second single from the Washington D.C. band’s forthcoming release Please Advise, out May 8. The Drew Doucette-directed music video (which the band calls a “textfilm”) also premiered today. Of the concept, band leader Chad Clark explains, “The video presents the (phantasmagoric) lyrics alongside the (ludic, dry) commentary and requires the viewer to keep up with both. I posit that if we had added visual images onto that, it would have been too much for the brain.”
11 | Messa | She Knows/Tulsi
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Italian doom jazz specialists Messa unveil a gripping live video for the songs She Knows/Tulsi from their Roadburn Festival 2019 performance. Their latest album Feast For Water is still available. Say the band: “Last year we played Roadburn festival. It was the first time for us and, of course, we were all beyond excited to participate in what we believe to be one of the best settings for so many kinds of independent music ever. The whole experience turned out to be one of the most intriguing and intense moments in our musical and personal lives so far. The amount of love from the audience and the commitment of the staff itself were so overwhelmingly strong that we felt part of a bigger unity, really. Now we have the pleasure to share a song from that set.”
12 | September Insomnia | Song Of You
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Rockford, Ill. rockers September Insomnia have released their new single Song of You, mixed by Matt Dougherty (Megadeth, Sevendust), featuring cover art by Melody Myers (Escape The Fate, David Ellefson), who also created the lyric video for Song Of You. Says singer Corey Johnson, “Song of You is about a few different things … it’s the story of looking in from the outside, of life destroying everything through selfishness and jealousy, and then an epiphany of self-realization. ”
13 | The Lacs | Country Road Acoustic
THE PRESS RELEASE: “With musicians taking a massive hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Georgia-based country-rap duo The Lacs have used the time to record stripped-down acoustic versions of classic tracks from their catalog. The first release is Country Road from their breakout 2011 album Country Boy’s Paradise, which has become one of the group’s biggest songs.”
14 | Luke De-Sciscio | Human Heart
THE PRESS RELEASE: “English folk artist Luke De-Sciscio will release Eucharist tomorrow, the follow-up to Good Bye Folk Boy and the second installment in a planned trilogy of records. De-Sciscio released Good Bye Folk Boy just last month, making his U.S. live debut during The New Colossus Festival in New York. Today, in anticipation of Eucharist, De-Sciscio has released Human Heart, a song about forgiveness. Luke explains the message behind Human Heart: “Forgiving yourself. Forgiving others. Ultimately recognizing that the line, between self and other, is a deeply blurry partition. Internalizing the past, finding gratitude for it in the shape the present takes. Finding comfort in the solidarity that we all, without exception, share so much more than divides us. Taking this time, in our own solitudes, in lockdown while the World takes a breath, to consider how we might emerge into the New World both lighter and deeper.”
15 | Inventions | Calico
THE PRESS RELEASE: “On Continuous Portrait, set for a May 29 digital release, Inventions further their creative curiosities first touched on in 2015’s Maze of Woods. Today Matthew Robert Cooper (Eluvium) and Mark T. Smith (Explosions in the Sky) share the new single Calico. The spry, playful layers of the track bounce against a steady thrum of rhythms and samples from everyday noises. It follows the first single Outlook For The Future, a track that captured a a storm of emotional resonance.”
16 | Mali-Koa | Dancer
THE PRESS RELEASE: “London-via-Sydney artist Mali-Koa unveils her empowering new visuals for Dancer — her first single of the year from her upcoming album. Dancer is an invigorating pop number, with its driving bass-fueled beat complimented by Mali’s words of affirmation, instilling a strong sense of self-belief and confidence needed now more than ever. The gorgeously sleek, chic visuals showcase a brand-new side to her creativity, as she gracefully moves to the rhythms of the track with a group of interpretive dancers. Elegant, striking and impactful, Dancer reintroduces Mali-Koa as a multi-faceted artist paying serious attention to all elements of her craft. Sharing her thoughts on the song, Mali explained: “Dancer acts as a slice of positivity in challenging times. Most people can relate to feeling limited by circumstance, monotony and opinions in everyday life. This song is a hopeful and gentle reassurance to myself and anyone who might need it. The contemporary dance allowed me to break out of what might be expected. My natural instinct has always been to push further when things are sold as unattainable; I guess Dancer is about exactly that, challenging yourself and confronting those structures in life.”
17 | Pantayo | V V V (They Lie)
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Pantayo explores what’s possible for contemporary kulintang music with the atonal blend of kulintang ensemble instruments with vocals and electronic production. Today, they share the second single off their upcoming self-titled debut, V V V (They Lie). “We wrote V V V (They Lie) in a day,” the band says. “We were having bubble tea at that time and the song just came together intuitively. The composition of the song was a lot like a cup of bubble tea. We added 2 cups of blended percussion as the base, then some analog synth tapioca pearls to keep the texture interesting and fun, and finally topped it off with a few tablespoons of fresh tropical vocal fruits for some added sweetness.”
18 | Jr Jr | This Side of Paradise
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Detroit indie-pop duo Jr Jr released their new single This Side of Paradise. The single is featured on their upbeat and catchy upcoming EP, August And Everything Prior due out May 1. “This Side of Paradise is about wanting to stay forever in that place that exists between meeting someone for the first time and having your first fallout. And it’s also about dancing. Which side of paradise are you?” August and Everything Prior, which arrives as Jr Jr enter a more prolific era, is a salute to their roots, a thoughtful but danceable offering that harkens back to the band’s early releases. “It’s also a revival in my own head of our love of acoustic songs mixed with elements of 1990s hip-hop,” they say. “The EP grooves, but it also points to our folk roots.”
