Whoop-Szo open up eight cans of whoop-ass, Psycho Comedy go numb, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever get vertical, Black Rainbow are in phase, Dirty Projectors lose it and more in today’s Cinco De Mayo Roundup. Scroll all the way down to the bottom for a cool all-star collaboration.
1 | Whoop-Szo | Nshwaaswi
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Whoop-Szo are sharing the video for Nshwaaswi from their recent acclaimed LP, Warrior Down. Nshwaaswi is “the number 8 in the Anishinaabe language and is the name of the eighth song on our record Warrior Down,” says Adam Sturgeon. “Much of Anishinaabe culture is based around the number seven, most notably our 7 Grandfather Teachings (Truth, Love, Bravery, Respect, Humility, Honesty and Wisdom) and the stages of life. We also have a prophecy that talks about an 8th fire or stage that we as humans can choose to light. The 8th fire of prosperity, love and well-being. An eternal fire of peace.” The video for Nshwaaswi continues where the video for Gerry left off, featuring more archival 8mm footage unearthed in Sturgeon’s parent’s crawlspace. Here, videographer Travis Welowszky propagates an apocalyptic vacation, complete with doomsday boat rides, caged spirit guides and all the other privileges enjoyed at the expense of the 8th fire.”
2 | Psycho Comedy | I’m Numb
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Liverpool creative collective Psycho Comedy are back with a visceral new single and video: I’m Numb. Taken from their acclaimed debut album Performance Space Number One, this latest excerpt is another gloriously unhinged and unrelenting example of their vintage New York-scene refracted garage-punk at its finest. With sleepless shades of the Iggy classic Lust For Life, I’m Numb is a wiry mass of guillotine guitars, wild-eyed lyricism and thrashing percussion. Ejected with such frenzied execution, it’s a hit that barely lasts 3 minutes, but is fully aware of how to savour in every second. As frontman Shaun Powell elaborates: “A late night early / morning memoir. Laced with a sinister tone and black comedy, I’m Numb is an unapologetic confession of one’s debauched mindset…. With the tempo and rhythm reflecting the heartbeat of the character. Noise guitar hints towards The Shangri La’s/Phil Spector, like glistens of light in the early morning. A raucous number.”
3 | Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever | Falling Thunder
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Melbourne-based band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever release a new single/video, Falling Thunder, from their highly anticipated second album, Sideways to New Italy, out June 5. Led by singer-songwriter-guitarists Tom Russo, Joe White and Fran Keaney, and rounded out by bassist Joe Russo and drummer Marcel Tussie, Sideways To New Italy is a stunning return for the five-piece following their internationally acclaimed debut album, Hope Downs. Falling Thunder continues to find RBCF at the peak of their powers: a swirling, mesmeric pop song that perfectly evokes the timeless nature of Sideways To New Italy — a record that’s universal yet threaded through with personal histories, born of dislocation but with a distinct geographic identity. Tom Russo explains it’s “about pushing on through the relentless march of time, against the constant cycle of seasons. And the way people change and relationships change. It’s set in that time when autumn is turning into winter and the trees are getting bare.”
4 | Black Rainbows | Universal Phase
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Rome’s stoner rock heroes Black Rainbows share their new single Universal Phase. Their eight studio album Cosmic Ritual Supertrip drops on May 22. “Universal Phase is maybe the heaviest song from our new record. It’s heavy, doomy and wild. It kicks you in the teeth and punches you in the face. The video was shot in a wrecked industrial area surrounded by abandoned cars, and you can see us playing and driving a super 70 Ford Taunus. We even color-corrected the video to give it a more 70s feel.” says frontman Gabriele Fiori.”
5 | Dirty Projectors | Lose Your Love
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Dirty Projectors share new single Lose Your Love. At a moment when social distancing threatens to collapse into social alienation, Felicia Douglass implores us: “Just hold on, let yourself be found!” This is an anthem that invites connection and celebrates our need for one another. The song’s big, buoyant beats and exuberant instrumentation are a world away from the acoustic meditations of the Windows Open EP. But this is another facet of the same dynamic band: keyboardist-percussionist Felicia Douglass takes the lead, joined in harmony by Maia Friedman and Kristin Slipp, on music written and produced by Dave Longstreth. On June 26, Dirty Projectors will release Flight Tower, the next in a sequence of five EPs that will come out in 2020.”
6 | Socks & Ballerinas | Torpedoes
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Socks And Ballerinas are a Finnish duo who love to make a lot of noises with a guitar, some loops and a drumkit. SOAP!, their first album, will push you on a soapy dancefloor, laughing of your dancing skills and playing some fun-oriented instrumental, mathy, music. Today they got a new video out: Torpedoes comes straight from SOAP! Torpedoes hits you straight in your face with some danceable riffs and heavy movements, mathy and loopy craziness, Battles-esque atmospheres and explosions.”
7 | Obylx | Day By Day
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Bristol-based producer Obylx, known for his monthly genre-defying releases, has released his new single Day By Day. Using cheerful rhythms and beats, Obylx deals with the less cheerful subject of enduring quarantine alone. Taking electric slides and delicate embellishments, the producer provides a needed contrast against the sobering lyrics. However, the listener can’t help singing along, being drawn into the catchy melody that radiates throughout the single. Day By Day does prove itself to be a memorable track, setting itself to be played on repeat in the years to come. The unique producer provides some further insight: “Day by Day is about the frustrations of spending quarantine alone. The song describes the yearning for the company of a lockdown lover.”
8 | Arlo Parks | Black Dog
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Arlo Parks has delivered her latest sonic offering; the beguiling Black Dog, a song she describes as being about “the feeling of helplessness that comes along with watching a loved one suffer.” You can also watch the emotionally charged accompanying video clip, directed by long time collaborator Molly Burdett. Further discussing the meaning behind the track, the ever-poignant Arlo explains “it’s supposed to make people who are struggling feel less isolated and start a conversation surrounding the prevalence of mental health issues in today’s world.”
9 | Gordi | Volcanic
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Australian musician Gordi shares the new single Volcanic, from her new album Our Two Skins, out June 26. Volcanic fizzles with a sense of urgency and swirling mania. Gordi wrote the track in 2018 while in Sweden, when travelling with her parents and grappling with a new truth in her identity, against the backdrop of a Christian family and Australia’s same-sex marriage vote. The instrumentation came out of hours sitting at the piano behind the kitchen at Berlin’s Michelberger Hotel (if you listen hard you can hear plates, pots and pans clinking from the kitchen). “It speaks to a rush of anxiety – about why, about what is real and what is not, about the drama of it, about the vortex of it,” says Gordi. “When it surges you can feel paralysed and out of control at the same time – ‘shut down’ and ‘manic.’ Its self-destructive nature can be so crippling. I wanted the song to feel like a wave of anxiety. The tempo never changes but the piano solo starts at half-time and rushes until it is double the speed, though the beat never changes. And then suddenly; it’s over.”
10 | Black Needle Noise + PIG | Seed of Evil
THE PRESS RELEASE: “John Fryer, legendary producer and artist in his own right, unveils the latest offering from his Black Needle Noise project — the new video for Seed of Evil with PIG, an unholy collaboration from two of the most celebrated and talented forces in industrial music. Vocalist Raymond Watts plows forth with a sinister growl over Fryer’s menacing atmospherics. The track’s foreboding lyrics speak of allowing evil to overcome one’s self. Conceived and edited by Fryer and Joseph Seuferling of Psionic Broadcast, this dark and twisted visual escapade (a Psionic Broadcast and Black Needle Noise Production featuring actress Anjela Piccard) was filmed by Fryer and Piccard (L.A.) and by PIG (London).”
11 | Bibio | Sleep On The Wing
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Bibio — the project of Stephen Wilkinson — announces his new release, Sleep On The Wing, out June 12, and shares the title track with an accompanying video. Sleep On The Wing draws on a familiar range of influences from traditional folk, peaceful atmospheric soundscapes and field recordings from the natural world. Bibio explains: “Lyrically, I feel that the song has two aspects to it: The idea of being in the wake of a loss, and with hope, continuing the life of someone who has passed, through allowing oneself to be inspired by what they did during their lifetime and what they left behind, whether it’s the things they said, the knowledge they shared or the things they made. The other aspect to the song is perhaps more direct, and talks of escaping the city to find peace in the countryside, but the title is more a celebration of dreaming and the liberating power of imagination, not necessarily a physical escape. Music has the power to inspire dreaming and fuel the imagination, and that’s what I’ve always found so addictive about music.”
12 | Paul Kelly | Sleep, Australia Sleep
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Australia’s greatest and most enduring songwriter Paul Kelly releases Sleep, Australia, Sleep in North America. The official video, directed by Siân Darling, features images of the glory and ruin of the natural world as well as human efforts to protect it. Much of the footage was kindly provided by conservation organizations. Kelly says of the song, “It’s a lament in the form of a lullaby. A lullaby that sounds a warning. I hope it doesn’t come true but some of it already has.”
13 | Corresponding Handpieces | Nailbiter
THE PRESS RELEASE: “A band from awhile ago called Corresponding Handpieces are just now putting out their first album in six years, with the gritty, dirty, lo-fi darkwave of Jewels, their seventh full-length, arriving on May 8. Don’t believe us? They even shot an insane, psychedelic music video in the qurantimes for the song Nailbiter. Following 2014’s incredibly bleak rock record The Light, the new album was composed out of several years of sessions between the two multi-instrumentalists Evan & Dave. Initially aimed to be lighter in tone, the heavier themes of the horrors of the Trump administration ultimately weighed out, so Jewels deals with wealth gaps, children in cages, climate change, and the overall sense of anxiety all of us are feeling at all times these days, sometimes approaching these issues in abrasive fashion, sometimes marrying them to pop hooks. It’s 2020: nothing means anything anymore, y’all.”
14 | Dining With Dogs | Spreading Thin
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Austin-based sludge metal quartet Dining With Dogs — formed by current and formers of The Dead See, BLK OPS, and more — will release their debut LP, The Problem With Friends, next week. Featuring 10 bruising tracks which bend scathing noise rock influences to the gnarled low-end of crushing doom metal, the band’s maiden full-length album The Problem With Friends was recorded in Austin with Craig Delony, who contributed additional synth tracks to the process. The band has released a video for the first single, Spreading Thin, which documents the recording process of the crushing album being laid out in the studio.”
15 | Obnoxious | Killshot
THE PRESS RELEASE: “San Diego, CA-based hip-hop artist Obnoxious releases the single Killshot, produced by Push Buttons Beats. “I’m excited to finally release my new single Killshot as I think it’s me tapping into that ante-up style of hip hop that hasn’t been done in a while. A lot of producers are doing the no drums or real slow vibes, but this is hype, in your face with hard-hitting drums, and a neck-snapping hook. The whole track punches you in your face with bars and so does the rest of my catalog. The video represents the song well and is shot in my neighborhood with my people. No paid actors or pretend homies in this video.”
16 | -(16)- | Me And The Dog Die Together
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Godfathers of sludge -(16)- share their official video for Me And The Dog Die Together. The track comes off the band’s forthcoming eighth full-length Dream Squasher, set for release next month. Guitarist and lead vocalist Bobby Ferry comments, “For this song, we didn’t look far for inspiration. We already had unbreakable eye contact, constant love, and loyalty, so all that was left was to formally propose a death pact with your dog. Me And The Dog Die Together is just such a proposition.” Dream Squasher is a testament to the power of loss, its every moment casting the San Diego outfit into deeper, darker depths.”
17 | Lona | Wonderland
THE PRESS RELEASE: “After impressing with their first release of 2020 Black Paradise, enthralling Liverpool collective Lona have just unveiled their punchy new single Wonderland. The group prove again and again they possess a versatility that is so often hard to find as they confidently navigate through different soundscapes while still being true to their artistic integrity. They do so once again with their newest cut Wonderland, a bright uplifting yet purposefully alt-rock anthem further underpinned by its rousing lyrics as they speak to letting go of inhibitions with a chorus call to euphoria. Coming with cinematic visuals that celebrate the vibrant energy of the band, Wonderland is a jam-packed highlight reel of live performances which exudes creative flair.”
https://youtu.be/8L59XY1qiFk
18 | Beyond Remains | Disposable Lives
THE PRESS RELEASE: “French Djent/Thrash/Modern metallers Beyond Remains just shared an alternate piano version of their song Disposable Lives. This track will feature on After The Violence, an upcoming “concept-EP” which follows their July 2019 self-released album. After the Violence consists in a concept mini-album, serving up six very different songs that widen the spectrum of their musical palette. Even though After The Violence is rooted in metalcore and thrash, it also doesn’t shy away from rock, classical and acoustic influences.”
19 | Lesser Glow | Toba
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Atmospheric doom/sludge metal unit Lesser Glow will release their consuming Nullity full-length May 29. In advance of its official unveiling, the band is pleased to debut latest single Toba. The band elaborates, “Toba was inspired by the super volcano that exists on present day Lake Toba, Sumatra. 75,000 years ago, it is believed to have bottlenecked the human population. Within the arc of Nullity, we see this as earth’s attempt of reclamation; cleansing itself of any record of humanity and exposing the futility of human existence.” Nullity is based around the concept of human beings existing on earth as parasites. The scope widens throughout the course of the record, touching on creation myths, existence within nature, interpersonal and internal struggles, and finishing out with the mass extinction/cleansing of mankind.”
20+21 | Squirrel Flower | Take It Or Leave It + So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Squirrel Flower — the moniker of Ella O’Connor Williams — releases a new standalone single, Take It or Leave It, and a cover of Caroline Polachek’s So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings. Take It or Leave It originally appeared on a 7” alongside Williams’ ethereal and warm debut, I Was Born Swimming, released earlier this year. Throughout the emotive, melancholy track, Williams plays her grandmother’s accordion and grandfather’s nylon string guitar. So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings is an explosive cover of Polachek’s original. “For the last show of my truncated tour in March, my band and I decided to play a cover of So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings after rehearsing it once during sound check (we are all huge Caroline Polachek fans),” says Williams. “It was the last song I played live before quarantine. I got home from tour and immediately recorded it in my basement.”
22 | Anna Klein | Lonely
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Anna Klein is a Toronto singer-songwriter, producer, and performer. Since first writing music as an impressionable pre-teen, she has developed an ever evolving sense of musicality that has shaped her sound into what it is now. In recent years, Klein’s passion for both writing and production have amalgamated. Thanks to her acoustic roots, she is best known for her consistently emotive performances. After discovering an interest in electronic music, Klein started putting more focus on the sound of the instruments in order to create that same emotion. This concept led to her first full length album, These Days (2018), and is constantly influencing the way she produces her music today. Klein just released a new single, Lonely, a punchy dream-pop track with an ambient sheen and moody vocals.”
23 | Tunnel | Super Charged Powerball
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Tunnel is a progressive music duo from Montreal. The project was born after a last minute improvised show in the summer of 2013 between guitarist François Jalbert and drummer Kevin Warren. The duo began recording ideas until heading into Montreal’s Breakglass Studio a year later to produce their debut EP Don’t Go Straight. Over the past two years, the duo has been working steadily on new songs which have culminated into their first full-length album, Out For A While, out now. They recorded the album themselves in a remote cottage in the Gaspésie region of Quebec, featuring a string of local Montreal musicians. This album is a solid documentation of the duo’s growth and expansion into more song-form compositions, without losing sight of an experimental approach.”
24 | Sorge | Astral Burnout
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Washington, DC-based quintet Sorge presents their eponymous debut EP. Confirmed for release in early June, the band has unveiled the dynamic Astral Burnout for public indulgence. Fusing elements of stoner/doom, fuzz, sludge, and psychedelic metal and rock elements into an esoteric concoction of outer space and inner mind, Sorge delivers four crushing tracks totaling nearly twenty-eight minutes of sonic exploration. Elements of the fertile doom scene that birthed Saint Vitus, Internal Void, Place Of Skulls, Earthride, Iron Man, and many others show through, however, Sorge’s tunes reach far beyond said soil, infusing kaleidoscopic and ethereal elements into their sound.”
25 | FTC | Flatten the Curve
THE PRESS RELEASE: “I had the idea to assemble a group recording with each individual recording themselves in their home studio, a sort of pandemic sing-along. When even rehearsing and playing with four others in a room became prohibited, it seemed like the next best thing,” says Bruce Duff, producer and mixer for Flatten the Curve, the new benefit single set up to create awareness to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Assembling seminal and iconic rock, punk and alternative rock luminaries, the song celebrates the power of a community coming together to stop the pandemic. Among the artists involved are Mike Watt (Stooges/Minutemen/firehose), Ben Weasel (Screeching Weasel), Cherie Currie (The Runaways), Josie Cotton, Lisa Kekaula (The BellRays), and Eddie Spaghetti (Supersuckers), with many more lending their time and talent to the formidable punk track.”
