Daniel Romano spins a wild tale, Mountain Goats burn the candle at both ends, Erasure display nerves of steel, The Phoenix Foundation have a hellhound on their trail, Dukes of Chutney bring a scent of India and more in your Tuesday Roundup. There are a few buried gems in this one; see if you can find them. If you need me, I’ll be right over here, winding down with a beer.
1 | Daniel Romano’s Outfit | A Rat Without A Tale
THE PRESS RELEASE: “How Ill Thy World Is Ordered (out Sept. 18) will be the ninth full-length Daniel Romano album to be released in 2020, but the first to manifest in the physical mediums since the career spanning, era-defining live album Okay Wow way back on March 27. This one too, features the mighty skills of The Outfit, the tightest of tight-knit rock and roll bands, who assembled in studio in a perfectly tuned geometry to record these new songs following simple guidelines and simple rules: Play the whole thing, in sequence, three takes or bust, with no overdubs; play “the sound of the feel of a snake bite;” play “a heist on horseback for fool’s gold.” What unexpected anthems emerge! A Rat Without A Tale is the first.”
2 | The Mountain Goats | As Many Candles As Possible
THE PRESS RELEASE: “On the first of March, 2020, John Darnielle, Peter Hughes, Matt Douglas and Jon Wurster, aka The Mountain Goats band, visited legendary studio Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis. Darnielle armed his band with new songs and reunited with producer Matt Ross-Spang, who engineered last year’s In League with Dragons. In the same room where The Cramps tracked their 1980 debut album, The Mountain Goats spent a week capturing the magic of a band at the top of its game. The result is Getting Into Knives, the perfect album for the millions of us who have spent many idle hours contemplating whether we ought to be honest with ourselves and just get massively into knives. As Many Candles As Possible is the first single and video.”
3 | Erasure | Nerves of Steel
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Erasure (Andy Bell and Vince Clarke) have shared the fabulous new video for their latest single Nerves of Steel. Featuring over 20 LGBTQIA+ stars, including several best known for their appearance on RuPaul’s Drag Race, the video shines a suitably neon light on the single’s pop gleam. Bell has said, “This is my favourite track from the album, I am truly honoured that all our LGBTQIA+ friends were so creative during lockdown and helped us with this joyful video. Thanks for creating such a lovely piece of art!” Erasure’s 18th studio album The Neon is out on Aug. 21.”
4 | The Phoenix Foundation | Hounds of Hell (with Nadia Reid)
THE PRESS RELEASE: “New Zealand indie-folk six-piece The Phoenix Foundation have shared their new Nadia Reid-featuring track Hounds of Hell. In tandem with sharing new music, the band has also announced details of their new record Friend Ship, out Oct. 16. Hounds of Hell positions itself as a perfect key into the new record with glittering hints of psychedelia akin to Broken Social Scene, etc., as well as demonstrating the beautiful call-and-response vocals between Reid and frontman of the group, Samuel Flynn Scott.”
5 | Dukes of Chutney | Scent of India (ft. E Ruscha V)
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Dukes of Chutney’s debut album Hazel explores life’s wandering ways while widening its path. Recorded from remote yet commonly tranquil corners of the world over a six year span, the transcontinental trio of Dustin Lynn, John Paul Jones and Petra explore the different spaces and places, between nothingness and nature, that nurture inner and outer peace. The video for second single Scent of India was created by Lynn from the amazing early 80’s surf movie Surf Hits Vol. 1: Jungle Jetset by Jack McCoy. Dukes of Chutney’s Hazel will be available Sept. 4.”
6 | Helena Deland | Someone New
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Someone New is the title track from the debut album by Montreal’s emerging singer-songwriter Helena Deland, due out Oct. 16. As Deland shares about the song, “Someone New is about the validation and relief from one’s internal world that a romantic encounter can offer, but also about becoming aware that there seems to be an expiry date on that type of opportunity for women.” She adds, “It ambivalently celebrates and condemns the idea of being in one’s ‘prime’, as it is so rare that youth and self-understanding are simultaneous.” Understated and lavish, grave but upbeat, Someone New is the thesis of the record. The single is accompanied by a video directed by Xavier Bélanger-Dorval that features Deland sitting for a portrait, capturing the discomfort of needing to keep still while being scrutinized and on display.”
7 | Protokult | Feed Your Demons
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Protokult have been defining folk/pagan metal since 2009 when they released their debut album Ancestral Anthems. Since then they have created three additional uncompromising and relentless albums with their fifth, Transcending The Ruins, coming out on Oct. 1. An introduction to this new offering comes with the single Feed Your Demons, which the band explains in their own words: “Feed Your Demons was probably the last song written for the record, we needed something fairly simple, heavy and to the point. I pictured a groovy yet haunting female folk bridge in the middle and wanted some extra aggression too. One of the more personal songs from the album, it deals with the fragility and vulnerability of what makes us human, ie: addictions, shame, and hopefully learning to cope with so-called vices. It’s not a song that supports addiction but essentially, controlling your demons if you absolutely HAVE to feed them on occasion.”
8 | Deafkids & Petbrick | Sweat-Drenched Wreck
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Petbrick is the creation of Wayne Adams (Big Lad, Death Pedals), Iggor Cavalera (Sepultura, Soulwax, Cavalera Conspiracy) and more. The Sweat-Drenched Wreck single sees release through a tension-fueled video created by Estúdio Holotrópico and Vitor Jabour. Petbrick adds, “This particular tune came from an amalgamation of quite a few strange percussive approaches … Iggor built this excellent pair of drum sticks that was attached together with a coat hanger and a load of gaffer tape, so that he could play a weird 16-beat almost shuffled drum and bass pattern on the hi-hat with one hand. Marian played with his hands on the snare drum as an overdub, so you get a weird percussive element from the snare pattern … The guitar hook almost has a cool eastern feel to it, so this track really was a mental smashing together of a lot of different, super-creative approaches. You can hear each person’s personality coexisting in a beautiful harmony.”
9 | Machine Head | Bulletproof
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Outspoken Bay Area metal giants Machine Head have unveiled a seething new lyric video for their song Bulletproof, featured on their recent digital single Civil Unrest. Bulletproof is a clear, defiant statement from vocalist/guitarist Robb Flynn and band who don’t mince words in their fury about the country’s disgraceful climate of corruption, injustice, racism and inequality that has risen during the current administration. Flynn comments on the song, “The lyrics for Bulletproof were finished in the aftermath of not only the Ahmaud Arbery murder at the hands of white supremacists, but everything twisting out of control in our World. The isolation and craziness of the pandemic, the lockdown protesters storming government buildings with AR-15s, as well as the blatant lies and conspiracies pouring out of our political leaders’ mouths, hour by hour, day after day.”
10 | JR The Band | Stray Dog
THE PRESS RELEASE: “I am a one-man-band plus a drummer and engineer, living the studio life during lockdown! Since gigging is not really an option, during the last five months I been devoting all my energy to writing and recording. This video is a way to invite the audience into my world where I can really express my creative drive to compose and write modern-day rock anthems.”
11 | Sylvan Esso | Rooftop Dancing
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Sylvan Esso have unveiled Rooftop Dancing, the second single from their forthcoming album Free Love, out Sept. 25. Rooftop Dancing captures the duo of Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn in a minimalist moment of intimacy. Sylvan Esso say: “Rooftop Dancing is about the excitement of being part of a collective humming whole — a city that contains multitudes — with your small story shining softly amidst it. Cheryl Dunn was a natural first choice to make the video since she has been so brilliantly capturing the spirit of NYC for years. We are so grateful to her for collaborating with us and giving us a beautiful slice of what the city feels like today.”
12 | Taylor Colson | Hurt Me
THE PRESS RELEASE: “In a time when life as we know it is on hold, rising chanteuse Taylor Colson is leveraging the loneliness caused by COVID-19 to drive home the longing of her new single Hurt Me. The video for the haunting and moody track about love, loss, and longing was filmed exclusively using the Photo Booth app on her Macbook. The clip finds Colson singing and writhing in an empty apartment. The bare room serves as a fitting metaphor considering the context of the song, which talks about realizing the loss of love and being unable to move forward. Colson explains: “Hurt Me is about wanting to feel heartbreak for the first time because of the guilt you feel for not loving someone anymore and having to cause them pain and suffering when it’s time to leave. You feel like you owe them restitution for what you’ve done. The guilt can eat you alive, leading you to emptiness and despair.”
13 | Landon Elliott | Rainbow
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Landon Elliott releases his lovely, hopeful cover of Kacey Musgraves’ Rainbow and announces The Rainbow Project, an art sale that benefits LGBTQ+ youth and family organizations. The music video, directed by Daniel Bagbey, depicts all kinds of rainbow artwork — some sewn with yarn, others photographed or drawn with crayon, and all sent in by fans — that can be purchased. Elliott hopes the optimism and reassurance of Rainbow resonates with people who may be having a hard time in this endless desert of a year. “People need a message of hope and love right now,” he says. “We need to be affirmed that ‘it’ll all be alright,’ and that these dark times won’t last forever. There will be a break in this storm soon, and when the skies do finally open back up, I’m hoping that there will continue to be rainbows shown proudly for all to see.”
14 | Milo Gore | Noise Gone Dancing
THE PRESS RELEASE: “U.K.-based Indie-alternative musician Milo Gore shares the music video of his latest single Noise Gone Dancing, lifted from his upcoming album How Do You Cope While Grieving For The Living?, which will be released on Aug. 20. Milo Gore shares: “This song is all about personal grief; about the visible struggle, and the different mood swings, that someone goes through post-relationship. With the Noise Gone Dancing music video, my team and I were fascinated by the five stages of grief, and we decided that we wanted to try and capture something surrounding this topic within this piece of work. We wanted to somehow incorporate each one of the emotions that one goes through when experiencing significant loss; whether that be someone or something. I’ve always been fascinated by my mood swings and how fast my mood can change, and I wanted to try and give that a visual representation.”
15 | Bandante | So This Is Now
THE PRESS RELEASE: “When not performing with The Bad Seeds, George Vjestica is the driving force behind Bandante, a moveable feast of a band, recording and performing George’s music for which other musicians, artists and filmmakers are brought in to contribute. It is the experimental nature of Bandante and in particular his work with visual artist Timothy Shepard — the overlapping of lenses through a collaborative process — that allows George to develop new, interesting and unexpected creative dynamics and outcomes. So This Is Now is the latest offering from Bandante where music and imagery are seamlessly combined in a video by Shepard. Vjestica explains: “I wanted the chorus to feel like a call to arms, to hear a cacophonous fanfare of blaring trumpets – a massive release, with a verse I wrote to be full of tension and suspense.”
16 | Eels | Baby Let’s Make It Real
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Eels have unveiled a surprise new single Baby Let’s Make It Real, recorded at the band’s Los Feliz studio. Band leader Mark Oliver Everett, aka E, says: “How ‘bout a new song to get your mind off your troubles for 3 minutes and 55 seconds? Play it again if you want to double that time.” Baby Let’s Make It Real is the band’s first release since their 2018 album The Deconstruction.”
17 | The Nude Party | Cure Is You
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The Nude Party are set to return with their sophomore album Midnight Manor on Oct. 2. The 12-song set was recorded live-to-tape over six days at the Outlier Inn in upstate New York and mixed by John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Kurt Vile). Today brings the new single Cure Is You. The Nude Party formed while the members were students at North Carolina’s Appalachian State University. After honing their chops through incessant practice at their communal band house, they relocated to a property tucked away deep in the Catskills where they have lived and labored (literally — they earn their keep gardening, tending to animals and doing all manner of general groundskeeping) for the past several years. And it’s where they worked up the songs that populate and inspire the title of the new Midnight Manor.”
18 | Rudy De Anda | Espume
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Conceived in the 1980s in Mexico and brought to California through the border inside of his six-month-pregnant mother, Rudy de Anda is releasing his debut solo record, a love letter to the long historical lineage of rock ’n’ roll music as interpreted through his multicultural lens. “I write my own story, I don’t want to be defined by any scene” De Anda proclaims of his personal journey, and his ability to adapt and flit between cities and cultures is part of why his sound is deliberately difficult to classify, familiar but novel at the same time. Rudy de Anda’s Tender Epoch LP will be available on Sept. 18. His new single Espume is out today.”
19 | Caitlin Pasko | Even God
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Caitlin Pasko — the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter, piano player, and weaver of dreamy, elegiac meditations — has shared Even God, the third and final single from her new album Greenhouse, out Aug. 28. Of the song, Pasko says: “Even God is about being trauma-bonded to an abusive partner. It’s about feeling unable to disconnect from them, despite knowing how dire your situation is. “You can sleep in / just make the bed” is me saying, “I will put up with these bouts of cruelty, because I know you love me.” It’s dark. I was sick. I was twisting the truth in order to cope with my reality, and as I started to believe my non-truth, I also turned against my friends who wanted to help me. If I believed them, then I’d have to admit to my own hell.”
20 | Antonioni | Mary Bell
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Seattle’s Antonioni have unveiled a new single. Mary Bell was written while Sarah Pasillas from the band was processing a friend committing an unthinkably violent and inhuman act. What could cause someone to do something so evil? Could that same evil reside in me? “I wrote this song after watching a couple true crime Youtube videos about young girls who became murderers. I was drawn to this topic in particular as one of my best friends murdered someone a couple years ago — an incident that was so traumatizing and close to my heart that I can’t help but explore the grief time and time again through songwriting … I also like songs that decide to take on traumatic stories (like Polly by Nirvana and John Wayne Gacy Jr. by Sufjan Stevens), as a way to discuss and ask questions like, “How close am I to evil?” No question is more pertinent, right? To face the evil inside yourself and try to recognize it in all its forms.”
21 | Picard Brothers | It’s Not Over
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Fast-rising musician / songwriting / production duo Picard Brothers (Clément and Maxime) channel the spirit of French Touch on effervescent new single It’s Not Over. The pair explain: “It’s Not Over is our vision on 2020 French house music! It’s a sound we’re trying to develop on our project that is due to come later this year.” Drawing on a myriad of influences from Jazz, funk, old school house, pop and disco, the brothers combine slick production methods with real instruments. The brothers pay homage to those who came before them, toying with a classic formula that works for the masses. “We think we owe it to a past era.” they say. “But it’s not a basic tribute — it’s combined with another thing: feeling.”
22 | David Minasian | The Sound Of Dreams (Third Movement)
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The Sound of Dreams (Third Movement) is the second single from the forthcoming release The Sound of Dreams, a star-studded landmark recording from progressive rock keyboardist/composer David Minasian. The song features legendary British musician and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Steve Hackett, best known as the guitarist and songwriter with the iconic rock band Genesis. Hackett’s trademark lead guitar work highlights this powerful and beautifully crafted instrumental co-written by Minasian and Hackett. The album’s title track is an 11-minute tour-de-force which brings Hackett, Annie Haslam and Billy Sherwood together for the first time on the same recording. As David says, “These are the heroes I grew up with. Co-writing and recording with them was a dream come true. Therefore the album’s title couldn’t be more accurate — for this is what dreams coming true sound like.”
23 | Legowelt | Unconditional Contours Memorymoog
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Legowelt has been a key figure in the Dutch electronic music scene since the early ’90s, steadily releasing timeless music that merges the pioneering sounds of Detroit and Chicago with idiosyncratic sci-fi fascinations. Unconditional Contours captures his stint at the Swiss Museum for Electronic Music Instruments, after he was invited to be the first artist in residence at the institution’s Playroom project. Legowelt visited SMEM in Fribourg, Switzerland, in early 2019 to explore the collection and record music. Possessing an extensive collection of synthesizers himself, he used hand-picked synthesizers from the museum’s archive: the rare Farfisa Synthorchestra, the EVS-1 Evolution, the ‘shittiest rompler ever made’, amongst many others.”
24 | Pink Roses | Another Girl
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Last month, Nate Tepper (guitarist of Los Angeles-based indie-pop duo Pink Roses) woke up to a flood of messages from his friends telling him to go look at Scooter Braun’s Instagram story — the music mogul had shared one of the band’s songs story after discovering it through his private app Clubhouse. Only certain people in the tech and music world have access to the app — one of them being Dave Fontenot, the lead singer of Pink Roses and an early-stage tech investor on the side. Their newest single Another Girl is an emotional and nostalgic song about Fontenot’s first love.”
25 | Dan Miraldi | Buzzin’
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Dan Miraldi is a Cleveland-born, New York City-based singer and songwriter. After releasing four full-lengths and five EPs, 2020 finds the two-time John Lennon Songwriting Contest Finalist unveiling a new EP, Mood Music For Introverts, alongside a series of singles this year. Working alone, Miraldi wrote, played and sang every note on Mood Music For Introverts. After years of songwriting, recording and DIY van tours, Miraldi is a musical journeyman who can already look back on an adventure-filled career.”
26 | Fiin, Brigado Crew & Jinadu | Still In The Storm
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Still In The Storm is the brand-new single from Miami-based Fiin, who cut the deep progressive vocal track in collaboration with Argentinian duo Brigado Crew and British singer Jinadu. Fiin earned his stripes as the youngest resident of Miami’s Heart Nightclub.”
27 | Ka Fu | Anthropic Tropic
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Electronic producer Ka Fu has announced the release of his new single Anthropic Tropic. The single is the fourth taste of Ka Fu’s second album Heretic, which is set to drop Oct. 9. Filled with delicate and electronically altered vocal notes gasping for air while slipping away in and out of consciousness, Anthropic Tropic overpowers and intrigues the listener’s imagination to decode a distorted vocal message that ends with the effectively dramatic and coherent words, “I’m losing myself…” At the same time, he marks the domain of experimentation with his signature mixture of organic and melodic computerized flow.”
28 | Automatism | Immersion
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Automatism is an instrumental rock band from Stockholm, Sweden. The music of Automatism is based on psych rock, with some added herbal, progressive and modal jazz elements. The band comments: “We look for moments of effortless music creation and try to capture them on record. Most songs are improvised live in the studio, with overdubs added.” Their debut album From The Lake (2018) and the follow-up album Into The Sea (2020) were released on vinyl. Immersion is the third full-length release. On the album, the band works together with the outstanding musicians Per Wiberg on keyboards (Kamchatka, King Hobo, ex-Opeth), Jesper Skarin on drums (Vak, Gösta Berlings Saga) and Jakob Sjöholm on guitar (Träd, Gräs och Stenar).”
