The Dirty Nil eagerly await their doom, The Darcys make eye contact, CrowJane share some secrets, Richard Orofino would rather die and more in today’s Roundup. I’d say 19 songs is plenty for a Monday. There’s no need to overdo it.
PICKS OF THE DAY
1 | The Dirty Nil | Doom Boy
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Amp-blowing, Juno-winning trio The Dirty Nil have embraced, torn down, and then reinvented the quintessential rock ‘n’ roll star archetype for years. Today, the band announce the title of their hotly anticipated new album, Fuck Art, set for release later this year. The Dirty Nil’s third full-length is an unabashed concoction of classic-rock heroism, pop-punk horsepower, ’80s indie scrappiness, ’90s alterna-crunch, and speed-metal adrenaline. The Dirty Nil have also dropped Doom Boy, the new single from Fuck Art. Meshing thrashy, metal-like riffs with pop-punk melodies, and a radio-friendly chorus, Doom Boy is a hardcore basement punk love song about listening to Slayer in the back of a minivan that’s not afraid to sound pretty in a stadium. Frontman Luke Bentham so enthusiastically recorded the song that he ripped a hole in his pants in the studio — “I still have the pants to prove it!”
2 | The Darcys | Look Me In The Eyes
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Los Angeles-via-Toronto duo The Darcys offer a glimpse into their new world today with Look Me In The Eyes, a first taste from their upcoming fifth album due in fall. Jason Couse and Wes Marskell plan to take listeners on a journey, beginning with this stunning visual trip, created by director Emma Higgins with animation by Studio Feather. Discussing this new sonic and visual landscape, the duo offered, “We don’t usually write songs with this kind of urgent energy, but I think that’s what makes Look Me in the Eyes such a great lead track. The song is about the moment in a relationship when hard truths come to the surface and you both need to figure out how to deal with them. Sometimes you get bitter, sometimes you get mad, and sometimes you just need to move on. These themes are universal enough, but what I’m really excited about is for people to see how this song fits in with the greater narrative of our next chapter of music. Look Me in the Eyes is an essential key to understanding the songs to come and the accompanying music video helps to build the visual experience of the new album, which is equal parts old Hollywood and spaghetti Western.”
3 | CrowJane | Terminal Secrets
THE PRESS RELEASE: “What is under the mask of the face that you portray to the world?” asks Los Angeles-based artist CrowJane. An appropriate question from a music and visual artist whose art carries a heavy dose of mystery and dense musicality that is alluringly elusive yet primally irresistible. Premiering the first single and video Terminal Secrets, CrowJane explores the the darkest reaches of alternative and punk and mines them for inspiration. “Lyrically, this song was inspired by the idea that a person can have a smile on their face but be screaming on the inside,” she says. “What is portrayed on the outside doesn’t always reflect what is actually going on inside a person and within their mind. People can spend so much of their life chasing for money, power, security, validation, fame, ‘success’, and wake up to the realization of the ‘monster they have become’ on their journey to obtain or achieve it.”
4 | Richard Orofino | Rather Die
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Brooklyn based indie-pop singer-songwriter Richard Orofino shares a taste of his new music with the Rather Die video from the upcoming EP Spell. In discussing the song, Richard says, “Rather Die is a love song for the end of the world and about overwhelming love. You would expect it to be a fairly dark tune by its title, but the story describes imagining a world without the person you hold closest to your heart. Being able to say you would ‘rather die’ than live in this fictional reality is super dramatic, which is kind of the point of the song. The premise screams ultra-romance to a point of it being almost silly. I felt a natural inspiration from the ‘new romantic’ genre of the ’80s, alongside some modern Indie/pop anthemic landscapes. My vision was to create a love letter that feels like you’re driving into a black hole but still filled with hope.”
https://youtu.be/WNMCZVOf0cc
5 | Oliver Coates | Butoh Baby
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Oliver Coates’ Skins N Slime is a caliginous anatomy concealed by a drone-metal membrane, feeding upon mechanized strand distortions and thriving amidst its harmonic waste. In his follow-up album to 2018’s Shelley’s on Zenn-La, the British cellist and producer leads an impassioned performance of string through viscous, synthetic modulation, triggering a darker side of his compositional sensibilities. Shelley’s experimental dance hybrids are substituted here for scorching color palettes and brutal, howling tones to embody the mess of uninhibited creativity.”
ALSO ON THE PLAYLIST
6 | Leaves’ Eyes | Dark Love Empress
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Leaves’ Eyes release their new single and video Dark Love Empress, the first track from upcoming album The Last Viking. The Last Viking is a monumental piece from Leaves’ Eyes. With their cult albums Vinland Saga (2005) and King of Kings (2015), they already turned Leif Eriksson’s discovery of America and the life of Norway’s first king into music. Now, Leaves’ Eyes bring the Viking Sagas to their bombastic finale.”
7 | Paul Alexander Low | Feel Your Heart Come Alive
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Feel Your Heart Come Alive is about someone who is full of passion, love, hopes and dreams but holds themselves back through a fear of rejection or judgement. With love and support they can set themselves free. There will be one or two follow singles from the forthcoming EP Titled Hell Yeah due later this year and an album is due for release next year. What’s my ambition? That my songs strike a chord with people in some way (pardon the pun).”
8 | Ghosts of Sunset | Miles In-Between
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Ghosts of Sunset features rock veterans John Merchant and Todd Long, who have made music for 30+ years. Their first single Miles In Between is a hark back to the glory days of hair metal, and one listen will transform you right back to when the Sunset Strip was THE place to be. “The story behind Miles In Between is once you’ve signed the big record deal, it’s time to take it on the road and share it with the world. The road is unrelenting. It changes lives, crushes relationships and can lead a trail of career ending destruction.”
9 | Monster Jaw | Fury In You
THE PRESS RELEASE: “West Yorkshire (UK) alt-rock outfit Monster Jaw announce their re-union and deliver their video single for Fury In You. Originally disbanding in 2016, the guys have recently being creating new material during the Coronavirus lockdown. What followed was the single, Fury In You. A song for the times. A song reflecting and highlighting the importance of protest, rebellion and unity in these uncertain times, a call for positive change and development. Fury In You brings together the powerhouse of Mik Davis, Neil Short, John Bradford and producer Wes Maebe, and also features acoustic guitar by Justin Sullivan (New Model Army).”
10 | Bankrupt | Tropical Breakdown
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Remember when animals started taking over empty cities during lockdown? Bankrupt take this one step further in the mash-up music video of their new song Tropical Breakdown, with tropical animals invading cities around the world as climate change and pandemics end human civilization.”
11 | Fore | Open Door
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Punk rock powerhouse Fore have released a cover of Open Door, originally written by Pennywise. Fore emerged on the scene this spring, featuring current and former members of Kreator, Massacre, Venom Inc, and Old James. Formed with the intent to play punk in the style of Bad Religion, Pennywise, Offspring and NOFX, the band released a series of singles which led up to their debut album entitled Hombres.”
12 | Incinerate | Lux In Tenebris
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Incinerate will release their new album Sacrilegivm on Oct. 9. Five years have passed since Incinerate ravaged our minds with the alien invasion horrors of Eradicating Terrestrial Species, but those who assumed these weavers of nightmares had fallen into an eternal void of silence are in for a rude awakening. Incinerate have returned, more potent and more powerful than ever before and with new dark tales of conflict and suffering to tell. It’s time to gaze upon the battlefields of an endless war, where gods and devils, angels and beasts are locked in never-ending combat, where the blood never stops flowing and the screams echo on forever. Welcome to Sacrilegivm! For a first taste of the fires of war, here’s the track Lux In Tenebris.”
13 | Jr Jr | Basketball
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The NBA playoffs begin tonight inside the bubble in Orlando, Florida. To celebrate, Detroit duo JR JR have shared a cover of Kurtis Blow’s Basketball. Discussing Basketball and its legendary status, Daniel Zott busts out the opening verse … “Basketball is my favorite sport. I like the way they dribble up and down the court,” adding, “Seriously. Basketball is the best sport. And this current bubble madness proves it — Damian Lillard looking like a god and the Suns going undefeated, only to be left out of the playoffs, is pure entertainment. We’ve always loved this song and its amazingly ’80s video. So, when we were thinking of songs that get us up off the couch and onto our driveways, it was at the top of the list. Whenever I start playing this song, my three sons (2, 4, and 6 yrs old) immediately run out to our little tikes hoop and start their own dunk contest. It’s just one of those jams.”
14 | Gillian Frances | Loose
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Gillian Frances is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter based in Anacortes, WA. She has been playing music ever since she picked up her father’s drumsticks at the age of five. A child of parents who were involved in the Portland grunge scene of the ’90s, she witnessed firsthand the lifestyle that musicians and creatives can live. As a multi-instrumentalist, Frances has been collaborating in bands since she was sixteen, and only within the past two years has she decided to step forward and begin pushing her personal creative work into the world. Notably, Frances played bass and guitar in Black Belt Eagle Scout, was a collaborator in indie-rock band Surfer Rosie, played violin in This Is The Kit and drums in New York-based band Beverly.”
15 | Fooks Nihil | Lady From A Small Town
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Fooks Nihil are the band that suddenly came from out of nowhere and that you surely wouldn’t expect to be from Hessen, Germany. Already, they have spread their West Coast sound all across their homecountry to establish a small fan base of connoisseurs. Originally they started playing their own songs acousticly and created their tapestry of sound with the harmony singing of their three voices. After a while, as the venues grew bigger the switch to electricly amplified instruments and a larger drum set seemed very coherent. The influence of bands like Crosby, Stills & Nash, Neil Young, The Byrds and all the rest of Beat Music, Americana, Folk and also Rock in their whole plenty of creativity became increasingly important. The band manages very well to take the essence out of those influences, to create a very unique and powerful mixture of beatiful songs and crispy energetic tunes that sort of shiver sideways of what you’re used to hear. What you get is a throwback to a peacful summer festival in the late 60’s in San Francisco at the peak of what you call music culture.”
16 | Turning Jewels Into Water | Kerala In My Heart
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Turning Jewels Into Water — the duo of Haitian-born drummer, DJ, educator and electronic music artist Val Jeanty and Indian-born drummer, producer and educator Ravish Momin — share the new single Kerala In My Heart. The track is from their new album, Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars, out this Friday. Kerala In My Heart directly references Kerala, a state on India’s tropical Malabar Coast. It’s experimental and percussive, driven by staccato synth. Momin elaborates on the track, “Rhythms from Kerala collide with chopped and spiced vocals, while melodic fragments of the Kombu, an ancient wind instrument found only in South India, harmonize with vintage synths to capture the spirit of the street festivals of Kerala that exists in my heart.”
17 | Dirty Dead Dinosaurs | Monica
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Brisbane’s alternative post-punk rock act Dead Dirty Dinosaurs are back with a brand-new single titled Monica. Monica Gaztambides, a character in the series Money Heist, has won the Dead Dirty Dinosaurs’ hearts. An inspiration of strength and kindness, she also has a name that the DDDs couldn’t help fitting into a song somehow. It’s a lot of fun to say, and when you throw some dirty guitars and massive drums on top and start screaming about nightmares then you’ll get to Monica.”
18 | AshenMoon | Future Kings & Queens
THE PRESS RELEASE: “AshenMoon features Garry Beers (bassist and founding member of INXS), Toby Rand on vocals (Juke Kartel, Rock Star: Super Nova) and the highly regarded guitarist and renowned composer Jimmy Khoury. Future Kings & Queens is the brand-new single from rock powerhouse AshenMoon and once again it showcases their faultless songwriting and musicianship, suitably topped off with the soaring vocals of Rand. “Future Kings and Queens is an awakening for those ready to make changes in the world’s current climate — spiritually, politically and environmentally. In particular we call upon the youth to fight for their beliefs, be brave and step into their future with power and love.”
19 | Sam Woolf | Ease My Mind
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Sam Woolf is a singer-songwriter known for his original compositions and pitch perfect vocals. Sam has been hailed as a “natural singer whose soul and passion are undeniable in every note he sings.” With the support of his strong network of fans, dubbed the Woolfpack, Sam’s live performances and recordings have garnered millions of views and streams on social media. “In times like these, it’s not so easy to see the bright side.” Sam describes his upcoming release, Ease My Mind, as “a hopeful love song about feeling lost, yet knowing whatever it is you’re going through, it will all play out how it’s supposed to.”
