Bones Owens plays it close, Chelsea Shag has skeletons in her closet, Kalbells hit the beach, Badge Époque Ensemble present a united front, Beauty Pill draw you in and more in your Tuesday Roundup. Hope you’re feeling quirky, poppy, rebellious and highly animated. But don’t blame me if you are struck by a sudden urge to flee through the woods.
ON REPEAT
1 | Bones Owens | Keep It Close
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The self-titled full-length debut from Bones Owens is a selection of songs both gloriously gritty and undeniably euphoric. A potent showcase for his formidable guitar work — a talent he’s displayed in performing with artists as eclectic as Yelawolf and Mikky Ekko — Bones Owens arrives Feb. 26 as a full-tilt expression of Owens’ wildest impulses, all swinging rhythms, and swaggering riffs. Owens shared the video for heavily playlisted hit Keep It Close, a slow-burning epic whose chorus offers something of a mantra for living with conviction in a soul-crushing world. “Keep it Close is the earliest written and recorded song on the album,” says Owens. “It set the tone for where I wanted to go.”
2 | Chelsea Shag | Rooftop
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Canadian-born, Atlanta-based Chelsea Shag released her latest single Rooftop, along with a very Halloween-appropriate video. Chelsea states, “At the time when I wrote Rooftop, I so desperately wanted to be somewhere else. And I thought anywhere else would be better. But I learned that you can leave but you can’t abandon the skeletons in your closet — they’ll come after you. I have made it a point to face problems and fears head on, instead of running away from them.”
3 | Kalbells | Hump The Beach
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “On the heels of her excellent Mothertime EP (a collaboration with Chrome Sparks released in April), Kalbells — the solo project of Kalmia Traver of Rubblebucket — is back with Hump The Beach, a euphoric love and lust song written for and about the Earth, which was co-produced with Luke Temple. Traver explains: “We co-directed & created this video as a band and used emergent strategy (a philosophy explored by one of our heroes, writer Adrienne Maree Brown) to create the treatment. We wanted a beach involved, and plenty of humping, and so the treatment emerged from there.”
4 | Badge Époque Ensemble | Unity (It’s Up To You)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Toronto’s Badge Époque Ensemble are sharing a new video by director Alex Kingsmill for Unity (It’s Up To You) from their upcoming sophomore LP Self Help. “The appeal of writing a song about ‘unity’ is its slipperiness as a concept,” says Max Turnbull. “It can be used as a dividing line, giving form to the particularity of things defined in opposition of one another, or we may zoom out wide enough to find all matter and all energy under its purview. It is a word which requires a frame … As the song says, ‘it’s up to you’.”
5 | Beauty Pill | Instant Night
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Washington, D.C. band Beauty Pill is surprise-releasing Instant Night. It is the band’s third release of 2020. The song arrives with an unusual and provocative music video, a time-lapse film featuring illustrator Ryan Nelson drawing surreal political portraits. Instant Night is released to inspire people to vote. Chad Clark wrote this statement: “In the last 6 months you have experienced [A] a plague [B] the deaths of a quarter million of your fellow citizens [C] a race war [D] the government throwing people into unmarked cars [E] the sky turning red and air becoming unbreathable [F] a reckless and literally sick president who openly aspires to be king. Seems bad. Science fiction authors have warned us about dystopia for a century now. And now we are warning you, I guess. We hope you to feel it. We hope you act accordingly.”
6 | Moscow Apartment | Meredith Palmer
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Following the release of their acclaimed sophomore EP Better Daughter, Toronto duo Moscow Apartment have collaborated with young Toronto filmmakers Liv and Wyatt McNeil for the visual accompaniment to track Meredith Palmer. While limited by social distancing mandates, Liv and Wyatt were able to create a dynamic video. They stitched together performance shots with the story of a girl who purposefully gets lost in nature — instead of being afraid, she accepts her surroundings and rejoices in the beauty.”
7 | Borts | The Nurse
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Borts are getting to business and have released the imaginatively titled EP1, featuring the single The Nurse. The track is an ode about self-loathing and love liking, beer drinking and collar bone breaking. “The Nurse was actually written about the nurse that looked after Tom when he broke his collarbone by backflipping (half naked, of course) on Bournemouth beach after a NOFX show, no less,” guitarist Dom explains. “It’s a song that Tom has had knocking about for a while, and has gone through several iterations before we settled on this sound for the version we recorded. And it has a glockenspiel in it.”
8 | SpaceAcre | I Thought You’d Never Ask / So, I’ll Run On
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Alt-pop duo SpaceAcre are pleased to share an extended video cut for I Thought You’d Never Ask / So, I’ll Run On, taken from their debut EP Overthrown. The band say: “We wrote So, I’ll Run On in response to I Thought You’d Never Ask, which is an expansive cello section that Jas wrote, recorded and brought to the studio session. When we were first listening to what Jas had created, Phoebe immediately said that it conjured vivid images of somebody being pursued through a swampy, murky, wooded landscape. It was that sinister imagery that was in our heads and coloured the way we wrote So, I’ll Run On.”
9 | Lord Sonny the Unifier | Knockout
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Brooklyn psych-rock artist Lord Sonny the Unifier releases Knockout, the third single from upcoming All New Information EP. Musically, this is LSTU at his most disdainful and punk-drenched, bringing his David and Goliath-inspired lyrics and uptempo electric theatrics on full display. From Sonny: “Knockout is a song about an all out victory and the need to prepare ourselves for battle against an opponent that is pure muscle. Like a boxer does building him or herself up on the way to the ring, we must uncover the hidden weaknesses in the opponent and hit them there, relentlessly until they fall. In this song the abusers have been identified and the masses, who can no longer contain their disdain have revolted and now the fates are sealed for these abusers.”
ALSO ON THE PLAYLIST
10 | Northcote | Keep on Saying Goodbye
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Canadian singer-songwriter and captivating storyteller Northcote (moniker for Matthew Goud) has unveiled the video for his folk Americana single Keep on Saying Goodbye. Shot and directed by Olga Kovalenko and edited by Ariel Kalyan, the deeply personal video invites fans to experience a day in the life of the talented songwriter when he isn’t on the road. With stunning imagery of gorgeous Victoria, B.C., paired with cameos from those closest to his heart (including his beloved fur babies Libby and Gigi) and visuals of Northcote in his element, performing and writing music, the video is a reminder that beauty can be found in simple pleasures.”
11 | Arlo Parks | Green Eyes
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Arlo Parks has released her new single Green Eyes, from her upcoming debut album Collapsed In Sunbeams, due on Jan. 29. Green Eyes, with backing vocals and guitar from Clairo, is an end-of-summer tune; an intimate listen that showcases Arlo’s trademark breathy vocals atop soft melodies and woozy keyboards. She says, “This is a song about self-discovery, self-acceptance and adolescence. It is supposed to uplift and comfort those going through hard times.”
12 | Kurt Baker | Outta Sight
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “American musician, songwriter, music producer, and multi-instrumentalist Kurt Baker is streaming Outta Site, another track off of his upcoming solo album After Party, set for release this Friday. Kurt says, “The main influence on this track is the band Single Bullet Theory. They had one record in the early ’80s and are mostly unheard of, but Wyatt and I love them. Wyatt actually found two vintage Single Bullet Theory T-shirts on eBay and picked them up for us. When they came in the mail we sat down and wrote this song off of an idea I had for the chorus. We wanted to build up each chorus so that by the very end it was really big. I think it’s the perfect closer to the record.”
13 | Tia Gostelow | Always (ft. Holy Holy)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Tia Gostelow’s second album Chrysalis comes out on Oct. 30. Her latest single Always brings the second half of Holy Holy into the mix, with Tim Carroll sharing vocal duties on the song, complimenting the bass and production. “Going into record this album I obviously knew a bit more than I did recording Thick Skin, and I was a bit more inclined to have more involvement musically. I played bass, piano and synth on some songs which was really important to me.”
14 | Fearsore | Incubation
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “As Chicago-based industrial/avant metal entity Fearsore prepare to release their Wetworks album at the end of October, they have released the video for Incubation. Wiley Wells writes, “Incubation is composite of events that happened during the first three months of the American lockdown of 2020. The notion was not to polarize the piece but give an encompassing picture of what I observed. It is unavoidable to approach recounting such things without inevitably personalizing them, or responding to them in some way, and for me — as an ‘artist ‘ — it is far easier to approach that boundary with a bit of Socratic manner. In this way I can also articulate my own failings, which is of course; where this piece begins.”
15 | Kacy & Clayton + Marlon Williams | I Wonder Why
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Kacy & Clayton and Marlon Williams connected through a love for traditional music and styling to create a collaboration album titled Plastic Bouquet, due out Dec. 11. Their undeniable chemistry is on display throughout the album including the first single, I Wonder Why. As far apart as Christchurch, New Zealand and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan may seem, the three musicians find common ground between a lifelong shared passion for Western Country, Folk, and Troubadour traditions on Plastic Bouquet. “We wanted to see if we could meld hemispheres,” says Williams. “I’m bringing this Pacific style of country music with the harmonies and choral elements. Kacy & Clayton have a super identifiable sound. They embody everything I love about North American folk.”
16 | Crash Cathedral | MoodRing
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Philadelphia alternative-pop band Crash Cathedral shared their debut single MoodRing. The track takes the band’s dark-pop sensibilities and swirls them into an emotional whirlwind of lyrics centering around a destructive relationship. The band stated: “Moodring is about a very particular kind of deceit; one that you can only feel when you truly thought you knew someone and understood their intentions. This song is a look at what happens when someone else’s bad habits and lesser qualities collide with the pedestal you put them on — and the destruction that can do to your psyche.”
17+18 | PVA | Talks (Mura Masa Remix) + Talks (Lynks Remix)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Following the recent announcement of their debut EP Toner, London’s PVA have shared two new remixes of their latest single Talks. The remixes come from Grammy-winning producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mura Masa, and fellow South London producer and artist Lynks. Mura Masa says, “I’m a really big fan of PVA since hearing Divine Intervention, so when they very kindly let me hear their new music I jumped at the chance to put my own twist on Talks.” Lynks said: “With this remix I was going for like, Britney-concert-in-outer-space-on-DMT vibes. I tried to create this weird contrast between a mega-poppy, catchy, hard chorus and these ethereal, icy, super minimalist verses.”
19 | Ela Minus | Dominique
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Colombian musician Ela Minus presents a final single before the release of her debut album Acts of Rebellion this Friday. Dominique is Ela’s most diaristic song on the album, documenting her time making the album last year in complete solitude. Minus’ voice is methodical and calm over quick beat sequences and glowing synthesizer. Despite its lyrics of withdrawal, Dominique exemplifies a call to embrace the beauty of tiny, every day acts of revolution by carving out a personal space to expand on personal identity and creative endeavors.”
20 | Bell Orchestre | IX: Nature That’s It That’s All
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Montreal’s avant-garde outfit Bell Orchestre are back — 10 years after the release of their last body of work. The Montreal-based group, who feature Sarah Neufeld and Richard Reed Parry from Arcade Fire, share a short film, IX: Nature That’s It That’s All, directed by band member Kaveh Nabatian, who utilises 16mm processing and scans of footage from the British Pathe archives.”
21 | Utilitarian | Stay Angry
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Mere months after the release of their Fight War, Not Wars, Destroy Power, Not Peopledebut, Utilitarian are back with a new five-track EP of unbridled, righteous rage! The band may have barely taken a breath since their last primal scream against injustice, but as vocalist Jon Crowder has explained, “take a look at the world around you, there’s no shortage of things to get mad about.” In this year of pandemics, police brutality, the erosion of civil liberties and the super-rich feeding on the misery of the common people, who could argue with him? What better time to stand up and rage against the machine? What better time to fight back and stay fucking angry!”
22 | Shem Thomas | Do It
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In the music video of his new single Do It, Shem Thomas shows people who pursue their passion and are not hindered by handicaps or social ideas. These are courageous people who go their way unwaveringly because they love what they do. All characters in the film are real life stories, not actors. There’s the one-legged racing cyclist who can’t be stopped from achieving top sporting performances. Or two young women who not only live the “on-the-road-feeling” but also repair their classic cars themselves. A non-binary person who lives free from gender roles. A family man with Rastas, who plays Chlefele (a traditional Swiss instrument) in his spare time and at the same time makes the musical instrument himself. Or the retail employee who turns night into day as a technoid DJane.”
23 | Soulburn | Anarchrist
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dutch blackened death doom metallers Soulburn will release their fourth album Noa’s D’ark on Nov. 13. Check out the second single Anarchrist. Soulburn frontman Twan van Geel says the song is “lyrically fueled by what I refer to as ‘spiritual anarchy’ & musically drenched with a heavy load of melancholic darkness. Anarchrist outgrows itself on both spectrums. It’s an audial entity of existentialistic height that takes you on a journey through the mortality of the soul straight into the bliss and horrors of our cosmic aura. Written with an unstilled necessity for the liberation of dark art through extreme music. Do these pandemic times try to imprison your mind and flesh? Anarchrist will show you right the f*ck out!“
24 | The Neverlutionaries | Ariana
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ariana is the debut single from The Neverlutionaries’ upcoming self-titled LP, due out in January. Ariana is a dreamy atmospheric track with swirling-delayed guitar effects waxing on a mythical object of desire. Think Lenny Kravitz with a nod to Prince. Christopher Harold Wells is joined in The Neverlutionaries by a veritable who’s who in session musicians.”
25 | Dark Tranquillity | Identical To None
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Swedish melodic death metal pioneers Dark Tranquillity unleash the second single Identical To None from their 12th album Moment, out Nov. 20. The band comments: “This one is a celebration of diversity and a condemnation of nearsighted division. Enjoy!”
26 | Kelly Finnigan | No Time To Be Sad
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Kelly Finnigan’s upcoming holiday album A Joyful Sound is a future soul classic with all the elements of a classic R&B record, but simply with a joyful holiday lean. With an all-star supporting cast of who’s who from the contemporary soul scene this record is truly a family affair with Finnigan at the wheel. Kelly sheds a bit more light on the intent of this new holiday album: “I want people to feel joy and hope. I want the music to remind them what they are thankful for. The songs and mood of the music should spark a feeling that it is a special time of year but also that it can also be a very difficult time for others. Holidays are about bringing people together to celebrate and I want this record to be a soundtrack for those celebrating but also a reminder that a lot of people are still struggling regardless if it’s Christmas or not.”
27 | The Coathangers | Wife Eyes
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Coathangers’ groundbreaking, self-titled debut album is finally back in print! Listen to Wife Eyes now. “I think some of our most creative songs came out of the practice of switching instruments, and Wife Eyes is one of our earliest recorded songs where we switched instruments: Candice plays drums and Steph the keys. The title is an obvious play on words — inspired by a joke on 30 Rock — that lent itself well to speaking on the roles of technology and patriarchy in our culture. It’s amazing to see that we are still dealing with these issues today.”
28 | Mal Blum | Nobody Waits
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Mal Blum have shared new single Nobody Waits and announced a new two-track 7″ single and accompanying zine as the 14th instalment of the Saddle Creek Document Series. Nobody Waits b/w San Cristóbal is out Nov. 20. Nobody Waits is a song about patience, rejection, loneliness, love, depression, and acceptance. The possibility that we may never meet somebody who is willing to embrace every part of us. The song posits that being loved is an impossible, Sisyphean task, akin to leaving something burning in the oven in a house where there is no entryway.”
29 | KasēoGems | I’m On Fire
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Newly formed Vancouver musical duo KasēoGems (singer-songwriters Geoff Gibbons and Vicky Sjohall) have prepared a special treat for their debut single together — a heartfelt, impeccably produced cover of Bruce Springsteen’s I’m On Fire. Gibbons and Sjohall show an undeniable chemistry on this well-chosen cut recorded remotely during lockdown 2020. With the texture of acoustic instruments and warm harmonies the music is intimate, emotive, and even dark. In a time where we are grieving the loss of normalcy, the music of KasēoGems is a nostalgic blanket.”
30 | Soft Fabric | I Miss You
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Laurence Lafond-Beaulne is Soft Fabric. She’s also a Montreal-based, award-winning musician, singer, songwriter and producer. She is half of Milk & Bone, who took home the Juno for Electronic Album of the Year in 2019. Lafond-Beaulne is diverging her path again, embracing the fragility and the full spectrum of feelings that accompanies our journey through adolescence. She has nimbly reconstructed and self-produced her take on early 2000’s hit single I Miss You by Blink-182. “I Miss You is a nostalgic anthem for those of us who experienced their teenage years in the 2000’s,” notes Laurence.”
31 | Stolen Wheelchairs | Denial
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Stolen Wheelchairs are back with the new track Denial. Stolen Wheelchairs are authentic teenage punk rock. You can’t fake the energy that they emit. Straight from the depths of Hostile City, they play fast, angsty, anthemic hardcore punk with an authenticity that has been lacking in today’s scene.”
32 | Robbie Basho | American Sunday
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Robbie Basho (1940-1986) is one of the progenitors of what’s commonly known as American Primitive guitar. Liam Barker first became aware of Basho via his album Venus in Cancer, released in 2006. This led him on an incredible fact-finding expedition, unraveling the many layers of mystery surrounding Basho’s life and death, all deftly compiled and depicted in his documentary film Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho. During the process, Barker came across a large cache of unheard Basho tapes from 1965-1985. Song of the Avatars: The Lost Master Tapes, a five-CD set of previously unreleased material, arrives Dec. 4.”
33 | Forces | The Battle Is On
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Forces’ new single, The Battle Is On, is a sultry art-pop battle cry riding on a wave of pure head-nodding funk. The name Forces implies a literal joining of forces between Dave and Jess, each contributing their power into doing the thing they love to do most: making music, together. It’s also rooted in the pair’s love of joining forces with their musical community, and shared passion for creating experiences where their friends can play and perform together.”
34 | Yawn | Wasting Time
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Yawn is a project by artist and musician Julia McDougall. Prior to moving west, Julia lived and worked as a musician in Berlin. Julia’s songwriting leads Yawn’s dream-pop sound. Simultaneously hopeful and resigned, Yawn captures the stasis of our lives caught between technology and the natural. Wasting Time is about what it really means to commit to life as an artist: the risks involved, how to counteract all the expectations from the people around you, how to push against the tides of capitalism and societal norm.”
35 | Ben Wolf | Ultraviolet
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ten months ago, Ben Wolf was studying medicine while finishing his first song ever. Now the 21-year-old singer-songwriter is done memorizing anatomy and ready to explore matters of the mind and heart. His debut single Ultraviolet is the epitome of that transformation and the introduction to his introspective and dreamy lo-fi pop universe. “Ultraviolet light is used by insects, bees in particular, to locate pollen flowers and thus nectar. As a medical student, because of the hive mentality, I felt like a bee constantly having to suppress my sixth sense for the ultraviolet glow. When my frustration reached its peak, I decided to leave the hive and follow the trail towards my own nectar.”
36 | The Dustbowl Daddies | O Little Fire, O Little Light of Wisdom
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ottawa alt-folk/country/roots-rock group The Dustbowl Daddies have released their new single, O Little Fire, O Little Light of Wisdom. It is the fourth single from their soon-to-be-released second album Boom and Bust Economies of Love, recorded at Ottawa’s Little Bullhorn studio with sound engineer Dave Draves. The song celebrates the joy (and expresses the fear) of bringing children into the world.”
37 | Nick Waterhouse | Pushing Too Hard
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Nick Waterhouse teams up with producer Paul Butler (Michael Kiwanuka) on an exclusive cover of The Seeds’ garage-rock classic, recorded in Memphis with tough and capable players that take the song into new realms of psych, garage rock & soul. Special featured guest vocalists on the chorus are Memphis’ own gospel killers The Sensational Barnes Bros & Los Angeles treasure Little Willie G (Thee Midniters).”
38 | Bushwick Blooze Band | Waiting
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dedicated blues-rock trio Bushwick Blooze Band continues their string of singles with the bold, electric guitar-focused instrumental opus Waiting. Although Bushwick Blooze Band regularly feature vocals, this song called for the instrumental treatment. “Being an instrumental piece, Waiting provided us the opportunity to really focus on guitars and allowed us to create some strong imagery in the song. Brother Dave’s solo is searing and strong, and takes off like a rocket on the platform of the drum and bass.”
39 | Benedict Sinister | I’ve Come to Tell You I’m Going Away
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “French /Australian music artist, producer, poet and video creator Benedict Sinister’s third single I’ve Come to Tell You I’m Going Away is a translation of the 1973 track by French musical legend Serge Gainsbourg, written whilst he was recovering from his first heart attack. The Gainsbourg song references romantic poet Paul Verlaine, and in turn Sinister has added a new spoken-word part which name checks 10 artists who have memorably addressed breakups, from Ernest Hemingway to Lana del Rey.”
40 | Fellowcraft | Coyote and the Desert Rose
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Washington, D.C.’s acclaimed indie-prog purveyors Fellowcraft will release their third album This Is Where You’ll Find Me in February. But you can hear the enthralling and anthem-worthy first single Coyote And The Desert Rose right now. Fellowcraft comment: “Coyote And The Desert Rose is a dark, brooding, emotional song inspired by a migrants journey to a better life, while leaving behind everything they loved. The juxtaposition of hope, and hopelessness propel the narrative to a deathly conclusion. The song’s instrumentation parallels the story, being told in two strong, dynamic movements; the first hopeful and propelling, the latter sad, and depressive.”
