The Kills spell it out, Heart Attack Kids put on a show, Kiesza and Lick Drop form a video centipede, Emily Edrosa gets carried away, Danny Elfman is happy and more in your Thursday Roundup. The Halloween videos started arriving in droves today. Hope you’re hungry for some eye (and ear) candy.
ON REPEAT
1 | The Kills | I Put A Spell On You
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Earlier this month, The Kills revealed plans for their extraordinary career-spanning B-sides and rarities album titled Little Bastards out Dec. 11. Today, the band share the second track from the collection, just in time for Halloween: A 2009 cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I Put A Spell On You, which comes with a self-produced video composed of live show footage taken in Portland, Pomona, and San Francisco.”
2 | Heart Attack Kids | Heart Attack Horror Show
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Heart Attack Kids invite you to their spectacular Heart Attack Horror Show. Founding member Jared Ellul (guitar/vox) shares, “We really wanted to bring something special to the holiday, deciding to make our own horror movie with themed cover songs we would have fun playing. Miss Murder by AFI is a song we have all enjoyed since Guitar Hero 2 (who could forget that?). Pet Sematary was an obvious choice; The Ramones really captured Halloween punk rock with that song. Lastly, we picked Psycho Killer by Talking Heads and made it move in true high-energy Heart Attack Kids fashion.”
3+4 | Kiesza | Sensuum Defectui + Lick Drop | Dracula
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Electro-pop maven Kiesza releases the Halloween-inspired video for her single Sensuum Defectui. Alongside, London-based duo Lick Drop reveal their video for new single Dracula. The video for Sensuum Defecui ends with Lick Drop being birthed from the womb of a dead woman by Dracula herself (Kiesza), linking the two videos to create a shared universe.”
5 | Emily Edrosa | NCEA
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “New Zealand singer-songwriter Emily Edrosa just shared NCEA, a biting single and video off her upcoming album Another Wave Is Coming. Named after New Zealand’s high school diploma, the track finds Edrosa comparing herself to classmates with a Carrie-inspired video. Mixed by John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr.), the record has touches of Courtney Barnett and The Beths (singer Liz Stokes actually helped record some), along with a caustic DIY drive from the queer indie-punk artist.”
6 | Danny Elfman | Happy
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “I always enjoyed Halloween because it was a night to let loose, to become something or someone else,” said Danny Elfman, known for his eccentric and macabre scores for director Tim Burton. “A night to celebrate the dead, and ghosts and monsters of all variety. A night for mutants, zombies, vampires, misfits, and miscreants to celebrate themselves and each other. And, aligned with the Mexican holiday Dia De Los Muertos, a night to celebrate departed spirits… and for me, a night to laugh in death’s face (and feel safe doing so).” Indeed, Elfman maniacally laughs in death’s face on his new single Happy, his first solo music since 1984, and his macabre sense of humor is still very present in the unnerving new video.”
7 | Myd | Moving Men (ft. Mac DeMarco)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Myd and Mac DeMarco are an unlikely pairing, coming from opposite sides of the world and opposite sides of the musical spectrum. But the two have long admired each other’s music — and after meeting backstage several years back, they’ve teamed up for their first collaboration Moving Men, a single from Myd’s upcoming album Born A Loser. “I met Myd in Paris a couple years ago, then when he was in Los Angeles he came over one night and we wrote this song about moving men,” says DeMarco. “He reminds me of some kind of bird; I like this guy.”
8 | Electric Hydra | Won’t Go To War (With Myself)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Electric Hydra’s self-titled debut album is out on Nov. 27. Won’t Go War (With Myself) is the third and final single. “‘We shot the video in a really cool skatepark called Bunkeberget, which is actually located inside a mountain in Gothenburg,” explains bassist Ellinor Andersson. “The song was one of the last to be written for the album and came to life quickly. Sanne wrote her parts during the actual recording and the lyrics are about how you should not compromise yourself just to fit in with how other people expect you to act.”
9 | Kelsey Waldon | Mississippi Goddam
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “I want to work towards a new southern strategy because my South is a South for all people,” says Nashville recording artist and Kentucky native Kelsey Waldon. The next step in Waldon’s mission is her new EP They’ll Never Keep Us Down, a collection of timeless yet timely covers. Today, she shares the first single Mississippi Goddam. With the help of vocalists Adia Victoria and Kyshona Armstrong, Waldon tackles this Nina Simone classic with a swirling, angry, country-ish feel. “This song, which showcases racial injustice as well as the enduring fight and fear that the Black community has had to endure in this country for centuries, still rings true decades later,” says Waldon. “Today in 2020, as we push for progress, sometimes it still feels like we are going backwards.”
10 | Julia Stone | Dance
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Julia Stone reveals her third solo album Sixty Summers will be released on Feb. 19. Stone also reveals her single Dance, with a video directed by Jessie Hill, featuring actors Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover. Stone shares, “Dance was written as I thought about those very rare and often very special times when strong messages are sent and received silently between people. I was thinking about the moments we can share, when words are ineffective to communicate to those you love or are just unnecessary in a moment of deep connection … When there’s nothing else to say or do, ‘Why don’t we dance’ … It occurs with love and happiness but also pain and empathy. Heart, in all its appearances.”
11 | Eric Nally | Full Moon
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Eric Nally offers the spine-tingling single Full Moon — his first solo material since 2018. Full Moon blends haunting vibes with a call to live life to the fullest as it showcases remarkable artistic range from the enigmatic Foxy Shazam frontman. Co-written and co-produced with Macklemore while the two were on tour, Full Moon comes in advance of Foxy Shazam’s comeback album Burn, out Dec. 11. Nally offers the following bit of inspiration on Full Moon: “Someday this will just be a memory, so we gotta live it.”
ALSO ON THE PLAYLIST
12 | Steven Wilson | King Ghost
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Steven Wilson’s new track King Ghost is taken from his sixth album The Future Bites, due out on Jan. 29. As you’d hope from a track of this title, King Ghost is spectral and gloriously otherworldly, an almost impossibly beautiful piece that arrives on a low bass pulse and centres around a haunting vocal that slides under your skin and stays like an addiction. Says Wilson: “King Ghost is one of my favourite tracks from the album and I think one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever come up with, powerful in its apparent simplicity. Apart from the percussion overdubs (played by Jason Cooper from The Cure and Michael Spearman from Everything Everything), the music is entirely electronic, mostly using analogue keyboards to create luminous and organic patterns and tones.”
13 | Jenny Owen Youngs | Vampire Weeknight
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Jenny Owen Youngs shares the beautiful and foreboding video for Vampire Weeknight. Animated by Mariela Sandía, the video takes the viewer on a dark voyage through sea and space. “I came across the work of Mariela Sandía in the modern way: We started following each other on Instagram,” says Youngs. “I fell immediately in love with her digital painting and pixel art, much of which featured imagery of haunting underwater scenes and distant planetary bodies. We DMed about possibly collaborating, and landed on Vampire Weeknight. It could be said that this music video is made up of two famously human components: water and stardust.”
14 | Luna In Sanguinem | Far From The Light
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Luna In Sanguinem are a new name on the extreme metal scene, but their foundations are set deep and built from decades of experience. The unmistakable voice of Skip McGullam rides at the head of this cavalcade of death, sounding even more powerful and intimidating than he did on Num Skull’s revered ’88 classic Ritually Abused. Each song on their album Global Bloodbath is a finely crafted masterpiece of haunting atmosphere and earthshaking riffs, laced with solos that scythe through the choking blackness. Staggering songs like Far From The Light invoke the spirits of the crypt, the glory days when metal first pushed deeper into the cemetery dirt and further into the darkness.”
15 | Jeshi | Mask On
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Mask On is the latest release from U.K. rapper Jeshi; his first one-off release since his acclaimed Bad Taste EP earlier this year. “I wrote Mask On working sometime last year,” Jeshi shares. “It deals with the metaphorical masks we all wear whether that’s just a fake smile, or the material things like the nice house, car or jewellery we use to shield whatever it is you’ve got going on inside from outsiders. I grew up feeling like I could never be vulnerable, I’ve still got a lot of that to shake off — I’m still walking around in the mask too.”
16 | Harrow Fair | Sins We Made
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Americana duo Harrow Fair (Miranda Mulholland & Andrew Penner) release an acoustic version of their single Sins We Made. The single is the title and lead track from their sophomore album released this past April. “We carved out some time to escape to Miranda’s boat-in cottage in Muskoka,” shares Penner (voice, guitar, percussion) — who also engineered, produced, and mastered the single. “We set up some old ribbon microphones in the main room of the cabin and tried to strip the song down to its essence.” Mulholland (voice, fiddle) continues: “With all the production from the album gone, what does the song still say? This was a mirror of what we’ve been forced to reckon with in our lives.”
17 | The Small Glories | Sing
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Canadian folk duo The Small Glories touched a nerve with audiences with their U.S. debut Assiniboine & The Red, an album that celebrates the Prairies. Today, Cara Luft (an original member of Wailin’ Jennys) and multi-instrumentalist JD Edwards share a new video for Sing. The song has long been an audience favorite. Luft describes it as a protest song for our time. “It’s a song to roust us out of our complacency and our indifference, a song to challenge our era of divisiveness and polarization to remind us what ‘it’ is all about, and what it’s not.”
18 | Good Morning TV | Insomniac
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “After a debut EP that got noticed in France and rippled overseas in 2016, indie pop band Good Morning TV finally unveil a new single Insomniac, taken from their album Small Talk, to be released early 2021. Guided by the almost lullaby-like piano ritournelle, Insomniac evokes those thoughts that come troubling the mind when trying to fall asleep. Delicate at first, the song pulls us crescendo towards an intense release, teasing an album of maximalist production. Insomniac carefully reveals more and more of its countless reflections with every listen, a gentle reminder of the beauty of losing oneself for a moment.”
19 | Ceara Cavalieri | Damn
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ceara Cavalieri is a singer-songwriter from California. Her latest single Damn talks about how people can be deceiving. Ceara confides, “I wrote this song about a guy that I was dating who turned out to be a complete narcissist and con artist. He thought he was the best thing ever, and that he could get away with anything, including lying to me and cheating. The song makes metaphorical references to religion and talks about how he thinks he is such a ‘god’ but his actions won’t be forgiven because he ‘isn’t my religion’.”
20 | Mid City | Liar Liar
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Liar Liar is the new video from Australian quartet Mid City. Directed and filmed by frontman Joel Griffiths, the video serves as a visual representation of the idea of running from one’s own truth. “I was holed up for isolation on a farm outside of Byron and would walk through these cane fields early in the morning or at dusk,” Griffiths explains. “I figured it was the perfect location to shoot a one-man clip. It’s got both, this really beautiful, light and ambience in all this tall cane but also quietly freaky as fuck. Like some kind of spooky supernatural-ness is about to come out of nowhere to abduct me. Suffice to say I didn’t stick around doing extra takes for long post-sunset.”
21 | Odario | Peace
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Guyanese-born, Winnipeg-raised, Toronto-based artist Odario premieres a video for his track Peace. “I wanted the video to reflect perseverance, celebration and life after the adversity we recognize in 2020. It’s about finding that right light, in a whole heap of darkness. The song itself is a feel-good tune I wrote with the intention to ease my own mind and settle my tampered nerves. The song is produced by composer Todor Kobakov, featuring MC Len Bowen and gospel vocalist Dawn Pemberton.”
22 | Bob Moses | Desire (Band Version)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Electronic music band Bob Moses will release the new live album Falling Into Focus – Live 2020 on Nov. 20. On that day, the full hour-long performance film directed by previous collaborator Owen Brown will also be available online. As a preview, Bob Moses have released Desire (Band Version), a never-before-seen/heard version of the title track that is exclusive to the live album.”
23 | Jiffy Marx | She’s My Witch
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Jiffy Marx unveiled the frightful video for She’s My Witch. Born in the winter of 1976 alongside The Ramones’ first album and The Damned’s New Rose, Jiffy Marx has toured all over North America and Europe with bands such as Black Rice, Blood Meridian, Hard Drugs, Jiffy Marker and Canadian new wave revivalists Autogramm. While on hiatus, Marx took a weekend to visit his pals from Seattle’s Bread & Butter. Over the course of 36 hours they managed to drink a shitload of beer, eat a ton of peanut butter pretzels, and track Jiffy’s first solo single.”
24 | SHK | Undefeated
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Some people write songs about love; some people write songs about hate; U.K. singer-songwriter SHK has an entirely different source of inspiration — Russian mixed-martial artist Khabib Nurmagomedov, one of his personal heroes. His new song Undefeated projects a message to everyone that no matter how impossible things seem, go for all your dreams in life, remaining undefeated no matter what you are facing. “I have been really inspired by his hard work, skills, integrity, discipline and unconquerable spirit. I think he is a great role model for any professional.”
25 | John Orpheus | Electric (ft. Jordan Hamilton)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Toronto’s John Orpheus delivers sonic chemistry in his new single Electric. The track arrives alongside a visual narrative celebrating chemistry, the spark that catches the eye and gets you in your feels. Watch the video here. Electric unifies an array of musical elements and marks the beginning of a new phase and a bridge between John Orpheus’ last album Wey Ya Cal Dat Ting and his new project Saga Boy, set for release early 2021.”
26 | Austra | Planningto Risk It
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Following on from a recent slew of superb remixes, Austra (Katie Austra Stelmanis) is happy to unveil a new remix of Risk It by Planningtorock. Slowing the original track down, Planningtorock contorts and repeats Austra’s vocals to create a more melancholic and mediative sound, underpinned by synths. Stelmanis said of enlisting them: “Planningtorock is a queer icon. Their music feels very good and very risky and their lyrical description of the queer trans experience is entirely unique.”
27 | Madisyn Whajne | Sweet Talk
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Madisyn Whajne shares her latest single Sweet Talk, along with the video directed by Laura Keightley. Sweet Talk is taken from Madisyn’s forthcoming album Save Our Hearts, set for release on Nov. 13. “Sweet Talk was the first song I wrote for this record,” explains Madisyn. “It started as a sad love song, but after bringing it to the band it took on a new meaning. Not one where I sat with my sadness and longing, but instead where I took some power back; to remind myself that I can still stand tall in the face of adversity and loss.”
28 | Ilsa | Shibboleth
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “D.C.’s Ilsa return with their sixth full-length Preyer on Nov. 20. As a precursor, they unveil the video for Shibboleth. Comments frontman Orion, “Fuck this shit system and the religious bigots that perpetuate its terror! Shibboleth is our explicit denunciation of the true forces of evil at work to undermine civil rights, labor and reproductive justice all around the world!”
29 | Ost+Front | Honka Honka
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The song Honka Honka by Ost+Front, taken off the current album Dein Helfer in Der Not, tells the story of a serial killer from Hamburg named Fritz Honka and impresses with an unforgettable singalong chorus. Asked how the band became aware of Honka, Herrmann Ostfront says: “I know them all ;-). Of course, I knew Honka before and had already made all kinds of notes about the various crime cases. But (it was an) absolute thrill to finally create a song out of it.”
30 | The Happy Fits | Hold Me Down
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Happy Fits have premiered a video for their raucous single Hold Me Down. The track is featured on the band’s sophomore album What Could Be Better, out now. The band stated, “One of our first live shows as a band was a Battle of the Bands competition in Asbury Park back in early 2017, so we decided to team up with the folks at Asbury Lanes to both recreate a dramatized version of that experience, and promote the local music scene that is close to our hearts. We hope it encourages people to donate to their local venues if they are struggling.”
31 | Divided Heaven | They Poisoned Our Fathers
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Earlier this week, Divided Heaven released the single They Poisoned Our Fathers. The song, featuring guest vocals by Lydia Loveless, is a scathing message that takes aim at our own friends and family members who not only continue to support failing political leaders, but also vote against the safety and best interests of the women in their lives. Today they premiere a video for the single.”
32 | Balthazar | Losers
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Balthazar offer the first taste of their upcoming album Sand, unveiling the track and video Losers. Unmistakably Balthazar, Losers unfurls engulfed in disco beats and falsetto vocals whilst furthering their journey from the rejuvenated environs of 2018’s Fever. Filmed in Belgium, the accompanying video features the entire band in various guises and calls to mind memories of a NY ’70s crime series. Maarten Devoldere comments, “We did a lot of things that we haven’t done previously — we’ve never used as many drum samples or bass synths before.”
33 | Mike Taveira | Karma
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Mike Taveira shares his new single/video Karma. Pairing poetic lyricism with contemporary R&B vocals and catchy hooks, Taveira delivers serious pop prowess. “Karma is the breakup anthem for anyone who feels like their ex has yet received the karma they deserve. It’s for those of us who have been left broken and questioning the entire relationship, only for our ex-partner to seemingly move along in the world with no trouble. I do believe in karma and I do believe she is coming. She just likes to wait for the perfect timing and I was impatient, which led to the song.”
34 | Patient Hands | No Graves
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Patient Hands, the solo project of Saskatchewan ambient songwriter Alexander Stooshinoff, shares No Graves from his forthcoming album There Are No Graves Here, due Nov. 18. The album title came from a recording that a professor played in class. “I heard the line ‘there are no graves here,’ and it stuck with me. The idea of ‘no grave’ became a metaphor for feeling like I had no place to bury the past. The past was constantly alive.”
35 | The Parson Red Heads | Coming Along
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Coming Along is the third single from Lifetime of Comedy, the forthcoming LP from The Parson Red Heads. “Coming Along resulted from countless rehearsals, just spending lots of time playing it through, finding the arrangement that felt right, where each little piece fit,” says bandmember Evan Way. “It’s a really fun song, because over the course of its five minutes, it manages to feature each member of the band in really great ways.”
36 | Paige Valentine | Fool
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Perth’s free-spirited songwriter Paige Valentine returns with her most blissfully dreamy single to date. “Fool was very much written as a continuation from the story of my first single Pure,” she says. “It examines the complex and melancholy journey through heartbreak, questioning whether the reward was ever worth the risk. It explores the feelings of unkept promises and unfinished plans, while also remembering the nostalgic warmth of a past connection.”
37 | Dan Friese | Start Breathing In
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dan Friese is a folk artist from Oregon. Start Breathing In touts a soaring, consuming sound with a reverberating vocal presence, from his new album Jane Songs. “One day, I came to a realization: This life is short and I’ve been wasting a great deal of time trying to match my life up with society’s arbitrary expectations,” Dan says. “I decided to abandon that misguided effort and focus on doing the things that truly make me happy. I began ignoring others’ judgments and actually listening to myself for once. I started appreciating every breath, every drink of water, every morsel of food. My soul, which had been locked in chains, was suddenly freed for the first time since I was a child.”
38 | Marco Pavé | Different Path
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Tomorrow, Memphis artist Marco Pavé will release his Crossroads EP. Today, he shares the disc’s closer Different Path (produced by Tha Gho$t), affirming the potential of a road less taken. “Different Path is the hero song for the individual that follows their path despite what everyone around them has to say,” says Pavé. “It’s what you get when you subtract all of the wack from your life and put your faith in yourself.”
39 + 40 | Katie Pruitt | Ohio + After The Gold Rush
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Singer-songwriter Katie Pruitt follows up her recently released protest song Look the Other Way with interpretations of two of Neil Young’s most beloved and enduring songs: Ohio and After The Gold Rush. Pruitt explains, “Back in June, I was watching a music documentary about Kent State & Neil Young writing Ohio in direct response to the massacre. It’s terrifying to think that a 50-year-old song about police violence could still be relevant today. Yet somehow, here we are.” A more personal event inspired her to record After the Gold Rush. “When I learned last September that I would be opening for Neil Young, I also learned a dear family friend had entered stage four pancreatic cancer. His favourite song was After the Gold Rush.”
41 | Greta Jaime | Act One
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “With her highly anticipated EP set to drop next month, London-based alt-pop newcomer Greta Jaime unveils her single Act One. Greta says: “The songs about dealing with the pain of knowing a relationship needs to end but that it won’t yet. The theatre metaphor is something I explore throughout the EP as it felt like a fitting way to capture the drama in relationships that often lack honesty.”
