Lounge Society play the most dangerous game, Psychotic Monks share their splendid isolation, Duvel get sexotic, In the Whale hammer home some crosses and more in a slightly loud and intriguingly strange Monday Roundup. Of course, these days strange is basically the new normal, so there you go.
ON REPEAT
1 | The Lounge Society | Burn The Heather
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “When Yorkshire’s The Lounge Society released their debut single Generation Game in March, it heralded the arrival of a special new band. It is with some anticipation then that The Lounge Society — still all in their mid-teens — release Burn The Heather. The single takes its title from the annual local ritual burning of the moor-top heather by the rich rural landowners for their lucrative grouse-shoots (and which those down in the valley blame on causing frequent flooding). The band comments: “Burn the Heather is a song deeply rooted in where we come from. The lyrics are our interpretation of some of the darker aspects of where we live, and our personal reaction to them. Musically, Burn the Heather is intended to be an adrenaline shot to the brain.”
2 | The Psychotic Monks | Isolation
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Forming in the bleak winter of 2015, France’s The Psychotic Monks have a boundary-pushing reputation thanks to their intense live shows and unique sound. The Psychotic Monks now share Isolation, paired with an avant-garde video from photographer and artist Clara Marguerat. Sinister from start to finish, Isolation is a drone for the end of the world, and perfectly captures the intensity of their forthcoming album through its elongated riffs and chaotic ferocity. Marguerat says: “I made it out of different films taken from the members’ personal collection. I mixed it with other footage we’ve worked on. It was a collective initiative, we wanted it to reflect the intense things they’ve been through during their last year of touring, but to keep it as open as possible and not to focus on their individualities.”
3 | Duvel | Hong Kong Sex Toy Store
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Norwegian post-punk band Duvel have just revealed a video for the single Hong Kong Sex Toy Store, off their as-yet unnamed sophomore effort. Vocalist Jack Holldorff elaborates: “I nicked the song-title off a sign I saw in Hong Kong. I was there a couple of months before the riots began. I made up the lyrics for the chorus while I was at this awful rooftop-bar. The drinks and clothes up there were way too expensive for me, and I remember thinking that the fastest route down would probably be over the little fence right on the edge. I chose the elevator.”
4 | In The Whale | Crosses
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Denver’s In The Whale deliver another aural beating to the senses. The two-piece are hell bent on pummelling you into the ground with their post rock assault. “Crosses is lyrically about looking yourself in the mirror, realizing everyone is going to die and humbly wondering why we’re all here and what this is all for. We tried to execute a feeling of franticness and anxiousness with the push and pull off each musical section.”
5 | Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar | Loving You Is Easy
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Juno-nominated Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar are sharing the video for Loving You Is Easy from their new album The Reckless One. Martin shares, “when you are first romantically interested in a person, you get what people call butterflies when you see them, or when you kiss them for the first time. In my experience, It is the same feeling that you get when you get a little too close to the edge of a cliff. That’s probably why they call it falling in love. The whole thing is an exercise in trust, and whether or not that person is going to catch you before you hit the ground. If you have been hurt in the past, it takes a lot to trust someone new.”
ALSO ON THE PLAYLIST
6 | Ginesse | L.A. Isn’t Somewhere To Die
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ginesse — AKA actress Cait Fairbanks — is sharing the video for L.A. Isn’t Somewhere To Die, from her newly released EP, Somewhere To Die. Written in the aftermath of a particularly challenging breakup, the single is a thank you to the friends who stick around, even through the hard times. “L.A. can be a lonely place,” she says, “but this is a love song to the dope friends in my life who keep me from blowing my brains out, honestly.”
7 | Mike Edel | Still Thinking About You
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Last week, Mike Edel released his album En Masse. Today, he shares the video for Still Thinking About You. Edel says, “In the ‘before times’ I assembled a cast of friends together to shoot a music video for Still Thinking About You … (It) reminds me that I am an extrovert and reminds me that I love seeing all my family, friends and supporters when touring an album. I’m so happy that I got a bunch of my Vancouver friends and made this video with them. To them I would say; I love you, I miss you, I’m Still Thinking About You.”
8 | Arlo Parks | Caroline
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Arlo Parks releases Caroline, another gorgeous offering from her debut album Collapsed In Sunbeams, due Jan. 29. Caroline offers another insight into the beguiling sound of Arlo Parks. It’s an alternative love song laced with her trademark breathy vocals, atop lamenting guitar licks and a euphoric heartbroken chorus. Says Arlo: “Caroline is an exercise in people watching and seeing situations unfold without context. It’s an exploration of how something once full of healthy passion can dissolve in an instant.”
9 | Carolesdaughter | Violent
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Alt-pop artist Carolesdaughter has released the song Violent, along with a lyric video that features her in a black spiked necklace, scissors in hand as she coolly cuts through an array of teddy bears. Carolesdaughter wrote “violent” over a somber beat laden with 808s and creaky acoustic guitar. She says: “I was in a toxic relationship when I wrote it. I was just fed up, and I released it. It was a real moment. I guess people recognize it.”
10 | Tony Reed | Funeral Suit
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Seattle songwriter and producer Tony Reed (also frontman of Mos Generator) debuts an intimate monochrome video for the title track of his solo acoustic album Funeral Suit. With Funeral Suit, Reed delivers his most personal work to date, pushing the experience further than the standard “man with a guitar” approach. Whether it’s the delicate arrangements, soulful vocal harmonies or piano-based escapades, this is a dense and multi-faceted folk rock album with a strong progressive edge that will resonate with any listener.”
11 | Homes | Tell Me About Your Heart When the World Is Asleep
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “22-year-old Slovakian singer, songwriter and producer Homes released his second EP Neha in October. A month later, he is back to add a music video for the song Tell Me About Your Heart When the World Is Asleep. Set in a minimalistic tone, the video builds an atmosphere with its slow, visually rich scenes of Chateau Šimák. “Sometimes less is more,” explains Homes. “I wanted the emotion of the song to be in the forefront and dominant and to not have to compete with anything.”
12 | Barbara Black | Vampire Love, Chapter I: You Belong To Me
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Love, Death & Flies is the third album by Bárbara Black, a singer and a band born to rock. It delivers her hardest sound and shows the lyrical influences of Poe, Bécquer and the horror cinema of the ’80s. Victorian streets, dark passages and a decadent romanticism drive you to reach the zenith in a reflection of the band’s approach to wilder southern sounds.”
13 | Wounded Not Dead | Register of Embodiments
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “London’s Wounded Not Dead have unleashed the second single from their upcoming sophomore album The Alchemist. Register of Embodiments is a track where unpredictable, cutting edge, brutal and technical death metal meets progressive jazz fusion.”
14 | Rothwell | Not In Love
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Rothwell shares an intimate new video for Not In Love and continues to make waves with her entrancing brand of emotive, well-crafted pop. Rothwell goes back to basics with a pared-down, delicate cut retaining a playful charm thanks to her effervescent, hazy vocals. Rothwell says: “In all this lockdown and isolation madness, it was loads of fun creating something that stylistically fit with the project whilst being limited to what we had access too! Together with Katie Sibley, we bought together what feels like a raw, intimate video!”
15 | Airborn | Scarecrow Days
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Veteran Italian metal band Airborn have just launched a lyric video for Scarecrow Days, the second single from their upcoming album Lizard Secrets: Part Two – Age of Wonder, to be released on Dec. 10. It’s the band’s sixth album and it’s the second instalment in a trilogy. This new work, although following the traditional style of the band that blends traditional heavy metal with power metal, shows more varied and dynamic compositions.”
16 | The Machinist | Extinction Event
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Two years in the making and featuring the talents of members of Reign Of Erebus and NekroDrako, I Am Void (out Dec. 4) is the colossally destructive debut from the mechanised, blackened death metal entity known as The Machinist. Drawing on dark forces and a harsh, unforgiving sense of reality, The Machinist are not for the weak of heart or mind. I Am Void drills into the monstrous human ego like a machine gun, dismantling our arrogance and sense of self importance with unforgiving relish. Yet this blast beat fuelled beast is not just about nihilistic destruction of the human spirit, it’s about accepting the reality of our fleeting, insignificant existence and then valuing every second of it; blazing brightly in the black — living loudly, bravely and honestly.”
17 | Appalooza | Conquest
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Hailing from the French west coast, heavy rockers Appalooza confirm a Feb. 5 release for their sophomore album The Holy Of Holies. The trio also unveil a compelling visualizer for first single Conquest. They say: “The Holy Of Holies is an ironic comment on religion. A storm is coming and ready to send mankind to a certain death. They are deprived and punished for their individualism, appearing already dead. They accept it and seek a new being to venerate, then send a scapegoat to the desert with all their sins, to find the demon Azazael, the Holy of Holies. This fallen angel takes possession of mankind. He reincarnates them into a half-man half-beast species by transplanting a horse skull, symbol of a lost freedom.”
18 | Saturday, Monday | FWD (ft. Björn Dixgård)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Swedish DJ and producer Ludvig Parment — aka Saturday, Monday — has returned with his latest atmospheric ballad FWD, featuring vocals from Björn Dixgård. Says Parment: “We come from very different musical backgrounds, so it wasn’t obvious what direction the collaboration would take. But after sitting down at Björn’s house listening through a bunch of music, mainly super-classic songs, we kind of set out to do a contemporary ballad — not a stripped-back piano song or some slick electronic piece but rather sort of a grand arrangement of a pretty song with a slight roughness to it.”
19 | Boulevards | Brother!
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Jamil Rashad, who performs under the name Boulevards, is set to release the Brother! EP on Dec. 18. A culmination of several years of writing and playing and touring and recording, the Raleigh, N.C. artist’s EP is about race and reckoning in America, about broken hearts and self-inflicted suffering. It’s explicitly political songs draw on early Funkadelic, Sly Stone, Rick James, Curtis Mayfield and Shuggie Otis, among others. Rashad says, “The song is about working and hustling every day and not being satisfied with the end result, whether it’s working for yourself or 9-5 corporations. Spending the hours, time, not getting a raise, losing a job, putting a smile on your face at a job you dislike, feeling stuck in life, making money and spending money to support bad habits. The only thing that makes you feel any kind of release is the bottom of the bottle.”
20 | Matthew Sweet | Give A Little
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “On his 15th album Catspaw, due out Jan. 15, Matthew Sweet cranks his vintage amplifiers and steps into a role previously played by some of his generation’s most unique and incendiary lead guitarists, from Richard Lloyd (Television) to Robert Quine (Lou Reed) and Ivan Julian (Richard Hell & The Voidoids). Though Catspaw is absent of his famous collaborators, their presence is felt in the mark they left on Sweet’s guitar work. His solos are audacious, confrontational, and inspired. “Give a Little is one of the most positive songs on my new album Catspaw. It has a lot of elements I like both lyrically and musically. I think this one came to me all at once — music and words together. This song was also meant for a dear friend of mine who was struggling with a serious depression. They don’t know it was for them. Really, it’s for anyone it might help. If you can find a way to put some love out in the world, it might just bring its own reward. We can help each other get through a lot this way.”
21 | Ian Fisher | Be Thankful
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Americana songwriter’s Ian Fisher’s single Be Thankful is a reminder for us to live in the moment. As the U.S. heads into one of the hardest holiday seasons, there’s still time to take stock of what we have and where we’re going. The song’s a meditation on East Nashville too, where Fisher was living while writing parts of this album.”
22 | Suffering Hour | Strongholds Of Awakening
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Blackened death metal power-trio Suffering Hour have completed work on their second album The Cyclic Reckoning, due Feb. 19. Here’s an advance stream of the lead track, Strongholds Of Awakening. The Cyclic Reckoning showcases the band firing on all cylinders. The music on this album is more representative of Suffering Hour as a whole than it ever was on past material, with every member making their presence more known than ever. This record also features the band sacrificing some of their technicality and chaos in favor of more atmospheric passages, as the band envisioned this record to be an unhindered display of negative emotion, seething or sombre.”
23 | Belau | Risk It All (Hillsdom Remix)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Belau (Peter Kedves and Krisztian Buzas) are one of the most promising electronica newcomers around the European music scene. In three years, they had almost 200 live performances in 23 countries. The debut LP The Odyssey won the Hungarian Grammy in best electronic music album category. After their long-awaited sophomore album Colourwave, they release an energetic remix by Hillsdom for Risk It All. “Risk It All is a song of the possibility. One of our favourite tracks from the new album.”
24 | Stone Deaf | Cloven Hoof
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Colorado’s Stone Deaf have released their latest single Cloven Hoof, off of their upcoming album Killers. Stone Deaf manage to blend desert and stoner rock with an old-school punk edge, as is evident on Cloven Hoof.”
25 | Distant Matter | Chrome (ft. Lily)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Born Alex Swartz-Seligman, 20-year-old Torontonian Distant Matter is a multi-instrumentalist trained in piano, guitar, drums, bass, harmonica, and talk-box. Growing up, Alex learned to channel his energy into music as a creative outlet. He began producing music at age 17 and has played piano since he was 8 years old. Distant Matter’s self-produced debut single Chrome is a nostalgic, danceable electro-pop track.”
26 | Alex Mills | Stamina
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Multi-faceted singer-songwriter Alex Mills continues her musical evolution on Stamina, a seductive cut peppered with ’90s rave influences and big room vocals. She says: “Stamina is a sexy dance floor banger. Asking if you have the steam and energy it takes to keep pace. It’s dark and sweaty and harks back to a ’90s sound that I love and champion any chance I get.”
27 | Sundrowned | La Tristesse Durera Toujours
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Norwegian post-black-metal newcomers Sundrowned will release their debut album Become Ethereal on March 19. Become Ethereal is the first album in a series exploring the different facets of humanity seen through the lens of classical alchemy and the search for perfection. The album takes on the concept of the soul in the form of memories. Both how your own actions and experiences affect you as well as how the people around you shape your personality and emotional state. Listen to La Tristesse Durera Toujours now.”
28 | 808s & Greatest Hits | Abduction
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Melbourne’s 808s & Greatest Hits share the spooky Abduction, the first taste of new music from their sophomore album Greatest Hits II, out Dec. 11. Skube Burnell had this to say: “The initial demo had a dank, uneasy feel to it so I thought it would go well with some lyrics about alien abduction. I’ve experienced some sleep paralysis over the years which lend themselves to the imagination and I once had a vivid dream about being beamed out of my bed and being pulled out of the house through the wall. The lyrics were also inspired by Whitley Strieber’s book Communion, which conjured some kooky imagery.”
29 | Messiahvore | Blood And Guts
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Denver’s Messiahvore have released their new single Blood and Guts, a powerhouse track highlighting the band’s driving stoner / doom metal hybrid. It echoes contemporaries like High On Fire, Down Conan and Baroness. Blood and Guts is the first single off of Messiahvore’s upcoming self-titled debut. It’s heavy, driving, short and to the point. Perhaps you think this song is about gore? You’d be dead wrong. Blood and Guts is about putting yourself out in the world, giving it your all and facing the judgment and ridicule — good or bad.”
30 | Abertooth Lincoln | Soup For My Family
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dayton’s Abertooth Lincoln are an aggressive, spacey hardcore progressive punk band. Their music is heavy, weird, complicated and can flip genres within seconds. But the bottom line is they are unique and refreshing. They just dropped new single Soup For My Family, another tour de force of musical innovation. “This song is a response to the violent and subversive actions taken by undercover federal officers, police and right-wing militia against BLM protesters during the summer of 2020 in U.S. cities.”
