Citizen read my mind, Magon don’t waste their breath, Total Massacre give it their best shot, Mogwai get into the game, Cathal Coughlan comes back in a big way — and you’d be a fool to think that’s all you get in this surprisingly busy Tuesday Roundup. Dry January? What the hell was I thinking?
1 | Citizen | I Want To Kill You
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Toledo rock powerhouse Citizen have returned to announce their upcoming fourth full-length Life In Your Glass World, due out March 26. Every aspect of the album was made completely on their own terms, with vocalist Mat Kerekes building a studio in his garage where Citizen tracked the entire album. The result is a set of lean, raw songs that represent the most unfiltered version of the band’s daring vision to date. Citizen have also shared Life In Your Glass World‘s first single and its accompanying video I Want To Kill You, a towering track that highlights the band’s ability to keep pushing their sound forward while maintaining the urgency and hooks at the core of their songwriting.”
2 | Magon | New Rock!
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Two weeks before my album Hour After Hour is released, I’m excited to share a new live session with my new band of a new song from the new album titled New Rock!”
3 | Total Massacre | Get Rich Or Try Dying
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Southern California punks Total Massacre, a self-described band of “anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-capitalists,” have just dropped a raging and politically charged new track titled Get Rich or Try Dying. Singer Cap’n No-Fun says, “Get Rich or Try Dying started like most of our songs do, with a suggestion for a funny song title (this time from our drummer Tommy) combined with the unshakeable sense that literally everything has been fundamentally stacked against us. So not exactly new territory for us as far as songwriting goes but I feel like this one does a good job honing in on one of the really important points that I think is pretty important, and all too easily overlooked: That our lives are the commodity that is being bought and sold.”
4 | Mogwai | Ritchie Sacramento
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The second track to be taken from the new Mogwai album As The Love Continues is out now. Ritchie Sacramento received its exclusive worldwide first play today. The video for the single was produced by director Sam Wiehl, whose team created a small first-person computer game using live game engine technology, then captured the footage moving around inside the world that formed the animations and narratives for the video.”
5 | Cathal Coughlan | Song of Co-Aklan
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Irish indie legend Cathal Coughlan has released the single Song of Co-Aklan. His first new music in 10 years, this is the title track to a forthcoming album of the same name. The accompanying video is a hermetic visual feast created by Emmy-winning filmmaker George Seminara. “This winter, we are all in our cellars, real and metaphorical. Some of us are pumping out those comforting suppositions on the Internet of Nothings, some of us are sheltering from the incoming actual bombardment which is a by-product of convenient shopping, and of course every one of the latter is getting ready to board the HMS Prejudice to Dover, England. This song is a work anthem, on which we can all agree and reunite.”
6 | Nero Kane | Mechthild
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dark psych-folk artist Nero Kane presents his new single Mechthild, a folk-noir ballad featuring vocals and lyrics by Samantha Stella, who also directed and produced the accompanying video. The video follows the cinematic concept of the recently released Tales of Faith and Lunacy album, combining American western landscape elements with iconographic elements of European religious culture to weave an algid and dark sonic and aesthetic psychedelia. This is a visionary folk-noir story describing a love full of passion and sickness for God, inspired by the writing of Mechthild of Magdeburg, a 13th-century German Christian mystic, with a quote from her at the end of the song.”
7 | Corvair | Green (Mean Time)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Portland indie-rock band Corvairpresent the video for Green (Mean Time), the latest single to be lifted from their self-titled debut album out Feb. 19. Directed, filmed and edited by Brian Naubert of Corvair, the video was shot in the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon over New Year’s weekend 2021.”
8 | Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno | Love and Chains
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno’s self-titled record is old-soul roots music to its core. Though both just out of college, the duo’s musical talents extend far beyond their years. Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno (coming March 12) is not some soulless collection of songs imitating previous masters of American music. Rather, the pair have responded to one of the darkest eras in American history with an album of stunning breadth and originality. With mass protests, fires raging near their current home in the Pacific Northwest, and no prospect of touring anytime soon, it’s an aptly biting, bittersweet group of songs for an uncertain time. Yet, Leva and Calcagno balance this with a sense of optimism.”
9 | Teenage Wrist | Yellowbelly
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Los Angeles band Teenage Wrist have released Yellowbelly, the next single from their forthcoming sophomore album Earth Is A Black Hole, due Feb. 12. According to vocalist and guitarist Marshall Gallagher, Yellowbelly represents the core of Earth Is A Black Hole. “It came out early in the writing process and really informed the rest of the record,” explains Gallagher. “It’s partly about death, or the inevitability of it being a motivator for reveling in life. It’s about not letting fear, doubt or ego stop you from making connections, because the opportunity could end at any moment. I’ve personally spent a lot of time being pessimistic and isolated and whatnot, but I decided I’d rather test the limits of my love and free will. That’s going to be a lifelong endeavor I think, and will take some time to learn but it’s better than dying, knowing I didn’t try as hard as I could.”
10 | SOM | Awake // Sedate
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Atmospheric rock collective SOM — current and former members of Constants, Junius, and Grammy nominees Caspian — will release their new EP Awake on March 5. In advance, SOM unvei a striking video to Awake // Sedate, written and directed by Samia Zaidi, a queer Muslim artist and filmmaker based in the East Bay area and Los Angeles. Notes Zaidi: “This song feels like a dream sequence full of raw emotion, the lyrics so anchored within immediate reality. Setting out to create an audiovisual time capsule of this strange year together felt appropriate. Our goal was simple: to create a chromatic tapestry capturing just one of these endless sleepless nights we’ve been experiencing since last spring in a gritty and intimate way.”
11 | Var | Where To Find You
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This Friday, Iceland’s Var release a live four-song EP titled Live at Orgelsmidjan, featuring new versions of tracks off the band’s 2020 album The Never-Ending Year. A video for Where To Find You is premiering today. “After releasing an album and having no chance to play it live, we felt like we had to do something to give people at least a little taste of us playing these songs live,” says Júlíus Björgvinsson (vocals/guitar/keys). “Var has always been about playing live and we always give everything we have to make the tension between us and the audience both peaceful and powerful. But since we could not play it live for people, we decided to make these live videos of us playing the songs at the organ workshop where we practice.”
12 | Ana Egge | This Time
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Inspired by the demonstrations that radiated out of the murder of George Floyd, Brooklyn-based Ana Egge’s This Time addresses the catalysts behind this broad social movement, and the important changes it can make. “I see reasons to believe that something new is going on,” shares co-writer Dick Connette, “and that what’s behind and inside this uprising tide can and will make a critical difference, true and lasting.” The song’s lyrics provide Egge with an opportunity to further explore connecting her work in music with her personal values. “I believe in an inclusive democracy, the opposite of the white nationalist agenda,” she says, “and I believe in the power of music to unite people across space, time, and all imagined or real divides.”
13 | The Ghost Of Helags | We Came From The Stars
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Unfurling a string of mesmeric singles these past months, the Sweden-born, Berlin-based pairing of Teresa Woischiski and John Alexander Ericson confirm a 12-track album release for March. 5. Coupling Woischiski’s feather-light vocal and emotive lyricism with Ericson’s natural flair for conjuring crystalline electronica with soul, the duo deliver a set of stylised, other-worldly synth-pop. Album centre-piece Anthem (We Came From The Stars) (from which the album takes its title), reaches into the realms of science-fiction with interstellar ambition. “It is where we are all from,” says Woischiski. “Once there was a light. And then everything else followed.”
14 | Lal | End Of This World Together (Phen Ray Remix)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “To begin a new year, Lal share the Phen Ray remix of End Of This World Together off their new record Meteors Could Come Down. “Stephen Murray (Phen Ray) has always been a part of every Lal album project since the beginning,” says Nicholas Murray. “We are very excited for this remix that takes End Of This World Together into new territory.” The accompanying music video was shot in Barbados.”
15 | Blue Hour Ghosts | On Black Clouds
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “After announcing their new album Due is due on Feb. 12, Blue Hour Ghosts share the video for second single On Black Clouds. It was shot and directed by talented multimedia artist and musician Snovonne Drake. The band comment: “On Black Clouds was one of the last songs we completed for the record. The tune almost wrote itself after our singer Ricky came up with the draft ideas, and it just clicked right in like a missing puzzle piece for the album. We immediately found out that it worked out pretty well as a single, exposing our catchiest and most emotional side with its pop-rock and darkwave nuances.”
16 | Bicep | Sundial
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Bicep have released Sundial, the final single to be taken from their forthcoming Isles album, out Jan. 22. The duo say: “This is probably one of the simplest tracks on the album, it grew from a faulty Jupiter 6 arp recording. Our trigger isn’t working properly and the arp skips notes randomly. This was a small segment taken from a recording of Andy just playing the arp live whilst we were just trying to figure out what was going wrong. We actually loved what it had produced and wrote some chords around it, guided by the feeling of this recording.”
17 | Ben Harper | Black Beauty
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ben Harper has released Black Beauty, an original song for the 2020 film Black Boys. “It was an honor to have been asked to write a song for this culturally vital documentary,” Harper said. “After watching Black Boys and discussing it in depth with [director] Sonia Lowman, I went immediately to work on composing Black Beauty. I am old-school and still love getting players in a room together, so a production of this scale during a pandemic was challenging, with quarantine. I was fortunate that the incredible musicians in my circle have taken it upon themselves to become circumstantial recording engineers, and thanks to modern recording technology and some FaceTime sessions, I was able to work by sending tracks back and forth over the Internet.”
18 | Trend Kill Ghosts | Dethrone Tyranny
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Brazilian power metal band Trend Kill Ghosts just released the video for Dethrone Tyranny, a tribute to the renowned power metal band Gamma Ray. “At the end of last year we were thinking about doing something for this beginning of the year, so that, somehow, our fans would have a slightly lighter start to the year than last year… But how could we not let go no song from the new album, because we are in the recording phase. So the idea came up to do a tribute, a cover of one of the bands that most influenced us, Gamma Ray, so we could pay tribute to this band so important to us and also give the gift of beginning of the year to our audience”, explains guitarist Rogério Oliveira.”
https://youtu.be/vUFnt_2oQ8g
19 | Areis | A Wretched Vow
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Areis (meaning “to raise” in ancient Occitan) are a band from Bagnols-sur-Cèze, France. Formed in 2019 by ex-members from Kombur and Right To The Void, the quartet take inspiration in music genres such as hardcore, black metal, post-hardcore and punk which they’ve blended, using dark, occult and Occitanian-themed lyrics, into no nonsense, gloomy music. Areis’ single & video for A Wretched Vow is out today. The track is taken from their upcoming self-titled debut album.”
20 | The Fabulous Red Diesel | Butterfly Mind
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Fabulous Red Diesel are a collective quite unlike any other — and their new album The Queensbury House Sessions looks to introduce them into the hearts and minds of music fans everywhere. A husband and wife on vocals and drums; a transgender trumpeter and double-bassist; and a synth player and guitarist named Rabbi Jaffa Delicious — on paper unconventional, but their sound will hypnotise you, a beguiling mix of smoky jazz and achingly swooning soul, their latest single is Butterfly Mind, a track which says that no matter how your mind flits from one idea to the next, true love remains constant. Butterfly Mind is best summed up by its writer Kat: “It’s about the way my brain works and the way music flits from one person to another, changing their perception (hopefully for the better) by tiny inspirational touches.”
21 | Michael Peter Olsen | 7 Days
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Toronto songwriter, composer and producer Michael Peter Olsen released 7 Days off his debut album Yearning Flow, out this Friday. Olsen stated, “7 Days is a piece for modular synth and electric cello featuring film and television composer Todor Kobakov. An expansive exploration of sonic landscape and mood, 7 Days evokes contemporary electronic composition of the 1960s and ’70s.”
22 | Alkerdeel | Zop
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Belgian doomed black-metal group Alkerdeel have just unleashed the first audio sample from their forthcoming fourth album Slonk, set for release on Feb. 5. The follow-up to their third album Lede was recorded live at Boma Studio in Ghent with Frederik Segers and shows a more atmospheric side of the band. But don’t be fooled — it’s also their most aggressive album to date, displaying a ferocity only rivaled by bands like Archgoat, Ildjarn and Mizmor.”
23 | A.J. Croce | Better Day
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Over the past three decades, A.J. Croce has established his reputation as a piano player and serious vocal stylist who pulls from a host of musical traditions and anti-heroes — part New Orleans, part juke joint, part soul. Today, he’s premiering his cover of the Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee classic Better Day, a song that particularly resonates in these turbulent times. The track features guitar legend (and Croce’s East Nashville neighbor) Robben Ford guesting on guitar. “Since I was very young, I remember hearing the music of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee,” Croce says. “As a kid I’d listen to my dads record collection, which was amazingly diverse. Sonny and Brownie, like Ray Charles or Otis Redding were comforting. In my 30s when I started to play guitar, the first song I learned was Better Day. I’ve played it ever since.”
24 | Cosmic Reaper | Hellion
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “North Carolina’s fuzzed-out doom unit Cosmic Reaper release their self-titled debut album this March 19. Stream their delightfully crushing new single Hellion now! Cosmic Reaper enthuse: “This six-minute song is a solid slab of pure, unadulterated doom that is sure to be your soundtrack to 2021’s apocalyptic start. With big Electric Wizard vibes and Cosmic Reaper’s signature sound, Hellion rip at the fabric from underneath.”
25 | Thirdface | Villains!
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Rising from Nashville, Thirdface will release their full-length debut Do It With A Smile on March 5. The band celebrated the announcement with the release of first single Villains!, a barnburner that lures in the listener with a swirling bassline before the band’s distinctive guitars and rigorous drumming burst in to display the full power of Thirdface’s grinding hardcore. Kathryn Edwards (vocalist) says: “When writing Villains! I was watching a lot of Fist of the North Star, which gives the song its title. I wanted to write a song about tearing some evil down from its pedestal like Ken from FOTNS would do. But decided to speak on reality which has a lot more inescapable horrors and villains. This one is about the irons of wage slavery.”
26 | Future Islands | For Sure (Dan Deacon Remix)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Future Islands release For Sure (Dan Deacon Remix), an expansive nine-minute remix from the fellow Baltimorean artist that incorporates stirring strings, piano and an electronic crescendo to the original track. Deacon says, “Like most people, the last year has made me realise how important my friends are to me, and how much I miss being with them. When the guys released For Sure, it really brought me back to memories of when we lived together and I could hear them practicing in the basement. I kept listening to it over and over and wanted to hear it “more,” if that makes sense. I wanted to hear the individual parts, and I wanted to hang out with them and interact with them.”
27 | Minor Moon | No Lightning Fix
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Minor Moon — the Chicago-based folk-rock / alt-country / cosmic Americana group led by multi-instrumentalist Sam Cantor — will release Tethers, their third album, on March 26. No Lightning Fix, out today, serves as a thesis statement for Tethers, as the song’s narrator finds himself lost in a spiritual purgatory with no obvious way out. Accompanied by intricate fingerstyle guitar and warm-hued swells of organ, steel guitar, and backing vocals, the narrator accepts that there is no easy solution to their quandary — “no lightning fix,” that is — before the track zig-zags into a Ry Cooder-esque choogle and fades away to watery strings.”
28 | Counterpunch | We,The Role
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Chicago punks Counterpunch have just dropped a new track titled We, The Role, which is the B-side off the band’s upcoming 7″ Handbook For The Recently Debriefed, due Jan 29. With their new songs, Counterpunch write a commentary on the society around them. The tracks are their first new songs since the band’s 2014 album Bruises. Formed in 2004, Counterpunch’s metal drenched Skate Punk, inspired by the Fat Wreck era of modern punk rock, has seen them tour around the world alongside some of the biggest names of the scene.”
29 | Devan | Night Drives
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Thanks to a transatlantic childhood, Toronto-born/London-raised singer-songwriter Devan is leaning into her wildly diverse musical influences to create a voice that’s all her own. Night Drives, the new single from Devan’s forthcoming debut Pink Noise EP (out Feb. 26), captures the feeling of driving around at night with someone you love — aimless, chatting, listening to music. It’s a particularly special sense of freedom. While distinct, Devan’s voice may sound familiar. She has spent the last six years honing her talents as a songwriter and live performer with Wild Rivers; the folk-pop band that she co-found and co-fronts.”
30 | The Mandevilles | Lightning
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “More than five years after the release of their last album, The Mandevilles are readying their new record. In that time the band experimented and stretched their repertoire, really getting familiar with everyone’s strengths in ways they hadn’t before. The result is an intentional sound where every aspect was thought through. The newest single from the album is Lightning, which reflects on the masochistic side of a past relationship. The grungy track features droning guitar hooks and an unorthodox anti-solo.”
31 | His His | Winter Journal
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “His His is the project of Toronto-based artist Aidan Belo. Combining delicate guitar lines with simple yet thoughtful vocals, Belo created this project as an outlet after relocating to his family’s hobby farm outside of the city, in an attempt to evoke something rural and honest. His His’s second single Winter Journal is most easily defined by the Portuguese word saudade — a feeling of longing and melancholy.”
32 | Divided Heaven | Baby in the Band
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Following the release of They Poisoned Our Fathers, featuring guest vocals by Lydia Loveless, Divided Heaven are back with a beautiful single titled Baby in the Band. The song reflects on all of the delicate relationships that are formed and sometimes lost while following your passion of playing in a band. It’s a vulnerable and heartfelt ode to the good, the bad, and everything in between.”
33 | Adrian Sutherland | Respect the Gift
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Northern Canadian musician Adrian Sutherland is pleased to be releasing Respect the Gift, an upbeat song of celebration. “Respect the Gift is about using our ‘gifts’ for good, and not taking for granted the everyday freedoms and luxuries we have. There’s never been a more important time to appreciate all that we find precious, especially given the world we’re living in today,” says Sutherland. “Anyone who hears this song just feels happy, it has a positive vibe, and it’s a great dance tune. We found this out when I played the demo for my family for the very first time. They all jumped up and started dancing – including my two-year-old grandson Ezra! It was an unexpected moment, and it made us realize we have something pretty special here.”
34 | Drones | Learn
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Drones’ latest anthem for personal growth, Learn, provides another peek at the band’s forthcoming album Our Hell Is Right Here, which is set for release on Feb. 12. “Learn is about the desperate struggle to make a failing relationship work,” says vocalist Lois McDougall. “You can feel that it’s not right but you still care about the other person. We seem to make the same mistakes over and over by assuming we know what the other person is thinking, so communication stops. We keep trying to force a relationship to work with someone that we’re just not meant to be with. If it’s more of a struggle than not … it’s not worth it. You should never diminish any part of yourself for someone else because, ultimately, you’ll end up resenting them.”
