Tony Joe White boots up with the help of Dan Auerbach, Mike Edel can play his latest cover tune cold, Matt Berninger is speaking words of wisdom, Ionophore chart their own course — and I hope you’re pacing yourself to get through yet another colossal Weekend Roundup. Onward and upward:
43 | Tony Joe White | Boot Money
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Smoke from the Chimney, a nine-song album of never-before-heard Tony Joe White tunes, will be released On May 7. Produced by Dan Auerbach and rounded out by Nashville’s most seasoned studio musicians, Smoke from the Chimney started out as unadorned voice and guitar demos from White’s home studio before being transformed into full-band arrangements harkening back to the albums he recorded in the late ’60s and early ’70s in Nashville and Muscle Shoals — just as he was emerging as an internationally recognized songwriter and recording artist. Get a taste with the first single Boot Money, a gritty, thumping ode to keeping a little bit of extra scratch hidden away.”
44 | Mike Edel | Don’t Panic
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Mike Edel is sharing his take on Coldplay’s Don’t Panic, the first in a series of four covers to come from the acclaimed songwriter. An apt message for the times, Edel has created a mellow yet hooky and folk version of this early Coldplay classic. “Parachutes was one of my formative albums, and I really like the idea of covering a song that is underrated,” says Edel. “Don’t Panic feels like this kind of song, and it just kept coming back to me through this Pandemic era and has been a comfort to say the least.”
45 | Matt Berninger | Let It Be
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “An expanded deluxe edition of Serpentine Prison, the acclaimed solo debut by National frontman Matt Berninger, will be released on March 12. The expanded edition features six bonus tracks, including two originals as well as interpretations of songs by Eddie Floyd, Morphine, Bettye Swan and The Velvet Underground. Listen to Let It Be today.”
46 | Ionophore | Take Its Course
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In just a week, cinematic ambient trio Ionophore will release their entrancing fourth album Knells. Preceding the record’s official unveiling, the band presents a video for the track Take Its Course. The video was created by Ionophore’s Janek Hendrich. The band offer: “As the meditative album opener, Take Its Course sets the introspective, cinematic mood that builds throughout Knells. Written pre-COVID, the lyrics portend the quiet devastation of a plague that has since become our day-to-day reality, somberly accentuated by the funereal horn and acoustic guitar in the song’s dissolving coda.”
47 | Jack Rose | Rockstar
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Jack Rose is again set to unleash another powerful pop anthem with Rockstar backed by an all-star cast of some the UK’s hottest producers. Jack Rose aka JCK is an 18-year-old singer songwriter and TV presenter from Ashford, Kent in the U.K.”
48 | Corrina Taylor | Blue Card
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Singer-songwriter/ eternal optimist/ hopeful romantic — all the things rising pop star Corrina Taylor embodies. Her songs vary from the light-hearted and playful, to the emotional and deep; as she freely admits, “I write pop songs that are jigsaw puzzles of my own life and emotions.” Her lyrics are always honest and real in the hope that people will be able to relate and better understand their own hearts. Her latest single is the honest but good-humoured Blue Card — a song about becoming a ‘mainstream addict’ — in this case, a shopaholic to mask the anxieties in life. “I was buying clothes that I wouldn’t be able to wear till the summer, or for the trip to Australia I hadn’t, and couldn’t, book.”
49 | Mimoza | Young Queen
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Sending you the new single and visuals internationally acclaimed songwriter and pop singer Mimoza and her new single Young Queen. The L.A. artist’s latest single pays tribute to her mother and all moms who raise their daughters to see themselves as ‘young queens,’ the song oozes with passion and determination. It’s a powerful pop anthem and meaningful record, showcasing everything that the songwriter represents — strength, vulnerability and quality. Sonically Young Queen bursts with soulful vocal tones, highlighting Mimoza’s impressive range, while dynamic percussion elements and big, bold instrumentation create the ultimate emotional release.”
50 | Rudy Touzet | Fatal Attraction
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “With catchy lyrics, danceable songs, and a growing fanbase, 21-year-old Miami-born Cuban/American singer Rudy Touzet has all of the makings of a pop act to watch. Rudy describes himself as a “shy guy” who gets along with everyone while still being able to maintain his awkwardness. “Music is the only thing that gets me out of reality when I need it the most,” he shares. “I want people to feel my voice and either dance it out, cry it out, or sing it out.”
51 | G-Salih | Daydreaming (ft. KP)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Virginia-based Sudanese-American rapper G-Salih returns with a new single Daydreaming, featuring KP. “Day Dreaming is about that person you wanted to talk to but never could get yourself to approach; that special person who meant a lot to your life and helped you discover more about yourself; that certain pull that you feel towards someone that forces you to just feel the moment you’re in. I wrote this record in 2018, reminiscing over past relationships and the feeling of allowing yourself to feel someone else. It also served as a reminder to myself to stop overthinking what’s happened or what will, and just enjoy the moments I’m in before they’re gone.”
52 | Chaos Chaos | Eternal
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Chaos Chaos, the synth-pop project of sisters Asya and Chloe Saavedra, present Eternal, the first single from their sophomore album Ethical Plum, due this fall. Asy Saavedra says: “I wrote Eternal in one sitting one summer day during quarantine. I had all this manic energy and wanted to make a screamo pop song, where I could cathartically release my energy in the screamo sections, but I decided to cushion that with quirky pop sounds using my plug in go-tos: synplant for synth sounds and permut for chopping up and affecting drum loops. I wrote it and then went on a jog on the beach and listened to it and it felt like it expressed the energy I wanted: cooped up manic anger and excitement.”
53 | Pærish | Mike + Susan
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Mike + Susan is one of the best songs to summarize my writing process, as I tend to assemble pieces of my life and try to make them fit together. It’s a mix of different situations I’ve experienced. One of them is a discussion I had with a friend of mine, talking about the familiarity and warmth you sometimes feel when you arrive at train stations you’ve never been to. It’s your first time there, but somehow you can feel like you know this place and someone is here waiting for you. Another story in that song was me being on a stopped train, writing on a notebook, and seeing a couple outside dancing in the parking lot. At that time I was in a relationship that was pretty much about to end, and I realized how beautiful it was but also how I couldn’t be insensitive to their happiness.”
54 | The Strumbellas | Greatest Enemy
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Canadian collective The Strumbellas return with the anthemic Greatest Enemy. It’s their first release since the album Rattlesnake in 2019. Lead singer Simon Ward shares, “Greatest Enemy is about how sometimes the toughest battle is the one you have with yourself. The Strumbellas had a rough start to 2020 with canceled tours and mental health struggles, and then the pandemic happened. This is a song about facing the one fight you can’t run from.”
55 | Tethra | Dying Signal
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Italian doom-deathsters Tethra just released a video for the track Dying Signal, from their latest album Empire of the Void. Vocalist Claude elaborates: “Dying Signal’s lyrics are a metaphor for the progressive deterioration of human relationships in modern society. The models imposed by TV, social media and consumerism brought to excess is taking away the ability to stop and reflect, because nowadays we are all so interconnected that each of us expects almost immediate feedback from the other, and for this, it’s not always easy to be able to argue properly about a personal opinion. Sometimes it is easier to shout your own reasons without listening to the others. This is one of the heavier and “in-the-face” songs of the new album Empire of the Void, but it manages to keep our melodic and dark side intact.”
56 | Ian Sweet | Sing Till I Cry
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “I’m so excited to share the final single from this upcoming record with you all!!! This song and video is super special to me and I love being able to share some memories through these silly and intimate collages. I miss photo booths, and friends and family, and playing live more than anything in the world and I can’t wait until we can all be dancing together at a show again!”
57 | David Picco | Waitin’ For The Summertime
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “David Picco has released the perfect song to get through the next few months. Waitin’ For The Summertime is the second single from the Newfoundland singer/songwriter’s latest album Live It Down — out Feb. 26 — and it’s accompanied by a video made from some stunning mid-20th century home movies. “I guess you could say that this about is about coming to terms with the fact that life never turns out as planned,” Picco says. “I would describe it as contemplative, but musically I was going after something more dream-like and ethereal.”
58 | (Hed) P.E. | Watch It Burn
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Legendary SoCal artists (Hed) P.E. have released a video for Watch It Burn from their new album Class of 2020. “Watch It Burn is ultimately about taking all the pressures of being somebody with you to the local bar and releasing them; hitting the reset, and then continuing on your grind,” commented frontman Jared Gomes. “From a personal perspective the song is about shit talkers and letting them know it’s easy to talk shit and much harder to actually accomplish something worth talking shit about.”
59 | Eggvn | La Era de la Bestia
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Eggvn from Mexico introduce La Era de la Bestia and proclaim a dark age and show with their mesmerizing sound how fragile it is what we know as “reality”. La Era de la Bestia conceptually deals with the obscure celebration of a war ritual, “in which the coming is announced, conquers, submits the enemy, and then the victory is glorified over the conquered land.”
60 | Amythyst Kiah | Black Myself
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Amythyst Kiah is redefining the limits of roots music. Today, the mold-shattering singer/songwriter releasesa radically reimagined version of her song Black Myself. The track was originally recorded in 2019 by Our Native Daughters, the group which includes Amythyst, Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla and Allison Russell, and earned a Grammy nomination for Best American Roots Song. “Black Myself is the first song I’ve written that was confrontational,” says Amythyst. “I’d always made it a point to sing songs that anybody could relate to, but this was something that had been welling up inside me for a long time. The reception of the song so far has given me hope that there are people out there who are ready to confront the shared trauma of racism, to look within ourselves and see how we might be perpetuating racist beliefs, and to do what is needed to create equality for all people.”
61 | Siena Bjorn | Easy Tiger
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Siena Bjorn is a singer-songwriter whose music dances between pop, alt-R&B and jazz. With a strong vision and identity, her latest single Easy Tiger narrates letting women take control of their decisions, whether that be in a romantic relationship, friendship, or at work. She confides, “Sometimes I feel like people aren’t listening to you when you ask for something or say something. It’s about stepping into the alter ego and telling men around you that you are strong and smart and beyond capable and that it’s their turn to listen.”
62 | Marc Scibilia | Seed of Joy
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Since its release last year, Marc Scibilia’s album Seed of Joy has been streamed more than 130 million times. On April 9, Scibilia will share an expanded deluxe edition of Seed of Joy; first single Rivals is out now. A love song custom-made to reverberate from the rafters, Rivals exemplifies Scibilia’s mastery of the whispered verse turned soaring chorus; equally at home in sold out venues and on road trips with the windows down. “I wrote Rivals at a hotel Munich, Germany, while on tour with Robin Schulz,” Marc says. “We were playing these massive arena shows. It was a career highlight but it reminded me of the things that are most important to me. I always had my friends, family … the things that have no rivals.”
63 | Davie Furey | Just Like the Wind
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “One of Ireland’s most beloved and respected musicians and songwriters, Davie Furey, has released his hugely anticipated new album Haunted Streets. It finds him at the peak of his storytelling powers, writing from the heart and connecting with music fans around the world. From the Springsteen-esque Flames on the River to the emotional suckerpunch of Who Am I and the anthemic Fire n’ Gold, the album shows Furey as an artist who has a poetic gift for storytelling and a skill for melody which puts him at the very top of his game.”
