Dave Alvin goes out on the town, Lydia Luce admits her mistakes, Ariel Posen plays by heart, Brigitte DeMeyer heads to Louisiana, California Music superstars hit the beach — and we’ve barely tickled the fancy of your latest ginormous Weekend Roundup. Carry on:
21 | Dave Alvin | On The Way Downtown
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dave Alvin shares the Victor Krummenacher-directed video for On The Way Downtown, in memory of Gene Taylor, Chris Gaffney and Amy Farris. The track was featured on his highly praised From An Old Guitar: Rare and Unreleased Recordings. “On The Way Downtown is my favorite song written by one of my hero songwriters Peter Case. I remember Peter playing this bittersweet song years ago, and I fell in love with it immediately. I knew then and there that I would have to record it someday, and so I did, and my multi-talented pal Victor Krummenacher made a brilliant video collage of my version. I always get a little choked up listening to this recording because two of my dear friends who passed away, Chris Gaffney and Amy Farris are playing and singing on it, and this leads me to think of all of my other musicians and comrades who have gone on to the other side, most recently the beloved boogie-woogie piano king Gene Taylor.”
22 | Lydia Luce | Never Been Good
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Nashville singer/songwriter Lydia Luce just self-released her orchestral-infused indie-folk album Dark River. Luce also released a new video for Never Been Good, partially shot on vintage Super 8 film by photographer Jacqueline Justice. A song about codependency and growth, Luce wrote the song at a time when she was trying to decide whether or not to stay with her partner. She says: “My partner was struggling with addiction and panic attacks and all I wanted to do was try and fix it. One of the biggest discoveries of last year was my tendency to try and fix things.”
23 | Ariel Posen | Heart By Heart
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Acclaimed songwriter and guitarist Ariel Posen is sharing another new track from his upcoming LP Headway, out next week. Heart By Heart is written “from the perspective of yourself but talking to someone special to you, who may be having a hard time with their life,” says Posen. “Whether just a friend or a partner, the idea of the song is just constantly reminding the person that they can trust you, and I’ll be here when you’re ready, but there is no rush. The idea of knowing somebody’s heart, by heart is to say that you completely and utterly understand them.”
24 | Brigitte DeMeyer | Louisiana
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “East Nashville/San Francisco dual citizen Brigitte DeMeyer will release her album Seeker on March 26. Louisiana is the first single. She says: “New Orleans, Louisiana. A mystic of cities. Every time I’m there a vibe follows me around like a ghost. Food tastes better. Music sounds better. I think I even sing better when I play there, or, am so lit up by the energy there I don’t care, so I actually do. The air is heavy, and there’s a flavor to everything. The streets are spooky, romantic, chipped and patina-ed. Little boys in derby hats with bottle caps attached to their shoes, tap dancing for tips, look at you like they are 100 years wiser than you’ll ever be. Second line parades waft in the mix, beignets that make you moan, street art, Cajun spices and accents, fortune tellers, and a belief in mojo, good and bad so strong it’s a religion. All that spells New Orleans, Louisiana, to me. The song Louisiana is about a state of mind I get in, just thinking about the place. It is loaded.”
25 | California Music | Add Some Music To Your Day
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “California Music are a musical summit of original Beach Boys (Al Jardine, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and David Marks) plus offspring (Carnie Wilson, Wendy Wilson, and the next generation of Jardines and Loves) and longtime associate Jeffrey Foskett. Their album California Music Presents Add Some Music comes out on April 23, but naturally, the first single is their version of The Beath Boys’ Add Some Music to Your Day.”
26 | Ontarians | No Regrets
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Canada’s new alt-country heroes Ontarians release No Regrets, the second single from their debut album The Greatest Short Story Never Told, due out March 12. No Regrets evokes the spirit of the alt-country insurgency’s heyday of the 1990s, with its simple video offering a glimpse of the freedom we’ve all been missing over the past year and hope to get back to soon. Singer/guitarist Frank Deresti describes the band’s approach: “Between glasses of Pernod, car troubles and lots of laughter we wrote songs about various stages of life we found ourselves in — past, present, and a hypothetical future. Once we had a clear goal in mind, it was like a reservoir of creativity was released that had been building up for a long time.”
27 | Queeva | Show Off
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Rising country artist Queeva has released her single Show Off, along with a video. The country-pop track, written by Queeva, Trent Tomlinson and Brandon Darcy, is an important reminder that you don’t have to be someone you aren’t just to impress someone else. “Show Off is definitely one of my favorite songs I have written so far and I’m so excited for everyone to finally hear it,” shares Queeva. “It means a lot to me because I want people to remember that they don’t have to change for anyone else.”
28 | An Early Bird | Fishes In The Ocean
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Self-taught multi-instrumentalist An Early Bird releases his indie-folk single Fishes In The Ocean, a song of crystal-clear acoustic crispness, with expressive lyrics and a falsetto voice gliding effortlessly over cinematic and gentle anthems. Says An Early Bird (aka Stefano De Stefano): “With my song Fishes In The Ocean I wanted to picture that feeling of being tired and trapped in the net of everyday life, with rules and roles that we all know. I think that out there we feel like we’re alone in a sea of opportunities. I think we just have one choice: catch them or being captured.”
29 | Mimi Bay | No Doubt
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Multi-instrumentalist Mimi Bergman – aka Mimi Bay – is crafting a delicate Gen Z spin on age-old quandaries in her small Gothenburg apartment. Jazzy chords, playful lo-fi drums and cartoon synths populate the disarming sonic world of her latest single No Doubt. Mimi says: ’I wrote no doubt fall of 2020 a few months after graduation. Fresh out of school spending my days making music in my studio apartment made me feel a little disconnected from the outside world. My friends starting university and new jobs and this pandemic on top of that made me doubt where I was going and wondering how I was going to get there and if I was doing enough now that I finally could focus on creating.”
30 | Hands Down | Too Late
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “An elegant, dreamy pop song, Too Late is the debut single of Swedish artist Hands Down (aka Filip Sjörgren). A producer and engineer by day, Sjogren’s subtle touches throughout the track mean that the song blooms over several listens, from the strings, to the shivering bass line to the light and airy melodies that suck you in. Sjögren says: “Too Late is about seeing relationships fade away, not specifically romantic relationships, but with friends too. The song started back in high school. I had a melody that I couldn’t play myself, so I got my friend Hannes to play it, and recorded it on my phone. Five years later, I used that sample to write this song, though it’s not on the final version. I love the dancy, jazz-y vibe of it. The acoustic piano flows so well, and the drums have that beat. It’s not disco, but it’s slow disco.”
31 | Tilian | Anthem
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “L.A. singer, songwriter, and producer Tilian shares his latest single and video Anthem. It’s an electro-pop sizzler that hints at spiritual awakening. Tilian wrote the song after a creative breakthrough, finding inspiration during a difficult time. The accompanying video, directed by Dillon Novak, plays off of that energy with surreal yet stunning visuals. “Anthem is the release of energy that follows a sacred epiphany,” Tilian says. “In that moment you are so mentally and physically in tune it becomes effortless to discern truth from vanity, substance from pretense, value from worthlessness. It’s the perfect alignment of perception and anatomy where imaginative ammunition flows through you in a waterfall of clarity. Precious, blissful and untouchable, it’s that rarest hour of passion every writer dreams about.”
32 | Tika | Walking Disaster (ft. Desiire)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Tika’s debut album Anywhere But Here came out today. It features the new single Walking Disaster, a duet with Desiire, the talented Toronto vocalist. Says Tika: “Walking Disaster is a song that I wrote about a really abusive relationship I was in when I was 19. This person just didn’t like me very much and he also didn’t like himself, so we were in this really toxic exchange. I had really poor self-esteem and no clear guidance or direction in terms of how to actually be in a relationship. He only liked my music and he liked when I would be praised by other people but he didn’t actually like me. It took me a while to detach myself because there would be times when he would love-bomb me and it would confuse me.”
33 | Fifi Rong | Another Me
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “London’s Fifi Rong, a multi-talented avant-pop songstress, has shared the video for her stunning single Another Me. Rong tells us: “In any doomed romance, timing is always mysteriously wrong. This is my first full CGI music video and it visually portrays the elusive nature of the character surrounding the key message: ‘You won’t find another me’. The undertone of the song displays a sense of pride and confidence in the character’s melancholy. Dressed in nothing but petals, I wanted my character to symbolise purity, nature, truthfulness, vulnerability and the divine feminine form. Acting as a rotating statue, I wanted to mark the passing of time and seasons as if a unique and lonely piece of art on display.”
34 | Blutengel | Forever Young
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Blutengel dedicate themselves again to the ’80s and present 10 iconic songs from this musically formative decade in their very own style on the forthcoming album Fountain of Destiny. Chris Pohl discusses the new video and single Forever Young: “Even though 1,000 other bands have already covered the song, I deliberately did it anyway! Forever Young was already the anthem of my youth! I heard the song in hard times when I had great concern for my parents … Until today, the song accompanies me, because even today, when I live almost half a century on this earth, I don’t want to grow older and I’m even afraid of it.”
35 | Ant Saunders | Spoiled
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Rising R&B/pop artist, songwriter and musician Ant Saunders releases the single and video Spoiled. Saunderssays: “When thinking of what to write about, I thought about my relationship and how I think my girlfriend deserves so much, so we were pretty much like ‘Let’s make a song about spoiling your girl.’ I show a lot of my work-in-progress to my friends and family, and Spoiled was always a favourite.”
36 | Enda Gallery | Guess We Got A Problem
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Enda Gallery unveils the video for the song Guess We Got A Problem. Focusing on the contemporary talents of New York dancer Taylor Graham, the eerie and ethereal nature of the song is further complemented and given additional meaning, resulting in an artistic collaboration of performance and vocal artistry. With an aim to continue on his mission in creating innovative, meaningful art, Enda Gallery (formerly Delush) is at a pivotal moment in his career.”
37 | Molina | Cold (ft. Jonas Bjerre)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Danish-Chilean composer and artist Molina is following up her 2020 EP Vanilla Shell with the intimate, synthetic soundscape of her single Cold. It features a blend of sparse and lush instrumentation. The beat is elusive, and the instrumentation is otherworldly. Cold MIDI guitar and simple percussion give way to acoustic cello and intuitive vocal melodies. Molina’s airy vocals create a symbiosis with Jonas Bjerre’s sensitive voice, inviting the listener to explore the transforming bodily yet synthetic musical landscape.”
38 | Marcus Sayzer | Are We Not Supposed To Talk Again?
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Marcus Sayzer is a singer, songwriter, producer and mental health advocate who went solo in 2019. Before this he shared the stage as a frontman with bands like Our Last Night & The Story So Far. Are We Not Supposed To Talk Again? Is a song about the ending of a long-distance relationship. When you’re in a relationship a new entity forms. This song captures the unknown and uncomfortable space we plummet into at the end of a loving connection. Being open about depression, with an emotional and sonic twist on pop music, rap verses coupled with a sing along chorus, smooth bassline and relaxed house tempo deliver a must listen for both mainstream and underground listeners.”
https://youtu.be/KvQHLrvGU3E
39 | Stunna Bam x Erica Banks | Rock Out
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Houston rapper Stunna Bam releases his new single Rock Out with Erica Banks, from his forthcoming mixtape Baptized in Loyalty, due out later this year. Produced by Sgt. J, Stunna, who also produced Banks’ breakout viral hit Buss It, the track has the Texas-raised artists seamlessly fusing the North Texas drip with the Southern finesse.”
40 | Vvs1 | El Fuego (ft. Marno Soprano)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Vvs1 releases El Fuego (ft. Marno Soprano) and is ready to impress with the multicultural track. Blending genres as well as languages (English, Greek and Spanish) with the help of up-and-coming London artist Soprano, Vvs1 brings two generations together creating something fresh and unique. The track is backed by an infectious Reggaeton beat with an Arabian flute taking on the lead line; this interesting mix of elements is added to Vvs1’s flowing vocals.”
