Whispering Sons dance with the devil, Spirit Of The Beehive do something far more disgusting, Noahfinnce gets stupid, Paris Pick delivers, Hunny will not be at your party — but your Midweek Roundup bash is just getting started. To be clear, it’s not a St. Patrick’s Day party. There will be no Celtc punk. And no green beer. Though I will happily accept some Guinness.
1 | Whispering Sons | Satantango / Surgery
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Belgian five-piece Whispering Sons follow the recent announcement of their second album Several Others with a live video of the tracks Satantango and Surgery. They see the band distill the ferocious post-punk aesthetics from which their sound first emerged and pushes them to the absolute limit. The tracks toy with the delicate balance between moments of fragility and their capability for relentless and driving intensity, experimenting at the point in which no wave, industrial and avant-punk converge. The anxious and propulsive instrumentation is eerily abstracted, while Fenne Kuppens’ words, sung in a dramatic and distinctive low register, inject that extra central tension and darkness.”
2 | Spirit Of The Beehive | I Suck The Devil’s Cock
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Spirit Of The Beehive have released an epic four-part video that features the work of three different directors for their newest single I Suck The Devil’s Cock, off their forthcoming LP Entertainment, Death, out April 9. The six-minute-plus song is a labyrinth of different sounds and influence through the incredible lens of the Philadelphia shape-shifters where everything is upside-down and inside out taking the listener through different planes of reality. Budding from the concept of creating a workout video in hell the band enlisted directors Ada Babar, Documavision and Powered By Wind to do just that. The band note: “It’s our take on a day in the life. A man, overworked and undervalued, discovers a portal to another time and place where he hears a familiar song on the radio. In the context of the record, this track specifically encapsulates the dread of required performance, ultimately leading to a freeing death.”
3 | Noahfinnce | Stupid
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Punk artist Noahfinnce has just released a new single anD video for Stupid. The driving guitar and raw vocals make the new single, produced by Thomas Mitchener (Frank Carter, Futureheads), reminiscent of early pop-punk bands like Green Day and Blink-182, but Noahfinnce puts his own flair on it to carve his own path. Noahfinnce is the alias of Noah Adams, a voice for a generation who are fed up of being told how to be. A virtuoso performer (he plays drums, guitar, bass, ukulele, and sings as LOUD as possible), Noahfinnce is ready to flip off tradition and any roles that society expects him to fulfil and instead champions authenticity and self-expression.”
4 | Paris Pick | Hope For The Best
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Canadian soul-pop artist Paris Pick’s sophomore album Hope For The Best will be available on June 4. This album sees Paris build on her talents showcased on her 2018 debut Feeling Love, and features eight original tracks by Paris. The title track is out today, giving fans a taste of what’s to come. Accompanying the single is the official video shot in Whitehorse. “Hope For The Best is my new baby. As it comes out this summer, I’m going to nurture it as much as possible,” says Paris. “I want the word to get out there, I want people to hear my new songs and be singing along blasting them in their cars as they do so. I really think the overall production is quite wonderful and the songs carry themselves. I hired some pretty incredible musicians to be part of this project and I get pretty excited when I hear them play.”
5 | Hunny | Sports With Strangers
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Southern California indie-pop band Hunny have returned with the single Sports with Strangers. “We were inspired by the isolation of the last year but rather than cement it in time by literally writing of the current situation, we transposed the feeling to past real situations in which we felt the same way,” says the band. “Rather than write about the loneliness that comes from being physically separated, we were reminded of the distance that comes from spending time in a crowd that couldn’t be further intellectually and emotionally from your perspective.”
6 | .wavrunner | Joyride
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “U.S. pop act .wavrunner have released their second single Joyride. The track has been produced by Manny Park (Post Malone, Ariana Grande, Travis Scott) and mixed by Grammy winner Joe Grasso. .wavrunner are Jack Wesley, younger brother JJ and Griff. The boys age from 18 to 20 years old, and are chaotic, fun, and unapologetically ambitious. “We wrote Joyride as our ode to road head, getting high, and having fun! Snow sniffing and snow drifting, it’s Cleveland baby!”
7 | Quivers | Gutters Of Love
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Australian band Quivers return with their sophomore album Golden Doubt on May 28. Lead single Gutters Of Love is carried by shimmering guitars and the harmonizing vocals of members Holly Thomas and Bella Quinlan. Elevated by the production of Matthew Redlich, the record explores what happens after grief, and how we throw ourselves back into love. Singer Sam Nicholson says: “Gutters Of Love is a song about serotonin levels but mostly about love. We wanted a guitar song that was in love with love but also knows a comedown is coming and you might need your friends to help you get through it. That’s why the song is all Holly and Bella harmonies, big guitars, broken Farfisa organ, piano, and a shouty choir. It will be OK.”
8 | Arionce | Binocular
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Berlin comes up with the next insider tip: Arionce dare to experiment with instruments, tell exciting stories with a depth and lyrical skill and take in unusual and challenging narrative perspectives. Basically, they break every rule that makes young newcomers successful and that’s what makes them so exciting. The second single Binocular tells of dreams that were believed to be true, of idealism that outshines everything. The taming of fire. The indispensable will to reach a goal. The bitter taste of hunger. Of when life’s task becomes life’s mission. With this unusual, poisoned love song Arionce once again prove their unique & metaphorical storytelling and take new paths as newcomers.”
9 | Hot Sunday Blood | No Way Out
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Hot Sunday Blood are an Italian band, formed in Turin in 2013. Their sound is inspired by alternative rock music, with heavy rock influences. Each band member affects the sound in a unique way, coming from different backgrounds, such as metal, stoner, grunge, black metal, prog and new wave. Their third LP Kein Licht came out in December 2019. The album is a sort of concept about losing hope. A journey about psychological human condition seen through a young woman’s eyes. It’s a six-track album, the first of a two-part concept.”
10 | Ormiston | Rebel
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Multifaceted Montréal artist and producer Ormiston delivers a nostalgic, TV-lit video for his new single Rebel. The song will be featured on his upcoming debut project Hammer Down, out June 4. The video was directed by Montreal filmmaker Ariel Poupart, and sees Ormiston and a band performing Rebel in a cinematic landscape, evoking a retro mood, as if viewing through your TV at home. “We decided to go with a Top of the Pops setting for his musical performance. I loved the texture of the song Rebel that felt very analogic to me,” Poupart says. “I wanted to recreate that same texture though the images and got very inspired by everything that could alter the image. When we settled on using old cathodic televisions as a means to distort and modify the visuals, I got very enthusiastic and so we got 13 of them!”
11 | Middle Kids | Today We’re The Greatest
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Middle Kids have released the video and title track for their sophomore album Today We’re The Greatest, the Sydney pop-rock trio’s most personal and courageous effort to date. Lead singer and songwriter Hannah Joy’s performance on the song is heartachingly beautiful as she showcases the juxtaposition that makes her writing so compelling. The grandiose and romantic notion of the song’s title are offset by the repeated refrain “life is gory and boring sometimes” which closes the song. As Hannah explains: “This is a simple song about people being tiny and our lives being fleeting but also that we are epic and great. It’s finding the beauty and majesty of the everyday. LIFE IS GORY AND BORING SOMETIMES: it’s both hectic and mundane and we have to accept both.”
12 | Laila Biali | Satellite
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Juno-nominated artist Laila Biali shares a special “quarantine” video for award-wining single Satellite. The video is meant to serve as a reminder of all we’ve been through “together at home” for a year now as we simultaneously look forward to a brighter future and the time when we’ll all be together again. “When I first wrote Satellite, I was a relatively new mom, still touring and often away from my immediate family,” says Laila. “The lyrics came to mind after a summer show I’d played in Niagara on the Lake. I was aching to be back home in Brooklyn with my husband and son, and as I drove my rental car back to where I was staying for the night, I tried to imagine my boys in the car with me, singing along to the radio together. Just the act of imagining them did bring them closer somehow.”
13 | La Chica | Agua
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “French/Venezuelan composer, singer and pianist La Chica shares the video for Agua, from her album La Loba. The video was shot in Mexico while La Chica was on a trip to visit the place of her brother’s passing in order to “retrieve his energies.” Directed by Pablo Cobo Ruiz, La Chica describes the video in more detail below. “It is a homemade music video shot with the iPhone, retracing moments of reconnection to the elements and cleansing rituals by water that I’ve lived there, and which allowed me to regenerate after those last months of struggle.”
14 | Beth Whitney | Into the Ground
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Washington native Beth Whitney dwells in her songs, exploring every note and phrase, turning them inside out, and pulling the listener into her own journey as an intimate partner; sharing in her joys, her grief, her wonder, her gratitude. On May 28, Whitney will share her album Into the Ground with the world. Today she premiered Two Sons, the third single. “Somehow over my lifetime, this idea of home has become more familiar, and more foreign, all in the same cosmic breath,” says Whitney.” “I suppose many of my songs thread-in an underlying search for someone or somewhere that would take me in. This desire to be fully known and embraced is so strong in us and yet so difficult to realize. Two Sons is a parable Jesus told and one I’ve never forgotten.”
15 | Bell Orchestre | VII: Colour Fields
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ahead of the release of their new album, Montreal’s Bell Orchestre share the video for album climax VII: Colour Fields. House Music is their first full-length record in over 10 years and arrives this Friday. Set amongst the pristine Canadian woodlands, the video features the full band — Sarah Neufeld (violin, vocals), Richard Reed Parry (bass, vocals), Pietro Amato (French horn, keyboards, electronics), Michael Feuerstack (pedal steel guitar, keyboards, vocals) Kaveh Nabatian (trumpet, gongoma, keyboards, vocals) and Stefan Schneider (drums) — with both the colours of the autumnal landscape and their sonic odyssey heightened by blurry, warped lenses and pulsating flickers.”
16 | Judith Haustein | Freeze (ft. MC BNZ)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In her early 20s, her ever-growing interest in Jazz harmony and improvisation lead Judith Haustein to study music in England. As part of her studies in London, she started to engage intensively with modal harmony and Brazilian music. Since 2010 she is based in Stuttgart free-lancing as a composer for film and media, but is also working as an arranger, choir conductor and singing teacher. Judith’s influences range from Björk, Feist, Massive Attack and James Blake to PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan — along with jazz giants like Billie Holiday, Chet Baker and Antonio Carlos Jobim.”
17 | Far Lands | It’s Time
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Portland band Far Lands is Andy McFarlane, producer Matt Drenik and Ivan Howard of The Rosebuds and Gayngs. Today the band present It’s Time, the latest single from their sophomore album There Be Monsters out April 30. McFarlane says: “It’s Time is a good example of something we’re trying to explore throughout the entire album — shying away from the typical verse/chorus/bridge song structure in favor of building sound around the themes and feelings of different verses within a poem. It starts out slow and hypnotic and builds to a sharp shift on the back end with pulsing horns and the haunting sweetness of Alexandra Savior‘s vocal accompaniment.”
18 | Karmacoda | Make Me The One
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Award-winning pop trio Karmacoda have shared the video for their single Make Me The One, from their upcoming album Slow Down, Melt and Catch Fire, to be released May 28. Director Gianfranco Bichine says: “The look and feel of the video for Make Me the One was inspired by the legendary film 8½ by Frederico Fellini. We thought the use of black and white cinematography and strong lighting which created dynamic shadows was a perfect complement to the song’s lyrics and Jessica’s emotional vocals.”
19 | Enda Gallery & Tolü Makay | Greatest Gift
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Emerging artist Enda Gallery’s album The Journey To Zero came out today alongside a live video for Greatest Gift, featuring Tolü Makay. Simultaneously haunting and experimental, The Journey To Zero embarks on a journey into the confines of Enda’s artistry, with contrasting stylistic flares and free flowing narratives. Enda Gallery (formerly delush) is at a pivotal moment of transition in his career, aiming to continue on his mission in creating innovative, meaningful art.”
