Eggvn know the devil is in the details, Dead Quiet raise a helluva racket, Illumination Road are living in the moment, Nuela Charles needs some space — and no wonder: Your Midweek Roundup is stuffed to the gills with musical goodness. Hear for yourself:
18 | Eggvn | Lvcifer Ex Machina
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Eggvn from Mexico introduce La Era de la Bestia and proclaim a new dark age with their mesmerizing sound. La Era de la Bestia, out May 14, 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,” explain Eggvn. Lvcifer Ex Machina is a song inspired by what happens during an invocation ritual, the contact with the dark, the ritual, the elements, and the spiritual level necessary to make contact. Eggvn add: “It is a quite interesting song since it carries an amalgam. Very energetic musical that is completed with the style of voice that was used to give it more strength and aggressiveness, we reached a very distinctive sound and that has made us very satisfied.”
19 | Dead Quiet | Forever Unsung
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “From Vancouver, Dead Quiet’s blazing jams are marked by soaring vocals, burbling organ and crushing riffs. Forever Unsung comes off of the band’s album Truth and Ruin, released last fall. Dead Quiet’s frontman and vocalist Kevin Keegan comments: “One of the really great things about this video is that it gave us a chance to reconnect with a lot of friends and fellow musicians in the Vancouver area. Covid has been tough on everybody so it was really neat getting to shoot isolated little scenes with people we haven’t gotten to see for a while. It made it feel like a community again and that’s what this video represents for us.”
20 | Illumination Road | The Modern World
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “From the quiet mountains of the California high-desert, the four-piece assembly of artists known as Illumination Road are indeed a rock band but also a collective of successful, dynamic creatives with their very own production world on a 140-acre ranch in historic Pioneertown. Consisting of established songwriters, producers, multi-instrumentalists, filmmakers and engineers, the group is a new look at the modern way bands can create and exist. With their own production company, recording studio, record label, endless natural film sets on site and incredibly original talent they’re able to produce endless creative content from the comforts of The Ranch.”
21 | Nuela Charles | Space
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Alt-soul songstress Nuela Charles announces her latest EP Blissful Madness, which will be released on April 30. Her first single is Space. Accompanying it, Nuela releases a video which she directed, shot, edited and produced in her home. “Blissful Madness is a musical snapshot that was started before the pandemic, but was finished, thankfully, well into the lockdown,” shares Nuela. “I wanted to tell the story of all of the emotions one can feel in 24 hrs. Whether it be, sassy and strong, to loving and endearing, or don’t try me, testy vibes — it’s all the feels wrapped up in three songs. This EP is more soulful sonically and allowed me to experiment vocally as I discovered new textures and tones in my voice.”
22 | The Silk War | Barcelona
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “New York City female-fronted rock band The Silk War have released their single Barcelona, from their debut album Come Evening, out May 14. Barcelona is about dating someone who loves to relive their past, making it impossible to build a future with them. “Barcelona treads heavily down two different paths,” explain The Silk War. “The music reflects the longing and love for a city filled with cathedrals, starting the song off with a recording of kids laughing heard outside of a window in Barcelona. The lyrics, however, wax and wane over the longing of loving someone who lives without you by constantly living in their past, in their Barcelona. We see this as killing the present, ending your life to only end up as a dream to those around you.”
23 | With Confidence | Big Cat Judgement Day
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “With Confidence have released the new song and video Big Cat Judgement Day, the first new music from the band since 2018’s full length Love and Loathing. Fans may also notice a familiar face as the band has welcomed long-time touring guitarist Scott McLaughlin as an official member. “If you’ve seen us on tour in the last few years you might recognize this cheeky sausage,” say Jayden Seeley, Inigo Del Carmen and Joshua Brozzesi in a joint statement. “Since Warped Tour ’18, Scott’s always gone above and beyond his duties as a touring guitarist. He’s been a phenomenal friend and a driving source of enthusiasm and optimism on the road. Last year he joined us in the studio for the first time, writing and recording our third LP. At this point it’s clear we simply wouldn’t be where we are without Scott.”
24 | Dana Sipos | Light Around The Body
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Many albums offer a snapshot in time or a glimpse behind the curtain into a fleeting certain moment in the writer’s story. On her June 25 release The Astral Plane, Dana Sipos instead invites the listener beneath the surface, diving into complex personal histories and relationships and their ongoing reverberations, from the past and into the present and future. Light Around The Body, the first single from the album, is “a cacophony of reflections after a three-month solo tour to Australia and New Zealand in the winter of 2019,” says Sipos. “It’s infused with the vibrancy and sensory overload of being in such a far-out place where some things were literally upside down.”
25 | Ultra_eko | Phoenix Rising
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “London rapper Ultra_eko released the video for Phoenix Rising, the lead single off his upcoming record Revelation. Produced and engineered by Subsequel, the album took eight weeks to complete, with recording sessions at Pirate Studios in Earlsfield and his home during lockdown. Aiming to release his finest body of work yet, Ultra_eko delivers Phoenix Rising as the musical embodiment of his dominant dark themes and captivating narratives. The ambitious artist says the following about Phoenix Rising: “What I like about this track is that it is not defeatist; it is about fighting back against perceived injustices. It is about timing inward to find strength and a sense of worth. The idea of burning everything to the ground need not be taken literally, but as a metaphor for the transformation of the self, new beginnings.”
26 | Tyne-James Organ | Sunday Suit
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ahead of the release of his debut album Necessary Evil on May 21, Tyne-James Organ is sharing a video for his latest single Sunday Suit. Directed by Simon Morehead and filmed at a majestic theatre in Thirroul, it captures Organ in an exuberant dance spectacular. “This video was always going to feature a lot of dancing. The song itself is all about letting go and healing through dance, so when it came to deciding where to take things visually I knew there was only one option. On a fair Sydney morning, I joined choreographer Cassandra Merwood and Simon Morehead on his rooftop, blasted the track and we started dancing and the concept was born,” muses Organ. “Sunday Suit is all about dancing away your troubles.”
27 | Bess Atwell | Time Comes In Roses
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Following on from the success of her recent single Co-op, emerging singer and songwriter Bess Atwell is back to share her beautifully rich offering Time Comes in Roses. It sees her take the conventional acoustic singer-songwriter aesthetic and transform it into something far more enticing. She said: “I spent the first lockdown living back with my parents. I was privileged to be in the countryside with access to a garden, but it was also very challenging as someone who has a complicated relationship with their family. I kept to myself as much as possible, in the garden and out walking. As someone who has previously avoided self-sufficiency it was a time of personal growth and learning how to deal with my anxiety alone.”
28 | Louise Terra | Yuu
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Castlemaine-via-Melbourne musician Louise Terry has been traversing the vast electro and experimental art-pop expanse long before the inception of her near-namesake solo moniker Louise Terra began. Known for her involvement with such Melbourne indie outfits as Sugar Fed Leopards, Sawtooth, Brite Fight and Flying Scribble, Louise Terra has trickled out a string of singles and multimedia collaborations to her name since 2016. The ever-evolving songwriter and producer will deliver her debut EP Follow the Moon Into The Ocean on April 14. But first she reveals a third and final tease from the collection with her single and accompanying video Yuu.”
29 | Samantha Margret | Saucy (ft. Son Of Paper)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Samantha Margret just released her witty and amusing new single Saucy. The tongue-in-cheek song about emotions is expressed through endless sauce puns, featuring condiments like sriracha, wasabi, sweet & sour, and more. “I’m honestly amazed that when I told my co-writer Eva Snyder that I wanted to write a song called ‘Saucy’ where all the verses were sauce puns, she stayed in the room,” explains Margret. This sort of lively energy bled into the song and it makes for a very entertaining listen. Featured on the track is rapper and fellow San Francisco artist Son of Paper.”
https://youtu.be/AC05_S2ZQZg
30 | Losers | Lost In Translation
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “I had the idea to mirror the screen down the center to portray the polarization that the song talks about,” says multi-instrumentalist Tom Bellamy of genre-defying Berlin band Losers about their lyric video for Lost In Translation. “I wanted it to feel confusing and without belonging, but as the video progresses to bring a sense of hope and ultimately transformation.” The lyrics for Lost in Translation came pouring out from Bellamy a few years ago when he was feeling “really isolated, confused and disconnected.” The constant questioning of what’s “real” (when it comes to politics, for example), made him start to wonder about which narrative was true. “It seems that with the help of social media, people are now totally polarized and we fundamentally can’t have conversations anymore. I felt like I just wanted to escape all that.”
31 | Marney | Fireflies
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Los Angeles dark-pop duo Marney released their nostalgic and upbeat single Fireflies, the followup to their debut Conversations. “The lyric video is really meant to capture the vibe and the feeling that we are conveying in Fireflies,” vocalist Crystal Douesnard explained. “The song is really about simpler times and the nostalgia that we feel when looking back. We wanted to go with a hand-drawn type of lyric video to spark memories of the days that we would doodle in our notebooks in school. The video feels almost child-like, but also has drawings that can spark feelings during these current times. The lyric video should make people feel somewhat nostalgic, but also should feel relatable to the feelings that most of us are having now. We hope that the song and video fill people with nostalgia, but also fill them with hope that their inner child isn’t lost.”
32 | Nate Haller | Lightning In A Bottle
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Canadian country singer-songwriter Nate Haller is making his mark with the release of his first single Lightning In A Bottle, an upbeat, feel-good love song about the first sparks of a relationship. “I feel like this song is a culmination of the past 10 years of my life and represents the start of something new and exciting,” said Nate. Lightning In A Bottle marks his first radio single, but he’s no stranger to the industry or commanding a stage. Playing with some of the country’s biggest acts for the past decade, Nate never stopped honing his craft as a solo act, nailing his own sound and who he was as an artist.”
