Dobet Gnahoré looks to the future, Thadeus Gonzales does the hustle, Bones Shake keep it scuzzy, Future Prawn serves dessert — and even the Good Friday holiday can’t stop people from deluging me with new music, which I have dutifully compiled into another epic Weekend Roundup. But remember: All of today’s artists (and their publicists) hate Jesus and working people.
1 | Dobet Gnahoré | Yakané
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Grammy winner Dobet Gnahoré is one of Africa’s hottest and most beloved talents. With her amazing voice, incredible dance moves, powerful presence, and colorful style sense, Dobet Gnahoré appeals to fans of Angelique Kidjo, Yemi Alade, Fatoumata Diawara and other divas of African music. Dobet Gnahoré’s colorful new video for Yakané (Today) offers a powerful message that “The girls of today are the strong women of tomorrow.” It is the second single from her upcoming album Couleur, due on June 4.”
2 | Thadeus Gonzalez | The Death Of A Good Hustle
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Thadeus Gonzalez is a singer, songwriter, and musician from Oakland. While fronting local rock band Electric Sister nearly 10 years ago, he caught international critical attention and was called “a frontman to watch with an arena-looking and sounding attitude.” He now has two solo albums under his belt. His new single is The Death Of A Good Hustle. Gonzalez comments: “The Death Of A Good Hustle is about the end of behaviors that were causing way more pain to other people than the pleasure I gained, similar to pulling one over on someone. (It) is getting rid of the old ideas and thoughts that used to seem so natural. It’s also about what can be after all those habits are put to an end, how you don’t know what is on the other side.”
3 | Bones Shake | Hey Hey
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Bones Shake are a scuzzed-out, fuzz-enthused garage-rock trio formed in 2011 in Manchester’s underground. They play everything to the extreme; violent bottle-neck blues riffs, drums kicked, pounded and exploited and squeals of reverb drenched vocals which, when combined, will help save your soul. Hey Hey is the second single from their forthcoming second LP. The band explain: “The mantra lyrics and persistent pounding grooves provide a meditative soundtrack and distortive mental and aural stimulation during this period of inactivity.”
4 | Future Prawn | Marshmellow Pie
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “I try to keep the course, cause I wanna feel myself,” Martin Mann aka Future Prawn, musical jack-of-all-trades and creative workalcoholic, says in Marshmallow Pie. Energetic drums, bass and guitar push the intro and guitar push the intro forward, while the saxophone blows fresh wind into the sails. Ty Segall and King Tuff send their regards. Marshmallow Pie is the first single from Future Prawn’s upcoming debut A Day at Promenade, out June 25.”
5 | Talk Show Host | Blood In The Sand
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Toronto pop-punk trio Talk Show Host will release their debut album Mid-Century Modern on June 4. The lead single Blood In The Sand is now streaming everywhere, along with a video. Lead singer & guitar player Chris Veinot says: “The video has nothing to do with the song and everything to do with the fact that we are still under lockdown and all we have footage of is cats. Sincere apologies to all the dog persons. It started life as a surf-inspired track but we couldn’t resist the ever-present urge to turn it into a power-pop singalong. The lyrics recount the plot of a non-existent delinquent teen movie I dreamed about during a full moon, something from the mid-to-late 60s that could’ve been directed by Al Adamson or Ray Dennis Steckler. The title doesn’t sound like what the song sounds like, but it was the name of the picture in the dream. We might have destroyed the fabric of space & time if we’d changed it, y’know?”
6 | Klink | Curious
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dutch indie-rock formation Klink have released their video for the single Curious. The song is a top-notch indie hit, a cherry on top of the upcoming hot season. Curious about the topic? Cruious is about someone who makes himself believe that he’s just too curious to understand the consequences of his addiciton. In fact he can’t face his own problems and avoids them by drinking or escaping reality by not going home… All he finds himself in is a never-ending party.”
7 | Holy Hive | I Don’t Envy Yesterdays
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Holy Hive are back with a new set of songs while still enjoying the growing success of their 2020 debut album Float Back To You. Their signature folk-soul sound has earned them a diverse group of fans and set them apart from fellow indie/folk groups. I Don’t Envy Yesterdays is a tune that deals with the role time plays in the human experience. The falsetto vocals wax poetic about futility and acceptance while the drumming creates a subplot about the boundaries of time. In true Holy Hive fashion, they take on deep philosophical and abstract concepts yet come out sounding as light and easy as a summer day.”
8 | She’s Excited | Add Clarity
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Munich-born, Brooklyn-based dark electronic artist/producer She’s Excited! is the musical alias of Anne Wichmann. Her new single Add Clarity follows the footsteps of her visionary influences; namely Nine Inch Nails, Aphex Twin, Björk and David Bowie, simultaneously treading bold new ground musically and thematically. Expect liberal swashes of trip hop, IDM, industrial and stoner rock/punk aesthetic. Beyond genre, of primary import to Wichmann’s art is it being a vehicle to communicate raw, at-times painful emotions. From the Artist: “Add Clarity is the single of the audio-visual release Shock Therapy. The song captures the raw emotions I went through during the apocalyptic NYC lockdown and the vision of healing and togetherness in times of confusion and despair.”
9 | Treasvre | Devils
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “San Francisco Bay area band Treasvre offer their video for their captivating song Devils. A perfect combination of heavy guitar riffs and ethereal shoegaze vocals by Samantha Peña and Sabrina Simonton, Devils is a hard-hitting anthem that highlights the emotional intensity of memories and how our past experiences can continue to haunt us in our present lives. Treasvre say: “We worked with San Francisco independent filmmaker Michael Beltrán, who came up with the concept and assembled an amazing team to make it all happen. We wanted to do something different to highlight the cinematic quality of our music, so Michael’s artsy and dramatic ideas were perfect for what we had in mind already. Every frame truly captures the raw emotion of the song, slowly building up to a cathartic climax in the last few seconds of the film.”
10 | Twin XL | Slow Heart
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Alt-pop trio Twin XL have released their new single and video Slow Heart. Says Twin XL frontman Cameron Walker-Wright: “The music video concept is a perfect visual representation of the song. John and I had this idea of me performing in a coffin, telling the story of where it all went wrong for me. As the story progresses, I come fully back to life and join the band for a high energy performance at my own funeral. To me this wasn’t the literal death of me but more so a metaphor for the death of the person I used to be and the celebration of starting over.”
11 | LearningToDive | I Stand On An Ice Floe
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “LearningToDive bring us a single and video for instrumental track I Stand on an Ice Floe. The anthemic single comes off of their debut album Norwegian Pop, due April 2. Taking its cue from the heady days of ’80s new wave and art-pop, the album takes the innovation of the past and injects elements of trip-hop and shoegaze to create a truly transcendental experience. The lead track I Stand On An Ice Floe is a suitably chilling monolith which sets the scene perfectly for an album packed with atmospherics and invention.”
12 | Mauri Dark | Love Will Prevail
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Singer-songwriter Mauri Dark is quickly becoming known for his stark, cinematic, and striking videos. He says, “The Love Will Prevail music video is a dreamy journey through an apocalyptic, burnt forest, together with my two-year-old daughter. There is no purer form of love than the love towards your own child. My daughter Hymni is the star and director of the show. I love her more than anyone else. Dressed in white and with a white balloon tied to her back, she guided us through each take with her innocent, playful, intuition. This video is a wonderful memory for both of us. Editing it was a heartfelt experience. Just watching her being her beautiful, pure, self, unable to fake or act. If we could only maintain a tiny part of the pure love and joy a child has simply being alive this world would be a wonderful place.”
13 | Bobby Páraknight | The Prelude
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Bobby Páraknight, 21, A multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter, actor and dancer from New York City, debuts with The Prelude. It’s an upbeat pop-rock song with a funky, bass-heavy dancing groove which progresses into a surprising ballad transition to end with. It was composed by Bobby in the spur of the moment on a piano during a private jam session. for the production, He took inspiration from the late ’70s Motown and disco sound, combining it with the modern pop beat.”
https://youtu.be/6K9fDBFISzs
14 | The Troops Of Doom | Whispering Dead Words
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Brazilian death metal unit The Troops Of Doom share their Whispering Dead Words video. The track comes off the band’s The Rise Of Heresy EP, released last fall. The Troops Of Doom features guitarist Jairo “Tormentor” Guedz, a former member of Sepultura. Comments Guedz: “We abused our poetic license and the conditions we had for the production of the video because, like all the processes we have carried out since the creation of the band, we do not escape the rule of exploring resources and internet tools so that everything could be done and completed at a distance.”
15 | Avaland | Holy Kingdom Of Fools
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “French symphonic and operatic metal band’s Avaland adventurous new album Theater of Sorcery features Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), Zak Stevens (Savatage/TSO), Zaher Zorgati (Myrath), Emmanuelson (Rising Steel), Stéphan Forté (Adagio), Madie (Nightmare) among others. In celebration, Avaland are sharing their video for Holy Kingdom Of Fools featuring Jeff Kanji. They say the song intends to “criticize the kind of people who follow the fashions just because it’s fashion — the sheep who make choices just because the others make those choices.”
