Boy Golden feeds your soul in more ways than one, Kaonashi take you to the movies, Lightman Jarvis Ecstatic Band stretch out, Death Valley Girls celebrate the small things — and there’s also plenty to celebrate in your Tuesday Roundup. Welcome to 4/20. Happy holidays and pass the Doritos.
1+2 | Boy Golden | Church Of Better Daze + Eggs Benediction
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Winnipeg’s Boy Golden introduces his Church of Better Daze — a song, an album and a frame of mind — with his first released music. Listen to the jangly, galloping title track to his debut album and the bonus post-Amen reprise Eggs Benediction, an irreverent nod to blessings long and less. Together, the double offering swings open the doors to Boy Golden’s budding congregation, and you’re welcome too. “The Church is both the place I go when I’m creating and the place I hope to offer to my community,” explains Boy Golden. “It’s an inclusive place that is about being present with what is, and making quality music.” Church of Better Daze offers a mini gonzo adventure-comedy (and accidental medical drama) that introduces the artist, his 1995 Toyota Previa, and his friends and fellow Better Daze-rs Brother Roman, Mama Tizzy and Ooly. Directed by Martin LaFrenière, who situates the vibe “between Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and a country-fried / laid-back version of Matt Foley, living in his van down by the western Canadian prairie,” the video is also a friendly homily on fellowship as a mobile concept. Where Boy Golden rolls, the Church rolls.”
3 | Kaonashi | An Evening of Moving Pictures with Scooter Corkle
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Philadelphia’s Kaonashi have announced their new full-length Dear Lemon House, You Ruined Me: Senior Year is due out on May 21. It’s a followup to Kaonashi’s 2018 concept EP Why Did You Do It?, continuing the story of the character Jamie and the people they interact with through Lemon House High. The first glimpse of the album comes with the chaotically impassioned single An Evening of Moving Pictures With Scooter Corkle. The video, directed by Jesse Korman, introduces Jamie, alongside the characters Morgan and Casey, and how their personalities intertwine. Vocalist Peter Rono commented: “When it came time to pick a single, I wanted to choose something that fully explained us as a band. It’s a song about love and the doubt that comes with it. We wrote this song together and I think it really shows, it’s also my first time really singing outside of a chorus.”
4 | Lightman Jarvis Ecstatic Band | Elastic Band
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Lightman Jarvis Ecstatic Band — Yves Jarvis and Romy Lightman — are idiosyncratic and restlessly creative artists. In the past decade, Jarvis’s ever-expanding discography has earned international acclaim, while Lightman’s twin-sister-led band Tasseomancy has transfixed listeners since the late 2000s. Their debut album Banned — out on June 25 — marks the duo’s first collaboration, slingshotting both musicians out of their comfort zones into spellbinding territories of lysergic folk and impressionistic rock. On the quasi-title-track Elastic Band, Jarvis and Lightman sound completely at ease as their voices harmonize in a rustling thicket of instrumentation. “There are archetypes associated with love and togetherness,” says Lightman. “Then there’s a deeper way of being that sometimes isn’t documented. Our Ecstatic Band genuinely expresses that. It’s not only about a genre resonating and what came about musically — it’s about our love in collaboration with wind, trillium, plague days, moss and Precambrian rock.”
5 | Death Valley Girls | Little Things
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “L.A. rockers Death Valley Girls share a video for their track Little Things, directed by Kelsey Hart/The Little Ghost. singer-guitarist Bonnie Bloomgarden says: “We wrote Little Things for a friend of ours who has been fighting for his life in physical pain for years. While we talked about how stinky his health and living situation was, he realized how much he still loved dreaming. We both realized if he shifted his focus to the part of his life he loved — even if it was just when he was dreaming/daydreaming — that was perfectly OK! Focus on the little things!”
6 | High Wasted | Germ Free High Fives
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Paul Shepherd and Owen Marchildon have spent the last 20 years in the Toronto music scene, playing in various different projects together and separately. While thinking on a new project, Val Calam was invited to join and collaborate with the pair. Calam was just the lift Shepherd and Marchildon needed. Together, they blend simple punk tones and exploratory lyrics that push towards a velvet induced frame of mind, approaching the recording process with an energetic, transcending mentality. High Wasted’s debut single Germ Free High Fives showcases the band’s sonic capabilities and musical lyricism. Its energy is peddled by a tattered charm, a feeling of pleasant dizziness, that may leave the listener to encompass decades of past classics.”
7 | Tombstones In Their Eyes | Quarantine Blues
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “SoCal rockers Tombstones In Their Eyes are proud to release their new album Looking For A Light, along with the eye-popping stop-motion video for lead single Quarantine Blues. Attracting fans of desert rock, shoegaze, goth, and neo-garage without aligning themselves directly with any these camps, TITE have been creating a fuzzed-out, psychedelic swirl for the past few years. With Looking For A Light, TITE shift their sound ever-so-slightly while elevating it a few notches. It is an album swathed in thick fuzz that allows its melodies to shine bright.
8 | Gruff Rhys | Can’t Carry On
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Gruff Rhys has released Can’t Carry On, a track from his forthcoming album Seeking New Gods, out May 21. His seventh solo release, Seeking New Gods was recorded in the Mojave Desert and mixed in L.A. with producer Mario C (Beastie Boys). Long-time Gruff collaborator Mark James produced the inimitably Gruff-styled video for Can’t Carry On. The video, which features Gruff climbing both the literal and metaphorical mountain, is a direct segue from the prior video for first single Loan Your Loneliness. According to Gruff, “Can’t Carry On is about “when reality catches up with delusion and the search for a guiding hand out of a heavy situation.”
9 | The Goa Express | Second Time
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Teenagehood, brotherhood and a love for alternative music have united The Goa Express from the off. Hailing from the Northern industrial towns of Todmorden and Burnley before being adopted more recently by the Manchester culture carriers, their teenage years can be viewed as something of a hedonistic pilgrimage into the underbelly of suburban rock ’n’ roll — their first gig having been three songs blasted out in their mate’s garage, the next on top of a local vintage shop where the floor nearly caved in. Today they share the video for their single Second Time. The song unpacks the imperfections of youth, not dwelling on mistakes, letting them run their course. No matter how foolish the deed, with allies by your side, all is well. The band comment: “Second Time is a song about young people making the same mistakes over and over and over again; a warming ballad which breaks aside from our live performances, foolishly thinking, that it’s able to mend itself.”
10 | Lucinda Chua | Until I Fall
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Lucinda Chua is a singer, songwriter, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist in South London. Primarily using her voice, a cello, and an array of effects units, Chua writes ambient pop songs that are intimate, atmospheric, and totally enchanting. She will release a second EP of solo work, Antidotes 2, on May 7. Today, she launches the EP’s opening track Until I Fall with an accompanying video directed by William Kennedy. She says, “for me, this song is about rebirth and finding the inner strength to rise.”
11 | Nick Ferrio | Every Time
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Nick Ferrio shares another new track from his upcoming LP Television Of Roses. Lyrically, Every Time is “really about my own mental health,” says Ferrio. “The lyrics act as a reminder for me to ‘live more in the moment.’ Like a lot of people, I tend to get stuck in cycles of critical thinking and self-doubt. I often question myself and wonder, am I making the right decision? Am I on the ‘right path’ or did I wander off somewhere along the way? I get stuck on these BIG QUESTIONS like what is my purpose in life — when in reality I’m missing the important things as they happen because I’m too busy worrying! I eventually had this realization that this is it. This is my life, and I’ve got to embrace it — the highs, the lows and whatever happens in between. It’s about enjoying the moments because they’re precious. And, in a sense the song sort of celebrates that discovery.”
12 | Villagers | The First Day
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Conor O’Brien announced that Villagers’ fifth studio album Fever Dreams will be released on Aug. 20. Escapism is a very necessary pursuit right now and Fever Dreams follows it to mesmerising effect. It works like all the best records — it becomes a mode of transport; it picks you up from where you are and sets you down elsewhere. O’Brien also shared the aptly titled first song The First Day. It was inspired by a trip to the fabled Another Love Story festival in County Meath — beginning as a snatched electronic doodle, it morphed into a widescreen, lushly cinematic evocation of the joy in human connection. O’Brien says: “I had an urge to write something that was as generous to the listener as it was to myself. Sometimes the most delirious states can produce the most ecstatic, euphoric and escapist dreams.”
13 | Oracle Sisters | I Don’t Wanna Move
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Paris trio Oracle Sisters share the video for I Don’t Wanna Move, from their EP Paris II released earlier this month. Oracle Sisters’ members hail from across Europe and the U.K.. The band are uninhibited in their influences, finding inspiration within the art, cinema, philosophy, and music of the world over, resulting in a sound that is both sonically sophisticated and warmly familiar. Lyrically, they explore timeless narratives of love, mysticism and spirituality, scattered with intriguing insights into their own personal lives and experiences resulting in songs that are cryptic yet inviting.”
14 | Azariah | Aight
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Azahriah, a young Hungarian singer who took the local music scene by storm in 2019, has released a new upbeat song. Aight is one of the forerunner of Azahriah’s upcoming album Camouflage. “I was inspired by the spring, that’s what got me into this happier, lighter mood,” said Azahriah about. “I liked the contrast between the joyful, positive sound and the more melancholic topic. I’m still young, there’s no need to get too serious over things and overcomplicate stuff.”
15 | Savage Gary | Nothing To Say (ft. Georgia)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “ With Nothing To Say, Savage Gary (aka Dan Carey) pairs his own arrangement to a vocal contribution from Georgia. Mercury nominated for last year’s Seeking Thrills, Georgia is a long-term friend of Dan’s, the two of them having played together as bandmates in an early incarnation of Kae Tempest’s live set-up. An undeniable banger, Nothing To Say features skewed, fidgety electro and carnival pop from Carey, propelled by an immediate and surefire vocal hook from Georgia. She says: “I love Savage Gary. I love Dan. When he sent me the initial beat it was so different and beautiful in its simplicity that the melody just came to me instantaneously. I put down the vocals in a couple hours and sent them to Dan … next thing you know it sounds like this! FIRE.”
