Denm went to Jared, Charles Spearin gives you a robotic pep talk, The Rubinoos return with a blast from the past, Jamie Clark’s Perfect speak their piece — just like the rest of today’s eager participants in your Monday Roundup. Thanks for turning up. Don’t forget to turn it up.
1 | Denm | Califas (ft. Jared Watson)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Singer, songwriter, and producer Denm has released the video for Califas off his debut studio album Slum Beach Denny, out May 14. The visual for the reggae/rock hybrid — which features Jared Watson of Dirty Heads — was shot around Huntington Beach and San Diego, paying homage to those who have also grown up around Southern California. “We shot the video in two days all over SoCal,” shares Denm. “Jared Watson is just a legend for being down to go on six-hour road trips just to get the shot. We got to make some art that we love.”
2 | Charles Spearin | Unsolicited Advice
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “As a contribution to a song-a-day writing club of friends and peers, just around the time the pandemic hit, Charles Spearin (Broken Social Scene, Do Make Say Think) wrote the words and music to Unsolicited Advice as a raw, spontaneous, heartfelt letter to his two teenage kids. After recording it, and listening back, he felt it was something larger — a letter to friends and family, a letter to his younger self, a love letter from Generation X to Generation Z; basically a letter to everyone who needs it. A year later, Charles shared a handful of songs with video animator Jared Sales who, when he heard it, immediately had a vision. Sales saw it as something even more universal — a kind of algorithm of kindness — and transformed it into an allegorical story of a robot that consumes and feels the overwhelming sadness in the world and then transforms it into messages of encouragement and love.”
3 | The Rubinoos | I Want Her So Bad
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “On Nov. 2, 1976, Jimmy Carter was elected President of the United States. The events of Nov. 3 were less earth-shaking, although it was the day the power pop pioneers The Rubinoos recorded The CBS Tapes. The group walked into CBS Studios on Folsom Street in San Francisco to, as band co-founder and singer Jon Rubin recollects, “have a ‘set up and get comfortable in the studio’ kind of affair.” Guitarist Tommy Dunbar, who started the group more than 50 years ago with his childhood pal Rubin, recalls they were told “something like, ‘OK, the tape is going to run, just go ahead and play anything you want’.” The CBS Tapes (due on June 25) chronicles that occasion, and its previously unreleased 11 tracks certainly reveal a wildly diverse set list that includes, yet reaches beyond, the power pop that the band is well known for. Says Dunbar: “Light the candles, pour the wine … and then slip on I Want Her So Bad … If she or he runs screaming from the room, then you’ll know it wasn’t meant to be — Dating advice from Ask The Rubinoos, America’s #1 advice to the lovelorn column.”
4 | Jamie Clark’s Perfect | Raise Your Voice
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Stand together. Fall together. And rise up again. This is your song. Sing it loud. Sing it proud. Sing it together. Raise Your Voice is the second single from Jamie Clarke’s Perfect’s upcoming album Monkey See, Monkey Do (out in October).”
5 | Star Collector | Rip It Off
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Star Collector are a mod-influenced rock & roll band from Vancouver. To date, they have recorded five albums with producers GGGarth Richardson (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Kevin Kane (Grapes of Wrath), and Evan Foster (The Sonics). Star Collector’s new album Game Day was produced by singer/songwriter/guitarist Vic Wayne, engineered by drummer/vocalist Adrian Buckley and features Kane and Foster. Rip It Off is their latest single and video.”
6 | Darkroom Data | Groovatta (ft. The System)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Darkroom Data share their new electro-pop odyssey Groovatta. The single is a playful collage of sound and features a distinctive sample from ’80s U.K. band The System. “Groovatta is an invitation to step inside the curious smoke, like an anxious bird, flying to nowhere. Equally absent, equally present. Free-falling in a deep ocean of reverb and climbing on the spine of an arpeggiator, to rediscover all the things you will never live again and embrace the blank spaces of life, that can become anything.” Visuals for the track were created by experimental filmmaker Moema Pascolini, using a combination of found footage and film painting technique.”
https://youtu.be/4BT_1sMQGuE
7 | Ana Moura | Andorinhas
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ana Moura’s single Andorinhas (Swallows) is now available. “Swallows are queens / flying the lines of freedom”, she sings or someone who wants to go away and come back one day. In the video, shot on the rooftops of a popular neighborhood in Olhão, Ana shares space with those who dance and feel, showing herself with a new image and posture, with a visual language that is both authentic and universal, both modern and timeless.”
8 | Jenny Palacios | Convenient
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Jenny Palacios is a Vietnamese / Peruvian / Canadian artist in Toronto, with a sound that blends influences from alt-pop to emo-rock. She grew up in a musically driven environment with a mother who is a music teacher, and spent a number of years involved in her local alternative music scene, where she developed a sense of artistry through connectivity. Drawing from her earliest memories of her mother’s teachings, and her emo roots, Jenny is driven to deliver a sound that is cathartic and genuine. Jenny’s new single Convenient is a textured synth-pop track that has been paired with a mesmerizing video.”
9 | Animal Sun | Touch
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Electro pop-rock band Animal Sun released their video for Touch. With a catchy chorus and feel-good vibe, this single is likely to spark a light of optimism and warm hearts as two former lovers reunite and find happiness within each other. Says singer Steven Blake: “Touch was based on a single moment of clarity between two once ex-lovers, as they push through their individual challenges and reunite once again in perfect resolution. They have grown to love each other in ways both never thought possible, becoming living proof that people are so much more than a representation of their checkered past. The two embrace and the world seems to melt away with the touch of their fingertips.”
10 | AV (Ann Vriend) | Everybody Matters
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Inspired by her experience as a resident of Edmonton’s notorious inner-city neighborhood McCauley, Ann Vriend’s song Everybody Matters draws the comparisons between what we say versus what we do when it comes to valuing human rights. She says: “The song is an energetic, old-school gospel/blues tune, with congregational clapping as the main rhythmic pulse throughout the song. The lyrics are a long list of contrasts between “first world” ideas of what “everybody matters” looks like: life support, cheap consumer goods made elsewhere, and rich people making headlines — versus what the rest of the world experiences: starvation, slave labor, little to no media attention.”
11 | Ebony Buckle | Selkie
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Selkie is the latest single from conceptual singer-songwriter Ebony Buckle’s upcoming album Disco Lasers. Inspired by Norse, Celtic and Arctic Inuit folklore, the song tells a story of a mythical sea spirit who sheds its skin under the moonlight to dance on the shore. This is the fourth chapter in Buckle’s album, a collection of audio-visual stories that celebrate the wonders of our universe and how we as human beings make sense of our existence through folklore legends, science and our imagination. Says Ebony: “I grew up playing by and in the sea in Australia, the opposite side of the world from where the Selkie stories originated, but I’ve always felt connected to them through my love for the sea. Whenever I go near the ocean I feel an overwhelming connection to the earth.”
12 | Immortalizer | I’m Gone
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Immortalizer is the personal project of Dave D.R., a multi-instrumentalist recording artist and performer from Ontario. He has influences from heavy metal and rock pioneers like Motörhead, Judas Priest, Saxon, Iron Maiden, Dio, Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Primal Fear, Helloween, Gamma Ray, Van Halen and Thin Lizzy, but he has always tried his best to create new and exciting music. When he started writing material for Immortalizer, he wanted to create something original but that still had a vintage feel to it. His aim is not to copy what’s already been done but rather to contribute something fresh and entertaining. He is preparing stuff for his upcoming album.”
13 | Embrio | This Flame
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Brazilian thrashers of Embrio have been releasing video re-recordings of old songs from their career in Lockdown Sessions format. Today they re-recorded the track This Flame, their first official composition, originally released on their 2008 debut Prophets Of Doom. Says singer-guitarist Emerson Pereira: “As we are in the same boat as practically all bands today, stopped and without shows due to the pandemic, we are taking advantage of the time and re-recording older material with the current formation of the band in a series of videos at the same time that we are working on new material to our new album.”
14 | My Funeral | Flamethrower
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Helsinki crossover thrash band My Funeral have just released their single Flamethrower. It represents the group’s efforts at a darker, grittier return. When the world and the mind are on fire, does anything go back to the way it used to be? The song is about how life just burns out. A song about depression, anxiety and addiction. How can the mind survive the relentless onslaught of inner demons, when the walls are closing in and you’re at war with yourself? When all the pain is gone, life can finally begin — even when all is given and the mind is on fire.”
15 | Cvlt Of The Svn | We Are The Dragon
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Finally, there’s a cult worth joining: May 7 will see mysterious Finnish dark occult rock act Cvlt Of The Svn release their grim and addictive first album We Are The Dragon. Embodying a reverberating sense of eeriness, danger and fear, enriched with a pinch of gothic romanticism and pitch-black seduction, Cvlt Of The Svn’s enthralling debut feels dangerously unsettling, lacing its churning heaviness with catchy melodies that travel right through your ears to your central nervous system! We Are The Dragon paves the way for a dangerous yet intriguing journey into the frenetic vortex of Cvlt Of The Svn. Like a captivating horror film, the song’s creepy mood takes your breath away, drawing your attention to every note and detail.”
16 | Comatose | Skin
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Minnesota atmospheric rock/grungegaze collective Comatose unveil their video for Skin, from the band’s cebut A Way Back, released earlier this year. Notes guitarist/vocalist James Benson: “Skin, as it is appropriately titled, concerns the emotional and physical detachment from an ideology and group surrounding it, while floating between new philosophies and exploring new surroundings.”
17 | Torn Between Two Worlds | All Eyes On Me
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Torn Between Two Worlds (featuring Sarah Jezebel Deva and Chris Rehn) have released a video for All Eyes On Me. The video features fans and friends of the band singing along with the song. Sarah commented “The video and song is about how we are judged, how we let negativity hold us back. How people’s vindictive actions can change our path in life, sometimes resulting in the worst possible outcome. As an example, online bullying and trolling can take its toll on children, which has lead to an increase in child suicide. I wanted a bunch of people to come together without a fear of being judged. I wanted people to be themselves and not give a damn. It seems these days we are afraid of being stupid, afraid of just letting ourselves go.”
18 | Inhuman Architects | Nephilim
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Portuguese deathcore newcomers Inhuman Architects will release their debut album Paradoxus on July 16. Paradoxus features a revamped lineup with Susana Gamito on bass and Marcus Reis on drums, and offers a lethal and brutal of deathcore in the vein of Rings of Saturn, All Shall Perish and Despised Icon.”
