The Dirty Nil do damage control, Jon Worthy sums it up, Push Baby turn on the waterworks, Xiu Xiu prove that nothing succeeds like failure — and as always, failure’s no success at all in your Monday Roundup. Giddyup a ding-dong:
1 | The Dirty Nil | Damage Control
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Dirty Nil have released a mind-expanding animated video for Damage Control. The bandmembers visit a mythical wizard who shows them futures full of brutality, gold records & a plethora of easter eggs. Director and animator Greg Doble says: “Damage Control is a song that touches upon the both the hard moments in life, as well as our individual perception of those moments. We all want to run ‘damage control’ when things aren’t going our way, but the reality of the situation is different in the minds of each person involved. I was quite drawn to the line ‘beware the things you wanna feel, ‘cause that don’t mean they’re real.’ To me, this line speaks to our ability as people to gravitate towards feelings, or our own personal bias, but in the process losing touch with a shared, concrete reality.”
2 | Jon Worthy | All I’m Saying
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Musically diverse Nashville artist Jon Worthy just released his single All I’m Saying. Along with the uptempo indie rock single, Worthy released the well-produced cinematic video — a followup to his video Don’t You Feel It, in which Worthy plays The Joker. All I’m Saying shows what happens when Worthy’s character is deprived of love. “In some ways, I related to a lot of the character’s inner demons of not being noticed or fully desired,” shares Worthy. “This song seemed like a perfect landscape to portray that character in my own way with my music. Joker, like most people, just wants love. When we don’t get that emotion in return we find ourselves asking, what else is there?”
3 | Push Baby | Cry / Talk About It
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Manchester alt-pop duo Push Baby share the new video for their latest single Cry / Talk About It. “It’s the first narrative visual we’ve done,” says Jake Roche. “My mum watched it and said ‘Are you all on drugs? I don’t get it.’ Which is totally understandable. But I think below the surface of the video being a dumb, comedic personality-driven bit of abstract content … it reflects how human emotions are a commodity. Especially from our experience in the music industry. This idea that if you feel something, you can bottle it up and sell it to the masses, and potentially that feeling you felt at the beginning has got lost somewhere along the production line. But that’s what I got from it. I think I’ll just stick with my Mum’s quote though.”
4 | Xiu Xiu | Oh No
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Xiu Xiu share the video for the title track of Oh No, the all-star album of duets they released in March. The hilarious compilation of fail videos was put together by the band. As Jamie Stewart puts it: “While recording bass parts for the song Oh No (feat. the venerable Susanne Sachsse) with Greg Saunier and Jherek Bischoff, they both kept making jokes about how the perfect video for it would be clips of people slipping on banana peels. Obviously this is a good idea. However, to my surprise there really are not that many. Numerous other fail videos come up instead. Do not drive your truck on a frozen lake, drink from a lake inhabited by crocodiles if you are a cheetah, do not do ANYTHING at all if you are under the age of 3.”
5 | Waking The Sleeping Bear | P*rno Future
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Three years after the official release of their debut EP Jungle Urbaine, French metal/fusion/rapcore gang Waking The Sleeping Bear are about to birth to their debut album P*rno Future on May 28. In the meantime, they just premiered the video for the title track. They say: “The music of Waking The Sleeping Bear is an all-angers crossoad. It’s about time passing, past adolescence too quickly disappeared, about the anguish of the future by the ones that are dismayed by the past … Dressed sometimes with tribal sounds, sometimes with suffocating synthetic ambiences, the “nü metal” of WTSB hammers with rage some powerful convictions over a frenetic French-speaking phrasing, sometimes sung, rapped, shouted.”
6 | Andy Shauf | Living Room
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Andy Shauf released one of 2020’s most highly praised albums, Neon Skyline. Today, he shares the video for one of its highlights, Living Room. Director Anne Douris elaborates: “This is a story about growing up lonely. In particular, it’s about how wage labour — the business of having to work to survive — shapes our lives from the moment we are born. I think we mistake childhood as being a time of ‘freedom’ when actually our lives are entangled in the struggle of working adults. So I wanted to weave together these scenes of childhood solitude, foggy recollections of being left alone in our empty house, where playfulness and imagination are tainted by fear. Fear of the dark, fear of abandonment, fear of loss.”
7 | Incognito Baby | Love + War
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “London, Ont., LGBT+ hip-hopper Strange Breed launches his experimental alt-rock project Incognito Baby with Love + War, produced by Kenny Carkeet. Best experienced with bass-heavy headphones or subwoofers, your ears are in for a barrage of sound as Carkeet’s trademark bombastic keyboards lay the foundation for the track. Strange Breed (né David Sission), known for his rapid, punchy rhyme schemes, fires off his verses with precision and tongue-in-cheek entendre. “The concept of the song revolves around a relationship that remains strong despite all of its misgivings,” Strange Breed explains. “Depending on the listener’s point of view, it can be seen as a venting song for a frustration in a current relationship, or the acknowledgment of a very toxic romance.”
8 | The Ghost Club | All I Know
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Rising alt-pop act The Ghost Club, the musical brainchild of singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Domenic Dunegan, have released All I Know with an accompanying video. The Ghost Club deliver anthems that are as infectious as they are intriguing — just the kind of enigma alternative music needs. “All I Know was written as a nod to those who inspired me to be a musician,” shares Dunegan. “I learned that to mature as an artist I have to chase what I think sounds best, not what I think others would think sounds best.”
9 | Secret Agent Gel & Redders | Change My Ting
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “With the days getting longer, and a return to live events slowly coming into focus, Secret Agent Gel & Redders team up on Change My Ting, a perfect soundtrack to summer good times. Adding a current twist on a classic vibe, this funky banger aims straight for the dancefloor as producer Secret Agent Gel melds vintage tribal percussion with a seriously catchy bassline driving the tune forward. Redders steps up on vocal duties, showing off the full range of his abilities as he motors through R&B-style melodies, straight-up bars, and gravel-throated dancehall DJ stylings — all within 48 bars!”
10 | Van Canto | Raise Your Horns
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The world’s most exciting a cappella metal masters Van Canto are set to release their inimitable album To The Power Of Eight on June 4. Today those thundering voices unleash their very own and remarkable take on the hammering Raise Your Horns by Swedish Vikings Amon Amarth. Van Canto took the well-known favorite and turned it into their own unique version, featuring band trademarks without losing sight of the actual core of the track. Horns up! Van Canto say: “Raise Your Horns is a very special cover for us. For the first time, we tackled a song where the lead vocals are consistently in the lowest growl register. Thanks to the constellation of having three lead singers, Hagen could spread out in the lead, while Inga can set high, almost orchestral accents and Sly leads the choir together with Jan.”
11 | Dream Demon | Fool Me
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dream Demon have established themselves very quickly in the South African music scene. Having already showcased a couple of synth-laden metalcore tracks and an arena-rock anthem, with Fool Me the band continue experimenting to bring energetic and eclectic offerings to their listeners. They say: “Fool Me is about toxic friendships and people who take without giving much in return. It speaks to the fact that many of us give relationships second or third chances knowing we’ll continue to be let down.”
12 | Frozen Farmer | The Shore
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Things to Share is the third album for Frozen Farmer. They have been active since 2009, when they formed the band out of a visceral love for the American folk tradition, grown during a long trip across the U.S. by singer and banjo player Francesco. The Shore, the first single and video from the album, is a serene, positive song, with jingle-jangle guitars and a melodic tune, defining a sound that mixes elements from The Byrds, Green on Red, early R.E.M. and Wilco. It’s a must for fans of ’90s indie rock, but also for anyone whoe appreciates a well-written and carefully arranged song.”
13 | Clara Engel | Old Feathered Devil
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “I’d like to share a new (well, new in one sense, but also very old!) video for my song Old Feathered Devil. It features the film Night on Bald Mountain by Alexandre Alexeïeff and Claire Parker, the inventors of pinscreen animation. This film was originally created as an accompaniment for the piece by Mussorgsky, but I thought it worked wonderfully with my song as well. In other news: I’m working on a new album, which will be out in August. It’s called In Borrowed Light, and it’s my second pandemic-recorded collection of songs.”
14 | 7Days | You Hold The Key
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Swedish melodic metal project 7days just released a lyric video for You Hold the Key, the first single from their upcoming remixed and remastered album Into Forever, out on May 28. 7days were founded by guitar player Markus Sigfridsson (Darkwater, Harmony, All Things Fallen) and also features Thomas Vikström (Therion, ex-Candlemass) on vocals, Andreas Passmark (Royal Hunt, ex-Narnia, Harmony) on bass and Daniel Flores (The Murder of My Sweet, Mind’s Eye) on drums.”
15 | Destroyed In Seconds | Disarm
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Los Angeles hardcore punk practitioners Destroyed In Seconds unleash their lyric video for Disarm, from the band’s Divide And Devour full-length, set for a proper vinyl release later this month. Initially released digitally and on cassette last spring, Divide And Devour emits 11 tracks of relentless ferocity. Comments vocalist Jon Tomala: “Worshiping imperialism must be one of the silliest things anyone can witness. It’s only getting worse and more ridiculous, so we’ll just keep shining a light on it. This is one of my personal favorites off the album, and it feels amazing to know that the album and all the fury we put into it will finally reach wider audiences!”
