The Lancasters come to the end of the day, Solo urges you to put down the gun, We Are Interview are royally entertaining, All Wasted flip the script on a crime of passion, /A\ deliver a load of grain, sand and mud — and they’re just a small part of your latest shipment of fresh music. Sign on the line for your Monday Roundup:
1 | The Lancasters | Goodnight
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Lancasters return with a beast of a single called Goodnight. The rock trio deliver a heartfelt song; a melancholic, passionate and explosive poem for those who feel connected to someone special despite being far apart — something we all can relate to in these times. The band say: “This is a hymn about two souls far apart and the forces that keep them together despite everything; their true desire and love create the strongest bond that holds them together and in balance. (The line) ‘We’ll fly over the ocean as soon as the day comes’ resonates like a promise we make, to overcome our own limits and do something for those who deserve our heart. It’s a melancholic message of hope: the darker the night gets, the more the light will shine when we see the dawn rise.”
2 | Solo | Don’t Shoot The Piano Player (It’s All In Your Head)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “After the elektronische experimentation of Stati Emozionali, Solo are back with a new single that drives us from the ’50s to the psychedelic ’60s: Don’t Shoot The Piano Player (It’s All In Your Head). “I’ve always been a fan of ’60s psychedelia,” says Solo. “Those out-of-the-box sounds and atmospheres have fascinated me since forever. It’s only natural for me to write a song drawing inspiration from those textures, rolling out to the ‘psychedelia factor’ by adding spatialisation of binaural kind, in such a way that the sounds wouldn’t just go right to left (and vice versa), but totally wrap the listener.”
3 | We Are Interview | Queen
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Two years after their last single Chicago and months after any gigs, Swiss rockers We Are Interview are back in business with a new series of digital singles. The first, Queen, is out today, along with a video. With a style inspired by the Foo Fighters, QOTSA and ’90s grunge, We Are Interview arrived on the Swiss Romande scene with a bang!”
4 | All Wasted | Passion of Crime
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Death ’n’ roll combo All Wasted are proud to present their video for Passion of Crime, taken from their upcoming album Burn With Me. All Wasted are a metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden, created “just have a damn good time.” Their sound is energetic, heavy and punchy, with just the right amount of trickiness, and party-hearty as hell. They’re hard enough for the death metal heads, but still have enough melody for straight-up rockers. Take a listen to Passion Of Crime and hear what they mean.”
5 | /A\ | Grain Sand And Mud
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Young Gods’ Franz Treichler, Emilie Zoé and Nicolas Pittet unveil their very first collaboration along with a self-titled debut album /A\, due out in June. Grain Sand and Mud is the first single taken from the album. About the track: “A kind of dark beat made by Franz with his Moog, surrounded by soundscapes he creates with his guitar, Nico playing a typical Pittet groovy beat, and Zoé’s favourite chords and rhythm on the guitar. They constructed the lyrics and melodies of the song directly on the basis of the jam, having much fun with the weird cycles of chords we had played, keeping some tiny licks of melodies Franz sung along while jamming.”
6 | Solar Eyes | Acid Test
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Solar Eyes make their grand debut with Acid Test, the first of the group’s psychedelic offerings. This release marks a new beginning for the band, who are ready to introduce listeners to their addictively trippy sound. Solar Eyes is the psychedelic, cosmic musical project of Glenn Smyth, aided by like-minded collaborators Seb Maynard Francis and Tom Ford. The group formed in April 2020 as a way of escaping the members’ harsh realities — Smyth is an NHS worker, Ford is a paramedic’s husband and Francis has been locked down throughout the whole pandemic. Music came to the band like the flicker of a light in a darkened room. Keeping their minds open, the group remained positive, even when the world felt a very closed and claustrophobic place, in turn, created dreamy, psych-pop bliss.”
https://youtu.be/xWrnhe7_l7Y
7 | Austin Taft | Just Above Zero
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Progressive metal artist Austin Taft has released a video for Just Above Zero, a song from his upcoming album Skeletons, due on May 28. Austin comments: “In my view, songs should reward the listener for listening to the whole thing. If the listener hears one minute of a song and wouldn’t miss much in the way of new information by skipping the rest, it feels like a missed opportunity. So with that philosophy in mind, this song (and the album it is sourced from) aims to be exciting, challenging and unpredictable. The lyrics are about how frequently opportunities to improve situations for humankind seem to be squandered, whether at the ballot box or otherwise.”
8 | Dez Dare | Conspiracy, O’ Conspiracy
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Australia’s Dez Dare are out with the second single and video Conspiracy, O’ Conspiracy from debut album Hairline Ego Trip, out June 4. The digital wildebeest has been growing unabated for decades and fuels conspiracy theories and faux realities that divide and burn the threads of our community, dividing us with every byte transferred. Darren Smallman says: “This album is about the disconnect the human race has built between themselves and the natural world. How we are collapsing as a society through digital technology, capitalism, religion, nationalism. The failures of the human psych and the beauty in the world around us we fail to see.”
9 | Love Again | May 16
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “San Antonio alternative emo band Love Again have released a cover of Lagwagon’s May 16 as a standalone single. For fans of Taking Back Sunday, Into It Over It, Modern Baseball, The Dangerous Summer, Motion City Soundtrack, Angels and Airwaves and The Get Up Kids.”
10 | Ralph Pezzullo | Lockdown Blues
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Singer-songwriter Ralph Pezzullo’s life has been a journey. Beginning at 16-year-old in Bogota, Colombia as a member of the Latin garage-rock band Wallflower Complexion, he has gone on to script over a dozen plays that became hits off-Broadway and in London, and pen over two dozen books of fiction and nonfiction, including New York Times bestsellers like Jawbreaker, Most Evil, Eve Missing and Zero Footprint. Three years ago, Ralph began releasing music on his own. Now, working with the same group of all-star musicians — guitarist Geoff Pearlman (The Wallflowers), keyboardist Phil Parlapiano (John Prine, Lucinda Williams), bassist Paul Ill (Hole, Pink), and drummer David Goodstein (Dolly Parton, Joe Perry), he has laid down a new batch of Pezzullo compositions, including Lockdown Blues.”
11 | Blue Ox | Lesser Gods And The Science of Superstition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Lesser Gods And The Science Of Superstition is the new video by Minnesota metallic hardcore outfit Blue Ox, featuring former members of Dead To Fall, Devilinside, Ambassador Gun, Coma Eternal and more. The track is found on the band’s third LP Holy Vore, which saw release in early April. Writes Luke Olson: “This song is arguably the fastest tune we’ve ever written. Once it gets going, Dan’s drumming never lets up and makes an honest challenge for us to stay locked up and execute it right … Lyrically, Dennis summed it up simply as, ‘The best love is unrequited.’ ”
12 | Caliban | Nichts Ist Für Immer
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “German metalcore vets Caliban have just released a new visualizer clip for their song Nichts Ist Für Immer. The track comes from the band’s latest full-length Zeitgeister, which came on Friday. Vocalist Andreas Dörner states, “A slightly softer track, the original is called All I Gave and was released on Say Hello To Tragedy. It’s a song about disappointed love and the end of an illusion — ‘We will be ourselves in the ones we love. Who am I when your love was just a lie’?”
13 | Hiraes | Solitary
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “German melodic death metal demon Hiraes are set to release their first sonic onslaught to the masses with their debut offering Solitary on June 25. Today, the unit — featuring members of the disbanded Dawn Of Disease and with the powerful Britta Görtz (Critical Mess, ex-Cripper) on vocals — set free their title track Solitary along with a video. Heavy-driven riffs evoke a dark and explosive melodic death metal storm fueled by a fierce growling attack, dropping jaws and leaving a long-lasting impression.”
14 | Wildstreet | Mother
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Wildstreet have released their latest single Mother, from their upcoming album III, set for release on June 25. The full version of Mother is a seven-minute psychological thriller that uses horror-influenced metaphor to paint a picture of the depths of the main character’s madness, which she insists is her mother’s doing. This is a must-hear for fans of Alice In Chains, Soundgarden & Avenged Sevenfold.”
15 | Paradox | Priestly Vows
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The roots of Paradox go way back to 1981. Their debut Product of Imagination was like a fresh breeze blowing through the scene, while the concept album Heresy was an international success and catapulted Paradox in the first league of cult thrashers. More than 30 years later, it’s time for the eighth studio album Heresy II – End of a Legend. Musically and lyrically, it starts where the first part ended in 1990. In a different way from other bands, Paradox stands true to their style. Heavily influenced by the first three Metallica albums, the Bavarian outfit found their sound decades ago.”
