Azure Ray head into the night, Febueder go into the light, Silvertwin go back to the ’70s, Alice Hubble fights back, Butterfly Ali can’t tell a lie — and neither can I: Today’s Midweek Roundup is a knockout. Check out these tracks and tell me I’m lying:
18 | Azure Ray | Phantom Lover
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “On June 18, Azure Ray will release Remedy, the band’s first album in 10 years. Today they share the video for Phantom Lover, the latest single from the forthcoming release. Azure Ray say: “Phantom Lover is about lifting each other up in hard times. Sometimes you just need someone to tell you everything will be alright, even if you don’t believe it. The video was shot in the Mojave Desert entirely in night vision on a camcorder and two trail cameras. Even though they are their natural predators, the desert sheep help the baby coyotes (played by Maria’s sons) in their time of distress and dance the night away. The result is NatGeo meets David Lynch.”
19 | Febueder | May Sun
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Febueder’s invigorating single May Sun arrives at a perfect juncture, as the seasons change and we begin to emerge from a pandemic. The uplifting track is about coming through a period of difficulty into the light. Samuel Keysell, who sings lead for the first time on May Sun, explains “The track is about stopping the act of taking on people’s pains and worries and making them your own. A reminder to recognise beauty and optimism for the future. Like the May sun signaling an approaching summer, brighter things are ahead.” Kieran Godfrey adds: “It’s about hope.”
20 | Silvertwin | Saviour
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Continuing their winning streak of ’70s-tipped wonders, London quintet Silvertwin return with Saviour. Matching the glam-rock pomp of early Elton John with the technicolour stomp of Supertramp, Saviour is a time-warped whirlwind of fuzzy guitars, buoyant retrofied rhythms and rousing piano melodies. Sporting licks that Lindsey Buckingham or Roy Wood would have been proud to call their own, Saviour was penned by Isaac Shalam and stands as his first written strictly on guitar. Isaac says: “(Saviour) is heavy and energetic and takes inspiration from the more rocky ELO and Wings songs. The heavy lead and disco rhythm parts are intended to complement each other in the verse.”
21 | Alice Hubble | Power Play
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “London synth-pop artist Alice Hubble has shared her comment on the #metoo movement in Power Play, from her album due later this year. Hubble mixes melancholic pop, layered vintage synths and elegant vocals, reminiscent of Ladytron, Ashra and Goldfrapp. Where her debut Polarlichter offered a soundscape of pastoral solace, Power Play is a much more direct offering. Written in March 2020, Alice found herself channeling a lot of anger into the single. “The track is my comment on what happens in a post-#metoo world, once the worst offenders have been cancelled and caught and the news stories have been had. Has something changed? Does society move on and go to the next issue?”
22 | Butterfly Ali | Truth Is
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Butterfly Ali (aka Titus Makin) continues to preview his debut EP Preacher’s Kid with the soulful new offering Truth Is. While his offerings to date have had a more lively and upbeat direction, Truth Is offers a more humbled and solemn side to his sound. He said, “Truth Is is a song and music video that I wanted to create about the media, politics and systemic racism. My thoughts on how we, as a people, are just expected to believe/digest any twisted information we may be given about any over publicized news heading. How the world we live in can promote such a false reality at times. I wanted to promote the consideration of where we should go from here.”
23 | The Jonah Medal | From M to M
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Jonah Medal take a nose-dive into confessional ’70s Lennon via the folk-rock of The Waterboys with their single From M to M. Bjorn Baillie continues to write sketches of a 40-something life through the lens of family, friendship and fatherhood. He says: “The last single Septembering was about that journey as a couple from early days straight through to family and all that brings. This song is like the impatient foot-tap of midlife — eager to keep pushing and creating.”
24 | Snazzback | Reading
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “New wave dance-floor instrumentalists Snazzback announce that their new second album In The Place comes out July 23, and share the upbeat first single Reading. Snazzback say: “Reading started out from an intense sense of being lost in time, being a tiny dot in an impossibly large space, being able to look forwards and backwards but being driven on by the march of time. It tries to express looking up at the stars and feeling adrift, but being OK with it too.”
25 | Beach Tiger | Run Away
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Alternative rock artist Beach Tiger will share his upcoming album Yenta on May 28, but today listeners can find the unforgettable track Run Away. He says: “Although Yenta is not a concept album, it does carry an overall theme where the protagonist must choose a life of adventure and spaces unknown, or a more comfortable, steady and safe existence. The unique thing is, it is up to the audience how the story is told. By simply changing around the track order you can tell it from two different angles.”
26 | Monster Magnet | Motorcycle (Straight To Hell)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Here’s the next chapter in psychedelic rock icons Monster Magnet’s rabbit-hole deep dive A Better Dystopia (out May 21). The album — a delightfully (and psychotically) curated collection of ’60s and ’70s proto-metal and late-era psych obscurities covered by the heavy New Jersey legends — sees the band pay homage to some of their favorite songs of all time, while reflecting on the paranoia, dystopia and revolution of now and then. Mastermind Dave Wyndorf says: “I’m psyched to unleash our version of Motorcycle (Straight To Hell). Table Scraps are a truly great band and prove again and again that garage punk fury lives!”
27 | Geoff Palmer | Many More Drugs
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Hailing from Portsmouth, NH, Geoff Palmer’s first claim to fame was The Guts, a world-class, pop-punk band that toured the world and released some classics. Charts & Graphs, Palmer’s latest LP, is stacked with killer cuts of punk rock, power pop, and even indie rock. Many More Drugs tells the hilarious story of a teenage Palmer desperately searching for The Dickies’ song Manny Moe And Jack, which he fell in love with but misheard the lyrics of. As Palmer states: “Sometimes hearing stuff wrong, like a game of telephone, makes a funny story that turns into a song years later! Thanks to my stupid brain for this one.”
28 | Art d’Ecco | That’s Entertainment
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Art d’Ecco has recorded a cover of The Jam’s iconic That’s Entertainment. Following the success of his latest album In Standard Definition, Art sees this track as a kindred spirit to an album that ruminates on our obsession with mass media. “That’s Entertainment by The Jam is one of my favourite songs of all time,” notes Art. “My latest record is an album all about entertainment, so I felt compelled to add this classic Paul Weller track to the d’Ecco catalogue. It forms the perfect sonic prologue to my record, written by a master lyricist.”
29 | Maita | Dumb
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This is the second cover released this year from Portland’s Maita. Their cover of Bag of Hammers by Thao & the Get Down Stay Down was released in April as part of Kill Rock Stars’ 30th anniversary covers series. Dumb originally appeared on Nirvana’s 1993 album In Utero. Maria of Maita states, “I’ve always loved Dumb. The lyrics are so simple and yet whip-smart, and the song has so much restraint in it. We of course took that as an opportunity to bust the song open halfway through and run with it, which feels a bit like an homage to what Nirvana first offered me in my early days as a music listener: Permission for unadulterated release.”
30 | Metal Vrau | Snowblind
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Metal Vrau are back with a cover of the iconic track Snowblind, originally released in 1972 on the classic album Vol. 4 from British giants and one of metal founding fathers Black Sabbath. If you know the history of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward on this album — more specifically for this song — you will understand the reference perfectly. In this version, the musicians managed to capture all the original essence of Snowblind, as well as the timbres and vocalizations, in a beautiful and vibrant tribute to the “owners of the whole damn thing.”
31 | Mike Edel | Girl From The North Country
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Mike Edel releases the final track of his cover series, having already shared The Wallflowers radio hit One Headlight, Coldplay’s Don’t Panic and Sarah McLachlan’s classic Building A Mystery. In honour of Bob Dylan’s upcoming 80th birthday, Edel offers his take on Girl From The North Country. “When I went to jazz school way back in the day the first thing I remember doing was going to the library and checking out a bunch of Bob Dylan CD’s,” says Edel. “I remember wondering who this Bob Dylan guy was; turns out he was pretty good and very proficient.”
32+33 | Kat Eaton | Barricade + Checking In
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Barricade and Checking In are the first taste of London singer-songwriter Kat Eaton’s debut album Talk To Me, coming July 2. One is an uptempo northern soul stormer; the other is a more mellow number about drunk-dialling an ex.”
34 | Laang 冷 | 冻伤
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Laang 冷, based in Taiwan, was born from horrifying experiences of what lies beyond life by the band’s frontman 楊海濤 during a near-death experience when shot. While medically dead, 海濤 experienced what he can best describe as “a place beyond Hell,” a world of incomprehensible terror and desolation beyond explanation. The music of Laang 冷 represents the crushing terror and the misery associated with this event. The band’s iconic musical style combines aggressive and non-canonical black metal riffing with melancholic melodies, tortured vocals performed in Mandarin Chinese, dark orchestras, and traditional erhu instrumentation.”
