T.Hardy Morris heads to the mall, The Esprits are all messed up, Jenny Owen Youngs replays D&D with Generationals, Katastro share their feelings — as are many of the artists featured in your Midweek Roundup. Lend them your ears:
17 | T. Hardy Morris | Shopping Center Sunsets
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “T. Hardy Morris is set to return with The Digital Age of Rome on June 25. It follows the Diamond Rugs and Dead Confederate member’s 2018 acclaimed Dude, The Obscure. Today, he shared the video for the album track Shopping Center Sunsets. Morris said, “The song is a rumination on modern era consumerism and the decay that our world inherits from it. We look at old, abandoned or dying shopping complexes and think ‘Oh, look, there is nothing in there,’ when in reality it is full of waste; acres of cracked asphalt, light pollution, shopping carts, the list goes on. There is a very dated shopping center not far from my house that is one of the best spots in town to see the sunset. The stores and signs are all fighting for our attention, but the sunset takes over every afternoon. Nature wins every time.”
18 | The Esprits | Fucked Up
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “With Fucked Up, Braunschweig beat band The Esprits once again show what the band stands for: Attention to detail, dedication and cohesion. The close observer finds a North German gang that is difficult to describe one-dimensionally. What becomes clear, however, is the passion for art- holistically. Aimed at all those who don’t want to give up the romantic ideal of a sworn band. Fucked Up expresses an energy that underlines the anticipation of what is to come. If you’re with us now, you can look forward to an exciting journey … ”
19 | Jenny Owen Youngs | Dungeons And Dragons (Generationals Remix)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Jenny Owen Youngs shares NOLA duo Generationals’ remix of her song Dungeons and Dragons, from the recently released Echo Mountain EP. The upbeat take on Dungeons and Dragons, arrives just in time for warmer weather in the Northern Hemisphere. “I love hearing the song taken completely apart and brought back together in this new way,” says Youngs. “Talk about a reimagining — there’s a different energy to it, a different life. The source material is so solemn and weighted, but they found a way to hang those images on new scaffolding and make it BUMP.”
20 | Katastro | The Way I Feel
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Emerging alt-rock/hip-hop hybrid Katastro have released the video for their new single The Way I Feel, the lead track off their forthcoming album Sucker, out July 16. The Way I Feel is an upbeat ode to getting over a bad breakup. “The Way I Feel video was shot in one house that was staged by the owner with various retro themes,” share Katastro. “We wanted to make this one more fun while playing with the album’s theme of situations constantly looping and getting pulled into the same crazy relationships. We also wanted to keep it all in one house to mimic the line ‘it’s the same shit every day’ and add a little quarantine vibe, since the whole album was recorded while back home adopting to Covid life after all our tours had been cancelled.”
21 | Remy | I Know Why You Stay Out
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Remy is sharing a new single and video I Know Why You Stay Out, “a song that’s meant to feel like getting grounded.” Remy adds: “I hope listeners can see themselves in the song and gives them some modern nostalgia.” Inspired by classic emo artists like The Starting Line, Motion City Soundtrack, and Fall Out Boy, Remy effortlessly blends lofi, bedroom pop, pop punk/emo, and alternative beats into a sound midway between Drake in The 1975. With incredibly picturesque lyrics that are immensely relatable, I Know Why You Stay Out captures the feeling of melancholy washed in novelty and nostalgia.”
22 | Dooms Children | Flower Moon
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Wade MacNeil (Alexisonfire, Gallows) has released the first track from his new psych-rock project Dooms Children. Flower Moon is a swirling slow burn with an intensely cathartic coda, embodying the hope of renewal and rebirth that the full Moon of May, known as the Flower Moon, represents in cultures the world over. The video is directed by Montreal filmographer Brian Shannon, known for his feature-length skate videos. It features Team Canada global pro street skateboarder Annie Guglia (Montreal) navigating the unusually quiet and empty streets of Montreal during the pandemic lockdown. Shares MacNeil, “This song is about putting back together the pieces of a life that’s been shattered … feeling a little rough around the edges from what you’ve been through, but excited about what’s to come, ’cause you don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
23 | JW Francis | John, Take Me With You
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Today, while on a 2,000-mile trek across the Appalachian trail, New York’s next lo-fi legend JW Francis announced his sophomore album Wanderkid, out Oct. 1. He explains the concept, which became intensified in quarantine this past year: “Wanderkid is an album about escape. It’s supposed to be a gut punch of a record about an anti-hero who wants to get OUT: out of his living situation, out of his head, out of his life.” Accompanying the album’s announcement today are the single and video John, Take Me With You, a slice of quintessential JW — wistful, upbeat and bursting with charisma.”
24 | Daysormay | Ego
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Growing up in Vernon, B.C., Daysormay not only mastered their songwriting and playing skills, but they also became production wunderkinds. Now 21 , in Vancouver, with a full album in their arsenal, the members of Daysormay (the English phonetic of the French “désormais,” meaning “from now on”) have the wind at their backs with no intentions of slowing down. Their latest single Ego is a deep dive into an ocean of charming guitars and synths, sharp piano, bright booming drums and witty, intelligent lyrics. Andrews’ songwriting and storytelling lyrics are completely captivating, based around Sigmund Freud’s concepts of the id, ego, and superego, with each verse representing those individually.”
25 | Dana Sipos | Breathing Barrel
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dana Sipos’ new single Breathing Barrel “wrote itself more than I wrote it,” she says. “I could sense the textures of the song as it was coming together. Ultimately, it’s a meditation on being in the present while celebrating the freedom and fluidity of trying things on. It’s about anticipation and desire and those magic moments of connection that can present themselves in surprising and unexpected ways.” The video was created by Victoria musician Trevor Lang with dozens of high-resolution scans of vintage magazine cut-outs, finely tuned to line up with the rhythm of the song. “The slightly unusual frame rate of this video (8 frames per second as opposed to the typical stop-motion animation of either 6 or 12 frames per second) is intended to give the video a familiar but unique rhythm akin to the drum machine featured throughout the song.”
26 | Kandle | When It Hurts
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The heat and volume continue to rise as Juno-nominated artist Kandle Osborne nears the release of her new album Set The Fire, out this Friday. Today, Kandle shows that heartbreak has never been hookier on When It Hurts, a retro-pop jam sonically reminiscent of the Shangri-Las grooving in an episode of Twin Peaks. “I’m back with another deceptively sad, sugar-coated heartbreak song that comes courtesy of a distanced collaboration with my dear friend Liam O’Neil (Kings Of Leon). He sent me some beautiful Twin Peaks-sounding synth chords that I was inspired to marry with a ’50s pop throwback melody and some catchy call-and-answer parts. Backed by my incredible all-woman band once again (Debra-Jean Creelman, Louise Burns and Kendel Carson of The Wiccs), we channeled a classic girl-group vibe for your listening pleasure!”
27 | Half•Alive | Time 2
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Long Beach trio half•alive release their new song Time 2, along with a video. They say, “The lyrical message of Time 2 ended up shocking us in a very prophetic way … The song speaks about waking up in the chaos of life and remembering a child-like state of mind. It calls to reset and return to the beginning. The moment we finished writing the song, the world was subdued into a global time-out. Production on the song, along with everything else, came to a standstill. A year has passed, and now in May 2021 we find ourselves looking down at the lyrics in awe.”
28 | Breathe Panel | Lets It In
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Breathe Panel have announced that their new album will be released on Sept. 17. Today they share the title track Lets It In. With members divided between London and Brighton, Breathe Panel come together to produce music that is as effortless as their name suggests. Living together in a shared house in East London, frontman Nick Green and lead guitarist Josh Tyler would start writing songs together as an escape from the restlessness of the city. “A sort of meditation from the mess”, says Nick. With the arrival of lockdown, their immediate surroundings became even more vivid and influential as spring turned to summer last year. Says Josh: “I’ve been reading about psychogeography and the weird link between where you are and how you feel and how sometimes those two things can align to make you feel like you’re in a sweet spot just for a split second or an afternoon.”
29 | In-Sides | Red Planet
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Red Planet is a recent track from Bay Area band In-Sides, who craft a sound steeped in shoegaze and psych-pop, drawing on themes of introspection, isolation, and self-searching. Red Planet was recorded in a funky studio built in the ’70s called Airship Laboratories in Richmond, CA, tucked in an industrial park adjacent to some abandoned buildings and right on the Bay waterfront. It was the first track recorded in a studio setting and with the full band tracking all their parts. Themes include dealing with the past and the future by being grounded in the present; starting over; finding purpose; losing hope and finding it again.”
30 | Drama | Don’t Hold Back
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Drama, the Chicago collaboration between producer Na’el Shehade and vocalist Via Rosa, deliver their lead single for the year, an infectious earwormy track Don’t Hold Back. The track perfectly captures the duo’s trademark sound featuring the harmonious marriage of unlikely pairings: dance and R&B, heartbreak and bliss. “At its core, Don’t Hold Back is about the fear of commitment. The song acts out a dialogue between lovers who have made it to the place they always prayed for and are now having second thoughts. It’s about the turning point in a relationship when you stop lying to please the other person and start showing who you really are. It’s the moment where you lay everything on the table, let the other person have it, and move through the argument full-on in order to come out the other side as a stronger partnership.”
31 | Brianna Perry | Type Of Body
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Miami rapper Brianna Perry shares the video for her single Type of Body. The single comes from her upcoming album Boss Bitch Boulevard, out this Friday. Brianna says: “Type of Body is a summer tune for the girls who are comfortable in their skin. Big or small, short or tall — any race, just celebrate the body that you have.” The 10-tracks on Boss Bitch Boulevard strut through Perry’s figurative boulevard with blunt and gritty rhymes that epitomize female empowerment. Perry doesn’t shy away from expressing her power to its fullest extent on this album. “Boss Bitch Boulevard is queen music. For the bold, the unapologetic and to remind yourself that you are That Bitch! I’d like to empower and inspire strong women and encourage others to be strong, and, to be the voice for young women who know who they are and what they want.”
32 | Nayana Iz | Breaking Point
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Rising star Nayana Iz returns with her new single Breaking Point, which she shares alongside a beautifully intimate video directed by Liam S. Gleeson. Breaking Point heralds a new chapter in the singer/rapper’s already-distinguished career. A confessional diary entry, the bruised vulnerability serves as both a rebirth and a prelude to this latest era, plaintive keys and jazz inflections paired with wistful vocals and hushed rap verses. What first began as an ode to her boyfriend manifested into something far more profound; the consciousness of a British-Asian woman reconciling with her past self. The accompanying video provides a snapshot into the 20-year-old Londoner’s world, mostly set against the low-lit nightscapes of the city.”
33 | CamQuarter | Starstruck
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Bringing together chilled R&B and hip-hop, Baltimore’s CamQuarter is an exciting talent with a distinctive and fresh sound. Taken from his new EP Nimbus, Starstruck is a demonstration of the encapsulating nature of CamQuarter’s music both lyrically and sonically giving an insight into the overwhelming sense of honesty and intimacy spread across the new EP’s six tracks. CamQuarter said: “I wrote a lot of this EP just going through the motions, reflecting on how I got to this point in my life and what made me the person I am today. I tried to put a lot of soul into these songs, I want people to listen and connect with every track on this track.”
