Egg Drop Soup dish it out, El Michaels Affair play in the snow, N0V3L step outside the line, Blood Cultures visit the cabin, Whale & The Wolf get under your skin — and with that, I welcome you to another mega-sized Weekend Roundup. Let’s get right to the action:
1 | Egg Drop Soup | Or Durves
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Egg Drop Soup are more than just a catchy, tongue-in-cheek name alluding to that time of the month. The power trio have become known for dishing up punk perfection within the heart of the L.A. indie scene. With Sam Westervelt on bass and lead vox, Olivia Saperstein on background vox and guitar, and Bailey Chapman on drums, this group of superwomxn are set to storm hard once live music returns. For now, they’re fanning the flames by releasing Or Durves. The video is a hilarious sock puppet dramatization of the story behind the song, in which Sam gets fired from her big corporate job and heads deep into rock ’n’ roll land. She says: “When I was searching for new jobs, the words I got fired today because of my bad attitude popped into my head.”
2 | El Michels Affair | Mirkut Gem
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “El Michels Affair just dropped a new video for Murkit Gem from their latest album Yeti Season. Enjoy the video — and keep your eyes peeled for the Yeti.”
3 | N0V3L | Falling In Line
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “N0V3L’s debut full-length Non-Fiction has 11 tracks that function as a treatise on modern existence and the perverse parameters within which it’s experienced. It’s a collection of agile, carefully-constructed post-punk, new wave and funk that’s been zapped and warped by an opioid overdose crisis, mental illness, populism, and the merciless onward march of time. Intimate sadnesses and structural violences are blurred to the jagged quirk of sharp guitars, commanding bass, acrid saxophone, and mournful keys, all propelled ever forward by nimble drumming. It’s dark and occasionally danceable, a macabre late-capitalist disco under a pall of confusion.”
4 | Blood Cultures | Cabin Fever Freestyle
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Experimental indie-psych artist Blood Cultures lifts the veil on their eight-track project Luno. Having long been centered around anonymity, Luno marks the birth of a new era for Blood Cultures, one that shines a light on their Pakistani-American heritage and provides a deeper, more personal understanding of their world. On the new track/video Cabin Fever Freestyle, Blood Cultures states: “The music video explores the feeling of desperation and longing in the face of loss. This video acts as the finale of the Luno music video series, exemplifying many of the themes from the record while tying in concepts and visual elements from the ongoing story that is told through the videos and our multi-media project.”
5 | Whale & The Wolf | Veins
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Whale & The Wolf‘s music spans deep and treacherous ground, making it difficult for them to hide the genuine thrill and enjoyment felt with each performance. An independent band with five charting singles, Whale & The Wolf most recently teamed up with Grammy-nominated producer Jimmy Mansfield and Paul Rogers to help nurture their constantly evolving sound. Now armed with a new lineup, and a fresh take on the rock genre, their hard pop is beginning to make waves.”
6 | Umphrey’s McGee | Leave Me Las Vegas
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The volume of crowd chatter grows, the temperature rises, and the buzz in the room grows palpable. House lights dim and the walk-on music starts flying from speakers flanking the stage. The band members of Umphrey’s McGee settle into their respective places on stage, tuning their instruments. Suddenly they’re playing along with the pre-recorded intro music, reaching into its existing themes and adding new parts, building and intensifying until the bottom drops out and the band executes a segue into one of their 100+ beloved tracks. Now, 12 of these fan-favorite intro songs have gotten the full studio treatment. On July 16, Umphrey’s McGee will release them on the album You Walked Up Shaking In Your Boots But You Stood Tall And Left A Raging Bull. Today, fans were treated to an early listen with Leave Me Las Vegas, which made its debut at in Birmingham, Alabama, on March 5, 2009.”
7 | Dope Lemon | Rose Pink Cadillac
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Today sees the release of a new single and video from Dope Lemon, Rose Pink Cadillac. Like a ’60s soul standard, Rose Pink Cadillac strikes the balance between specificity and universality perfectly — it is the classy champagne-soaked red carpet and heart that beats underneath this new era of Dope Lemon. The song’s video, featuring the winged Cadillac of the song’s title, as well as a troupe of dancers, embodies the song’s louche, glamorous mood.”
8 | Women Of The Night | Stir Crazy
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Brooklyn duo Women Of The Night’s latest single Stir Crazy continues to explore their raw alt-country side. The tone here is one of tuneful garage noise and dangerous tales of love and the city, taken from Women Of The Night’s upcoming sophomore album Sub Rosa, due July 16. Women Of The Night are a New York rock ’n’ Roll gang playing songs that follow the pace of the street and the desperate voices of the unconsciousness mind. The gang is made up of Jordan D’Arsie [Guitar / Vox] and Kyubae Lee [Drums].”
9 | Bachelor | Back Of My Hand
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Bachelor’s debut album Doomin’ Sun is out now. To celebrate, they have shared a video for Back Of My Hand (featuring a Harry Styles shrine, no less). Doomin’ Sun is a record steeped in friendship. Written and recorded in Topanga over the course of two weeks in January of 2020, Doomin’ Sun finds Ellen Kempner (Palehound) and Melina Duterte (Jay Som) hybridizing their individual songwriting talents, producing a collection that slips between moods with ease and showcases their lyrical prowess. Creating the space to explore significant themes from queerness to climate change, the collection also finds Bachelor experiencing pure, unadulterated joy: the kind of joy that can only come from creating, laughing, and having a ridiculous amount of fun with a close friend.”
10 | Calva Louise | Tiranito
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “U.K. alternative-indie band Calva Louise shared Tiranito, the first single off their upcoming conceptual album Euphoric, set for release on Aug. 20. The hypnotic track is a celebration of the band’s multicultural identity and at the same time, it is the core of the multidisciplinary work found throughout the album. Vocalist and guitarist Jess Allanic beautifully combines bilingual lyrics across the band’s songs and Tiranito is no exception, sung in Spanish with English blended into the chorus. Jess states: “The song touches upon the tyrants that we encounter in our day to day life, but it’s really about recognising ‘the real tyrant’ that is inside each of us.”
11 | Bandicoot | Worried Blues
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For Bandicoot, Worried Blues inhabits a world of paranoia, born from a fear of lost love. It carries you down labyrinthine streets like a nightmarish memory, with a contagious strutting rhythm which never lets you stop moving along with it. Worried Blues starts with forceful piano chords and an anguished emotional vocal from Rhys Underdown, channeling John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band primal scream as a voice from the dark. When Worried Blues intro releases into a riff full of Talking Heads strutting art rock / dance punk directness it leaves no doubt, Bandicoot are the sound of young Wales.”
12 | Tom Auton | 9 Til 9
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Tom Auton is a rock and blues artist from Cardiff. 2021 is shaping up to be a big year for Tom. Today he delivers a slab of thick filthy bass, high energy and heavy blues riffs — with Tom’s signature disco groove woven throughout.”
13 | Julia Jacklin & RVG | Army Of Me
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “RVG and Julia Jacklin share their version of Bjork’s Army Of Me. Teaming up to take on the inimitable artist, the group spent a day in the studio perfecting their ’90s Icelandic rock sensibilities. Julia said “I just love Bjork and I love RVG. I was running on a treadmill which I don’t do very often, and I was listening to Army Of Me over and over again to make me feel stronger than I am. Then I thought why not try and cover this song with another artist that makes me feel stronger than I am and I did! Was a good musical punch in the face to wake me up from a year of living a very small quiet life. RVG are one of my favourite bands in the whole world and it was just a real blessing to spend some time with them making music.”
14 | Hoffey | Coffee
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Future bass duo Hoffey are sharing their latest single Coffee. Hoffey live in Hawaii, and consist of Canadian songwriters Jordan Toohey and Erika Toohey. They tell us: “Coffee is a story about two people who realize after meeting that there is an undeniable connection and feeling of familiarity. The idea of when you meet your “soulmate” it’s almost as if you already knew them somehow, there’s a gravitational pull towards them that changes everything … We wanted to create a song that took you on a journey and left your imagination open to interpret it however you wanted.”
15 | Nadjiwan | Homecoming
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Are we alone in the universe? Recent evidence is increasingly telling us no, although that’s something many Indigenous peoples have been saying for centuries. On his new album Star Nation, Nadjiwan, of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, channels stories he grew up hearing of “star people” into 10 songs that deliver a mind-blowing sonic journey into the outer limits, a “space-rock opera” underpinned by traditional Indigenous musical elements. As Marc Meriläinen, the Toronto singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and all-around visionary better known as Nadjiwan says, “Humans have always questioned and wondered about both our purpose and origins in the universe. There are numerous stories in Indigenous cultures of the ‘star people’ visiting us throughout history with the purpose of teaching us a greater understanding of not only the universe, but ourselves. In short, we ultimately come from the stars.”
16 | Paolo Di Carlo | Never Enough
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Paolo grew up in Niagara Falls, in a musical family. He started banging on pots and pans when he was two and soon started getting his hands on any instrument he could find, beginning with drums. In 2021 he decided to start recording his ideas he’s been writing over the last few years, and will release his first EP in the summer. Paolo has struggled with partial deafness his whole life, and as such has a unique sound and a voice that doesn’t fit the mold. With a very broad music spectrum of inspiration, his songs are unique and varied, with each one fitting a different genre. They run the gamut of singer / songwriter, folk, chamber, indie, rock, heavy rock, and more.”
