New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
Ands has released the lead single, "Wallet & Waltz", from their forthcoming debut EP “Trust” which is due out August 6th.
The single is accompanied by a video directed by Jess Price (of Doomflower & Campdogzz).
This is the work of Dustin Currier (Vocals + Guitar), Kortland Chase (Vocals + Guitar), William Covert (Drums), and Sam Edgin (Bass Guitar).
Brett Naucke has released the first single, "The Glass Shifting", from his forthcoming album, Mirror Ensemble, which is due out October 1st via American Dreams.
For this album Naucke teamed up with like-minded and extremely talented musician Natalie Chami (aka TALSounds) on Voice, Synthesizer, Organ, and Piano and Whitney Johnson (aka Matchess) on Viola, Violin and Organ.
Photo by Michael Vallera
Hardcore Punk group La Armada has released their latest EP, "Opías". The EP’s lead single is called "White Jesus" and is accompanied by the video below.
You can catch La Armada as part of Ruido Fest 2021 at Union Park on August 20th.
Joseph Chilliams of Pivot Gang has released his latest single, "Voodoo", which was produced by letmode.
This is Chilliams’ first single on 2021 and the follow-up to last year’s "Wishlist".
Serena Isioma has released the second single, "Really, Really", from her ongoing Dreamer project. The single is accompanied by the Jared Avalos directed video below.
Isioma will be performing at Lollapalooza on Saturday, July 31st, and at Lincoln Hall on September 29th.
Swim Ignorant Fire has released the lead single, "Initiation", from his forthcoming album, Bufo Alvarious, which is due out on August 6th.
This is the adventurous work of Sound Design Stephen Holliger and this new project finds him blending Field Recordings, samples, electric bass, a BOSS SP-202 to create a sound that is both tribal and world influenced and otherworldly.
photo courtesy artist's bandcamp page
Out this week is the single “Loser,” by New Jersey-born, L.A.-based artist CARR (Carly McClellan), along with an accompanying music video that takes on the perils of modern dating, the art of indecisiveness, and the disillusion behind today’s gut-wrenching romantic expectations.
The track begins with a stuttering hybrid electro-acoustic drum rhythm before CARR’s slightly languid, pleasingly vulnerable double-tracked vocal enters, along with muscular, ever-so-slightly distorted rhythm guitars, immediately evocative of early 2000s pop punk. They offer CARR’s vocal an interestingly muscular counterpoint, delivering the right amount of barely-contained aggression and spite. The pre-chorus adds a bit of hauntingly airy synth pads for emphasis, before the explosion of the chorus unleashes full, crunchy guitars and cacophonous drums, complete with cymbal bell clangs. Meanwhile her lyrics viciously call out an archetypal douchebag boyfriend, attacking everything from his lack of talent for lying, lack of friends, history of broken promises, and even his small penis.
It’s a throwback pop-punk sound in the vein of Avril Lavigne and All-American rejects, to be sure, but it’s more insular in its sound, and refreshingly free of the clichéd rock posing and guitar-slinging those acts performed. Here, the genre is used as a perfect aesthetic vehicle to express CARR’s disgust with partners who lie, cheat, or otherwise shatter her romantic hopes and expectations. In the process, she somehow miraculously transcends the tropes of the genre while being an exemplary example of the punk-pop genre.
Meanwhile, the video (directed by Natalie Leonard & Rachel Cabitt of POND Creative) is a comical—if slightly gonzo—affair, with CARR portraying a blood-soaked serial killer disposing of her most recent victim: a young man who has apparently done something to earn her ire, just one name on a list of the many male victims she’s killed an dismembered. it’s bold, but never overtly graphic, and evokes the sound and spirit of the song expertly. Here’s to hoping CARR keeps delivering top-notch, catchy guitar-powered anthems in the future. Gabe Hernandez
Snow Ellet has released his latest single, "wine on the carpet", and first since the release of his debut EP, "suburban indie rock star", back in March.
This is new single will be included on an extended reissue of Ellet’s debut which is due out on Wax Bodega on August 13th.
Dream Pop Quintet Lightfoils have released a new single called "306", their second single in as many months.
The B-Side to the single is remix from the duo Bloody Knives of the track "Summer Nights" from the group’s 2018 album Chambers.
Lightfoils is Laura Boton (Vocals), Ryan Davis (Guitar), Cory Osborne (Bass Guitar), John Rungger (Drums, Percussion), and Neil Yodnane (Guitar, Synths)
With only one single under their belt, the four-piece band from Dallas known as Abbreviations has effortlessly nailed down their musical identity. Though they can be categorized as dream-pop, the lyricism and the effectiveness of their playing makes any kind of labeling irrelevant. The musicality is undoubtedly simple, but there is an intangible magic to the song that makes it so easy to absorb, subsequently making it appealing to a mass audience. This new single puts a hypnotic spell on its listeners, leaving us to yearn for more.
Within the first minute of the song, I’m able to draw comparisons to bands like Beach House, Slowdive, and Cigarettes After Sex. Abbreviations share the same sort of atmospheric, psychedelic, and subtle textures that are associated with these other bands. There is a simplicity and space-like feeling that is homogenous with the dream-pop genre, and Abbreviations certainly possess those traits. Yet even with just one song, I can tell that they have been able to carve their own niche within this musical classification. “Turn on You” is a slightly more rock n’ roll version of your typical shoegaze tune, with the lyrical and melodic sophistication of the most iconic pop songs.
Speaking of the lyrics, Ashley Leer’s words contribute mightily to the “repeat effect” that this song produces. Sometimes with mellow, dreamy types of songs, it’s easy to lose focus on the lyrics as the music and vocals seem to flow together as one. That is unequivocally not the case with “Turn on You.” Leer provides some background to the content, saying “‘Turn On You’ is about that moment where you realize you have feelings for someone other than the one you’re with and the internal conflict that creates.” It’s possible to interpret this theme as a negative, but the self-honesty that she calls attention to ultimately brings out a positive message. It’s completely fine to think about moving on and looking to the future if that’s where your mind is wandering. Addressing these feeling are better than ignoring them and perhaps, that is what Leer is emphasizing.
While all the members have considerable experience playing in other bands in the Dallas area, the fact that they have been able to create a song with such cohesion and uniqueness as their first single is impressive to say the least. They have a sound that is familiar enough to satisfy fans of dream-pop, but they also have the musicianship and songwriting chops to engage music lovers of all kinds. “Turn on you” is just a teaser for all that’s to come from the Dallas quartet.
-Quinn Donoghue
Lorelei Dreaming has released the latest single, "To Leave This Heaven", from her forthcoming album, Future Fables, which is due out on August 20th via Distortion Productions.
This is the Dark Electro project Laura Bienz who has partnered with Katherine Durkes for this her first album since 2017.
Experimental Electronic duo Blue Lick, Havadine Stone (Vocals) and Ben Baker Billington (aka Quicksails) (Modular Synth), have released the first single, "II", from their forthcoming debut album, Hold On, Hold Fast, which is due out on September 17th via American Dreams.
Billington creates shifting, swirling soundscapes to accompany the spoken word performances of Stone. Of her writing Stone had this to say, “I was trying to express the aggression I was feeling without sounding like I had a chip on my shoulder.”
