New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
Chicago Native, Los Angeles based musician John Rossiter (aka Young Jesus) has the lead single, "Ocean", from his forthcoming album, Shepherd Head.
For this first single he is joined by the Louisville, KY based artist Tomberlin, and it shows the unique recording approach he took for this project. He used found sounds, recording random people on the street, and experimenting with white noise. The result is a beautiful first offering.
This August Age has released the first single, "Paradise", from his forthcoming debut album Artifacts which is due out this Fall.
This is the piano-driven Indie Pop of Singer/Songwriter Ryan Klockner.
Emily Jane Powers has released a new album called "Always". This album comes in at just over twelve minutes and is intended to be listened to as one continuous piece broken in to ten segments.
The album is available on most platforms, but can also be purchased on cassette which are professionally dubbed with handmade artwork. The cassette are limited to 50 and each is slightly different because Powers made them herself.
Mrisko has released his debut single, "Everybody". This is Electro Pop from the Southwest Side, and it features production from Samuel Aaron, Chris Dunn, and Mrisko.
Liska has released a new single called "Baby Blue". This is her second single of 2022, and second since the release of her 2021 EP "Jupiter (ilysm)".
The single is accompanied by the Callie Harlow directed video below.
Punk duo Calico Plaid have released their latest album, Self-Indulgent, the follow-up to 2019’s Crumbled Up.
This is the work of Camille Willaford (Vocals) and Nic Cheatle (Guitar/Bass/Drums). Self-Indulgent includes several singles including "Fruit" which was released back in December and is accompanied by the video below.
photo by Alex Howard
My only beef with Shybaby’s new single “Kiki Doesn’t Like It When You Leave Me At The Party” (“KDLIWYLMATP”) is that I wish it lasted a little longer at least because by the time Shybaby gets around to full-on caterwaulin’ and hollerin’ the titular phrase like a Lhasa Apso with its hair caught on fire the song is almost over, meaning we only get about 20 seconds of this glorious cacophony and having seen Shybaby perform live a couple times before I’m well aware cacophony is the band’s specialty…
…but don’t get it twisted cuz the song ain’t exactly Mantovanni up to that point (even tho’ Shybaby has a background as a violist!) instead it’s more an exercise in barely controlled chaos as Shybaby the band lays into the song’s main riff as if they’re the reformed Stooges recording take #78 of “T.V. Eye” as total delirium fully sets in, over which Shybaby the singular human being monologues in full-on Karen O Beast Mode about the pros and cons of polyamory (“I’d never had anyone stick around so long” versus “your glassy eyes, they looked right through me”) broken up by a couple earworm wordless hook sections that come off like a Gen Z-inflected millennial whoop…
…until finally all the built-up tension gets released in the final moments of “KDLIWYLMATP” as previously noted with the narrator realizing that something is deeply amiss when even her friend Kiki is taken aback at Shybaby’s poly paramour leaving her high and dry at the party they’d come to together to hit up an orgy with another member of the “polycule” instead, which is some Caligula-level chicanery right there but still who can’t relate on some level ammrite because like it or not whatever the flowchart of one’s relationship-related state of being happens to be, or not to be, we all just want to be loved in the end (didn’t mean it like that but…) or to at least not get our hearts broken for the umpteenth time…
…cuz whatever the risks, fears, or frustrations may be, who isn’t compelled to keep going back to the well again and again and the Shybaby song is like that too because you’ll find yourself listening to it over and over again just to feel the dopamine rush of its tension-release dynamic–and even if there’s quantitatively more of the former (tension) the latter still looms larger (release) in qualitative terms and plus its briefness only brings you back wanting more and suddenly I get why that last part is only 20 seconds long…
…and it’s all a little like getting locked inside an empty U-Haul truck while the driver goes for a joy ride, save for an old armchair, a giant bowl of Fruit Loops, and some other assorted party favors to make the ride more pleasant until getting unceremoniously curbed atop the armchair just like in the music video for “KDLIWYLMATP” co-directed by Molly Mary O’Brien and Grace Eire aka Shybaby herself. (Jason Lee)
Jackie Hayes has new single out via New York’s Pack Records called "Bite Me". This is the first new music from Hayes in 2022 and first since the release of her 2021 EP "There’s Always Going To Be Something".
Hayes will be touring Texas and California this fall.
Pop Punk group Action/Adventure has released a new single called "Meet At Our Spot". For this single, their second since the release of their 2021 debut album Pulling Focus, they enlisted the help of fellow Pure Noise musician Alex Melton.
You can catch Action/Adventure at Bottom Lounge on September 3rd opening for Fishbone.
Ifeanyi Elswith has released a new single called "Sweet Leaf". For the video she traveled to her native Belize to showcase its beauty and accompanied her lush Alt R&B single.
This Elswith’s fourth single of 2022, and forth since the release of her 2020 EP "Everything Festyle".
Jason Maska of Mischief in Stereo has released his solo debut album, Young Jaybird.
This is a collection of songs Maksa wrote over twelve years, but recently decided to bring them back to life with new layers and textures.
Jangle Pop group CalicoLoco has release a timely and poignant new single called "Zeke Goes to Lala".
This is the work of Dani Robles (Vocals/Guitar/Synthesizer), Curran Chapman (Vocals/Guitar), Sara Dodge (Bass), Zeke Ramsey (Guitar), and Ricky Georgen (Drums).
You can catch CalicoLoco performing at a DIY show venue called The Garden on August 6th with Sleeping Villains and Charlie B Atchley. You can DM the band for details.
