Melbourne-artist Sandy Hsu releases her stunningly bold and soothing new EP, “She Comes to Me in a Fever Dream”.
In the lead up to Sandy’s new EP, her single Angel Energy has reached #2 on the AMRAP charts, and the vivid and nostalgic Limbo was premiered by Frankie Magazine and featured on Purple Sneakers who described her music “beautifully effortless”. A transitional and reflective release, She Comes To Me In A Fever Dream explores themes of tenderness, strength, femininity, change and self-reconciliation. Sandy describes the release as having ‘many moments of inward looking, observing my own growth and possibly how that reflects outwardly’.
Taken from the forthcoming EP She Comes To Me In A Fever Dream (Healthy Tapes), Sandy Hsu’s second single ‘Angel Energy’ is a reminder that change, while potentially overwhelming, can also be beautiful.
Hsu has realised that she knows nothing, and has accepted this, embracing growth, learning and transformation. Hsu’s lyrics bleed self-awareness, sometimes harshly so, and she threads them delicately through a swirling, ethereal mist.
Sandy Hsu’s upcoming EP She Comes To Me In A Fever Dream is out via Healthy Tapes digitally and on limited cassette on September 26th.
Screaming Females are releasing a collection of their “complete non-album recordings, ”Singles Too”, on Don Giovanni Records. They share “Pretty Okay,” from their 2008 split 7″ with Full of Fancy. Originally out October 18th, “Singles Too” collects Screaming Females’ complete non-album recordings, gathering together early 7” singles, digital-only b-sides, and one pretty great remix. The download and CD will also feature six cover songs, including the New Jersey trio’s takes on music by Neil Young, Taylor Swift, Sheryl Crow, and Patti Smith. The vinyl version of the album will be a one-time pressing limited to 1500 copies.
The tracklist also provides a roadmap of the band’s progress through 15+ years of music-making — tracking Screaming Females from their early days playing New Brunswick basement shows into life as a full-time band with a tour schedule rigorous enough that their van earned its own New York Times profile.
“On the first single we ever put out, there were mistakes that I made playing guitar that make me want to crawl into a hole and die,” says guitarist Marissa Paternoster, recalling the sessions for “Arm Over Arm” and “Zoo of Death.” “At the time I didn’t know I was allowed to say, ‘Can I do that again and correct it? I was 19, giving it my all.” On Singles Too, you can hear Screaming Females lay it down at Milltown, NJ’s post-apocalyptic recording-on-a-budget one-stop, The Hunt — tin roof, flammable mixing board, DIY growlab housed in back of Marshall cab — AND at posh Los Angeles hit-factory, East West Studios, where they convened with members of Garbage to cover “Because the Night.”
The b-sides included here also capture the breadth of the trio’s creativity, with compelling detours and tangents otherwise unrepresented in their catalogue, from Sammus and Moor Mother’s re-work of “End of My Bloodline” to the stripped down demo of Rose Mountain’s “Hopeless.”Singles Too is a rarities comp, but it’s a compelling one — a deep dive into SF ephemera, an introduction, and a history lesson all at once.
Formed in 2005, Screaming Females are Marissa Paternoster (guitar), Mike Abbate (bass), and Jarrett Dougherty (drums). They have released seven full-length albums and toured across the world.
UK psych/synthwave duo The KVB will be on their North American tour starting very soon in October 11th at San Diego and at the merch table they’ll have a new EP, “Submersion”, available as a tour exclusive. It features two new songs and remixes, including one by The Holydrug Couple. The EP will also be out digitally on October 4th via Invada Records the sweeping title track which the band say is “a melancholic, romantic and uplifting ode to closing off the distractions and turmoil of the modern world and being alone with the one you love.”
Esoteric Recordings are proud to announce the release of a new re-mastered CD & DVD collection by Birmingham band THE MOVE.“Magnetic Waves of Sound” which features a newly re-mastered 21 track CD featuring all of the Move’s UK hit singles, along with key album tracks from their four studio albums. The accompanying hour long DVD (NTSC / Region Free) in this collection is a true first, and features 21 appearances on BBC TV and German television and a promotional film, all shot between 1967 and 1970. These include a performance of‘Fire Brigade’ on Top of the Pops from February 1968 and the band’s entire Colour Me Pop performance for BBC 2 from January 1969. Also featured is a rare promotional film of ‘I Can Hear the Grass Grow’, a trio of songs performed live from the German TV show Beat, Beat, Beat (recorded in June 1967) and a fine selection of Move appearances on the German TV show Beat Club, all gathered together on DVD officially for the first time.
Esoteric Records have addressed all the aforementioned and this new package is just excellent.
With 2 discs, the first being audio with 21 tracks in chronological order from debut Deram single ‘Night of Fear’ right thru to ‘Do Ya’ (with Jeff Lynne and later reworked for ELO). ‘I Can Hear the Grass Grow’ ‘Flowers in the Rain’ ‘Fire Brigade’ ‘ Blackberry Way’ (a No.1) the often overlooked ‘Wild Tiger Woman’, all classic pop/rock/psyche tracks. Moving on, no pun intended! to the heavier sounds of ‘Brontosaurus’ and ‘When Alice Comes Back To the Farm’ and wrapping up with lighter Wood whimsys ‘Tonight’ and Chinatown’. Roy Woods songwriting leaps out the speakers with new clarity. The remastering on ‘Here We Go Round the Lemon Tree’ and ‘Walk Upon The Water’ revealing new subtle orchestration.
A first class result all round. And then disc 2 is a REAL bonus. For the first time on DVD 21 tracks of the band performing, some live, some lip synched on TV. There’s great clips from ‘Colour Me Pop’ ‘Top of the Pops’ and the German equivalents of ‘Beat Club’ and ‘Beat Beat Beat’. Bless the Germans for preserving (in great quality for the time) early live performances of the ‘classic’ line up of Roy, Carl, Bev, Trevor and Ace. Its a great wallow in nostalgia for those of us of a certain age! and a testament to one of the best bands of the Sixties. The fold out digipack is beautifully presented with extensive liner notes and even a fold out mini poster. So there you have it, if you’re after a Move hits and more compilation, look no further this is definitive.
Of all of the groups to emerge in Britain in the latter half of the 1960s, THE Move was arguably one of the finest. A powerful act on stage, the group were blessed with one of the most imaginative songwriters of his generation in Roy Wood.
Magnetic Waves of Sound is a fitting celebration of the legacy of The Move.
Magnetic Waves of Sound includes a lavishly illustrated booklet and features a new essay by Mark Paytress and also includes a poster.
Magnetic Waves Of Sound – The Best Of The Move: 2 Disc CD/DVD Deluxe Remastered Edition’
In October 2008, Mount Eerie and Canadian singer-songwriter Julie Doiron released a collaborative album called Lost Wisdom. They are now releasing its sequel: Lost Wisdom pt. 2 is out November 8th via Mount Eerie’s label P.W. Elverum & Sun. listen to their new song “Love Without Possession.”
Mount Eerie and Julie Doiron are to play shows together this December. According to a press release, those concerts will “likely be the only performance of this album’s material for the foreseeable future.”
In a statement, Phil Elverum discussed the themes and intentions of the new record. He refers to the death of his wife, the artist Geneviève Castrée, which inspired his last two studio albums, 2017’s A Crow Looked at Me and 2018’s Now Only. He also alludes to his marriage to Michelle Williams and their separation earlier this year. “Finding myself staring into another fire, disoriented by the changes, these songs came out,” he wrote.
Elverum continued, “I tried to make songs that did not rely at all on who I am or who I am singing about,” adding, “Knowing that anyone with internet access might have questions about my specifics, I don’t want to say anything personal that isn’t already in the songs. My fingers are crossed that when I push them out to sea they will be met with calm humane understanding. That’s what they’re about after all.”
That’s the recurring sentiment Lætitia Tamko carried with her through the writing and recording of her second album under the Vagabon moniker. Her first, 2017’s Infinite Worlds, was an indie breakthrough that put her on the map, prompting Tamko to tour around the world and quit her job in electrical/computer engineering to pursue a career in music full-time. Tamko’s self-titled Nonesuch Records debut finds her in a state of creative expansion, leaning fully into some of the experimental instincts she flirted with on the previous album. This time around, she’s throwing genre to the wind. Vagabon is a vibrant culmination of influences, emotional landscapes, and moods; a colorful and masterful statement by an artist and producer stepping into her own.
Following her 2017 debut Infinite Worlds, Vagabon (aka Laetitia Tamko) became one of the most distinct voices in indie rock. Her husky alto is warm and unforgettable. Now add indie pop to that faction of genres. Her next album, a self-titled effort, breezes through synthy breakdowns and horn numbers with ease, never content to be just one thing. Tamko’s voice remains each song’s focal point, especially on the bouncing pop numbers, but the album as a whole feels most like a low-lit mood. Hypnotic and transportive, Vagabon feels even more like Tamko’s arrival than her warmly received debut.
Presently I have a very particular flag atop my fortress of music, and one of the stars on that flag belongs to Matthew Ryan. my favourite bands still are, artists like The Alarm, The Blasters, The Clash, Elvis Costello, Prince, The Replacements, The Smiths, Springsteen, U2, The Waterboys, X…while diverse in sound and presentation, each brought something to the fore in their work, an urgency, a commitment, a sense they were communing with like-minded souls in whose hearts their work would find homes. C.S. Lewis said, “we read to know we are not alone.” These bands served this same purpose. Their albums were, and still are comfort and company, necessity and sustenance.
Matthew Ryan continues to be one of the few artists creating great music out of our strange historical moment, struggling to provide us with understanding, catharsis, faith, hope, and beauty out of unsettling times. Now, he is releasing a new EP, Fallen Ash & Embers.
Now Springsteen of course reaches back to the Sixties, as this was when he began writing and performing with bands like The Castiles and Steel Mill, but these other artists so dear to my heart also reach back to this pivotal decade regardless of their age. The Sixties gave us a naïve and hopeful idea that rock music could change our lives, and the world, that it was worthy of our passion and devotion, that it was on par with any other art form – film, literature, photography, etc.
Which brings us to Matthew Ryan. It wasn’t enough that May Day, released in 1997, was a near-perfect debut, he covered The Waterboys’ “We Will Not Be Lovers.” His version packed all the wallop of the original, and I knew we would be fellow travelers. In the more than twenty years since May Day, Ryan has produced album after album of the kind of rock music we bastards of young were weaned on: earnest and honest, impassioned and propulsive, melodic and, above all else, thoughtful. In the context of a rock and roll song, perhaps this means some things hurt more than cars and girls? That the speech of the heart is inarticulate? More than two decades on Matthew Ryan continues to rock the Casbah.
The three-song EP is “inspired by the moment we’re in, but not tied to. It’s more interested in who we’ll be after this fever breaks.”
The first song on the EP asks the question “Are You the Matador?” The song came out of a poem Ryan wrote that he later matched to music written by Doug Lancio that Ryan describes as “Spanish noir.” Ryan explains that he offers the song of “inclusion” with “acknowledgement, affection, thanks and welcoming to Hispanic and Latino people, and their cultures.”
Ryan’s got a new maxi-single out, “On Our Death Day” (he says it’s not as dark as it sounds), which also includes a Leonard Cohen cover and B-Side, “And It’s Such a Drag” (there should always be a B-Side). He’s also got an ongoing electronica collaboration, Summer Kills, with Nashville neighbors Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson of Hammock , He just goes marching on. Hear his sound, hear his voice, he’s growing stronger… “There’s always a good fight and beauty available,” he says. “part of my mission has been to dismantle mythology and still be lit up by mystery.”
Stereo Embers Magazine
“And It’s Such A Drag (2019 Band Version)” was Performed by Doug Lancio, Kelley Looney, Matthew Ryan and Aaron “The A-Train” Smith
Fallen Ash & Embers will be released October 4th, 2019
Caroline Polachek (formerly of the band Chairlift) is releasing a new solo album, “Pang”, on October 18th via Columbia Records . This week she shared another song from the album, “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings.”
Previously Polachek shared three songs from Pang. “Ocean of Tears” and “Parachute” were shared when the album was announced, with “Ocean of Tears” making our Songs of the Week list in many blogging lists. Then she shared a video for “Ocean of Tears.” The album also includes the previously shared single “Door.”
For Pang Polachek has collaborated with producer/composer Danny L Harle. “Parachute” was the first song written for the album, with lyrics inspired by a dream Polachek had “in which she accepts her own death only to find herself saved,” as a press release puts it.
“It was an incredible moment, realizing that this melody we’d written was unintentionally re-telling a dream I’d been shaken by,” says Polachek in the press release. “I went home, re-drafted the words to fit, and came back to the studio at 1am to record the vocal the same day. And that’s the take we kept. From that moment on, Dan and I knew we had a lot more work to do together.”
Polachek adds: “‘Parachute’ is about the total trust that only comes with total emergency. Like a mayfly trying its wings for the first time over a large body of water full of hungry fish… and the wings work.”
“Ocean of Tears” was the last song written for the album. The song was written by Caroline Polachek, NateCampany, and Kyle Shearer and produced by Caroline Polachek, Danny L Harle, and Valley Girl, with additional production by A. G. Cook.
In the press release Polachek says, “‘Ocean of Tears’ is dedicated to the sharp pain of being in love with someone far away, and the maddening doubt that comes with it.”
She adds: “I’d really like someone to figure skate to this at the 2022 Winter Olympics.”
Pang will be Polachek’s first album released under her own name, although she did release, Arcadia, a solo album as Ramona Lisa, in 2014, as well as an instrumental Ramona Lisa album, Drawing the Target Around the Arrow in 2017. Chairlift announced in 2016 that they were splitting up and they played some final shows in 2017.
Half Moon Run’s newest single, “Flesh and Blood”, balances gorgeous harmonies with strikingly clean acoustic guitar and honest lyrics. The song is about learning to love someone and learning to accept love, both from yourself and others. The powerful song, from their upcoming album “A Blemish In The Great Light”, perfectly captures the band’s indie rock sound, with foot-tapping guitar and percussion as well as refreshing piano and guitar melodies. Half Moon Run a video to accompany Flesh and Blood on September 16th, which will showcase the band members’ relationships with each other and provide viewers a glimpse at the creative processes used to craft the song and album.
Half Moon Run’s new album, “A Blemish In The Great Light”,
Band Members
Devon Portielje, Conner Molander, Dylan Phillips, Isaac Symonds
Music Video for “Flesh and Blood” by Half Moon Run
On Friday, emerging singer-songwriter Katie Pruitt released a new single entitled “Expectations” as well as a corresponding music video. The single is the first off of Pruitt’s debut album coming from Rounder Records. While the details of the album haven’t been released, Pruitt has garnered enough buzz and excitement from her live shows and 2018’s OurVinyl Live EP that this name-yet-to-be-revealed record could be an electrifying debut.
The single demonstrates what Pruitt does best: blend indie rock, Americana and solid songwriting. With a sound that can almost be compared to Pinegrove meets Lori McKenna, “Expectations” is a feel good song that fits right into Pruitt’s canon of addressing human topics such as religion, mental health, and love. It’s hard not to feel a sense of relief when you hear Pruitt’s smooth voice exclaim:
“Some days I don’t know who to trust / In the rain my spirit starts to rust / she said ‘you’re being way too generous / with all the fucks you’re giving.’”
Katie Pruitt is the newest star of modern Americana. She grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta with a conservative family, attending Catholic school. “Expectations” carries us through her self-discovery away from home, as she comes to terms with her sexuality and navigates the transition to adulthood. “I wanted to be honest / I wanted to be brave,” she sings on the track, “Georgia,” “But if my grandmother knew / She would roll in her grave / And my father would scream / He’d scream out in rage / He did not want a daughter whose soul wasn’t saved.” The tension that defined her coming-of-age is translated perfectly into music; her voice glides with ease the tone of a lullaby to that of a rock song, while the band seems to hang on each word. It’s not often that you see a debut record that introduces an artist so perfectly both musically and personally; each song is purposeful and necessary to tell Pruitt’s story.
Katie Pruitt – Expectations from the forthcoming album “Expectations”, out 2/21/20 on Rounder Records
