Hot on the heels of his debut LP and follow up 7” vinyl, Fake Laugh AKA Kamran Khan delivers yet two more bangers for the kids, in the form of another double A-Side. The driving, dream-pop bop that is “Honesty” features guest vocals from Poppy Hankin of previous tour-mates Girl Ray, whilst the skittish, social commentary of “Surrounded” hurtles along set against a backdrop of razor-sharp melodies and instant-hit hooks. Both tracks are accompanied by videos due for release across January & March.
Fresh from his recent relocation from Berlin to London and in the midst of supporting The Japanese House on their US tour, Kam continues to write and perform under the Fake Laugh alias which he humbly began in 2013. With another 7″ single planned and a 2nd album on the horizon, we recommend you stay locked!
Luluc released their debut album, “Dear Hamlyn”, in 2008; the songs were written following the death of Randell’s father. Dear Hamlyn eventually gained a large group of influential admirers. Peter Blackstock co-founder of No Depression Magazine, wrote of the album, “The most beautiful album I’ve heard in ten years.” In 2011, Nick Drake’s producer, Joe Boyd, also taken by Dear Hamlyn, invited Luluc to feature in his Nick Drake tribute tour. They contributed the tracks “Things Behind the Sun” and “Fly” to the live tribute album, Way to Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake in 2013.
Luluc went on to sign with Sub Pop Records and release the critically acclaimed albums Passerby (2014) and Sculptor (2018). This edition of Dear Hamlyn is the first time it has been available on vinyl.
Just when it seems the shadow of The Beatles can’t get any longer and everything in rock has been done before, along come Sean Lennon and Les Claypool, asking the musical question: What if, instead of ducking The Beatles, you embraced the band’s tricks the galumphing marches, the sun-dazed harmonies and then made them a little weird?
South of Reality is the second album by the duo, who perform as The Claypool Lennon Delirium. As the bassist and chief prankster of Primus, Claypool has always been a bit of a mad scientist, pushing his gawky, tottering funk-metal creations to the brink of absurdity. But he’s also a secret pop fan, who says he’s spent 30 years trying, with mixed results, to write catchy hooks. In Sean Lennon (famous son of John), Claypool has a collaborator with an instantly recognizable voice, for whom this kind of candy comes naturally.
The two began working together in 2015, after Lennon’s band, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, toured as an opening act for Primus. They released their debut in 2016, and began work on this follow-up with a week of open-ended jamming they recorded on their phones. Then, each went off and wrote songs built on those riffs.
As with The Beatles, it’s clear who the primary composer is on each tune. But Claypool says both multi-instrumentalists felt comfortable offering tweaks and suggestions during the recording. Many of the songs explore a surreal intersection — where the fitful upheavals of progressive rock collide with soaring, blissed-out refrains.
From The Claypool Lennon Delirium’s new album “South of Reality” Released February 22nd, 2019.
The hypnotically snaky guitar line in Slow Pulp’s “At Home” recalls the spare majesty of bands like Bedhead, but lead singer Emily Massey elevates it by lending the song a certain melancholy swirl. She’s the newest member of Slow Pulp, having once been brought in to sing backup and play rhythm guitar. But given that the other three players have been collaborating since elementary school, it’s no surprise that the group performs its dreamy, subtly forceful rock songs with great clarity and chemistry.
Chicago is an inspiring place, and there’s a lot of really good shows happening all the time, it’s invigorating…” Henry says. They bring an electric but dreamy energy to the scene that is quickly at home. Joining the ranks of Lala Lala, OHMME, Grapetooth, and many others, Slow Pulp brings to the table their exploration of dreamy psychedelic punk. And they seem to be taking to it well too—they played their first headlining show in Chicago on January 4th and are in the studio working on a new EP.
Brooklyn’s Public Practice burst onto the punk scene last year and subsequently made one of our favorite EPs of 2018, the electric Distance is a Mirror. Public Practice, the band featuring Samantha York and Vince McClelland of Wall as well as Beverly members Drew Citron and Scott Rosenthal, titled Distance is a Mirror and will be out via Wharf Cat Records. (two now defunct Bushwick bands), Public Practice make distorted, intoxicating rock, leading with the promise of a magnetic live show, their very danceable post-punk variant. There’s just a hint of southern swamp rock in there too, and the song zigs, zags and packs in lots of big hooks.
The full EP, “Distance is a Mirror” by Public Practice, Originally released in 2018.
01. Fate/Glory – 00:00 02. Bad Girl(s) – 02:38 03. Foundation – 04:45 04. Into the Ring – 08:26
London four-piece Honey Lung have consistently churned out hyper-melodic rock with heart and bite, and it’s not a stretch to say they’re writing fiery, tender rock better than any young band out there today. Memory, their recent 12-inch release via Brooklyn’s Kanine Records, consists of eight well-crafted songs—half of them singles and half demos—each with mind-bogglingly dynamic hooks and punchy riffs.
Honey Lung was coined upon a hazy writing session at Jamie’s house as they were listening to Jesus & The Mary Chain ‘Just Like Honey’. You’ll hear a lot of 90’s grunge, shoegaze, and alternative rock influence (Radiohead, The Smashing Pumpkins and Dinosaur Jr) in their sound as the band got into this style of music though hearing it in their parents cars. Like many young new bands, the 90’s spoke to them as it was a time they didn’t really remember, but felt a connection to.
With a do-it-yourself attitude Honey Lung wll do things on their own terms often creating to their own desires and interests. Drawing influence from Car Seat Headrest, Sparklehorse, Elliot Smith and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, the band used their charity shop guitars and a modest home recording set-up to create songs. Memory is a collection of singles, and their first ever vinyl release out on Kanine Records February 1st, 2019.
Texas singer-songwriter Hannah Read is the creative force at the heart of lo-fi folk project Lomelda, who released their third album Thx last year.
My new album ’M for Empathy’ is mostly things said or shoulda said, heard or shoulda. Much of it, and it’s just a lil, came to me, or outta me, outta a deepening silence. Something you can hear a lot of I hope. It let me voice again. It also let me not, and only sing as much as I wanted, which is important too. Making peace with the word in me, just a lil, all my might.
xo, Hannah
Tyler Ramsey has reached his widest audience during the years he spent as a guitarist and songwriter in Band of Horses, though he’s also enjoyed a creatively fruitful solo career dating back to 2005. Sometimes, that solo work has sounded like the beardily searching, Fleet Foxes-style ballad “1000 Blackbirds,” but on his new single “A Dream of Home,” the singer and multi-instrumentalist finds a sweet spot that brings to mind the lush folk-rock rambles of Damien Jurado.
Tyler Ramsey lives near Asheville, NC and likes to reflect the sweetness of his life, member of the band Band of Horses, in his music. This lush folk rock track is everything that’s right about music production in 2019.
It’s easy to come up with comparisons like Neil Young, but honestly it’s the way that Ramsey’s “complete package” comes together that has us excited. It’s what we love about others in this space like Noah Gundersen and David Ramirez. This single’s got us looking forward to the rest of the music this chill folk rocker has coming soon.
Tyler Ramsey – “A Dream Of Home” – the first single off his new solo record, For The Morning, out April 5th on Fantasy Records.
At times, Quivers‘ songs seem to emanate from the best college radio station of the 1980s: Sam Nicholson’s songs swoon and jangle with sounds of The Chills, The Go-Betweens and a dozen other Australasian bands in that vein, not to mention the radiant echoes of The Kinks. Nicholson wrote Quivers‘ new album, We’ll Go Riding on the Hearses, in the aftermath of his brother’s death. But he channels his grief into brightly rendered songs like “You’re Not Always on My Mind,” which exudes a cocktail of nostalgia and celebration.
The debut album from Quivers, “We’ll Go Riding On The Hearses”, is an album about road-trips with ghosts, loss, memories and hard-fought optimism. Originally released on hand-made cassette tapes, this album crept under my skin and made itself comfortable – this is half the reason I had to start a record label, in order to help share this with more people. I’m proud to re-release this record on 12″ vinyl, as the very first LP on the Hotel Motel imprint.
Released May 22nd, 2018 Quivers: Sam J Nicholson (songs, guitars, piano, harmonium). James Woodberry (bass, acoustic, sings). Michael Panton (guitars).
Adam D’Andrea (drums, sings).
New single released 20th February 2019, on Hotel Motel Records
Laura Stevenson’s last album, 2015’s Cocksure, found the singer beefing up her stripped-down sound with big guitars. A follow-up called The Big Freeze comes out at the end of March, and it heralds a return to Stevenson’s more finely detailed, wrenchingly intimate songwriting. The title refers to an eventual freezing of the universe which makes sense, given that she recorded it in the dead of winter — as well as to the ways relationships strain against emotional and physical distance. In first listen is the song “Living Room, NY,” she longs for a connection to the small details of everyday life with a long-distance partner, singing, “I want to see you stare at ceilings until you fall back to sleep.”
Recorded in her childhood home during the dead of winter, The Big Freeze represents a pivotal step for New York songwriter Laura Stevenson. Despite her pedigree in the punk and indie rock scenes, and the occasional inclusion of a backing band (like the sprightly, C86-inspired pop track “Dermatillomania”), for the first time on record Stevenson’s voice and guitar are in clear and highlighted focus. It is a natural aesthetic choice for the musician, who has often toured as a solo act and who pulls influence from the great American songbook, and a choice that plays to the core strength and organic beauty of her writing. And though it is easily the darkest and most emotionally-devastating album of Stevenson’s career, it is also without a doubt her most powerful.
Stevenson builds on her own private worlds with choruses of multi-tracked voices, swarms of cellos, French horns and violins; orchestration that blooms and swells throughout each intimate performance. Exploring thematic ideas of distance and misconnection; worlds pulling apart, aching loneliness, and attempts to drive out hibernating dormant demons.
In the opening track Stevenson’s voice insists the listener “lay back with arms out, all-in, unfeeling,” to allow themselves to sink into a flood of instrumental sound that thrums between dissonance and resolution. From waves crashing in an abandoned waterpark on the haunting “Value Inn”, to the last leaves trembling before winter sets in on “Rattle At Will”, a creeping sense of isolation and anxious beauty surrounds every song. And yet there is also warmth, and hope. The album’s third track “Living Room, NY” tells of an intercontinental love and longing which seems to have the strength to thrive despite even the most trying and impossible of circumstances. Across ten tracks, the listener will travel through the cold night, following after a small but powerful flame burning from the other side.
