VALLEY QUEEN – ” My Man “

Posted: December 30, 2018 in MUSIC
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Valley Queen – “My Man” It’s a band of distinguishable characters, and that is no exception when it comes to their main vocalist, Natalie Meadors. She seems to be the glue that holds the manic energy together, even though she is jumping on speakers and dancing around too. Her sultry vocals weave in and out of the pounding guitar lines, with an onstage confidence that is incredibly enrapturing. You can’t help but watch as the frantic chaos on the verge of total collapse manages to hold on, and you feel the catharsis of just letting go and getting swept away..Valley Queen invites you into their overwhelmingly sensory environment, where to dance and move will cure any temporal blues

Veteran and established artists dominated the music scene this year. Look at all the “Best Of” or “Favorites” lists, and newcomers barely occupy them. One band, however, was able to crack through this nearly impenetrable wall. It sure helps that Valley Queen‘s debut album, Supergiant, is a contemporary indie-rock classic.

The record is highlighted by a holy trinity that would rival any one-two-three combination in history. “Supergiant”is indie-rock perfection. It is anthemic yet gritty, rocking yet euphoric with front woman Natalie Carol’s siren-like vocals cutting through the blazing melody. Like Big Thief’s and Angel Olsen’s grandest anthems, “Chasing the Muse” commences delicately before slowly growing into a face-melting, titanic rocker. The emotional roller coaster “Ride” completes the trio, filling every space with searing guitar riffs and Carol’s bone-chilling delivery.

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Beyond these three are other stellar tracks. Autumn-like touches a la Fleetwood Mac filter through “Bedroom”while a calm, summertime atmosphere percolates on “Carolina”. Jubilation erupts on the short but blazing “Boiling Water”. On the other side of the spectrum, the tender and stripped-back “Gems and Rubies” is stunning at its floor and incredibly engrossing at its ceiling. This is also another way to describe Supergiant, which is flawless. It is a transcendent piece of emotional indie rock that reminds us music can be anthemic, beautiful, moving, and powerful.

Supergiant is out on Roll Call Records,

Band Members
Natalie Carol – Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar
Neil Wogensen – Bass/Vocals
Shawn Morones – Guitar/Vocals
Mike DeLuccia – Drums

KIRAN LEONARD – ” Unreflective Life “

Posted: December 29, 2018 in MUSIC
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Despite having released two records prior, Kiran Leonard’s latest album Western Culture is his first professional studio album and his first with the backing of his live band. Though assisted by some additional players, Leonard contributes the lion’s share of instrumentals with everything from guitar, organ, piano, violin and vocals to sandpaper, goat bells and frying pan. After releasing a five-movement concept album last year, Western Culture is similarly elegant, but far more expansive and pop-oriented. Leonard’s brand of baroque pop-tinged rock is both astoundingly pretty and wildly vigorous. Tracks like “The Universe Out There Knows No Smile” and “Working People” sound almost too highbrow and meticulously composed to be considered rock, yet too dogged to be classified as classical or baroque-pop. Western Culture isn’t just a gorgeous album of nuance, it’s also laced with musings on the recurring problems plaguing the populace like the lack of communication and feelings of alienation.

Unreflective Life is taken from Kiran Leonard’s forthcoming new album WESTERN CULTURE, out on Moshi Moshi Records on 19th October

LUCA BRASI – ” Stay “

Posted: December 29, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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A standout from the Tasmanians’ fourth album, “Never Better” is a reflection on facades and brave faces. If we’re ever asked if we’re okay, all of us have used the titular phrase as means of reassurance. Here, vocalist Tyler Richardson removes the veneer and draws in listeners with some of his most brutal, honest lyrics: “Every effort feels so tired and rehearsed,” he laments at one point; “I’m coming apart at the seams,” he confesses at another. His bandmates drawback and venture into more restrained, twinkly musical territory to ensure these words are crystal clear. Songs like “Never Better” matter.

If preceding LP’s Extended Family and By A Thread sound like a young band experimenting excitingly with the elements of punkrock, If This Is All We’re Going To Be sees the band nail their unique, cracking formula. They’ve perfectly married melody, their trademark meandering guitar lines and self-examining lyrical content with the foundational punk and rock ideals that inspired the band. 

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CAOILFHIONN ROSE – ” Awaken “

Posted: December 29, 2018 in MUSIC
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Singer/songwriter Caoilfhionn Rose released her debut album, Awaken, a few months ago via Gondwana Records. Rose also contributed vocals to the Durutti Column’s latest album, 2014’s Chronicle XL. Awaken is a cavernous folk-pop album with touches of swirling psych guitars and Rose’s breathy, almost jazz-like vocals. The album’s expansive production really compliments Rose’s sprightly, glimmering pop vocals. She’s a supremely talented vocalist and her meticulous lyrics cultivate a woodsy, mystifying beauty. There’s also a distinct ambient dream-pop bent to these songs with Rose’s wispy vocal melodies and lush guitar lines. Awaken may not be a big-label release, but Rose possesses the songwriting abilities and artistic intrigue of a much more high-profile musician.

Caoilfhionn (pronounced Keelin) Rose’s debut single Awaken is out now on Gondwana Records.

Unravelled’, taken from Caoilfhionn Rose’s debut album ‘Awaken’.

The BLINDERS – ” Columbia “

Posted: December 29, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Nasty Man Creations presents The Blinders Columbia. Doncaster bred and Manchester based, The Blinders are Thomas Haywood (guitar, vocals, word), Charlie McGough (bass guitar), Matthew Neale (drums, backing vocals). Influenced as much by the daily news as music, their impact, even at this early stage, cannot be over stated. The trio met at school and were originally inspired by local heroes Arctic Monkeys, though for Columbia, which was produced by Gavin Monaghan at Magic Garden Studios in Wolverhampton, they draw on influences as diverse as The Smiths, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and Kanye West. Columbia is bracingly thrilling debut which firmly places The Blinders at the vanguard of a new generation of politically engaged British guitar bands. Loosely based around the concept of Columbia as “an alternate world informed by reality”, on the album The Blinders display a ferocious intelligence, as influenced by history, literature and art as they are by Britain’s current political and economic woes.

Thomas sat down for an acoustic rendition of I Can’t Breathe Blues featured on our forthcoming LP.

Brave New World (acoustic)

Thomas sat down for an acoustic rendition of Rat In A Cage featured on our forthcoming LP.

The Blinders released their highly-anticipated debut album, Columbia, earlier this year via Modern Sky. Originally from Doncaster, this now Manchester-based trio takes lyrical inspiration from dystopian science fiction, beat poets, modern-day political turmoil and societal outcasts while echoing the doomy musical mannerisms of Nick Cave and the sinister desert rock of Humbug-era Arctic Monkeys. One of their earliest tracks “ICB Blues” commemorates the brutal killing of Eric Garner by police while “Brave New World” pays homage to the Huxley novel of the same name and pokes fun at Trump’s ludicrous border-wall proposal. Frontman Tom Heywood’s clever, offbeat growls position him as prophetic town crier while vigorous guitars circle around him like a pack of hungry wolves. Columbia is what you get when a young rock band grows up on Bob Dylan, but decides to make something saltier and with an added pinch of danger.

BEACH SKULLS – ” Sacred Citrus “

Posted: December 29, 2018 in MUSIC
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Beach Skulls don’t just make breezy dream pop, they also have a ramshackle, surfy garage-rock side that counterbalances the saccharine with some bitterness. Their first LP, Slow Grind, came out in 2016, and their latest album Las Dunas dropped this year. Las Dunas brings more prominent touches of neo-psych and Spanish and American garage, and though they hail from Manchester, a city of grey skies, their murky soundscapes have an unmistakable sunny glow. Singer and guitarist Ry Vieira’s vocals are elegant, pretty and almost feminine while his guitar influences span many decades with flickering garage pop melodies and at times leisurely rhythms and other times sputtering freak outs. Beach Skulls’ cinematic aesthetic is full of sandy imagery, bittersweet sonics and alluring personality.

Ry Vieira – vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar (all tracks)
Jordan Finney – drums, percussion, backing vocals (all tracks)
Dan West – bass guitar, backing vocals (all tracks)
Lara Boundy – backing vocals (tracks 2, 6 and 10)
Lucy James – backing vocals (track 6)

“Sacred Citrus”, taken from Beach Skull’s new album “Las Dunas”

SUPERMERCAT – ” Johnny Rack “

Posted: December 29, 2018 in MUSIC
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Los Angeles trio Supermercat shared thee new track “Johnny Rack,” their second song ever released, following debut single “Egg.” The band describe themselves as “friendly punk with a dash of Sheryl Crow,” a description that sounds just about perfect. “Johnny Rack” has the pulsing energy of a road song with the sharp edges of a glammed-out punk song, like if someone took a flamethrower to Crow’s “All I Wanna Do” and covered the charred remains in spikes and glitter. Singer Alexa Carrasco’s jumpy vocal delivery is just about the best thing about the song. “Back to Johnny Rack / a stack of papers on his back / he gets an NDA from / everyone he ever met,” she sings, jumping octaves and beats like a muscle car shifting gears while the guitars pump interminably ahead beneath her.

Vocals: Alexa Carrasco 
Guitar & Bass: Matty McNamara 
Drums: Cory Bernard 

HELLO JUNE – ” Hello June “

Posted: December 29, 2018 in MUSIC
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With warm, memorable riffs and idyllic lyrics “Mars,” is the lead-off track from Hello June’s self-titled debut. dreams aren’t always as they seem, and Hello June’s Sarah Rudy, assumes, almost grimly, “that there’s so much more than we know / that there’s so much more to fear.” Vocalist/guitarist Rudy and drummer Whit Alexander, who met in their shared apartment building in Morgantown, W.V., don’t tarry on their very first album—within the first few bars of “Mars,” they already appear as a poised musical force. Like The Cranberries and other heroes of sweeping ‘90s guitar rock, Hello June are adept at drawing maximum emotion from just a few simple riffs. They manage to make vast, planetary ponderings feel like a devoted promise: “As soon as you hear / that there’s life up on Mars / that there’s more out there,” Rudy sings. “I’ll catch a plane / Or I’ll walk there. It’s a glorious bygone era of alt-rock and romantic comedies, the blustery twinkle of Hello June offers up eight autumn anthems. But while the romantic comedy may be dead, indie rock sure isn’t.

“Mars seems hopeful—optimistic in a way that is neither saccharine nor cloying. Rudy does not ignore suffering in her songwriting, but, in “Mars,” she is lifted by a resilient buoyancy that is as contagious as it is sincere.”

Hello June were recently announced as an NPR’s SlingShot artist of 2018. “Dance” was also previously featured on NPR’s “Heavy Rotation,”list  along with other acts including Jason Isbell, Black Lips, and Phoebe Hunt & the Gatherers. “Dance” has been dubbed “contemplative and multi-layered,” as well as, “shimmery, bright, and blissful rock” by the NPR Mountain Stage producers. The band’s sound has said to have underpinnings of Jason Molina, Beach House, Real Estate, and Modest Mouse. “Spruce,” Hello June’s first full length EP came out June 1st, 2017 and can be ordered at Hello June’s bandcamp page.

Band Members
Sarah Rudy – Guitar, Vocals,
Whit Alexander- Drums,

VELVET CRUSH – ” In The Presence Of Greatness ” Reissue

Posted: December 29, 2018 in MUSIC
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Reissue of the debut Velvet Crush LP from 1991, originally released on Creation Records. Recorded & Mixed on 8 Tracks by Matthew Sweet, Princeton, New Jersey 1990-91.

From the liner notes by Ric Menck:
“Paul, Jeffrey and I worked out the songs together at our rehearsal space in Providence, Rhode Island. Someone would come in with the germ of an idea and we’d figure out the arrangement together. When we came up with at least three or four decent tunes we’d hop in the van and drive to Matthew’s. Once there, we set up in his living room facing one another, and it usually took two or three takes to capture a performance. Matthew overdubbed his lead guitar bits later. In all, we recorded the entire record in three quick weekend sessions”.

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Reissue – released October 5th, 2018, Produced by Matthew Sweet And Velvet Crush.

Paul Chastain: Bass & Vocals
Ric Menck: drums
Jeffrey Underhill: Guitar
Matthew Sweet Guitar & Harmony Vocals

TAYLOR JANZEN – “

Posted: December 29, 2018 in MUSIC
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When a young artist can make your knees buckle like Julien Baker and Stella Donnely or get you rollicking with an old-school alt-country tune à la Kathleen Edwards, her future is undoubtedly limitless. Winnipeg-based singer-songwriter Taylor Janzen made us weep and excited with songs like “Stations”, “Waiting Room”, and “New Mercies”. Her excellent debut EP, Interpersonal, caused us to imagine her gracing the stages of not just the acclaimed Winnipeg Folk Festival. We can see her leaving the audiences at Newport Folk Festival and Pickathon completely silent and in awe of her brittle folk-rock.

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