Acid Dad first appeared in the New York scene in 2016. After spending the year self-releasing demos recorded at their studio in upstate New York, the band garnered local praise from the likes of Oh My Rockness, Consequence of Sound, BrooklynVegan, Stereogum and more. At the outset of 2017, the band began writing, demoing and recording with the intention of creating their debut full length. Now part of the Greenway Records family, their debut LP is slated for a March 2018 release followed by a world-wide tour. NYC’sAcid Dad are following 2016’s Let’s Plan A Robbery EP with their self-titled debut album on March 9th via Greenway Records . As their name hints, Acid Dad are a psychedelic rock band, but they don’t get too trippy. Lead single “2Ci” is just a catchy dose of guitar pop, and you can check that one out now.
The Self Titled Debut LP from NYC freaks Acid Dad
Out March 9th, 2018 via Greenway Records
Brooklyn noise-pop duo Sleigh Bells – vocalist Alexis Krauss and guitarist Derek Edward Miller – have shared their new video, directed by Miller, for ‘Favorite Transgressions’, taken from last year’s ‘Kid Kruschev’ mini-album. Last year, Sleigh Bells released a new mini-album, Kid Kruschev, and today they’ve shared a video for one of the tracks from it, “Favorite Transgressions.” It was directed by the duo’s own Derek Miller, and it acts as a sort of frantic, bloody eulogy for both him and Alexis Krauss who, according to the video, both died in a car crash in Florida in 1999
Drift is the seventh full-length by NYC rock polymaths The Men, and it marks their 10th anniversary as a band. The Men’s last album, the self-released Devil Music, was the sound of a band who had been through hell hitting reset and looking to their roots to rediscover themselves. On Drift, The Men return to their longtime label Sacred Bones Records and explore the openness that Devil Music helped them find.
The immediately evident result of that exploration is the experimental quality of much of the material on Drift. Songwriters Mark Perro and Nick Chiericozzi chase their muses down a few dozen thrilling rabbit-holes over the course of the album’s nine tracks. The songs on Drift veer in a number of directions, but notably, almost none of them feature a prominent electric guitar. The lone exception, “Killed Someone,” is a rowdy riff-rocker, worthy of the finest moments of the band’s now-classic Leave Home and Open Your Heart albums. The rest of the album drives down stranger highways. “Secret Light” is an improvisation based on an old piano riff of Perro’s. “MaybeI’m Crazy” is a synth-driven dancefloor stomper for long after last call. “Rose on Top of the World” and “When I Held You in My Arms” are paisley-hued, psyched-out jams with big, beating hearts.
We’re so stoked to announce that Brooklyn rock lifers The Men are back with their most eclectic and deeply satisfying collection of songs yet. Drift marks not only the 10th anniversary of the band, but their return to SacredBones following the self-released Devil Music. The songs on Drift veer in a number of directions, but notably, almost none of them feature a prominent electric guitar. Lead single “Maybe I’m Crazy” is a synth-driven dancefloor stomper to be played long after last call.
Nandi Rose Plunket teased the name of her second long-player as Half Waif back in June. “[The title] is the talisman we hold to heal ourselves and ward the night away,” she explained. Lavender – which follows the EP form/a on Cascine – was recorded over five months after moving to upstate New York: “I am exactly where I’m meant to be… it feels like an album I couldn’t have written before I was this age, and I wouldn’t have made the move up here before I was this age, so it’s a natural harmony of timing and need.”
She describes it as “elegy to time, the pilgrimages we take, and the ultimate slow plod towards aging. It takes place at dusk; its spirit animal is the heron, which I occasionally spied at the pond behind our summer house as the album gained shape. It’s an examination of the way we fracture over time, inside ourselves and inside our relationships – the fissures that creep along the structures we build, the tendency towards disintegration.”
In case you missed it, we recorded a collection of covers! These will be available on our EP,“Show Me How You Want It To Be”, released in November on Dangerbird Records. The EP will be available digitally on vinyl.
Slothrust impressed us last year with their album Everyone Else, and now the Brooklyn trio are following that up with an EP of covers entitled Show Me How You Want It To Be. The collection features songs by everyone from Britney Spears to Black Sabbath, and they’ve also shared their rendition of Marcy Playground’s nonsensical 1997 hit “Sex And Candy,” turning it into a hard-charging, fuzzed-out rocker complete with a blistering classic-rock guitar solo.
Show Me How You Want It To Be EP tracklist:
01 “Sex And Candy” (Marcy Playground Cover)
02 “Electric Funeral” (Black Sabbath Cover)
03 “What A Wonderful World” (Louis Armstrong Cover)
04 “…Baby One More Time” (Britney Spears Cover)
05 “Happy Together” (The Turtles Cover)
06 “Let’s Stay Together” (Al Green Cover)
Nandi Rose Plunkett finds beauty in empty space. Battling with the inner-workings of identity and what it means to be alive, Half Waif is an escape into the void. Whilst her lyricism is distinctively enchanting, it’s her gorgeous, thoughtful melodies and layered instrumentation that feels like time is standing still.
Plunkett has spoken of wanting to “tear out [her] guts” and give titular form to the feelings which flow through us when in and out of relationships, and on the EP she does this time and again with an honesty that is often lacking in what’s ostensibly a synth pop record.
The breaks between notes are as meaningful as each utterance of instrument, acting as an pleading inhalation. Layers are added as she unravels each tale, throwing spectacular colour and warmth towards a hopeful conclusion. ‘Probable Depths’ thrusts neon surges into a brutal landscape, shattering nerves in its wake.
Nervous Dater are from Brooklyn New York they could be the next premiere rock & roll outfit” so says one of the two-sentence-intro that accompanies the release of the aforementioned quartet’s forthcoming new record on Counter Intuitive Records, reading like something of a throwaway line, Thankfully, however, one listen to the band’s new track Bad Spanish is enough to dissipate any sense of cynicism, leading instead to a wholehearted embrace of such a sentiment.
For “Bad Spanish” slays. From the gnarly intro of crashing drums and guitar to the more structurally refined glow of the verses, all leading to frenetic moments of release that pertinently shape their beast of a song. “It’s fine, I said, I’ll bash my fucking head through the wall so I don’t have to call you before I go to bed,” Rachel Lightner bellows with all the gutsy and glorious weight of someone who needs such words dispelled from said head and out in to the world as soon, as loud, as clear as possible. Likened to bands such as Martha and Lemuria, Nervous Dater certainly make good on such lofty comparisons here, “Bad Spanish” further ramping up the excitement levels ahead of the full record release at the end of this month.
Cale Hawkins creates his original music from a small, windowless room in Brooklyn. He is currently releasing two new songs every two months. He writes, produces, engineers and plays all the instruments except violin & cello on his songs. Cale Hawkins was that artist that bought out something a little special. This song, “The Ferryman” has some of the most sophisticated songwriting and lyrical content that I’ve heard in years. This is poetic and moving, deeply stirring far beyond what any genre convention could explain.
Past credits include work with Quincy Jones, Wyclef Jean, Nate Ruess, Blue Note Records, Nikki Yanofsky, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Grace Weber, Gabriel Garzon-Montano, Carrie Manolakos, KAMAU, and No Wyld. Hawkins is also a proud collaborator and contributor to the original music of Ben Talmi, Arthur Moon, Sulene, J3PO, and several other New York-based artists.
“Full of sharp turns, heavy lyrics, and bursts of righteous anger. A fierce will to survive animates these lean, scrappy songs.” – Pitchfork
“A hunk of sweet power pop that’s instantly delightful, but melts quickly.” – Bandcamp
“Everything about All Belief is Paradise is gripping.” – Post-TrashAfter years of playing bass in multiple bands across the Brooklyn music scene, Nicholas Cummins is releasing All Belief is Paradise, the debut full-length for their first songwriting effort, Fits. Songs that began as vocal and bass loops recorded to voice memo as a way for Cummins to express their own desires and songwriting designs, have evolved into effusive power-pop songs with the help of close pals drummer Brian Orante, Joe Galarraga (Big Ups) on guitar and Emma Witmer (gobbinjr) on bass.
All Belief is Paradise, named after a line in a Lisa Robertson’s The Weather, honors the spirit of the early material while unveiling Fits’ evolution into a fully formed band. These songs are quick, loud, and rarely content with sticking to any one style, often holding for meditative intervals before launching into full-throttle caffeinated pop. The therapeutic drive behind the songs and the genuine fun of the group’s dynamic make Paradise a rewarding listen and Fits a band that can more than hold its own. Throughout the album Fits shows they’re capable of being thoughtful and bratty, accessible and weird, and tackling it all with confidence, humor, and great hooks. Many of Cummins’ lyrics are intentionally difficult to follow, but each song conveys its own individual feeling. There’re puffy power-pop cuts like “Hot Topic,” “All The Time” and “Superdead;” moody, bassy ventures like “Drop Thistle,” “The Ground,” and “How Did You;” and urgent punk rippers like “Running Out” and “Mango;” each delivering their sentiments sonically rather than with lyrical specificity.
Kevin Devine suffers from Nice Guy Syndrome. Over the last 20 years, his smiling face has been such a reliable staple in the indie rock scene that it’s almost possible to take him and his music for granted. But over those two decades, the Brooklyn songwriter has quietly amassed a substantial catalog of solidly crafted albums. With his ninth solo effort, “Instigator”, it’s clearer than ever that it’s time to take a step back and appreciate just how talented this guy is. “Instigator’s” first half alone includes no fewer than four absolutely perfect songs. And the album’s relentless assault of catchy hooks makes its easy to overlook the fact that Devine is tackling timely and important topics like police murder and the hypocritical nature of political criticism. KevinDevine is not asking for your respect as a songwriter here.
For Kevin Devine, as for so many Americans in 2017, the lines between the political and the personal have become a little blurred. “Life is really sweet right now on the ground and really fucking insane in the air,” Devine says. At 37, the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter has learned to balance talking about the present and his past, singing about everything from his own personal trauma to government shutdowns. But with our current climate, Devine knows it’s pretty impossible to avoid the political. “It’s so omnipresent that it can’t not sneak in, and it kind of comes in through the side, but I haven’t sat down to write my nuclear war song yet or my ‘the president is a racist’ [track],” he explains. His 2016 album, Instigator, was written largely during the presidential campaign, but was recorded and released before the actual election.
“A few of the songs that are on there that are social justice songs unfortunately have aged really well, given what happened,” he notes. For instance, “Freddie Gray Blues” focuses on police brutality and institutional racism, while “No History” reflects on how little we’ve learned as a nation since 9-11. The words still resonated in 2017 — maybe more than ever — but Devine wanted to shift tone. The result: a more contextual, stripped-down re-work of Instigator called We Are Who We’ve Always Been, released in October.“It felt like the timing was right for recommunicating those [songs] with a bit more solemnity or gravity,” he says. “Everyone is just feeling their way through how to reckon with [our current reality] and how to communicate about it, I think. I know that I am.”
For his latest release, Devine sought the help of his friend and collaborator of fifteen years, Chris Bracco. Recorded in just two days, the bulk of the album is just live guitar and vocals. “The baseline thing we wanted was no electric guitar and to keep it to acoustic guitar, vocal, and harmonies,” says Devine, explaining that he wanted the album to have a direct, spare quality to it: something akin to the intimacy of a live performance. During the writing and recording process, he was immersed in Big Thief’s latest record, Capacity, listening to it on loop. “[Capacity] is actually a spare, direct-communicator record, so I’m sure that snuck in subconsciously.”
For “Freddie Gray Blues,” Devine recruited SWIVS’ Will Schalda, Jr., while Half Waif’s Nandi Rose Plunkett assisted on the cascading harmonies of “I Was Alive Back Then.” For “No One Says You Have To,” Devine recruited the Mynabirds’ Laura Burhenn. The collaborations were all pleasant surprises, especially when they came out differently than he had imagined. “I think all three of them made a cool, new painting with what they did.”
Having joined forces with Atlanta band Manchester Orchestra on the indie rock side project Bad Books — and after a short-lived tour with Brand New this fall Devine is at least temporarily focusing on his own work again.
The Fat Angel Sings 