Kississippi released one of our favorite records last year with We Have No Future, We’re All Doomed, an up-close-and-personal collection of songs that don’t just tug at heartstrings, they rip them apart. With anticipation for new material high, singer-songwriter Zoë Allaire Reynolds has now shared a snippet of a new demo over Bandcamp called “who said it first.” The sub-minute track has a simple, looping feeling as layers of guitar and synth float along with Reynold’s hypnotic, almost whispered vocals.
There’s a lot of heart in every project Maryn Jones touches. Her lyrics – which project struggles with self-doubt and depression, and a penchant for self-reliance, graceful and introspective. And her voice is powerfully expressive, whether combined with the muscular, fuzzy guitars of All Dogs – the indie punk band she fronts — or providing delicate harmonies for Saintseneca, the folk-rock group of which she’s a member. But often with those projects, the uniquely tender, vulnerable aspects of Jones‘ singing and songwriting run the risk of being buried, or, at the very least, not getting their chance to be heard.
Jones released an album called The Offer under the name Yowler in 2015, those facets were finally given space to be a centerpiece. The songs on The Offer are sparse, relying mainly on just Jones‘ voice and guitar. They’re deeply intimate and enveloping, both emotional and physical.
Maryn’s unique voice suits these songs perfectly. Here, I can’t get enough
Petal, the indie pop project of Kiley Lotz, will release a new album, Magic Gone, on June 8th. Petal is an American rock band from Scranton, Pennsylvania, currently signed to Run For Cover Records. The band consists of only one permanent member, Kiley Lotz, with the rest of the band a rotating group of musicians from other bands such as Ben and Brianna of Tigers Jaw and members of Three Man Cannon, Halfling, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, and Captain, We’re Sinking.
Recorded over the course of a month at Studio 4 in Conshocken, PA, Magic Gone is a bitingly honest look at adulthood, accountability, responsibility, and mental health and the difficulties that go along with each of them. “There comes a moment where all the paranoia, anxiety and pain become too much and you realize the structure you built to survive is no longer is going to serve you,” says Lotz of the three year period that inspired the album. “I had to make some very big life changes to make sure I didn’t die. It was not easy taking that level control over my life after spending many years worrying about upsetting others and being the best and most successful person I could be.”
Lotz songs include the themes of mental health, identity, and adulthood that inspired the record.
“Tightrope” by Petal from the upcoming album ‘Magic Gone’, out June 15th, 2018 on Run For Cover Records.
If Beach Slang is James Alex fawning over The Replacements, Quiet Slang is him head-over-heels for The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt.” Their first two and a half years as a band (2014-2016) saw them release two great EPs and two great full-length albums, and that’s not counting their cool covers EPs where they pay tribute to the artists they very openly love. If they were to put out a “greatest hits,” it’d be one of the most rock-solid punk albums of our time, and frontman (and only remaining original member) James Alex has sort of done just that with his new solo album as Quiet Slang. Titled Everything Matters But No One Is Listening, it’s stripped down versions of ten of Beach Slang’s best songs, from their first EP to their latest album, re-arranged for piano, cello, and voice.
This is an utterly gorgeous record that moves, inspires, and invites mixtape inclusion at every turn, Alex’s punk rock transformed into ethereal hymns to love and comradeship. A true delight.”
“Musically, these new versions feel totally natural, with Slang’s melodies holding up to scrutiny and the simple chord patterns leaving room for piano and cello to decorate the songs.
Beach Slang can be a raging punk band, but they’ve always had a sweet side to their songs, and that comes through loud and clear (well, quiet and clear) on Everything Matters. The songs sound beautiful with these arrangements, and in their own way, they’re just as effective as the originals. Who knew that the headbanging punk of “Filthy Luck” could work as a minimal piano ballad, or that the fist-raising “The night is alive, it’s loud and I’m drunk!” shouts of “Noisy Heaven” could flow so gorgeously into a sea of cello? It’s a really special record, one that could easily appeal to longtime Beach Slang fans and newcomers alike, and we’re excited to be premiering a stream of the whole thing. Listen, along with the just-released video for “Future Mixtape For The Art Kids,” .
Considering that, there’s something almost cheeky about the title of his new project: Quiet Slang. As the name implies, Alex is embracing minimalism, smothering the fuzz in favor of a cello, a piano, and his voice. In October, Quiet Slang released We Were Babies & We Were Dirtbags, an EP comprised of two Beach Slang songs and two covers from The Replacements and Big Star. Consider it an introduction to what Alex calls “chamber pop for outsiders,” because it simply serves as prelude to Everything Matters But No One Is Listening, a collection of 10 Beach Slang covers that’s set to drop on May 18th.
That’s when he turned to the project’s key influence: The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt. Merritt’s influence lent itself not only in his heartrending use of cello and piano via his work with the Fields, but also in one of his most famous lyrics. “Why do we keep shrieking/ When we mean soft things?” goes the final lines of “100,000 Fireflies.” “We should be whispering all the time.”
“That just always stuck with me,” Alex says, “how quiet can sometimes be more powerful.” He continues, “If BeachSlang is me fawning over The Replacements, Quiet Slang is me head-over-heels for Stephin Merritt.”
Katie Crutchfield’s southern roots are undeniable. The name of her solo musical project Waxahatchee comes from a creek not far from her childhood home in Alabama and seems to represent both where she came from and where she’s going.
Philly indie folk act Kississipi have announced the release of their upcoming debut album, ‘Sunset Blush’.
The Philadelphia-based project have announced that their debut full-length will come out in just a little over two weeks. The album’s called Sunset Blush, The opening track starts off pillowy and warm, the synths making space for Zoe Reynolds’ voice the same way she’s trying to be more accommodating for the person she’s singing about. “Up to now I’ve given all I’ve got/ You could always keep it if you want/ I’ll make myself easier to love,” she sings. The song operates in a grey area — its final hook of “I didn’t think it would be you” suggests that maybe all that change was worth it, but some of the verses seem to lean towards the other end of the spectrum, giving up too much of your independence in order to be there for someone else. That’s true of the constant push-and-pull of an adult relationship, though, balancing autonomy with partnership.
It will be released in April next year via SideOneDummy Records
Performed by Kississippi, Kyle Pulley.
Drums by Michael Tashjian.
Backup vocals on Cut Yr Teeth by Mary Allen.
Backup vocals on Easier to Love and Shamer by Kaylen Alan.
Backup vocals on Lash to Lash by Sofia Verbilla of Harmony Woods.
Guitar Feature on Cut Yr Teeth by Katie Capri of Fern Mayo.
Cello on Shamer by Luke Shefski.
Written over the course of 2016 and 2017 and recorded in the summer of the latter year by Frances Quinlan (songwriter/vocalist/rhythm guitar), Tyler Long (bass), Joe Reinhart (guitar), and Mark Quinlan (drums), “Bark Your Head Off, Dog” addresses disappointment, particularly in man’s misuse of power, and relates accounts from the periphery — one’s attempts to retreat from the lengthening shadows of tyrants, both historical and everyday. It considers what it’s like to cast off longheld and misguided perceptions, yet without the assurance of knowing what new ones will replace them. Much like on Hop Along’s first and second records, Get Disowned and Painted Shut, Quinlan seeks in real time to work through these issues.
Throughout the album, one gets the sense that Quinlan is wandering in the thicket of a forest—a state of being that will feel familiar to longtime listeners—and on this outing, she hasn’t left a trail of breadcrumbs behind her. The album’s artwork, which Quinlan painted herself, invites the listener into that forest, as well. “There is a terror in getting lost,” she says, “the woods are at the same time beautiful and horrifying.” This curious wandering gives the album, both lyrically and musically, a heightened dimensionality.
Bark Your Head Off, Dog is, without question, Hop Along’s most dynamic and textured record yet. Self-produced and recorded at The Headroom in Philadelphia by Reinhart and Kyle Pulley, Bark Your Head Off, Dog features the familiar sounds that have always made the band allergic to genre: grunge, folk, punk, and power pop all appear, with inspiration from ELO to Elvis Costello to ‘70s girl group vocal arrangements. This time around, they’ve added strings, more intricate rhythms, lush harmonies (featuring Thin Lips’ Chrissy Tashjian), along with a momentary visit with a vocoder. In more than one place, Mark Quinlan drums like he’s at a disco with Built to Spill.
Most significantly, Bark Your Head Off, Dog shows the band at its strongest and most cohesive. Hop Along (which originally began as Quinlan’s solo project under the moniker Hop Along, Queen Ansleis) has never sounded so deliberate, so balanced. “So strange to be shaped by such strange men” is a line that repeats on more than one song on the album. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot. That I just deferred to men throughout my life,” Quinlan says. “But by thinking you’re powerless, you’re really robbing yourself. I’m at a point in my life where I’m saying instead, ‘Well, what can I do?’”
Pittsburgh’s Same capture the DIY energy of artists like Jeff Rosenstock but with a bit more of Oso Oso’s melodic songwriting. Their EP Weird As Hell in summer 2016 was rad, and since then I’ve been waiting for some new tunes. Well, . Same are releasing “Is Midnight” as a single with the promise of more new tracks coming your way soon. Here is a bit from the band about the recording process and the single art:
“We had the opportunity to record this single during a day off while we were on tour in Boston, MA with Sean Cahalin, who was super professional and easy to work with. When we first got into town we went to Winthrop Beach and walked around, which is where we took the album photo, actually. Using that photo for the single art really ties everything together for us, and we feel like this release perfectly captures the vibe of our experience in Boston on that tour–going to the beach, playing a show with our friends, and recording ‘Is Midnight’”.
Shamir has released a surprise 8-track album called Resolution. A heavy, guitar-leaning effort, the album follows Shamir’s recent “double A-side” single “Room,” which is now also available on his Bandcamp. Last year, Shamir released his album Revelations on Father Daughter Records after a dispute with XL Records.
He also shared his new previously-announced 7″ EP called Room. The latter features the title track on the A-side and “Caballero” on the B-side. Listen to both projects below. Resolution marks the singer’s third album in two years, following last November’s Revelations and last April’s Hope (which was also surprise released). Shamir and Mac DeMarco are set to release a joint 7″ vinyl for Record Store Day 2018(April 21st), featuring their respective covers of Beat Happening songs. Its pointedly political and personal. The opener, “I Can’t Breathe,” paints a chilling picture of police brutality and the lack of consequences perpetrators often face with heavy allusion to Eric Garner and Tamir Rice. “Panic” and “Dead Inside” deals frankly with anxiety and depression, and Shamir made sure mental health has been at the forefront of conversations about his new music.
Since self-releasing Hopeon SoundCloud in April 2017, Shamir has improved as a songwriter across each project, tackling heavy topics both personal and social with deftness and grace. The guitar tone and production on Resolutionare gritty and textural, a perfect juxtaposition for his feathery falsetto, making it a fascinating record both thematically and sonically.
Shamir has returned from whence he came, with two new songs that celebrate this one of a kind artist’s love of country music. Out now on Father/Daughter Records both as a limited 7” vinyl and digital release, Room features the first two new tracks from Shamir since the DIY darling’s critically acclaimed November 2017 album Revelations. The two songs onRoom are produced by Big Taste, the Los Angeles based songwriter, producer, and vocalist who has worked with Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa, and Adam Lambert.
The A-side is the twang tinged title track, which has the accidental popstar self-harmonizing in an upbeat ode to the stillness & confusion depression can bring. It’ll move both your heart and your hips wildly in unison. The B-side is the galloping “Caballero” with a guitar riff that runs like a wild stallion off into the sunset. Shamir kicks-up desert dust with relatable lyrics like “Cuz I don’t wanna be in like with you because it turns to love and all lovers do is fall out of love, cuz everything ends and you’re stuck having to begin again.”
Released March 9th, 2018 Shamir , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rock and roll is sort of my consolation prize for wanting to have been a writer,” says James Alex. It’s a humble admission from the frontman of Philadelphia’s Beach Slang, a fiery punk quartet whose raucous gigs often find the songwriter’s earnest lyrics bellowed back at him. Beach Slang’s “Play it loud, play it fast,” goes the mission statement that is the opening to “Future Mixtape For The Art Kids,” “Play me something that will always last.” Everything about Beach Slang is loud, from the guitars to its attitude to Alex’s weathered rasp.
Considering that, his newest project : Quiet Slang. As the name implies, Alex is embracing minimalism, smothering the fuzz in favor of a cello, a piano, and his voice. In October, Quiet Slang released We Were Babies & We Were Dirtbags, an EP comprised of two Beach Slang songs and two covers from The Replacements and Big Star. Consider it an introduction to what Alex calls “chamber pop for outsiders,” because it simply serves as prelude to Everything Matters But No One Is Listening, a collection of 10 Beach Slang covers that’s set to drop on May 18th.
The project’s seeds were planted just six months afterBeach Slang’s formation, when Alex was asked to a solo Tiny Desk Concert for NPR. “That was just me, my guitar and a clumsy excuse for charm. But, yeah, the response was beautifully unexpected and really nudged my thinking,” he says. “Even now, at almost every show we play somebody’s like, ‘I got turned onto your band from that NPR thing. You should make a record like that.’” A successful solo tour last year solidified the idea in Alex’s mind, but he says he wasn’t content to make a “campfire record,” elaborating that he “wanted it to have more weight than that.”
That’s when he turned to the project’s key influence: The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt. Merritt’s influence lent itself not only in his heartrending use of cello and piano via his work with the Fields, but also in one of his most famous lyrics. “Why do we keep shrieking/ When we mean soft things?” goes the final lines of “100,000 Fireflies.” “We should be whispering all the time.”
“That just always stuck with me,” Alex says, “how quiet can sometimes be more powerful.” He continues, “If BeachSlang is me fawning over The Replacements, Quiet Slang is me head-over-heels for Stephin Merritt.”
Alex linked up with longtime co-producer Dave Downham for the project, who worked with him in bringing on cellist Dan Delaney and pianist Keith Giosa. Rounding out the crew were Stacey Downham, Matt Weber, CharlieLowe and New Jersey quartet The Warhawks, who lent their voices to evoke what Alex describes as a “back alley choir.”
The songs that spoke first and foremost to Alex were songs that he feels never quite achieved the vision initially had for them: “Future Mixtape for the Art Kids” and “Warpaint,” both from 2016’s A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings.
“I was really proud of those things when I wrote them, but, once they left my home studio, something sort of slipped away. When they went loud, they never quite found the emotion I knew was tucked inside of them. For those two, specifically, I knew I wanted another crack.”
A good thing, too. “Future Mixtape For the Art Kids” is a rousing document of rebellion on A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings, but the subdued strings and soft piano of Quiet Slang reveal a love story among outsiders, a midnight connection in dim streets as beautiful as they are cruel. And while the gritted teeth of “Warpaint” remain in its quiet rendition, the empathy coursing through Alex’s call to strength and spirit here conquers his anger.
“Warpaint,” and the album itself, closes with the last verse being played in reverse, a choice that helps to further distinguish Beach Slang from Quiet Slang. If the former is concerned with living as presently as possible, the latter feels like a spiral of memory, an attempt to remember the rush through the bleary eyes of a hungover morning after. It’s the walk home after a night that you know you’ll never live again, and the confusing mess of triumph and melancholy that covers it.
“I wanted the record to end not with a word, but a feeling,” he says, “even if it’s uneasy or hopeful or whatever. Just some weight of feeling.”
Though a new Beach Slang record is next up on Alex’s docket, he’s open to the possibility of more Quiet Slang. The project’s sophomore release, he notes, would contain original songs. “I guess I wanted to chase reinterpretation first. I dug the challenge of it. But, yeah, Quiet Slang deserves its own voice.”
Regardless of its future, however, he hopes the project can convey one simple thing: “Tenderness. I suppose that sounds overly simplified. But, still, it makes it no less sincere. Look, I’m trying to soften the world a little bit—there’s worse ways to be remembered.”
The Fat Angel Sings 