Premiere: Burr Oak stun with emotionally poignant and surprisingly heavy ‘Annabelle’
There’s a moment, about two-and-a-half minutes into the title track from Burr Oak‘s new EP, where everything drops out except a nervous, agitated guitar line—then, chaos and an almighty musical roar, coupled with a lurch into half-time for added effect. It’s a most unexpected twist, the entire song hinging around this extreme dynamic shift, and …
Premiere: Chiara Angelicola returns as Bird Call with the quietly devastating ‘Tiny Transistor’
We all coped differently at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. For Chiara Angelicola—the Guatemalan-Italian who’s been operating as Bird Call for about 15 years, and who should have been on the road touring her latest record, Year of the Dogfish, released a few months prior—it was an especially intense time; she was …
News: Local H share remastered ‘P.J. Soles’ from forthcoming reissue
Chicago pair Local H are celebrating a pair of important anniversaries this year. Not only is it the band’s 30th year in existence (with their most recent record being early-pandemic offering LIFERS), but it’s also 20 years since they released Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles, an album that’s getting a deserved anniversary spotlight in a …
Premiere: Cara Potiker shares dazzling new moondaddy song ‘Water Bearer’
San Diego’s Cara Potiker helms moondaddy, a six-strong project who made their debut last year with Poet Lies – a little over a year later, Potiker is planning to follow up that debut album with a more bite-size release that’s no less impressive, taking off today with a refreshingly old-school six-minute lead single. What do …
News: Dream Phases switch off on ‘Turn Away’; new album Phantom Idol out today
Los Angeles quartet Dream Phases spent the guts of the past two years at work on the follow-up to late 2021’s second album New Distractions, and that time bears fruit today with the release of its successor. To coincide with the record’s release, they’ve shared a video for ‘Turn Away’, a song about being overwhelmed …
News: Julia Gaeta shares title-track video from debut EP; ‘Blur Divine’ out now
The American-born and Paris-based Julia Gaeta released her debut single ‘Weight of You’ in 2022, and it was promising enough that we wondered when she’d be back with something more substantive; that something is finally here, in the form of her debut EP. Its title track is full of intensity and soaring drama, and Gaeta …
News: Kato Hideki & Kramer search for ‘Tranquility’, set album for August
The visual accompaniment for the first taste of Kato Hideki and (Bonner) Kramer‘s collaborative album pictures someone sitting at the end of a dock, gazing wistfully out into the sea. It’s that sort of meditative introspection that ‘Tranquility’ taps into, a quietly moving ambient piece that’s easy to get lost in and over far too …
Premiere: Frank Viele ponders ‘The Trouble With Desire’ and shares ‘Lo-Fi Goodbye’
New Englander Frank Viele has a new album coming – that shouldn’t be a surprise considering his tireless work ethic. It’s not available widely until early next year (a staggering eight months away) but there will be further singles released to tide listeners over until then. His most recent one is the excellent ‘Lo-Fi Goodbye’, …
Premiere: Brooklyn’s Gooseberry prep debut album for September, share anxious new single ‘Dying to Meet You’
Brooklyn trio Gooseberry‘s debut album is shaping up to be a must-listen. It’s not out for a few months yet, but they’ve shared an explosive new single that acts as an ideal introduction to their smoky, blues-tinted sound. ‘Dying to Meet You’ comes with a video made by Austin Koenigstein and Melissa Morrissey, and if …
Premiere: Aaron Lewis reckons with the allure of self-destruction on ‘Staircase Stomp’
New York’s The Clamor have kept busy since releasing their debut album Love & Criminals early last year. The Aaron Lewis-fronted project have followed that up with a further two singles this year and show no signs of slowing down, with more coming down the tracks in 2024. Before we get to that, though, there’s …