"What If I?" by North Carolina based Young Mister might just sweep you away in it's arms

What If I? by North Carolina based Young Mister, the musical moniker of singer-songwriter Steven Fiore is a breezy indie folk swept track the chugs along with a wanderlust heart. Propelled on percussion and an easy beat it swings and sways on country tranced guitar lines but the heart of the song is Fiore's beautiful voice that is laced with a sort of bedroom eyed romance riding the rails between the iconic effortless coolness of Rick Nelson (R.I.P) and the roots rockish earnestness of Kevin Morby. Love this song. 

His upcoming album Sudden Swoon is due out in September (2019).

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Robb Donker



THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

Young Mister, aka North Carolina-based singer-songwriter Steven Fiore, has been stitching songs together out of the tossed-off scraps of life for over a decade now. Through an 8-year stint writing for Universal Music Publishing Group, to collaborations with artists as varied as Art Garfunkel and Ryan Cabrera, to sharing stages internationally with the likes of Albert Lee, Jeff Goldblum, Pete Yorn and Lori McKenna, to independently garnering over 8 million streams across Spotify and Apple Music, his eye for detail and ear for melody has always had a habit of disarming and charming music lovers worldwide. He writes like a journalist assigned to cover the human heart; no bombast, no hyperventilating, just honest truths about love and life that can only be expressed through the inscrutable alchemy of a song — and with his newest collection, Sudden Swoon, he might have accidentally reinvented not only himself but the entire process of releasing an album in the modern age.

Armed with a small but loyal fanbase, and with a creeping feeling of disillusionment towards the music business growing in his stomach, Fiore wrote the songs that would become Sudden Swoon without knowing how, or even if he’d release them. They paint the corners of the landscape from a life teetering between youth and middle age, love that’s balanced on a shaking tightrope, and dreams that seem to turn to smoke every time they get close enough to grasp. It’s harrowing, relatable stuff. As an album with its own identity started to take shape, and the songs kept coming, he realized that just throwing them online and reaping the streams would be less than the music deserved, so he partnered up with some good friends at Refresh Records and the Young Mister Record Club was born.

While he worked on the tracks in his home studio (affectionately dubbed ‘The Study’), he also posted demos online to record club members almost as soon as they were written. After sharing twenty songs, he let the members vote on which would get the full studio treatment and a slot on the album. While this kind of crowdsourcing could be anxiety-inducing, it was also liberating, and it galvanized that fan base into an even more personal connection with Young Mister’s music. Now set for release in September of 2019, with a finalized track list full of some of his sharpest writing yet, Sudden Swoon is poised to further the career of an artist whose literate, emotional pop songs always seem to find their audience, one way or another. 

MBG, a one girl rock band churns out "What You've Done To Me" from her debut EP "Have A Alright Day"

What You've Done To Me by MBG, the one girl alt rock project of Leena Rodriguez out of Toronto is spartan stripped down rock with sharp edges albeit sort of pushed through power pop filters and while parts can feel safe and sound there are heavy forays into alternative and classic rock sounds with real punch too. Leena is a singer-songwriter / multi-instrumentalist and true one girl rock outfit. She produces her songs in her bedroom studio. Check out her YOU TUBE channel where she performs covers and originals handling bass, drums, guitar and vox all by herself. And Leena is not a control freak, she also collabs and plays live with Raf Callejas (bass) and Michael Friedman (drums).

From her debut EP "Have A Alright Day"


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Robb Donker





THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM- PRESS NOTES:

Under the name of an Alt Rock recording project, Leena is a multi-instrumentalist that writes, records, performs and has very recently produce her own music in her bedroom studio. new in the songwriting game, she has explored in between the genres of classic/punk rock and blues to folk and jazz. 

Her upcoming debut EP will reflect on her bridging in between those genres but over the past year, she has solidified her sound and has gone back to what got her to pick up the guitar in first place; being a one woman rock band.

"Fire" by Bad Flamingo plays in and out of the shadows and is in Yellowstone Season 2

Fire by Bad Flamingo exists in vast places. The spartan song slow burns with sparse guitar lines that mirror evocative vocal melodies and beautiful harmonies. The groove courtesy of a drum machine and banjo sounds, bass and percussive guitar is lush but it is also the spaces in between those sounds that feel so alluring. The song exists mysteriously between a haunting seance with sprinkles of eeriness or a sultry come on behind masks or a dangerous stranger riding slowly into town. 

Fire is in Yellowstone Season 2 (that also plays light and dark) on the Paramount Network. Bravo Bad Flamingo.

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Robb Donker

L.A. based Repenter and the deeply feral rock crunch of "So Sick" is a rare thing indeed

So Sick by L.A. based rock duo Repenter has got the feral heavy metal / post punk flesh and bones that instantly and intensely sent shivers skating up my skin. It is one of those short bursts of rock that you simply can't, CANNOT, turn up loud enough. My mouth dropped open when I heard Holly Winter's vocal performance. Her aesthetic, that seems so naturally abrasive (in the best possible way), erupts over a musical rock bed with crunchy guitar provided by her partner in crime Thomas Scriven. The music has (to me) a decidedly muscular 80's / early 90's / blend of iconic outfits like Thin Lizzy, Quiet Riot, Janes Addiction (to name a few) and Winter's vocal sound- so exquisitely bad ass made me think of a blend of Chrissie Hynde (Pretenders) and Johnette Napolitano (Concrete Blonde). I have always contended that vocal character supersedes vocal chops when it comes to a truly gripping rock voice and while Winter has both, the character of her sound feels so potent while feeling a bit road worn at the same time. She has an iconic raw, real sound that can't be faked or learned and I love that.  

 PRESS NOTES OFFER:
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"So Sick" is a sardonic examination of the vanity of influencer culture as seen through the insightful eyes of these L.A. transplants. Repenter call out the selfie driven society we live in and the unfulfilled emptiness it's left the world with. This leaves us with the hitting single "So Sick" - a song produced the way that rock bands they respect made records, live to tape, which is a lost art. Holly adds, "I was writing for myself and anyone else that needs heartburn relief from overexposure to today's social media shitshow grab bag."
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The duo's upcoming EP is due out this fall and I can't wait.

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Robb Donker 

Yellow Shoots' sultry funky psychedelic "Possessed" will quell those "riots in your mind"

Possessed by Brooklyn based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalis and producer Yellow Shoots (the musical moniker for Greg Matthews) is a funky stew injected with stabs of guitar licks, high register sultry vocal come ons and delicious distorted bass lines wrapped around a beat. Matthews like to blend in tinges of psychedelia in his hip hop rooted vibe enhanced by analog tape delays and flangers filtering the guitar and vox. 

Press notes reveal:

The song enters vulnerable territory for Yellow Shoots aka Greg Matthews as he weaves a narrative of surrendering to the feelings of zero control and what he describes as the ‘riot in my mind.’ Matthews explained, “I wrote this song during a moment where I felt things spinning out and all I could do was succumb to it and trust that it would pass.” 

Possessed signals the first of single from his next EP coming in the Fall.
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Robb Donker

Gabriel Delicious's art pop declaration "Road Dogs" feels like a diorama of life on the road

Gabriel Delicious's art pop declaration Road Dogs feels like a diary or diorama of life on the road, of living out of your suitcase and surviving on ketchup packets when you have to. All the while the stories are dressed up in lush lead guitars and melodies in this kind of intoxicated drug baked vibe with heavy doses of art power pop and glam things happening. I love Gabriel's sing-songish approach to his style which has a tinge of squinty eyed cynicism, maybe even a bit of condescension, not in a better than you way but in a disdain for life itself ie: wanting more sort of way. That might just me projecting but it is worth saying. Loving the sound. If we lose our lust for life and curiosity and / or anger of what life is we are nothing at all really. 

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Robb Donker



PRESS STUFF:

Delicious is masking anxiety with lyrical humor and overcompensating discomfort with cheeky expression. These songs recall the playful idiosyncrasy of Randy Newman or Lou Reed over a loosely tucked bed of irreverent-tinged-mellow-punk.

Tracy Bryant folk indie rock swept "Bury Me" from the upcoming record "Hush"

LA based singer-songwriter Tracy Bryant is about to release a new record called "Hush" on Burger Records and the track Bury Me has a cool indie vibe. Take the easy beat, folkish 90's college radio guitar lines, the entrancing sort of late 60's Farfisa-eque organ sounds and Bryant's folk indie almost aloof vocal presentation and there is a lot to fall in love with. Kudos to the female background that mirrors Bryant's in easy ways. Surfing sunsets, campfires, hanging with friends burst into my mind while listening.

"Hush" drops on August 30th.

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Robb Donker

Katmaz ever shifting deeply cut and groovy affair "On To The Next"

On To The Next by Brookly based artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Katmaz is an ever shifting, deeply cut and groovy affair anchored with proggy avant garde bass and drums and a bouncy jazz(ish) / meets chamber pop vocal performance all the while having an art rock edge. I mean when Katmaz builds in these transient Fender Rhodes-esque keys that sustain in such an artful way I even though of a more hipsterish Radiohead at those moments. I like the pause and sound around the open space. There is some very classic pop eruptions too in that kind of 70's chamber pop way and this musical stew just works. The beat jams and the rest is sweet and charming. It makes me want to move but then I can't dance worth a shit. 

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Robb Donker





PRESS STUFF

Katmaz is a Brooklyn based artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer, and has worked with Grammy noms, SZA and Ro James. He is currently working with up and comer Moxie Raia. His brand of music is cinematic, art pop with a serious edge, and he’s ready to release several singles culminating in an EP by the end of the year.

Laveda's eerily beautiful track "Better Now" is spacey indeed

Fall into the heavenly muse of Laveda by way of the eerily beautiful track Better Now and you might feel like you are sleep walking. The bent sounds feel trance like bathed in a reverb wash that feels at once psychedelic and psychic. Post punk with touches of industrial sci-fi rock. Spacey indeed. 

Laveda has grown out of the bedroom project of Ali Genevich and Jake Brooks based out of Albany, New York. 

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Robb Donker






THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

Dream Pop force Laveda awaken nostalgic moods in their sound, drawing heavily from 90s Shoegaze and Experimental Rock. Formed in the summer of 2017, the bedroom recording project between Ali Genevich and Jake Brooks has rapidly developed from simplistic Singer-Songwriter styles into full-fledged listening experience. Laveda's first release "Dream. Sleep." recorded out of Brooklyn and Albany has grabbed the attention of notable national and international blogs and press including Pitchfork Radio who premiered the track at their Mid-Winter Festival in February 2019. "Dream. Sleep." captures a high energy intensity that stirs feelings of excitement and anxiousness describing an alternate unknown reality.

"Gravel To Gold" by singer songwriter Ian McFarland moves at an out of breath pace

Ian McFarland is a singer songwriter currently based in Los Angeles (via New Hampshire) and his track Gravel To Gold moves at an out of breath pace, churning guitar around a restless beat that provides the wanderlust framework for McFarland's pop inspired vox. The lyrics wrap around it all stopping only a few times to breath. The track feels inspired and running up a hill to something or someone.

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Robb Donker





THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

Ian McFarland is a singer-songwriter original from Portsmouth, New Hampshire but has been on an artistic journey that has taken him around the globe playing shows as far as Barcelona, Spain to where he currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Ian McFarland is known to perform the bulk of instruments on his releases as well as recording the sounds himself wherever he happens to be. Drawing inspiration from a wide variety of music influences the young Berklee College of Music graduate has stood weathered the trials and tribulations of being a musician in a capitalist environment with poise. Having been in and out of a handful of bands starting in high school and extending through college, McFarland, decided to go solo in an effort to have an end of the line on creative decisions surrounding his composition. In his spare time Ian McFarland enjoys travel, the outdoors, writing music reviews for his own company Its Not Records, and watching sports. Currently in the studio creating two songs released as singles a month he is planning a move to NYC in 2019 to expand his network of artists and entrepreneurs.