Kevin Healey, sometimes known as Eddie Kite, is a singer-songwriter based in the seacoast region of New Hampshire. There he stirs his DIY musical creations in a home studio having released 5 EPs and one full length since 1996. He also happens to be an associate professor of media studies. His latest offering entitled A Song is a House You Live In cuts in many ways. It starts with a whimsical folk meets musical theater sound and then falls into a kind of blue collar busker vibe with piercing electric guitar tones that exist somewhere in between blues and glam rock. There are even double leads but it is those lead tones that actually made me think of Bill Nelson (Be Bop Deluxe) and the bridge elevates all that came before with a sort of homespun diversion into a psychedelic fantasy world. Interesting blend indeed. - Robb Donker
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES: K. Healey (aka Eddie Kite) is a singer-songwriter and associate professor of media studies in the seacoast region of New Hampshire. Kevin's work ethic is strictly DIY. All the magic happens in his home studio. His essays, poetry, and music appear in Salon, Huffington Post, Religion Dispatches, Typishly, Meat for Tea, and numerous books and journals. He has self-released 5 EPs and one LP since 1996 (plus another LP with Wish Tank). Kevin was interviewed on an episode of The Creators of SomeCity in summer 2018; watch the episode HERE.
Much like the song itself, the Official Video for Frederick The Younger's indie noir track Something Real is drenched in a sun baked 70's look, scratched, faded, torn and worn. The song floats on a lovely garden rock downbeat while open chords hold notes in the distance and piano runs (duh, duh, duh.... duh-duh) sound pretty but despondent too. Jenni Cochran's vocals feel like that as well really, her emotions seemingly dulled by some unspeakable pain or not even that maybe, but possibly, the loss of dream, the loss of hoping that things will get better. Of the song she says: When I sing “Something Real” it feels like a weight has been lifted. It feels like a cathartic release every time. I’ve spent my whole life feeling unfulfilled, like I should be doing something more. Desiring the next big thing. This song is about the inward search for freedom. The music itself feels like an emotional release. It’s earnest but also groovy and sexy. Kind of David Lynch meets Neil Young. Feeling unfulfilled might be the worst of all emotions as it chips away quietly at our soul. I get the Lynch reference with this song as well. Within the downward spiral, the circular music even begins to move past noir and feels like dark gothic rock (at some level) like it might grace a horror movie or drama about dark (even sinister) family secrets. Frederick The Younger promises a new EP early on in 2020 and Something Real will be on it. I look forward to dancing in it's mystery. - Robb Donker
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Bio
We’re all just spinning in circles of time and space. Retro-pop band Frederick the Younger lasso various transitory states and tensions of the heart on their upcoming new EP "Fever." Across six songs, the Louisville-based songwriters -- Jenni Cochran and Aaron Craker -- seek for something real and dissects such issues as regret, love and letting go.
In 2018 they found creative kinship in drummer Meg Samples and bassist Shelley Anderson and started working on the followup to 2017's Human Child. Producer Kevin Ratterman (My Morning Jacket, Ray LaMontagne) couples the vivid, visceral lyrics and equally-emotive arrangements with a slick, yet dreamy, quality. And it’s never at the expense of the innately imposing stories. Lead single “Back to the Wall” untangles the push and pull of a relationship that’s undergoing an inner struggle. “You could say you love me / But you leave me with my back to the wall,” Cochran casts off her frustrations as a snake shedding its skin.
Their willingness to be so vulnerable serves as the EP’s foundation. “Erased,” featuring Craker’s magnetic, raw vocal, and “Deepest Blue” are other sterling highlights, the latter witnessing Cochran hitting an emotional rock bottom and writing a song about it. “I hate regretting things I’ve done, and I know when I’m in that space that I shouldn’t be doing it. I waste time, and I get carried away. This song is me trying to sing myself out of that funk,” she says of the song.
Cochran and Craker are not only the creative core of the band, but they complete each other on a deeply personal level. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Cochran grew up writing songs, yet never played them out. She initially had ambitions to go to school for anthropology but after working overseas, teaching in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, she returned to the states with a newfound drive to pursue music. She relocated to Louisville, and a two-month stay turned into a permanent move when she met Craker through an improv group.
On the other end of the spectrum, writing and making music has always been essential to Craker’s whole life. Upon hearing Nirvana for the first time in middle school, his destiny was carved in stone. A Louisville native, his obsession with piano and guitar propelled him to study music at the University of Louisville. He later formed a band called Dr. Vitamin, which would be the stepping stone to much bigger things. “We were both what the other person needed. I deeply believe things happen for a reason,” says Cochran.
Dr. Vitamin quickly morphed into a very different beast. With Cochran still writing a bulk of the material, they decided to give the band a bit of an upgrade: changing the name. It was a simple procedure, tossing out various possibilities, before Cochran fell upon Frederick the Younger for it’s almost mystical nature. An album called Human Child arrived in 2017, and even within two years, their musical energy has blossomed into an even more ferocious entity.
Frederick the Younger’s new EP, expected early 2020, positions the band for the next level. Such volatile moments as “High Alone” and “Something Real,” another soul-tearing performance, confirm their undeniable talents in harvesting the most intense of human experiences.
The absolutely beautiful mini-film shot for Tim Baker's equally stunning The Eighteenth Hole fits the somber orchestral folk song like an old worn glove. As directed by Adrian Vieni and Amos Le Blanc and shot in Baler's native Newfoundland, it is an exercise in nuanced film making utilizing moments of people's lives in an intimate and tactile way. Whether using light, focal depths, slow motion and long close ups, you get a sense of nostalgia and fond life changing remembrances. The color palette is rich and you can sense, feel and smell those textures within each shot. Interestingly, the piece is shot in a seemingly Academy aperture (1.37:1) and the box like frame (like that of 35 mm film) adds to the sense of nostalgia and, even though it is not shot in a Polaroid-esque way, I thought of the times I have rifled through old Polaroids in old shoe boxes tucked away like secret memories. As folk singer songwriter, Baker possesses a cinematic tension here and it is no wonder that his song gave birth to these images. His voice and sense of melody moves beyond conventional folk, within his aesthetic there is the broad sweeping sense of older Americana musical theater too blended in such a special way. It is such a rich and timeless piece of music that will, undoubtedly, inspire other artists and I imagine grace a full film some time in the future. As Baker offers, the mini film (it feels wrong to call this a mere music video) was created independently without his input which is new for him: "It was the first video I’ve ever been a part of where I was almost completely hands off with the production. My manager Jase reached out to Amos, who we’ve been a fan of for quite some time and shared a series of scenes that I’d dreamt up. It was decided that he would fly to Newfoundland with his producer, cinematographer and crew and use pretty much the entire budget just slowly shooting as many beautiful, sad, interesting scenes as they could in a week. I never saw anything until the first assembly about a month later. I love it so much. It’s very fitting but open, nostalgic but new and I hope you like it." Yes we like it. We love it so much. - Robb Donker
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Tim Baker had a big 2019, releasing his debut solo album, Forever Overheard, in spring on Arts & Crafts, heading out on multiple tours across North America. Today he celebrates it all with a stunning video for “The Eighteen Hole”, shot in Baker’s native Newfoundland, directed by Adrian Vieni and Amos Le Blanc. The video outlines the fractures that can happen in relationships, with Vieni describing the ethos as, “an intimate study of human emotion and connection. It acts as a time capsule, capturing the profound impact others have on us throughout our lives, and the shared experiences that connect us. With each moment, we’re reminded of the choices we’ve made, the trajectory we’ve taken, and people we’ve met that have shaped us into who we are today.”
Discussing, Tim stated, "It was the first video I’ve ever been a part of where I was almost completely hands off with the production. My manager Jase reached out to Amos, who we’ve been a fan of for quite some time and shared a series of scenes that I’d dreamt up. It was decided that he would fly to Newfoundland with his producer, cinematographer and crew and use pretty much the entire budget just slowly shooting as many beautiful, sad, interesting scenes as they could in a week. I never saw anything until the first assembly about a month later. I love it so much. It’s very fitting but open, nostalgic but new and I hope you like it."
Tim released The Eighteenth Hole Variations EP on October 18, which featured a gorgeous vocal trio reconfiguration of the album track, as well as the song performed as solo piano.
Forever Overhead just claimed the 'Top 10 Folk Album of 2019' via Exclaim who noted, "The record draws deep from the past with both exaltations and mournful reveries...'All Hands' bows gratefully to the past while 'The Eighteenth Hole' lingers on 'what-ifs'...Forever Overhead is a resounding act of preservation in an age of unprecedented destruction." And CBC Music has also lofted the album on to its Year End round up noting, "it's these hushed, vulnerable moments that highlight Baker’s songwriting mastery best.”
In the Official Video for Draag's effusively dreamy Ghost Leak, as directed by band mates Adrian Acosta and Jessica Huang, Huang stands stoically poised and masked amid California shops and landscapes. Perfectly still, at one point, a man walks right past as if she is a store mannequin. The stark imagery is a perfect counter position to the electro half step dreaminess of Draag's aesthetic and a direct reflection of the song's meaning / inspiration: "ghost leak" is the feeling of being completely invisible and inconsequential "ghost leak" is also a message to someone we lost — to let them know they weren’t invisible -Draag
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Draag began as a revival of a compilation of songs musician and songwriter Adrian Acosta recorded on cassette using a karaoke machine dual tape deck when he was 10 years old. In an environment where being in a gang was more in vogue than composing music, young Adrian crafted an album every other week for his ears only. Since the reworking of those songs in 2013, the next four years were spent in the isolation of a forgotten LA neighborhood exploring and expanding the project’s identity as a 5-piece. As preparations for a full length were forming, illness and personal challenges forced the band to confront why the project should continue to exist. Recognizing the privilege of being able to create manifested the EP “Nontoxic Process,” refined from scratch with rudimentary gear. The EP became an answer to everything artificially driven and a need to feel something other than sickness. The group is continuing to develop what will be their first full length in the coming year.
For more information, refer to the following: black and bruise colored rose, abrasive yet dreaming yet, uncorrupted feeling, clean/dirty pain, self-auscultation, deafeningly honest, haven’t given up.
Lukas Ionesco is a multi genre artist from Paris. As actor, composer, singer and guitarist and model. This all makes for a long string on a business card. The Official Video for Japanese Cowboy as directed by Zack Spiger sees Ionesco quite feral (literally) stalking Japanese streets and trains like a primordial version of himself finally making his way to the rural countryside, naked, fierce and free. There is more going on too, all shot in a sort of 16 mm beautifully jagged way. Ionesco is totally watchable. His facial expressions alone warrant a wide eyed gaze even as he smokes a cig and seemingly gets very loving with a fan (not as a person fan mind you but an electric fan), and hangs with comely friends in the city. Ionesco's debut album "Magic Stone" was produced with his girlfriend and co-collaborator Clara Benador in his parents house in a more rough and DIY way and offers new reflections compared to his earlier musical works. I look forward to delving into it. - Robb Donker Sidenotes: Likely not an original thought but Lukas sure reminds me of a young Michael Beck (you know Swan from Walter Hill's 1979 cult classic The Warriors.
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Lukas Ionesco is a French multi-cap artist from Paris : actor, composer, singer, guitariste.
He is the son of Eva Ionesco, sulfurous Parisian family, and son in law of French poet Simon Liberati.
He played in the Larry Clark movie "The Smell of Us".
After a first EP recorded in NYC, Lukas changes is creation process and decided to produce his new album with his girlfriend Clara Benador in his parents' house far away from the light of the cities.
The music of "Magic Stone" is more rough and DIY.
This first album is an echo of precious magical stone, a talisman protecting himself.
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, formerly known by its Russian name Byelorussia or Belorussia, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe bordered by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Wikipedia
Oh yes, I wanted to start off this track review with some pertinent / basic facts about Belarus because I, am personally, woefully, inadequate when it comes to geography and it is nothing to be ashamed of (maybe a little). American Pancake (compared to other blogs) may consistently pay attention to music from every far corner and crevice of the globe and, damn, I guess I am proud of that fact. The band Weed & Dophins are, in fact, based out of Balarus and besides having an exquisitely trippy name they do have that sound, that sound that has come to be known as the "Burger Records" sound, not because the now iconic OC label invented the sound but because they surely cultivated it and made it more of a national, globally thing. I don't think that anyone would dispute that fact and as much as Dolphins might be part of that thing, surely California weed is definitely part of that thing. The song High catapults forth with the kind of yelpy, driving psyche post punk sound that brings to minds bands like The Oh Sees, the Cosmonauts, New Candys and The Vacant Lots with a sense of pure intoxicated lunacy stirred in as well. It is all fun and in the pop sense, dangerous, which is always a good thing. - Robb Donker
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A few years ago a bunch of friends climbed into a local canalization system to have some fun, drink beers and make photos. But what they found deep in the tunnels turned their whole lives inside out and changed all their plans. To explain their strange behaviour and their sudden regular disappearances from home they teamed up in a band under the name Weed & Dolphins and started to rehearse as a live act for their vocalist’s one-man-band home project.
In 2016 they released a bunch of their early singles such as ‘Like that’, ‘Secrets’, ‘Seaside’ on vk.com and started getting themselves into local gigs while reaching their first international audience through Instagram. In the beginning of 2017 the project dropped it’s debut LP – ‘Islandkid cassette’. The album was released on cassettes and tagged as ‘cloud-punk’ by Belarusian biggest art and music magazine 34mag. ‘Islandkid cassette’ summed up the sound and the aesthetics of Weed & Dolphins music of that period. It was a compilation of home recorded playful pop songs with gloomy lyrics behind childish guitar melodies and freaky synths. The production on the album was based on clashing the 80-90’s post-punk/grunge type arrangements with chopped-n-screwed rap refrains, monotonous spoken word verses and trippy vocal melodies.
The independent Belarusian music guide Experty.by described it as “something between sequenced freak-punk of Atom and His Package and lazy dream-pop of Beach Fossils”. Due to the DIY way of releasing the album and lack of promotion, major blog appearances and management ‘Islandkid cassette’ didn’t get much international attention as a record. At the same time putting the album on cassette tapes allowed to spread it among retro DIY aesthetic lovers, while positioning the project as an active live band capable of bringing the actual album sound on stage gave Weed & Dolphins a chance to start getting on shows and events outside their home country.
In late 2017 and during 2018 W&D did a number of gigs and festivals in Russia, Ukraine, Slovenia, Serbia, Estonia, Lithuania and Hungary with appearances at Ment Ljubljana, What’s next in Music?, Budapest Showcase Hub. In January 2019 Weed & Dolphins performed two showcases at Eurosonic Noorderslag in Groningen, Netherlands.
The track Land of Dead by Montreal's Elephant Stone, the psyche pop creation of Rishi Dhir (vox, bass, sitar) and long-time collaborators Miles Dupire (drums) and Gab Lambert (guitar) sparkles with a decidedly shiny pop sound and at under 2 minutes (the hallmark of most punk songs not psychedelia) it plays (to me) like a theme song for a kid's psychedelic Saturday morning action show. You say psychedelia is not for kids (?), then you must not of seen the seemingly acid laden odd 60's and 70's kid's shows created by Sid and Marty Krofft. Someone was smoking or dropping something when they wrote H.R. Pufnstuf. - Robb Donker
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Montreal's Elephant Stone is the Polaris Music Prize-nominated psyche-pop creation of Rishi Dhir (vox, bass, sitar) and long-time collaborators Miles Dupire (drums) and Gab Lambert (guitar). Debuting in 2009, Elephant Stone has released 5 critically-acclaimed albums and toured extensively throughout North America and Europe and enjoyed significant success on US college/non-comm and Canadian commercial radio. As a highly-regarded sitar player, Dhir has also collaborated with indie rock icons (Beck) and legendary cult bands (The Brian Jonestown Massacre) and is a member of psych "super-group" MIEN (ft. members of The Horrors, The Black Angels).
Released in 2009 on Dhir’s Elephants on Parade Records (EOP), The Seven Seas garnered wide-spread acclaim culminating with a Polaris Music Prize long-list nomination that acknowledges the best full-length Canadian album. Produced by Jace Lasek (The Besnard Lakes), the album introduced Elephant Stone’s innovative blend of rock ‘n’ roll, Hindustani classical music, and infectious pop. The 2010 follow up, The Glass Box EP, expanded on the spirited sounds of The Seven Seas. Following its release, the band set out on their first North American tour supporting the Brian Jonestown Massacre.
In 2013 Elephant Stone released their third LP, Elephant Stone. The album received critical acclaim from NPR, Brooklyn Vegan, Consequence of Sound, and other prominent media outlets. It also contained Dhir’s finest batch of songs yet:including singles “Heavy Moon” and “Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin,” as well as the raga-drenched meditation, “A Silent Moment.” The band spent the next year touring throughout Europe and North America as a headliner and as support for The Zombies, The Black Angels (among others) and multiple festivals (Levitation Austin and France, Best Kept Secret, and so on).
A fourth album – The Three Poisons – followed in 2014. The darkly compelling and inventive album showcased Dhir’s lyrical exploration of Buddhist themes and The Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Three Poisons remix album – ES3PRMX – appeared in 2015 as a digital download. Anton Newcombe of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Tom Furse of The Horrors, Alex Maas of The Black Angels, Peter Holmström of The Dandy Warhols, and more contributed remixes.
In 2016 Elephant Stone released their fifth album, Ship of Fools, on Burger Records/EOP. Produced by Marcus Paquin (Arcade Fire), the album received high marks across the board and spawned two singles that charted on Canadian commercial radio (“Andromeda” and Manipulator”).
After taking time to explore new collaborations and sounds with MIEN, drone-spiked instrumentals with Acid House Ragas, and remixes for paisley underground legends The Dream Syndicate and french pop-auteurs Tahiti80, Dhir and Elephant Stone are back in 2019 with a new single, “Land Of Dead”. Clocking in at just under 2 minutes, “Land Of Dead” begins with the haunting strums of a sitar and then dives headfirst into “Paranoid”-era Black Sabbath riffage with Rishi intoning of a “land of fire”. Ending with a child’s lament of “goodbye blue skies, so long clean air...Do you even care?”, “Land Of Dead” is the foreboding soundtrack to a world undone by our own doing. PLAY LOUD.
In Death by El Paso punk duo Ralpheene speaks to me. First of all the sound is raw and potent. Secondly, at first listen the lead vox felt sort of androgynous and that has always appealed to me for some reason. I suppose I like to not be sure and a voice that kind of inhabits the emotional pull of male and female speaks to my sense of discovery. Thirdly, brothers Michael and Ray Peregrino keep it simple, passionate and fully driven, at least on this track (my first introduction to Ralpheene) the feelings of youth with all it's imperfections, big lows and big highs, askew gazed despondent nihilism is felt and that is a good thing. Their Facebook page show Michelle Delgado as the third wheel and I don't mean that in the "3rd wheel" sort of way. I am assuming he is their live addition but I might be wrong. I hope they never go bigger than 3 piece though because small is the very best way to go for their raw sound. I thought of early Surf Curse and Chalk Talk a bit while listening. In Death is from the band's 2019 full length, "Raise The Sick, Heal The Dead" - Robb Donker
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM- PRESS NOTES: Ralpheene is an indie rock duo consisting of brothers Michael and Ray Peregrino, based out of El Paso, Tx. who bond through making a racket and recording that racket at home.
What can I say about Safer's latest offering Countercultural Savior (Official Video) except to say that it adeptly fuses together my favorite elements of feral blues rock, beat poetry, proto punk and that sort of Woodstock-esque garden rock vibe that is comprised of underground (protest) folk rock with funk leanings. I hope that makes sense to you like it does me. Mattie Safer has a way of pumping in tons of nostalgia in the track through the video inter-cutting a Polaroid vision of Safer himself and all the sultry, punkified rock and roll and beautiful lewdness it surrounding the bad boy genre mostly from the 50's and 60's. The dangerous ones, the youthful ones gone to hell. Within Safer's aesthetic lurks the punk deoxyribonucleic acid of artists like Lou Reed, Rob Tyner and Iggy Pop and that ain't bad, not bad at all. - Robb Donker
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES: It’s only been half a year since bursting onto the scene, but it already feels as though Safer has become ingrained into the fabric of Brooklyn’s burgeoning DIY rock community. Since releasing the smash hit debut single “Good Things” and playing their first show on the same day, Safer has been a whirlwind of activity, releasing an EP, Sleepless Nights, and playing shows in and around New York City. After taking a short break to tour as lead vocalist/bassist for Poolside, Mattie Safer is back in Safer mode, and returning this month with a brand new single, “Countercultural Savior”.
With Safer, we see Mattie returning to the sound he's perhaps best known for – his energetic, driving basslines and distinctive vocal were a bedrock of The Rapture's first two albums – while incorporating a powerful, soulful vocal delivery and a well honed pop sensibility that reflects his growth over the past decade.
"In a small way it's like putting on an old, comfortable pair of shoes, but I'm also bringing in elements of everything else I've done, not just stepping directly back to where I was in 2008," he says. It’s dance, soul, rock ‘n roll. It’s got that twitchy post-punk drive and energy but vocally it’s different; more soulful, with elements of the soul and disco that I love.”
Safer’s new releases sound like the music he was always meant to make, but he found his way to it in serendipitous fashion. "It all started after a night out drinking with an old friend…" says Mattie Safer. How many great stories begin with those words? Whether it was the familiarity of the company, the reminiscing, or the wine – capped off by hearing Joy Division blasting from a neighbour's apartment on the way home – something special happened that evening.
"I was a bit tipsy, but I heard the music as I was walking and I thought 'That sounds great, I'm going to make something like that when I get home."
The ideas poured out of him. Within four hours of Safer stepping through his front door, he had demoed as many songs on his laptop – guitar, bass and rudimentary drums.
"It felt amazing," he says. "I had been working in a different direction for quite a while, but this was so fun and easy. It felt like a relief, more than anything … like visiting an old friend that I hadn't seen in a while."
Once the initial buzz had worn off, hearing his work again in the cold light of the morning after, he was sure he was on to something. A few weeks and some more demoing sessions later, he played the tracks to a handful of trusted friends. Their positive reactions were all the encouragement Safer needed in order to focus fully on what he'd initially seen as an evening hobby, a side project to his 'day job' of writing for and recording with other artists, or developing ideas for a follow-up to his acclaimed 2016 solo EP All We Are. He decided to start a new band.
"I was dealing with a lot of different producers," he says. "They'd often be away for a few weeks at a time because they were working on other projects, too, and it was always quite disjointed. This new music, it was just me. I had no intentions or aspirations for it, and I didn't really need anyone else to make it."
And so was born Safer, the new creative vehicle for Mattie’s songwriting and musical talents. That initial session led to a fury of writing and recording over the course of the past year. The sound expanded from its bedroom origins to include live drums and friends who would come through and add additional percussion and vocals. The songs don't sound especially like the British post-punk icons, but the inspiration and circumstances were all he needed to create something of his own. If the music sounds effortless, it's because it was. "It was all about having fun," he says. "It felt like I'd opened up a creative spigot that had been closed off for some time."
Safer’s new single “Countercultural Savior” will be released on all digital platforms on November 13th.
“Disco-punk’s not dead… “Good Things” seethes with the same manic and dance-floor directed energy that permeated much of The Rapture’s best-known work. With a deep disco groove and post-punk guitars, the song brings backs those 2002 vibes with a new energy, recalling David Byrne and Talking Heads in the controlled chaos.” -Flood Magazine (http://floodmagazine.com/60614/premiere-safer-brings-that-beat-back-with-good-things/)
L.A. based band Windows vibes out on The Ballad of Whiskey Pete with a mellow 60's shindig style dance meets surf rock jag infused with a dirge of East coast urban beat poet tones with big surf meets Rolling on the River (Ike and Tina Turner) although slowed down. It kind of feels like The Allah Las high on some West Coast weed. - Robb Donker
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES: Windows is and LA-based band started by Matteo Arias and Spencer Alarcon in 2018. The band blends Velvet Underground style jangly rock with elements of country, surf and folk music. Windows is comprised of former and active members of Mystic Braves, Golden Animals and Matt Hollywood & Bad Seeds. They are currently recording their debut with producers Rocco Guarino & Ian Doerr and plans to release sometime in 2020.
Spiritbox, a 5 man indie alternative rock band from the Netherlands (with trippy psyche folk / rock leanings) were commissioned by the Dutch Cultural Heritage Platform to create a song and accompanying video inspired by their region's cultural history. Meet, The Burner via a mysterious and gothic looking bit of animation told in a black coal scratched style revealing the white imagery beneath. The sounds are raw, yet elegantly wrought with stalking bass lines, acoustic strains, sustaining lead lines snaking around an evocative lead vocal telling stories like a carnival provocateur. - Robb Donker
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Last summer Dutch indie rock outfit SPIRITBOX was commissioned by the Dutch Cultural Heritage Platform to create a song + video inspired by their region's cultural history. Result is the Devilish tale of 'The Burner'. This will be the last SPIRITBOX single to be put out this year and it is their most ambitious track yet.
With its cinematic narrative, hand drawn music video and inclusion of children's voices, it firmly expands the band's exploration of the other-wordly by melding menacing post-rock to resonant storytelling.
(and also on Itunes / Applemusic / Saavn / Soundcloud / Distrokid)
Interlay based out of Madison, Wisconsin are an alternative rock band burning from the smoldering ashes of their former moniker Wash. I don't know what warranted the name change and I have never felt a bands name is as important as their mutual mission and creative aesthetic (anyway). Interlay is Indigo Smith-Oles (guitar), Alex Kaiser (drums), Alexandria Ortgiesen (vox / guitar) and (the newest member) Nathan Hahn (bass). When I first listened to All Animal I felt invested, the guitar sound felt very broken and gothic. When the full band kicked in the tones felt a bit lo fi but raw and dangerous. The big grungey downbeats and the shuffle of the drums have a big surf punk feel to me as well. Ortgiesen's vocals are interesting. She sings with head down eyes up passion, emotions coming from deep places and her wails can surprisingly slide up into intense falsettos. I love the ferocity of the bass and drums and the lead snakes around making the song feel like a spaghetti punk western. Interlay seem to describe themselves in a shoegaze way but there are a lot of complex tones working here that touch on grunge / goth punk, gothic rock and, of course, post punk. Whatever they call themselves I will be checking them out. They are set to drop an EP with their full new configuration in the spring of 2020. - Robb Donker
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Madison, Wisconsin-based outfit Interlay — previously known to the locals as Wash — formed after members Indigo Smith-Oles (guitar), Alex Kaiser (drums), and Alexandria Ortgiesen (vocals and guitar) met at a house show in early 2018.
The shoegaze outfit sites Slint, Weed, and Sonic Youth as being primary influences, guiding how the group treats elements of grunge, noise, and goth rock to form their unique dissonant, angular sound.
Interlay is set to release an EP with new bassist, Nathan Hahn, early Spring 2020.
Toronto based alternative pop artist 23 year old Owen Hooper AKA Mouth Breather worries about the world at large and the world online too. His concerns and sideways looks coalesce into askew pop songs that have a deep emotional gravitas. His recently released track Modern Girl tugs at your heart and teases your brain with poetic twists and turns. Besides Hooper's innate talent in conceiving melodies that can feel ear wormy while heartbreaking, his vocal aesthetic is that of a young man with wisdom past his years and I love his lyrics. Add the odd sensation of listening to it cast against old banned Soviet animation (and nostalgic shots of San Francisco) and the song feels even odder and sadder. I guess I sometimes like to feel sad and in some ways it helps me see the beauty of life (as ultimately sad as it is) and I only wish this song were longer so I could revel in it's beautiful / sad aesthetic even longer. - Robb Donker
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES: Mouth Breather is the moniker of 23 yr-old Toronto based eclectic/alt-pop artist Owen Hooper. He's on the internet all the time and totally up to date with culture i.e. which Soundcloud rapper just got a face tattoo. He also suffers from a sense of alienation and anxiety about what life is like, given how much of the world is taking place online. As a result, his songs are all believable and they tell stories, although they're not at all what you would expect from regular "pop" music. There's something sort of "uncanny valley" about his music, because Mouth Breather isn't really sure what is real and what is fabricated reality. Here's a quote from Mouth Breather on the creation of his new video for "Modern Girl":
“The video is a supercut of footage from an old banned soviet animation which I dug up while pouring through soviet art archives (so much really cool stuff that the west never really had the chance to experience) and some vintage scenes of San Francisco. Thematically these two worlds collide perfectly into the subject matter of the song. Modern Girl is about a guy reflecting on his first love, back in the city where he grew up, in a country ruled by a pseudo-authoritarian police state not far from the governments we are increasingly getting to know as partisan alienation runs rampant and technology begins peeling away our fundamental human privacies. Politics aside, the man remembers the good times he had with his high school romance with the blinders of reminiscence muting the background of civil unrest and absolute authority. In lines like 'There's a place down by government and view/ we can stay out after curfew,' we see the young lovers carelessly running through the streets juxtaposed with one of a few subtle nods to the larger issues that will eventually destroy his home and take the life of the girl he thought he would grow old with."
The track Beneath Our Feet (Exit Music) by Rachel Bobbitt and Justice Der (based out of Canada) is a free and easy (and spirited) chill track from the unpretentious sort of jazzy pop duo. Like a lot of Bobbitt and Der's collabs there is a woozy mellowness to the composition but the sort of jazz meets anti chamber pop aesthetic is almost disarming in such a lovely way. In the 60's it might be called a hippie vibe and I don't know what it might be called in today's over genre'd times but it certainly flies below the radar and with the subtlety here it pierces the pop veil and feels so intimate and real (a lot in the indie pop vein is not). Beneath Our Feet (Exit Music) is the very last track from the pair's debut full length "When This Plane Goes Down" and while other tracks all share in the nuanced chilly pop vibe bordering on what one might call sadjazzcorepop (oh not), other tracks feel much more dramatic and heavy like the opener Swimming Pool which moves from super mellow sad pop to an alt folk heaviness in an almost Pink Floyd-esque vibe, if the Floyd was super mellow (and young). Guitarist and co-writer Justice Der steals the vocal duties on the track Iris Road (a sort of weird indie pop experiment) and on Marry The Apathy where he proves he can croon and strum out minor 7th (or 9th) dissonance so well but vocally, Bobbit is the show stealer throughout (I particularly have fallen in love with Like A Bull, Passed Out Trees and, the all too brief, Stall and while I say Bobbit steals the vocal show, she could not do so with the counterpoised guitar accompaniment that Der provides. He is so skilled, I think naturally, not going the typical, easy route with his guitar tones and directions. - Robb Donker
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
Musicians Rachel Bobbitt and Justice Der have released their first full length collaborative album, When This Plane Goes Down... The young, Toronto-based duo wrote many of the tracks remotely during their summer break from college, reflecting a transitional time in each of their lives. Bobbitt's serene vocals and blissful harmonies paired with Der's soulful guitar creates a chill, but dynamic masterpiece of sound. The album is now available to stream or download on digital music platforms worldwide.
When This Plane Goes Down... reflects childhood nostalgia and encapsulates the change and cycle of relationships and mortality from adolescence to adulthood. The title draws upon occurrences flying to and from home over the past few years. "The experience of converging and diverging with other passengers for a brief but concentrated period of time served as an inspiration for a larger concept," the duo explains. "Having a connection and moment with a person or experience in life can easily be compared to the experience of meeting someone on a plane trip. They can come into your life and then leave it for a long time." Co-written by the duo and mixed/mastered by Der, the self-produced album is presented independently and features Stephen Bennett on the drums.
Bobbitt and Der come from solo backgrounds where each have released their own EPs: Months to Fall by Bobbitt and Nostalgic For Things to Come by Der. After connecting at Humber College in Toronto, the two noticed an instant musical chemistry that resulted in the release of two cover tracks, "Forrest Gump" by Frank Ocean and "Japanese Denim" by Daniel Caesar, which have collectively garnered over 150,000 listens on Spotify. Combined, they have over 175,000 monthly Spotify listeners. Following the success of those releases, it was only natural for the two musicians to collaborate on a full-length record that would hone in on both of their musical strengths and abilities while simultaneously providing a spotlight for one another.
