STRATEGIC ARTIST ADVOCACY SINCE 1997
Atlanta-based classic rock foursome The Pinx will release Sisters & Brothers, the band’s most accomplished album to date on April 12th. “Mercy!” is the first single from the album, coming soon. M Music & Musicians Magazine has previously described the band, saying, "The Pinx play as if they’re opening for a double bill of The Who and Led Zeppelin on a hot summer night in 1969—and they’re determined to upstage the headliners."
Denton, Texas is the home of Chris Welch & The Cicada Killers, introduced as the “fabulous Cicada Killers” on “Cicada Sweat,” the James Brown-inspired opening track of Shook, the north Texas band’s upcoming sophomore album, which follows-up its 2017 debut Faded & Frayed.
The pronouncement is the only vocal on the song, an improvisational moment that the band loved and kept, but it’s all that’s needed: The Cicada Killers’ unique brand of soul, shimmy, and shake speaks for itself.
The comedic music video for the album track “Shoenapper” is already circulating. Shook by Chris Welch and The Cicada Killers arrives on Feb. 22nd, 2019 preceded by the single and music video “Borrowed Repertoire”.
The Joy of Violent Movement has re-posted J Hacha De Zola’s “boozy take on salsa,” “On A Saturday” from his upcoming John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Waxahatchee)-produced fourth album Icaro Nouveau, out March 8th on Caballo Negro. The post also goes into detail about the inspirations and methods behind the new album.
Loose Wing is a new Seattle-based band fronted by songwriter Claire Tucker. The four-piece group will issue its self-titled debut album on March 22nd, consisting of nine songs that fearlessly explore themes of anxiety, isolation, intimacy, and teen angst that has yet to be outgrown. Despite the weighty subject matter, Tucker’s tunes maintain an easy confidence throughout the album, with melodies that often remind of a Neko Case or PJ Harvey-fronted R.E.M., which despite that band’s origins in the furthest continental corner (Athens, GA) from the home of grunge, has always maintained a spiritual tie to Seattle. Other contemporary influences on Loose Wing include Kate Bush and Guided by Voices.
Offering up all the sincerity, none of the pretense, D.B. Rouse is America’s least-earnest traveling troubadour. “A superb musician,” (Austin American-Statesman), Rouse is armed with a guitar (nicknamed “Meal-Ticket”) and a kazoo. A poet with an absurd sense of humor, the Milwaukee-based (but always touring), former cruise ship lounge singer, goat farmer, and cabana man, will release a new album Choices Were Made on February 1st.
“I asked her how to write a song,” Boston-based musician Jane Frank recalls. Frank is currently prepping the release of her eclectic debut album, The Big Squeeze, arriving Dec. 14th.
Frank interviewed Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley when the former was a reporter for her college newspaper. Frank was thinking about becoming a songwriter herself – she had been writing her whole life – journals, stories, and now journalism – but the process of songwriting baffled her. Fortunately, Frank figured it out.
Look out for The Big Squeeze by Jane Frank on Dec. 14th, preceded by the single and music video, “Practical Jackets”.
Los Angeles-based renaissance female, Alex Lilly, has announced the upcoming release of her debut solo album 2% Milk on Jan. 11th, 2019. The album is the first release for newly formed Release Me Records, founded by musician Inara George of the bird and the bee.
In addition to the writing, arranging, producing, and playing of her own music, Lilly has established a notable career out on the road as a part of the touring bands of such esteemed musicians Beck, Lorde, Ry Cooder, and the bird and the bee.
When Lilly’s in L.A, she has stayed busy throughout the years with her own projects such as Obi Best, Touché, Zero DeZire, and The Living Sisters.
2% Milk will be preceded by the single and music video “Distracting Me”.
Married Bakersfield, California-based dreampop duo Fawns of Love will release its recently-aired session for the "Part Time Punks" radio show as a limited-edition 12-inch vinyl album on August 24th. The release will also include a cover version of "Rocket Science" by The Chills, one of Fawns of Love's favorite bands and influences.
Courtesy of Desperate Spirits: In her feature length debut, Mlle. V-T etches MIDI labyrinths into the 4th dimension with alacritous disregard for contemporary electronic microgenre orthodoxies, forging sonic hybrids at once novel and grotesque, eschewing the easy pentatonic or four-banger for labyrinthine harmonic and polyrhythmic structures that run perhaps contrary to her household-name aspirations, pop naïf that she is." The debut album Empire Waste arrives on Aug. 3rd via Lexington, Kentucky's Desperate Spirits label.
“I imagined Syd Barrett joining New Order with just the kick drum and the 808 state, or whatever it’s called, for the pulse," says John Andrew Fredrick of the black watch about Witches! (July 27th, ATOM Records), his band's 16th (!) album in a prolific career spanning 30 years. Look out for lead single "Georgette, Georgette" coming soon. Hear current single "Oh You Little Witch" (from "The Paper Boats" EP) at PopMatters.
Scott Danbom, formerly of popular Texas-based band Centro-matic, announces the upcoming release of his self-titled debut solo album under the name Static Diary.
Best-known for his work in Centro-matic, Danbom is a veteran performer and accompanist in his own right, having worked with Centro-matic leader Will Johnson (who also appears on Static Diary), as well as Sarah Jaffe, Drive-By Truckers, and many more throughout his long career.
Denton, Texas-based label Goliad Media Group will release Static Diary on July 27th, 2018, preceded by the lead single “Phrase From Business”.
The now Los Angeles (formerly Oakland)-based one-woman powerhouse Tara Timberman - known as Metal Mother - has announced the release of a new EP "Pagan Jazz," her first new music in five years. Arriving on June 1st, Timberman says, "'Pagan Jazz' is inspired by and written for the warehouse party world and all the absurd and whimsical fairies it attracted. I’ve lost many friends in the last couple years, including many close friends in the Ghost Ship fire. It’s taken everything I have to keep the magic, wonder, and weirdness alive in life."
Over the course of his long and varied career, John Andrew Fredrick has cumulatively released 25 albums, EPs, and books. His latest as the black watch, "The Paper Boats EP," is scheduled for April 27th.
The new EP was engineered by guitarist Andy Creighton (who fronts his own pop band, The World Record, and whose angular leads were featured on last year’s the black watch LP.) The songs were done quickly at Creighton’s shed in the obscure El Sereno district of Los Angeles, then sent for mixing to Scott Campbell’s (Shelby Lynne, Stevie Nicks, Acetone) state-of-the-art studio in Woodland Hills.
Sleepspent, the El Paso-based shoegaze and dreampop-inspired trio led by 21-year old songwriter and guitarist Austin North, has signed to upstart record label Slow Start Records for the national release of its debut EP "It's Better If You Don't Speak Or Think". In its relatively short existence, Sleepspent has quickly amassed a local following in its hometown, already earning a nomination as ‘Best Band in the City’ by El Paso's The City Magazine. Slow Start Records is headed up by El Paso-based music industry veteran, Luis Mota and San Antonio-based musician Jared Putnam (the future releases of Putnam's band The March Divide will also appear on Slow Start Records.) "It's Better If You Don't Speak Or Think" by Sleepspent is scheduled for release on May 4th, 2018.
One of the world's most enduring indie pop labels, Elefant Records, has signed Philadelphia duo Rush Week for the release of its debut album Feels. The band, formed in 2016 by Rachel K. Haines and producer James Benjamin Thomas, updates "the NU Disco, Soul and R&B sounds from the end of the seventies and beginning of the eighties," according to the label. Feels will be preceded by the single and music video for "Feelings" in early March.