Samatha Sidley sings Swedish for Sylvie's Love
NEWS
Samantha Sidley’s version of “Waltz For Debby” is featured in the new film Sylvie’s Love starring Nnamdi Asomugha and Tessa Thompson. The Amazon Original is streaming now and getting rave reviews - it’s 93% fresh, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
According to Sidley, “I had to learn ‘Waltz For Debby’ in Swedish. Jemima Kirke lip syncs to me about 12 minutes and 30 seconds in. A couple months later I was doing a casual at the Jonathan Club and an old man walked up to me asked, ‘Do you know ‘Waltz for Debby?’’ I was like ‘DO I!!!’” Hear her take now.
Earmilk includes Chance Emerson on its year-end list
NEWS
Thanks out to Earmilk contributing writer René Cobar for including Chance Emerson’s The Raspberry Men on their Best of 2020 list!
"From the energetic acoustic guitar strums that open 'How Can I' to the rich floating harmonies in 'Incredible,’” Cobar writes, “Chance Emerson tells a story about who he is and where he is headed."
Sibling duo Charlie Belle share their hooky, mature songwriting with Under The Radar Mag
PREMIERE
Under The Radar just shared the new video for Charlie Belle’s “What About Me?” According to the site, “The duo's tried-and-true instrumental combination belies their great ear for hooks and more mature songwriting sensibilities… [With “What About Me?”] the duo create a charmingly DIY take on a lyric video. Jendayi writes out the lyrics out in time with the song as Gyasi contributes some on the spot drumming, marker illustrations, and a few games of hangman.”
New music coming in 2021!
Kim Conlee's frigidkitty shares "World To Save" single, "a stirring and intimate introduction to her artistry," with Under The Radar
PREMIERE
Under the Radar writes: "Taking on the witchy vibe of Stevie Nicks, the art pop of Kate Bush, and the fractured psychedelic folk of Mazzy Star, Conlee constructs her own world on Indulgence… a stirring and intimate introduction to her artistry." Kim Conlee is frigidkitty and the wonderful single "World To Save" can be heard everywhere this Friday courtesy of Desperate Spirits!
Fredo Viola's latest operatic, orchestral masterpiece "My New Head" arrives April 9th, 2021.
NEWS
“It’s what pop music would sound like if it were made by unborn psychedelic ghosts.” - Neil Gaiman (Author)
Ugly beauty. Euphoric and fabulous.
Fredo Viola’s masterpiece My New Head (Revolutionary Son, April 9th, 2021) begins with the old head being pulled apart.
The album’s first single “Pine Birds” opens the record, following an introduction of Pavlovian bells ringing out from a jewelry box of fine cut rocks that represent the jagged edges of Viola’s mind. Brought to this renewed having overcome a five-year bout with Lyme disease, the music is filled with his feelings of gratitude, as well as the trepidation that comes with having to re-understand existence.
“Every bit of social, artistic and cultural framework that had kept me supported for so many years had come into question and I was beginning to build again from scratch,” he explains. “If you listen carefully to ‘Pine Birds,’ you will hear power tools pulling out old screws, hammering planks out of place; you can feel the rumbling vibration of a foundation ready to fall apart.”
Only “ready.”
Viola left the framing to build upon, fashioning and refurbishing, better than before. A new psychic home or at least the setting for a renewed life to unfold.
Kim Conlee evokes Stevie Nicks, Kate Bush, Judee Sill as frigidkitty; Debut album arrives Dec. 18th
NEWS
Welcome to the sleek world of frigidkitty.
Following a 40-second introduction that feels like you’re entering an upside-down Disney netherworld, Lexington, Kentucky’s Kim Conlee bares claws.
Conlee’s vocals envelop like one of Stevie Nicks’ shawls, and while she is accompanied by a slew of talented friends throughout Indulgence (Desperate Spirits, Dec. 18th), it is her own personal backing band of one (playing piano, guitar, flute, synthesizer, and other assorted electronics) that keep these songs in a personal space that feels intentional.
At times, like on the album’s single and video “World To Save,” Conlee occupies a singer-songwriter posture that could be considered just another trick in her bag if it weren’t for evocative, plaintive lyrics like, “Rain slowly falls as I stand waiting for the train. I haven’t spoken your name in a very, a very long time.”
It’s so damn easy to believe her.
When the artist describes her own work, she mentions Kate Bush, Mazzy Star, Judee Sill, “paranoid” trip-hop grooves, and a “sour minor-key psychedelic whorl.” Conlee isn’t a liar; again, it’s easy to believe her.
Indulgence by frigidkitty arrives Dec. 18th, 2020 via Desperate Spirits preceded by the single and video “World To Save.”
The March Divide lands on Twangville's new playlist
NEWS
Mayer Danzig at Twangville just shared some love for The March Divide’s Jared Putnam, whose songs “mix power pop and emo to glorious perfection” and who has just released Alive, a solo acoustic live record that serves as “a wonderful sampler of the prolific songwriter’s output.”
Hear a live version of “Get In Line” on part three of Mayer’s Playlist For Fall 2020.
Hilarie Sidney of The High Water Marks speaks with Dagger about band's first album in thirteen years
INTERVIEW
Tim at Dagger 'Zine is a old-school paper zine guy who keeps on bringing that spirit to the virtual version of the mag. He's also a Denver dude, so who better to chat with Denver ex-pat, Hilarie Sidney, of The High Water Marks, who came up playing music in Colorado as co-founder of Elephant 6 Recording Co. and The Apples in stereo. Band's first album in 13 years Ecstasy Rhymes is out Nov. 13th on Minty Fresh.
Director Mark Pellington (Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M.) helms new music film by Nada Surf
NEWS
Director Mark Pellington has had more influence on pop culture than most rock stars; He’s worked with most of them, too.
If you ask, “What’s one word that comes to mind when you say ‘Pearl Jam,’” the answer may very well be “Jeremy.” This past summer, as reported by Variety, Pearl Jam officially released the uncensored version of their groundbreaking video, which MTV originally refused to air at the time of its release.
“I am addicted to images, and addicted to the creation of them,” Pellington says. “I adore the creation of imagery from imagination, allowing and accessing the subconscious to formulate the image created in collaboration with others. A music video is like a poem, a free form often-direct access to my subconscious.”
In 2020, Pellington continues to do just that with a new long-form video on tap for esteemed indie rock band Nada Surf, which has just wrapped post-production for a scheduled late October release.
Speaker Face offers earthy electronics on immersive new album "Crescent," out Oct. 9th
REVIEW
"Organic-meets-synthetic... pure class, indisputable elegance, compositional invention and, above all, rich emotional rewards," says Folk Radio UK about Speaker Face. The trio's album Crescent is out today! Vinyl at Bandcamp. Listen: https://fanatic.lnk.to/SpeakerFace-Crescent. Read: http://bit.ly/SPEAKER-FACE-PR-100920.
Aupium writes that Charlie Belle "summons melodic euphony" on "Looking For Magic"
Soul Tracks praises the "utter charm" exhibited by Charlie Belle on "Looking For Magic"
Samantha Sidley shares “Quarantine Edition” video for title track from “Interior Person,” named one of Los Angeles Times “Best Albums of 2019.”
NEWS
“Samantha Sidley Was an ‘Interior Person’ Before This Whole Thing Happened” — Los Angeleno
The girls who gathered for Samantha Sidley’s iconic “I Like Girls” video have all gone home, and now Sidley is all alone in the “Quarantine Edition” music video for the title track from her debut album Interior Person, named one of the Los Angeles Times’ “Best Albums of 2019.”
“I honestly had no idea quite how poignant this song would become,” Sidley says. “It was written as a positive twist or response, if you will, to the isolation that accompanies depression. The song has taken up a new meaning during the pandemic, which has pushed all of us to be more isolated physically and emotionally.”
"That Thing You Do!" vocalist, Mike Viola, channels pain of losing a friend on "Creeper" from upcoming "Godmuffin" album, out Dec. 11th
NEWS
Music lives in Mike Viola. Shit, it’s his last name, right? Godmuffin (Good Morning Monkey / Grand Phony, Dec. 11th) even opens with strings and man, do they tug. Hard.
“Don’t be afraid, no don’t be afraid / We still have time, we still have time / There’s so much I wanna do”
“I wrote ‘Creeper’ the morning I got the news my close friend died,” Viola says. “He was my age. Now he can’t make music. I still can. I can still spend my time looking for the secret cause, the next new song, even when it feels too late, ‘cause I still have time.”
Viola’s friend is the artistically immortal, Adam Schlesinger, to whom Viola will forever be publicly tied as the voice of his friend’s perfect, Oscar®-nominated pop song “That Thing You Do!”
At any other time, this association would be a fun fact. A bullet point in a career full of them. But right now it’s painful to listen to with Viola’s real-life tragedy in mind. Somehow, he makes it sound beautiful.