STRATEGIC ARTIST ADVOCACY SINCE 1997
Cheers to the Bay Area Reporter for including Samantha Sidley’s “I Like Girls” on a Valentine’s Day roundup of “New music From LGBT artists.” The song, which “could not be clearer in its sapphic intent,” is “both witty and unique.”
Since releasing Interior Person, the album from which “I Like Girls” is taken, Sam has put out several cover songs including her new version of “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” from Disney’s Cinderella. Stream it here.
“With advance words of praise from author Neil Gaiman and influences ranging from classical to electronic to the Beach Boys/Brian Wilson and Kurt Weil,” The Bay Area Reporter writes, “experimental queer singer/songwriter Fredo Viola draws us into his renewed world (following a lengthy battle with Lyme disease).”
The iconic newspaper, which has been serving the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community since 1971, has Viola atop its “Queer Tunes For Your New Year” feature. Writer Gregg Shapiro praises his “dramatic touch… at a time when we could all use some healing.”
My New Head is out April 9, 2021.
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.
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."
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!
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!
“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.
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.”
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.
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 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.
"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.
