STRATEGIC ARTIST ADVOCACY SINCE 1997
Infectious melody aside, it's the three-part harmonies on this one that are just beautiful.
"End of The Day" is one of Chris Laun's tunes on the upcoming Perpetuity EP by the trio of singer-songwriters from Baltimore known as Reforester. "With exquisite harmonies blending with the guitar strings, Reforester wriggles right into your mind. The passage of time is all too real and this is a reminder," says Americana Highways in a feature today. Wanna feel good? Listen!
”Hammer of the Dogs,” a new Zep-adjacent rocker by The Pinx, is already a mind-melter… and now this. Watch the new video now at New Noise Magazine!
“The Mad Alchemist Liquid Lite Show’s art is a combination ’60s San Francisco analog light show utilizing ink, dye, mineral oil, and rubbing alcohol sandwiched between glass plates. [This video was made using plates] spun on converted overheads with LED light sources. Each plate has a video camera filming these liquid combinations with signals going to laser projectors. ‘Hammer of The Dogs' was performed with four sets of plates, projected and then re-filmed live, no Photoshop!”
Very excited this morning to announce Inara George's "Road Angel Project" charity initiative benefiting the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund's COVID-19 efforts. This series of releases starts with a bang as Inara teams up with Dave Grohl for a duet on her song "Sex In Cars," streaming everywhere now! Thanks out to Rolling Stone for premiering this one!
“Dream System 8 deftly crafts modern synth-pop laden with moods and colors that recall the likes of The Human League, Vince Clarke, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Duran Duran, and Giorgio Morodor without copying them." This, this, this!
New tune "I'm Sure Of This Ending For Us" is premiering today at Vehlinggo and out everywhere this Friday courtesy of Minty Fresh.
"Gorgeous... graceful...dramatic climaxes and moments of beautiful grandeur." Heh, guess what? I agree! Love this song and love this video even more.
Check out the clip for "Phosphorescence" by Speaker Face today over at the ever-lovely Treble Zine, which, in addition to sharing fantastic downtempo tunes like this, also does about a dozen deep-dives a week on topics throughout the musical spectrum. Props!
Warning! This song is highly addictive! It's the second edition of "The Evolution of a Song" from The Orange Peels!
This time it's "Something Strange Happens," about which Jedd Beaudoin of Popmatters says, "It has all the makings of a hit. Or at least the kind of hit that music critics imagine will be a hit. It's made of all the stuff that fans of Marshall Crenshaw, The Posies, and Big Star appreciate and, in its way, predicts the more recognizable elements of power punk and emo." Four versions: From the take on leader Allen Clapp's pre-Peels album, to an early scrapped studio mix, to the newly remastered official release, to a brand new 2020 version. The 40-track deluxe reissue of 1997's Square, aka Square Cubed, is out now on Minty Fresh.
“There is something deeply off about everything that’s happening here and I’m 100% sold.” – Brightest Young Things
“You know Garfield, he’s a cartoon cat, you got a telephone in the shape of his body yeah, but you don’t pick it up! Why don’t you pick it up? Pick it up!” – Christopher the Conquered
Thought it was a lyric from the next Justin Timberlake album, huh? Justin Timberlake wishes it was. The casual groove intermingles with a chorus of female background vocalists and a horn section, but it’s the “deeply off” that owns.
Yes, it’s actually Christopher the Conquered who is bringing sexy back on his latest album I Am Christopher (Grand Phony, Sept. 25th), opening with this cut and heading right into the album’s first single “Put It On Your Credit Card,” which is what Christopher (actual last name Ford) says you should do “when life gets hard” because “those motherfuckers got enough money anyway.”
A mere two sentences in and life advice has been given, even gifted, if you will.
In name alone, Gloom Balloon represents grand ups and grand downs.
The new album from Des Moines, Iowa-based mastermind Patrick Tape Fleming does, too. From its Sgt. Pepper’s-riffing cover (a theme of visual homage that has stretched across three full-lengths) to its compelling short story of a title (So Bergman Uses Bach To Get His Point Across, I Feel Like I Have Chosen Rock But At What A Cost), to the record’s sweeping opening track, “Tru Love Waits,” featuring what feels like a church choir preaching its only lines, “Don’t you ever say goodbye. Don’t you make your baby cry. True love waits, it never dies.”
Tape Fleming lists no less than 32 instruments attributed to himself (including Static Electricity, Box of Bulbs, and of course, Balloons) in the album’s liner notes, before going on to rattle off another 22 participants in this recording. At a time when we as a people are isolated, and artists are making recordings that reflect isolation, Gloom Balloon’s latest (Grand Phony, Sept. 25th) sounds communal, and that’s needed.
Tomorrow, "avant-pop temptress" Alex Lllly drops her three-song bundle Love In Three Colors via Release Me Records! Today, Imperfect Fifth brings us the bit of shade-throwing tune "Terrible Person," which is about... oh, I'll never tell!
There’s more new music from The Pinx over at V13.
“‘Hammer of the Dogs’... an obvious ode to the innovators of hard rock, Led Zeppelin, and the ‘hammer of the Gods’ lyric from their 1970 classic ‘Immigrant Song’... a scorching tune that pulls no punches in its approach, something typical of the group’s brand new EP... Electric! may only be five tracks in length, but it’ll wear you out.”
This is the most brutal cut on the new EP (according to me)!
She's American! She's a songwriter! Alex Lilly is an American Songwriter and her song "Aquamarine," one of our personal favorites from her catalog, is featured today. The song "instills an immediate vintage electronica vibe that would likely be right at home in parts of Cyndi Lauper's dance pop repertoire."
Listen now, and find the song everywhere as part of Lilly's new three-song bundle "Love In Three Colors" via Release Me Records.
For Folk’s Sake says “Drive by Feel,” the first single from the Reforester EP Perpetuity, out August 14, contains "sweeping layers of musicality, making for listens that are as accessible and lovely as they are impressively composed.”
I love this line: "I removed the steering wheel, just to prove I could drive by feel." Check out the lyric video right now!
I have been variously grooving on and getting feels for this song for weeks. It moves and it moves, ya know? So excited for Atwood Magazine to premiere "Phosphorescence," the first single from Crescent, the upcoming new album by Toronto's Speaker Face!
"It’s easy to get lost in the intimate waves of Speaker Face’s lush sound: They cultivate a strong hypnotizing presence that arrests the senses." Yes!
Such a scorcher from The Pinx! "This time the duels draw blood," says The Spill Magazine in its post of the new single "It's Electric," out everywhere this Friday. The guitar action here is truly hot as hell. New EP "Electric!" arrives Aug. 14th. Click to burn. 🔥
Steven Hefter’s 2011 album, released under the clever moniker of St. Even, was called a masterpiece twice, once by the Baltimore City Paper (“a masterpiece of dark pop songwriting”) and again by Portland, Oregon’s Willamette Week (“Spirit Animal is a masterpiece.”)
So, that’s it. That’s the news. You should listen to Hefter’s latest songs with his latest band Reforester because he’s that good.
Need more convincing? Okay, let’s get into that.
Hefter left Portland in 2017 and returned to Baltimore and his good friend and collaborator, Austin Stahl, who he has previously played with as the rhythm section of long-running Baltimore-based band Small Sur – a band that has released three albums to date and shared stages with Angel Olsen, Damien Jurado, Vetiver, Strand of Oaks, Phosphorescent, and others.
With Reforester, Hefter and Stahl (who is also the recipient of some not-faint praise, being named “Baltimore’s Best Singer-Songwriter” by the Baltimore City Paper) have rounded out the trio with Hefter’s former Challenge Club bandmate Chris Laun, who may have been mistakenly overlooked by the local press, but did have his tribute song to the Baltimore Orioles played at Camden Yards on opening day, which frankly, may be the win out of these three.
In summation, Reforester is a whole-is-greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts scenario, because masterful songwriters flock together.
“Perpetuity,” the debut EP by Reforester, is out Aug. 14th, 2020.