STRATEGIC ARTIST ADVOCACY SINCE 1997
I kinda wish all of you could just hear this entire Mike Viola album right now, because it's uplifting, real, and frank as hell in a way that we all could use at the moment.
The first single - "Drug Rug" - is streaming over at Buzzbands, which says, "Viola channels his preternatural gift for directness and warmth into a celebration of youth." A thing of beauty. Godmuffin is out Dec. 11, and "Drug Rug" is streaming everywhere this Friday courtesy of Grand Phony.
The first single from the upcoming debut album by Blesson Roy is out tomorrow on Slow Start Records!
"Undertow" is from all-killer, no-filler Think Like Spring, out Nov. 27. This is not to say that killers (movie villains are a thing, no?) and fillers (hey, I've enjoyed eating a few extra bites in my day!) are all bad, but really, this album is fantastic, and project mastermind Terry Borden ought to be pretty damn proud of his work on this one!
Thanks to Spill Magazine for the premiere.
“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.”
So, I called up Brian Eno and said, "Hey, my peeps in Figg are premiering a cover of your song 'Needle In The Camel's Eye' at Surviving The Golden Age on Thursday. Can you announce your new album at the exact same time?" His reply? "Yes, my dawg, yes."
Figg recorded this version a decade ago during the sessions for their debut album which was finally released this year. Album two will come along much sooner, promise!
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.
This is a career first for me - I have the same artist with premieres at The Obelisk and All About Jazz!
Adam McIntyre of The Pinx can seemingly do it all, and he does a lot of doing it all! Three solo albums during the pandemic (the third, Black Planet - out Sept. 18 - includes the 13-minute Prince / Miles Davis mind-bender tribute, "Voodoo") and the latest EP from The Pinx (Electric!, out now) with its Mad Alchemist Liquid Lite Show-created oil projection visualization. JJ Koczan at The Obelisk says, "Stylistic turns are quick and unannounced but a pleasure to follow. Pretense is nowhere to be found. It sounds like rock and roll to me."
Hey, it sounds like jazz, too! Follow this link to hear "Voodoo" via All About Jazz, and click here to find the premiere of “Electric” in the Obelisk.
"Speaker Face marry hustle and float... classic, organic sounds with electronics for a combination that is simply otherworldly."
Hell yeah, this video has bees in it, but don't be afraid! See it now over at PopMatters, and check out the album Crescent everywhere on Oct. 9.
The second edition of Inara George's charity initiative with Sweet Relief Musicians Fund is out now! "Road Angel Project: Volume 2" features tracks from Alex Lilly, Dannielle De Andrea (feat. Larry Goldings), and Mike Viola. It's streaming over at BuzzBands.LA and everywhere else in the whole world here: https://fanatic.lnk.to/RoadAngelProjectVolume2.
Brooklyn Vegan reports that the The High Water Marks “instantly recall the heyday of The Elephant 6 Recording Company with an earworm melody nestled in fuzzy indie rock production."
So excited for this one today! “Can You” is the first single from the first album in 13 years from Apples In Stereo co-founder Hilarie Sidney. It's amazing to hear her voice over these crunchy sounds yet again. "Can You" is available everywhere on Friday, and Ecstasy Rhymes drops via Minty Fresh on Nov. 20.
When national attention came to the sibling duo Charlie Belle in 2014, Jendayi and Gyasi Bonds were literally just kids. Sixteen and fourteen-years-old at the time, they were both already veterans of the Austin music scene when their debut EP “Get To Know” blew up.
Press came from NPR, Nylon, MTV, Vice, Wired and others, and Jendayi and Gyasi appeared together on the cover of their local paper, the Austin Chronicle. Two new singles by sister-brother duo Charlie Belle arrive this fall. “Looking For Magic” is out Sept. 18th, with “What About Me?” following on Oct. 16th.
I enjoy working with bonkers people who make bonkers entertainment for people who appreciate what I call "the bonkers lifestyle," which is so bonkers that I just made it up. Christopher the Conquered's video for his song of questionable advice "Put It On Your Credit Card" moseys right down the center of Bonkers Avenue.
The Big Takeover says: "Acting out with sonically bold and lyrically acerbic enthusiasm... Ford is a born entertainer and has aptly been likened to Elton John for his piano-driven tunes." New album I Am Christopher is out Sept. 25 from the Grand Phony empire.
Hilarie Sidney of The High Water Marks is the co-founder of one of the most influential musical collectives of the past, oh, forever amount of years.
Elephant 6 is a storied and now, legendary, musical collective, and Sidney was at its nucleus as a founding member of The Apples in stereo.
“I am so lucky to have been a musician throughout my life,” Sidney says. “Having been in the Apples since 1993, I started to have many more songs than could ever be released.”
Sidney found a new musical partnership when she formed The High Water Marks, releasing a debut album (Songs About The Ocean) in 2003. The record was written through the mail with her now-husband and bandmate, Per Ole Bratset, whom she initially met at an Apples gig in Norway in 2002. A follow-up album (Polar) arrived in 2007.
Sidney then headed in another direction after being awarded a prestigious study abroad scholarship at the University of Oslo.
“Moving to Norway was everything I had hoped it would be,” she says.
Thirteen years later, The High Water Marks, have completed a new album that reflects the maturity, perseverance, songwriting, and performing talent that made Sidney’s contributions to Elephant 6 and the Apples so integral.
If she was marginalized at the time, those notions are blown out by Ecstasy Rhymes, 38 minutes of perfect power pop that will take any fan of the songs that Sidney contributed to Apples recordings – her voice is instantly recognizable – right back to the most potent days of that band’s career.
As he did on previous releases, Bratset also contributes lead vocals on several songs, all of which were co-written with Sidney. The band is completed by Logan Miller (Bass, Guitar, Drums) along with Øystein Megård (Drums, Keyboards, Backing Vocals.)
“I feel like for the first time ever, we have a dream team,” she says.
Sidney’s luck as a musician hasn’t run out yet.
Jared from The March Divide is already arguing with me, but I feel like he nails the falsetto on his cover of "High and Dry" by Radiohead. This one, streaming now at Americana Highways, appears on his surprise live album ALIVE!, which will be out from Slow Start Records on Aug. 28th.
he managed to record this at a show in Athens, GA in January when live music was still an everyday reality.
Christopher The Conquered is coming in hot today with some solid life advice: "When life gets hard, put it on your credit card!" Indeed, it's the title of the first single from the new album I Am Christopher and you can check out this sub-two minute gem right now over at Bad Copy.
Hear it everywhere this Friday; the album is out Sept. 25 on Grand Phony. Find the totally awesome pre-order packages here.
This album got me good and the latest single ("Work Friends," out this Friday and premiered today at MXDWN) is the best example yet of the Earth-meets-electronics sound of Speaker Face. Check it: "The ensemble merge rich, earthy string instrumentation with soothing downtempo electronic beats, layering breathy, ethereal vocals over the top."
What's it about? Trent Freeman says, "'Work Friends’ speaks to the masks we wear in the workplace. Forced relationships playing out in environments unnaturally curated to make us our most productive. This track is a covert dance party for the freak hiding behind a tightly buttoned shirt and uncomfortable shoes."
