STRATEGIC ARTIST ADVOCACY SINCE 1997
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!
The second video in Mike Viola's trilogy of monster / horror movie-themed clips is out today! See "Ordinary Girl" now over at Under the Radar. Directed by The Bennett Sisters, starring Vanessa Barros Andrade, and photographed by Silvia Grav, the video, "follows a suburban teen horror fan as she awakens to the horror and wonder of a mysterious new power." The new Viola album Godmuffin is out Dec. 11th via Grand Phony.
Treble Zine calls “Outside,” by Another Bummer, “a gorgeously dreamy, gently psychedelic country-pop song with a sense of dusty openness and a kind of melancholy romanticism.” The song appears on Volume 4 of The Road Angel Project, the newest edition of a series curated by Inara George to benefit the Sweet Relief Musician’s Fund’s COVID-19 relief efforts.
Thank you, Elmore Magazine, for spreading the word about the late Los Angeles musician Tony Fernandez, sometimes called Mr. Banjo, whose song “Give It Some Time” appears on the newest edition of the Inara George-curated Road Angel Project series.
Elmore notes that Fernandez “spent much of his life playing in punk bands throughout the ’80s as a bass player, front man, and all-around personality.” His later years were more serene, and Elmore describes the new track - a duet with Sarah Devincentis - as “beautiful” and “bittersweet.”
All proceeds from Road Angel Project releases benefit Sweet Relief’s COVID-19 efforts. #mrbanjo #sweetrelief
Another Road Angel Project Volume 4 premiere! Relix just shared “Birthday” by Dan Bern, a song he wrote during the sessions for his 2012 LP Drifter. 𝘋𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳. He explains, “I was back in LA again and was very glad to be there.”
All proceeds from the Road Angel Project series, which is curated by Inara George, benefit Sweet Relief’s COVID-19 efforts.
“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.
As lyric videos go, the new one for Mike Viola's "Ordinary Girl" is about the cutest thing I have ever seen. Mike chases his younger daughter around with his monster thumb while she learns to roller skate on the sidewalks of Los Angeles.
Goofy grins for all viewers incoming! Watch it at Stereo Embers Magazine now. Mike will be appearing on an upcoming episode of the Stereo Embers podcast and his new album Godmuffin is out via Grand Phony on Dec. 11th. The official video for "Ordinary Girl," which continues in the monster movie mode of "Drug Rug," is coming your way on Monday!
Quote: "While Springsteen’s songbook is filled with tracks told from the perspective of a guy who wants to get out of town, 'Ordinary Girl' might very well be the first song written from the point of view of a parent wishing the same for his children."
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.
"Top-notch indie pop-rock tracks abound" on the new LP from The High Water Marks, according to Big Takeover. Out today (Nov. 13), Ecstasy Rhymes is the first album in 13 years from Hilarie Sidney- a former member of The Apples In Stereo and the sole female founder of the massively influential Elephant 6 collective.
Hear a full album stream of what The Big Takeover calls “38 minutes of perfect power-pop,” along with an enlightening Q&A session between bandleader Sidney and her musical mates.
Holy City Sinner, the most popular local blog in Mark Bryan’s beloved Charleston, SC, recently shared the Hootie and the Blowfish guitarist’s newest solo single, from upcoming LP Midlife Priceless. The full LP is due April 2, 2021 from Stone Point/Slow Start Records.
What a fantastic interview last week with Mark Pellington on Sirius XM’s Debatable with legendary MTV VJ Mark Goodman and former SPIN and VIBE editor Alan Light! Click the image for some excerpts.
Pellington’s new music film for Nada Surf, “Just Wait,” is out now.
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.
American Songwriter has an interview with Charlie Belle along with the premiere of their newest single, “What About Me?” The site calls it “an unabashedly vibrant blend of sound” from the “remarkable artists.”
Hear the new single from The High Water Marks on BPM now. Fronted by Elephant 6 co-founder Hilarie Sidney, the Grøa, Norway-based foursome is set to release Ecstasy Rhymes, its first album in 13 years, via Minty Fresh on Nov. 20, 2020.
“On their new single, ‘Award Show,’” BPM writes, “the band rips through an indie barnburner that would have felt perfectly at home released sometime in the early ‘90s – I’m looking at you Foolish-era Superchunk. But as much as the song owes a debt to bands of that time, and Sidney’s own work during those years, it never comes across as beholden to a specific aesthetic. It’s classic indie rock, yeah, but there is something more coursing through its melodic veins, resulting in a wry distillation of influence and experience which few bands can express with any sense of finality.”
