“Stream” is meant to create a kind of lyrical hypnosis.
It’s a playful, enchanting, and sometimes critical look at how our current algorithms work.
Inspired by the digital realities that shape our day-to-day lives, I found myself reflecting on our near annual iPhone purchases, the screentime data that Apple shares with us, and the apps that I still can’t understand.
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Well I’ve tried prototypes, but the fruit wasn’t ripe,
I’ll pretend differently, it’s a bad appetite.
This is one of my favourite lines from “Stream” as it reflects on how all tech progress is fruitful, but maybe not always ready.
It could just be that my own occasional aversion to this kind of societal focus is awry, yet not necessarily the ‘right’ view.
Thanks for taking the time to listen!
Colyn Cameron
Los Angeles-based indie rock band Near Beer — Joey Siara (vocals, guitar), Brent Stranathan (drums), Jeremy Levy (bass, backup vocals) — have shared a brand new single entitled “Mixtape Generation,” alongside an accompanying music video. It comes off their self-titled album, due Summer 2022 via Double Helix Records. The band describes the album as a set of “mini-anthems about insomnia, drinking, and human connection. Sometimes cynical. Sometimes romantic. Always with loud guitars.”
Speaking on their new single, the band wrote:
“‘Mixtape Generation’ has the caffeine pop-punkery of our teenage selves, but maybe the existential weight of being 20 years older. It drifts from nostalgia to paranoia, comes undone in the bridge, and yes, it was inspired by eating some “magical” cookie, thinking that death was imminent, but making it to the other side to see how ridiculous the whole experience was — which feels like the appropriate metaphor for being in a band.”
On the track’s accompanying video, they wrote:
“This video was made by our buddy Matt Wyatt. We talked a while about the canned nostalgia of these kinds of wedding videos and he ran with this idea. He found a nice angle on the whole ‘we’re in this together’ theme. Parisa Fakhri and Eric Toms are our newlyweds. “
My 80’s leaning electro-pop cover of “Girls Talk” is a little cheeky, definitely danceable, but still retains the powerful lyrical and melodic core of the Elvis Costello original.
Click here to stream + watch the official music video.
This song brings up memories of being a teenager for me. It conjures the image of a bunch of girls huddled together giggling and whispering excitedly. I love the thought of them knowing that there’s power in what they say.For the “Girls Talk” music video, we harnessed the intoxicating and intimidating feeling of a group of people talking and gossiping using multi-coloured lips. I created a distinct personality for each lip colour: yellow was quite sweet and shy, pink had an almost toxic level of positivity, blue was super sad and moody, and purple was straight up mean. It was devilishly fun.
| When I hear a male voice singing this song, it really feels like he’s on the outside looking in on the female experience. But when I hear a woman sing it, like Linda Ronstadt, or in this case me, it feels like the whole story of the song is flipped. It’s now being sung from the inside of the experience. It’s empowering.After a tough couple years, I just want to have a good time and provide an opportunity for someone else to have fun. And this track fits right into that.Thank you for giving it your time, Shaina Silver-Baird of Ghost Caravan |
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https://smarturl.it/ghostgirlstalk
Capturing two stories, one of Houston and one of Brooklyn, flipturn’s release of the double single “Halfway”/ “Brooklyn Baby” tells the same tale of a relationship coming apart thread by thread, city by city. The band today releases the two tracks independently, as another taste of their upcoming debut album slated to be released later this year. Listen to “Halfway”/ “Brooklyn Baby” HERE. Watch the lyric videos HERE and HERE.
With the same fleeting tenderness and beauty of the sun setting, “Halfway” pulls back the veil on the question of whether we are ready to commit and give ourselves completely to one person forever, or if we are only wanting to give them half of us. With unshakeable conviction and vulnerability, this track continues to exemplify how willing the band is to expose every wound within their art.
In “Brooklyn Baby,” the topic at hand shifts to the familiar fear of being alone. The delicately celestial track further reveals the sonic maturity associated with flipturn as they are moving into the era of their debut album.
“The main focus of the song is the question many of us face at some point or another as to whether we are in love with someone or if we are just simply incapable of being alone,” said lead singer Dillon Basse. “Two common traits I’ve found about myself from past relationships are dependency and a fear of loneliness. These traits have regrettably caused relationships to last longer than they probably should, which in the end was just unfair and especially cruel to the other person.”
NOA, the Dutch, Toronto born Pop/R&B artist blends vibrant, catchy melodies with resonant emotional themes — from relationships to female empowerment and self-realization. NOA’s artistic voice maintains a fun, lighthearted velvety tone that helps lift her fans above the noise and negativity of everyday life.
NOA was on Season 2 of CTV’s The Launch where she worked with Ryan Tedder (One Republic) and Scott Borchetta (Big Machine Records). She has been featured in Rolling Stone, Wonderland Magazine, Ones to Watch and Earmilk and has made appearances on SIRIUS XM and Global News ’The Morning Show’. NOA has been spotlighted on numerous Spotify editorial playlists including New Music Friday NL, New Music Friday Canada, Fresh Finds, Chill Hits (over 5 million followers), and Weekend Hangouts to name a few. NOA’s debut single ‘Caught Up’ hit the iTunes top 200 Pop Charts in the Netherlands landing at number 98 and was featured on Spotify’s editorial playlist Denmark’s viral 50. In 2020, NOA released ‘Motions’ which premiered through Live Nation’s ‘Ones to Watch’. NOA’s latest EP ‘Honeymoon’ charted at number 26 on the iTunes top 200 Pop Charts in Canada and was featured on Amazon music’s ‘Breakthrough Canada’ playlist. NOA is at over 3 million career streams worldwide and is averaging more than 100,000 monthly listeners across platforms; building an incredible loyal following in the United States, Canada and Europe.
NOA is set to release her second highly anticipated follow up EP ‘Hurting’ with a large global marketing approach.
One of India’s most accomplished and influential female actresses of all time, Madhuri Dixit, released her second single titled “Tu Hai Mera,” this past weekend on her birthday May 15th. A pop song at its core, “Tu Hai Mera” is a love letter to her fans thanking them for all their encouragement over the years. “My fans are a huge part of my journey and their support means everything to me. They are my biggest strength” Madhuri says.
This release follows the astounding success of her first single “Candle,” which launched during the lockdown, was dedicated to the Covid-19 frontline workers, and helped raise money for Covid relief. The song garnered 1 billion views across all social platforms in just 2 weeks, including TikTok where Madhuri initiated her viral #CandleOfHope challenge. She also became the first Indian artist to do an integration with Amazon Alexa for a customized voice response, during this release.
indie-pop singer / songwriter, RYMAN, is thrilled to release his new single “Change” that is out now along with the music video that can ben viewed at https://youtu.be/fAPIy-PkcsI
RYMAN says, “This song means a lot to me. At the time of writing it, I was struggling to enjoy making music and was doubting my future. I genuinely considered taking a break from a music to enjoy high school and go to college. I quickly realized that’s not who I am at all, and that making music is what I was meant to do. I wrote this one with Val Hoyt and Cleve Wilson. “Change” is the EP title track.”
“Get Better” is a song that was inspired by isolation and loneliness caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic. I wrote this song during Toronto’s first major lockdown in March 2020, while reflecting — at the micro level — about the neighbourhood that I live in…how empty and sad everything felt, and how the concept of time became so trivial when being physically stuck in one place.
🙐 Listen to my new single, “Get Better,” streaming now across platforms 🙐
The song comes from my EP, also titled Get Better.
As much as “Get Better” is about loneliness, it elicits the feeling of desiring to get better — not in the sense of the obvious physiological threat of serious illness we’ve all been faced with, but to get better as people — to practice compassion for ourselves, for others, and to look out for each other collectively.
“What a year today has been
the sun won’t rise and the world won’t spin the same way again ‘til we get better”
I produced this EP myself and it was my first time really trusting my instincts from start to finish. It was a bit daunting to know that I had full creative control; the process of making this EP led me to wrestle with my inner demons and inner critic more than any other project thus far.
What I want for people to take away from this album is that it’s about a time in our shared history of reflection and revelation, and that it can be referenced as a catalyst for self-improvement, advocating for social justice, and being sincere and considerate about collective wellbeing.
Thanks for listening,
Jenn Nucum
drummer Jeremy Cunningham, saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi, and bassist/producer Paul Bryan today announced their debut album as a trio A Better Ghost will be released on July 29, 2022 via Northern Spy Records. “A Better Ghost ties Dustin and me to a time of creation that halted during the pandemic,” says Cunningham. “Getting back to this music in 2021 found us as a creative trio with Paul Bryan bringing our ideas into the light and sending forward a message of shared hope.”
Alongside the announcement the trio shared the lead single and title track alongside a music video. “I thought the perpetual, hypnotizing effect of the spinning discs were a fitting companion to the omnipresent synth sequence that appears throughout the track,” says Laurenzi who filmed and directed the video, which was loosely inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s film “Anémic Cinéma”.
Queer|Art, NYC’s hub for connecting and empowering generations of LGBTQ+ artists, is pleased to share the initial details for The 2022 Queer|Art|Pride Digital Book & Print Fair—the 4th annual edition of the summer festival celebrating work by the organization’s vibrant community of more than 200 LGBTQ+ artists.
The Queer|Art|Pride Digital Book & Print Fair is an annual summer marketplace consisting of a diverse array of artists, open for business online at www.queer-art.org/fair from June 1–July 31. This year, the Fair hosts 50+ participating artists from our extensive artist network. The online marketplace features an abundance of works for perusal and purchase, including (but not limited to) artist books, novels, zines, poetry chapbooks, drawings, photographs, watercolors, garments, collages, and prints. 100% of the proceeds from the Fair directly benefit participating artists.
The online marketplace will be accompanied by two live Queer|Art|Pride Digital Book & Print Fair SHOW ‘N’ TELL events, taking place over Zoom. Artists participating in the digital marketplace will perform readings of excerpted works, offer a show-and-tell of works for sale, and more. The Show ‘N’ Tells will take place on Tuesday, June 14th and Tuesday, July 19th from 6-7:30 PM EST. More details coming soon!
Participating artists include: Mitchell Allison, Florencia Alvarado, Devin Antheus, Frances Arpaia, Andi Avery, Jeffrey Augustine Songco, Daniel Barragán, Danielle Benedict, Kaeten Bonli, KS Brewer, Rachel Britton, Jessica Buie, Jibz Cameron, Candystore, Amarise Carreras, ryy casper, Hao Chun Chang, Marco DaSilva, Carmen DeCristo, Sharon De La Cruz, Sara Duell, Sokari Ekine, Michael Espinoza, Dylan Everrett, Chitra Ganesh, Rami George, Golden, Goodw.y.n, Naima Green, Cristobal Guerra, Annika Hansteen-Izora, Carlos Hernandez, Marie Hinson, Henry James Hanson, Serena Jara, Jordi, Kei Kaimana, Cosmic Kitty, Kia LaBeija, Sunny Leerasanthanah, Joseph Liatela, Malachi Lily, Heather Lynn Johnson, Felli Maynard, Iris McCloughan, Sarah Mihara Creagen, Sarah Panzer, Russell Perkins, Jorge Sánchez, Pamela Sneed, Jeannette Spicer, Natalie Tsui, Tobaron Waxman, Erica Wessmann, Brendan Williams-Childs, Eva Woolridge, agustine zegers, and Zhidong Zhang.
To visit the Digital Book & Print Fair, head to https://www.queer-art.org/fair.
Platinum ARIA-accredited and 2022 APRA award winner Ziggy Alberts collaborates with Canadian Singer-Songwriter and Juno award-winning artist Donovan Woods on his new single ‘THE SUN & THE SEA’ and accompanying music video. This track is powerful, yet beautifully melodic with a dreamy rhythm and deep harmonious vocals.
What started as a genuine interest in each other’s music, turned into this collaborative release from two independent artists, both of whom co-founded their respective independent Record Labels.
“We actually got talking because I put one of [Donovan’s] songs on a personal playlist of mine – and I proceeded to slide into his DM’S after he left a comment”, Alberts says. And since, “Everything about this collaboration has been so natural… From the first time I heard [Donovan] sing “we want to be famous”, I was blown away; it felt that this was how the song was meant to be all along.”
Polartropica is the music endeavor of Los Angeles based, dreamyspace-pop artist, Cherise Wu. Born in Taiwan yet raised in California, Wu has created a fantastical dreamland, successfully combining quirky pop melodies, futuristic synths and classical string arrangements, resulting in a genre of ethereal fantasy dream rock that you’ve never heard before.
Polartropica fuses elements of complete opposites together with the outcome resulting in a unique, ethereal sound that defies all sonic worlds. Using both organic and synthetic instruments, Wu conceived a visionary dream world for listeners to escape to. Wu professes, “I wanted to create a healing, inspiring and empowering space with just the right amount of disco-party!”
Her debut album, Dreams Come True, perfectly encapsulates Polartropica’s entire ethos, creating a soundtrack to her very own magical intergalactic space. Wu shares, “I get to play and work with some of the most incredibly wonderful people in the entire universe, and we always try to have as much fun as possible.” Sonically the album is a delicious concoction of dreamy synth rock, fueled by stories of people, animals, world news and Wu’s experiences as a queer Asian-American living in California.
Her recently released single “Serial Killer Slayer- Give Them Hell” is about brave people who fight back when faced with kidnappers, serial killers, and predators. The infectious and bold track fuses pop punk, garage rock and electropop for an empowering anthem of self defense.
“TERMINATOR” was written during a soul crushing dark time during the quarantine amid personal turmoil and violence against AAPI community and seniors, Terminator is a goodbye letter to someone they loved. The track is inspired by Terminator 2’s T-1000 Liquid Metal. Under pressure and attack, he melts down to an amorphous mimetic polyalloy puddle, but reforms himself stronger than ever, and is almost impossible to kill. Wu wrote this song so that fans and listeners could supercharge on courage and hope whenever going through dark, uncertain times. The track is to be released with a collection of moving sequences, TERMINATOR:DYNASTY in collaboration with photographer and video artist IZZO illustrating 6 WAYS TO DIE. It explores physical and psychological pain as a means of release and pleasure, perceived power dynamics, and the way our existence, humanity and worthiness lives on in everything we love and touch, and cannot be diminished to our accomplishments.
Written with the intention to allow listeners to let their imagination run wild, Wu hopes her music creates little escapes from reality for anyone that is looking for a mini vacation. Having been crowned LA Weekly’s ‘Best Indie Pop Band of 2019’, as well as landing acclaim from the likes of Billboard, NPR, LADYGUNN, among others, Polartropica is an artist to watch.
The artistic journey of Kailaya began in her hometown of Los Angeles, combining her talents as a singer, songwriter, and dancer. As a toddler, she loved to express herself through movement and started taking dance classes with a group of older, much stronger dancers. She progressed fast with the help of her ballet teacher and learned by example that perseverance and hard work pay off. From early on, Kailaya learned to take criticism with gratitude, but she always stayed true to her own way of telling her stories through choreography and improvisation. She also began taking piano lessons and practiced relentlessly every day, teaching her patience, discipline, and consistency. Soon after discovering high heels and pole dancing, Kailaya embraced her body and sexuality on her terms.
In school, she expressed interest in theater and performing arts and was turned on to poetry by a marvelous literature teacher. Seeing the beauty and power of words, Kailaya indulged in writing which brought her several wins in poetry contests. Like many writers, Kailaya found art as a creative outlet when she began struggling with depression. Taking what she knew from years of writing poetry, Kailaya turned to songwriting as an escape. Realizing that both sadness and joy were part of life, she allowed her emotions, both good and bad, to drive her writing and as a result, Kailaya found her voice.
neill@outloudculture.com
