marking a full circle moment and kicking off a very special 25th anniversary, California rock band ALO announce their first full-length studio LP in eight years and ninth overall studio release, Silver Saturdays due out March 3, including a limited run of vinyl, via Brushfire Records and available for pre-order now. Alongside the announcement, the band shares the first taste of the forthcoming project with lighthearted track and video “Hot Damn“ out everywhere now. Plus, ALO will hit the road this spring on the Tour d’Amour XVI around the Western U.S. with support from Rainbow Girls on several dates, and other dates featuring Hot Buttered Rum, ORGŌNE, Ron Artis II and The Moore Brothers. Tickets are on sale now.
Silver Saturdays isn’t just another album. This is the rock ‘n’ roll dream made reality. Best friends since childhood who form a band, buy a van and embark on an adventure out of the lush valleys of the Golden State that’s still flourishing a quarter of a century later. ALO show what happens when a band doesn’t break up and instead enjoys the fruition of their life long camaraderie and brotherhood. As such, the music hinges on the near-telepathic cohesion of four master collaborators at the peak of their craft individually and collectively after all of this time.
Silver Saturdays celebrates an ongoing journey that began in Saratoga, California in the late eighties when Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz (guitar/vocals), Zach Gill (keyboards/vocals) and Steve Adams (bass/vocals) met in grade school. It stands out as the first full-length studio release featuring drummer/vocalist Ezra Lipp—a fixture in the Northern California creative scene where he cut his teeth with the likes of Phil Lesh, Sean Hayes and countless others. Meanwhile, the title nods to the band’s recent penchant for silver attire at their Saturday shows, which became a costume theme amongst their fan base and an acknowledgment of their silver “25th” anniversary.
I’m Devon Bate, a producer and composer based in Montreal. I’ve produced Juno and Polaris prize winning albums for artists across genres, and now I’m turning the tables and putting out work of my own. I’m sharing the first single from my project The Weather Holds with you, as I gear up to release my debut LP, You Couldn’t Ask For a More Beautiful Day.
I can pinpoint a moment in which it felt like my childhood ended – “It Feels So Strange” was inspired by that moment. Listen here and watch the video here.
It’s about what it feels like to age while laughing at the seriousness of those feelings. These tectonic inner transformations and the profound feelings of conviction as a younger person – I’m singing to their validity, but with a warmth and humour I couldn’t have had while in the thick of them. There’s a tiredness that comes with growing older, but that tiredness can slacken your grip on the things that hurt you.
Brigitte Naggar’s (Common Holly) vocal harmonies instantly light up the song with complex feelings of sadness and anger. Beatrice Ferreira’s arrangement for the string quartet so elegantly dialogues with my (absolutely busted) guitar solo, while Jean-Michel Blais’ performance on piano delicately ties these disparate musical worlds together.
Thanks for your time!
Please follow along: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | TikTok
The Weather Holds
We’re AUGUSTA, a Toronto-based 7-piece Alternative Rock band.
Many of us can relate to the feeling of watching someone we care about being treated poorly by a significant other, knowing they could be better off.
Listen to your new anthem “Better Off” on streaming platforms now.
It feels like you are in a crowded room with everyone shouting the lyrics. We stayed true to this by adding as many layers as possible. In addition to our regular guitar, keyboard, and horn layers, we added strings, and a group of our talented friends sang the chorus with us.
We collaborated with our friend and Netflix actor, Hallea Jones, on the video.
Look for it on January 20th on our YouTube channel.
The three of us – Joe Dent (former band leader of A Fellow Ship), August Jones (touring member of The Reklaws, the Pick Brothers band), Zach Stuckey (touring member of Anna Sofia, Dani Doucette) – wrote “Better Off” at August‘s cottage during our first band retreat, recorded from start to finish in his bedroom. After the countless hours we spent finishing this song, we came away with a much better understanding of the time and attention to detail to complete the kind of music we want to share with the world.
We hope you enjoy it.
AUGUSTA
Canadian singer/songwriter Tara MacLean has been an internationally renowned and award winning recording and touring artist for over 25 years. She’s written and recorded six solo albums and two with her band Shaye (with Kim Stockwood and Damhnait Doyle). Tara has been signed to Nettwerk Music Group, EMI Canada, Capitol US and Asia and is still with Sony Music Publishing Canada.
An environmental and social justice activist, Tara has recently received the Senate of Canada medal for her work in her community. In 2020, she received the SOCAN Songwriter of the Year award, as well as Solo Recording of the Year for her album “Deeper” at the Music PEI awards, and an ECMA nomination for Pop Album of the Year. Last year, her song with Catherine MacLellan, This Storm, won Song of the Year at the PEI Music Awards. She received the Stompin’ Tom Award for outstanding contribution to music on the east coast.
Guitar sensation Malina Moye is thrilled to release her new single “Say My Name” along with the music video directed by filmmaker Marc Fusco that premiered on American Songwriter. “Say My Name” is off her forth coming album Dirty which is set to be released on March 17th via WCE Records. Produced By Bjorn “Polarbear “ Soderberg (Neyo, Kendrick Lamar, Nikk SIXX) Malina and PolarBear deliver an infectious groove that incorporates her signature sound of Pop, Rock, and Soul. It’s a high energy power anthem that is lyrically filled with hope, inspiration and the soulful will to triumph then is rounded out with a Prince-esque blues rock solo.
Malina says, “Saying a person’s name forces you to understand someone’s story and view them as a person and not just as a number or a hashtag.”
ALL ARTS’ Past, Present, Future Dance Film Festival to Premiere Films by Omari Wiles and Jack Ferver, February 7 – March 7, 2023
Wiles’ Our Name Our Legacy Explores His Evolution from a Traditional West African Dancer into a Voguing Luminary; Ferver’s Nowhere Apparent Grieves a Generation of Dance Artists Lost to the AIDS Epidemic
ALL ARTS, The WNET Group’s multiplatform arts and culture hub, announces it will premiere films by celebrated dance artists Jack Ferver and Omari Wiles on its nationwide streaming app, website and local broadcast channel as part of its second Past, Present, Future dance film festival.
Ferver’s Nowhere Apparent and Wiles’ Our Name Our Legacy will premiere, respectively, on Tuesday, February 28, and March 7, at 8 p.m. ET on ALL ARTS TV, the free ALL ARTS app, and AllArts.org/PastPresentFuture.
ALL ARTS’ Past, Present, Future initiative, which launched with its inaugural festival in May 2021, commissions films in which dance artists explore the past, present and future of their work. Past participants have included choreographers Kyle Abraham and Pam Tanowitz and the disability arts ensemble Kinetic Light.
Past, Present, Future 2023 Premieres
Jack Ferver: Nowhere Apparent
Tuesday February 28 at 8 p.m. ET on ALL ARTS
Access: AD, CC available
New York-based writer, choreographer, and director Jack Ferver (they/them) creates genre-defying performances that The New Yorker has described as “so extreme that they sometimes look and feel like exorcisms.” Their works interrogate and indict an array of psychological and socio-political issues, particularly in the realms of sexual orientation, gender and power struggles. Ferver blurs boundaries between fantastic theatrics and stark naturalism, character and self, humor and horror.
In Nowhere Apparent, Ferver poetically explores their grief over the generation of choreographers and dancers lost to the AIDS epidemic. Through a series of theatrical vignettes interspersed with newly shot performance footage, Ferver and filmmaker Jeremy Jacob interrogate themes of queer isolation and feelings of loss and abandonment in the wake of a failed response to the AIDS crisis.
Nowhere Apparent is written and choreographed by Jack Ferver and directed by Jeremy Jacob.
Omari Wiles: Our Name Our Legacy
Tuesday March 7 at 8 p.m. ET on ALL ARTS
Access: AD, CC available
Omari Wiles (he/him) was born in Senegal, West Africa. He is best known as Legendary Omari Nina Oricci, founder of The Royal House of Nina Oricci, and as Creative Director of the Les Ballet Afrik dance company. Wiles began his training in West African dance at the age of six and, while developing the skills needed to teach those forms, found himself falling in love with learning and training in other styles, such as hip-hop, house, modern dance and voguing. Since then, Wiles has worked with artists ranging from Rashaad Newsome to Janet Jackson, John Legend, Jidenna, Madonna, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. Wiles was featured on the second season of HBO Max’s ballroom competition show “Legendary.” With Les Ballet Afrik, he continues to develop his own style, blending African dance with vogue and house.
In Our Name Our Legacy, Wiles takes center stage tracing his singular artistic journey, from his beginnings in West African dance to his becoming one of the leading lights of today’s ballroom and contemporary dance scenes. Featuring interviews with leading members of The Royal House of Nina Oricci and behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage, the documentary created by Wiles and filmmaker Jabari Taylor explores the influence of family traditions and legacy in ballroom culture and dance.
Our Name Our Legacy is directed and filmed by Jabari Taylor.
Continuing to hone her unique ‘minimal pop-tech’ sound and multidimensional skills as a singer, songwriter, and producer, ‘Only One’ is a tantalizing addition to SOHMI’s growing catalog. Through dreamy techno tones and effervescent pop accents, SOHMI crafts a mesmerizing utopian soundscape. Slithering with slinky basslines, sultry vocals, and fluttering melodies, ‘Only One’ is intoxicating from start to finish. ‘Only One’ serves as the second single off SOHMI’s upcoming Recital EP, due out early 2023, following her breakout hit ‘Somebody’.
From becoming the first Korean-American resident of LA’s renowned underground techno club, Sound, to founding her own record label Permission, SOHMI’s acceleration through the electronic scene is nothing short of impressive. Newer to the scene with her debut release in 2020, SOHMI’s training as a classical pianist combined with her modern take on techno music as a producer and vocalist have earned her places on the most revered stages in the music world. In 2022, SOHMI rose to new heights, performing at festivals including Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lightning In A Bottle, and Electric Forest. Top talents such as RÜFÜS DU SOL, Kaskade, Boris Brejcha, and Hot Since 82 have personally hand selected SOHMI to open for their shows across the US, recognizing her undeniable and far-ranging talent.
Untold.io (https://untold.io/), the first and only FINRA member equity crowdfunding platform focused solely on impact content, is to preview its new film Fuzzy Head at the Slamdance Film Festival this Sunday. Untold announced that it has secured grant funding from Dapper Labs. The grant enables fractionalized ownership of alternative assets in a regulated way, making it the largest grant deal of its kind within the crypto industry.
Fuzzy Head, a surreal psychological thriller directed by Wendy McColm, is premiering at Slamdance film festival, where it was honorarily placed. In Fuzzy Head, Insomnia-ridden Marla is on the run after the murder of her mother. Now, Marla (portrayed by McColm) must confront her everlasting void to find out the truth of what really happened and at last, undo all that’s been done. Marla embodies the journey of meeting her child self to rewrite her story.
McColm is acclaimed as a top emerging director. The feature has been described as Terrence Malick meets David Lynch. The team behind the film is composed of notable industry personalities (Alicia Witt, Rain Phoenix, Fred Melamed, Richard Riehle, Frank Oz). Slamdance film festival is dedicated to promoting grassroots productions and has launched industry changing careers, such as Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk) and Rian Johnson (Star Wars: The Last Jedi).
“Having a platform to invest in carefully-vetted entertainment projects with impact-driven agendas that would otherwise not have access to Hollywood screens is a unique opportunity,” said Ali Aksu, CEO of Untold.io. “We are all about using film and entertainment as an educational and healing tool to improve the condition of our world, and we’re grateful to have the added support of Dapper Labs to support exciting indie projects like Fuzzy Head.” Aksu is a serial entrepreneur with two exits at Universal and Netflix in his repertoire.
Untold’s name is its agenda. As an enabler for indie film, it uses two instruments – microfinance and streaming – to fill a gap, helping independent filmmakers to produce untold stories and promote impact. This revolutionizes funding accessibility by democratizing the financing of entertainment projects, opening investment to accredited and unaccredited investors for as low as $100.
Dapper Labs is famous as the creator of CryptoKitties. Its parent company, Alphabet, has itself received over 1.5 Billion in investments from major VC funds like Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures, and Dapper is now using the funds to enable other innovative projects with the Flow Ecosystem Fund, endowed with $725M as an innovation accelerator and multiplier to enable equitable Web3 opportunities globally for blockchain developers and creators.
Untold champions unconventional, impact-driven content that not only entertains but educates and inspires audiences to solve real-world problems. With a strict vetting process that only accepts major award-winning producers, artists and founders to ensure investors are supporting pre-vetted projects, Untold also prioritizes the SDG/ESG blueprint when it comes to vetting the area of impact for a specific project.
Untold has supported a number of notable films to date.
- The Comeback Trail features Robert DeNiro, Tommy Lee Jones, and Morgan Freeman in an insurance scam they plan in order to save themselves from debt with the mafia.
- Directed by award-winning filmmaker Greg Reitman, KOHOLA tells the story of the environmental crisis of the oceans as seen through the eyes of a humpback whale and her family.
- Winning multiple awards for best director and cinematography at the women’s production event Femme Filmmakers Festival 2022 and other accolades at the International Children Care Film Festival 2022, Down from the Clowds follows a young girl’s love for her father and longing for an intact family life.
- Carter is about awareness and the conflict and solidarity that arises in a family when a young teenager finds out that his older brother is queer.
While film content is usually dictated by the market for mainstream productions, for indie films with offbeat content, funding is an even greater challenge. Nearly half of independent feature films never get a theatrical release, and only 3% of all films turn a profit. If they do, they are almost always supported by mainstream agencies, film festivals, and well known film stars. Untold established a strategic partnership with a sales company, Hollywood Media Bridge, to help independent films find their exit strategy as the production is underway.
While theater closings caused by COVID caused a crisis in the film industry, streaming is turning things around. In the first year of the global pandemic, the demand for streaming grew to one billion subscriptions worldwide. Streaming is good because it cuts costs enough to make small budgets work for arthouse and genre titles. With accessible microfinancing and streaming, Untold is addressing two pivotal enablers for independent film.
As a member of the Council for Inclusive Capitalism, Untold is taking action to promote an inclusive and sustainable economy and has pledged to support free education for independent, impact driven content creators, setting ambitious crowdfunding financing goals of $100M for this group, to 2030. It is also a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an organization that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets.
Untold.io intends to accelerate film production by opening up investment opportunities to the broader public. The platform is the only FINRA member funding platform for content that enables investment via Reg CF, providing a simple and cyber-secure way to invest with either credit, ACH, check or wire transfer, and crypto in the near future. Untold also embraces the future of Web3, offering investors a variety of benefits ranging from attendance at film premieres, inclusion in credits, NFT merchandise, and more.
FRANKIE FLOWERS is an emerging alternative artist from Waterloo, ON. Originally, wanting to explore the electronic music scene, with the goal of being a DJ – she decided to take a course on music production and learned how to spin on vinyl. After an abysmal breakup, and many shifts working coat check at a Toronto concert venue, her musical direction changed and she began writing and creating alternative music as a release, having the sudden urge to use her voice as her main instrument.
She produces her own genre-bending sound by merging her love for dark-wave and post-punk music, drawing inspiration from bands such as The Cure and Joy Division. Alongside playing two sets at this past year’s NXNE festival, she also recently had the opportunity to open for one of her favourite artists, Kennyhoopla on his 2022, ‘SURVIVOR’S GUILT’ tour.
Amassing over 30 billion streams to date, hip-hop heavyweight Trippie Redd surprises fans with the announcement of Mansion Musik, a 25-track album dropping Friday. Pre-save the album HERE.
An ode to Chief Keef’s 2018 Mansion Musick mixtape, the project features Keef as executive producer, as well as a featured artist on tracks “ATLANTIS” and “ROCK OUT.” Beyond that, the tracklist packs a punch with a stacked list of features including Travis Scott, Future, Lil Baby, JuiceWRLD and Lil B. See the full tracklisting below and prepare for the arrival of Mansion Musik this Friday.
MANSION MUSIK TRACKLIST
- MANSION MUSIK
- ATLANTIS (feat. Chief Keef)
- PSYCHO (feat. Future)
- FULLY LOADED (feat. Future & Lil Baby)
- KNIGHT CRAWLER (feat. JuiceWRLD)
- VAN HELSING
- DARK BROTHERHOOD (feat. Lil Baby)
- FREE RIO
- KRZY TRAIN (feat. Travis Scott)
- MUSCLES (feat. Lil Durk)
- GOODFELLAS (feat. Nardo Wick)
- KILLIONAIRE
- HIGH HOPES (feat. BIG30)
- DIE DIE (feat. LUCKI)
- WHO ELSE! (feat. Rich The Kid)
- BIGGEST BIRD (feat. Summrs)
- HIDEOUT (feat. Fijimacintosh)
- WITCHCRAFT (feat. Rylo Rodriguez)
- TOILET WATER (feat. Ski Mask The Slump God)
- PURE (feat. G Herbo)
- ROCK OUT (feat. Chief Keef)
- ARMAGEDDON (feat. Rob 49)
- NUN (feat. DaBaby)
- SWAG LIKE OHIO PT. 2 (feat. Lil B)
- COLORS (feat. Kodak Black)
Boasting over 250 million combined streams, Australia’s Cub Sport prepare new single “Keep Me Safe” alongside announcing their fifth studio album Jesus At The Gay Bar out April 7th.
On their recent singles “Always Got The Love” and “Replay,” Cub Sport capture the pure heat of a single moment – the elation of a road trip, for example, or the thrill of letting go of the past and looking towards the future.
“Keep Me Safe”, the third single from the Brisbane four-piece’s new album Jesus At The Gay Bar, changes that: intimate in its detail but never less than grand in its scale, it’s a remarkable reckoning with love and shame, a postcard to a former self written with impossible care and grace. Musically, “Keep Me Safe” continues the thread of dance music that’s run through the singles from Jesus At The Gay Bar, building from ambient balladry into fleet, skyward-looking house – stream here.
Detailing the secret teenage romance between Cub Sport’s Tim Nelson and Sam Netterfield, as well as the internal conflict Nelson felt in the period afterwards, “Keep Me Safe” reclaims a period in the pair’s life that was initially shrouded in stress and confusion. It’s a million miles from stereotypical narratives of trauma or repression, instead emphasising the fragile rush of first love through a fluttering, emotive beat reminiscent of The Blaze and Fred Again.
“I wrote Keep Me Safe about a euphoric but complicated time,” says Nelson of the song’s inspiration. “Shedding some light on it now feels like I’m validating my younger self and celebrating the magic in something I was so ashamed of at the time.”
Marking 3 years since their last tour of the UK–which involved a sold out stint at London’s iconic Scala–fans might say it’s long overdue that Cub Sport make a return to our stages… Now the wait is finally over, next April/May will see the band kick off their new UK tour in Glasgow before heading to Manchester, Bristol and finishing off at London’s pristine Lafayette. Full list of shows below. Tickets here.
“We’re so happy to be coming back to the UK for these shows! We’ve got so much exciting stuff planned and can’t wait to be back with our beautiful UK fans. See you all soon!“ – Cub Sport.
Since the release of their acclaimed fourth record ‘LIKE NIRVANA’, Cub Sport have been working towards their next project, unveiling the effervescent “Always Got The Love” and the trancey “Replay” in the process – tracks you can expect to hear live for the first time next year.
Murray A. Lightburn, the longtime frontman of Montreal’s acclaimed The Dears, returns today with a deeply personal new single “Dumpster Gold,” to announce his third solo full-length album, ‘Once Upon A Time In Montreal’, for a March 31 release via Dangerbird Records.
STREAM ON ALL SERVICES HERE || WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
The album, which Lightburn jokes is an audio version of a biopic, was inspired by the passing of his father, a jazz musician from Belize who moved to Montreal via New York to reconnect with his teenage sweetheart. The two were married for 56 years, until he passed in April 2020 in a Quebec nursing home where he’d been living with Alzheimer’s. Lightburn shared a video for the single earlier today via RANGE.
Discussing “Dumpster Gold”, Lightburn notes, “About a year or so after my old man passed, my mom called and said, ‘Murray, I’ve made a big decision: I’m selling the house’. She’d been there for 50 years. We were the only family that ever lived in it, one of many identical houses in a section of Brossard, Quebec. On our way out, we sifted through everything; most of it was going to the dump. There were many worthless treasures that were meaningful only to us. A couple of things now sit around my house. My father wasn’t an expressive man to me. I am left with these fragments to piece together a connection to him.”
Despite growing up with the man, Lightburn—the youngest brother of three—says his father “was almost a complete stranger to me. I could almost count the conversations we had, and none of them were very meaningful. I had to deduce that our happy moments were listening to Expos games together. I never knew how he felt about my career or the things I’d achieved—all of which I got from him.”
Back with their second single to date, THE SLEEPING SOULS, have unveiled the agitated and electrifying new cut: “Caught Up In The Scrape”.
WATCH VIDEO HERE || STREAM ON ALL SERVICES HERE
Sharp as a butcher’s blade, dripping with the anger of a betrayed generation, “Caught Up In The Scrape” is a rousing punk-rock anthem for our times.
A testament to The Sleeping Souls’ stellar breadth and versatility as musicians, it marks a discernible change of tack from the slow-burning, heartfelt folk of their debut single “Liar/Lover” (released late last year). With its fuzzy, reverb-laden riffs, highly-charged instrumentals and rapid-fire vocals, the new single flaunts the band’s heavier side and ability to switch things up a gear with exhilarating effect.
Offering astute and direct observations on our culture-war world in which political leaders fail again and again to measure up, The Sleeping Souls explain of the themes at play in “Caught Up In The Scrape”:
“”Caught Up In The Scrape” is a song about utter disillusionment with politics and political leaders. Modern liberal societies are complex webs of trust relations, but trust has bled out through sustained failure of our politics to be fit for purpose. Cahir grew up and has spent most of his life in Northern Ireland where these failures have been, and continue to be, particularly acute. Until our political class are transparent about their shortcomings, acknowledge mistakes and, in the most egregious cases, accept consequences, political agitation will continue to heat until one day — perhaps not too long from now — it will boil.”
Toronto-based singer-songwriter Eric Bolton has released his highly anticipated debut solo album, Here Between (E-bolt Music). The 15-track album is a reflection of the artist’s journey towards emotional freedom and self-discovery. With this album being his most personal project to date, Bolton openly acknowledges his religious upbringing, the importance of finding his voice and coming to terms with his sexual identity.
Seamlessly blending elements of folk and rock, the core instrumentation of the album was recorded live-off-the-floor at Halo Recording Studio in Hamilton, Ontario and engineered by Zach Gerber at Skytrack Studios. It features Bolton on the piano, electric organ and both acoustic and electric guitar. The other musicians on the album include drummer Nathan Bulla (Intervals and Auras), bassist Nathan Payne (Initials), and electric guitarist Daniel Walton (Wooly Mantis and Dreamland Band). Additional vocals and instruments were recorded at the songwriter’s own studio, E-Bolt Music, a Cambridge, Ontario staple since 2010.
Indie rock band, Phoneboy is thrilled to release announce their new album Moving Out to be released on March 24th. As a preview they have released their new single “Ferrari” that is out now along with the music video that is featured on Ones to Watch and Sweety High.
In addition to the announcing the new album, the band is thrilled to share new tour dates that will start March 24 in Asbury Park, NJ and wrapping up April 29 in New York, NY. See all tour dates below.
The band says, “Essentially an intrusive rant describing the scary transition between hanging out with your friends all the time and being alone in the “real world”. Also portrays how people in the age of young adulthood are lost and don’t know what to do. Thus, they resort to wishing for what they know: the irresponsibility of high school.”
Headie One releases his highly anticipated new single “Martin’s Sofa,” available now across all DSPs HERE.
Already a fan favorite after being teased online last year, Headie referenced its release in his most recent track “50s,”—“The fans calling for ‘Martin’s Sofa,’ it might be the first single from my second.” Social media buzz soon followed with #wheresmartinssofa trending on TikTok and the sofa touring the UK this week, creating the most hype for a Headie release thus far.
The track is a poignant dedication to Martin, his old friend who helped a young Headie through hard times in his formative years, delivered in signature flow and street-smart lyrics with M1OnTheBeat production. Directed by Nathan Tetty (Dave, Fredo, Clavish, Ghetts) the accompanying video features the original sofa and depicts the respect and unique bond they still share to this day. Watch the video for “Martin’s Sofa” HERE.
Headie’s forthcoming second full length album follows the UK #1 charting Edna in 2020, which featured Skepta, Drake, Stormzy, AJ Tracey, Aitch and many more. Set to be released later this year, further details will be revealed soon.
With her dripping vocals, colorful lyrics, and slicing wit, viral alt-pop artist Emei has rapidly built up a fan base over the past year. Leaning on over a decade of stage experience, Emei invites audiences into her world, leading them through her hyper-relatable musings on young adult life. Even before she started writing, Emei developed incredible stage presence from her experience competing on Chinese Idol at 15. After receiving third place on the show through months of stadium shows, Emei began releasing her own music on Chinese platforms and eventually performing on Dancing with the Stars of China. When Covid hit, Emei started releasing new music on American platforms, gaining media coverage on Wonderland, Earmilk, Ones to Watch, Early Rising, and Lyrical Lemonade. Emei’s single, “Late to the Party”, hit 6M streams after videos of her performing the song live hit a collective 10M views on Tiktok and Instagram Reels. Emei has been featured on the cover of Salt and Fresh Finds Pop. Her music has been playlisted on New Music Friday, Big on the Internet, Tean Beats, Pop Sauce, Young & Free and more. Emei just released her debut EP, End of an Era, in October, racking over 10 million streams in a short time, making her a new artist to watch.
the enigmatic rapper has shared his latest single, “GOD MODE!” via 10K Projects. Get it HERE.
Produced by close friend and collaborator Dozy Doe, “GOD MODE” marks the beginning of SXMPRA’s entrance to the new year. The ominous track is full of blitzering bass lines and pounding 808s. Blending gritty underground rap and hardcore nu-metal, SXMPRA’s prolific phonk identity is heard through a series of dizzying raps, fast and furious flows, and raw and unspoken storytelling. While his identity has been shrouded in mystery since emerging in 2018, cult-favorite New Zealand-based phonk rapper SXMPRA has become a fast force in the underground rap world. The release arrives as SXMPRA continues to turn heads with over 4 million monthly Spotify listeners.
SXMPRA adds: “’GOD MODE!’ Was made in the exact same setting as “LOCKJAW,” but only the day before. Dozy made this beat after I suggested he watch the movie Midsommar, which he found himself inspired by. This track doesn’t necessarily have a story behind it, but a story can be found in the pure aggression of the track. It’s up for interpretation!”
Persian-Native American pop singer and songwriter Chloe Star reveals her debut single, “Element,” out on all streaming platforms today.
With its driving, trap-inspired beats and dreamy sing-song vocals, “Element” is a carefree anthem about feeling yourself. “It’s a song about me just being in my element,” says Chloe. “My element is all about confidence, strength, not giving a flying fuck about anything, constantly pushing the limit, living life on the edge, and enjoying every moment that life throws at you.”
Chloe Star is an indigenous singer, songwriter, visual artist and tribal advocate. Growing up she split her time between Los Angeles and her family’s reservation in San Bernardino. With a childhood that was chaotic and often unstable, she found solace in journaling and writing poetry. She taught herself to play piano and guitar and soon started transforming her prose into lyrics.
After spending the past few years finding and cultivating her sound, Chloe is now ready to make her debut. “Element” is the first track from her forthcoming EP which is due out later this year.
Before she was Party Nails, Elana Carroll was a guitar-toting tween songwriter, playing any open mic she could near her hometown of Chatham, New York. Performing solo or with a band of seasoned adult players backing her up, she wailed lyrics about her family’s divorce, dreams of leaving her small town, and a then-undiagnosed anxiety disorder across biker bars and community centers, often met with tears from patrons moved by her fearless expression of raw emotion. At home she recorded herself with Garageband, instigating a love of music technology which continues to this day (she moonlights as a software tester and composer for boutique synthesizer company Noise Engineering).
Party Nails debuted in 2015 on Neon Gold’s famed blog with “Break”, a heartbreak dancepop single following the footsteps of happysad classics such as “Dancing On My Own” and “Blue Monday”. In 2016 on the Noisey blog Party Nails debuted “No Pressure”—think Haim instrumentation paired with Taylor Swift melodies—before leaving a 360 deal and rebuilding independently. Her first full-length Past Lives and Paychecks was equal parts collaborations—Caleb Shreve, Ryan Nasci, Mereki Beach, to name a few—and self-produced, engineering and playing guitar, bass, synthesizers and programming electronics alone in her home studio. Her first US tour in 2017 (with PVRIS and Lights) ushered in a devoted fanbase, and her live performances continue to be a core facet of her artistry, being equal parts Madonna, Hayley Williams, and Sheryl Crow.
During the COVID pandemic she wrote a song for Kathryn Hahn’s character to sing about period pride for Loren Bouchard’s Apple animated series Central Park, wrote and produced the Le Tigre-infused “Supernatural” for feminist rock duo Deap Vally, and continued to lend her vocals to other musicians, LŪN and Urban Heat both releasing music featuring Party Nails in 2022. If history is any indication, Party Nails won’t stop expressing herself through music, and her best work as an artist is ahead of her.
Already 2023 is off to a banging start with “Like U”, a house-inspired dance collaboration with Austin-based queer pop icon, Boy Sim (who also co-wrote and produced the track). “You can be iconic and true to yourself and also full of love for others,” Party Nails says about the song. “‘Like U’ is about how the best love and support is from people who want you to shine as bright as possible. I like to think of it as our homage to ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’—that line where Cyndi Lauper sings ‘I wanna be the one to walk in the sun.’ That. It’s meant to be danced to alone or with friends. We even thought about releasing it with a surgeon generals warning: this music may cause severe dancing.”
New York City dream-pop duo – LAVEDA – have unveiled sleek new single “Clean”, taken from their awaited second album ‘A Place You Grew Up In’.
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Sulky and scintillating, “Clean” sees the two-piece traversing the darker side of dream-pop as moody melodies linger in the air like clouds blocking out the sun on a dismal day.
Fusing gentle strumming guitars with balmy vocals and overcast stretches of instrumentals, Laveda are further perfecting their knack for shoegaze-flecked introspections that feel both achingly intimate and widely relatable.
A wistful reflection on the home truths and growing pains that come with getting older, vocalist Ali Genevich confides of the new track:
“I think for the first time I truly realised that growing up was an inevitable fate. It’s such a strange thing, knowing you’re only to grow further and further from innocence as life goes on. I never wanted to think about getting older as a kid, I wanted to stay eight years old forever. I think there’s a part of that feeling that will always stay with me.”
veteran reggae group Easy Star All-Stars return with the announcement of their newest album, a re-imagined rendition of David Bowie’s classic ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars’, aptly entitled ‘Ziggy Stardub’, out April 21 via Easy Star Records. The album features guest performances by Macy Gray, Steel Pulse, Fishbone, Alex Lifeson (Rush), Vernon Reid (Living Colour), The Skints, Mortimer, The Expanders, Samory I, Naomi Cowan, and many others.
STREAM/DOWNLOAD: EASY STAR ALL-STARS – STARMAN
Alongside the news, the group also shared the first taste of the project with “Starman,” featuring vocals by the Grammy-nominated reggae star Maxi Priest. First shared by Rolling Stone, the All-Stars and Maxi Priest put their signature twist on the beloved hit, making use of reggae drum patterns and vocal styles as they reforge Bowie’s work into a fresh piece of danceable reggae fusion. Michael Goldwasser, producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist of the band says, “We chose ‘Starman’ as first single for this project because it’s the song most pivotal to the loose storyline of the original album, and it’s become the best-known track on the record as well. We utilized the flying cymbal drum pattern, first popularized by producer Bunny Lee and drummer Santa Davis in the mid ‘70s, to give even more lift and make the song that much more danceable. Maxi Priest’s vocals and the live strings helped us anchor key melodic elements of the original, while we balanced some heavy dub effects throughout with a pop sensibility.”
Scottish sensations – SHAMBOLICS – are back with the courageous new single “Living In Shadows”, and have confirmed details of a new EP: ‘U Serious Boi?!’ (due 14 April 2023).
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A gentle guitar ballad that erupts into an uplifting acoustic anthem by its close, “Living In Shadows” glistens like a reassuring ray of light at the end of the seemingly endless tunnel of mental health struggles.
Arriving as the band announce their signing to Manchester-based tastemaker label Scruff of the Neck Records, vocalist Darren Forbes explains of the new track:
“”Living In Shadows” is a song of optimism. It’s a song of hope for anyone going through a dark time. After seeing friends struggle badly with mental health and having gone through a few bad patches in our own lives, we wanted to write a song that was a reminder to people that darkness is only temporary and that there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.”
With tender vocals and shimmering guitar strums, the new track seeks to raise awareness for the mental health struggles many face around this time of year — putting a spotlight on real-world issues while refusing to compromise on their usual charismatic charm.
Email: neill@outloudculture.com
