Recognized for channeling vulnerable experiences into compelling sonic tapestries, guitarist and songwriter JB Elwood reveals his new single, “Take Me Back.” JB Elwood’s poignant track deeply touches the hearts of listeners with his introspective test of love, loss, and the enduring hope for reconciliation. “Take Me Back” is the first offering from his upcoming debut full-length, due out next year, and is now available to stream and download worldwide.
Drawing inspiration from the heartache of breakup, “Take Me Back” is a moving conversation with a significant other, exploring the desire to turn back time and relive the electrifying moments of being in love. Through soul-stirring vocals, infectious guitar riffs, and impactful songwriting, JB Elwood masterfully captures the fragility of a romantic entanglement and the emotional turmoil of holding on to its remaining pieces. “Sometimes a relationship is worth fighting for because those beautiful pieces and moments could potentially be put back together,” states JB Elwood. In this enchanting ballad, JB Elwood skillfully portrays the struggle of vying for love that may be slipping away while acknowledging the bittersweet reality of letting go. “Take Me Back” prevails as an anthem for those who find themselves at the crossroads of clinging to the past and embracing the uncertainty of the future.
Over a year since their debut E.P. one of Glasgows most exciting indie bands, Pizza Crunch, return with new music. Latest single, ‘Advertised Entitlement’ continues what the band started on ‘That Serene Age’, acute observational lyrics and enthralling hooks, whilst moving into a new era. With a penchant for poignant lyrical narratives, inventive guitar melodies, and a robust rhythm section, Pizza Crunch stands as one of Glasgow’s most exhilarating musical exports.
‘Advertised Enlightenment’ revolves around the idea of looking for meaning and awakening but always being left disappointed with what you find. Speaking about the writing process, lyricist Ewan Hearns said: “We always look to try and evolve slightly when we are doing new music, even if it’s by a tiny margin. The lyrics on this track are more concerned with being lost and looking for enlightenment in what’s next. The last EP was much more concerned with dwelling on the past, this track and our new music are related to that but tend to revolve around concerns about how to extract some happiness and contentment today and tomorrow. Hopefully there is a noticeable change in the sound too, it certainly feels like step forward for us.”
Native Angelino Erin Greider started writing songs as early as 8 years old with her friend whose dad was in a garage band. She also started playing guitar at 8 after watching Lindsay Lohan in Freaky Friday. From there, she picked up drums and piano and finally at 15 she saved up enough of her money to buy her first bass which became her favorite and main instrument.
Songwriting continued to be a massive part of her life, working with different producers and recording her songs since 8th grade (though never releasing or even letting anyone hear them). She was 13 when a producer first offered to pay her for her song “Can’t Wait to Meet You” for an established artist they were working with at the time.
Songwriting and music took a bit of a backseat while Erin was in university studying film and economics until the summer of 2020 when the world stopped moving. “Sim Controllers” was written in a month or two and recorded with Alex Elena and Marciel Miranda in the fall.
Besides music, she is still a film nerd and will talk to you about it for hours. Films often influence her songwriting and she would want you to know her favorite film is Sunset Boulevard.
Atelo Songs, the creative alter-ego of the passionate singer-songwriter Sam Gleason, has unveiled a visually stunning stop-motion music video for the single “not in the mood.” This latest artistic endeavor from Gleason is an imaginative animation video that took nine months to create, showcasing a remarkable blend of creativity and storytelling. Directed and created by Gleason, the video brings an extra layer of depth to the already poignant and introspective track is now streaming on YouTube.
The single, released in late 2023, represents the first track from Hidden in the Honey, the forthcoming full-length, set for release on February 28, 2024.
Manchester indie-pop quintet VALA chime in 2024 with new single On The Getaway. Following the success of their previous two releases, Bleed Together and Fishes, which racked up over 140k streams between them and received airplay across the BBC including Radio 1 and 6 Music, VALA announce their opening track of the year that sees them strip things back whilst still applying their unique coating of indie-pop sheen. Dropping on 17th January, the band recorded and produced On The Getaway themselves after writing it on tour, with front-man Joe Knowles saying; “Written in part a couple of years ago, we dug On The Getaway out and got to work on this version. Most of the recording was done with some very simple gear in a flat in Nice in France while we were over for some gigs. It was one of our quickest productions from start to finish and I think you can hear the fun we were having.”
Rachel Renee has been in the professional music and dance industries all her life, studying ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, modern dance, piano, voice, and saxophone from fine arts academies throughout the United States. She has performed at various venues and received awards for her achievements. Her track record in the entertainment industry stems from her true sincerity, ingenuity, and versatility.
In early-2023, Rachel Renee released “Remember,” the first single off her upcoming album, currently set to be released later this year. The single, touching on the sonic foundations of classic R&B, was touted by Honk Magazine and has garnered over 100k streams on Spotify.
About Leon III:
The band’s core duo of Andy Stepanian and Mason Brent have been friends since grade school, playing together in the acclaimed country-rock group Wrinkle Neck Mules since 1999. With Leon III’s self-titled 2018 debut, they retained their twangy roots, before 2021’s sophomore effort Antlers In Velvet drifted into a panoramic sound inspired by Pink Floyd and the Dead. Once again co-produced by Mark Nevers (Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Lambchop, Silver Jews), the band’s third LP introduces a newfound sense of brevity, packing compact songs with sly pop hooks, while maintaining their boundless experimentation.
Exciting Bristol newcomers HUNNY BUZZ offer the warmth of the summer in new surf-rock track “Not Your Place,” which is otherwise a fairly barbed story of starting afresh that is perfect for your “new year, new me” resolutions. The track is available on all streaming services, distributed via Apollo. The band have also announced more future joy in the shape of their debut EP “Welcome To Our Garden” set for release in Spring 2024.
Listen to the song now; https://apollodistro.lnk.to/hunnybuzz
The band, all originally from the South West of England, is made up of singer-songwriter Lydia Read, guitarist Rowan Barfoot, drummer Billy Pedrick and songwriter, producer and bassist Ewan Base. The four-piece met in 2020 in Bristol studying at BIMM where they found their own brilliant sound from their shared influences in Wolf Alice, Beach Bunny, Pretenders and Taylor Swift. Before the band formed, frontwomen Lyd Read had been writing since her early teens, sometimes about real life events and others just made up, that were often penned about love and mental health. The band have had a good start of their careers, garnering lots of support from BBC Introducing, selling out their first headline at The Louisiana in Bristol, supporting the Vistas, Sofy & Overpass alongside playing the bills at Truck and 2000 Trees Festival. Although still in the early stages of their career, they’re already establishing a solid image and sound for themselves as a band on the rise.
Dombresky and London duo JADED announce their Sound Of The Drums EP, a new collaborative body of work consisting of two melodic, peak-time floor-fillers. The release is set to arrive via Diplo’s house/techno label Higher Ground on February 1. The first of the two tracks, “All For You,” is out now.
While both Dombresky and JADED have carved out their distinct sounds in modern house music, they intersect with a mutual admiration for soulful vocals and bouncy grooves. “All For You” is a perfect daytime groover that encapsulates the feel-good energy that they both consistently emanate through their music. The track marks the first chapter of a prolific 2024 ahead for Dombresky and JADED. In addition to the EP, the trio will unite on Dombresky’s LIFT OFF Tour on January 13, with JADED joining on each of the 18 stops through North America.
Although he hails from the laidback southern region of France, Dombresky’s penchant for invigorating four-on-the-floor beats is pure house bliss. The DJ and producer burst onto the scene in 2016 when he arrived in Miami as Quentin Dombres, a then-unknown talent with an impressive roster of funky, feel-good tracks. Today, he has become inextricably linked with industry heavyweights, including Blond:ish, Armand Van Helden, Diplo, Claptone, and MK, all of whom supported Dombresky’s early career endeavors as collaborators. This past year, he performed at Coachella while continuing to broadcast his passion project, Process Radio, which won him an Electronic Dance Music Award for Best Radio Show.
Combining the natural beauty of West Coast Canada with London, England’s urban forest, Connor Roff‘s luminous music embraces and showcases his dual nationality. He’s not afraid to explore the depths of both the light and the dark or combine genres such as alternative pop, folk, RnB, and even electronic. Connor‘s songs and melodies reflect and celebrate his yoga teaching practice and passionate advocacy for the LGBT+ community.
His song, “Somewhere Green” is inspired by our disconnection with mother nature – especially in the western world with corporate capitalism, colonialism and greed. Connor and his producer James Turner worked on the song internationally across waters via video call and email. For one of the finishing touches, they added some sounds of birds recorded from their phones in Vancouver and London, UK.
The Kitchen Dwellers — Shawn Swain [Mandolin], Torrin Daniels [banjo], Joe Funk [upright bass], and Max Davies [acoustic guitar]— have announced the premiere airing of their three-show NYE run that took place December 29-31, 2023 from their home state of Montana. Nugs.net will exclusively premiere the full run over three days from January 19-21. Watch the run HERE
Singer-songwriter iskwē | ᐃᐢᑫᐧᐤ (short for waseskwan iskwew, meaning “blue sky woman”) is more than just an artist, she is a teller of stories that have impacted our past and will inform our future. iskwē’s music allows her creativity to soar as she explores a range of ambient sound effects and beats. Her spine-tingling vocals anchor the myriad of sounds, blurring the lines between sources and styles, as well as between the actual, ideal, real, and imagined. Transporting listeners into a world of electronic rhythms and Indigenous sounds as she draws upon her Cree Métis roots, iskwē’s genre-bending catalog includes three full-length albums that span a spectrum of emotions and is powered by resilience. Her debut 2017 album The Fight Within speaks to self-love in the face of hate and 2019’s acākosīk calls out the systematic abuses against Canada’s Indigenous peoples and features the JUNO award-winning song “Little Star.” Meanwhile, the collaborative 2022 project Mother Love with Tom Wilson is a reflection on the nature of love and culture as the pair’s individual contributions blend together seamlessly.
Slightest Clue is a Vancouver-based four-piece that probably shouldn’t work. Each member brings distinct influences and experiences: a stage actor whose playlists go from Talking Heads to Sonic Youth to Björk, a hook-obsessed recovering choir girl, an electrical engineer whose personal idol is John Bonham, and a guitarist who played for (and left) ten other bands before deciding this was the one for him. It’s like the secret after-school project of four kids who would have passed each other without a glance in the hallway at school – but once they’re plugged in and ready to play their distinct blend of post-punk, alternative rock, and dark pop, all bets are off. It wasn’t supposed to work, but it does, and they don’t have the slightest clue how or why.
Melodic metalcore band BLOOM have released new single You & I. The single is taken off the bands new album Maybe In Another Life, out 16th February 2023- their first for new label, Pure Noise Records.
Rex and the Rhythm (Rex) is a multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, and producer who spent his formative years hanging around the music studios of international superstar, Eddy Grant, on his historic plantation in Barbados.
Rex started playing the drums at nine. He later picked up the guitar and bass. At 15, his mother put him in the band she co-founded named Cover Drive, a Carib-pop band, which inked a deal with Polydor Records in the UK in 2010. The band, with Rex on drums and co-vocals, scored a number one hit,“Twilight,” on the UK Official Chart in 2012. That same year, Cover Drive went on to score a total of three UK top tens, multi-platinum and silver singles, and opened for Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson and Lauryn Hill.
After graduating from Full Sail University in 2020, Rex released his debut EP, #127 Solace in 2021. His solo sound had all the feel good elements of his previous band’s sonic with a bit less Caribbean and more alternative R&B vibes. In December 2022, Rex opened for Ashanti in Barbados at The Hennessy Artistry festival.
Then in February of 2023, Rex released his sophomore project, Secrets Behind Our Smiles. On the project, you can hear Rex’s artistry elements with a more urban contemporary sonic.
Up next is his new single, “Highs & Grows”, a track inspired by 90s hip-hop legends including Outkast and A Tribe Called Quest. “Highs & Grows” strikes a distinctive mark between psychedelic soul, alt-pop, and hip-hop for a cosmic journey of inner-evolution, honoring both the pitfalls and peaks of being human. The track explores an array of live percussion, sun-drenched electric guitar, and transcendental lyricism that is complemented by reverberating euphoric harmonies, resulting in a kaleidoscopic and uplifting sound. The music video for “Highs & Grows”, directed by DannyJFilms, pays homage to Outkast’s iconic single “Hey Ya!” and reflects an atmosphere of authenticity where Rex delves into the core essence of his creative process and sincerity as an artist.
Back with a big bang – HELLO COSMOS – begin 2024 with a flurry of activity.
Confirming two headline shows and new singles next month, the electroclash / psych-rock cosmonauts are on calso revealing plans for a brand-new studio album – due out later this year.
Their first full-band album since 2021’s acclaimed debut ‘Dream Harder’, the collective will be teasing its lead singles “Turn Off The News” and “The Hot Seat” in the coming weeks. Keeping busy in the interim years with a unique mixtape project (2021’s ‘Golden Dirt’) and a remix album (2023’s ‘Hard Dirt’), their oeuvre to date has seen them working with over 50 collaborators and counting.
Now planning to showcase selections from their complete canon at their first live outings since 2019, Hello Cosmos will be staging a pair of unmissable comeback shows this February. Hosted in the band’s current base of Stockport, with an additional show in London the following week, fans can expect a “one-off immersive live show featuring music and guests from the Hello Cosmos universe”.
Tickets are on sale now. Find the details listed as follows:
HELLO COSMOS – 2024 LIVE DATES
Friday 23/02/2024 – STOCKPORT St Mary’s Church (plus Special Guests) – TICKETS
Wednesday 28/02/2024 – LONDON The Lexington (plus Secret Cameras and The Heat Incorporated) – TICKETS
FERAL FAMILY’s eagerly awaited debut album ‘Without Motion’ will descend on 19th January 2024.
Today (12 Jan), these Northern post-punk agitators are pleased to share “Sold”, the final track to be cut from the record ahead of its release.
STREAM “SOLD” ON YOUTUBE HERE || ALL SERVICES HERE
PRE-SAVE ‘WITHOUT MOTION’ HERE
A rush of wormhole-like guitar lines and pneumatic rhythmic clatter, “Sold” is the breathless new single from the Bridlington antagonists.
Placing Jamie Lowe’s sneering vocal and warpspeed wit front-and-centre, Feral Family deliver a scathing appraisal of the daily grind of living and working in broken Britain. As he explains:
“”Sold” is based on life being taken over by work, it quickly gets to a point in your day to day where working to live becomes living to work, and I think it’s one that many people can relate to.”
Dark, deep, and unpredictable at every turn, “Sold” is an exhilarating final glimpse into what lies in-waiting on their imminent debut album ‘Without Motion’.
London singer-songwriter – ALLMAN BROWN – returns in 2024 with the brand new song “My Ordinary Life”.
STREAM “MY ORDINARY LIFE” ON ALL SERVICES HERE
Following his warmly received 2023 EP ‘Second Son, Pt. 1’, the artist can confirm that its sequel will arrive early this year, with both collections forming two separate halves of a brand new album entitled ‘Second Son’.
“I’m a second son, a stranger to most but loved by some. I’ve been afraid since I was young” confesses Brown in the opening verse of “My Ordinary Life”, “It takes a lot of pretending to be strong”.
Hallmarked with the vivid storytelling and self-effacing songwriting that Allman Brown calls his own, “My Ordinary Life” is one of his most personal and poignant singles so far – “a pocket autobiography” in Allman’s own words, referencing key moments in his journey so far. He explains further:
“It’s about my life so far and the love I feel for my wife and children and how they are quite simply the reason I’m alive. They are my purpose. I really enjoy how this song doesn’t really have a chorus, just a little refrain and a change in my phrasing. I wrote it in about two hours which was a rush.”
Pulsing with a persistent beat, glistening electronics, and guitar lines just bursting to be heard in the great wide open, Allman’s impassioned vocal beckons this earnest, enrapturing track to its climactic finale. A full-force, heart-on-sleeve, pop ballad for the here and now, “My Ordinary Life” was created with the assistance of Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Gang Of Youths), whose expertise enables Brown to take the next step in his “quest to take a traditional sound and push it a little into a new space” here.
Australian indie/folk duo – HOLLOW COVES – have announced their eagerly awaited new album: ‘Nothing To Lose’.
Slated for release on 1 March 2024 (via the Nettwerk label), the announcement is heralded today with the release of the sublime new single “Photographs”.
STREAM “PHOTOGRAPHS” ON ALL SERVICES HERE || PRE-SAVE ‘NOTHING TO LOSE’ HERE
On the closing lines of their new song “Photographs”, the ascendant Brisbane duo offer something of a mission statement for their next chapter and upcoming album: “She loved taking photographs / I love the way she never let the moment pass…” they sing.
An ode to preserving, cherishing, and appreciating amidst the oversaturation and ephemera of the digital age, Hollow Coves explain of the song’s genesis:
“We ended up having a conversation in the studio about how photographs used to be something special that people would keep in a photo album. However, now that we can take photos with our phones, it seems like photos will most likely just get lost amongst the sea of photos. Matt (Carins) brought up that his mum has kept a photo album for him and his siblings since they were born. We all thought that was pretty special and kind of a lost art in this day and age. So we decided to write a song about her and the lost art of the photograph.”
Amassing over 100 million streams to date, California-born and Utah-based singer-songwriter Jessica Baio releases her anticipated petals EP via 10K Projects. Get it HERE.
“The idea behind this project is that each song represents a petal and, when put together as a collective work, those petals form a beautiful flower,” says Baio about the EP. “In the same way a flower blooms, I feel like the songs on this EP have helped me ‘bloom’ and grow as an artist.”
Lead by single “he loves me, he loves me not,” the 8-track EP chronicles the various stages the relationships encounter. The rising artist continues to explain, “I knew that I wanted to have a track on the EP that tied into the ‘petals’ concept, which is where the original idea for ‘he loves me, he loves me not’ was born. The song is about being in a relationship with someone that you aren’t sure is in it for the right reasons. I know too many girls out there that end up getting mixed signals in ‘situation-ships,’ wondering if there’s really any deeper connection.”
Email:neill@outloudculture.com
Socials: @neillfrazer
