The new and best 2018 indie rock playlist for July (part one). Enjoy and please share and like.
The Rassle – Austin, Texas
Max Goedecke – Cologne, Germany
Linnea Krepper – Zoetermeer, The Netherlands
Moonshifter – Melbourne, Australia
FM Band – Nashville, Tennessee
The Sleeping Tongues – Brooklyn, New York
The Rassle – Austin, Texas
Austin-via-NYC indie rock duo, The Rassle, who we pegged as a band to watch all the way back in 2010, has just dropped a new summer anthem, the wonderfully infectious, fist-pumping single, “Roll On.”
The song is the latest in a string of celebratory, upbeat, chorus-driven tracks put out over the years by the band, which has built its fanbase gradually over nearly a decade now.
Inspired by artists such as Arcade Fire, Kasabian, The Kinks and The Clash, The Rassle are brothers Blair and Reed Van Nort, originally from NYC.
The duo has a wholly original sound that combines a raucous American spirit with anthem-rich energy and a New York edge.
The brothers fuse electronic and acoustic and electric guitar with an authentic, upbeat indie rock/pop sound that one could imagine wow’ing a crowd in a small venue or a big music hall.
With a series of breakout tracks going back almost a decade since the duo’s NYC days, and the debut single building true, organic buzz via SoundCloud First and other playlists, The Rassle is finally getting the recognition they deserved years ago.
The duo’s synch appeal is growing with recent television spots on ABC’s Kevin (Probably) Saves the World and several MTV series, as well as via video games like MLB: The Show and Saints Row.
Linnea Krepper – “Show A Little Love Tonight”
The latest single from one of our favorite DIY Swedish female artists, Linnea Krepper, is a soaring track with all of the energy and imagery of a summertime anthem.
“Show A Little Love Tonight,” recorded in Zoetermeer, Netherlands is “a song about love, like many others, but this love is the kind that you give away without getting nothing in return,” Krepper reveals.
“For people in this kind of relationship,” she adds, “I want to give them the energy to say no and the courage to walk away. There is something better waiting for you, you just need to take the chances when you see them.”
The autobiographical nature of the track gives it a more heartfelt and genuine quality with Krepper’s vocals soaring with emotions above an industrial pop-rock percussive edge.
Max Goedecke – “Alessai Di Castellabate”
Situated in the historic city of Cologne, Germany, songwriter/musician Max Goedecke has crafted a wonderful selection of authentic sounds, featuring an eclectic and heady mix of 1970’s and 80’s pop-rock styles, on his new album, Newspeak.
The opening track, “She’s A Good Damn Girl” (or ‘damn good girl’?) has influences of Tom Petty, and more recently, Kurt Vile.
“It’s [“She’s A Good Damn Girl”] a song I have written in dedication to Avril Lavigne when I was still in high school and she had her heydays.”
The next track, the energy-driven, 80’s-influenced, “Slowly to Sink,” is another memorable song off the album, with Goedecke’s ringing guitar and his raspy vocals conjuring up influences like The Black Keys and Jack White here.
In contrast to its predecessor, track three, “Like a Child,” features a harmonica and emotive vocals mixed with an array of musical atmospherics.
One of the highlight tracks – perhaps our favorite – on the album is “Alessai Di Castellabate” – starts out with seagull sound effects and twangy keys before launching into full-blown percussive measures take over and a folksy pop-rock vibe hooks the listener in.
With a track this strong, one that could be an indie hit on the right playlist somewhere, Goedecke knows to runs away with it; and somehow combining elements of rock, blues, folk, country and pop into one track.
The song, Goedecke explains, “is about a barmaid I met at a beach booth called Geco Beach in Castellebate de Santa Maria, Italy, along with the Amalfi Coast.”
The more we listen to it, the more we like it and appreciate his skills as a musician.
Other tracks include the Steve Earle-tinged indie rock of “Behind the Sun,” and the huge 80’s-infused, “Meant to Be,” that also stands out among the album’s 10 tracks.
Keep an eye out for Max Goedecke and defintely spin this album at his Bandcamp page.
Moonshifter – “Dirty Mind”
Shifting gears now.
Headbangers reunite. Moonshifter, the heavy, hard rockers from Down Under recently dropped the debut album, Love Lust Fire Dust. Love that album name.
Combining the power of 1970’s and 80’s metal rock riffs with a 21st-century vigor, the band’s 11-track debut album is a relentless powerhouse of energy and hard-hitting rock.
Tracks like the standout single, “Dirty Mind,” and amp-blazing, “Leave You Baby,” will leave you buzzing, as it does the crowds whenever the band plays in Melbourne and beyond.
Moonshifter’s fast-charging, in-your-face old-school hard rock does not sound ‘old’ at all. The band’s loud, burning sound is delivered by rock veterans Lachlan Cross on vocals; guitarists Mark Cambruzzi and Wayne Elkin; bassist Andy Baker and drummer Mike Cato.
The band members have a storied history in the classic rock and metal realms as professional, veteran musicians with influences like Van Halen, AC/DC, Kiss and The Rolling Stones.
FM Band – “Two of A Kind”
The Nashville indie duo, FM Band, consists of two seasoned musicians, vocalist Allie Farris and multi-instrumentalist Cheyenne Medders.
Over the past couple of years, their collaboration has produced songs, like the new single, “Two of A Kind,” steeped in a bygone era of classic pop and rock, when artists like America, Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac dominated the radio waves.
They are currently working on a debut album. Stay tuned.
The Sleeping Tongues – “Strawberry Kisses”
Brooklyn indie project, The Sleeping Tongues, recently dropped the 80’s new wave-influenced indie single, “Strawberry Kisses,” an indelibly catchy song that recalls themes of
“youth and awkward lust; substance abuse and addiction; anxiety and humor.”
TST is the project of multi-instrumentalist Craig Kepen, originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Raised in a family of pilots, Kepen was also surrounded by all styles of music from soul to country to rock and pop, leading to a rich and eclectic mix of influences and styles that allowed Kepen to inform his songwriting and musical preference for enjoyable and high energy pop-rock.
Kepen wasn’t totally solo on this project; he received help from other pros like Alex Chung on drums with Gabe MG lending his mixing skills and Joe Lambert providing the master.
“I played and overdubbed the other instrumental parts one at a time,” Kepen says. “There’s a whole lot of fuzz and slide guitars on the song, which is fun and different from our previous songs. ”
Kepen says that the track is “generally about being a young, awkward, horny individual looking for relief wherever you can find it – drugs, sex, booze etc.”
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