These are just some of the fantastic artists and bands of 2019 that we were turned on to and shared with the world – with hopes that more people will see the evidence of these new (and newly discovered) talents.
Like all of our Top Ten Songs playlists for the past decade, this is one not to be missed. The eclectic nature of the artists and bands, coupled with their individual styles and moods, in this particular Top 10, is nothing less than spectacular.
Congratulations to the Brooklyn indie band Lightouts for taking the No. 1 spot on the November Top Ten Songs playlist with the chugging indie rocker, “Lucky Strikes,” followed at No. 2 by the new Norweigan artist-to-watch Sture for his smoking and fascinating punk-alt. rock single, “Fabricated.”
But that’s just the beginning of the amazing tracks in this playlist based on listener’s streams, downloads, and likes from IRC’s posts published in November. Each individual post is linked below in case there are other tracks you don’t want to miss that didn’t make the Top 10. Enjoy.
Long live DIY, alternative, and indie rock!
Do you or a friend have music that should be heard on Indie Rock Cafe? Submit your music today.
You can stream all ten songs uninterrupted (and no commercials – Spotify/Soundcloud/etc. lol) or play them individually below.
As most of our playlists (and since you guys decide the Top 10), there are exciting indie/alt/underground/DIY/quirk rock ongs and artists/bands not to be missed, including California musician Carol Blaze; Philly’s new indie-pop band Loud Library; D.C. dream-pop quintet Distant Creatures; plus, Marble House; Dead Heads; Moron Police; Rasha Jay; Casino Garden and Electromush.
We were so incredibly busy during the past couple of months with our regular music publicity and promotions day jobs, so apologies to those followers of our Top 10 Songs playlists for 10 years now.
Stream this and all of the Top 10 playlists on the Top 10 Songs page to discover more great tracks from 2019 you haven’t heard yet.
If you have music that could make it onto one of our Top 10’s, go to our music submission page.
The November Top 10 will be up in a couple of days. The last for 2019, December Top 10, will appear in a couple of weeks (we have to review all of the data to create the top 10). As always, the Top 10 comprises the most streamed, downloaded, and shared tracks that we posted during the month in question.
Los Angeles solo artist Tracy Bryant has a lot on his mind.
Living in arguably one of the most superficial and affluent places on the planet, he contends, is a challenge for any artist who is innately averse to a world of cars, concrete, fires, earthquakes, smog, and fake, back-stabbing people.
His newest album, Hush, is an artistic storyline of the post-apocalyptic world that southern California has become is today. More so, however, it’s one of the best DIY albums we’ve heard in 2019.
Bryant employs dystopian-like instrumentation and lyric to build this storyline, as evident on the alt. rock/anti-folk opener, “I’m Only Taking What is Mine.” The track adopts a slacker’s swagger, shifting melodies and an overall grungy vibe tinted by shades of sci-fi-like sound effects.
The following track, “The Fool,” picks up the pace quite a bit, rolling out acoustic and electric guitars, an upbeat rhythm enriched with cool time signatures, pop-rock-oriented melodies, and Bryant’s interesting vocals. The overall feel is a punk-pop strut reminiscent of artists like Mac Demarco.
Another strong track is “Mask.” It is an anti-ballad with verses that flow in a repetitive musical order and which then converge at mid-point into a wonderful desert-sky electric guitar solo. A terrific song.
After three compelling tracks right from the start, it only gets better with the surfer/slacker vibe of “Looks Like Gold.” The upbeat, surprise post-punk gem is undeniably one of the best singles we’ve heard in 2019. It was also the No. 1 track on Uncut Mag’s CD Sampler.
The album is boosted by the talents of drummer Nick Murray (Cate Le Bon, White Fence) and bassists Brian Allen (Burnt Ones) and Kyle Mullarky.
Byrant reveals himself, and his musical idiosyncrasies, little-by-little as the album hits the mid-point. He writes about a plethora of modern-day urban problems and concerns on “Nightmare,” which is predictably dark.
“It’s a portrait of a dystopian world; a nightmare that might as well translate to our times,” Bryant says, adding that the song was written during the height of the ‘Me Too’ scandals in Washington D.C., New York, and Hollywood.
“There is no denying the everyday nightmare that many [people] experience in America,” he adds. “The song is about the looming darkness that exists, not only in the current state of this country but also inside of those who refuse to evolve or recognize their imagined privilege.”
That is a good transition for the track “Hanged Man.” Thanks in part to its Elliott Smith-like riff, the song is a guitar-driven pop-rock nugget that belongs on a movie soundtrack.
The guitars and piano, together with percussions from the bass and drums, work so effortlessly with Bryant’s thoughtful lyrics and strongest vocals on the album.
The melody and rhythm of “Bury Me,” are impossibly optimistic-sounding for such a drab subject matter.
Unlike “Hanged Man,” Bryant’s vocal style reverts to his more hushed register that is evident on the album. The bass is nicely paired with the zoned-out guitars; it chugs along and drives the track forward.
It’s no wonder then that “Bury Me” was officially dropped as the first single from the album. Within a few days, it gained more than 10,000 plays on Soundcloud.
He wrote the song with his wife, Kimberly Fitzner. However, the song didn’t take shape the way he wanted it to in the studio. He put it aside until later.
“We laid down the guitar and vocals and approached the song from a less band-driven idea,” he recalls.
Bryant performed the organ and electric guitar parts; he said the track fit with the rest of the album, so he included it. His vocals often range somewhere between the spoken word and song. He has a remarkable ability to employ his signature style in just the right places.
Then there is “Everending Story,” a pop-rock/anti-folk anthem of sorts with a big resonance. The sweet, twinkling guitar riff that runs along the top of a heavy steady percussion is unforgettable.
The album closes with “I Tried,” which is probably the most underwhelming song on an album full of overwhelmingly strong alt. rock/indie rock songs from an Artist to Watch in 2020.
With a strong verve for alternative rock, Bryant also possesses many of the qualities of a true-blood indie rocker: the freedom to experiment, write and record without constraints.
Lyrically, the album is engaging, disturbing and honest. Bryant also takes well-deserved shots at the taboo music industry and the characters and charlatans that comprise it.
Recorded over a six-month period in a studio nestled in the mountains above the famous Topanga Canyon just north of L.A. off of the PCH, Hush was produced by Mullarky (The Growlers, Allah Las) and mastered by world-renowned engineer Dave Cooley (Ariel Pink, Animal Collective).
Altogether, it is one of the best under-the-radar albums of 2019 that we’ve heard.
It’s hard to believe another year is almost over. The best new indie and DIY songs for December 2019 include tracks from indie rock artists and bands from places as far away as Sweden and Ukraine and as close to home as Connecticut and Ontario. Happy Holdays and don’t miss our alt/indie Christmas songs playlists.
Rvana Shmata – Kyiv, Ukraine Ali Hugo – Toronto, Ontario Mårten Lärka – Jättendal, Sweden FatGrip Band – Hartford, Connecticut Jody Cooper – Leipzig, Germany
Rvana Shmata – “Well Hello”
The Kyiv based duo, Rvana Shmata, perform a genre of rock they call ‘Rawk,’ which means raw rock. This is indeed the case on the duo’s new raunchy noise rock single, “Well Hello.”
The track has gained traction in Ukraine and beyond since its initial release. The drums are powerful and almost overwhelming while the bass skims along with electric guitar in tow, but further down on the noise register, which is an interesting choice that creates a unique effect.
The song’s rhythm is really interesting and the vocals from multi-instrumentalists Max Prudeus (bass guitar, keyboards) and Andrew Zakharin (drums, backing vocals) are intense; even a bit evil, hoping along the smoking guitars.
One of the band’s branding efforts, you could say, is Rvana Shmata’s announcement earlier this year that all of their music videos “will be connected into the single story,” which they will continue to label as Episodes. The videos will all be based in the fictional city of Shmatville.
On Halloween eve the band dropped, ‘Episode One’, which is actually a teaser video for their first music video in which a news reporter announces two famous fictional musicians had been kidnapped.
Last month Rvana Shmata released Episode 2 – their first official music video. In that video, the story goes a bit deeper into the actual kidnapping of the musicians. The soundtrack to the video is “Well Hello.”
Ali Hugo – “Marching Saints”
While the brand new eccentric single, “Marching Saints,” from Canadian artist Ali Hugo may not have much to do with marching, or perhaps even saints, the track echoes the quirky sounds and vocals of made famous by British pop of days of old, but in a totally unique way.
Together with his unconventional, raspy – perhaps even childish – vocals and a steady romp of percussions, Hugo may not have any trouble appealing to the outer limits of the indie spectrum.
The track is the lead single from Hugo’s upcoming new album, Hope For the Meek. A Toronto-based singer/songwriter and professional multi-instrumentalist by trade, Hugo released his 10-track solo debut, Tears Of A Broken Heart, back in 2015 (featured on IRC).
Hugo is credited with all of the writing, arranging, producing and recording of instruments, plus mixing and mastering of the final tracks.
In 2015, he had “adopted the DIY approach to making music” and released an instrumental album, New Generation Farahan.
A single from the album, “Tears Of A Broken Heart” was popular on world music radio charts. But a disagreement with a label led Hugo to plan the newest release on his own indie label, Belief Records.
“I keep reminding myself that I’m only human and this DIY approach has its limits,” Hugo says. “I mean I’m still obligated to promote ‘Time Machine’ especially now that it is picking up in Honduras, Turkey, and Japan.”
“But I’m also receiving pressure from my hardcore fans to announce the expected date for the release of my new album. “That’s why my team and I decided that we should at least have the first single out by this Christmas.” Mission accomplished and a solid single to go out front with.
Hugo started his professional singing career at the age of eight when he joined the family band LEO as the lead singer. After high school, he completed the recording of his debut. He recorded at Toronto studios including Metal Works Studios and Studio 9. He graduated with honors from the University of Bedfordshire in England.
Ali Hugo Instagram
Mårten Lärka – “You’re Gonna Sing My Songs”
Underground Swedish songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Mårten Lärka just released his first album in English after nearly two decades of building his reputation as a solo artist. Previously, he released albums only in Swedish and French.
His new proto-punk-leaning single, “You’re Gonna Sing My Songs,” was written in fifteen minutes while sitting in a garden.
Within less than two months, Lärka says, the single was produced, recorded, mastered and released – one of his “quickest productions ever.” Percussionist Martin Hellquist played drums, bass, and backing vocals while Anders “Bodinrocker” Bodin managed the lead guitar work.
Produced by The Banana Boys, the single was recorded at Henhouse Studio; mixed by Caroline Wickberg at Welfare Turquoise Floor and mastered by Frida Claeson Johansson at Svenska Grammofonstudion.
The song has a bit of the sound of a Stiff Records’ single circa 1978. A quite persistent song.
Lärka has opened for artists such as Stefan Sundström, Britta Persson, Anders F Rönnblom, Eldkvarn, SHIMA, and is most influenced musically by Jacques Brel and Chuck Berry. (The Sweds have had a love affair with the godfather of rock – Berry – since the early 1960s)
Fat Grip – “Name In Lights” Rock Revivalists with great vocals, catchy singable songs, Marshall amplified guitars and drum/bass grooves return with it’s newest single “Name In Lights” from their anticipated new album of the same name.
“The inspiration for our new song and video is simply the struggle to achieve some success yet still thinking of what could have been had things worked out from the past. The video highlights the drummers thoughts of the past, the work put in and now achieving success but in a different way with a new band this time.”
Connecticut rock band from the Hartford area, concentrating on writing catchy radio-friendly music and memorable live performances. Sounds like a cross
The trio is vocalist and guitarist Jimmy Sixx, bassist and vocalist Matty Whitepants and drummer Jimmy “Sly” Petano.
Your favorite rockers from West Hartford perfoming a wide variety music for the occasion from music showcases showing off their radio-friendly originals to Party Rock Favorites for your local Club/Bar venue.
Over past decade became one of the most popular new punk bands in Hartford.
The band members’ biggest influences are Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Green Day, Weezer, and The Beatles.
Jody Cooper – “Song for the Oppressed (Cruelty Dies)”
German multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Jody Cooper has many guises. His songs reflect a love for experimental music and melodies.
Many of his musical tastes and preferences were influenced by his parents’ record collection. They owned vinyls upon vinyls of artists and bands from The Beatles to Kraftwerk; The Who to Crowded House, and Elton John to Mike Oldfield.
His new single, “Song for the Oppressed (Cruelty Dies),” together with the new music video, is dark and authoritative – fairly well done for a DIY low budget video.
Inspired by the great songwriters of the past, Cooper’s music combines his distinctive voice with powerful lyrics that “look beyond the surface, to tackle the reality of things and the uncomfortable truths they tell,” he says.
In 2017, he released his crowd-funded and ‘most ambitious project to date’ – a concept album, Serenades & Odes to a Cracked World (Part 1), full of themes of disintegration combated with integration.
“With everything that’s happening in the world,” he says, “the time has come for people to start engaging with the problems around them in an attempt to make a positive change. This album is my attempt.”
His lyrics “look beyond the surface, to tackle the reality of things and the uncomfortable truths they tell,” he says.
Cooper had the unusual experience of growing up an English boy in a rural northern Scotland town.
“As a child, people would look at me strangely because I spoke ‘funny’,” he says, adding, “so I learned to embrace that and combine it with my love of performing in order to feel accepted.”
Cooper earned a degree in music at the University of Liverpool and released his first album in 2007. He has toured Europe and also worked with artists like Seal and Jon Bon Jovi. He moved to Leipzig, Germany a few years ago to work on his new album.
After a series of singles throughout 2019 that gained more and more attention and love from bloggers, fans and playlisters, Brooklyn hip-hop artist, professional tap dancer and actor Leo Manzari is set to release what promises to be an epic album.
To help promote the announcement of the 2020 release, Manzari wrote, filmed and starred in a new video short tease called “Tattle Tale,” which will not appear on the album.
“‘Tattle Tale’ is a purging track,” Manzari says. “It’s a track that calls out those slacking on their responsibilities to be truthful and straight forward. It uses his creative and imaginative lyrics to playfully jump around the metronome, throwing all kinds of triplets, 16th notes, and 32nd notes.”
The song is filled with lyrical acrobats mixed with a hard, bass-heavy beat produced by fellow New York artist, VISIONNAIRE.
“There’s nothing cleaner than well-articulated lyrics, and precise word placement to make a good song even better,” Manzari says.
The song’s music video demonstrates the songwriter’s unique ability to direct pure emotion through every limb of his body. This double-time visual footage of Manzari’s performance entices the viewer to be hypnotized by every word, and really lock onto what every word means to the songwriter.
Some folks think that we should only feature “indie” music. Well, what is that? DIY hip-hop is also indie, by definition. Plus, we have no issue with broadening our listener base with some dope sounds from other genres – that, again, are still DIY/indie.
This guy is going to be big. In addition to a string of new singles, Manzari also appeared in Hozier’s new popular music video “Sweet (Almost Music)” and was the first tap dancer to perform with the Philly Pops Orchestra.
To the rescue: 2019’s Best Indie & Alt. Rock Xmas Songs playlist.
By now, some of you might be trumped-out on traditional holiday songs – in the mall; at work; at parties; at home; at others’ homes; grocery store; on the car radio, etc.
Where can you get away?
It’s not that you don’t like holiday and cheery seasonal music – it’s just that you can’t take hearing the same old standards again and again. Even the traditional songs you love performed by someone else entirely could work, right? Well fire up this baby with a log in the fireplace, some Christmas tree, or whatever. Headphones recommended.
We’ve been making indie and alt. rock Christmas songs playlists for a decade now, creating the web’s largest and longest-running such collection, bringing hundreds of thousands of visits from across North America, Europe and around the world. Even if you don’t like Christmas (you don’t have to be religious or of one religion – music and goodwill is for all people – hell, we need so much of it right now).
(This playlist is intentionally not to meant to be a rehash of all of our top Indie Christmas Songs playlists.
It has been a big year for Ashland, Oregon indie rock/power pop trio Summer Colds. The increasingly popular band dropped their debut single, “Whiteout,” last spring followed now by their anticipated debut album, Here Comes Nothing.
For an album with a title that is more than modest, this baby delivers some things – that are 90s-retro in many ways.
It’s hard to review this album without throwing out various subgenres of indie and alternative rock. The ‘throw-back’ DIY-sound of Here Comes Nothing is consistent across most of the tracks, including the melodic fuzzy rock vibe of “Low,” pegged by a neat little hook that’s hard to shake.
The vocals, led by guitarist and vocalist Nic McNamara, will remind some right away of the indie band They Might Be Giants. That’s not an original observation; many who have heard his voice, especially in the context of retro alt-pop, have said the same.
The second track of the eight-track album is the forward-driving song, “Found,” with its adherence to 1990s alt/indie pop-rock ethos.
As it turns out, “Found” is more than just another track on the album. According to McNamara, it is also the sole track on the album that set the tone for Summer Cold’s musical style.
“Found” projects a refreshed take on the 90s southern California alt-pop sound of bands like Weezer. It sports that laid-back slacker dynamic reinforced by Nicole Swan‘s booming basslines, McNamara’s chugging guitar and Claire Burgess‘s bouncy, energetic drumming. McNamara also plays bass and drums.
Actually, McNamara says, the song was originally written a decade ago when he was first starting to record songs acoustically for his former band Black Bears Fire.
As he puts it, the song arrives with even more history than just its decade of ferment. “Changing the song from acoustic to electric was the catalyst for taking a new direction musically and for starting a new band,” McNamara concludes.
The second official single from the album, “Killing Flies,” was written and recorded in its entirety a few months prior to the album’s release.
“I wrote ‘Killing Flies’ in a flash of inspiration,” McNamara says, adding: “triggered by running into an ex-girlfriend who had taken a self-destructive path.”
“The song came together quicker than usual and ended up setting the standard for what the mixing and production of the rest of the tracks on the album would sound like,” he says reflectively.
“Killing Flies” moves even further into this pop-punk mold with a stripped-back set of arrangements and snarky vocals in the style McNamara feels natural with.
Other standout tracks on the album include “Copenhagen,” starting out with a mid-tempo and melodic guitar with the band coming all together in full force at the chorus.
Interestingly, the album’s second half – and its best half – rocks with a punk-inspired verge and urgency. It’s quite a ride for fans punk-pop in the vein of bands like the Descendents.
“Deep End” has a surfy punk-pop vibe, setting up the final two fantastic tracks, starting with the hard-hitting, guitar-frenzied and unforgettable, “Sober October,” followed by the lighter, and welcoming, final touch of “Centipedes,” saving one of the best tracks for last.
The half-hour album weaves McNamara’s dreary and poetic songwriting style with fuzzy pop-rock sensibilities of the 90’s alternative rock era driven by power chords and hooks immersed in the dense imagery of the album’s melancholic lyrics.
Summer Colds does not rely on one genre/sub-genre although if forced, they’d have to put themselves into the power-pop end of the indie rock musical spectrum. They obviously enjoy, and with good results, mixing alt. and indie rock elements with power pop and punk-pop.
After releasing two albums with his former indie band Black Bears Fire, McNamara began a new project, recruited a couple of band members and began writing and recording as Summer Colds to “bring to life a heavier sound than my previous folk-rock project.”
He has opened for a bunch of bands over the past five years, including Slow Corpse, Old Year, Calyx, The Juniper Berries, Yr Parents, and Glacierwolf. Summer Colds’ biggest influences include Weezer, White Reaper, Surfer Blood, Pup, Brand New, and Wavves.
McNamara was born in Johannesburg South Africa where his father, Stevin McNamara, was a recording engineer for Lucky Dube, Brenda Fassi, and Ladysmith Blacksmith Mambazo, and later, Bryan Adams, Tina Turner, Def Leppard, and Michael Bolton. When the Summer Colds frontman was a child, his family moved to the U.K. town of Surrey, England.
In the early 1990s, his family moved to the United States where he continued to study music and recording engineering.
Admit it or not, the bow is one of the most neglected accessories in the family of string instruments. We mostly put our attention and effort to the instrument itself as we have the perception that it’s the only factor that affects your performance.
While that is true, little did we know, the bow plays a vital role in producing quality and inviting sound. Taking cello as an example, if it weren’t for its bow, today’s tone and sound of this instrument won’t be versatile.
Going deeper into taking care of a bow, the hair in the cello bow also affects the effectiveness of your performance. Bow hair breaks, wear out and gets dirty with frequent use that’s why it should be rehaired at least once a year.
In rehairing, you should guarantee that the following signs are already visible: – There are a lot of broken hairs. – There’s a lot of hair loss in the middle part. – It has discoloration and unpleasant smell.
Guide in Changing the Bow Hair
Changing of bow hair can be done either by a professional or by yourself through following these steps:
Cut the purchased cello bow hair for about four (4) inches from both ends
Wipe clean the metal of the frog and its button
Remove the tip block and clean the stick
Remove the ferrule ring before removing the slide
Using a pencil, loosen the slide slot then remove the block
For the frog’s mortise, you should cut the block and it should match the length of the mortise
You can now tie the hair and cut it properly
Add some crushed rosin into it before burning the end of the hair
Place the hair in the block mortise hole to keep it flat and fitting
Add crushed rosin at the end of the block before putting it back to the mortise hole
Give the hair a little pull to ensure that the block would not move
Trade the slide in the slots on the frog before changing the ferrule ring
Produce a new wedge and spread the hair across the ring to test the wedge. You should guarantee that it’s evenly spaced before measuring how far the frog should be to reach the grip
Create the tip block then comb the hair until it’s smooth
You can wet the hair but refrain it from reaching the wedge
You can now tie the hair to the tip block mortise
After tying, cut the hair and put in crushed rosin before burning the end of it
You should comb the hair again then flip it to tie the end into the block mortise
Put in some rosin at the end of the block
You can now lubricate the bow screw then flip the hair again to replace the frog
At this point, you should tighten the hair a little and adjust it if needed
and
Apply rosin when the hair is already dry.
After replacing the bow hair, the sound may feel different, but it is perfectly normal. It’ll go back to its original sound through minor bowing or pressure adjustments. However, if you’re still a beginner, it’s best to get your bow re-haired by a professional to prevent it from incurring any damage.
For a number of years we’ve been following the Brisbane ‘slacker-rock’ indie band, Cedarsmoke, thanks to the band’s ear-peeking, honest lyrics, and a gritty, yet catchy sound.
The band’s latest single, “Pure Heroin,” is proof-perfect.
“Pure Heroin is a song about Rom-Coms and punk rock,” says vocalist and multi-instrumentalist frontman John Cloumassis. “Specifically, it focuses on the life and death of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen,” he says, adding, “musically, we tried to offset their tragic story with a catchy chorus and bright synth sounds, but it’s still a fairly dark song.”
The band often makes picayune observations of down and out of luck characters wrapped inside of metaphor-heavy lyrics and the band’s own brand of Down Under indie rock music.
Last year the band wowed us with their debut E.P., False Start to the Rat Race, featuring singles like “Easy” and “Contraband.”
Ia addition to Cloumassis, the band members are Tom Picton (keyboards, glockenspiel); Yarnell Fischer (lead guitar); Rhys Carroll (bass) and Lewis Heffernan (drums).
Back in 2015, these five young mates from Brisbane decided that since they were already hanging out all of the time, they might as well do something they all loved to do – make music.
And there the seeds for the formation of the band were sowed.
The band, according to Cloumassis, wrote and rehearsed more than 50 songs, many of which spanned various genres from rock to folk, from which the songs for their debut EP, False Start to the Rat Race.
Perhaps the strongest track on the album is the sweet number “Easy,” which Cloumassis says “started when our guitarist Yarnie [Fischer] was playing some chords during a jam about a week before we were booked to start recording the album. It was written and rehearsed pretty quickly after that.”
Soon after the debut, Cedarsmoke began playing local gigs and attracting praise from the city’s picky music audiences who have seen a lot of talent come and go over the years.
The band has opened for artists such as Mermaid Avenue, Grace Turner, Leichardt, Lachlan X. Morris, and Jordan Merrick. They are most influenced by Wilco, Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, The National, Bright Eyes, The War on Drugs, and Bob Dylan.
MP3: “Easy“ – Cedarsmoke from Traffic On Solitude Road
Bonus Track: “Contraband“ – Cedarsmoke from Traffic On Solitude Road
Paul Vernet is a seasoned rocker as well as a new-century indie musician. He is not a classic rock troubadour in the traditional sense of the word – rather, he’s a hybrid.
Vernet carefully excavates dinosaur bones of yesteryear’s rock icons, smashes them up into smaller pieces and mixes and grinds them all together with his own ingredients that span the spectrum of modern sub-genres – popularized under the umbrella that is indie rock.
“There might be something in the water up here,” he said looking out at the purple-tinged mountains near Woodstock, New York. Vernet has lived in the hills there for many years and recently recorded and dropped his new album Personal Mythology.
Living in such a beautiful and culturally historic (even though the Woodstock Festival of 1969 was actually held in the nearby town of Bethel) location has undoubtedly influenced his music in wondrous ways.
“Before all these digitized nerds took over an already crooked music biz, there was a hippie dream, you know, where songs meant something, and music could change the world. Call me crazy, but I still believe that.”
Vernet’s latest single, “Pregnant Widow,” is a sizzling slice of proto funk/punk, sort of like an all-star jam with Black Sabbath, Fela Kuti and the Talking Heads, he says. It’s definitely a standout.
“The song is about a wise old county doctor who makes house calls after hours,” he says. “The rest of the record plays itself all over the musical map – groove rock with a Brill Building backbone.”
“It’s about obsession, sex, and death. It’s a cautionary tale about a doctor and the wife of a terminal patient he’s treating.”
In this case, he says, the ‘good doctor’ crossed the line between “fear and hope, and now the townspeople are starting to gossip. It’s about doing things you know you shouldn’t, but compulsion takes over. The need to be desired is a very, very strong motivator.”
These lines from the song say much: “Don’t get your knickers in a twist/Don’t get your testes in a fix/Messing around, pants come down/Pop your dress right off.”
All of this put together may conjure up images of a Decemberists’ type of folklore lyric and song. But it’s uniquely Vernet’s.
The track accumulated nearly 9,000 streams on Spotify in a matter of a couple of weeks after being picked up by a couple of playlisters.
Vernet’s musical influences are varied and include Atomic Rooster to Charlie Rich; Steely Dan to Ween; The Monkees to Guns N Roses.
Last month we featured another great track from the album, “Skipping Stones”.
La Palma, the musical duo of Philly artist Tim Gibbon and D.C. musician Chris Walker formed earlier this year, dropped a new single on Friday titled “Swept Away/Holiday.”
But this is not your typical holiday track.
The song kicks off with a sunny, lazy tropical guitar vibe and Caribbean style percussions and what sound like at first seagulls but it’s a guitar string weeping or some other cool effect.
The song floats along with elements of beachy dream-pop and psych waves. You can almost feel the sun on your face and the warm breezes coming off the ocean.
Right at the mid-point the track transforms and morphs into a series of sound effects – all once again creating that sunny vibe. Towards the end, the track morphs again, this time into a strange little acoustic jam.
Gibbon describes the track best: “It begins with a lushly produced story of a dip in the ocean-turned deep-sea psychic tumult; the track then abruptly flips on its head to a more stripped-down acoustic feel, itching for an elusive holiday escape from the day-to-day grind.”
Because they live in different cities, the duo’s music is created correspondence-style – passing recordings through the cloud to build textured compositions and layers of instruments that glean from everyday sounds and experiences, steeped in beachy psych-pop and indie folk.
Gibbon and Walker are both writers, vocalists, and multi-instrumentalists on the guitar, keyboards, bass, percussion, and programming. Their music definitely falls under the indie rock umbrella, incorporating genres and sub-genres such as psych-pop, indie folk, experimental, bedroom pop, and dream pop.
They met years ago in D.C.’s music scene while playing with bands like Kittyhawk and Let’s French.
The duo has opened for bands like Goodnight Lights and Spelling Reform and are primarily influenced by bands like Animal Collective, Helado Negro, Devendra Banhart, and Melody’s Echo Chamber. We first featured La Palma back in the spring for their debut single.
London-based indie-rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Vittorio Tolomeo, aka Quarry, has an electrifying, zanny new album, Super Arcade. It’s quite a ride.
The lead single from the album is the title track, “Super Arcade,” which was recently chosen as Song of the Day by Rolling Stone (France).
With a hard-hitting, gritty romp, rebellious vibe, quirky, sometimes creepy, vocals, and fuzzy guitar riffs that are connected to many pedals, it’s understandable that the magazine editors picked this stomping, rocking track to present to its readers. In addition, they created a nifty and artistic music video as well.
“It was fun making this stop-motion video. There are marvelous drawings and the director had a brilliant idea. There are two parallel worlds. I’m based in an ideal environment within the underground world.”
“There is the transition from cartoon to human when I come down from the messed-up world above, through a porthole,” Tolomeo explains.
“Many people asked if we shot the video inside of a boat because of the porthole. But we filmed that in the illustrator’s bathroom where there is a porthole,” he says, adding, “I think that the video conveys the idea of detachment from many unnecessary things of this age perfectly.”
Super Arcade has many other surprises and intriguing moments.
It’s important for context to set the scene that led up to the recording and release of Super Arcade. It was a project long ago planned by the British rocker. We need to go back a bit.
The setting is a quiet warehouse filled with dozens of old pinball machines and arcade games. For Tolomeo, a longtime video and arcade game fanatic, it’s heavenly.
Combining games like pinball machines and music may lead one to think of The Who’s “Pinball Wizard” but that is not what we have here.
While Tolomeo casts himself as “an occasional pinball wizard,” neither his love for arcades and video games, nor music, was the result of The Who. The combination was completely manifest within his own interesting universe from childhood into adulthood.
The master plan for the album started with the idea to construct a recording studio in the warehouse and amongst the pinball machines and video games. Once the studio was set-up, Tolomeo started a musical journey many musicians do not experience.
What followed was years of experimenting with sound effects and compositions.
It was in his new recording studio that Tolomeo found his techniques and skills were improving and maturing the more he experimented. It was the perfect environment for his creativity and talents to blossom.
“For a musician, a place to make music is a continuous journey in unexplored galaxies, it’s freedom, it’s shelter,” explains Tolomeo.
It wasn’t just video games, sound effects and unique compositions that he had on his mind.
“Making the record in such a strange place was necessary to stop time and detach myself from the unnecessary things of this age. I realized that I wanted to express the value of awkwardness.”
“When I think about the invasion of bloggers of nothingness, talent shows, false myths and ephemeral notoriety, I get comfortable with being out of place and out of time.”
Such observations are plentiful on the 10-track album.
Take the second track, “Inside The Morning Light.” It also opines on modern life. The stomping, distorted sound may remind some of the Black Keys or Cage The Elephant. That technique, paralleled with riveting guitars and percussion, gives the track an unmistakable overall ominous vibe. One will notice while listening to the album the effective stomping sounds; techniques Tolomeo employs often and with great effectiveness.
That’s followed by the frenzied song, “Everything And Its Opposite.” The track is a fast-moving, spiraling rocker driven by Tolomeo’s intriguing guitar playing and techniques.
The song presents a surreal, even terrifying, “picture of giant corporate digital monopolies” whose precious algorithms, unfortunately, influence every aspect of daily life. The lazy, mystical track, “Man With The Scars,” pays tribute to David Bowie, he says.
Other tracks like the zany, grooving and rocking “Haters Online” (another hater online/that’s what you’ll find) and “Firefighter,” with its infectious and unforgettable guitar riffs, take direct target at social media and “the border between virtual and real,” Tolomeo says.
Then there is the infectious, oddly-titled visionary ballad, “Sweet Alien On Creamy Skis,” which Tolomeo says celebrates people who still hold out hope that the planet might be saved from visitors from beyond. However, in reality, that’s a bad strategy.
Tolomeo’s vocals sometimes remind me of Tim Curry’s voice in the cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show movie. His voice is often deep and sometimes creepy while at the same time perfectly fit for the sonic landscapes he creates. He can even hit high notes, although he rarely does.
The track, “London Cloak,” creates a strange, almost surreal, vibe, starting out in slow-motion almost, percussions until the track hits the chorus. Then things get crazy musically and vocally. It’s funk and rock mixed with a Frank Zappa-like approach and veins of psychedelic music (that take on so many shapes and textures throughout the album that it truly is amazing). Tolomeo is totally free to create the sound he wants and it’s not your ordinary fare.
Songs like “Longest Years,” have so much going on and so many elements that it would be quite a challenge for anyone to replicate or cover most of his songs. This track also has bongo drums and mystic, almost Middle Eastern like chanting along with a riveting set of electric guitar notes that are fed through a number of pedals and filters.
The album closes with, “Reborn,” a sinister-sounding track with a precious pairing of note changes between his powerful guitar and the bass. As the track progresses it dives head-first into shifting notes, story-telling, and Tolomeo’s distinctive vocals.
Tolomeo’s years of experimenting with sounds in order to make this uniquely sounding, engaging, entertaining and rocking album. It’s not hard to say that it’s one of the best albums we’ve heard this year in as far as musicians who are intent on making rich, ingredient-filled, textured, layered and totally different music by taking advantage of their artistic freedom.
Afterall that’s the greatest aspect of the indie rock genre – that musicians who can’t, or won’t, fit into a nicely formed genre identity, are allowed to experiment and genre-mix as much as they want. And often what comes from such freedom is good stuff.
But no matter how heavy or sarcastic a subject is, the music is infectious all the way through, combining heavy-hitting drums, slashing guitars with melodic hooks, distorted, chunky bass lines with an alternative pop-rock confection.
Tolomeo played all the instruments for most of the tracks on the album. He and his band plan to tour Europe and the U.S. in the spring and summer of 2020.
These are just some of the fantastic artists and bands of 2019 that we were turned on to and shared with the world – with hopes that more people will see the evidence of these new (and newly discovered) talents.
