It’s just about time for fall and new indie and DIY rock songs, plus artists and bands to share. There are some hot tracks here and promising artists, so please share if you dig any, some or all of them.
This playlist features more of the best new indie singles for September 2019 – and the last blast of summer – kicking things off with the brash, lo-fi garage rocker from Nashville musician Ian Ferguson, followed by new overseas indie rock bands like This Daze (Norway) and Charlywood (Austria), a track from a DIY artist in Toronto and a ska/surf band in San Diego.
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Ian Ferguson – Nashville, Tennessee
This Daze – Bergen, Norway
Charlywood – Vienna, Austria
Lennox C.B. – Toronto, Ontario
Sitting on Stacy – San Diego, California
Ian Ferguson – “Worried Walk”
Nashville native and regionally-respected musician Ian Ferguson was offered a major label contract as a teenager (as part of The Kingston Springs) but it turned it down. That was a few years ago.
Recently Ferguson dropped his debut indie solo album, State of Gold, a compendium of garage rock, power pop, psych and shoegaze mixed with folk.
Completely immersed in the writing and recording of the album for a number of years, Ferguson performed and recorded every instrument, including guitar, bass, drums, and vocals on State of Gold. He also mixed and mastered the album.
The songs’ messages range from political and social to personal, touching on everything from dictators and Seinfeld to home recording and love.
The track that got us is the blazing 60’s-style lo-fi noise single, “Worried Walk.” It has such an intensity and garage rock vibe. It’s bad.
The single is one of many impressive tracks on Ferguson’s fine solo effort. He now has a band and they are performing gigs.
Listen to State of Gold on Bandcamp
This Daze – “Young”
Delivering what could be described as ”angsty-but-cute indie punk”, the new indie rock band This Daze finds inspiration for making music through endless day-dreaming, long hours jamming and a desire to stay young forever.
Hailing from Norway, the quartet set out to record during the sunny summer of 2019, resulting in their first youth-fueled single ”Young”.
The song takes a look back at when they were in their teens and had few worries; now growing up into adults, they yearn for those halcyon days.
The chord progressions are fantastic and the melodies are riding on warm sun rays as we lament the passing of summer. The band really takes off on this single. You’ll likely play it more than once.
The members are guitarist and vocalist Erlend Eggan and Martin Engelien, plus bassist Martin Ringerud and drummer Hallvard Løberg Näsvall.
They are currently working on a new single and music video. We will be looking out for more from This Daze soon.
Charlywood – “Television Glamour”
Austrian songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist Andrew Charlewood is the founding member behind the recently-formed band Charlywood.
His band just dropped their debut album, with the unconventional, tongue-in-cheek title, aloadasongs. The LP was mastered by producer Martin Scheer (Hearts Hearts, Junior Kelly).
The lead single from the album is the brashy 80s-styled rock song, “Television Glamour,” featuring high decibel keyboard riffs together with furious drums, vocal work and a flare of new wave and disco.
The music video was released on Sept. 5, 2019.
After studying pop music at Derby University, Charlewood moved to Vienna where he attended Robert May’s School and QMC. There he met a number of other musicians and expanded his musical knowledge.
Charlewood recruited Fabian Lewey (guitar, vocals); Leo Ihrybauer (drums) and Simon Müller (bass). The band has been gigging around the U.K., including a show at London’s Street’s Sanctuary.
The band’s musical influences include The Libertines, Foo Fighters, Ben Folds, Incubus, The Arctic Monkeys, and The Beatles.
Lennox C.B. – “She Gets Me High”
Toronto songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lennox Campbell–Berzins, aka Lennox C.B., is a professional Canadian musician who also fronts the musical projects Ruby Cikada and Broken Wolves.
His recent debut album, Night Light, is a dream/psych-pop recording that is an enthralling trip through sounds and melodies, lyrics and rhythms. He is also now beginning work on a follow-up album release.
C.B. performed and recorded all of the instrument tracks, including guitar, piano, drums, and bass. He also mixed the complete album. A music education background from York University (Toronto) helps too. His long-time collaborator James Mulvale handled the mastering job.
Night Light is a dramatic departure from C.B. and Mulvale’s previous work and will continue to be a template for their work moving forward.
One of the album’s standout tracks, “She Gets Me High” was inspired by a broken relationship. The creation of the song “was one of those divine moments of inspiration where it all came together in one take – the chorus, the verse, and the bridge,” C.B. says.
One of C.B.’s good musical friends said the song sounded like Beach House instrumentally. “That was easily one of my proudest moments around the entire album production process and seemed to confirm everything I was doing.”
The album, he says, is inspired by artists and bands such as Beach, Mac Demarco, Weezer, and The Beatles.
Another standout track, “Zelda”, was initially written about a “lost connection” Lennox had with a woman at a party. Therefore he changed the name of the woman to his favorite Nintendo gaming character.
“Growing up, the world of ‘Zelda’ was a place that captured my imagination and was of enormous influence on me musically.”
“This song particularly displays the full array of instrumentation I used on this album,” he adds, including “slide guitars, digi-guitar, harp harmonics, and Yamaha CP35 to bring to life the pixelated world of that 8-bit era that has become a nostalgic fountain for our millennial generation.”
Sitting on Stacy – “Chest Hair”
Sitting on Stacy is a San Diego, California indie rock band with a ska/surf vibe.
The band’s brand new album, Perfectly Sane, was just released and features the thrilling ska/surf-leaning track, “Chest Hair,” and a video to boot shot out on the beach.
The track reminds us of bands like Sublime and 311 from back in the day. (That’s a true compliment).
These guys have the verve, talent and ambition to make it big in the ska/surf scene, which spans the world from California to Hawai’i to South Africa and Australia.
The band’s first EP, Goat Soup, was released under their former name Paper, and includes rough mixes and demos of songs that had been written during their first years. Since their name change, they’ve released now two albums, an EP and three singles.
The band features college students and members Hoyt Yeatman (lead vocals/guitar), Kyle Hart (bass/vocals) and Leland Schenck (drums).
SOS has performed at numerous venues in the San Diego, Los Angeles, and Ventura County areas, including Kaaboo Del Mar (SD), The House of Blues, The Vortex, The Mint (West Los Angeles/Los Angeles), The Canyon Club (Agoura), among others.
