The first indie songs playlist for November features exciting new DIY indie artists and bands from across the States, plus an artist from The Netherlands.You can browse other 2019 playlists too in other posts – some getting hundreds of likes on Facebook and other socials.
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Loud Library – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Desilu – Austin, Texas
Paul Vernet – New York
Distant Creatures – Washington, D.C.
Ugochill – Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Loud Library – “Recycle Bin”
Formed in 2018 as an alternative pop band, Milwaukee outfit Loud Library are making a splash lately and their new kinetic single, “Recycle Bin,” is proof perfect.
The song is a full-throttle indie-pop track with enduring energy, catchy hooks, and strong vocal work.
“It was meant to have a catchy rhythm and be a fun tune,” says vocalist and bassist Ben Smith.
Light strums on an acoustic guitar start the intro coupled with gentle vocal harmonies and the line: ‘I’m falling on my face again,’ which the band says is basically “about going back over and over again through the same routine until one spirals out of reach.”
“The song mainly speaks about a person being in situations where they hit rock- bottom over and over,” says Smith, “but ultimately he doesn’t throw in the towel. It’s just recycling back to Point A.” A satirical vocal with a falsetto tone comes in at the conclusion of the track.
A summer-feeling piece, “Recycle Bin” also includes a trademark indie “ooooo” chorus. The band wanted to make the track as memorable as possible and feel – and are correct – this type of chorus sticks in people’s heads – with some even wanting to play it again just for that aspect.
There is some really remarkable vocal work going on at the outro of the track. We cannot think of when we have heard such unique vocals. It’s impossible to forget.
“It tries to emulate someone actually falling in a downward spiral,” he says, continuing: “The outro was something fun, something different from the other parts of the song with the singer repeating the phrase like he’s in a loop.
“Overall, this was a song that meant to sound energetic, hopeful, with portraying the message of mishaps that happen.”
The other band members are Garrett Holm on guitars and Judicael Bationo on drums. The band’s influences are Maroon 5, The Talking Heads, and FUN.
Desilu – “Dunes”
Another unordinary love song comes from Austin psych art-rock band Desilu. The band’s new track,
“Dunes” is a trippy post-punk “rendition” of the classic tale about an Egyptian mummy searching for his long lost love.
The synthesized tones supporting the traditional overdriven punk rhythm were created using an Earthquaker Devices Rainbow Machine, Red Panda Tensor, and Korg Minilogue.
Very little studio production was put into “Dunes,” the band says, allowing the song to retain its organic and live presence. The song was inspired by the relentless heat of the summer months in Austin. It gets real, real hot these days. It was hot back in the day; but not like in the past decade.
The band is Darryl Shaw-Rockley (guitar); Joe Johnson (bass); Tyrone Webster (drums); Lisa Taylor (synth), and Zane Andrews (guitar).
They are one of Austin’s many excellent bands that don’t get the recognition they deserve; or that they maybe would get elsewhere where there is less competition.
We have seen this often with Austin-based bands – too many good bands went to Austin in the past two decades and it’s changed the entire culture. Look at SXSW these days – it’s become over-corporatized.
For many, it’s a thrilling cultural experience, but most ultimately find they’re “just another good band” in a town that has more bands per capita than probably anywhere else in the U.S.
We’ve heard plenty of artists and bands say they probably could have made a bigger impact and received more attention if they stayed where they were or if they moved to a city other than Austin. It’s a tough town to make it as a band. Desilu is one band that has beat those odds.
The band members have unique musical influences are many: Gold Leather, Mars Teller, Bridge Farmers, Cortége, Flyin Lion, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, Black Basements, and What Tyrants.
Their general interests range from “guitars; effects pedals; synths; massive evil robots and tiny adorable robots; dinosaurs, and vinyl records;” to “UFOs; ghosts, monsters, and Sister Act 1 and 2.”
Paul Vernet – “Skipping Stones”
Paul Vernet is an upstate New York ‘new’ classic rock artist.
Many people are confused by the term but it’s basically about bringing fresh sounds and production to the classic rock sounds that have dominated music for at least four decades and is still kicking in many places today, particularly outside of the United States as far as fan volume goes.
But Vernet is committed to making an impact right on American soil with a sound that is not the ordinary bar band style.
A self-taught multi-instrumentalist, Vernet’s full musical biography is something of a mystery.
His new single, “Skipping Stones,” from the album Burning Sounds, features a long and storied history in rock and roll.
The single is punchy, solid pop-rock track with airy guitars and chugging rhythms with a real sense of appreciation for the sonics of classic rock while also making its own style and songwriting.
The track oozes with catchy melodies throughout interrupted by keyboard interludes and atypical guitar solos.
The song is ultimately about loss and grieving: ‘Guess I’ll just have to throw this pain away/all it does is make my heart skip/like a little black stone/on a frozen lake.’
But Vernet doesn’t make it a sad or depressed-sounding song – perhaps in a way to cope. Rather, it’s an uplifting song that subsequently wins in the end.
Interestingly, his biggest musical influences are Burl Ives, Tiny Tim, and The Troggs.
Last spring Vernet’s single, “Pregnant Widow,” from the album, Burning Sounds, got picked up by New Rockstars playlist and accumulated nearly 10,000 plays on Spotify alone just from that placement alone.
“I had hoped that would mean there would be some spillover to my other stuff, but that really hasn’t happened yet,” Vernet says.
That is the feeling of many artists and bands today. Racking up 10, 20, 30K plays on Spotify feels great for a few weeks until it drops and fades off.
That’s not Spotify’s fault. And it’s not the fans’ fault. That is the time when an artist needs to be serious and invest some resources into building on that momentum so that it doesn’t fizzle away. But that is easier said than done; many artists and bands don’t have the big funds the agencies require.
Distant Creatures – “What Became of the Girl”
Washington D.C. indie rock band Distant Creatures has dropped their final album after officially disbanding earlier this year.
While the band’s followers may not be happy about the news, they cannot deny the impressive last recording, aptly titled Whorl. The track picked for promoting the album is the impossible-to-ignore song, “What Became of The Girl.”
When it comes to dream pop in particular, these cats delivering it up in barrels of shimmering guitars and synth layers melded with an overall optimistic vibe despite lyrics that are often sad and lovelorn.
Library Group Records assembled this 12-track collection of the band’s unreleased recordings for a posthumous album that the band’s hardcore fans have been waiting to get their hands on.
Much of the album is inspired by real-life experiences, “realizations of hurting the ones we love the most and searching for forgiveness,” the release states.
The recordings reveal the band’s penchant to blend indie pop and shoegaze against rich glittering tapestries and stories of heartbreak and redemption.
Whorl was mixed by Collin Warren (Wicked Sycamore) and mastered by Sarah Register (Depeche Mode, Asobi Sesku, Brand New).
It’s impossible of course to talk about the album without mentioning the infusions and elements of folk, brass and classical string instruments to help create the dreamy, lush world the band was known for in the D.C. area.
Distant Creatures formed in 2015 and has opened for rising indie stars Hatchie, Land of Talk, Fanclub, Sound of Ceres and Winter.
Ugochill – “Familiar”
Ugochill is a music project of Serbian/Dutch Amsterdam-based veteran musician and indie artist Alex Rado.
Rado functions as a standalone independent artist, producer, and promoter, but his works also include collaborations with various friends and artists from around the world.
The latest single “Familiar” is an original, retro-rock guitar-based instrumental track that also has an accompanying music video produced using various visual elements from a group of content creators.
The band says the song is “about reaching that point in life when things stop looking new but become rather familiar instead; the transition from child to parent.”
The track is from the forthcoming album Chill em All due to drop soon. Rado’s musical influences are Pink Floyd, Joe Satriani, Mike Oldfield, and Jeff Beck.
https://www.facebook.com/ugochill
