Max Hammer – Page 11 – INDIE ROCK CAFE

In Dee Mail, Vol. XXIX – NIHILS, Famous Unknown USA, The Ineloquent, Geoffrey J, Nick Shattuck and Others

Posted on 04/22/201712/18/2019 by Max Hammer

For those of you who have followed us over these many years, you know that In Dee Mail is a long-running, popular and special series that simply highlights artists and songs we have been digging for some time; therefore, the songs themselves are not necessarily new, but definitely noteworthy. Enjoy.

NIHILS – Triol, Austria
Famous Unknown USA – Chicago, Illinois
The Ineloquent – Boulder, Colorado
Nick Shattuck – Los Angeles, California
Geoffrey J Band – Los Angeles, California
Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes – Nashville, Tennessee
Robyn Cage – Park City, Utah
Weepikes – Helsinki, Finland

https://soundcloud.com/nihils/help-our-souls

NIHILS – Triol, Austria

When four lads from the Tyrolean Alps region of Austria decided a few years ago to stop building “lethal ski jumps and plummeting down the Alps” and redirect that energy to create a band, they did just that. They spent the ensuing years, in the words of bassist Dominik Brunner, “refining our indie electronic soul-infused sound,” as found on the funky-laced indie dance track, “Lovers On The Run”, with is memorable hook, chorus and grooves. This was the band’s breakthrough track, garnering over 67,000 plays and 1,200 likes on Soundcloud alone, and attracting a new swell of fans.

The band’s next single, “Help Our Souls”, dropped in the summer of 2015, really put them on the map, wracking up 1.3 million plays and over 21,000 likes just on Soundcloud. The song was performed extensively at gigs in Austria and Germany, including several music festivals (Donauinselfest; Alternative Escape), as well as opening for artists like Nena and Friska Viljor. Because of the Austrian Music Fund, the band was able to record and release their debut album.

https://soundcloud.com/christopher-reyes-183097685/canvas

Famous Unknown USA – Chicago, Illinois

Based in the Chicago-area, the musical trio, the Famous Unknown USA, is comprised of experienced and accomplished veteran musicians who came together with similar interests in 2010 to combine their skills and creativity to piece together a range of influences that include classic rock, folk, pop, alt. rock and blues – all evident on the 90’s-like alt. rock tracks like, “Canvas,” or the bluegrass-folk single, “Stain Glass Window,” which was named as a semi-finalist in last year’s International Songwriting Contest.

Collectively, band members – Gary Reyes, Bob Hauck, and Chris Reyes – offer more than 25 years of stage and studio experience, with influences that include classic rock, alt. rock, folk and blues.

https://soundcloud.com/theineloquent/verge-of-a-breakthrough

The Ineloquent – Boulder, Colorado

Admittedly nomadic yet hailing primarily from Boulder, Colorado, indie rock band The Ineloquent deliver contemplative and meaningful piano driven pop rock with catchy melodies, layered vocal harmonies and honest lyrics featuring messages of hope.

The trio’s melodic and engaging musical style draws comparisons to artists like Coldplay, The Fray, Keane, and One Republic, while the band’s frontwoman, Georgiana Eakins, is often compared to vocalists like Ellie Goulding, Regina Spektor, Nora Jones, and probably most often, Leigh Nash from Sixpence None the Richer.

The Ineloquent’s writing style is sincere and straightforward, giving language to the inner struggles that many of us wrestle with. With lyrics that are revealing and deeply personal on the 2015 EP, ‘E Is for Emergency,’ the band weaves together themes of love, brokenness, fear, hope, and restoration.

The track “Verge of a Breakthrough” is a synth dance pop track that is more laid back and sensual than most; in fact, it’s a terrific bedroom chill song.

MP3: “Emergency“ – The Ineloquent from E is for Emergency

“These are songs that are meant to do more than just spill sound into silence,” says vocalist and keyboardist Georgiana Eakins. “They are meant to challenge and inspire while bringing something musically fresh to the table.” This is also apparent on the semi-title track, “Emergency,” a track for which to put the headphones on and fade away with the dreamy keys and vocals.

The other band members include Daniel Eakins (vocals, guitar) and Pablo Calderon (bass, drums). The band’s top influences include Coldplay, Future of Forestry, Imogen Heap, Keane, and Snow Patrol.

https://soundcloud.com/nicholasshattuck/nick-shattuck-your-heart

Nick Shattuck – Los Angeles, California

Born and raised in the Midwest, singer/songwriter Nick Shattuck moved to Los Angeles in the fall of 2011 for the sun-soaked life of the west coast and to “surround myself in a competitive music environment.” Right away, Shattuck went to work, exploring the environs of southern California and writing songs.

Those songs, featured on his 2013 album Up Late, Dreaming, are wholesome, heartfelt, introspective, woodsy, and at times, celebratory, as standout tracks like “Your Heart” demonstrate.

Shattuck has opened for artists like Howie Day, Ben Taylor, Rhett Miller, Sea Wolf, Meiko, and Tyler Hilton. He lists his top musical influences as Ray LaMontagne, Joe Purdy, Ben Howard, James Vincent McMorrow, and Bon Iver.

Geoffrey J – Los Angeles, California

They are an anomaly in today’s world of pop driven rock. With influences like Aretha Franklin and The Beatles, the boy who grew up on doo-wop is now a singer-songwriter that reflects the styles of Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, and Lyle Lovett.

Both as a solo and band performer, Geoffrey J, has played at many of the prestigious Los Angeles music venues including the iconic Whiskey A Go Go, Room 5 Lounge, The Mint, and The Viper Room. His other musical influences include Macy Gray, INXS, and The Black Keys.

We were first introduced to his music thanks to the amazing track, “Merry Go-Round” – a gold nugget; not many DIY bands can write and record an amazing song like this. But Geoffrey certainly has; don’t be surprised if you play this song over and over.

Another track, the uptempo song, “Here I Am,” was a grower song for us. J’s vocals are very professional and evoke a sense of fun with happy groove and catchy rhythm guitar.

https://soundcloud.com/de-tgl/sun-goes-out

Daniel Ellsworth and The Great Lakes – Nashville, Tennessee

On their sophomore album, Kid Tiger, released in March of 2014, indie rock band Daniel Ellsworth and The Great Lakes fuse raw energy with crisp melodies and danceable beats on standout songs like “Phantoms” and “Sun Goes Down.” Kid Tiger was produced at Nashville’s Sputnik Sound Studios by Grammy award-winner Vance Powell, who has produced albums for Jack White, The Whigs, Kings of Leon, and The White Stripes.

Formed in 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee, Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes released their first full-length studio album, Civilized Man, in 2011. Recorded and co-produced with Mark Nevers (Andrew Bird, Yo La Tengo, Silver Jews), Civilized Man went on to be listed in the top 100 albums of 2011 by Amazon, with songs like the pop-rock single “Shoe Fits,” which debuted at No.7 on Amazon’s Top 100 Songs of 2011.

Band members include Daniel Ellsworth, Timon Lance, Joel Wren, and Marshall Skinner. The band considers among their influences Local Natives, Haim, Phoenix, Buddy Holly, Tom Waits, and Dr.Dog.

MP3: “Phantoms“ – Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes from Kid Tiger

https://soundcloud.com/robyncage/sets/born-in-the-desert

Robyn Cage – Park City, Utah

Robyn Cage’s ethereal yet powerful soprano and impassioned live performances have dazzled audiences from Boston’s Symphony Hall, to thousands at outdoor festivals, and the prestigious and intimate singer-songwriter circuit in New York City.

Born in the Utah desert as Robyn Kemp, she went on to study at The Boston Conservatory and became an accomplished actress in NYC. Recently, she migrated back to her Park City, Utah birthplace and was creatively and soulfully reawakened.

For her debut album, Born In The Desert, which dropped on Oct. 2 of last year, Cage teamed up with two-time Grammy-nominated producer Darryl Neudorf (Neko Case, Sarah McLachlan) and Grammy-nominated and Juno Award-winning producer Dan Burns (Rachael Yamagata, Lenka, Michelle Branch). Her biggest musical influences include Susanne Sundfor, St. Vincent, PJ Harvey, Lana Del Rey, among others.

MP3: “Born In The Desert“

https://soundcloud.com/weepikes/nothing-but-a-soar

Weepikes – Helsinki, Finland

Helsinki alternative rockers, Weepikes are, according to the band, a ‘time machine’ band that gained a sizable following in the mid-1990’s in North America and Europe, but burned out, and disbanded, in 1997, after less than four years together.

Then, in early 2013, after 15 years apart, the band re-emerged with the release of a new EP, which introduced them for the first time to many music lovers on IRC who were either toddlers or babies (in some cases, not even born yet) when the band broke up, and also rekindled interest among long-time fans, many of who probably forgot about them over all of the years.

Weepikes, despite their name, rock! And if you like what you hear on “Nothing But A Soar,” check out another track from the EP and read more about the band from the original post published in February of 2013.

Listeners’ Top 10 Songs for February 2017 – The xx, Japandroids, Half Japanese, ROLLERS, The Flaming Lips, Cloud Nothings & More

Posted on 03/17/201712/18/2019 by Max Hammer

The Top 10 Songs revival has gone off well! You guys definitely want the top 10 songs every month, so, like Ray Davies screamed on the title track of The Kinks’ 1981 album – “Give The People What They Want!”

Therefore, here is the next batch of top songs – this time for February 2017, and unlike January, more slanted towards signed and well-known artists and bands like The xx, Flaming Lips, Japandroids, Cloud Nothings, and so on.

That’s because in February we posted the first volume of the Best New Indie Rock Releases of 2017, featuring over a dozen singles from albums released in January from signed and ‘popular’ indie and alternative rock artists and bands featured on IRC based on which songs listeners stream, download and like the most.

The month of February’s Top 10 includes top singles from well-known, signed artists and bands’ new releases, as well as a few from DIY artists featured in posts like Fresh Tracks on IRC during February.

Not surprisingly, it was The xx‘s new single, “Say Something Loving,” from the stellar album I See You, that resoundingly outpaced the No. 2 track, “In A Body Like A Grave,” from Japandroids‘ Near To The Wild Heart Of Life, for the Number One spot for February 2017.

Indie/alt. rock trailblazers Half Japanese‘s latest track, “It’s Our Time,” logged in at No. 3. Gaining enough plays and downloads to position at No. 4, was San Diego DIY band ROLLERS, beating out The Flaming Lips’ “There Should Be Unicorns” at No. 5, and Cloud Nothings‘ “Sight Unseen” (No. 6) from Life Without Sound.

Registering in at the 7th most popular song of the month, according to IRC listeners, was DIY duo Candace Leca & Michael Paglia‘s single, “Morning Never Comes”, followed by “Ten Thousand” at No. 8 from indie band The Molochs.

Finally, the No. 9 song on the chart for February was “Just Wanted You” by DIY artist Miles Recommends, followed at No. 10 by Foxygen‘s “America” from the album Hang to round out the Top 10. Use the built in Flash player to stream all of the songs on this page uninterrupted.

[zbplayer]

“Say Something Loving“ – The xx from I See You

“In A Body Like A Grave“ – Japandroids from Near to the Wild Heart of Life

“Its Our Time“ – Half Japanese from Hear The Lions Roar

“Nobody Else“ – ROLLERS from Somewhere Along The Way

“There Should Be Unicorns“ – The Flaming Lips from Oczy Mlody

“Sight Unseen“ – Cloud Nothings from Life Without Sound

“Morning Never Comes” – Candace Leca & Michael Paglia from Bridges EP

“Ten Thousand” – The Molochs from America’s Velvet Glory

“Just Wanted You” – Miles Recommends from Extended Play

“America” – Foxygen from Hang

Fresh Tracks – New Indie Rock Songs from The God Themselves, OFF ORBIT, Abby K, Jeff Beadle, LAST GIANT, Matt Hutson

Posted on 03/13/201710/17/2021 by Max Hammer

A new playlist of genre-blending singles from artists and bands across the country, from the deep south to the heartland to the Pacific Northwest, and over the northern border to Canada. Discover some very talented artists in this latest post of Fresh Tracks.

The God Themselves – Seattle, Washington
OFF ORBIT – Miami, Florida
LAST GIANT – Portland, Oregon
Abby K – Seattle, Washington
Jeff Beadle – Toronto, Ontario
Matt Hutson – Columbus, Indiana

Cool

Lil B

Living In Photographs

Heart Shaped Rock

Gone Before Sunrise

Pop Music Of The Future

The Gods Themselves – “Cool”

For a couple of years now, Seattle genre-blending trio The Gods Themselves have been producing edgy tracks that incorporate swaggering, punk-influenced guitar riffs and wha-wha pedals, sexy grooves and disco-wave beats to create a truly original sound that has been winning the band praise from CMJ to Paste Magazine.

Apparent from the sounds and visuals of TGT’s newest music video, “Cool,” the band members are all seasoned Pacific Northwest musicians, featuring Astra Elane on guitar and vocals; Collin O’Meara on drums, and Dustin Patterson on bass and vocals.

“‘Cool’ is one of my favorite songs on the album,” Patterson tells IRC. “The funky disco bass line, the breathy seductive harmonies; we were aiming at a ‘Blondie vibe.'”

The video was filmed during a five-hour shoot at The Ballroom in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle with director Rick Walters “the debauched noir vibe” the band was aiming for, according to Patterson.

Influence makers KEXP designated the band’s 2015 single, “Tangerines,” as Song of the Day. It’s apparent from TGT’s new video that there is good reason to spin the band’s new LP, Be My Animal.

The Gods Themselves on Facebook

OFF ORBIT – “Lil B”

Founded by brothers Moises (vocals, bass, keys, harmonica) and Marcos Jimenez (lead guitar), Miami band OFF ORBIT continues to hone and evolve its genre-mixing sounds on the new EP, Plug N Play.

Last summer, they added drummer David Meritt and keyboardist Mike Rodriguez to the lineup to get a more “full band sound” for the EP.

The Jimenez brothers craft bluesy psych, funk and rock, complete with hypnotizing percussions and soul-soothing guitar rhythms and melodies influenced by some of their favorite bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, CCR, The Black Crowes, and Grand Funk Railroad.

All of these elements come together in the irresistibly uptempo, hard-hitting funky, groove-heavy track, “Lil B.” The track also blazes with guitar and keyboard jams.

The EP is considered a live recording as it was all recorded as the band played in the studio – no mixing.

It’s a good measure of any band that can play this well live in the studio as a full band, rather than tracking. OFF ORBIT definitely have a unique sound, with an underlying psychedelic verve that folks who enjoy genre-blending rock should give a listen. They also shared the stage with artists like Weezer and The Avett Brothers.

OFF ORBIT on Facebook

LAST GIANT – “Living In Photographs”

On the heels of LAST GIANT’s acclaimed debut album, Heavy Habitat, and two years on the road, the Portland band has already dropped its sophomore album, Memory Of The World, featuring what they describe as “an inwardly-drawn collection of 11 electrifying tracks.” This is true. There is electricity from start to finish.

With a fusion of deep and nuanced 1970’s rock arena verve and prog rock embellishments on notable tracks like, “Living In Photographs,” the band has demonstrated a tighter, more uniformed rock album.

The band members include vocalist and guitarist RFK Heise, bassist Palmer Cloud, and drummer Matt Wiles. The album was engineered and co-produced by Larry Crane (Tape Op, Elliott Smith), mixed by Paul Malinowski (Shiner, The Life and Times) and mastered by Mike Nolte (Of Montreal).

If you get a chance, also check out tracks like the strutting, shaking Cheap Trick-inspired, “Captain My Captain,” and the Detroit-rock influenced sounds of “Mountain Time.”

Bonus Track (via Soundcloud): “Captain My Captain” – LAST GIANT from Heavy Habitat

https://soundcloud.com/lawndaisy31/01-heart-shaped-rock

Abby K – “Heart-Shaped Rock”

Another Seattle artist, Abby K, who draws influences from her Kentucky roots, but she is not country, not folk nor pop, as she likes to point out. Instead her music is “nostalgic and modern in the same breath,” a sound that she likes to refer to as ‘heart-shaped rock.’ Abby is an avid collector of heart-shaped rocks, which are a rare find.

But most notably is Abby’s wonderful songwriting, vocals and instrumentation on her new release – her sophomore album, Heart-Shaped Rock, features standout songs like the title track, which Abby K explains is a song about a journey and “not merely a new path” while “having the courage to follow it and pursue it.”

“Songwriting for me is about discovering simple everyday stories,” she tells IRC. “I have infinite gratitude for the freedom life affords me to create these stories and for countless family members, friends and fellow musicians, who have carried me along the journey and inspired me to compose beautiful music from simple observation.”

Such characteristics are realized throughout the album, on heart-tugging moments like the title track; the standout, Patsy Cline-inspired “Silhouette Blues”; the lamenting, “You Never Know,” the uptempo bluegrass and folk-inspired “Follow You Anywhere,” and the acoustic, whimsical, “You’re My Moon.” The 12-song album was produced and engineered at Seattle’s Cobra Studios.

Abby K Official Website

Jeff Beadle – “Gone Before Sunrise”

Canadian folk singer/songwriter Jeff Beadle is the every man’s basement recording artist. After a day of working on cleaning pools for the rich, Beadle shifts gears and writes deeply emotive songs with lyrics of love, loss and longing. His newest single, “Gone Before Sunset,” is a perfect expression of this songwriting and instrumental skills.

After a decade of writing and recording as a folk artist, and receiving praise in blogs in Europe, Beadle has reinvented himself, starting up an indie band, and releasing his tracks online, immediately attracting attention from music lovers on YouTube and Soundcloud.

Official Website Jeff Beadle

Matt Hutson – “Pop Music of the Future”

With a love for bands like Big Star and early 1990’s alternative rock and pop, Columbus, Indiana songwriter musician Matt Hutson produces jangly and riff-heavy guitar-drive rock with a flair for production and attention to detail that sounds effortless on songs like the mellow, more folksy track, “Pop Music From The Future,” from his sophomore album, TV Star.

Hutson sound is a diverse mix of rock and power pop influences, featuring mostly guitar driven tracks enhanced with piano, drum machines and electronic effects – merging new and old sounds. Hutson is heavily influenced by 70’s pop rock band Big Star. His music explores deep, personal themes from drug addiction to troubled relationships.

Hutson’s music ranges from dark with driving guitars to sunny harmonies and warm synths. He was also a member of the band The Selects, which released the album, Fast Times at Hammerheads, last year.

Matt Hutson on Facebook

Fresh Tracks – New Indie Rock from The Singing Limbs, ROLLERS, The Pulltops, Candace Leca & Michael Paglia, Vantana Row, Barricades At Night

Posted on 02/24/201712/18/2019 by Max Hammer

The new indie rock releases of 2017, along with plenty of Fresh Tracks, are starting to come in as fast as the rivers are flowing right now in water-logged California. This new edition of Fresh Tracks is a special treat, featuring music from DIY and small label artists and bands based in California, Alabama, and Wisconsin, and from international cities like Melbourne and Toronto.

The Singing Limbs – San Francisco, California
ROLLERS – San Diego, California
The Pulltops – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Candace Leca & Michael Paglia – Toronto, Ontario
Vantana Row – Oakland, California
Miles Recommends – Melbourne, Australia
Barricades At Night – Huntsville, Alabama
Brady Toops – Nashville, Tennessee

Stay

Nobody Else

Destination

Spiritual Aviation Gun

Morning Never Comes

The Singing Limbs – “Stay”

Competition among bands in a city like San Francisco is fierce, but for the past year or so, mixed-genre alternative rock band The Singing Limbs have been staking their claim in the city’s music scene, attracting growing crowds to performances at landmark venues like The Great American Music Hall and Slims.

After a successful past year, the band is set to drop its five-track debut EP, Mint, on March 31st, with the premiere of the first single here on IRC. The song, and opening track, “Stay,” is a catchy, funky, pulse-driven track with a soulful groove and rhythm throughout – where alt. rock and indie meet funk and R&B.

The second half of the track is a total all out jam, where the band’s talented musicians show off their individual, and group, skills in effortless fashion. For those who have been lucky enough to hear the entire EP before its release date, we can say that you’ll want to make sure to pre-order the EP on the band’s Bandcamp page.

The Singing Limbs was founded in 2014 initially as a duo by guitarist and vocalist Cameron Gibbons and percussionist Mike Deluccia. Soon after, the duo expanded into a quartet after recruiting bassist Dominic Columbini and keyboardist Josh Greenberger, thereby finalizing the formation of the band, and realizing the vision of the initial duo.

The EP, Deluccia says, is “inspired by influences from psych to surf, soul to rock.” And Gibbons adds: “Our studio recordings offer nuanced pocket grooves, while live shows burst with energy and ambitious improvisation.” Having heard both, we can definitely agree.

The band members consider among their biggest musical influences include Dr Dog, White Denim, My Morning Jacket, Black Sabbath, Radiohead, Steely Dan and Led Zeppelin.

The Singing Limbs on Facebook

ROLLERS – Somewhere Along The Way

Life-long friends and former band mates, singer/songwriter Erik Mullin and guitarist TJ Royer, better known as ROLLERS, reunited recently to record their long-overdue debut EP, Somewhere Along The Way. The EP is a collection of truly indie rock songs that lean more to pop-heavy Americana songs and blends of reggae, blues, rock and country.

Mullin and Royer grew up together as kids in the suburbs of Long Island, and performed at “every backyard party and dive bar” they could find. After graduating high school, they moved out to San Diego.

Over the ensuing decade, the pair formed the band Grow, which became popular on southern California college campuses. During those seven years, the band landed slots on the famous Vans Warped Tour, and “lived together, played hundreds of shows and toured the country in the back of a cramped van.”

MP3: “Nobody Else” – Rollers from Somewhere Along The Way

Now, years later, their debut EP as ROLLERS demonstrates the value of all of those years of hard work on the road and in the studio, resulting in well-honed, high caliber songwriting, musicianship, and production. The band’s biggest influences include Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Eddie Cochran, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead and Rolling Stones.

As the band says: “the album is not just a random mix of songs; it’s the soundtrack for our unique and indelible journey.” Standout tracks include the infectious, Elvis-Costello-like power pop love song, “Nobody Else,” and the riveting rocker, “Going Nowhere.” The duo have shared the stage with bands like Incubus, Matchbox 20, The Romantics and Louis XIV. Listen to this EP and keep an eye out for ROLLERS.

The Pulltops – Live En Route

Influenced by a range of rockers from modern day Foo Fighters to the 80’s rock queen Joan Jett; from the prog rock of Pink Floyd to the suburban garage rock pop of Cheap Trick, Milwaukee alt. rock band The Pulltops recently released the album Live En Route, featuring a mix of rock and power pop with a punk vein running throughout.

The track, “Along The Way,” is one of notable singles from Live En Route and a bombastic retro theatrical rocker. Another track from the album that is getting play on the web and radio is “Destination” – rockers take note.

Even more notably is the band’s recent release of the single, “Fly Away,” a lo-fi mellow acoustic love song featuring a B-side of a gorgeous cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s hit single, “Scarborough Fair.”

Live En Route and “Fly Away/Scarborough Fair” are releases in honor of celebrating the band’s 15th anniversary since their power pop-focused debut, 8-Track. The band members are Mark Pierret, Tom Crowell, and Steve Kerwin.

The Pulltops on Facebook

Candace Leca & Michael Paglia – “Morning Never Comes”

Based in Whitby, Ontario, indie pop vocalist Candace Leca and multi-instrumentalist Michael Paglia are producers and writers for a popular YouTube channel that has amassed nearly one million views in the past couple of year, with a growing fan base in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

The duo recently released their debut EP, Bridges, and are now presenting the music video for their debut single, “Morning Never Comes,” premiered on Canadian music channel, MUCH, in collaboration with iHeartRadio Canada.

The duo have previously opened for artists like Mike Tompkins, Bryan Lanning, and Andrew Huang, and are most influenced by Coldplay, Lana Del Rey, and Metric.

“Our most popular videos include covers of The Lumineers’ ‘Ho Hey’, A Great Big World’s ‘Say Something’ and a Bob Marley Mashup of 6 Marley song’s in 2.5 minutes,” says Leca.

Candance Leca on Facebook

Vantana Row – 4ourIver

Screaming, screeching, hoarse, and even demonic female – and male, at times – vocals with ‘chiptune trapunk’ hip-hop beats, Nintendo-core flourishes, and glitch-like instrumentation are the mainstays of the music of Oakland husband-and-wife duo Volly Blaze on vocals and Jamey Blaze on drums and production.

The duo are known as Vantana Row and they just released the album, 4ourIver, chock full of their own crazy, experimental and very different trapunk-inspired tracks under one and two minutes long – including memorable tracks (can’t really call them songs) like “Residing At Currently Homeless, California,” “Sweden X,” “Spiritual Aviation Gun,” “If U Can’t Fem Em, Men Em” and “On Wednesdays I Am Going To Make It.” Vantana Row also has an active YouTube channel.

While at first Vantana Row may be disarming, chances are if you have an open mind, are into experimentation of beats, alternative music and other radical sonic arrangements, this albummay just grow on you in weird and lasting ways.

MP3: “Spiritual Aviation Gun” – Vantana Row from 4ourIver

In the Easy Bay Area, the duo, who perform live out of their custom van, support an informal writing collective, which encourages the local community (both online and in-person) to submit “unfinished lyrics, prized poetry, or soon-to-be songs to be made an official Vantana Row tune.”

Miles Recommends – Extended Play

Founded in the streets and music clubs of Bangkok, and now based out of Melbourne, indie band Miles Recommends is comprised of the Australian songwriting and music production duo of multi-instrumentalist Des Atkinson and vocalist Lou Cadell.

The duo’s debut EP, Extended Play, features a wide range of rock, folk, pop, blues, country and jazz influences, with frequent layering of guitars, organ, piano, French horn, strings, drums, and harmonies “as a backdrop to the dissection of social norms,” Atkinson says. “In a life full of contradictions, Miles Recommends likes to ponder some of the bigger questions.”

MP3: “Just Wanted You” – Miles Recommends from Extended Play

The album’s standout single, “Darkness,” features Cadell’s smoking, haunting vocals awash in a cacophony of Atkinson’s grinding organ, twinkling piano, bumping bass, thundering drums and full-throttle guitars.

Atkinson describes it as “a hurricane of desperate and depressive rage.” Then there are counterpointing tracks like the dreamy melodic acoustic guitar hooks and gentle piano keys of “Just Wanted You.”

Barricades At Night – VOIDS

Musicians Ryan Beard and Justin Markland second full-length album, VOIDS, is brewing with song after song of alternative rock the way it’s supposed to be.

The Huntsville, Alabama duo, formed in 2011, have been receiving some solid reviews and plays for singles from the album like the energetic alt. rocker, and lead single, “Polaroid,” and the evocative “I Guess,” among other decidedly alt. rock tracks on the band’s second outing.

BAN dropped their debut EP, Something To Tell, in 2012 and their self-titled, debut album in the spring of 2014. They are most influenced by a blend of modern and alternative rock, including artists like Oceansize, Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro, and Stone Temple Pilots.

The band’s namesake, according to Beard, comes from when Markland was homeless during college, and slept under desks at night on campus. He would set up cardboard barricades around the desk openings – thus ‘barricades at night.’

Brady Toops – Brady Toops

Nashville folk artist Brady Allen Toops has made a name for himself in the area for his evocative, heartfelt music. His debut studio album, Brady Toops, was released by Underspoken Records, and features the new mellow folk single, “Carolina,” featuring Toops’ smokey mid-range voice and backup chorus.

MP3: “Carolina” – Brady Toops from Brady Toops

Previous to that Toops dropped his first single, “Can’t Stop Lovin'” DIY-style in 2010, followed in 2011 by another single, “A Little Love”, both of which received some radio love.

Recent Releases We Almost Missed, Vol. XXIII – Kurt Deemer Band, Rocky Bottom, Kumode, The Occasional Angels, Off World & M. Jean M.

Posted on 01/27/201707/22/2021 by Max Hammer

It’s been a while since we’ve done an installment of the series Recent Releases We Almost Missed. This post appropriately fits in that category because we still have songs and albums from new DIY artists and bands from 2016 to share.

Kurt Deemer Band – Baltimore, Maryland
Rocky Bottom – Nashville, Tennessee
Kumode – Jersey City, New Jersey
The Occasional Angels – Ottawa, Ontario
Off World – Boston, Massachusetts
M. Jean M. – Houston, Texas

Kurt Deemer Band – Gaslight

In October, Baltimore indie pop/rockers the Kurt Deemer Band dropped the enthralling debut album, Gaslight, featuring the unforgettable single, “Fire Escape,” a rich and nearly timeless track that highlights the apt songwriting skills of Deemer himself, a veteran songwriter, vocalist and guitarist with two decades under his belt.

The many years of writing and performing have given Deemer an adept perspective on life and honed his songwriting, which is brought to life with the help of his talented band members, including John Christensen (guitar); Kris Maher (bass); Steve Rose (drums), and Ben Alexandre (keyboards). And while the band’s sound may be a throwback to yesteryear, it manages to feel anchored in the present. Other songs like “Burning Man” and “Heaven Sent” are also standout tracks on the album.

The band has opened for artists like Harper and Midwest Kind, June Star, and Andy Bopp, and are heavily influenced by Tom Petty, The Counting Crows and The Replacements.

MP3: “Fire Escape“ – Kurt Deemer Band from Gaslight

Kurt Deemer Band on Facebook

Rocky Bottom – American Man

Nowadays, the traditional music of the south has been taking on more aspects of styles and sounds from other genres than ever before in the indie and alternative arenas, and include folk, Americana, country, blues, soul and rock.

There are few breeding grounds for these converging arts more active today than the fine ole music city of Nashville. One such increasingly popular singer-songwriter and musician is Alex Hernandez, better known for his stage moniker, Rocky Bottom.

His most recent release, American Man, is an album chock full of the South’s new indie genres mixing, where musicians are more free than ever to mix more than one genre together at a time, resulting in standout patriotic, rhythm-swinging singles like the title track.

MP3: “Junkyad Blues“ – Rocky Bottom from American Man

The lyrics and stories behind his music appeal to the every day folks with themes of love, loss, work and pride running through the core of songs like the melodically folky bluegrass, “Junkyard Blues,” the ballad-rich, “Three Legged Dog,” and the optimistic, uplifting acoustically wonderful, “Two Leaves”.

It may be surprising to some that Hernandez was formerly a punk rocker in two bands (No Glory and Bad Town) in New Jersey before relocating to Nashville in 2013. But listening to the EP closely, the astute music listener can hear the attitude and forward-driving gusto that punk demands.

As far as punk to roots…I was in a band called No Glory (ska/punk) then Bad Town (roots/punk) where I wrote and sang/playedguitar (both almost impossible to find on the internet) I was 17-18 and had just been really opened up to Bob Dylan.

“I was also feeling trapped by the sound punk bands are limited too,” Hernandez says. “That’s when the whole dynamic of how I wrote songs changed. Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited and Johnny Cash’s American Recordings played a big roll in that shift I think.”

Rocky Bottom on Facebook

Kumode – Less Commotion

Lativan freelance filmmaker, Kristaps Locmelis, began writing and recording music “as a way of keeping myself grounded,” he told IRC, as well as a “way of simply channeling musical instincts and ideas.” Back in Latvia, before moving to the U.S. in 2007, Locmelis played guitar in various rock bands, learning a great deal about music along the way.

The Jersey City Latvian-born artist uses the moniker Kumode for his DIY recordings, including his most recent EP, Less Commotion, which wonderfully blends genres including indie pop, electronic and experimental sounds and techniques on terrific songs like the title track. The EP was released on Dec. 28th.

Locmelis’ biggest musical influences include artists like Syrinx, Dungen, Connan Mockasin, and Ty Dolla $ign, among others, and can be heard in different ways throughout the album’s tracks.

MP3: “Less Commotion“ – Kumode from Less Commotion

Kumode on Facebook and Soundcloud

The Occasional Angels – Renascimento

Last summer, an Ottawa-based trio of friends and musicians, who refer to themselves as The Occasional Angels, formed as a trio and immediately began writing and recording their debut album into the autumn of 2016.

After weeks of hard work, the trio, featuring guitarist and song-writer David Hart, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer Scott Paterson and vocalist Cris Ruggiero, emerged with a 10-track album, Renascimento.

Last fall, the band dropped the album on Hart’s indie label, Occasional Angels’ Records. Not long after, the tantalizing lead single, “Heaven in Denim” went to No. 1 on the playlist of London radio station 92.6 FM, and had a strong showing on the parent LA station, The Blitz. The terrifically enjoyable album blends a wide range of musical influences like rock, pop, R&B, folk, country, and funk.

MP3: “Heaven in Denim“ – The Occasional Angels from Renascimento

Off World – Grey Dawn

Right out of the gates, Boston‘s hard rock DIY band Off World slay dragons with fast, blazing guitars, booming bass, thunderous drums and the high octane vocals of front woman Rain on the scorching single, “Save The Humans,” from the band’s six-track apocalyptic debut EP, Grey Dawn.

While the single is not indicative of the rest of the EP – which ranges in genres from space rock and psych rock to arena guitar rock and alternative rock – it is probably the strongest track on the EP with the brute punch of a hurricane-force wind. Two other standout tracks include the dark, “The End is Near” and the desperate urgency of “Drawing Down.”

MP3: “Save the Humans“ – Off World from Grey Dawn

Fans of the Queens of the Stone Age and Muse are the most likely to be Off World followers. However, the band’s music is genre-bending enough that we can also hear its other influences, including The Flaming Lips and Killing Joke. The opening track on the album is an experimental space/psych rock composition that has elements of concept rock.

The other members of the band include drummer David Silver; guitarist Kreg Adams; bassist Darren Lourie; synth and organ player Jeremy Flower, and bass and slide guitar Jon Evans. Since forming in 2016, Off World has opened for bands like Gaskill, Oxblood Forge, Birnam Wood, Arctic Horror, and Sacred Mounds.

Listen to more of Grey Dawn on Bandcamp

Off World on Facebook

M. Jean M. – Meezus

Born in Redondo Beach, California, relocated to Daytona Beach while attending university, and a newly transplanted Houston resident, rap artist M. Jean M.‘s hip-hop tracks – like “La Barrage,” and “State of Union, Part I” – have helped her become increasingly known in the Houston hip-hop/rap scenes.

JMJ is an “underground phenomenon” according to her publicist, and has been writing songs since she was seven years old, and in recent years has learned to write and produce all of her own music DIY-style as exemplified on her latest release, Meezus, which features a collaboration with A&R Records own BGEMINI. The ‘mixtape’ was recorded at 360 Recording Studios in Houston.

M. Jean M. released her debut album Live Through Me in 2014 and re-released it the following year digitally. She wrote and produced all of the tracks on her latest release, herself, which collectively received thousands of plays on Soundcloud and other platforms. Her influences includes Lauryn Hill, Tupac Shakur and Kendrick Lamar.

M. Jean M. on Facebook

5 Indie Folk Rock Albums You’ve Gotta Hear – Roadkill Ghost Choir, Miner, Honey Locust, Born Standing Up, Waterwells

Posted on 01/11/201701/15/2022 by Max Hammer

When indie folk and folk rock gained popularity more than a decade ago, bands like Band of Horses, The Avett Brothers, The Decemberists, The Tallest Man In The World, Bon Iver, Bright Eyes, and many others benefited from that rise in the genre. And while the indie folk scene may have suffered a downturn in recent years, it’s refreshing to know that it’ll always exist, and we’ll always be here to deliver the artists, songs, and albums that we feel need to be heard.

For this particular post, we’re highlighting five predominantly indie folk releases dropped during the past couple to few years that you’ve probably never heard, but that we strongly recommend, especially if you’re a fan of indie DIY, under-the-radar damn good folk music – with rich and subtle infusions of bluegrass, rock, pop and country. These are albums that we did not hear at the time of their original release date, but should be part of the indie folk rock archives – and so here they are.

This post is also meant to bring your attention to the artists and bands themselves, and the songs and releases that first endeared us to them – not their most recent releases. None of these artists have been published on IRC before but they live on in our playlists forever. Enjoy.

In This Installment:

Roadkill Ghost Choir – Jacksonville, Florida
Miner – Los Angeles, California
Honey Locust – Nashville, Tennessee
Born Standing Up – Oxford, Mississippi
Waterwells – Birmingham, Alabama

Roadkill Ghost Choir – Quiet Light

Original release: July 2013

From the Florida swamp lands of gators and cypress trees covered with Spanish moss, comes the absolutely phenomenal ambient folk rock band Roadkill Ghost Choir. In recent years, they have enjoyed the kind of attention a talented DIY band deserves. To truly appreciate RKGC, we strongly recommend listening to the band’s releases from oldest to most recent.

The ball got rolling for RKGC in 2012 when Andy Shepard (vocals, guitar) was invited to perform a gig at a local club. Not wanting to perform solo because he feared it would bore the patrons, Shepard recruited his brothers – Maxx Shepard (drums) and Zach Shepard (bass) to join him on stage.

And that was the planting of the seed that eventually spawned spectacular songs like bluegrass tinged folk rock track, “Beggar’s Guild”; the heartbreakingly beautiful acoustic ballad, “Bird in the Window,” and the less folk-influenced, more rock-driven, “Devout,” from the band’s fantastic 2013 debut EP, Quiet Light . The original three-track EP received over 150,000 plays and more than 1,200 Likes on Soundcloud.

MP3: “Beggar’s Guild” – Roadkill Ghost Choir from Quiet Light EP

Not long after playing live together, the three brothers realized, and based on the response they received from the audience, that they had something special. Wasting no time, the Shepards drafted musicians Kiffy Meyers (pedal steel, banjo, guitar), Joey Davoli (keys, trumpet) and Stephen Garza (lead guitar) to create a fuller, bigger sound.

Bonus MP3: “Bird in the Window” – Roadkill Ghost Choir from Quiet Light

The re-released expanded version of the EP, released later on, includes songs like the jammin’ folk rocker, “Drifter,” and the dreamy, melodic hooks of “Tarot Youth.”

Jumping ahead to more recently, the band’s follow-up debut 2014 album, In Tongues, won huge praise and online love, propelling the band into a new realm of popularity. It’s not hard to believe at all, when we first listened to Quiet Light a few years ago, that RKGC came back the next year with a stellar debut album.

Roadkill Ghost Choir on Facebook

Miner – Into The Morning

Original release: February 2014

Los Angeles husband and wife songwriting duo, Justin and Kate Miner, who release indie folk rock under the likely moniker, Miner, began making some waves in the LA folk revivalist scene in 2012.

Miner’s debut LP, Into The Morning, was released in February of 2014, featuring standout singles like “Carousel” and “Hey Love,” that collectively amassed over 380,000 plays and more than 2,000 Likes on Soundcloud. That’s significant for any band. The band’s intricate vocal harmonies and sing-along melodies have made them a crowd favorite in LA, throughout the west coast and increasingly across the nation.

MP3: “Carousel” – Miner from Into The Morning

In 2015, the duo expanded into a full band, welcoming other family members into the fold, including Jeremy Miner, and his cousin, Amanda Koosed, while long-time friends, Justin Krook and David Schechtman, comprised the rhythm section.

Interestingly enough, Miner was originally a Kickstarter-funded, bedroom-studio project inspired by an extended trip through central and South America during which time the duo wrote and recorded the songs from their debut.

In fact, in 2013 and 2014, Miner shared the stage with indie giants like Lord Huron, Cayucas, Typhoon and White Demin. The band lists their top musical influences as Fleet Foxes, Wilco, Beck, Arcade Fire, and the Tallest Man On Earth.

Miner’s Official Website

Honey Locust – The Great Southern Brood

Original release: February 2014

After making Nashville indie folk band Honey Locust‘s single, “Blue Rooms,” a DIY Song of the Day last year, we were even more impressed the more we listened to their meticulously arranged 2014 debut concept LP, The Great Southern Brood – a reference to 2011’s ‘Brood XIX,’ a cyclical 17-year invasion of cicadas in the southeastern United States.

Honey Locust is the duo of 20-somethings Jacob Davis (vocals, guitar, banjo) and Patrick Howell (piano, violin), who began recording when they were still teenagers.

They spent most of 2013 in isolation, writing and recording the album with friends and “world class string players.” The result is a thoughtful and dense concept album with poignant instrumentation and heartfelt lyrics and vocals.

MP3: “Blue Rooms“ – Honey Locust from The Great Southern Brood

The album, the band contends, is an introverted and ‘earnestly somber’ form of “southern Gothic chamber music” that explores “the boundaries of contemporary folk music while maintaining connection with their traditional roots,” relying heavily on orchestral strings and horns.

The duo’s debut EP, Fear Is A Feeling, received accolades in the Nashville indie scene and led to bookings with accomplished local bands such as Saintseneca, Frontier Ruckus, River City Extension, Josephine Foster, and The Lonely Wild.

Honey Locust’s top musical influences include Andrew Bird, Timber Timbre, The National, Balmorhea, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Califone. We also really liked Davis’ answer to the question ‘what is indie rock’: It’s “music that is what it wants to be, not what anyone else wants it to be.” Nicely put.

Honey Locust on Facebook

Born Standing Up – Born Standing Up

Original release: January 2014

From the time Patton Ford, chief songwriter and multi-instrumentalist for the band, Born Standing Up, heard the likes of Otis Redding and Uncle Dave Macon while in the passenger’s seat of his father’s truck as a youngster growing up in Oxford, Mississippi, he knew he had to “respond to these legends, talk back and share his stories, the same way they had done before him.”

Ford began writing songs at a family friend’s cabin in the spring of 2011. With just a guitar and his voice, he began constructing what would eventually become the songs for Born Standing Up’s eponymous debut.

MP3: “No. 9“ – Born Standing Up from Born Standing Up

After drummer Logan Little suggested his vocally-trained girlfriend, Allison Quick, sing along with Ford on the songs, the three joined forces and performed their first show in Oxford early in 2012.

Because of the grand reception they received, the trio realized they needed a bass player and a second guitarist, and ended up recruiting musician Knowlton Bourne into the band. Soon after, the band dropped their indie folk mixed with alternative country infused debut, featuring remarkable songs like “No. 9” and “Cane Break.”

“Indie rock is anyone with a guitar, laptop, microphone or a melody stuck in their head,” Bourne wrote in response to a question ‘what is indie rock?’ He continued: “It is anyone who can’t go a day without tapping their foot to the sound of music or humming a few words under their breath. Indie music is the future of music. It is something that does not reside in arenas or stadiums…[it] is humble, raw and real.”

Not surprisingly, the band’s musical inspirations include artists such as The Lumineers, Old Crow Medicine Show, Shovels & Rope, The Decemberists, Todd Snyder, Townes Van Zandt, and Steve Earle.

Born Standing Up on Facebook

Waterwells – Waterwells

Original release: March 2015

And lastly, we are happy to present the unsigned alternative folk rock trio Waterwells from Birmingham, Alabama, who dropped a terrific self-titled debut EP in March of 2015 that we’ve spun a number of times in the cafe.

Early in 2014, after a year and a half of performing and recording together under the founder and singer/songwriter’s name, Chris K. Davidson, the trio of Davidson, Jeremy Allinder on bass, and Josh Argo on guitar, morphed into Waterwells.

The guys got to work instantly – writing, recording, mixing and mastering songs DIY-style at Les Nuby‘s (Verbena, Vulture Whale) Homewood, Alabama recording studio. For the final recording, the band needed a drummer – that’s when they found Jacob Freeman.

“By My Side“ – Waterwells from Waterwells

Waterwells delivers an authentic, rich, mellow folk rock sound drenched in reverb and acoustics, communicating “tales of failure, hope, and reconciliation,” Davidson writes, adding that Waterwells is “determined to make its mark on the ever-changing sonic landscape.”

After listening to songs like “Morning Light” and “By My Side” many times, Waterwells debut EP is certainly on our list of DIY indie folk releases worth a listen. Fans of Wilco, Conor Oberst and Deer Tick are the most likely to be receptive to Waterwells.

The band has opened for artists like Joel Madison Blount, Early Americans, Oh Jeremiah, The Heavy Hearts, and Tangible Green. Among their musical influences are John Mark McMillan, Ryan Adams, Nada Surf, and Judah & The Lion.

Waterwells on Facebook

Fresh Indie Rock Tracks, December 2016, Vol. II – The Sleeping Tongues, Rio Wiley, The Grenaways, Satellite Citi, Telamor, Jay Elle

Posted on 12/23/201607/22/2021 by Max Hammer

Well, another year is winding down. Here is the second installment of Fresh Tracks for this month – featuring indie folk from England; 80s pop rock sounds from Brooklyn; modern, emotive date rock from Phoenix; lashing alt. rock from LA; more 80s’-tinged rock radio from Massachusetts and much more.

The Sleeping Tongues – Brooklyn, New York
The Grenaways – Cornwall, England
Rio Wiley – Phoenix, Arizona
Satellite Citi – Los Angeles, California
Telamor – Gloucester, Massachusetts
Jay Elle – New York, New York

Nobody Really Cares if You Don't Go to the Party (Courtney Barnett)

Bucketsful

The Sleeping Tongues – The Sleeping Tongues

New York City area band The Sleeping Tongues is comprised of members from completely different backgrounds and locales, including a Queens born and raised Asian drummer and Jui Jitsu expert; a Miami Jewish bassist with cyber security chops, and a Scandinavian born pilot and vocalist/guitarist from Minnesota.

Two other members were born and raised are from Bronx and Brooklyn; so NYC is well represented. This diverse mix of musicians contributes to the band’s eclectic style; earlier this year they dropped their self-titled debut album.

The newest single from the album, “Bullet Train,” is a romping, strutting dance-invoking pop track with a bit of a old skool melodic pop structure reminiscent of 80s bands like Adam and The Ants and The Stray Cats.

We also featured TST this past summer for the terrific track, “Lyra.” The band has already started working on a new album for release next year.

The Sleeping Tongues on Soundcloud

Rio Wiley – Young Ghost

Based out of the desert southwest capital city of Phoenix, Arizona indie band Rio Wiley (not to be confused with the popular, now defunct, band Kilo Riley) is a new solo indie pop project of songwriter and vocalist Rio Wiley Stinger.

It may be a brilliant moniker, or perhaps confusing for other indie lovers who were already Kilo Riley fans.

Either way, it is the music that ultimately decides a solo artist’s fate. Stinger’s Rio Wiley’s solo EP, Young Ghost, is his first foray of releasing music not performed with his long-time band, I Remember Burning, which was founded in 2012 and have made some waves in the local music scene.

His newest guitar-ringing track, “The Love We Used To Share,” leans more towards the mainstream rock/pop sound than indie, but Stinger really shows promise on this track. It’s almost an irresistible track. Here’s the video.

Stinger’s solo work is heavily influences from various genres of music, but mostly from radio pop rock, as well an occasional acoustic-leaning track, such as “Tired & Done,” featuring Anthony Perre III of DAISY.

Following the tracks release, he began to attract a new fan base. From there, Stinger spent half of a year writing and recording the songs for Young Ghost, “a concept album about losing all sense of your identity, following the loss of someone you love,” Stinger says.

After nearly selling out Crescent Ballroom, alongside other local Arizona artists, Rio Wiley performed a third show/CD Release Party to a sold out crowd last October 29th at the Pub Rock in Scottsdale.

Soundcloud – Stream Young Ghost on Soundcloud

The Grenaways – Skath Vyghan

Hailing from the southwestern most coast of England in the ceremonial and ancient land of Cornwall, where the Celtic Sea meets the English Channel, the members of the Celtic-influenced indie folk band The Grenaways have just dropped a touching and inspiring EP, Skath Vyghan.

One of the tracks on this profound release, “Rowan,” was written and produced, according to lead male vocalist and guitarist Kris Lannen, “in memory of a young guy called, Rowan Draper, who was killed in a car crash while we were on tour last November. The last time he was seen by his mother was dancing at our gig in Norwich.” Draper was also the cousin of the band’s lead female vocalist, keyboardist and flutist, Laura Garcia.

The song is emotive and melancholy, but as it progresses, the mood changes, subsequently breaking out into a joyous and optimistic song. At times, Garcia’s voice sounds a lot like Dolores O’Riordan‘s of The Cranberries voice.

The folksy, organic track “Old Mast” is “a story an old ship mast that overlooks the sea from a hill above Port Isaac,” featuring musician Joe Lee on an old beat up double bass and Garcia using the church’s mini-grand piano.

“The drums and guitars were recorded in a barn and at the St Peter’s Church in Port Isaac working on the keys, vocals and trumpet,” she says.

Band members also include drummer Henry Cavender; lead guitarist Joff Phipps; violinist Isabelle Roberts (originally from Switzerland) and trumpet player Claude Lamon (originally from South Africa).

The backing vocals on the song “Fisherman” – a song about the struggling fishing industry – were recorded at a packed pub called Cornish Arms located in Pendoggett. The title track, “Skath Vyghan,” (“Little Boat”) and the song “Cornish Girl,” were recorded in the Cornish language.

“It’s been really significant for us as a band, even though none of us are actually Cornish, to explore writing in this beautiful Celtic language and although the arrangements are contemporary, they feel grounded in the ancient.”The band’s song, “Ghost,” is about a butterfly – the Tykki-Duw of Cornish, has received play on Balcony TV.

As a band, they see part of their mission to be one of “adding a sense of their own ties to the region and especially it’s Celtic heritage,” according to The Grenaways website bio. “But, they are a band set for far wider horizons than just Cornwall with a massive and alternative sound billowing through their musical sails.”

Soundcloud: Listen to more music from The Grenaways

The Grenaways on Facebook

Satellite Citi – “Rootless”

In the band-saturated city of Los Angeles, it takes a lot for a band to stand out. But that’s exactly what the alt. rock duo Satellite Citi is aiming to do.

Featuring lead vocalist and drummer Anna Gevorkian and guitarist and backup vocalist Shaunt Sulahian, the duo craft intricate compositions that mix genres – including hard rock, world music, indie and acoustic rock – “to create a truly unique and dynamic atmosphere of sound,” Gervorkian says.

Satellite Citi’s newest single, “Rootless,” does exactly that. The song, she says, is about “being pulled from your roots and feeling stuck.”

“Musically, we had a big vocal melody idea to use for the chorus, giving the song it’s big presence.”

The video includes shoots in and around the Hollywood Hills with the ocean in the backdrop and cool fly overs with a drone. One of the duo’s videos “Rock Bottom” was featured in the Pomegranate Film Festival. Satellite Citi are influenced by artists such as Muse, The XX, Glen Hansard, A Perfect Circle, Massive Attack and Tool.

Satellite Citi on Soundcloud

Telamor – Good Bad Love

The man behind the Telamor moniker – musician Tom Hauck – has appeared on IRC before with his springy, bright guitar and percussion-driven pop rock songs.

The prolific Boston area (Gloucester, the famous seaport town, to be exact) songwriter has just released his fifth album, Good Bad Love, featuring another batch of mixed 80’s genres like pop, new wave, alt. rock, indie rock, punk elements and even jerking rhythms (“Back and Forth”) influenced by bands like The Talking Heads.

Nobody Really Cares if You Don't Go to the Party (Courtney Barnett)

The most likely accessible track on the album may just be a cover of Courtney Barnett’s irresistible “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to The Party.” All the elements of the song come together, and Hauck really captures the 1980’s. It’s interesting, I always felt the track has an incredible likeness to “What I Like About You” by The Romantics.

An astute music enthusiast will probably also pick up hints of The Kinks and The Knack as other clear influences. At times, some songs (“Human Performance” and “That Ain’t For Me”) have the over-the-top theatrical type of rock pop art of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. At other times, as with the title track and “Nothing But Hope,” Hauck’s one-man band skills come shining through.

Listen: Telamor’s Good Bad Love

Jay Elle – Rising Tide

During this past summer, New York City singer, songwriter and guitarist Jay Elle made a bit of a buzz on college radio and on Soundcloud with the emotive folk rock song, “Twelve On Sunday,” amassing more than one million plays on Soundcloud alone. That is no small feat in the days of social media and music saturation.

Elle’s new album, Rising Tide, dropped earlier this month, straddling the musical spectrum of acoustic mellow tracks like the title track, the haunting “Twelve On Sunday,” and elements of pop, rock, blues and urban folk.

Rising Tide is rich with track after track of Elle’s soothing and passionate vocals, heartfelt lyrics, mixed genre instrumentation and unique guitar arrangements.

Jay Elle’s official website

Best New DIY & Indie Rock Music of 2016, Vol. III – Maps of Suburbia, Cheops’ Cave, Empire of Gold, The Modern Savage, La Historia

Posted on 09/14/201607/22/2021 by Max Hammer

This is the third installment of Best New Indie and DIY Rock music of 2016, with installment IV already in the works. This time around, we have an incredibly talented, emotive band from New York City; a rising new indie rock DIY band from Sweden; more from LA alt. rocker Michael Dole; sultry alt. rock from Alaska, and an exciting coming up indie folk rock band from Illinois (or as Sufjan Stevens so popularized with the song, “Illinoise”). (The bands are not featured in any particular order.)

Also in the works – 5 Bands You’ve Gotta Hear; Best Indie and DIY Debuts of 2016, and many other posts.

In This Installment:

Maps of Suburbia – New York, New York
Cheops’ Cave – Hässleholm, Sweden
Empire of Gold – Los Angeles, California
The Modern Savage – Anchorage, Alaska
La Historia – Rockford, Illinois

Maps of Suburbia – Maps of Suburbia

New York City musician and songwriter Nicholas Perlman joined up with some friends in 2015 to form a new DIY indie band called Maps of Suburbia.

Perlman knew that he wanted to write and record songs with a diverse and distinct sound that vacillates between genres from alt. country and surf rock to folk and pop. Perlman, the lead vocalist and guitarist, is backed by Andy Porta on drums, guitar, and mixing-board sorcery, Seth Nicholson on bass, and Danny Flinn on bodhrán, with everyone lending their vocal talents.

The band dropped its self-titled, debut EP on June 30, featuring songs like the beautiful, “Highway One,” with its emotive, heartfelt vocals, heavily melodic acoustic and electric guitar parts, gentle drum and crashing cymbals.

Other tracks like the sombre song, “You Always Knew,” the boozy, Conor Oberst-like, “Friends, Lovers, Etc.,” the soft, yet somehow edgy, acoustic guitar (interesting tuning and nylon strings) number “Every Ghost” are all evidence that this new EP, and band, belong on the radars of indie folk-rock enthusiasts.

The other members of MoS include Andy Porta (drums, guitar, mixing); Seth Nicholson (bass) and Danny Flinn on bodhran.

Via Soundcloud: “Friends, Lovers, Etc.” – Maps of Suburbia from Maps of Surburbia

Maps of Suburbia on Bandcamp

Cheops’ Cave – Old Not Gold

In 2013, five high school students from Hässleholm, Sweden, with similar tastes in artists like Foals, The Stone Roses and Makthaverskan, among others, began jamming together in their parents’ garages. They called themselves Cheops’ Cave.

Two years later, they were winning praise from the press, gaining followers, and, within less than a year, the members of Cheops’ Cave were traveling around Sweden performing at venues large and small.

Earlier this year, the band released their debut album, Old Not Gold, featuring a number of standout singles, like rocking lead-off track, “Get It Right,” with the type of energy, wit and raw talent of bands like Arctic Monkeys, which band bassist Erik Lundow, acknowledges is a huge influence on the band’s sound.

Listen to more from Cheops’ Cave via the band’s Soundcloud page. The band has just completed a new video for another standout track from the album, the irresistibly catchy single, “Grey End.” It’s probably the most memorable song on the album, and just sounds like a hit. We will be featuring the video itself soon.

“The song itself is about escaping your regular day life and finding your ‘grey end,'” Lundow says. “The term, ‘grey end’ is supposed to symbolize a distant place where everyone is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want. It is also a state of mind that can help you reach out from your boring day to day life and make you desire something more out of it – something not really safe and structured.”

The band members, in addition to Ludlow, are August Rauer (vocals); August Olsson (guitarist); Sebastian Wihlborg (guitarist) and Marcus Brixne (drummer).

Cheops’ Cave on Instagram

Cheops’ Cave on Facebook

*Note: Will be featuring more Best Indie Debuts of 2016 later this week.

The Modern Savages – Unfazed

Perhaps one of the quietest great DIY EPs of 2016 so far has been Alaskan band The Modern Savages’ riveting alt. rock Unfazed. It’s risky, energetic, deep and overall one of the best DIY alt. rock EPs of 2016. We can only wonder what the response would be if the band was hitting the clubs in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco or LA for a year – very likely, they’d become a hot new band on the scene. And as this fourth release proves, they are not only talented, but they are very tight, musically and otherwise, as a band, and they’ve got their sound down.

The exceptional guitar playing on the EP from John Cripps and Matt Eley is one of the hallmarks of the band’s success – Cripps’ and Eley’s alt. and indie rock, with post-punk influences, playing styles are many things – hard, raw, complex, crunchy, haunting, and other times, shimmering, floating, ascending as they do so beautifully on the title track, featuring frontwoman Jenni May’s gorgeous vocal abilities, and the perfect timing of bassist Ivan Molesky and drummer David Devlin. The more you listen to the EP, the more you realize just how hard these musicians have worked to create a solid band, and how serious they are about making rock and roll that stands out.

Other tracks like the irresistibly captivating, funky and sultry, “More,” show again how adept the entire band is as a unit – May’s vocals are once again at another range, and once again electrifying. Unfazed is an EP that pays homage – the Alaskan way! – to the bedrock of the alternative/garage rock (“Animal Sounds”) movement, while also having the imagination, creativity and flexibility to create songs that are funky slow rockers (“Comet” sounds a bit like Gwen Stefani); ska-pop elements (“Go”); straight up indie pop, complete with catchy choruses (“Surrender”) and driving guitar post-punk and 80’s-influenced synth and blazing guitar rock (the seductive, “Rage City” and “June Bride”); other times, heavily melodic pop rock with layers and multiples of guitar and synth chord changes running throughout the album.

Unfazed is a perfect listen for indie rock purists who are loyal to truly talented alternative and indie rock artists and bands who are simply damn good, especially at a time when ‘indie rock’ itself has become more mainstream.

Someone needs to get these guys to come to the mainland and totally go for it. Naturally, things are picking up for the band, including landing praised performance slots at regional and state music festivals. Now it’s time to throttle forward to the mainland. The band is currently recording their fourth album.

Via Soundcloud: “More” – The Modern Savage from Unfazed

The Modern Savage on Facebook

Empire of Gold – Jack & Cocaine

A little over a month ago we featured the new music video for Empire of Gold’s single, “Intoxicated” from the recently released album, Crass. He’s just released the second single from the album, “Jack & Cocaine.”

Chicago musician Michael Jack Dole is the entire band and production team; otherwise known as the proverbial one-man band – behind Empire of Gold. He is also a huge fan of grunge and alternative rock.

Dole is also a man who doesn’t give a shit whether people like his music or not. As he contends, he’s a DIY musician who works a blue collar job by day. He refuses to change anything or to bow to anyone. His lo-fi, distorted punk-inspired garage rock sound is not something he does to satisfy the industry’s predetermined, cutter-cookie, over produced format that record execs and radio program directors want to proliferate.

“I will gladly wither away for the rest of my life in the warehouses I work instead of seeing my music be over-produced,” he says defiantly, without self-righteous indignation.

He gets a bit testy when it comes to this particular topic. Dole is not a fan of the endless refinements that go into modern popular music, where the line between human and tech/computer talent and skill sets is very blurry indeed these days.

“Fuck that cookie-cutter, overly produced and refined crap on the radio pumped with computerized samples of other peoples’ music, programmed beats, auto-tune and fake instruments.”

“When people listen to this album,” he says forcefully, “ I’d rather they hear the passion, rage and hard work of ONE man’s efforts, instead of critiquing or caring about the overall production value because it’s supposed to be raw and unrefined.”

As a tenaciously fierce DIY warrior and bedroom artist, Dole does not have and does not want access to a studio or a producer. Instead, he is self-trained on guitar, bass and a Mac mini with Logic Pro, a pre-amp, and some plugins.

“I don’t care about having a band,” he says. “Right now what matters to me is to keep improving my sound and production skills while retaining the edgy, unrefined sound I love so much.”

For the new album, Crass (named for “the sound I adore”), Dole is resolute in his stance of remaining true to his work, avoiding, at all costs, any noticeable sense of fine-tuning.

Songs like the standout, Nirvana-inspired, “Intoxicated,” and the tragic, blazing guitar and bass of, “Jack & Cocaine,” his newest single, as well as the sluggish, edgy, “No Sleep,” the 90’s alt-driven “Beautiful Mistake,” and the punk/garage rocker jam, “Dumb,” among others. The album, in total, has a blazing, buzzing, raw and angry sound.

“I like when people call my lyrics and my sound brash and crass,” he says, “hence the album name. I love my guitars *loud* like sludge metal, which is the biggest reason for the drums and bass being lower. I have always been driven by guitars more than anything. When I was a kid, I didn’t listen to lyrics, drums or bass. I was all about the vocal melody and riffs. I faded out the rest.”

His cover of Nirvana’s “Sappy,” he says, is a track he is ‘very proud’ of, adding, “I made it unique and it would be so humbling if, even in a small way, some Nirvana fans felt it was a good homage to the band, since I realize that it is a really high bar, and not one that many musicians aim for in fear of being ridiculed.“

Last summer, in June of 2015, Empire of Gold’s debut EP, Raw, was released. Crass is his new debut LP album.

Empire of Gold on Facebook

La Historia – Low Mimetic

The member of La Historia, an indie rock band from Rockford, Illinois, are (formerly of bands like Gods Reflex and The Braves), dropped their debut LP, Low Minetic, earlier this year, featuring standout tracks like the heavily melodic, “Please Do” and the more upbeat, poignant track, “Fall Right Through,” among others.

The album was produced by Mike Hagler (Wilco, Mekons, Neko Case) in Chicago at Kingsize Soundlabs. Band members are Kevin Schwitters (guitar, vocals); Jesse Carmona (drums, vocals); Phil Goudreau (guitar) and Luke Kramer (bass, vocals).

La Historia has toured the midwest opening for bands like Textbook, Joie de Vivre, Warren Franklin FFs, The Bollweevils, Les Jupes, with musical influences ranging from Jawbox and Superchunk, to the Replacements, and Bloom.

Via Soundcloud: “Please Do” – La Historia fom Low Minetic

La Historia on Facebook

Revered Irish Singer/Songwriter Ultan Conlon Drops New Album, ‘Songs Of Love So Cruel’

Posted on 07/27/201612/18/2019 by Max Hammer

Galway singer/songwriter Ultan Conlon arrived in America earlier this summer from his native Ireland to share a collection of new songs – from his latest album, Songs Of Love So Cruel – that bridges the gap between the traditions of Celtic music from the homeland and the tendencies of the younger generation to explore new sounds while respecting the old. Conlon strikes that balance well on Songs Of Love So Cruel, which will officially drop on Friday.

Conlon’s eclectic compositions are well admired on the Emerald Isle; his lyrics celebrate, and appeal to, the human spirit; his voice likened by some critics as an “Irish version of Roy Orbison,” and his songwriting skills are admired by fellow musicians, music lovers and critics.

His international reach continues to expand in recent years. He performed his first U.S. show at Largo at the Coronet as part of an In The Round event hosted by Inara George with Elani Mandell, Mike Viola and Mike Andrews. Having just returned from a string of shows in Texas, he is also scheduled to perform in New York City next month.

Conlon’s new single, the uptempo, breezy track, “Lonely Avenues,” with its country-western tinge and open road allure, features his register-shifting – with hints of crooning – vocals; soaring slide guitar; fierce acoustic guitar playing, shakers, and light drums. It may remind some indie fans of Conor Oberst or M. Ward.

The album was co-produced and mixed by acclaimed engineer Colin Elliot (Richard Hawley). Conlon and his band recently performed the entire to a full house at the Viper Room in Hollywood.

Songs Of Love So Cruel is an impressive collection of mature, painful and wonderfully crafted songs, with a depth and warmth that is a gift rather than contrived, and along with his amazing voice, Conlon’s album will naturally appeal to an international audience, older and younger, across genres because his music is ultimately universal.

Ultan’s back catalogue – two EPs and two full studio albums to date – has received extensive international radio airplay. Plus, in 2014, five of Ultan’s songs, along with a score he co-composed with guitarist Eoin McCann, were included on the soundtrack for the award-winning movie, Songs For Amy, which was screened at the Boston Film Festival as well as The Newport Film Festival, where it took home the Just Award.

His music has been featured on Irish national radio, including RTE, Today FM and Newstalk as well as receiving extensive airplay in the UK on BBC Radio 2. Conlon has shared the stage with artist such as John Grant, Eddi Reader, Patty Griffin and Richard Hawley, and performed duets with Glen Hansard and John Martyn.

Ultan Conlon – Official Website

Video Premiere: Empire of Gold’s Raw and Artsy ‘Intoxicated’

Posted on 07/14/201612/18/2019 by Max Hammer

San Diego underground grunge rock musician and one-man band, Michael J. Dole, who released his blistering Nirvana-influenced debut album, Crass, under the moniker of Empire of Gold, a couple of weeks ago, premieres the gritty, super charged, “Intoxicated,” via EoG’s splashy, surreal and artsy new music video.

The song is a balls-to-the-wall nod to Dole’s favorite band, Nirvana, spliced together with a fast-moving, colorful and interesting collage of mostly public domain images and videos.

The musical journey for Dole began in Chicago at the age of 14 when he received a guitar for Christmas. In time, Dole found himself leaning towards 90’s alternative rock and metal.

“My interest in music when I was a kid was all the metal music coming out in the late 90’s,” Dole says. “The ones I took a keen interest to was Slipknot, Mudvayne, Coal Chamber, Korn, and so on.”

But there was a catch. He also loved Green Day, and credits the band with encouraging him to explore other genres. After graduating from high school in 2005, Dole decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue film, attending the respected The Art Institute.

However, the cross-continent move to the Pacific Coast left a big gap in his life. He was homesick for his native Chicago and feel into a depression. And like many artists, a fall into darkness can be the very fuel to inspire them to crawl out by channelling the sadness, fear and isolation into poignant and meaningful art. Which is exactly what Dole did.

It would still be years later – in fact, nearly a decade after graduating high school – in 2013 when Dole finally decided to take the demos he’d worked on for years and start recording them. He released his first EP, Raw, last summer.

Oddly, Dole had never listened to Nirvana’s ground-breaking album, Nevermind – one of the biggest selling albums of all time – until two decades following its official release in 1993. That changed everything for Dole, and he kicked off Empire of Gold.

“That album changed my whole style, transforming me from an acoustic singer/songwriter to a ‘grunge head.’ It was like an epiphany. I realized my purpose.”

Empire of Gold on Facebook
Empire of Gold on Soundcloud

Digging The Archives, 2009 – Durham’s Bombadil and Chicago’s Shadows On A River

Posted on 07/12/201602/13/2020 by Max Hammer

Digging The Archives – Sounds of [YEAR] is a new series in which we’ll dig back into our published and unpublished posts to highlight songs and artists that broke through from 2007 to 2015.

Original file date: June 2, 2009

Durham, North Carolina indie folk pop band Bombadil first hit our radar last year with their stunning full-length debut A Buzz, A Buzz – making it one of our favorite indie albums of 2008.

Bombadil’s latest release, Tarpits and Canyonlands, is an impressive follow-up, full of lo-fi piano, violin, clanking sticks, acoustic guitars, choruses and shatters, as on the lead single, “Honeymoon.”

The organically recorded and released, “Kuala Lumpur,” is a hand-clapping, acoustic guitar, chorus-driven celebratory song about Malaysia and its famous capital, with very much a Polynesian feel.

Formed March 2005 when guitarist Bryan Rahija and bassist Daniel Michalak were studying abroad in Bolivia. Drummer James Phillips joined Bombadil in 2007. The band described their latest album as “a joyful document that celebrates all the flaws and sorrows of the human condition while capturing the whimsy, spirit, and charm that has enabled the band to win over fan after fan on a relentless four-year tour.”

Bombadil has open for bands like The Avett Brothers and Langhorne Slim and performed at Bonnaroo in addition to being featured in Paste Magazine, The Washington Post and New York Magazine.

More About Bombadil

Biggest musical influences: Velvet Underground, Manu Chao, The Kinks, Elliott Smith and Ben Folds.

Favorite albums: Led Zeppelin – III; James Brown – Live at the Apollo; Architecture in Helsinki – In Case We Die

Favorite songs ever: “Bring it On Home to Me” – Sam Cooke

Official website: www.bombadilmusic.com

Chicago indie band Shadows On A River originally played together as college students at Milkin University in Decatur as The Infinity Room, and once opened for Pedro The Lion.

Following graduation, the band split up but recently regrouped to record their new debut self-titled album featuring strange and earnest art rock.

Lead singer/songwriter and guitarist David Henson lists “self doubt” as his main musical influence and compares the band’s sound to Elliott Smith, Radiohead and Mt Eerie.

Henson’s favorite song is “Unravel” by Bjork and his favorite albums are The Glow Part 2 by the Microphones and Kid A by Radiohead.

Via Bandcamp: “Hurricanes” – Shadows On A River from s/t debut (2009)

Fresh Tracks Mix – Mock Sun, Red Kitchen, Beach Gossip, Navigation Day, Night Talks

Posted on 05/16/201607/22/2021 by Max Hammer

The latest edition of Fresh Tracks features lo-fi psych pop from Pennsylvania to pop rock from Seattle; alt. rock in Los Angeles to cinematic alt. folk from Minneapolis. There are some really amazing tracks here from artists and bands worth checking out. You can stream the playlist below or download MP3s.

If you’d like to submit your music for review, and you think it will fit our, and IRC’s worldwide audience of listeners’, tastes, submit your music here.

Mock Sun – Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Red Kitchen – Seattle, Washington
Beach Gossip – Los Angeles, California
Navigation Day – Leeds, England
Magi – Indianapolis, Indiana
Day Hustle – Boston-via-Brooklyn
Ryan Lee – St. Paul, Minnesota
Night Talks – Los Angeles, California
Lionel Lodge – Vienna, Austria
Marah in the Mainsail – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Jack Of None – Manila-via-Chicago
Alice Sweat Alice – Kansas City, Missouri

Soup Spoon

Drummond Heights

Town

Mercy (Prod.By Da Saintz)

Green

All She Wants

The Traveling Man

There Was a Crooked Man

If you’re a musician or a member in a band with a new release and would like the chance to be featured on IRC, one of the longest-running and most respected blogs for exposing and launching talented DIY artists and bands, check out our submission page for the deets.

Mock Sun – “Soup Spoon”

From the old mining district of northeastern Pennsylvania comes Mock Sun, a lucid, ever-evolving, psychedelic lo-fi pop duo “born out of desperation” when two young Wilkes-Barre musicians, Mark Wohl and Jami Kali, “became dangerously dissatisfied with the hum drum dumb-dumb routine of the small coal-mining town from which they sprouted.”

The result was the impressive debut album, Hungry Mother, that dropped in 2013, followed by two EPs and two live albums. In 2014, the duo morphed into a quartet with the addition of Mark Dimirco and DJ Tasselmyer.

The band just dropped the new single, “Soup Spoon,” a dreamy, surreal psych jam that we have enjoyed since we first got ears on it. We are looking forward to the album release of Post-Hypnotic this summer – no official date set as of yet.

MP3: “Soup Spoon” – Mock Sun from Post-Hypnotic

Mock Sun on Facebook

Red Kitchen – “Drummond Heights”

The pop rock of Seattle band Red Kitchen reminds us a lot of The Kinks (circa 1966-1971) when Ray Davies‘ prolific, and genius, songwriting spree produced some of the most beloved and well-known songs in British rock, including “Waterloo Sunset,” “Tired of Waiting,” “Dedicated Follower of Fashion,” “This Time Tomorrow,” and, of course, “Lola.” But Red Kitchen is definitely not The Kinks at the same time – just influenced, directly or indirectly, by the band.

Pacific Northwest musician Matt McClure is the one man band behind Red Kitchen, playing, recording and mixing all of the instruments himself. In 2008, McClure wrote and released the album, The Second Person, an audio novel of sorts that follows the life of an elderly man who lost his wife and ends up in a nursing home suffering from dementia. It’s an interesting listen, that’s for sure, and shows McClure’s ability for creative songwriting and instrumentation, vocals and mixing. The album’s lyrics have an accompanying unpublished novel.

The album features guest spots on vocals by the Swedish front man for The Open Up and Bleeds, Joel Segerstedt, as well as bass and production work by Canadian producer Jonathan Piche. The song “The Flag Makers” was featured on a Silver Jews-related compilation.

The track is really zany, upbeat, melodic and fun. So much so we have played it a number of times. Other standout tracks from his first album include the catchy, hook-filled “Right Subject, Wrong Day,” and the mysterious lo-fi of “Fake Estates,”.

MP3: “Drummond Heights” – Red Kitchen

Bonus: “The Flag Makers” – Red Kitchen from The Second Person

Red Kitchen on Facebook

Beach Gossip – “Stupid Surf Song”

Beach Gossip is a Los Angeles duo founded by songwriter, vocalist, producer and guitarist Nick Coffey earlier this year.

The energetic and angst-filled mix of punk, garage and surf rock on Beach Gossip’s debut single, “Stupid Surf Song,” rings out as a calling to all skateboarders, surfers and other dare devils who like their music fast, hard and raw.

But the song also weaves in elements of pop and has a wicked hook and chorus. It is meant to be lo-fi, rough and a summer anthem for DIY-loving punks.

In fact, “Stupid Surf Song” is almost custom made for any number of skateboard and other thrill sports videos that are fast, daring and dangerous. In fact, there are plans in the works for just such a video.

As a skateboarder and enthusiast growing up on the legendary streets and pool pits made famous in the 1970’s and 80’s by LA’s Z Boys and Bones Brigade, Coffey earned his skateboard creds. In his teens, he broke his neck in a car accident.

The single is the lead advance track from Beach Gossip’s upcoming June release. Coffey recruited drummer Brendan McQueeney in March of 2016. The duo are rehearsing in order to play live shows in the Los Angeles region.

MP3: “Stupid Surf Song” – Beach Gossip

Beach Gossip on Facebook

Navigation Day – “Town”

Leeds indie-rock duo Navigation Day‘s new track, “Town,” is the lead single from the upcoming release of the duo’s debut EP, entitled Mid-Decade Blue, on May 27th. The EP marks the first collaborative venture from songwriters Spencer Bayles and guitarist Tim Hann, despite having contributed to each other’s musical projects over the past few years.

Bayles based the song “Town” on “lyrical snapshots about the constantly changing face of the modern city and how we find our own place within it.” The video for the single captures the scenes of the duo’s adopted town of Leeds. Songs like the title track, “Mid-Decade Blue” and “Formed Into Armour” delve into questions of identity and belonging, asking ‘what you’ve achieved at this middle point of a decade that’s proved turbulent in so many ways?’

Hann previously fronted the alt. rock quartet I Concur, whose debut album, Able Archer, was championed by Radio One’s Huw Stephens, leading to a Maida Vale session and appearances at the Reading and Leeds Festivals. Bayles formerly fronted indie folk bands Last Night’s TV and Low Moor Rising.

MP3: “Town” – Navigation Day from Mid-Decade Blue

Bonus MP3: “Formed Into Armour” – Navigation Day from Mid-Decade Blue

Navigation Day on Facebook

Magi – “Mercy”

Indianapolis musician Magi, aka Terence Smith, has been recording since he was 13 years old and is most influenced by Lupe Fiasco, Flying Lotus and Flo Rida. Magi’s new upbeat single, “Mercy,” is a feel good pop/rap track for spring produced by Da Saintz, and mixed and mastered at Azmyth studios.

MP3: “Mercy” – Magi

Listen to more Magi on Soundcloud

Day Hustle – “Dreams”

The origins of Day Hustle date back to 2012 when musicians Steven Weston and Lisa Hickox met in Boston. After performing throughout New England with the band Rich People Food, the two parted ways. Hickox moved from Brooklyn after receiving a music production degree from Berklee College of Music, while New Hampshire native Weston, stayed in Boston.

After a year apart, the pair reconnected over their love of good old fashioned indie rock and began writing the songs for the EP, sending ideas over the internet, and eventually coming up with a catalog of music. “We united west coast twang with east coast grit, both musically and aesthetically,” Hickox says. Soon after, they began recording in a Brooklyn basement, she says. “It was in this basement, riddled with graffiti, that we made out the words ‘Day’ and ‘Hustle’ in the cluster of illegible tags.”

MP3: “Dreams” – Day Hustle from Day Hustle EP

Day Hustle on Facebook

Ryan Lee – “With A Wolf”

Wisconsin native musician and singer/songwriter Ryan Lee is a musical storyteller, a folky innovator, a guitar-wielding poet; the artistic offspring of Woody Guthrie, Tracy Chapman, Rufus Wainwright, Joni Mitchell and Cat Stevens. And that’s also encompassing his travels around the world, from Thailand to Ojibwa, Wisconsin; writing, performing, teaching, creating and sharing his emotional, captivating songs of the sometimes challenging, frequently joyful, always engaging human experience.

Raised in a Baptist family in Wisconsin, he attended a small Christian school for 13 years with only two students in his graduating class and attended Northwestern College in St. Paul, where he majored in theater and was introduced to the exciting Twin Cities music scene. His new single, “With A Wolf,” is s wicked and well produced track, and thus why it’s on this playlist.

MP3: “With A Wolf” – Ryan Lee

Ryan Lee on Facebook

Night Talks – “Green”

Night Talks is an alternative rock band based in Los Angeles that creates powerful vocals, shimmering guitars, driving bass and drums as expressed on their new single, “Green.” With vocals that are equal parts angelic and razor-tipped, the band might remind you of the first time you stayed in your room all night listening to a record that became special in your life. Members of the band are Soraya Sebghati; Jacob Butler; Josh Arteaga and Cris Arteaga.

MP3: “Green” – Night Talks

Night Talks on Facebook

Lionel Lodge – “All She Wants”

From the culturally rich streets of Vienna, and the fertile highlands of his birthplace of Scotland, comes to the music of songwriter Lionel Lodge. For a number of years, Lodge toured Canada with The Corndogs and built a reputation as a gifted songwriter/musician.

“Over 15 years in Europe my innocence was dragged across and through many countries, many bars and clubs and many festivals and music halls,” Lodge says. His new album, Human Heart, drops officially on May 18th. The lead single, “All She Wants,” should attract some to watch out for the full album drop.

MP3: “All She Wants” – Lionel Lodge from Human Heart

Lionel Lodge on Facebook

Marah in the Mainsail – “The Traveling Man”

“The Traveling Man” is the new single from popular Minneapolis ‘cinematic’ alt. folk band Marah in the Mainsail‘s new debut album, Thaumatrope, just released on vinyl in select U.S. record stores. The band’s sound on the single and album plays to their strengths, featuring an aggressive sound with eclectic instrumentation.

The band has been carving a name for themselves in the midwest United States and beyond with their subtle nod to blues and punk music, played with an eclectic and unique instrumentation.

MP3: “The Traveling Man” – Marah in the Mainsail from Thaumatrope

Marah in the Mainsail on Facebook

Jack Of None – “There Was A Crooked Man”

You almost couldn’t get more further away on planet earth than are the heavily U.S.-influenced capital city of Manila in the Philippines and Chicago. But the experimental art rock project Jack Of None between siblings A.G. Syjuco (songwriter, guitar, bass and synths), Maxine Syjuco (songwriter, vocalist), and Julian Syjuco (guitar) straddles these two locales in the creation of the band’s new album, Who’s Listening to Van Gogh’s Ear? . Here’s the zany track, “There Was A Crooked Man,” from the upcoming drop.

MP3: “There Was A Crooked Man” – Jack of None from Who’s Listening to Van Gogh’s Ear?

Jack of None on Soundcloud

Alice Sweet Alice – “Daredevil”

Longtime Kansas City, Missouri band Alice Sweat Alice grinds out genre-bending music that resists description or categorization – yet sounds intimately familiar. There are definite rock influence with overtones of electronica, jazz, blues and post punk that explode with elements of progressive rock. “Always killer, with no filler,” the band’s motto, is fitting for their newest release.

ASA took a hiatus beginning in 2014 when band leader Scott Martinez traveled to California to care for his father. That experience caused him to rethink ASA’s direction, resulting in a new and impressive nine-song album, Viola Organista and Other Impossible Dreams, which marks a new beginning for the group.

ASA has shared the stage with such notable acts as Collective Soul, Adrenaline Mob, Chuck Mosley (Faith No More), Blameshift, Mushroomhead, Hurt, and are fans of artists and bands like Killing Joke, Cocteau Twins, Bowie, Warpaint, Portishead, Garbage, and Pink Floyd.