Author: Kate Stevens

It’s hard to believe another year is almost over. The best new indie and DIY songs for December 2019 include tracks from indie rock artists and bands from places as far away as Sweden and Ukraine and as close to home as Connecticut and Ontario. Happy Holdays and don’t miss our alt/indie Christmas songs playlists.

Rvana Shmata – Kyiv, Ukraine
Ali Hugo – Toronto, Ontario
Mårten Lärka – Jättendal, Sweden
FatGrip Band – Hartford, Connecticut
Jody Cooper – Leipzig, Germany

Rvana Shmata – “Well Hello”

The Kyiv based duo, Rvana Shmata, perform a genre of rock they call ‘Rawk,’ which means raw rock. This is indeed the case on the duo’s new raunchy noise rock single, “Well Hello.”

The track has gained traction in Ukraine and beyond since its initial release. The drums are powerful and almost overwhelming while the bass skims along with electric guitar in tow, but further down on the noise register, which is an interesting choice that creates a unique effect.

The song’s rhythm is really interesting and the vocals from multi-instrumentalists Max Prudeus (bass guitar, keyboards) and Andrew Zakharin (drums, backing vocals) are intense; even a bit evil, hoping along the smoking guitars.

One of the band’s branding efforts, you could say, is Rvana Shmata’s announcement earlier this year that all of their music videos “will be connected into the single story,” which they will continue to label as Episodes. The videos will all be based in the fictional city of Shmatville.

On Halloween eve the band dropped, ‘Episode One’, which is actually a teaser video for their first music video in which a news reporter announces two famous fictional musicians had been kidnapped.

Last month Rvana Shmata released Episode 2 – their first official music video. In that video, the story goes a bit deeper into the actual kidnapping of the musicians. The soundtrack to the video is “Well Hello.”

Ali Hugo – “Marching Saints”

While the brand new eccentric single, “Marching Saints,” from Canadian artist Ali Hugo may not have much to do with marching, or perhaps even saints, the track echoes the quirky sounds and vocals of made famous by British pop of days of old, but in a totally unique way.

Together with his unconventional, raspy – perhaps even childish – vocals and a steady romp of percussions, Hugo may not have any trouble appealing to the outer limits of the indie spectrum.

The track is the lead single from Hugo’s upcoming new album, Hope For the Meek. A Toronto-based singer/songwriter and professional multi-instrumentalist by trade, Hugo released his 10-track solo debut, Tears Of A Broken Heart, back in 2015 (featured on IRC).

Hugo is credited with all of the writing, arranging, producing and recording of instruments, plus mixing and mastering of the final tracks.

In 2015, he had “adopted the DIY approach to making music” and released an instrumental album, New Generation Farahan.

A single from the album, “Tears Of A Broken Heart” was popular on world music radio charts. But a disagreement with a label led Hugo to plan the newest release on his own indie label, Belief Records.

“I keep reminding myself that I’m only human and this DIY approach has its limits,” Hugo says. “I mean I’m still obligated to promote ‘Time Machine’ especially now that it is picking up in Honduras, Turkey, and Japan.”

“But I’m also receiving pressure from my hardcore fans to announce the expected date for the release of my new album. “That’s why my team and I decided that we should at least have the first single out by this Christmas.” Mission accomplished and a solid single to go out front with.

Hugo started his professional singing career at the age of eight when he joined the family band LEO as the lead singer. After high school, he completed the recording of his debut. He recorded at Toronto studios including Metal Works Studios and Studio 9. He graduated with honors from the University of Bedfordshire in England.

Ali Hugo Instagram

Mårten Lärka – “You’re Gonna Sing My Songs”

Underground Swedish songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Mårten Lärka just released his first album in English after nearly two decades of building his reputation as a solo artist. Previously, he released albums only in Swedish and French.

His new proto-punk-leaning single, “You’re Gonna Sing My Songs,” was written in fifteen minutes while sitting in a garden.

Within less than two months, Lärka says, the single was produced, recorded, mastered and released – one of his “quickest productions ever.” Percussionist Martin Hellquist played drums, bass, and backing vocals while Anders “Bodinrocker” Bodin managed the lead guitar work.

Produced by The Banana Boys, the single was recorded at Henhouse Studio; mixed by Caroline Wickberg at Welfare Turquoise Floor and mastered by Frida Claeson Johansson at Svenska Grammofonstudion.

The song has a bit of the sound of a Stiff Records’ single circa 1978. A quite persistent song.

Lärka has opened for artists such as Stefan Sundström, Britta Persson, Anders F Rönnblom, Eldkvarn, SHIMA, and is most influenced musically by Jacques Brel and Chuck Berry. (The Sweds have had a love affair with the godfather of rock – Berry – since the early 1960s)

https://facebook.com/martenlarka

Fat Grip – “Name In Lights”
Rock Revivalists with great vocals, catchy singable songs, Marshall amplified guitars and drum/bass grooves return with it’s newest single “Name In Lights” from their anticipated new album of the same name.

“The inspiration for our new song and video is simply the struggle to achieve some success yet still thinking of what could have been had things worked out from the past. The video highlights the drummers thoughts of the past, the work put in and now achieving success but in a different way with a new band this time.”

Connecticut rock band from the Hartford area, concentrating on writing catchy radio-friendly music and memorable live performances. Sounds like a cross

The trio is vocalist and guitarist Jimmy Sixx, bassist and vocalist Matty Whitepants and drummer Jimmy “Sly” Petano.

Your favorite rockers from West Hartford perfoming a wide variety music for the occasion from music showcases showing off their radio-friendly originals to Party Rock Favorites for your local Club/Bar venue.

Over past decade became one of the most popular new punk bands in Hartford.

The band members’ biggest influences are Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Green Day, Weezer, and The Beatles.

Jody Cooper – “Song for the Oppressed (Cruelty Dies)”

German multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Jody Cooper has many guises. His songs reflect a love for experimental music and melodies.

Many of his musical tastes and preferences were influenced by his parents’ record collection. They owned vinyls upon vinyls of artists and bands from The Beatles to Kraftwerk; The Who to Crowded House, and Elton John to Mike Oldfield.

His new single, “Song for the Oppressed (Cruelty Dies),” together with the new music video, is dark and authoritative – fairly well done for a DIY low budget video.

Inspired by the great songwriters of the past, Cooper’s music combines his distinctive voice with powerful lyrics that “look beyond the surface, to tackle the reality of things and the uncomfortable truths they tell,” he says.

In 2017, he released his crowd-funded and ‘most ambitious project to date’ – a concept album, Serenades & Odes to a Cracked World (Part 1), full of themes of disintegration combated with integration.

“With everything that’s happening in the world,” he says, “the time has come for people to start engaging with the problems around them in an attempt to make a positive change. This album is my attempt.”

His lyrics “look beyond the surface, to tackle the reality of things and the uncomfortable truths they
tell,” he says.

Cooper had the unusual experience of growing up an English boy in a rural northern Scotland town.

“As a child, people would look at me strangely because I spoke ‘funny’,” he says, adding, “so I learned to embrace that and combine it with my love of performing in order to feel accepted.”

Cooper earned a degree in music at the University of Liverpool and released his first album in 2007. He has toured Europe and also worked with artists like Seal and Jon Bon Jovi. He moved to Leipzig, Germany a few years ago to work on his new album.

https://facebook.com/jodycoopermusic

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.

Please share and enjoy. Have music to submit?

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.”

Desilu official website

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

It’s just about time for fall and new indie and DIY rock songs, plus artists and bands to share. There are some hot tracks here and promising artists, so please share if you dig any, some or all of them.

This playlist features more of the best new indie singles for September 2019 – and the last blast of summer – kicking things off with the brash, lo-fi garage rocker from Nashville musician Ian Ferguson, followed by new overseas indie rock bands like This Daze (Norway) and Charlywood (Austria), a track from a DIY artist in Toronto and a ska/surf band in San Diego.

If you have your own music to submit for play to thousands of indie lovers every week, check our Submit Music page. The full playlist, uninterrupted, appears at the end of this post.

Ian Ferguson – Nashville, Tennessee
This Daze – Bergen, Norway
Charlywood – Vienna, Austria
Lennox C.B. – Toronto, Ontario
Sitting on Stacy – San Diego, California

Ian Ferguson – “Worried Walk”

Nashville native and regionally-respected musician Ian Ferguson was offered a major label contract as a teenager (as part of The Kingston Springs) but it turned it down. That was a few years ago.

Recently Ferguson dropped his debut indie solo album, State of Gold, a compendium of garage rock, power pop, psych and shoegaze mixed with folk.

Completely immersed in the writing and recording of the album for a number of years, Ferguson performed and recorded every instrument, including guitar, bass, drums, and vocals on State of Gold. He also mixed and mastered the album.

The songs’ messages range from political and social to personal, touching on everything from dictators and Seinfeld to home recording and love.

The track that got us is the blazing 60’s-style lo-fi noise single, “Worried Walk.” It has such an intensity and garage rock vibe. It’s bad.

The single is one of many impressive tracks on Ferguson’s fine solo effort. He now has a band and they are performing gigs.

Listen to State of Gold on Bandcamp

This Daze – “Young”

Delivering what could be described as ”angsty-but-cute indie punk”, the new indie rock band This Daze finds inspiration for making music through endless day-dreaming, long hours jamming and a desire to stay young forever.

Hailing from Norway, the quartet set out to record during the sunny summer of 2019, resulting in their first youth-fueled single ”Young”.

The song takes a look back at when they were in their teens and had few worries; now growing up into adults, they yearn for those halcyon days.

The chord progressions are fantastic and the melodies are riding on warm sun rays as we lament the passing of summer. The band really takes off on this single. You’ll likely play it more than once.

The members are guitarist and vocalist Erlend Eggan and Martin Engelien, plus bassist Martin Ringerud and drummer Hallvard Løberg Näsvall.

They are currently working on a new single and music video. We will be looking out for more from This Daze soon.

Charlywood – “Television Glamour”

Austrian songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist Andrew Charlewood is the founding member behind the recently-formed band Charlywood.

His band just dropped their debut album, with the unconventional, tongue-in-cheek title, aloadasongs. The LP was mastered by producer Martin Scheer (Hearts Hearts, Junior Kelly).

The lead single from the album is the brashy 80s-styled rock song, “Television Glamour,” featuring high decibel keyboard riffs together with furious drums, vocal work and a flare of new wave and disco.

The music video was released on Sept. 5, 2019.

After studying pop music at Derby University, Charlewood moved to Vienna where he attended Robert May’s School and QMC. There he met a number of other musicians and expanded his musical knowledge.

Charlewood recruited Fabian Lewey (guitar, vocals); Leo Ihrybauer (drums) and Simon Müller (bass). The band has been gigging around the U.K., including a show at London’s Street’s Sanctuary.

The band’s musical influences include The Libertines, Foo Fighters, Ben Folds, Incubus, The Arctic Monkeys, and The Beatles.

Lennox C.B. – “She Gets Me High”

Toronto songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lennox Campbell–Berzins, aka Lennox C.B., is a professional Canadian musician who also fronts the musical projects Ruby Cikada and Broken Wolves.

His recent debut album, Night Light, is a dream/psych-pop recording that is an enthralling trip through sounds and melodies, lyrics and rhythms. He is also now beginning work on a follow-up album release.

C.B. performed and recorded all of the instrument tracks, including guitar, piano, drums, and bass. He also mixed the complete album. A music education background from York University (Toronto) helps too. His long-time collaborator James Mulvale handled the mastering job.

Night Light is a dramatic departure from C.B. and Mulvale’s previous work and will continue to be a template for their work moving forward.

One of the album’s standout tracks, “She Gets Me High” was inspired by a broken relationship. The creation of the song “was one of those divine moments of inspiration where it all came together in one take – the chorus, the verse, and the bridge,” C.B. says.

One of C.B.’s good musical friends said the song sounded like Beach House instrumentally. “That was easily one of my proudest moments around the entire album production process and seemed to confirm everything I was doing.”

The album, he says, is inspired by artists and bands such as Beach, Mac Demarco, Weezer, and The Beatles.

Another standout track, “Zelda”, was initially written about a “lost connection” Lennox had with a woman at a party. Therefore he changed the name of the woman to his favorite Nintendo gaming character.

“Growing up, the world of ‘Zelda’ was a place that captured my imagination and was of enormous influence on me musically.”

“This song particularly displays the full array of instrumentation I used on this album,” he adds, including “slide guitars, digi-guitar, harp harmonics, and Yamaha CP35 to bring to life the pixelated world of that 8-bit era that has become a nostalgic fountain for our millennial generation.”

Sitting on Stacy – “Chest Hair”

Sitting on Stacy is a San Diego, California indie rock band with a ska/surf vibe.

The band’s brand new album, Perfectly Sane, was just released and features the thrilling ska/surf-leaning track, “Chest Hair,” and a video to boot shot out on the beach.

The track reminds us of bands like Sublime and 311 from back in the day. (That’s a true compliment).

These guys have the verve, talent and ambition to make it big in the ska/surf scene, which spans the world from California to Hawai’i to South Africa and Australia.

The band’s first EP, Goat Soup, was released under their former name Paper, and includes rough mixes and demos of songs that had been written during their first years. Since their name change, they’ve released now two albums, an EP and three singles.

The band features college students and members Hoyt Yeatman (lead vocals/guitar), Kyle Hart (bass/vocals) and Leland Schenck (drums).

SOS has performed at numerous venues in the San Diego, Los Angeles, and Ventura County areas, including Kaaboo Del Mar (SD), The House of Blues, The Vortex, The Mint (West Los Angeles/Los Angeles), The Canyon Club (Agoura), among others.