Category: 2020 Indie Songs

The first indie playlist for 2020 indie songs kicks off with some exciting tracks from new artists and bands such as COQUÍ; Tripmaster Monkey; Honestly, Bad Person, and Nikki and the Human Element.

COQUÍ – Brooklyn, New York
Tripmaster Monkey – Various (U.S.)
Honestly – Westport, Massachusetts
Bad Person – Boston, Massachusetts
Nikki and the Human Element – New York, New York

COQUÍ – “Off My Mind”

Brooklyn recording artist COQUÍ is known for his work as a producer and engineer with bands like Crystal Castles and Young The Giant.

Now he, whose real name is Samuel Jacob Lopez Jr., is stepping out front from behind the scenes to offer his new and first solo recording with the track, “Off My Mind.”

Lopez blends 90’s hip hop and skateboard rock, Latin and R&B influences into a dynamic, dreamy electronic pop context with a different twist. He is developing the all-important signature sound.

COQUÍ’s musical influences and acclimations are written all over his solo recording. From the house music he grew up on via his D.J. dad and salsa dancing mom, to rock, indie, alt, R&B, hip hop and more, Lopez’s influences were many and varied.

“As I got older, I was more into indie music, like The Killers, Kings of Leon, and The Strokes,” Lopez told IRC.

“My tastes are constantly evolving, but I still kind of throw a little bit of inspiration in my music. I don’t want to stick to just indie,” he adds.

As far as songwriting, Lopez writes from the heart, and “pulls from personal experiences” and even movies. In fact, he says, movies are his biggest songwriting inspiration.

One of COQUÍ’s talents is an ability to create a complex overall sound with little more than an acoustic guitar, distinct vocals, deep grooves, and savvy production techniques.

In addition to working with bands like Young The Giant and Crystal Castles, Lopez has toured as an Ableton technician with 30 Seconds To Mars. He is also involved in music projects Tapioca & the Flea and Little Wolves.

https://www.facebook.com/iamcoqui

Tripmaster Monkey – “Ruined in Rouen”

During the past year, the comeback of long-time indie/alt. rock band Tripmaster Monkey has been nothing but historic.

A splendid new album (after two decades), a series of singles and a string of new shows have put the 1990s indie band back on the map.

The band’s first single release of 2020, “Ruined in Rouen,” features jangling guitars, chugging percussions and hardened lyrics.

Tripmaster Monkey first rose to prominence in the mid-90s when they became a popular alt.rock/indie band out of the midwest, were signed to a record deal, dropped by the label and ultimately decided to disband to focus on careers (regular, reliable income) and families.

But after a couple of reunion shows, and encouragement from longtime fans (via Kickstarter and other support), together with the original band members’ undying love for alt. rock, the longtime friends, now scattered in cities about the country, decided to get back into the studio and record a new album – Tripmaster Monkey’s first in more than 20 years. The album, My East Is Your West, is out and it’s a blast.

https://www.facebook.com/tripmastermonkey

“NYC” – Honestly

The emotive vocals and touching lyrics of Massachusetts songwriter and recording artist Eric Canto are striking.

Together with guitarist and keyboardist Dalton Winters, the Boston-area friends formed the duo, Honestly, less than a year ago.

The duo’s new sophomore track, “NYC,” has a place in the hearts of the cafe team and is one of the late 2019 tracks that has earned cross-over relevance into 2020.

Powered by Canto’s pains of love, the track, he says, “is a nostalgic synth-heavy indie-pop song that explores the anxiety surrounding an uncertain, tumultuous love.”

Pegging a genre on the duo is difficult, but the electro chill/adult contemporary/indie pop mix of “NYC” seems an apt description. Afterall the duo has only dropped two tracks so far; therefore, it’s hard to really pin that down right now.

The only thing we would have changed-up on “NYC” is the intro. It’s a bit too sparse and quiet and might make some people think the track isn’t playing.

We’re not entirely enlightened on what effect the duo was going for, but the amount of time it takes for the track to ramp up is just a little bit of an issue.

The duo’s biggest musical influences include The 1975, LANY, The Wldlfe, and The Weeknd.

https://facebook.com/honestlyitsyou

“Heat Lightning” – Bad Person

Boston songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joshua Pritchard, who records as Bad Person, unveils a new single showcasing self-reflective lyrics and somber instrumentation.

The heart-breaking single, “Heat Lightning,” is a sad and introspective electronic track with whispery, breathless vocals, hard-hitting bristly beats, and synthy keys.

The track is boosted by the highly experienced ears of engineer/musician Bob Weston. Weston, according to AllMusic, has his “name and fingerprints are all over the American underground rock of the post-punk era.”

His magic mixing and mastering adds that extra level of bringing the musician’s work to life in a robust and great-sounding final master. Weston has worked with Nirvana; Sebadoh; Polvo; Archers of Loaf, and Chavez, among others.

Currently, Pritchard is working on a series of new songs and collaborating with Los Angeles-based musician and sound engineer Brian Gross.

One of the songs includes a project with producer LaToya “Lil’ Face” Drakeford.

badperson.us

“Don’t Mess Around With My Boy” – Nikki and the Human Element

The New York-based band Nikki and the Human Element are building community and social change through “righteous rock and roll for all.”

The band’s edgy rock sound is apparent on the latest single, “Don’t Mess Around With My Boy,” off of the album, ELemental.

The song features important and relatable life themes with the intention to raise money for soup kitchens, according to Dr. Nikki Neretin, lead singer and guitarist. She is also the director of homeless services for a local NYC non-profit.

“Providing care at soup kitchens, shelters and on the street for the last 20 years has created a strong back drop for this important and relevant music,” Neretin says.

The band’s musical influences are Heart, Led Zeppelin, and Santana. These are rock and roll troubadour’s like they rarely make them today.

https://www.facebook.com/nikkiandthehumanelement

Song descriptions are key to connecting with listeners and getting featured in blogs and the press.

A song description by the artist is not meant to be a review of the song, nor a rehash of the lyrics, nor what the listener can hear for herself.

Instead, the purpose is to tell the story behind (the scenes) the song that the listener cannot possibly know: how it came about; what is the tale of the song; instruments, equipment and software used, and in any interesting or different ways or experimentation; technical methods, effects, and techniques used; how the melody, rhythm, and other parts came about and where put together; what equipment was used; what the instrumental goals were; any difficulties with the song; did it end up different than it started out? How?

That’s a great start to write a solid song description that is aimed to be consumed mostly by the press and other such interests like booking agents and venue managers; licensing agents; festival organizers; and so on.

Also, include who worked on the recording. Also, if the song is autobiographical, please briefly tell the listener the various things going on that they can’t decipher by themselves to provide a window.

Song descriptions should also be succinct and rich in detail. These are the things that can make the difference between being featured in a blog, on a radio program or in a playlist, or not.

For example: A young new musician and studying doctor from Ohio wrote a terrific song with a sweet melody during a trip to India where he was volunteering and researching health care access in remote villages.

While staying in one of the villages, he was even able to record, and later mix in, remarkable choruses of Indian children singing to his melody.

He described as well how it came about that the children began to sing the chorus. He did not plan it that way but the children liked the melody and chorus of his song so much that they learned it and in a couple of days treated the entire village to a performance. Now that’s a story behind a song that gets people’s attention and interest.

Another artist used unconventional recording techniques by capturing everyday sounds in his home and mixing them into his music. Another artist’s song is actually about his mother but he is playing the third person instead of the first person because it’s too painful.

With song descriptions, we want them to be detail-rich but also succinct. Anything too long will decrease the number of people that read it and the overall success of the track.

Song descriptions help the artist connect with listeners and fans and evoke emotions, memories, senses, and even actions – such as someone deciding to promote your song themselves on their socials because of what you wrote about it or for other bloggers to pick up and write about you because they have something compelling for the reader in addition to just the track by itself.

Interesting tidbits, facts, stories and triggering emotions are main points that get people to stop, listen and even care – for a minute. That’s hard to do in today’s millisecond world.

The aim is to get the listener not only to stop but to fully absorb the song. If they read the description, become even more intrigued, and start checking out even more music from the artist, that is a touchdown.

The fight for people’s attention is a true and serious one. We now live in a world where 24,000 songs are released every day on streaming services alone, according to a 2018 Gracenote study.

So, to get hundreds, thousands, or oh wow! tens of thousands (not bots, but real folks) listens online is a great thing. But it takes strategy, planning, smarts and knowing the ropes to rise even a little above the noise of 24K releases every day!

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