SEATTLE, Wash. – Experimental outfit newmath‘s latest single, “Poison Apple,” weaves elements of dream pop, shoegaze and other sub-genres of rock and indie pop to create a song inspired by “the fears, worries, and uncertainties about becoming a first-time parent,” according to musician Chris Fish.
The song takes inspiration from Deerhunter, M83, Blink 182, and the repetitive structure of acts like Glenn Branca and Swans, he adds.
Newmath evolved from a lo-fi acoustic drone project to the noisy dream pop sound heard on Fish’s 2021 release Kudzu.
Fish’s top musical influences are My Bloody Valentine, Kanye West, Blink 182, and Glenn Branca.
The forthcoming album, BLOOM, is a noise-rock, rock opera about the panic, uncertainty, and love of becoming a first-time parent during a time of social unrest. The album will drop in October.
South London indie outfit The Elegant Chasers dropped a dazzling debut album, Sentimental Dust, on Friday following a series of single releases in recent months.
The latest, and fourth, single from the album, is “Car Salesman Smile” is a menacing alt rock-driven track with a mean riff running like a vein of discontent throughout. A cool new music video is also produced by Loizou.
After switching careers during the pandemic, the multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter behind the moniker is South London native Maz Loizou, set out on a road trip writing songs “around a derelict London [character]”.
Loizou, a former – and disgrunted – television producer, set out to assemble his own customize recording studio at home.
His musical style incorporates sounds from the 1990s grunge, alt rock and Brit-Pop movements as well as 1980s new wave influences.
“The music for ‘Car Salesman Smile’ was largely written during the Sentimental Dust album sessions,” Loizou says.
“The riff, bridge and chorus were conjured within a matter of minutes. I was looking for a 1970’s rock vibe along with influences from 1990’s bands like Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Faith No More and Terrorvision.”
Terrorvision’s “hit ‘Alice, What’s The Matter?’ inspired some of my rhythm guitar work. But for the vocals it was a line from a Therapy? track that stuck with me. The phrase ‘Car Salesman Smile’ was featured in their song ‘Hellbelly’…I penned down most of the lyrics for CSS a few years back, which was unusual for me in terms of songwriting approach,” Loizou explains
He adds that the song is essentially about a woman “being unfairly treated and how relationships can play out. Sadly, I have female friends who have these stories to tell. I felt compelled to write a song about it from someone on the outside looking in.”
Loizou explores how women are “taken advantage of by men (who appear to be genuine and charming).”
“My message [is]…don’t give up hope…you don’t deserve to be thrown on the scrapheap.
Canadian singer/songwriter, videographer and engineer Ali Hugo returns with the inspiring new single, “There’s A Light Out There.”
The single is the first release from his upcoming new album of the same name.
The song, he says, ” is a tribute to the kind of music I grew up listening to on the radio in Ontario. This was also the first time that I did not write down the lyrics,” he adds. Rather, he wrote and sang the lyrics after the musical composition was nailed down. Further, he wrote the song specifically to perform live on the road.
“The singing style is different than anything I’ve recorded before,” he adds, “it was important for me to stay true to my influences which was not so hard for me because I grew up actively listening to this kind of music.”
“However, while in the studio, instead of picturing a video concept that could accompany the song,” he writes, “I kept picturing shorts, reels, and spotlights and that gave me more room to maneuver my way around the song both musically and vocally.”
“Also, I wanted the song to have the right balance between the feel of city life as well as a small town so a listener in Vancouver or someone from a small town in Nova Scotia, that is; both listeners would be able to connect to the song.”
Hugo plays keyboardist, music, video producer, dancer, sound engineer. He used PreSonus and Yamaha keys for this production.
Hugo will be performing a number of shows throughout the Ontario area in the coming months.
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Musical Influences: Kenny Loggins,; Richard Marx; Bryan Adams; Cyndi Lauper Indie musical influences: The Pixies; Oasis; Metric
Background
Ali Hugo started his music career at the early age of eight when he joined his family’s band, Leo, as the lead singer.
After attending university, Hugo set out to start a career in music.
His debut album charted into the top ten on the global indie charts and the hit single “Tears of a Broken Heart”. Hugo has continued to pursue his music and video production career since then, releasing an EP titled Time Machine – which he says: “used a complex engineering process to transport the songs into the digital streaming age.”
The album generated three indie hit singles and earned Hugo a gold record from his Canadian label Mirage Records. He also produced the Time Machine Rockumentary that documents the Time Machine project.
Hugo’s rockumentary was a finalist at The Carey Movie Festival in North Carolina.
New song from Danish recording artist deals with acceptance and belonging
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Indie DIY solo singer/songwriter Troels Thorkild Sørensen, who records nowadays using the moniker he is tall, has dropped a touching and playful new song, “Snow Fortress.”
“Despite the name, the last icy crystals of the winter are long ago melted by the songs outreaching ,” Sørensen writes.
The song is laid-back with a vibrant live sound featuring a confluence of vocal, acoustic, percussion and trumpet parts supported by soaring choruses. “It’s somewhere in between Arcade Fire and https://indierockcafe.com?s=arcade+fire,” adds Sørensen.
Describing the story behind the song, Sørensen writes: “Behind the extrovert sound of the song hides a very introvert and shy main character who is singing about wanting to succeed and fitting into ‘public space’ that one enters as a live performer.”
“The character in the story believes that the solution is to act as someone else and be an extrovert party animal,” he adds. “It all ends with he/she having to use extreme methods in the quest of transformation.”
Besides studio recordings, Sørensen has played numerous live shows around Denmark, including opening shows for international artists like Tyler Childers and The Divine Comedy.
As a one-man-army with an acoustic guitar, Sørensen manages to fill even large stages with his connective presence. In fact, this summer he will be playing a series of festival shows.
His musical influences are varied across the indie rock spectrum: “Growing up as a teenager I have been listening a lot to indie artists like Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver and Florence and The Machine, but in the past years I’ve grown to really like hiphop and catchy pop melodies. I think my music has become a mix of what I listened to back then and what I listen to now. ‘Snow Fortress,’ he adds, “is a good example of that composite musical universe.”
TERRE HAUTE, Indiana – Musician Samuel Mason started out playing house shows and festivals in previous projects that lead him to form Black Masses with accomplished drummer Austin Sheese.
In 2019, the duo dropped one album, Phases. Mason evolved again – releasing the self-titled album Black Masses, as well as the super-charged self-titled single and music video.
About the song, Mason writes: “Black Masses is a raw alternative rock record with booming drums and dirty guitars…the lyrics describe our estranged relationships with loved ones over time.
“People change and sometimes not in the ways we expect and that is what this song is all about from start to finish.” The track displays eloquently the duo’s accomplished songwriting and musicianship abilities and serves as a fitting intro to the rest of the album. Rarely, do you see a band name, album and single all with the same name.
The duo’s musical influences include Des Rocs, Royal Blood, and The Black Keys.
Punchy surf rockers Voodoo Bandits hit us with another new single ‘Nice T-Shirt’.
The past 18 months have been non-stop for the Isle of Man quartet with six singles under their belts. And in that time, the band has become well-known for their twist on the garage pop-rock genre.
Latest effort ‘Nice T-Shirt’ is the perfect jam of high-octane guitar riffs, distinctive vocals and riotous beats come together to create a feeling of optimism and carefree relief.
The noughties styles gelled with feel-good energy is the perfect remedy for the bigger stages. It’s an animated, feel-good tune underpinned by a head-bobbing fuzz riff and a garage-leaning chord progression.
Speaking of the new single, singer Ben says, “’Nice T-Shirt’ is about the feeling of growing apart from someone that you’re no longer on the same page as.
“It’s tough to leave people behind but sometimes you have to put yourself first and that’s what the lyrics in Nice T-Shirt are all about.”
‘Nice T-Shirt’ was produced by Voodoo Bandits, mixed by Darren Lawson and mastered by Two Zero Nine (Graeme Lynch).
The DIY (and small label) top 10 songs for March 2022 features kick-ass songs from DIY artists and bands stretching from the tip of Ireland to the urban sprawl of Los Angeles.
These are also ALL artists and bands to watch in our opinion; otherwise they would not have made this top 10 playlist because there are too many promising artists and bands around that many of you have never heard of – and admittedly, plenty that we didn’t know of; which is the great gift of music discovery.
Check out the other top 10s if you dig this; share and like if you can and don’t miss our new Top 50 playlists – dope, dope music only here at Indie Rock Cafe – celebrating 15 years of music blogging.
It may just be us, but Junk Drawer reminds us of a British Kurt Vile while Car Boot Sale is sounding heavily Spoon-influenced (not a bad thing). The crooning of Niall Mutter is captivating and soothing while Operation Man also shows off his vocal skills and pop sensibilities.
True that not all of these artists/bands are DIY in the traditional sense, but we consider small labels as ‘DIY’ much of the time to make things easier.
This top 10 playlist is in no particular order – you pick your favs. It’s too good of a playlist to sort out that way. All that matters is the music and whether you feel it or not.
NOTE: The number in parenthesis indicates the number of monthly listeners on Spotify.
Check out more of our playlists on IRC’s Spotify profile – many of which have been carefully, and manually, curated over the years, covering themes from VIPs in songs to world music and from best seasons playlists to playlists of great indie/alt rock/folk/pop covering themes like world countries, states, love, moods, and everyday, ordinary things. A must-check-it-out-collection. Promise.
Hans Williams is a twenty-year-old songwriter from Vermont who is an artist to watch thanks to a number of heartfelt tracks and a promising future in music.
This is shown specifically in Williams’ 2020 mini-hit DIY single, “Body On My Shoulders”. This song was written about a tragic experience Williams had.
His latest track, “All Is Well,” is, in a sense, a follow-up to “Body on My Shoulders.”
Williams wrote the latter as a way to process the suicide of his roommate who Williams was the first to discover.
The newer track, he says, is about “the period of time before I felt ready to have those conversations – before I realized what real catharsis lay behind the barrier of opening up.”
“This song is about the fear and guilt I dealt with after the fact”, Williams explains in an Instagram post.
“The completion of this song in a way feels like I’ve let some of that guilt and fear go. I hope it can do the same for anyone dealing with tragedy”.
As a result, he is receiving many messages from individuals who connect with the song through a similar experience.
In response to these conversations, Williams notes that he feels validated upon hearing that others face similar tragedies and respond in the same way that he has.
There is more DIY indie and alt. rock/pop/folk music than ever before. Everyone pretty much already knows that.
Still, for some folks, they like to have fellow music lovers do some sorting and selecting among a non-stop flow of gigabytes containing new DIY tracks and albums.
That’s where truly-indie blogs (like ours we hope) still have a place in the culture of indie and alt. rock. While blogs, like ours, have taken a huge hit in recent years – thanks largely to Spotify and social media – there is still a hankering ‘out there’ for carefully-selected homegrown indie music – across the ‘indie spectrum’ that includes indie rock; indie pop; indie folk, etc., and alt. rock; post-punk; new wave; psych rock; alt. country; dream pop; etc. Pretty much anything that sounds good and falls under the ‘indie/alt’ umbrella, to put it another way.
In This Installment:
z3th3r – Oakland, California – “Goodbye” Patches – Enid, Oklahoma – “A Nice Day to Orbit Saturn” Loops & Loops – Broxn, New York – “Not Yet” Ice of Neptune – Larisa, Greece – “Solitude” Poploader – Regensburg, Germany – “Books of Love”
z3th3r – “Goodbye”
OAKLAND, California – Bay Area producer Zachary Greer, aka z3th3r, together with vocalist Ulenni Okandlouvu, creates indie love on the new track, “Goodbye.”
About the song, Greer writes: “Ulenni says it’s "a prayer for loved ones to endure and stay strong in tough times, remembering that the journey of life always comes with ups and downs." Weaving dizzying guitar riffs through a lofi dysphoric soundscape, the sonic palate of the track is a reflection of the bittersweet notion of saying goodbye.”
Okandlovu is a professional artist from Matopo Hills, Zimbabwe and lead vocalist for the music duo Bantu Spaceships. Greer dabbles in indie rock, lo-fi, experimental with interest in field recordings, heavy 808 beats and guitar elements. The duo’s musical influences include Obongjayar, CKay, Four Tet, Bonobo, Tobi Nwigwe, and Flying Lotus.
ENID, Oklahoma – The indie-rock/post-punk trio Patches first met in the online world early last year. The band’s music is harmonic, pop infused rock with experimental noise since our inception, and the three members switch instrumental roles on the fly.
Patches’ new single, “A Nice Day to Orbit Saturn,” fulfills their new sound with “equal parts melody-oriented pop and scathing, distortion heavy feedback that quickly builds into layered guitar play,” says vocalist and bassist Nick Robilliard.
“Lyrically, it is a bitter, first person narrative of an astronaut in a futuristic setting who has resigned himself to being stranded on one of Saturns moons. Clean harmonies obscure some of the dread.”
The track is the band’s third song to be presented on their new album Tales We Heard From the Fields.
With backgrounds in REM style jangle pop, minimalistic art rock bands like Wire, and the bombast of outfits like Jesus Lizard, each member of Patches brings something unique to the band. The other two members are Evan Seurkamp (vocals, guitar) and Melodica Aaron Griffin (guitar, drums).
The trio’s major musical influences include original post-punk heroes like Wire, The Cure, Guided by Voices, Kitchens of Distinction, Gang of Four, and REM.
Loops & Loops began as a musical project of Bronx-based producer/musician Peter Bogolub formed as a way to deal with the quarantine.
As a result, Bogolub ended up experimenting mostly with lo-fi. After a few short months, he had recorded over 60 songs and had released two albums under his Loops & Loops moniker.
Initially, he recorded under the name The Sems and released shoegaze/dream pop style of music under that moniker for many years.
Elements of shoegaze and dream pop as well as indie and indie-folk are clear on singles like “Not Yet”.
Some of the material is purely instrumental, fitting for the background of movies and montages. Others are more introspective with vocals reminiscent of Elliot Smith and Yo La Tengo. Good stuff.
Ice of Neptune: “Solitude”
Based in the town of Larisa, Greece, the band members of the alt progressive rock band Ice of Neptune, belt out a captivating sound on their new single, “Solitude.”
The band members are vocalist Pierlorenzo Molinari; guitarist and keyboards Timoleon Adamopoulos; bassist Federico Giardini; and drums Alessandro Bissa.
The song, according to the band is “a story tale through modern man’s eyes during the decades and the social facts that happened.”
Molinari (ex-Kezia/ex-Blackmail of Murder) and Adamopoulos (Forbidden Lore) founded the band originally in 2010.
Poploader – “Books of Love”
The ‘revival’ music of German indie rockers Poploader is quite a kick.
Take this latest single and video, “Books of Love.” We don’t usually go for ‘cutesy’ type of indie rock/pop but this is such an original and impossibly-catchy track. This is one of the first new songs from the band in 20 years.
At the end of the nineties, the young trio spent many hours and days together in stinking rehearsals, backstage rooms, and live show after live show.
Fast-forward to the year 2018. The band members meet up for a beer, reminiscence of the past, and decide to record some new tracks together. “Books of Love” is one of the results and it proves the band can still rock as does its predecessor, and equally as catchy, the 2020 single, “Summerboy Blues.”
The member’s musical influences demonstrate exceptional taste: The Kinks, Oasis, The Kooks, and DMA’s via The Cure, and David Bowie.
Fans of English indie guitar pop can look forward to more catchy songs with a lot of optimism, a pinch of retro, and great recognition value.
