It’s Saturday and I’d like to welcome you to another installment of my weekly new music revue. This time I ended up picking six tracks, which are all included on albums that dropped yesterday (August 11).
Les Imprimés/You
Les Imprimés is the moniker of Norwegian artist Morten Martens. According to his Bandcamp page, he keeps a low profile while making his heartfelt, highly infectious, and unique music. Martens explains it’s “soul music, but I don’t exactly have the soul voice,” adding, “But I do it my own way, in a way that’s mine.” While Martens has been making records for decades as a hired gun, Rêverie is his solo debut. Here’s the beautiful You, which blends elements of ’60s and ’70s soul and doo-wop.
Bonnie “Prince” Billie/Crazy Blue Bells
Joseph Will Oldham is an American singer-songwriter and actor who since 1998 has released music as Bonnie “Prince” Billie. His music has been compared to Americana, folk, roots, country, punk and indie rock. Off his latest album Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You, here’s Crazy Blue Bell penned by Oldham. The tune first appeared as a single on July 10.
Cordovas/Fallen Angels of Rock ‘n’ Roll
Cordovas are an Americana and country rock band from East Nashville, Tenn. They were formed in 2011 by singer-songwriter, bassist and vocalist Joe Firstman after a six-year stint as bandleader for former NBC late-night show Last Call with Carson Daly. Cordovas who have named The Allman Brothers Band, Grateful Dead and The Band as influences are now out with their fourth studio album The Rose of Aces. Here’s the fantastic opener Fallen Angels of Rock ‘n’ Roll co-written by Firstman and Cory Hanson, frontman of Los Angeles rock band Wand.
Andy Frasco & The U.N./Iowa Moon
Andy Frasco & The U.N. are a Los Angeles band blending soul, blues, jazz and rock into an upbeat sound. Led by lead vocalist and keyboarder Andy Frasco, they were formed in 2007 and have released six studio albums to date. Their latest is titled L’Optimist. I like that title! And here’s a tune to match it, Iowa Moon, co-written by Frasco, Kenny Carkeet, Steve Poltz and Paul McDonald.
Caskets/Better Way Out
Originally formed as Captives in 2018, Caskets are a band from Leeds, England. AllMusic describes their sound as melodic and synth-heavy, combining elements of post-hardcore and emo with a poppy edge. From their sophomore album Reflections, here’s Better Way Out. The tune is credited to band members Matthew Edward Flood (vocals), Craig Robinson (guitar), Benjamin Wilson (guitar), Christopher Mcintosh (bass) and James Lazenby (drums), as well as Phillip Strand and producer Dan Weller.
Hurry/Something More
Rounding out this week’s New Music Musings are Hurry. Their Spotify profile notes this Philadelphia-based group fuses the melancholic jangle and tunefulness of classic power pop with a fuzzy, ’90s-inspired indie rock aesthetic. Hurry grew out of a solo project by Matthew Scottoline, former bassist of Philly Emo and indie rock band Everyone Everywhere. From their sixth and latest studio album Don’t Look Back, let’s listen to the pleasant Something More, penned by Scottoline.
Sources: Wikipedia; Les Imprimés Bandcamp page; Bonnie “Prince” Willie Drag City artist page; Cordovas website; Andy Frasco & The U.N. website; Caskets website; AllMusic; Hurry Bandcamp page; YouTube; Spotify
Christian's Music Musings 
My favorite on here is The Cordovas… I think I’ve heard them before…or maybe it’s their influences…they are excellent.
Les Imprimés is very good pop.
Bonnie “Prince” Billie I like also…
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Isn’t that Cordovas tune just outstanding? To me, it has a near-epic quality – something I still rarely say about newly released music, as much as I’ve come around to recognize there is some great new music out there if you’re willing to invest the time to look for it!
I’ve featured Cordovas a few times. I absolutely love their warm sound and multi-part harmony singing. Perhaps the most amazing thing is how they entered my radar screen: a free outdoor summer in the park concert in tiny town in New Jersey. That was about 5 or 6 years ago. I immediately knew these guys were good!
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That is a great song Christian. It sounds timeless…thats what I like about it. It could have been recorded in a lot of different decades and still be good. It doesn’t have a mark on it.
Not that having a mark is a bad thing….but I do like the timeless sounding recordings. It sounds like it could have been recorded in the late 60s til much later on.
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We’re 100% aligned. I feel the same about many of their other other songs. If you like what you hear, I can highly recommend checking them out further.
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I must have heard them on your older posts or Jeff’s…they seem familiar but maybe it’s like I said…their influences are strong…and I mean that in a good way…I will.
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Oh I love the name also…it’s a throwback as well.
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Well, ever the contrarian, my favorites of this bunch are the ones by Les Imprimés, Caskets (weird name for a band) and Hurry. And I realize it’s sacrilegious for me to even utter these words, but I’ve always been only lukewarm on The Allman Brothers Band, The Band and, in particular, The Grateful Dead, whose music I can only tolerate for a short while.
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Thanks, Jeff. All I can say is I think diversity is great and, jeez, how boring it would be if we all had the same taste! I make no bones about it, the Cordovas tune is my favorite this week since I love their brand of roots rock. That said I also love Les Imprimes – very soulful tune!
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Bonnie Prince Billy is so prolific that I haven’t really kept up. I’m on the train but I’ve bookmarked the post so hopefully I can listen to the playlist at work tomorrow.
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