Tag: Alternative

Best of What’s New

A selection of newly released music that caught my attention

It’s Saturday and this means time to take another look at newly-released music. This week, my picks include pop punk and country rock from Canada, alternative rock from the U.S. and I guess you could call it alternative folk by a South African singer-songwriter. Except for the last track, all songs are on albums that came out yesterday (December 3).

Like Pacific/Hollow Tears

Kicking off today’s music revue is Canadian pop punk band Like Pacific. Formed in Toronto in 2010, the group currently includes Jordan Black (lead vocals), Luke Holmes (lead guitar, backing vocals), Greg Hall (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Brad Garcia (bass) and Taylor Ewart (drums, percussion). In May 2011, they self-released their debut EP The Worst…. After three additional EPs, the band’s first full-length album Distant Like You Asked appeared in February 2016. It reached no. 25 in the U.S. on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart. Hollow Tears is a track from Like Pacific’s third and new full-length studio Control My Sanity. The tune is credited to all members of the band and producer Sam Guaiana. As somebody who doesn’t listen much to punk, the fairly melodic character of Like Pacific’s music makes it pretty accessible.

Failure/Submarines

Failure are an American alternative rock band from Los Angeles, which initially came together in 1990. In 1992, they signed with independent label Slash Records and released their debut album Comfort in December that year. After two additional studio albums, the band broke up in November 1997. In late 2013, they reunited. Failure have since released three additional albums including their latest titled Wild Type Droid. Their current line-up features co-founders Ken Andrews (vocals, electric guitar, bass) and Greg Edwards (electric guitar, bass, piano, percussion), together with Kellii Scott (drums). Here’s Submarines, co-written by Edwards and Andrews. Not quite sure what drew me into this tune. I find it weirdly catchy.

Blue Rodeo/When You Were Wild

Canadian country rock band Blue Rodeo were founded in 1984 in Toronto. They were formed by high school friends Jim Cuddy (vocals, guitar) and Greg Keelor (vocals, guitar), who had played together in various bands before, and Bob Wiseman (keyboards). Cleave Anderson (drums) and Bazil Donovan (bass) completed the band’s initial lineup. After gaining a local following in Toronto and signing with Canadian independent record label Risque Disque, the group released their debut album Outskirts in March 1987. Fifteen additional studio albums have since appeared, including Blue Rodeo’s latest Many a Mile. Here’s the opener When You Were Wild, co-written by Keelor and Cuddy. Check out that beautiful warm sound – love it!

Alice Phoebe Lou/Me & the Moon

I leave you with new music by South African singer-songwriter Alice Phoebe Lou, who first entered my radar screen in July 2020 when I covered her then-latest single Touch. Borrowing from that post: Lou grew up on a mountainside in South Africa, attending a local Waldorf school that cultivated her innate love of music and the arts. She made her first visit to Europe at 16, a life-changing journey that first saw her taking her songs to the streets. Lou returned home to finish school but as soon as she was able made her way back to Europe, specifically Berlin. Armed with just her guitar, a small amp, a passel of distinctive original songs, and an utterly intoxicating voice and charm, she soon built a devoted fan following, not just in Berlin but around the world as tourists and passers-by from faraway places were so captivated by her music that they began sharing it amongst friends and social media. Lou self-released her debut EP, MOMENTUM, in 2014, followed two years later by her acclaimed first full-length, ORBIT. Me & the Moon is from Lou’s latest album Child’s Play, her fourth that came out on December 2nd. I like this!

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube

Best of What’s New

A selection of newly released music that caught my attention

Welcome to another look at newly released music. This week’s installment is a pretty international and multi-cultural affair. My selections include Syrian-American and Norwegian singer-songwriters, a Canadian blues guitarist and a new hard rock band from Sweden. Unless noted otherwise, all tracks are on albums that came out yesterday (October 22). Let’s get to it!

Bedouine/The Solitude

My first pick for this week is by Bedouine (née Azniv Korkejian), a Los Angeles-based Syrian-American musician. Korkejian whose family is Armenian was born in Aleppo, Syria and later moved with her family to Saudi Arabia where they lived until she was ten. After winning in a green card lottery, Korkejian and her family moved to the U.S. In 2017, Bedouine released her eponymous debut album. The Solitude, written by her, is the opener of Bedouine’s third and new album Waysides. I really dig her soothing voice.

Okay Kaya/If I Can Help Somebody

Okay Kaya (née Kaya Wilkins) is a Norwegian-American singer-songwriter and actress from New Jersey. According to her profile on Apple Music, Raised in Nesoddtangen, a village outside of Oslo, Wilkins grew up with a brother who played in black metal bands and a mother who whose record collection became the foundation of her musical education. Early on, she was more captivated by studying dance than making music, but that changed in her late teens, when she moved to New York to work as a model. Her first songs — which she wrote on a guitar she got when she was 13 — were musical diary entries that allowed her to explore her deepest thoughts with darkly witty lyrics and delicate acoustic melodies. Wilkins began releasing her music as Okay Kaya in 2015, when the label Hot Charity issued the singles “Damn, Gravity” and “Clenched Teeth.” Her debut album Both was released in June 2018. If I Can Help Somebody is a tune from The Incompatible Okay Kaya, her just released third album.

Sue Foley/Dallas Man

After two mellow tunes it’s time to step on the gas a bit with new music by Canadian blues guitarist and singer Sue Foley. Foley who was born in Ottawa learned to play guitar as a 13-year-old. After graduating from high school, she moved to Vancouver where she founded the Sue Foley Band. By 1989 when she was 21 years old, Foley was living in Austin, Texas. Three years later, her debut album Young Girl Blues appeared. Fast forward 19 years to Pinky’s Blues, Foley’s 16th and new album, which is named after her signature pink paisley Fender Telecaster. Here’s Dallas Man, a tune written by Foley. According to this review in Rock and Blues Muse, the song is an homage to blues guitarists who came from the Dallas area, such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, T-Bone Walker and Freddie King. Love that groove!

Fans of the Dark/The Running Man

Let’s wrap up things with some melodic hard rock by Swedish band Fans of the Dark. According to this piece in Maximum Volume Music, the group was formed in the summer of 2020 by Freddie Allen (drums) and Alex Falk (lead vocals), who had known each each from high school in Stockholm. The band’s line-up also includes Oscar Bromvall (guitar) and Robert Majd (bass). In early August, Fans of the Dark released their debut single Escape from Hell, the first tune from their upcoming self-titled debut album that is scheduled for November 5. Here’s The Running Man, another song that appeared upfront on October 7. It was penned by Allen, the group’s main songwriter. Most of contemporary hard rock I’ve heard isn’t my cup of tea, but this tune is catchy and grabbed me. Also, check out this great and for a hard rock band unusual lead vocalist.

Sources: Wikipedia; Apple Music; Rock and Muse Blues; Maximum Volume Music; YouTube

Best of What’s New

A selection of newly released music that caught my attention

Welcome to another Best of What’s New, my weekly revue of newly released music. This time, my picks include some alternative, rock, country and prog rock from a stalwart of the genre. All featured tunes except for the last one are on albums that came out yesterday (October 8).

Scott Hirsch/Big Passenger

Kicking off this week’s post is new music by Scott Hirsch, a producer and singer-songwriter I first featured in a Sunday Six installment last month with a tune of his then-upcoming new album Windless Day. Borrowing again from his Facebook page: You’ve heard the sound of Scott Hirsch. You might not know it, but his audio production has lurked deep in the cut of many admired recordings from the late 1990s to the present. A founding member of Hiss Golden Messenger, he was integral to the band’s formative years in the studio and on the road. His sonic imprint remains on their productions; most recently mixing the forthcoming album Quietly Blowing It. He recorded and mixed a Grammy nominated record by the legendary folk-singer Alice Gerrard and has produced and played on records by William Tyler, Mikael Jorgensen, Orpheo McCord and Daniel Rossen. Here’s Big Passenger, another track from Hirsch’s above noted new album. To me it’s got a J.J. Cale vibe with an updated contemporary sound. Check it out!

The Wild Feathers/Side Street Shakedown

Here’s another group I first encountered in the context of Best of What’s New: The Wild Feathers, which I first featured in this installment from last December. According to a bio on AllMusic, they prefer the term “American” over Americana when describing their sound, which falls somewhere between the earnest, neo-Southern rock of the Black Crowes, the bluesy swagger of the Black Keys, and the wide-open-road country-rock of the Eagles. Founded in 2010 in Nashville, Tenn., the band’s current lineup features founding members Ricky Young (guitar, vocals), Taylor Burns (guitar, vocals) and Joel King (bass, vocals), as well as Ben Dumas (drums). The Wild Feathers began touring frequently in 2013, playing with artists like Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and ZZ Ward. Their eponymous debut album appeared in August 2013. Side Street Shakedown is a track from the band’s fifth and new album Alvarado. This nice rocker was co-written by King, Young and Burns.

Natalie Hemby/It Takes One To Know One

Natalie Hemby is a country singer-songwriter who is also based in Nashville. According to her Apple Music profile, she first gained notice as a hit songwriter for Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, and Toby Keith, penning the hits “White Liar,” “Only Prettier,” and “Automatic” (all recorded by Lambert), “Pontoon” and “Tornado” (two hits by Little Big Town), and “Drinks After Work” (Keith). After establishing this résumé, Hemby struck out as a recording artist, releasing her debut, Puxico, early in 2017. She became a Billboard 200 Top Ten-charting artist as a member of the Highwomen (Hemby, Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, and Amanda Shires), who topped the country chart with their self-titled debut in 2019. Here’s It Takes One To Know One, a tune from Hemby’s new sophomore album Pins and Needles.

Yes/Minus the Man

I’d like to conclude this post with new music by progressive rock stalwarts Yes, who I trust don’t need an introduction. They are among a handful of bands I warmed to in prog rock, a genre I haven’t fully embraced. Since they were formed in 1968 by Jon Anderson (vocals), Peter Banks (guitar), Tony Kaye (keyboards), Chris Squire (bass) and Bill Bruford (drums), Yes have seen numerous line-up changes. The group’s last original member Squire passed away in 2015. The current line-up includes Jon Davison (vocals), Steve Howe (guitar), Geoff Downes (keyboards), Billy Sherwood (bass) and Alan White (drums). Howe, White and Downes are longtime members who first joined in 1970, 1972 and 1980, respectively. Last Friday (October 1), Yes released their 22nd studio album The Quest, their first with new music in seven years. “Much of the music was written in late 2019 with the rest in 2020,” Howe who produced the album said in a statement. “We commissioned several orchestrations to augment and enhance the overall sound of these fresh new recordings, hoping that our emphasis on melody, coupled with some expansive instrumental solo breaks, keeps up the momentum for our listeners.” Let’s check out Minus the Man, which was co-written by Davison and Sherwood. Davison’s vocals sound remarkably similar to Jon Anderson, even more so on some of the other tunes I’ve sampled thus far.

Sources: Wikipedia; Scott Hirsch Facebook page; Apple Music; Yes website; YouTube

Best of What’s New

A selection of newly released music that caught my attention

Hard to believe it’s Saturday again. Today also marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., which I find even more mind-boggling. While this blog is focused on music and rarely addresses other topics, having lived in New York at the time, this sad milestone is something I simply cannot ignore.

Like many other folks, especially those living in America in September 2001, I still remember aspects of this day, as if everything just had happened yesterday: The beautiful late summer weather; my boss telling the staff a jet plane (the first one) had just crashed into the World Trade Center; crossing 7th Avenue from my office in midtown Manhattan in the early afternoon and strangely not seeing any smoke when looking south or anything else unusual, other than more people walking in the street; making it onto a crowded subway train later in the day (after service had been restored) to get back to my apartment in Queens; watching the images of the carnage on CNN over and over again in disbelief…

I also remember something else, and this is the final point I’d like to make about 9/11. In the wake of the attacks, this country came together in many remarkable ways. There was a true sense of community and coping together. Political and other differences apparently didn’t matter much any longer. I just wish some folks who like to divide us would remember that spirit. The country could really use it today!

On to newly released music. This Best of What’s New installment features three music acts that are entirely new to me, as well as well as an artist I’ve listened to for more than 40 years. There’s some indie, some rock, some pop and some alternative, making for a good variety of music. Let’s get to it!

Colleen Green/I Wanna Be a Dog

I’d like to start with Colleen Green, an indie pop artist based in Los Angeles. According to her Apple Music profile, she is known for her sweetly gritty, lo-fi pop sound. Influenced by bands like the Ramones, Sublime, and the Descendents, Green’s early self-recorded tapes like 2010’s Milo Goes to Compton and 2011’s Cujo, were breezy punk- and new wave-inflected productions featuring Green’s home-blended mix of vocals, guitars, keyboards, and simple drum-machine beats. She has retained her lighthearted spirit even as her music has grown more ambitious and musically organic, as on 2015’s I Want to Grow Up and her 2019 EP, Colleen Green. Born in 1984 in Dunstable, Massachusetts, Green spent time in Boston before moving to Oakland in 2009 with a handful of friends. Once there, they began playing live shows in their living room. However, after experiencing some health problems, Green moved to her brother’s house in Los Angeles. It was during this period, armed with little more than a guitar and a drum machine, that she began writing and recording music at home. After releasing an EP and a cassette tape in 2010, Green secured a deal with Hardly Art Records and released her sophomore album Sock It To Me in March 2013. I Wanna Be a Dog is a nice track from her new album Cool that dropped yesterday (September 10) – reminds me a bit of Sheryl Crow!

Hawthorne Heights/The Rain Just Follows Me

Hawthorne Heights are a rock band formed in 2001 in Dayton, Ohio as A Day in the Life – and yep, that was a reference to the Beatles song. After signing with Confined Records, the band released their debut album Nine Reasons to Say Goodbye as A Day in the Life. By the time of their next release, The Silence in Black and White from June 2004, the band had changed their name to Hawthorne Heights. It looks like this album and the follow-on, If Only You Were Lonely from February 2006, have been their most successful releases to date, both in terms of chart performance and sales. The group’s current line-up includes founding members JT Woodruff (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, keyboards) and Matt Ridenour (bass, backing vocals), along with Mark McMillon (lead guitar, backing vocals) and Chris “Poppy” Popadak (drums, percussion, backing vocals). The Rain Just Follows Me, credited to all four members of the group, is the melodic title track from the band’s new album that also came out yesterday.

Sting/If It’s Love

The former frontman of The Police who after the group’s breakup launched his solo career in 1985 doesn’t need an introduction. On September 1, Sting announced a new album titled The Bridge that is scheduled for November 19. This coincided with the release of lead single If It’s Love. From the announcement: The Bridge was written in a year of global pandemic and finds Sting ruminating on personal loss, separation, disruption, lockdown, and extraordinary social and political turmoil...He [Sting – CMM] explains, “These songs are between one place and another, between one state of mind and another, between life and death, between relationships. Between pandemics, and between eras – politically, socially and psychologically, all of us are stuck in the middle of something. We need a bridge.” While this sounds like a somewhat grim description, If It’s Love is an upbeat pop tune penned by Sting, illustrating not all is doom and gloom. “I’m certainly not the first songwriter to equate falling in or out of love with an incurable sickness, nor will I be the last,” Sting commented in the above announcement. “’If It’s Love’ is my addition to that canon where the tropes of metaphorical symptoms, diagnosis, and downright incapacity are all familiar enough to make each of us smile ruefully.”

Pedro Samp/Harlequeen

Concluding this Best of What’s New installment is new music by Pedro Samp, a young talented music artist and multi-instrumentalist who was born in Rio de Janeiro and is based in Reigate, a small town located approximately 23 miles south of London. Samp already was exposed to music as a three-year-old, listening to his dad’s CD collection. Coincidentally, it included The Police. At the age of 11, he traded with one of his friends a Nintendo video game and two Led Zeppelin CDs for a Fender Stratocaster – gotta love this! By the time Samp was 19, he already worked on scoring movie soundtracks and also was the lead guitarist and songwriter for Crooked Kings, a UK indie band that toured nationally. After leaving the group, Samp launched a solo career in October 2019. To date, he has released 14 singles including his latest, Harlequeen, which came out on August 28. Samp does all the writing, singing, recording and arranging by himself. In addition to his main instrument the guitar, he plays bass, piano, synthesizer and also produces his own beats. Admittedly, it took me a couple of listens to appreciate this tune. Now, I’m kind of hooked! 🙂

Sources: Wikipedia; Apple Music; Sting website; YouTube

Best of What’s New

A selection of newly released music that caught my attention

After a week with record temperatures in my neck of the woods and other parts of the U.S., it looks like central New Jersey is getting a bit of a break for the weekend, though by Tuesday and Wednesday, the temperatures are supposed to hit the ’90s again. I can’t believe July has arrived. To me it feels like we’re already in the middle of summer. What does any of this have to do with newly released music? Nothing, so let’s get to this week’s Best of What’s New installment!

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers/105 Degrees

Until I checked Apple Music for new releases this week, I had no idea about the “new” album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Released yesterday (July 2), Angel Dream: Songs From The Motion Picture “She’s The One“, is what Petty’s website called a “reimagined reissue” to honor the 25th anniversary of Songs and Music from the Motion Picture “She’s the One”, the band’s ninth studio album that originally appeared in August 1996. As reported by NME, the remixed and remastered reissue adds four previously unreleased tracks and includes an extended version of Supernatural Radio. It also removes several tunes from the Wildflowers sessions that were included in the Wildflowers & All the Rest collection from last year. Here’s the nice rocker 105 Degrees (I guess we just can’t escape the high temperatures! 🙂 ), one of the previously unreleased tracks written by Tom Petty and the album’s lead single.

Hurry/A Fake Idea

Hurry are an indie rock band from Philadelphia, originally started as a solo project by principal songwriter Matt Scottoline. According to his Apple Music profile, Scottoline, the bassist of Philly EMO band Everyone Everywhere, spent his free time writing and recording songs on his own, delving further into power pop and ’90s guitar rock than his main band ever did…In 2012, he released an eight-song self-titled record under the Hurry name, playing all the instruments himself. When Everyone Everywhere began to cut back on their schedule in the early 2010s, Scottoline decided to form an actual band, recruiting drummer Rob DeCarolis and a rotating cadre of friends on bass to play live shows. In addition to Scottoline and DeCarolis, the band’s current line-up includes DeCarolis’ brother Joe DeCarolis (bass) and Justin Fox (guitar). A Fake Idea is a melodic track from Hurry’s fourth and new studio album Fake Ideas that came out on June 25.

Joseph of Mercury/Pretenders

Joseph W. Salusbury, who performs as Joseph of Mercury, is a Canadian singer-songwriter and producer from Toronto. His profile on Apple Music notes he creates stylish, brooding pop that merges austere electronic habitats with emotive pop crooning. Initially making the rounds in 2013 under the name Joseph & the Mercurials, he scored a taste of success with the single “I Want What I Want.” Salusbury spent the next several years working behind the scenes, co-writing songs for artists like Majid Jordan and Illangelo, and racking up a number of production credits, all the while privately honing his own new material. Rebranded as Joseph of Mercury, he reemerged in February 2017 with “Without Words,” a song that unified his love of classic crooner pop and dreamy electronic-oriented production. Additional singles followed throughout the year, each building on this style. Pretenders is the opener of Mercury’s new EP Wave III released on June 25. Apparently, the groovy tune first appeared as a single on June 2019. Technically, this means it’s the EP that’s new, not the song, so I’m cheating a little bit here.

K.C. Jones/Beginnings and Ends

K.C. Jones is a singer-songwriter from Lafayette, La. According to her website, Jones’ influences include “everything from classic country to psychedelic rock to contemporary indie roots singer-songwriters.” Jones’ bio also acknowledges her love of late 60s/early 70s rock. Beginnings and Ends is the first track of Jones’ debut studio album Queen of the in Between, which came out on June 18. Her backing band is made up of musicians from the local Lafayette scene, featuring Chris Stafford (pedal steel, guitars, keys, vocals), Trey Boudreaux (bass) and Jim Kolacek (drums, percussion). The album was produced by Joel Savoy, a notable Cajun musician. Beginnings and Ends has a cool sound, which includes what the website calls a “signature psych-twang baritone guitar sound throughout, sprinklings of Hammond B3 organ, even fuzzed-out, garage rock-esque guitar lines” – I couldn’t have said it any better! 🙂

Sources: Wikipedia; Tom Petty website; NME; Apple Music; K.C. Jones website; YouTube