Best of What’s New

Happy Saturday! Are you ready to listen to some new music? The featured tunes are on brand new albums that came out yesterday (March 3), except for the first, which appeared on Thursday, and the last, released on February 24.

Daisy Jones & The Six/Let Me Down Easy

My first pick this week feels a bit like the return of The Monkees: Let Me Down Easy by Daisy Jones & The Six, a fictional ’70s band loosely modeled after Fleetwood Mac, who are at the center of a new American streaming mini-TV series that debuted yesterday on Amazon Prime Video. According to this story in Variety, actors Riley Keough (Daisy Jones) and Sam Claflin (Billy Dunne), who had no prior professional singing experience, went through an intensive three-month band camp where together with their four fictitious bandmates they learned to sing and play the original music featured in the series. Some of the songs had input from Marcus Mumford, Phoebe Bridgers and Jackson Browne. The outcome is pretty remarkable. Perhaps genes also helped a bit: Keough is the granddaughter of Elvis Presley and daughter of the late Lisa Marie Presley. Here’s Let Me Down Easy, off the group’s debut album Aurora. Whether their life will continue beyond the TV series similar to The Monkees remains to be seen.

Fake Names/Don’t Blame Yourself

Unlike their name may suggest and contrary to my previous pick, Fake Names are a real band. From their AllMusic bio: An international punk supergroup, Fake Names are four musicians with long and impressive resumés who came together to play music that’s lean but full-bodied, melodic, and unpretentiously artful despite its velocity. The lineup includes former and current members of Minor Threat, Refused, Bad Religion, Embrace, Girls Against Boys, and Dag Nasty, and began as an informal collaboration between two longtime friends before it grew into a proper band who issued their self-titled debut album in 2020. While I featured them once before here in August 2021, I still don’t know all these punk bands from which they draw their members. Don’t Blame Yourself is a tune from Fake Names’ sophomore album Expendables. It’s credited to four members of the group: Dennis Lyxzén (lead vocals), Brian Baker (guitar), Michael Hampton (guitar) and Johnny Temple (bass). Brandon Canty (drums) completes the band’s line-up. Their melodic brand of punk is my kind of punk.

JAWNY/Fall in Love

JAWNY (born Jacob Lee-Nicholas Sullenger) is an indie pop singer-songwriter. Originally hailing from the San Francisco bay area, Sullenger picked up the guitar as a six-year-old and by the time he was in his early teens began writing songs. After briefly studying nursing in college, he dropped out to pursue a career in music. In 2016, the then-20-year-old relocated to Philadelphia where he started to make music under the moniker Johnny Utah. In January 2018, he released his eponymous debut EP. After signing with Interscope Records in January 2020, Sullenger changed his stage name to JAWNY and moved to Los Angeles. Fall in Love, co-written by Elie Rizek, Imad Royal and Sullenger (credited as JAWNY), is a tune from JAWNY’s first full-length album It’s Never Fair, Always True. While this song is certainly not in my core wheelhouse, it grew on me in anyway.

David Brewis/Keeping Up With Jessica

My final pick this week is new music by English singer-songwriter David Brewis. Together with his brother Peter Brewis, he is a member of English indie and art rock band Field Music, who they co-founded in 2004. To date, Field Music have released eight studio albums, two compilations, one soundtrack and one live album, in addition to more than 20 singles. During the band’s hiatus from 2007 to 2009, Brewis launched a solo music project called School of Language and has since come out with three albums under that name. His latest solo effort, The Soft Struggles, is the first to be released under his name. Here’s Keeping Up With Jessica, a laid-back lush pop tune with a jazzy vibe. Like all other tracks, it was penned by Brewis.

Last but not least, here’s a Spotify playlist of all the above tunes and a few additional songs by each of the featured artists.

Sources: Wikipedia; Variety; AllMusic; YouTube; Spotify

Best of What’s New

Welcome to another installment of my weekly recurring feature where I pick newly released songs I like. Let’s get to it without further ado. All tunes except for the last song appeared yesterday (January 7).

Dope Lemon/Rose Pink Cadillac

Dope Lemon is the solo project of Australian singer-songwriter Angus Stone. He first started to release music in 2007 with his sister as part of folk-pop duo Angus & Julia Stone. To date, four albums by the duo have appeared. In April 2009, Stone’s solo debut Smoking Gun came out under the pseudonym Lady of the Sunshine. Starting with his third solo album Honey Bones from April 2016, he has used the Dope Lemon moniker. Rose Pink Cadillac, co-written by him and Elliott Hammond, is the bouncy, funky title track of Stone’s fifth and latest solo release.

Best Coast/All Alone

I think this may be the first time I’m featuring a music artist in back-to-back Best of What’s New installments. Last week, I picked Best Coast’s then-most recently released song Leading. The rock duo, which includes songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Bethany Cosentino and guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno, was formed in 2009 in Los Angeles. Borrowing again from their Apple Music profile: Drawing inspiration from ’60s surf rock and girl groups, Best Coast’s noisy lo-fi sound gave a nod to contemporaneous acts like Hot Lava, the Vivian Girls, and Brilliant Colors. Best Coast’s first year saw a flurry of little releases. Best Coast had become something of a sensation by the time 2009 came to a close. Fast forward to yesterday and the deluxe issue of Best Coast’s fourth studio album Always Tomorrow. Here’s one of the new tunes, All Alone, written by Cosentino – nice pop-rock!

Gang of Youths/In the Wake of Your Leave

Gang of Youths are an Australian indie rock band formed in Sydney in 2011 by principal songwriter David Le’aupepe (lead vocals, guitar). The other members include Jung Kim (lead guitar, keyboards), Tom Hobden (violin, keyboards, guitar), Max Dunn (bass) and Donnie Borzestowski (drums). According to their Apple Music profile, the group’s 2015 debut album The Positions tackled Le’aupepe’s painful divorce and mental health struggles against hard-charging indie rock topped with his tumultuous baritone. Rather than dwell in darkness, though, Gang of Youths’ anthems spin true stories of trauma into triumphant badges of survival and even hopefulness. Witness the empowering, Springsteen-worthy pulse driving “Let Me Down Easy,” from 2017’s Go Farther in Lightness. After winning four ARIA Awards for that record, the band became the inaugural performers on the Australian edition of MTV Unplugged in 2018. In the Wake of Your Love, credited to all members of the group, is a new single from their upcoming third studio album Angel in Realtime scheduled for February 25.

Dirty Honey/Let’s Go Crazy

Let’s wrap up this post with one of my favorite discoveries from last year: Los Angeles rock band Dirty Honey and their new single Let’s Go Crazy. If you’re familiar with Prince, the title of the song may be familiar. It’s actually a tune he originally recorded for his sixth studio and soundtrack album Purple Rain released in June 1984. Dirty Honey, who were formed in 2017 and are influenced by bands like Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and Black Crowes, do a nice job putting Prince’s funky pop-oriented tune into a classic rock type of song – pretty cool! Their rendition came out on December 31 – another tune I swear I didn’t see in iTunes’ new releases when I checked that day.

Last but not least, here’s a playlist of the above tunes:

Sources: Wikipedia; Apple Music; YouTube; Spotify

Best of What’s New

Is it really Saturday again? Yep, according to my calendar it is! And, if you’re in the U.S., we’re two weeks out from Labor Day weekend – that’s just crazy! Though I’d quickly like to add it’s a widely held misconception the holiday marks the end of summer. The good news is summer officially lasts until September 22, so we still have about a month left! On to newly released music that caught my attention!

Maggie Rose/What Are We Fighting For

Maggie Rose is a Nashville-based country and rock singer-songwriter. According to her Apple Music profile, Cut from the same cloth as fiery crooners Jana Kramer, Miranda Lambert, and Carrie Underwood, country singer Maggie Rose was born Margaret Rose Durante in 1988 in Potomac, Maryland. Durante took to the stage at the age of 16, performing frequently with the B Street Band, a Bruce Springsteen cover group, before heading off to Clemson University. She left school in her sophomore year to focus on music, eventually relocating to Nashville, Tennessee on the advice of industry icon Tommy Mottola. Mottola helped her ink a deal with Universal Republic, which released her debut single, a 2009 cover of Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody.” She left the label the following year and signed with Emrose Records, releasing a pair of singles and an EP under her birth name before assuming the moniker Maggie Rose for the 2012 single “I Ain’t Your Mama.” A debut full-length album, Cut to Impress, produced by Blake Chancey, Stephony Smith, and James Stroud, appeared from RPM Records in the spring of 2013. Here’s What Are We Fighting For, the soulful opener of Rose’s third album Have a Seat that dropped yesterday (August 20). Rose wrote this great tune together with guitarist Alex Haddad and Larry Florman (background vocals, percussion), who according to her website are longtime band members/collaborators.

The Joy Formidable/Into the Blue

The Joy Formidable are a UK alternative rock band from Wales. They were formed in 2007 by childhood friends Ritzy Bryan (guitar, vocals) and Rhydian Davies (bass), who had previously played together in Manchester group Tricky Nixon, and Justin Stahley (drums). In 2009, following the band’s debut EP, current drummer Matthew James Thomas replaced Stahley. The following year, The Joy Formidable signed with Atlantic subsidiary Canvasback Records. Their debut album The Big Roar from January 2011 led to immediate chart success in the UK, climbing to no. 31 on the Official Albums Chart. Charting in the U.S. didn’t occur until the group’s sophomore album Wolf’s Law, which reached no. 51 and 11 on the Billboard 200 and Alternative Albums charts, respectively. Into the Blue is the title track of The Joy Formidable’s fifth and new album released yesterday. Like all other tracks on it, the song was co-written by Bryan and Davies.

Andrea von Kampen/That Spell

Andrea von Kampen is a Lincoln, Neb.-based f0lk singer-songwriter. From her website: With the successful release of two EP’s, Another Day (2015) and Desdemona (2016), a Christmas EP (2016), an Audiotree Live album (2017), and her debut full-length album Old Country (2019), Andrea has quickly established herself in the recording studio and on the road. She has shared the stage with artists such as Tall Heights, Ira Wolf, Dead Man Winter, The Brother Brothers, Dead Horses, Darling West and many more…Inspiration for Andrea’s songs often come from literature, art, and nature; in particular the literature and nature of Nebraska and the Midwest… Andrea von Kampen first appeared in the public eye with her submission of Let Me Down Easy into the 2016 Tiny Desk Contest. Within 24 hours of submission, NPR Music, All Songs Considered tweeted her video as the featured artist of the day, saying “we were completely blown away.” Ultimately, Andrea finished the competition as a top ten finalist, which lead to increased popularity of her EP, Another Day, specifically her song Trainsong. Since then, her EPs have amassed millions of streams on Spotify and continue to grow. On August 6, van Kampen released her sophomore album That Spell. Here’s the title track that had first appeared on July 23 as the lead single – nice music to sit down to listen.

The Doobie Brothers/Don’t Ya Mess With Me

I trust The Doobie Brothers need no introduction. It’s great to see a band that has been active for more than 45 years (with a 5-year hiatus between 1982 to 1987) is still releasing new music. Their official current line-up includes original members Tom Johnston (guitar, harmonica, piano, lead and backing vocals) and Patrick Simmons (guitar, banjo, flute, lead and backing vocals), along with longtime on-and-off member John McFee (guitar, pedal steel guitar, violin, harmonica, banjo, mandolin, backing vocals). Michael McDonald (keyboards, synthesizers, lead and backing vocals), another on-and-off member over the decades, will join the Doobies on their upcoming tour. On October 1, they are scheduled to release their 15th studio album Liberté. The album, which doesn’t include McDonald, is the group’s first new studio release in seven years since Southbound from November 2014, and their first of new original material since 2010’s World Gone Crazy. Here’s lead single Don’t Ya Mess With Me, one of four tracks released upfront as a self-titled EP on August 6 when the band announced Liberté. Johnston penned the rocker with co-producer John Shanks. It may be no China Grove, Rockin’ Down the Highway or Long Train Runnin’, but it still makes me a happy camper!

Sources: Wikipedia; Apple Music; Maggie Rose website; Andrea van Kampen website; YouTube