Atlanta-based four-piece Mamalarky have shared a third track and accompanying video taken from their forthcoming new album, Pocket Fantasy which is set for release on September 30 through Fire Talk Records. Following the album’s debut single and ode to friendship ‘Mythical Bonds’, and the more introspective, meandering track ‘It Hurts,’ the band up the ante with latest track ‘Shining Armor.’ Accompanied by a video animated by Alex Futtersak, who is known for several striking visuals he has created for Cautious Clay and Crumb, the track is the kind only Mamalarky could have created. It delivers a tightly-wound blend of jazz-inflected, woozy, intricate math-rock and indie-pop – somehow at once both angular and heady – seeing the band strike a chord somewhere between both their most jubilant and abrasive. Guitarist/vocalist Live Bennett comments: “This one goes out to conveniently anonymous YouTube haters. ‘Shining Armor’ is an invitation for anyone who has shit to say about how I play guitar to go ahead and reveal themselves and play a little song for us! When I wrote this I was getting a bunch of comments about my gender and appearance and how that corresponds with how I play guitar. The only response was to covert that anger into something that’s genuinely so fun to play. Alex Futtersak (@chippy_zone) took this idea and crafted a whole world around it, where our music is essentially breaking a curse over these angry knights in armor. I actually sent him some DIY motion capture from my room so some of the moves are true to form.”
Last year, the Los Angeles electro-pop duo Magdalena Bay released their much-acclaimed debut album Mercurial World. Next month, they’ll release a deluxe edition of that album that’ll feature a bunch of unreleased tracks. Magdalena Bay have shared the squelchy stop-start pop song ‘Unconditional.’ In a press release, the band describes ‘Unconditional’ as the “weird little cousin” of their Mercurial World single ‘Secrets (Your Fire),’ and they say that the ‘Unconditional’ video is their “dream birthday party.” [via Stereogum]
Ghost Car, the London-based international punk quartet, announced their debut album Truly Trash following their signing to One Little Independent Records. The riotous, quick-witted collection of 11 garage-rock bangers will be released on October 28. The album provides Ghost Car with a platform to rage against political injustices, as their unified harmonies attack patriarchal inequality, homophobia, racism and toxic relationships. Truly Trash is a call to reclaim autonomy and to revolt against the powers that uphold an archaic nationalist system. Of biting new single ‘Selfish, Spoiled’ they told us that “we’d definitely found our groove writing together collectively, this one’s about that person in the creative industry (I’m sure everyone knows someone) who is so overly privileged getting pay outs from their mega rich parents, while other artists from working class backgrounds have to work so much harder for any type of ‘exposure’ while doing their day job. 16% of people in creative jobs come from working class backgrounds according to PEC”. Ghost Car worked closely in the making of the satirical video with art director Claudia Torán who tells us; “The story behind the video is that dinner guests played by the band represent ‘the system’ itself, (politicians, bourgeoisie, etc. portrayed in an exaggerated, ironic, sarcastic way) whilst ‘enjoying’ what appears to be a lavish dinner party. With fake attitudes and ungrateful behaviour. They don’t want to face any problems or injustices. Only interested in their egos. It’s later revealed that the dinner party, like ‘the system’, is rotten. Nothing is what it appears to be. Everything is now chaotic and the characters destroy everything, transforming into crazed guests, challenging the camera, trying to get the message through “will you ever open your eyes?” They continue; “This feels particularly relevant in the current climate, in recent times what feels like a nationalistic fervour has been unleashed. An oppressive media imposes its own narrative, and doesn’t reflect a country where millions of people are not able to eat and heat their homes.” The video also sees them teaming up again with videographer Simon Eaves and artist Maria De La O Garrido who created the extravagant props and set design.
Anna B Savage is sharing her new single ‘The Ghost’, which is out now via City Slang Records and was produced by Mercury Prize winning producer Mike Lindsay (Lump, Tunng). Speaking about new single ‘The Ghost’, Savage said “Exhausted from years of being haunted by an ex-partner, this song is a plea to let go, or be let go of. Exploring the particular cruelty of the human brain, that love can be felt so deeply, hurt so essentially and so much, and still feel so present many years later.” The video for ‘The Ghost’ was directed by Savage with creative direction from Sophie Hurley-Walker. It was shot by Katie Silvester & Sophie Hurley-Walker over multiple days on location in North Yorkshire and was then edited by Louis Hemming-Lowe. On the visuals, Savage offered “We wanted to explore a narrative where uncomfortable meets beautiful, and everything is alternately comforting and immediately strange and uncanny, like the tendrils of old love, once so joyous turned sour and frightening.”
It’s been five years since we’ve gotten a new Alvvays album, but we won’t have to wait much longer now. Next month, the great Toronto indie-pop crew will follow their 2017 LP Antisocialites with their new long-player Blue Rev. Thus far, Alvvays have shared two early singles, ‘Pharmacist’ and ‘Easy On Your Own?’. Now, they’ve broken us off with two more tracks at the same time. ‘Very Online Guy,’ the first of the new Alvvays songs, is a chilly, rigid synth-rocker with its vocals artfully blurred. The sound matches the subject matter, since ‘Very Online Guy’ is a song about the whole culture of reply guys. (If you don’t know what a reply guy is, you might be one! Don’t be one!) The song has an extremely pixelated music video, and Alvvays members Molly Rankin and Alec O’Hanley co-directed it with Colby Richardson. “We directed a mosaic-mode vid for ‘V.O.G.’ with our videoguru friend Colby,” say the band. “This was easily the funnest thing we’ve ever shot. Enjoy our clunky low-bit collage of aliased key clacking and step-dance scramble on your CRTs.” [via Stereogum]
Singer songwriter Bellah has once again delivered with her brand new track ‘Garden.’ The mesmerising track was produced by Grammy-nominated producer Jonah Christian and serves as the lead single of her new EP Adultsville. Opening up on the project on social media, the performer told fans, “Adultsville is place I’ve found myself in without remembering how I got here or what to do now that I am here.” Watch the enchanting visuals Ray Fiasco-directed visuals above. [via GRM Daily]
Not just an affectionate pet name to call someone but also an acronym for ‘Break Up Band’, Tāmaki Makaurau’s BUB tackle the hurly-burly world of relationships head-on in their fuzz-pop anthem ‘Dreams’, out now with news of a nationwide single release tour. The project of Priya Sami (The Sami Sisters, Trip Pony, Dateline) with bandmates Daniel Barrett, Alex Freer (the mastermind behind A.C. Freazy) and Jana Te Nahu-Owen, BUB’s super catchy song is more than a little bittersweet, as Sami opens up about yearning for a soulmate but feeling a mite unlovable, coming to the conclusion “let’s blame society.” Bleakly relatable yet wryly fun and upbeat, the single’s spiralling new wave melodies operate on the earworm level of their 2021 debut tune ‘King Of Wands’, rammed home in director Liv McClymont’s video starring the group fishing for love off the sunny coastline of Maraetai — but do their fresh catches measure up? [via Under The Radar]
Five-time GRAMMY Award-winning legend and the best-selling female artist in country music history Shania Twain has unveiled her first new single since 2017, ‘Waking Up Dreaming’. The single serves as her first release with her new label partner Republic Nashville, a division of Republic Records. Shania also released a video for the single, which was directed by Isaac Rentz.
Izzy and the Black Trees bring raw punk energy with their noisy psych guitar riffs, strong beat, and feisty melodies: we hear the likes of Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, and PJ Harvey channeled through the lyrics and delivery of this passionate political anthem. “‘Kick Out the Damned’ is a simple message for those who long overstayed their unwanted welcome, for those who unrightfully claim what’s theirs, particularly authoritarian leaders whose golden statues will tumble and fall eventually,” says Izabela “Izzy” Rekowska. It calls for a shift change in society; an uprising of the suppressed, oppressed, and depressed. Mariusz Dojs animated the gorgeously-nightmarish Tim Burton-esque stop-motion video, whereupon we witness the toppling of historic statues in a frenetic run-for-your-life chase. Izzy and The Black Trees blast through the spiritual veil with an infectious, fuzz-ridden punk soundtrack. [via Post Punk]
Art-Pop trio, Stealing Sheep, have just released a mesmerizing video for ‘Never Gonna Live Up’ alongside new UK tour dates for November. Mixing electronic pop, disco, Italo, 80’s synths and ethereal vocals, the single is featured on their latest LP Wow Machine, an esoteric collection of ‘computer based’ compositions inspired by female electronic pioneers. The tracks include a ghost member, the legendary electronic trailblazer Delia Derbyshire, as her sci-fi samples weave their way through the audio landscapes of the LP. Most of us will know Delia Derbyshire from the Dr Who theme tune. Stealing Sheep’s album is threaded together with concepts such as ‘invisible women’ and ‘humans vs machines.’ Emily said, “It’s about the overwhelming feeling of wanting to give up and the anger and frustration that arises as you keep striving but never get anywhere, wading through the mud pushing against the machine”. Their new video depicts floating human heads lost in the ether, malfunctioning, glitching out and losing their humanity. “Synthetic everything’ surrounds us, face filters, virtual realities, perfected avatars…we’re living in the deep fake. How is this affecting our mental state? How does it control our next move? How will our mortal imperfections ever live up to that of the machines?” said Bex. Although the depiction is dystopian, the overriding feeling is of empowerment and that nothing can replace the idiosyncrasies of humanity. True beauty lies in imperfection. “We released this LP with a femme ran label called Both Sides Records, it felt like the perfect pairing for this music. The label manifesto for rebalancing gender in the music industry rang true to the messages we’re writing about,” said Bex. [via God Is in the TV]
PRIESTESS, the alt-pop artist hailing from London, releases her bewitching new single ‘Holy Flesh’. An evocative music video lands also, co-directed by fellow artist and friend Ana Lemos in the vast isolated British coastal setting of Fairlight Glen. ‘Holy Flesh’ is the first track to be released from PRIESTESS’ debut EP set for release before the year closes out. ‘Holy Flesh’ draws us in from the outset, with haunting piano melodies and the artist’s rich alluring vocal. The atmosphere builds with woozy electronics and finally explodes with an epic instrumental to striking effect, reminiscent of something akin to Nine Inch Nails. Kate said about the single “’Holy Flesh’ is about the sanctity within the feminine and the rage felt when violence in words and actions are inflicted against a person, when at the core they are a sacred being. It was written at a time when I felt ‘weak’ and undermined for showing emotion. For centuries, women have been made to feel like this and I wanted to write a song about that silent anger, which can often be left without anywhere to be released or placed within society. For the video concept. I wanted to create something similar to a Gothic Folk Horror short, using witchcraft and murder as the main themes.”
