Wild Rivers
“The more I see, the less I know about it.” It’s one of the first, most prominent lyrics on Sidelines, the much-anticipated full-length album from indie trio Wild Rivers. The phrasing is brief but says everything about adjusting to young adulthood — and beyond. The world places infinite pressure on us to have a plan for the future, but, as Wild Rivers eloquently articulate throughout Sidelines, it’s healthier to acknowledge — and even embrace — the not knowing.Comprising Khalid Yassein [guitar, vocals, keys], Devan Glover [vocals], and Andrew Oliver [lead guitar, synths], Toronto’s Wild Rivers have a gift for penning introspective lyrics and genre-fluid melodies that transmit wisdom beyond their years. The 10-track Sidelines, co-produced by Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Sharon van Etten) and Wild Rivers and recorded in Connecticut, Los Angeles and Khalid and Devan’s college town of Kingston, Ontario, touches on coming-of-age themes, such as learning how to be more present and coming to terms with life’s unpredictability.In many ways, the group’s own story is one about embracing the unknown. Born in Canada, Khalid, who is half-Egyptian, and Devan, who spent her childhood in London, England before returning to Canada, first connected at Queen’s University in Kingston in 2013. Starting out as an acoustic singer-songwriter project, Khalid and Devan expanded their aesthetic to a more full-bodied sound, adding multi-instrumentalist Andrew, who Khalid calls their “Swiss army knife.”Together, right before their first show, the band decided on the name Wild Rivers “in a Subway restaurant,” laughs Andrew. “Our friends were going to be there and there was a lot of pressure on making a big reveal, just cause we had really left it to the last minute,” adds Devan. “There wasn’t too much thought put into it. We just were like, ‘okay, this sounds cool. I’m going to get a foot-long’”.A portrait of their early post-college years, Sidelines is where Wild Rivers poured their collective impressions about merging into their mid-20s — a strange, liminal age where it’s easy to romanticize childhood. Sidelines, according to Andrew, looks back longingly upon “the time when you are truly present and you’re not having this forward-thinking vision where you’re worried about the next thing.”“A lot of [Sidelines] is about perspective and longing to be somewhere that you’re not, or trying to figure out how to get to a place that you want to be, whether it’s physically, emotionally,” says Devan. “I think we’re all kind of struggling with our sense of identity, in the stage of life that we’re in.”Sonically, Wild Rivers pull from a spectrum of sounds, imbuing pop, rock, indie, and folk into each song’s blueprint. “We all listen to a wide range of music, from hip-hop to indie rock to pop,” Devan says. “We like to pull our favorite parts of every genre and patch them together and see what works and see what feels good.”Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Amanda Shires
Grammy and Americana-award-winning singer-songwriter and virtuoso violinist Amanda Shires has pushed the reset button, releasing an album that is so unlike anything she has ever recorded before that you would be tempted to think it’s her debut album instead of her seventh. Take It Like a Man is a fearless confessional, showing the world what turning 40 looks like in 10 emotionally raw tracks, and as the title track intimates, not only can she “take it like a man,” but more importantly she can “Take it like Amanda,” as the last line proclaims– the clue to the entire album, and perhaps Shires herself. “I wrote that last line, ‘take it like a man,’” says Shires from her barn/studio located about 30 minutes outside of Nashville. “Then I changed it. I realized you can try and do what they say and take it like a man and show that you can withstand anything. But truly you can only take it like yourself.” There are few musicians of Amanda Shires’ stature who would be willing to sacrifice so much of their privacy and personal life for the sake of a record. But for her, art isn’t meant to be constrained, ever since her earliest days. The native Texan got her start playing fiddle with the legendary Texas Playboys at 15. She toured and collaborated with John Prine, Todd Snider, Justin Townes Earle and others, and has long been a member of husband Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit band. Winner of the Americana Music Association’s 2017 Emerging Artist of the Year award, she has released a series of rapturously received solo albums. In Shires’ world, music is how the tribe communicates. It’s that sort of communal thinking that inspired her to form The Highwomen – a concept that was born in 2016 which Amanda envisioned as an all-women supergroup intended to share the same swashbuckling spirit as ‘80s outlaw country outfit The Highwaymen. That band, consisting of country music legends Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson, was a successful reaction to a prevalent ageism in Nashville circles. The Highwomen – Shires, Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby — aspired to redress the scarcity of women artists on country radio, and released a critically acclaimed self-titled album in 2019. “I realize I have a responsibility to tell the truth and if it empowers someone, all the better,” Shires says, who is often seen donning one of her trademark hats from her vast collection. “My goal is to accurately explain my feelings to myself and hopefully find folks out there that feel or have felt the ways that I do. I share so much personal information so that others don’t have to feel alone.” That’s something she has achieved superbly on her new album, thanks in large part to a creative rebirth inspired by a chance encounter. Shires had no plans to record an album during the pandemic … if at all. A couple of events left her disenchanted with some of her choices, musical and otherwise, and had her wondering if she should continue. “I just wasn’t thinking about recording or performing, because I was protecting myself from what I thought could be the loss of music and touring altogether,” Shires admits. “Even when it was clear this wasn’t the bubonic plague, I wasn’t letting myself think of what the future looked like.” Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
The Happy Fits: Under The Shade Of Green Tour
Five years ago, the Happy Fits didn’t know they were going to be a band. Now, they’re recording their third full-length album, after their 2020 breakout release What Could Be Better. Turning a love for the Killers and Violent Femmes into their own compact pop songwriting, the New Jersey-based trio started as a casual summer project for high school friends Calvin Langman, Ross Monteith, and Luke Davis before going off to college. After their debut EP, 2016’s Awfully Apeelin’, took off on Spotify during their first semester, school stopped looking like the natural next step.“We came up with the title to record those four songs on our EP, and we thought that was going to be it,” guitarist Monteith says. “But once the songs got picked up and we really started questioning it, that’s when we decided to go for it and record the first album. When we left school was when we officially became a band.” Following their 2018 full-length Concentrate, the Happy Fits further honed their ambition for What Could Be Better’s collection of crowd-pleasers, which got the band signed to AWAL after being self-released.“Growing up, I was either in school, at home practicing, or at music school, and there was always this pressure to be really productive,” says primary songwriter Langman, who dropped out of conservatory to pursue the band. “When I decided that I wanted to do this for a living, being productive meant a totally different thing, because now I have to create things that are just in my head and make them real. Measuring how productive that is in my life, it’s hard to do that. There’s a lot of dissatisfaction I feel. I write that into the songs, all of the guilt that I feel for not sticking with a normal plan.”From the stomping “No Instructions” to the album-closing title track, What Could Be Better channels youthful malaise into songs that demand to be sung along to. The irresistible “Hold Me Down” cracked the top 30 on the alternative radio chart and became the album’s breakout favorite. Far from cloying, the band’s upbeat nature is rooted in a real desire to connect with a world that sometimes seems distant. It’s no wonder that NPR Fresh Air’s Ken Tucker said that they’re “making some of the freshest, catchiest pop music around right now.”On “What Could Be Better” Langman sings, “There’s a hole in my consciousness where I feel I belong,” a line inspired by his isolation as one of the few Asian-Americans in his hometown.“I don’t have crippling social anxiety, but I have always felt like I’m a bit different,” Langman says. “I grew up in rural New Jersey and was one of three Asian kids in my high school…Also, growing up, with Hollywood and TV shows, I didn’t see many people like me, especially half-Filipinos.”As the band’s stages get bigger, Langman knows he gets to be the role model he didn’t have, saying, “It feels really good to be someone that Filipino kids growing up in America could look up to.”Known for their uplifting live shows, the Happy Fits have stayed busy over the past year away from touring by livestreaming performances for fans around the world and making music videos for all 10 tracks on What Could Be Better. They’ve also been writing and recording a new album, planned for next spring. For now, fans can get a preview on the band’s 42-date fall tour of the US.Links: Website
The 502s
Known for their viral music videos on TikTok and raucous live shows, Floridian feel-good folk band The 502s are heading back on the road! The 502s provide the soundtrack for adventure, and that’s exactly the spirit behind the recent viral TikTok trend of their song “Just A Little While.” While the song was released in October 2021 as the lead-off to their album Could It Get Better Than This, it exploded in popularity in December, coinciding with the end of the fall school semester. The band fired up their TikTok one day and saw thousands of videos from college and high school students posting compilations of their school year experiences, all scored by the ebullient chorus of “Just A Little While.” Soon the trend caught on with users of all ages, locations and backgrounds, with the song appearing in videos of everything from motivational videos to makeup tutorials to globetrotting excursions. The result has been a massive influx of millions of new fans, pushing their streaming numbers through the roof and landing them on Billboard’s Hot Rock and Alternative chart, as well as the #3 spot on Spotify’s Top Viral 50 tracks. The 502s have grabbed the spotlight overnight, but they’re anything but a flash in the pan. The six strapping lads are no strangers to TikTok audiences, following a prior viral moment back in 2020 with a video for their song “Magdalene.” The most recent album is their second full length, and the band has already traveled on multiple tours across North America and Europe. The 502s’ sound can be described as a combination of the familiar folk pop singalongs of The Lumineers with the swelling instrumental energy of Paul Simon’s Graceland. Employing banjo, piano, and soprano saxophone as main instruments, the band is full of unexpected surprises and always ready to bring a smile and a shout when they hit the stage. Links: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes formed in 1981 as an acoustic punk band playing on the streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Their main influences at that time were Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps and The Velvet Underground. Their goal was to rock harder than any other acoustic act on the planet.After being rejected for an audition by a local nightclub, the Femmes set up outside a Pretenders gig and began to play. Pretenders’ lead singer Chrissie Hynde asked them to open that night’s show, which gave the young band a publicity boost and caught the attention of Richard Hell, who invited the Femmes to open for him in NYC. A rave review in the New York Times eventually led to a record deal, which in turn spawned worldwide touring.Violent Femmes eponymous debut album became the first and only album in Billboard history to enter the charts with a platinum certification- eight years after its release. Over the ensuing three decades, the Femmes became a mainstay of festivals, clubs, and theaters in more than 20 countries worldwide.MTV’s “Unplugged” show was inspired by the Femmes, although they never actually appeared on it. Their raw sound and honest lyrical perspective has been cited as an influence by artists as diverse as Pink, Keith Urban, The Smiths, The Pixies, John Cusack, Mark Morris, and Wim Wenders.More than 30 years into their careers, Violent Femmes spent 2019 touring extensively and released Hotel Last Resort. After the COVID shutdown they successfully completed a full US tour with Flogging Molly in 2021. US touring continues through 2022.2023 will mark the 40th anniversary of the band’s debut album. The songs continue to impact younger generations to this day.Website | Facebook | Twitter
A Giant Dog
A Giant Dog is raucous ear candy culled from the hook-driven melodies of Slade, the glammy swagger of Marc Bolan, the morbid fantasy of Killer-era Alice Cooper, and the unpredictable wit of Sparks. These songs are by, for, and about the losers, freaks, and outcasts. The lonely. The terminally horny. Boozehounds and party animals.Links: Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify
Russian Circles
Across the span of their previous seven studio albums, Chicago-based instrumental trio Russian Circles traversed a diverse topography of sounds, moods, and approaches with their limited armory of drums, bass, and guitar. It’s difficult to chart an evolution in their sound when their records have always felt like well-curated playlists. It wasn’t uncommon to hear drone-heavy meditations, dazzling prog exercises, knuckle-dragging riff-fests, haunting folk ballads, and tension-baiting noise rock all within the span of one album. Still, it’s difficult to ignore the progression from the pensive and intricate melodies of Enter (2006) to the layered distorted dirges of Blood Year (2019). It’s been a gradual sonic shift owing to the band’s rigorous tour schedule and a predilection towards playing their more authoritative material on stage. But with their latest album, Gnosis, Russian Circles eschew the varied terrain of their past work and bulldoze a path through the most tumultuous and harrowing territory of their sound. As was the case for so many artists in the age of COVID, the obstacles of geography and isolation forced Russian Circles to reevaluate their writing process. Rather than crafting songs out of fragmented ideas in the practice room, full songs were written and recorded independently before being shared with other members, so that their initial vision was retained. While these demos spanned the full breadth of the band’s varied styles, the more cinematic compositions were ultimately excised in favor of the physically cathartic pieces. Gnosis was engineered and mixed by Kurt Ballou. Drums and bass were tracked at Electrical Audio in Chicago to maximize the natural room sounds of the rhythm section. Guitar and synth overdubs were conducted at God City in Salem, MA to take advantage of Ballou’s vast inventory of amps and effects pedals. Despite the entirety of the album being written remotely, the songs were recorded with the full band playing together to retain the live feel of the material. Owing to the climate of the times and a new writing method, Russian Circles created their most fuming and focused work to date—an album that favors the exorcism of two years’ worth of tension over the melancholy and restraint that often colored their past endeavors.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Whitney
Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek could hear the staggering differences in the songs they were writing for their third album as Whitney, SPARK—the buoyant drum loops, the effortless falsetto hooks, the coruscant keyboard lines. They suddenly sounded like a band reimagined, their once-ramshackle folk-pop now brimming with unprecedented gusto and sheen. But could they see it, too?In the ad hoc studio the Chicago duo built in the living room of their rented Portland bungalow, a shared 2020 escape hatch amid breakups and lockdowns, Julien and Max decided to find out. Somewhere between midnight and dawn every night, their brains refracted by the late hour and light psychedelics, they’d play their latest creations while a hardware store disco ball spun overhead and slowed-down music videos from megastars spooled silently on YouTube. Did their own pop songs—so much more immediate and modern than their hazy origins—fit such big-budget reels? When the footage and the tunes linked, Julien and Max knew they had done it, that they’d finally found Whitney’s sound.Max and Julien are back in Chicago now, sharing a cozy walkup with a little studio, where they’re already building songs for the next Whitney album. Now that they let the past burn, everything is new for Max and Julien. SPARK is not only Whitney’s best album; it is an inspiring testament to perseverance and renewal, to best friends trusting each another enough to carry one another to the other side of this season of woe.Links: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Alex Cameron
The shimmering star of Alex Cameron continues to shine bright from the gutters of show business four albums into his prolific career as an entertainer. And yet, people still have questions. Is he really 6 ft 4 inches tall? Why do none of his suits fit him properly? If he really is Australian, then why does he speak in a strange sort of European world news accent?And while the answers to these questions may or may not be of any interest to anybody – there they remain – shot into the sky like flares as red hot as the notes from his business partner and horn player Roy Molloy’s alto saxophone.Maybe Alex is the one looking for the answers. Maybe he’s the one who asked the questions. One thing is for sure, the person writing these words is not the man himself. And I can assure you, I was compensated fairly for the work. Don’t believe me? Just ask his band – the sultry six piece (Cameron and Molloy included) of exceptionally multi talented musicians with whom the business associates tour. Juice, Henners, Kramer and Parsons. A dynamic force equal parts hip thrusting rhythm and tongue tantalising tunes.Fresh off the world’s biggest stages – Roskilde, Primavera, Laneway. This act has seen it all. Now it’s your turn to see them.Catch Alex Cameron, Roy Molloy, and their band of perpetual freshness in your town soon. They sell out shows. Don’t find out the hard way. Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Bandcamp
Caroline Rose
Superstar is an underdog story, and one not far off from Caroline Rose’s real life. After a years-long struggle to release what would ultimately become 2018’s LONER, deemed “a singular artistic statement from it’s unforgettable album art all the way down” (Pitchfork), Rose found herself in the midst of a new widespread audience, one both delightfully intrigued and perplexed about how and where to place her. That, combined with a developed set of studio skills and a challenge to “make something from nothing,” marked the beginning of Superstar. Gone are the polished Hollywood hunks and starlets of olde. Here is a shamelessly odd hero, or rather anti-hero, on a quest to become a someone.Inspired by cult classics such as The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, Mulholland Drive and the mockumentary Drop Dead Gorgeous, Superstar plays out like a film with a beginning, middle, and an open ending. In album opener “Nothing’s Impossible,” the protagonist receives a mistaken phone call from the glamorous Chateau Marmont hotel. Taking the call as a sign toward a star-studded future, they (gender neutral pronoun) leave behind everything in pursuit of a newly established destiny.What ensues is a cinematic paradox that in one moment finds them strutting down a neon strip in full Saturday Night Fever hip-swing donned in their finest threads, and the next sipping a dirty martini at the rundown apartment complex pool, dwelling on life’s unfortunate turns. It’s a narrative Rose pulled directly from the somewhat shameless desires of her own growing ambition, as well as the public breakdowns of several notable celebrities. “To me, the satire is in what we’ll do and put up with in order to be successful. I wanted to make a story out of those parts of myself that are for the most part undesirable, then inject them with steroids.”Rose worked on the album in order of the story’s timeline, ensuring each track represented a chapter of the narrative in her head. Songs bursting with self-aggrandizement often reveal moments of vulnerability. “Feel The Way I Want” leads us with boisterous confidence through heartache by refusing to let pain get the best of us. Disguised as a Prince-infused bop, “Do You Think We’ll Last Forever?” expresses the uncertainty and anxiety that come with seeing a new partner, ending in a full blown freakout of bottled up nervous energy. The S&M-fueled love song “Freak Like Me” and the darkly comedic “Command Z” ultimately expose a fragile person coming to terms with their own humanity. Rose sings, “I looked around at all the people there / as I thought everyone we know will know will someday be dead / God, I just don’t want it to end / Undo, I’m gonna do it again”.Rose began formulating the songs and ideas for a sequel-esque follow-up to LONER in between the band’s near-incessant touring schedule, from playing sold out headline shows across the country and beyond, to becoming fan favorites at some of the world’s biggest festivals. “Two years ago I started touring with nothing, not knowing if I’d even have a career. Then all of a sudden we were playing to hundreds of people in a town I’d never heard of. The whole thing was fascinating. It got me thinking, just how much can you build from nothing?” As a result, Superstar was written, recorded and produced by Rose in her 10’x12’ home studio, as well as on a portable rig she’d set up in green rooms while on tour.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
