Thrice
To emerge from a global pandemic with a renewed sense of situational awareness, hard won insight, and a new album is the kind of move we’ve come to expect from Thrice over the last twenty years. With Horizons/East, Dustin Kensrue and his bandmates address, with candor and courage, the fragile and awkward arrangements that pass for civilization, while inviting us to dwell more knowingly within our own lives. Without surrendering any of the energy and hard edge of their previous albums, they’ve given us a profoundly meditative work which serves as a musical summons to everyday attentiveness.Since forming Thrice with guitarist Teppei Teranishi, bassist Eddie Breckenridge, and drummer Riley Breckenridge in 1998, Kensrue has never been one to back down from a mental fight. This mood is set by the opening synth-driven number “Color of the Sky,” which sounds well-suited to accompany the closing credits of the Stranger Things season finale. Think Flying Lotus giving way to Elbow and setting the listener down in a new dimension. A self-recorded effort, Horizons/East conveys a palpable sense of danger, determination, and possibility. Scott Evans (Sleep, Kowloon Walled City, Yautja, Town Portal) is on mixing duties, conjuring a landscape of gloom, glow, and glory.On “Buried in the Sun,” which had the working title of “D.C. Bass,” the band’s fondness for bands like Fugazi and Frodus comes to the fore. In it we learn that there’s a military-industrial complex, a vast apparatus of legal bullying, to take on (I saw the fire on the television/the DoD or the CIA), but the threat to our mental health in acknowledging our own country’s participation in the terror trade is both immersive and interior. The psychic struggle will often come down to what we’re doing with our tools, how we hold what passes before our minds in dreams and on screens. There’s a lot to take in and a lot to be mad about, but Horizons/East invites us to slow tape and see.Kensrue doesn’t believe, for instance, that Twitter can be blamed for what we bring to it: “It amplifies things. It can exacerbate things. But it isn’t creating anything on its own.” The task, it seems, is to follow the creative impulse into every corner, to hold reality at a better, more righteous angle, lest we misinterpret or project our own chaos on all incoming data. This is where the songs on Horizons/East function as epiphanies through which listeners are invited and equipped to conjure our own. An especially powerful example of this is “Summer Set Fire To Rain.”“Summer Set Fire to the Rain” is the title, and repeated mantra, of the record’s fifth track. It’s something that popped out as the band was writing one day. “I sang it,” Kensrue recalls, “and thought…Well, that’s beautiful. I’m gonna keep that line.” From there, he applied it to the everyday-somewhere occurrence of getting stuck in the rain as sun shines. “The rain’s coming down and it actually can be beautiful, all these raindrops just lit up by the sun but….if you interpret it a certain way, you’re suffering now…You could miss that moment by worrying about getting wet.” Later, over the already interlacing melodies of guitar, bass and vocals, in the final chorus the band threads a new melody in the mix as Kensrue sings “Don’t you see everything’s interweaving?” It’s a lyrical question that proffers a mystic assertion.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Osees
From Stereogum: Rich Homie Quan talked the talk, but John Dwyer walks the walk: The man will never stop going in. The prolific underground rock legend stayed busy with a zillion improvisational side projects during the pandemic, and it didn’t stop him from releasing a new album with main band Osees last year. Now — on the release date of the new Live At Levitation — he’s already following up A Foul Form with Intercepted Message, another new Osees LP. Here’s Dwyer’s statement about the new album: A pop record for tired times. Sugared with bits of shatterproof glass to put more crack in your strap. At long last, Verse / chorus A weathered thesaurus This is Osees bookend sound Early grade garage pop meets proto-synth punk suicide-repellant Have a whack at the grass or listen while flat on your ass Heaps of electronic whirling accelerants to gum up your cheapskate broadband Social media toilet scrapers unite! Allow your 24 hour news cycle eyes to squint at this smiling abattoir doorman You can find your place here at long last All are welcome From the get go to the finale …. A distant crackling transmission of 80s synth last-dance-of-the-night tune for your lost loves Suffering from Politic amnesia? Bored of AI-generated pop slop? Then this one is for you, our friends Wasteland wanderer, stick around. Love y’all For fans of Teutonic synth punk and Thee Oh Sees (who the f&ck are they?) – John Dwyer Website
The Dip
“Some of the most potent music of their careers” – Seattle Times”Infectiously thrilling melodies and solid musicianship…The Dip remains a genuinely one of a kind act among its peers, its members’ educated musicianship and nostalgic vision pairing sublimely each time.” – Under the Radar“Sticking With It by The Dip isn’t just a solid…soul album. It’s also a musical antidepressant with no prescription needed. It is the kind of album you can put on anytime you want to put yourself in a better mood and dance your troubles away.” – Glide MagazineOn their Dualtone Records debut Sticking With It, Seattle-based seven piece The Dip deliver the kind of unbridled rhythm-and-blues that hits on every emotional level. Inciting everything from raw catharsis to heavy-hearted reckoning to wildly exuberant joy, the self-produced album marks a major creative breakthrough for the band. To that end, Sticking With It fully channels the vitality of the freewheeling live show that’s earned them an ardent following over the last decade, matching their sophisticated musicianship with a fantastically loose energy. When met with The Dip’s reflection on matters both timely (the crush of late capitalism, the glaring need for true community) and irrefutably timeless (the vast complexities of love and loss), the resulting body of work captures the mood of the current moment while offering immediate escape into a more elevated state of mind.The third full-length from The Dip, Sticking With It came to life at their studio in Seattle’s Central District, a modest but meticulously outfitted space the band built entirely on their own. Although the album features a small number of guest musicians (including a Macedonia based string ensemble and background singers Vanessa Bryan, Dasha Chadwick, and Nic Jackson), The Dip crafted each extravagantly arranged track according to a self contained process that allowed for a rare depth of exploration and spontaneity. “It’s really important to us to catch those lightning-in-a bottle moments when you can feel the momentum of a song taking shape,” says drummer Jarred Katz. “At the same time, it makes a huge difference to have this homebase where we can take our time with the sounds and not worry about that precious studio clock ticking away.”Kicking off with a magnificent bang, Sticking With It opens on “Paddle to the Stars”: a prime introduction to the groove-heavy and richly detailed sound The Dip have embodied since playing house parties in the early 2010s. The first song recorded for the album, “Paddle to the Stars” arrives as a striking departure from the reverb drenched aesthetic the band’s favored in the past. “We’d gotten some nicer gear to play with, and wanted to try something completely different in terms of our guitar sounds,” notes guitarist Jacob Lundgren. “We ended up going with a very dry sound with no reverb behind it, which allows you to really hear the room and feels so much more like the live show.” And as lead vocalist Thomas Eddy reveals, the song’s stark quality is perfectly suited to its candid declaration of devotion. “It’s about being in relationship with someone who’s emotionally in touch beyond your own abilities, but recognizing that and wanting to invest in opening up,” he says. “I liked the idea of playing with the image of the immensity of the ocean, how it’s sustaining but also dangerous— and if you don’t watch out, it’ll get you.”Website
Samia
There’s a line on Honey, the latest album from Nashville-via-NYC songwriter Samia, about Aspen Grove, a collection of 40,000 trees in the plains of North America, all connected by a single expansive root system. There’s no stronger metaphor for the audience the 25-year-old empathy engine has been generating since she began releasing music seven years ago. Her songs, her fans, her friends: one enormous, interconnected ecosystem.Honey, comprised of eleven new moments of catharsis, is by and for that organism. Set for release on January 23rd 2023 via Grand Jury Music, the album was recorded at North Carolina studio Betty’s –- owned and operated by Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sandborn and Amelia Meath. It was produced by Caleb Wright, part of the team that helmed Samia’s breakthrough 2020 debut The Baby, and a founding member of one of Samia’s favorite bands, The Happy Children. It features some of her nearest and dearest friends: Christian Lee Hutson, Briston Maroney, Jake Luppen, Raffaella. Its songs were surreptitiously road tested for her devotees while opening for Lucy Dacus, Courtney Barnett, and more.The end result is what Samia calls simply “a real community record.”“We tried to be as honest as possible and keep the songs as raw as possible,” Samia said. “We talked a lot about zooming out and zooming in, giving a lot of weight to the small moments and considering them as part of a big picture, how they factor into everything else that’s happening in the world.”Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
Acid Dad
Acid Dad is an American alternative-rock band composed of singer-guitarists, Vaughn Hunt and Sean Fahey, and drummer, Trevor Mustoe. Vaughn first started recording the band in his Bushwick, NY basement releasing singles “Brain Body” and their first EP “Let’s Plan a Robbery.” Appearing live in the New York City rock scene in 2016, Acid Dad quickly moved to a world stage with their self-titled debut album, released by Greenway Records in 2018.During 2020, the band spent their time building a new studio space in Queens, NY, while continuing to independently produce all their own music, art and even building their own guitars. With a new space and vision, the band produced their second LP, “Take It From The Dead,” set to be co-released in June 2021 by Brooklyn’s Greenway Records and psych powerhouse LEVITATION’s label, The Reverberation Appreciation Society.“Take It From The Dead” features an array of different influences ranging from 90’s neo-psych, modern post-punk and 70’s rock-n-roll. Acid Dad has crafted a record that sounds new, yet feels nostalgic. In contrast to their earlier work, they make use of slower tempos and expand their sound to include songs that are both more intricate and more hypnotic. To accompany the new record, the band spent the last year collaborating with video artist Webb Hunt, producing psych and glitch art videos that form a visual counterpart to the dreamy distortions of their sound.Acid Dad is Vaughn Hunt (guitars and vocals), Sean Fahey (guitars and vocals) and Trevor Mustoe (drums).Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Mikaela Davis
Mikaela Davis is a patient, meticulous songwriter. The Hudson Valley-based artist peels back the gauze of the world’s distractions to reveal the tiny details we might have missed, spotlighting the importance of nourishing friendships, perseverance in the face of adversity and the lessons the natural world can teach us. A prolific and distinctive harpist, Davis molds her classical music training to create an original and genre-bending catalog that weaves together 60s pop-soaked melodies, psychedelia and driving bluegrass rock. Davis has also shared the stage with the likes of Bob Weir, Christian McBride, Bon Iver, Lake Street Dive and Circles Around the Sun, showcasing her ability to stretch her creative talents across just about any canvas.Along with her band Southern Star, the group recently recorded at the Relix studio in New York City, releasing an exclusive Relix Studios vinyl. Featuring songs from her 2018 debut album Delivery, as well as latest single “Don’t Stop Now”, the release boasts the trajectory and intimacy of a band who have been playing together for the better part of a decade. Davis’ new album, set for release later this year and produced by Davis and the band, is the first time Southern Star will appear on a full-length studio album together. With these new songs set to confirm the Rochester-native’s inimitable skills and spirit, Davis is poised to propel to bigger stages and even brighter spotlights.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
Nicotine Dolls
Nicotine Dolls is a NYC-based Pop/Rock band formed in 2017 with lead singer Sam Cieri, Guitarist John Hays, Bassist John Merritt, and Drummer Abel Tabares.The band has been steadily releasing singles and EPs since 2019. They have built a devoted and strong base through their successful Social Media engagement. The band’s most recent release “What Makes You Sad” was able to garner over 19k Pre-Saves and opened at #5 on the iTunes all Genre chart.Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
Happy Landing
Happy Landing is an American folk rock band formed in Oxford, Mississippi in 2020 by Matty Hendley (lead vocals, guitar), Keegan Christensen (vocals, keys), Jacob Christensen (drums), Andrew Gardner (fiddle, vocals), and WIlson Moyer (bass/guitar, vocals).The group pioneers a new wave of indie folk music, captivating audiences around the country with their energetic live shows and fresh sound, blended from the roots of southern rock, punk and folk.Following a successful year of touring with notable bands like The Head and The Heart and The 502’s, the band hits the road again in 2023 with the release of their third studio EP.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Wyatt Easterling and The Modern Day Drifters
Wyatt Easterling’s decades of success in the music industry includes a myriad of roles from performer to songwriter, and as an executive of both a major record label and publishing company. This wealth of experience and accompanying success in all these varying facets of the industry, give him a unique and valuable understanding of the music business.When Atlantic Records opened their Nashville office, Easterling signed on as Chief of A&R, and started his track record of success by signing artists such as Tracy Lawrence, Michael Johnson, Neal McCoy, and John Michael Montgomery.Easterling along with Doug Johnson, produced Montgomery’s multi-platinum debut album, Life’s A Dance.Wyatt then partnered with Miles Copeland (Sting, The Police, IRS Records) and formed the Nashville Division of Bugle Publishing Group and Firstars Management as Director of Operations. Easterling brought Keith Urban to Firstars Management and worked at length with Urban in the studio recording the project that landed Keith his first major deal at Warner Bros. Records.In addition to ushering notable artists into the mainstream, Easterling and Copeland created Bugle Publishing Group’s The Castle, the first of its kind songwriter’s retreat held yearly at Miles Copeland’s Chateau Marouatte in France. This event saw great success with a long list of esteemed artists and writers such as Keith Urban, Cher, Carole King, Jon Bon Jovi, Peter Frampton, Olivia Newton-John, and Stuart Copeland, to name a few.Wyatt then signed alternative roots artist Paul Thorn into the company for management and publishing. Easterling produced Paul’s album, Hammer & Nail along with Greg Wells and Billy Maddox for A&M Records, Los Angeles.After Bugle Publishing, Easterling decided it was time to get back to songwriting and promptly signed with DreamWorks Publishing. Eventually Wyatt opened Terra Nova Music, his own publishing company in Nashville, which had eight writers on staff.Wyatt’s songwriting success includes “Modern Day Drifter” (Dierks Bentley), “Life’s So Funny” (Joe Diffie), “This Time I’m Taking My Time” (Neal McCoy).Wyatt has released his 5th album titled From Where I Stand on July 29th, 2022 and is currently touring to support this critically acclaimed release.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Medium Build
Nick Carpenter wants honesty, even when it’s uncomfortable. Under the moniker Medium Build, Carpenter finds levity in the rough edges and complications, crafting slice-of-life songs about growing up and messing up. “The worst thing a song can do is not make me feel,” Carpenter says. “I want a song to tell me too much.” After growing out of his church upbringing of mission trips and “sad Jesus songs,” Carpenter found himself in Anchorage, Alaska, where Medium Build began to take its full form. A songwriter first, Carpenter finds inspiration in storytellers like Billy Joel and Randy Newman, combining narrative lyrics with an R&B-tinged, guitar-driven production style: His first single of 2022, “comeonback,” finds Carpenter pleading for another chance with his full chest, cutting deep into a memory with brutal honesty. Medium Build is an amalgamation of genres and influences with Carpenter at its core, approaching life and music with humor, empathy and casual absurdity.Website | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
