Indie-pop singer-songwriter and producer Dylan Emmet released new single “Dumb”. Emmet says inspiration for the track came from his girlfriend, “She was joking about how ‘get away with murder’ when I do annoying things because for some reason, they don’t bother her the same way it does when other people do them. It got me thinking about what real love is.”
The track combines electronic indie and alternative pop with punk guitars and a synth production. Emment’s smooth vocals set over this mix drives home the emotion. While instrumentally “Dumb” feels like any old summer dancey-type song, but lyrically it’s a playful love song.
“Dumb” captures that feeling of letting love take control, even if it makes you do crazy and dumb things for that person. The track enforces the idea of loving another and letting their flaws be one of the reasons for that love.
In preparation for her debut EP release next month, singer-songwriter Lorelei Rose Taylor releases the title track “Versailles”. Taylor shares that the track “embodies a sort of cosmic dance between two people very much in love, but very toxic for each other – and everyone around them.”
“Versailles” feels light instrumentally, but lyrically you can sense a tug of war between love and toxicity. The lyrics that introduce the chorus “dance between the lines / dance around your lies”, shows that the main subject is aware of the problem occurring between the two people.
The song starts off with a serendipity feel but becomes more tragic as it progresses. With the use of building up the instrumentation and adding sirens as the song fades out, that progression is driven home.
Taylor’s style lives in the space between alternative, baroque rock, and dream-pop. With her soft, sweet, and raw vocals, coupled with her lyrical storytelling, Taylor is able to create vivid words of love, lust, and loss.
Rising alternative pop rock group Between Kings have released their newest EP Antidote.
The title track “Antidote” is a non-judgmental observation on mental health. Currently the track is making constant play across alternative rock radio stations, it is also setting up the overall tone of the EP. With the current state of our altered lives, “Antidote” observes the way we deal with pressure of society.
The EP also features tracks “Bad for Me”, “Show Me What It’s Like to Love” and “Too Young to Give a Fuck”. The latter released with a video using fan participation as a way to bring their fanbase together to celebrate new music even during these unsettling times.
Between Kings combines the nostalgic feeling of when music could save your life and the hopeful look into music’s future. This combination makes their music feel both familiar and new at the same time.
Antidote, introduces listeners to the new musical era of Between Kings, garnering anticipation for upcoming full-length Young Love.
Alt-pop singer-songwriter Sailing Stones drops new album Polymnia. The album has circles around romantic innocence and longing set in uncertainty.
“Fire Escape”, the last single released before the release of the album. The track is a love song watching one lose that comfort of innocence. Even with harsh words like “fire that rages for days”, the song itself is a gentle story of surrendering to love. The idea of letting go of that innocence and letting love take over is full of complex emotions but also simple ones. “Fire Escape” is a reminiscent take on a story of love that makes you feel “both broken and alive”
“Comfort”, is a song about coming to terms with your mistakes when it comes to love, but how you still seek the comfort a relationship brings. With opening words “I’m tired” we see from the start that Lindfor is introducing a subject tired of the love routine they are putting themselves through. However we see the struggle the subject faces by wanting to stop old habits but being pulled back in because it’s what they know.
What makes Polymnia special is Jenny Lindfors ability to combine mixed emotions that are sometimes contradictory, into her songs with ease.
Alt-pop singer-songwriter Anna Shoemaker has just released the music video for “Someone”, the next focus track on her recently dropped album Everything is Embarrassing.
The 25-year-old artist became a SoundCloud sensation with her viral mashup of Kendrick Lamar’s “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” and Chance the Rapper’s “Cocoa Butter Kisses,” which she recorded on her bedroom floor. The song now has over 869,000+ streams and caught the attention of key tastemakers. Shoemaker then signed to 5Towns Records in late 2017 when she was chosen as Steve Madden’s Emerging Artist of the Year. In September of 2018, Shoemaker released her debut EP, East Side, produced by GRAMMY- nominated producer JT Daly. While still catchy and pop, the new songs feel more vulnerable and personal than ever. She finds putting pen to paper is often the best way to process her emotions, thus creating raw and honest lyricism that will certainly define Shoemaker’s releases.
Shoemaker filmed the charming video for her new release herself on her iphone, which follows the young artist and her “Someone” through a night at their apartment. Full of wine, pizza, and face masks, it shows a budding romance through rose-colored glasses, tinted with hope and adoration for her love. The track itself is full of bright, head-bobbing synth beats and gently plucked guitar with Shoemaker’s unique voice painting it with her own style. The intimate video pairs perfectly with the equally intimate song, giving listeners and viewers a firm grasp on Shoemaker’s artistic vision, which is full of songs bursting with relatable emotional and life experiences.
The music video for “Someone” and Everything is Embarrassing is out now via BMG for your streaming consumption. Keep up with Anna Shoemaker here.
Alt group Charming Liars have followed up their recent success with the release of new track, ‘Blame”. Charming Liars’ journey began in the west-end London music scene, with guitarist Karnig Manoukian and bassist Mike Kruger writing and playing together in a series of bands in their teen years (these boys go way back) before moving to LA where they connected with vocalist Kiliyan Maguire to solidify the band’s lineup.
The group kept busy in 2019, releasing their debut album Thought, Flesh, and Bone, a follow up acoustic EP, Bare Bones, and (as if that wasn’t enough) a live collection called Live 2019. To top things off, Charming Liars also did a headline run on the West Coast, toured Europe with The Faim, did a U.S. run in support of Angels and Airwaves, and were on a UK and European tour with Palaye Royale before it got cut short due to COVID-19.
Of the song, the band says “Blame’ is an explosive anthem asking for one more shot at love from your last late night call. What happens when the lights fade and the drinks dry up? When your memory starts to dive deep into the wreckage of lovers past? Blame.”
Explosive indeed, the new track combines electrically-charged beats with Maguire’s effortlessly cool and stylish vocals, skyrocketing the tune into the alt-pop atmosphere. It’s an anthemic love song that begs for forgiveness and another shot, but the instrumentation and delivery softens the hard corners of the serious subject matter, keeping the track feeling light as a feather and full of hope.
“Blame” is out on all streaming platforms now and the cancelled European dates in support of Palaye Royale have now been rescheduled for August and September this year.
RESCHEDULED EUROPEAN TOUR W/ PALAYE ROYALE AUGUST
19th – Circolo Magnolia, Milan IT
24th –Technikum, Berlin DE
26th – Plaza, Zurich CH
27th – A38, Budapest HU
28th – Lucerna Music Bar, Prague CZ
31st – Razzmatazz, Barcelona ES
SEPTEMBER
1st – Sala Cool, Madrid ES
3rd – Akakao, St. Petersburg RU
4th – The 1930, Moscow RU
6th – Bel Etage Event Club, Kiev UA
Swedish duo The Radio Dept. just released their latest track “You Fear the Wrong Thing Baby” on March 20th, perfectly showcasing their quintessential dream-pop style that we have all come to know and love. Edging on ethereal, the reverb in this track makes it feel like a glittering kaleidoscope soundscape before we even reach the words. The lyrics of this track, coincidentally enough, fit perfectly with the current global health crisis. “When we recorded the song we had no idea what was coming,” expresses the duo. “The text is against conservatism and a tribute to youth as a progressive force.”
Toronto-based artist Elrichman (also known as Paul Elrichman of Ducks Unlimited and Germaphobes) has just released his new single, “I Mostly Consume”, which is from his upcoming sophomore LP, Heaven’s Mayor. The record is the follow up to his 2014 effort, Young, Healthy and Wonderful, and is to be released this summer via Bobo Integral. It features a wealth of Toronto-based talent with Alex Gamble on production duties (Fucked Up, Alvvays) and contributions from Zach Bines (Weaves) and Jon Pappo (Hooded Fang) as well as the Boston-based Anh Phung (Twisted Pine).
Speaking of the track, Paul says: “‘I Mostly Consume’ is about feeling like you exist on this earth mostly to consume, which is the sense I have sometimes. The bridges set scenes of impending doom, but everything else is pretty cheery so I guess I’m a blissful consumer!”
The song is quite bright and poppy for a topic as serious as impending doom, and Elrichman juxtaposes serious topics (the album itself focuses on the notion that we only exist on this planet for the purpose of consuming) with upbeat 80s jangle-pop vibes. Elrichman explores a variety of tempos and strips back mid-tune for a thoughtful instrumental section comprised of piano and strings in the middle of the track before launching back into a high-energy second half for a strong finish.
“I Mostly Consume” is out now on all streaming platforms and Heaven’s Mayor is to be released in summer of 2020 via Bobo Integral followed by a string of North American tour dates.
On March 12th, DED, the four-piece nu-metal powerhouse from Phoenix, AZ,released a 2-track mini EP titled Mannequin Eyes – and it’s worth screaming about. Not one to be missed, this heart-pounding release is features radio hit “A MANNEQUIN IDOL (Lullaby)” as well as premiere single “Eyes Sewn Shut”.
The elements present in Mannequin Eyes represent the best of DED’s idiosyncrasies, including riffs that move at the speed of light, haunting vocals that invoke the fear of God, and messages that scorn the replicated and mundane. But with track “A MANNEQUIN IDOL (Lullaby)”, DED manages to weave aspects of three distinct genres into one robust arrangement, not unlike multiple personas battling over the mouthpiece in conveying DED’s distaste. Bearing themes of disgust for the conveyor-belt machine of the modern music industry and all things ingenuine, vocalist Joe Cotela leads the wind-tunnel dynamic of this thrashing headbanger by employing a refreshing variation vocal styles that push the affect of the track over the listener’s head and through the roof. Through verses of this track, the transitions between intense, horrifying whispers to screams representative of classic “metal” reveals DED’s talent within their wheelhouse – But Cotela’s switch to a resounding pop-format chorus marked by vocals more reminiscent of modern alternative rock display the band’s versatility in managing a tidal wave of emotion as it pulls back and forth, over and over.
“Eyes Sewn Shut” is closer to a standard nu-metal/metalcore screamer, with lyrics like “I won’t be silenced, don’t make me violent / You get what you deserve”. This track continues DED’s message of rejecting the reality forced upon the many by the few, and like “A MANNEQUIN IDOL (Lullaby)”, features a chorus that has leanings toward modern alternative rock laced between its slamming accompaniments from guitarist David Ludlow, bassist Kyle Koelsch, and drummer Matt Reinhard.
Mannequin Eyes is DED’s first release since 2017 breakout album MIS-AN-THROPE, which pushed the ceiling with a sky-high stream count from the moment of its inception. Prior to the album’s debut, the group released three singles in anticipation: See “FMFY”, “Anti-Everything”, and “Dead to Me”.
DED is set to release another full length album in 2020. Starting March 24, the group will tour with In This Moment, Black Veil Brides and Raven.
