by Meredith Schneider | Aug 14, 2018 | singles, wolf tracks
On September 10th, Columbus, Ohio-based rock collective The Candescents – comprised of Alex Harris, Alex von Lehmden, Miguel Alfredo Acero III, and Cody von Lehmden – releases their debut EP Riverside Dr. As the next glimpse into the music and what to expect from that title, we’ve got their third track “Back of Your Hand” to share. From the beginning, there’s a raw, party-like atmosphere to the track, intricate lyrics setting a standard amidst the pop/rock sounds. The soundscape makes “Back of Your Hand” the perfect sunsoaked burner, and we’re more than smitten.
Keep up with The Candescents here.
by Aubrey Hanson | Aug 14, 2018 | albums, review
Being that it’s summer time, we’re all very busy, but smart and talented Shonali Bhowmik takes busy to the next level! Not only did she attend law school throughout her career, but Bhowmik also leads a life of acting, and performing with her band Tigers & Monkeys. Tigers & Monkeys create a blend of indie rock music that matches perfectly with the alternative style vocals with a hint of some southern charm in there to take it bake to Bhowmik’s childhood roots. Tigers & Monkeys are expected to release their new album Saturday Destroyer on September 17, which you will want to keep an eye out for, because the best is yet to come! As a teaser, the band recently released their new single “In An Instant” which combines everything that you would want to hear coming from a new album.
In order to get ready for their new album release, stay up to date with Tigers & Monkeys on Facebook and by listening to all of their previous music!
by ImperfectFifth | Aug 14, 2018 | perspective
When I was about seven years old, I was introduced to my first record by an old man on a train. He was seated with three other older men, as the train car rolled through a warm summer’s evening. His face seemed weary and craggy with years of travel, and despite his small stature he drew me in and commanded my attention. With a voice sharp yet gruff, he dispensed life advice in exchange for whiskey and cigarettes, which he bummed from the silver-bearded man seated across from him.
After the conversation wound down, the old man put his head against the window and drifted off to sleep. And then, quite unexpectedly, this old man passed away in his sleep. He died right in front of me. And unbelievably, an apparition began to fill the train car. It was the ghost of the old man, looming large over the other men. The silver-bearded man was singing this song, and the ghost began to dance and sing along. Finally, the ghost pulled out a deck of cards, threw them in the air, and showered the train car with them. Then the scene ended.
I was seven years old, watching an episode of The Muppet Show. I was completely transfixed by what I had just seen and heard. And the song that the silver-bearded man and the puppets had been singing was absolutely infectious. “You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em…” It just completely took over my mind. What was this song? Who was that silver-bearded man? I was possessed with the need for answers.
And after demanding more information on all of this from my parents, they eventually bought me a cassette tape. 20 Greatest Hits by Kenny Rogers. And I played that tape until it wore out, on a little brown Fisher-Price cassette player. “The Gambler” was the greatest song ever written, according to my seven year-old ears. And for the next several months, wherever I went, that song came along in my head. Sometimes complete with the dancing ghost of an old man. And a group of puppets, their voices rising together in that rousing triumphant chorus.
It’s weird. Now that I look back on some of my earliest attempts at songwriting, they are replete with references to gambling and card playing. Despite the fact that I never cared much for either of those things in my real life. As I started to get into other music, I remember hearing gambling references in several Grateful Dead songs. And then on to Bob Dylan. And I began to see a metaphorical thread appearing. I followed that thread for a long time, and it led me to some amazing music. I owe the writer of “The Gambler,” a debt of gratitude for jump-starting a life in pursuit of beautiful song. Thank you, Don Schlitz. Also, while we’re at it, thank you to Jim Henson. And Kenny Rogers! I think of that little seven year-old kid in front of the television, stumbling on a seminal moment in his life. Ears in rapture to a truly great song. Worlds of possibility developing in his little brain. Future songs murmuring from somewhere far ahead in embryonic time.
Memory is a funny thing. Why did this record make such an impact on me? Was I merely seduced by Muppets with a clever hook? Or maybe it was my own budding interest in ghosts, cemented by the release of the film Ghostbusters at around the same time. Or maybe it was the fact that I almost died myself from anaphylactic shock resulting from an allergic reaction that same year. I can’t really know for sure. But that record, and that song, stuck with me. Somewhere deep in the darkness of my mind, the Gambler sleeps. On a train bound for nowhere. And there will be time enough for counting, when the dealing’s done…
Keep up with James Houlahan here.
by ImperfectFifth | Aug 13, 2018 | perspective
The year before I moved to Israel, I worked at a restaurant in my neighborhood. I would walk to work through Seattle’s leafy Ravenna neighborhood listening to Meir Ariel’s 1997 record Bernard VeLouise, generally arriving at the restaurant somewhere in the middle of the fourth track.
Meir Ariel was an Israeli singer-songwriter often referred to as the Israeli Bob Dylan. On top of that, his ability to create words and turn phrases in Hebrew is heralded as somewhat Shakespearean. A supremely talented lyricist, he never enjoyed the fame in life that he found in death. He fought in the Six Day War (and the Yom Kippur and First Lebanon Wars), and he initially gained a following after he wrote a parody of a nationalistic song circulating in 1967 called Jerusalem of Gold, by Naomi Shemer. Ariel’s version was called Jerusalem of Iron, and speaks of the horrors he saw fighting in the city. In Shemer’s version the chorus is, “Jerusalem of gold, and of bronze and of light.” In Ariel’s: “Jerusalem of iron, and of lead and of darkness.”
Bernard VeLouise isn’t his best known record, but for some reason it was the first of his that I picked up. And when I say picked up, I mean listened to on Spotify. Seattle’s Easy Street Records doesn’t exactly have a well stocked Israeli music section. It was the last record the Israeli folk troubadour would release before his death at 57 in 1999, caused by an infected tick bite.
Before I learned how to speak Hebrew, I had no idea what the record’s opening track, “Etzel Zion”, was about. With an upbeat, meandering, Eastern European melody, and the word “Zion” (biblical Israel) in the title, I thought the subject matter must be some pretty heavy shit.
Later, once my Hebrew had improved, I learned that Ariel had in fact penned an ode to the fast food chicken schnitzel shop across from his apartment in Tel Aviv.
At Zion’s on the corner of Hayarkon and Trumpeldor
Between the post office and the Dan cinema
They put a lot of heart onto your plate
For just a little pocket change
They put a lot of love into your pita
And they don’t make you wait.
In August, 2014, in the midst of Operation Protective Edge, I was outside a hotel in Jerusalem, in a cloud of cigarette smoke surrounded by a circle of Israelis, listening to Meir Ariel on a shitty iPhone speaker. A string of military helicopters buzzed overhead and someone said it was the ceasefire team returning to the Knesset from discussions in Cairo. Then the rocket sirens started wailing and we had to scramble to the bomb shelter, with Meir’s music still coming out of the phone.
Six months later, I had two suitcases, and an apartment with a lease in my name waiting for me in Jerusalem. Everything else was up in the air. As my flight dropped below the clouds and the lights of Tel Aviv came into view, I noticed that the Israeli guy next to me had started sobbing, and I could tell it had something to do with the music he was listening to. I peeked over at his iPod. Annie’s Song by John Denver. Weird. I put on Bernard VeLouise. By that point, Meir’s music was no longer foreign to me. It was a comfort, a constant, when moving halfway across the world was full of so many variables.
A few years ago, an Israeli winery put out a limited edition Meir Ariel series of wines that featured illustrations found in his notebooks on the label. I wrote the song “The One Who Shines, The Lion of God” on a hot July evening in Jerusalem after polishing off a bottle. In English, the name Meir Ariel can be translated to “The One Who Shines, The Lion of God.”
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Keep up with Ben Fisher – and keep your eyes peeled for the release of Does The Land Remember Me? – here.
by Meredith Schneider | Aug 13, 2018 | singles, wolf tracks
Los Angeles- based indie pop duo Joyeur released “Fast As You Can” on August 9th, and we’re not sure we’ve taken it off loop since then. At this time of year, the fun tends to slow down and the work comes out. School is coming up, a lot of busy seasons at jobs are ramping up, it’s no longer vacation season. But Joyeur provides an escape from all of that. It seems to be a developing pattern that the duo’s hard, cutting attitude, and intricate lyrics stick with you, to say the least. If you keep your ears glued to all notifications of Joyeur’s releases, we have a feeling you won’t possibly regret it.
Keep up with Joyeur here.
by Meredith Schneider | Aug 13, 2018 | albums, premieres
San Francisco experimental collective Sis has some major news for your ears this week, and we’ve got the exclusive. The band – comprised of Jenny Gillespie Mason (voice, synth, guitar, piano), Rob Shelton (synth, programming, piano), Carly Bond (electric guitar, synth, vocals,) Joseph Adamik (drums, bass clarinet, marimba,) Andrew Maguire (drums, marimba,) Jamie Riotto (bass, synth), and many contributors to the horns section – is bringing us their debut full-length on the 17th. Euphorbia – which boasts thirteen incredibly composed tracks – provides a kaleidoscope soundscape that makes it perfect for this time of year, as the time seems to slow down and the leaves start to change. But the most magnificent aspect of what Sis has to deliver, perhaps, is the sublime lyricism and attention to detail that the band has been able to cultivate for this, their first full-length. To the untrained ear, this band feels as though they have been together for decades, with a fresh take on some impelling sounds.
Get your first listen to the album in its entirety below, and be sure to grab a copy for yourself when it drops on Friday!
Catch Sis on the road!
Keep up with Sis here.
by Meredith Schneider | Aug 10, 2018 | singles, wolf tracks
Party rock collective Party Hardly – comprised of Tom Barr, Lachlan Banner, Matt Pownall, and Stanley Braddock – seems to be taking a more leisurely pace with latest track “Terry Shure” and we’re totally in love with its low key vibe. While the mood is blissfully casual, the lyrics themselves are something we can get behind – and 110% something we could cause mischief around if need be. So sit back and enjoy the latest from Party Hardly, because we know it’s about to be a staple on your newest playlist.
Pre Order / download ‘Cycle of Life’ EP here:
Spotify | Apple Music
Keep up with Party Hardly here.
by ImperfectFifth | Aug 10, 2018 | soundtrack
Over the last 3 years I’ve been writing and working on my debut album SARRA. It’s a 14 track concept album and the first single “Kerosene” drops this Friday. I’ve consumed and have been influenced by a massive amount of music since the beginning of this process, and so much of this journey was spent trying to pinpoint my sound. My love of music spans from Pop, Electronic, to R&B so it was a really fun experience getting to pull from those genres and create the right sound that represents SARRA. This is a playlist of songs that have influenced me as an artist throughout the process of making this record. There’s so much good music being made right now and one of the best things about this process was discovering new artists!
- RKCB – Comatose
- Alina Baraz – Show Me
- John Splithoff – What if She Wants You
- Anne-Marie – Do It Right
- Dua Lipa – Last Dance
- SARRA – Kerosene
- Stalking Gia – Second Nature
- Hannah Lucia – Don’t Hold Out
- Charlotte OC – Darkest Hour
- Jarryd James – Sure
- RKCB – Elision
- Malinchak, MAX – Dragonfly
- Sinead Harnett – Rather Be With You
- James Arthur – You Deserve Better
- Moss Kena, Jay Prince – 48
- Sabrina Claudio – Orion’s Belt
- Ray BLK, Courage – 2am
- Louis Futon, RKCB – Surreal
- JOHN.k – Wrong
- Mac Ayres – Easy
- Ravyn Lenae, Appleby – Free Room
- Sabrina Claudio – Unravel Me
- Daniel Caesar, Kali Uchis – Get You
- Amber Mark – Lose My Cool
- Draper, Alby Hobbs – On You
- Charlotte OC – Cut the Rope
- Jahkoy – Still in Love
- Astr – Operate
- Banks – This is What it Feels Like
- SZA – Green Mile
Keep up with SARRA here.
by Karina Marquez | Aug 10, 2018 | albums, review
Canadian artist Taylor Janzen gets as real as she can get with her new EP. Interpersonal is thoughtful and smart, as if written by a seasoned professional; at only 19-years-old, she has an acute sense of empathy and self-awareness that makes this EP incredibly special. Her vocals are heartbreakingly beautiful, drawing strong comparisons to Paramore’s Hayley Williams. But that’s as far as the comparisons go – in every way, Janzen is entirely her own artist.
As you listen, each song bares a bit more of Janzen’s soul. Her honesty makes her relatable, which is the epitome of why we love sad songs. “Stations” delves into the reality of emotional abuse in a relationship. “The Waiting Room” is a standout track due to its raw and honest discussion of her struggles with mental health through the imagery of a waiting room. The lyrics show how, sometimes, the mental health system can be challenging and lonely. Janzen sings with pain in her voice, lamenting about her experience: “Spitting out my demons to someone I just met … the only one who listens is the person I pay.” “Colourblind” and “Better Now” round out the EP, leaving you with that feeling – not sadness, not anger, not happiness. The best way to describe Janzen’s music is hopeful. She delves deep into heartbreak and depression, but her voice assures us that not all is lost. In fact, these are the kind of sad songs that you want to listen over and over again, even if it makes you want to sob into a glass of red wine.
Keep up with Taylor Janzen here.
