September is all but over. These music videos? Can be played in perpetuity. Enjoy our mish-mosh of favorites below, and let us know what your favorite new music video is over on Facebook!
Pearl & The Oysters are celebrating not only the release of their third album Flowerland, but the title track has itself a gorgeous music video to accompany it now. Filmed as though it’s aged decades to mirror the French-American Psych Pop duo’s audio energy, the art lies in the video’s visual “imperfections.” The lime green hues in the feedback add a boost of color to the otherwise largely dual-tone shots.
Hints of navy blue and flashes of magenta give the video dimension, and a sense of nostalgia, as we enjoy Juliette Pearl Davis (lead vocals, flute, synths) and Joachim Polack (keys/synths, backing vocals, bass, guitar, violin, percussion) enjoy an afternoon amongst the flowers.
Directed by Pearl & The Oysters
Edited by Juliette Pearl Davis
Analog system video processing by Vinyl Williams
Music by Pearl & The Oysters
Do you thrive with routine, or with a life that throws new situations at you left and right? How do you think you would fare on the road, having every day be a new adventure? On one hand, it could be an incredible and mind-blowing existence. On the other, having stability can really be a must for mental health.
Musicians don’t often have the luxury of choosing, since touring is such an integral part of the business. While artists cope with the pitfalls of van life, touring can be an eye-opening experience. Madeline Hawthorne’s new track “Strange Familiar” examines the concept in a way that is almost thrilling. Her angelic vocals float across stirring guitar chords, humanizing a life that is strange, yet also familiar.
“Strange Familiar” for me is about struggling to find normalcy in a world where everyday is new and different. It’s about trying to find a place where I can thrive everyday without routine; routine like waking up at the same time, waking up in the same place, going to bed at a normal hour…those aren’t routines afforded to most touring musicians, especially when you’re just getting started. And yet we all have to find a way to be in it and enjoy it; even in the dark crevices of 4ams, 10 hour days on the road, empty shows and long stretches of time away from home.
I remember closing my eyes when I wrote the first line of this song and put myself back in the tour van with the band. The van (affectionately known as Loretta) was my normal life. Getting to Loretta after a show and being with the band felt like being with family. So I just tried to paint a picture of what I’d see everyday, getting into the driver’s seat and taking off for the next town. The rest of the song fell into place pretty easily after the first few lines. I know many of us are struggling to find normalcy everyday, regardless of whether or not we go to bed at the same time or wake up in the same place. This is a song that encompases that feeling for me and I love the groove we came up with in the studio. Hope you enjoy!
The release is technically out tomorrow, but we’ve got your exclusive first listen.
September is already halfway over. Don’t ask us how it happened, we feel like we blinked and the month is already gone. However, the level of talent in the music industry just. Doesn’t. Quit. With so many incredible project releases on the horizon toward the end of the year, we’re raking in the single releases like crazy. Here are a few of our favorites.
Artist Brandon Calano, known by alias Becoming Young, has introduced their latest single “Wild & Free”. Utilizing robust vocals and urgent music, Becoming Young delivers a message of hope and freedom:
I’m picking up speed
Like a warrior, you’ll see
I’m gonna take the power back,
Nothing’s ever gonna stop me.
The Nashville-based artist explains, “’Wild & Free’ is about rediscovering your power and finding freedom in knowing you can overcome anything. We’ve all had our tribulations. It’s easy to get caught up in them, and we often let missteps and struggles weigh us down. But this song is an acknowledgment that we are collectively coming back stronger—no matter what happened in the past, we are resilient.”
Take the track for a spin below.
If you’ve been looking for a new track with light as a feather vocals cascading over stunning – yet simplistic – guitar and piano, then Emily Frembgen‘s bittersweet new “He Held Onto Me” will be just up your alley. Truly a blues song at its core, Emily has recognized its topic as something highly relatable.
“He Held Onto Me” is obviously about some kind of relationship ending. I remember writing it really quickly as I was rushing out the door, it was a feeling that I urgently needed to express. I’m real proud of this one & Hugh Pool and Brian Mitchell’s evocative instrumental touches are so perfect here. I’d say it’s a good way to close a breakup album, wouldn’t you?
A song that almost relies on the silence between the notes for impact, “He Held Onto Me” is a sweet whisper of a song that will bring back feelings from loves past, if you choose to let it. Experience it for the first time below!
It’s Me or the Dog (self-released) will be released on September 24th.
Broken Stars is the latest EP from Jake Benjamin. With Broken Stars, he has created a set of five songs that move effortlessly from one to the next. Benjamin very intentionally has taken us on a journey through not only his mind, but the mind of Vincent Van Gogh. The project “…was inspired by reading the Letters of Vincent van Gogh, a collection of correspondences from Van Gogh to his brother, Theo.”
The first single off the EP is “Hemingway” and it sets the table for all that follows. Benjamin has utilized jazz influences in each song, some more heavily than others – “Hemingway” is one of those. It also has some lyrics that really spoke to me: “You should enjoy, what you don’t understand/I have lost all sense of control/I am on the surface of a life I’ve never known.”
My personal favorite of the five songs is “Heartfelt”. Musically, there are nods to Steely Dan in the arrangements – lush and full of horns. Jake Benjamin’s voice is a perfect accompaniment to his music.
Broken Stars is part of a larger project that is in the pipeline – an LP of the same name. After the release of this EP, we are very excited to see what will be on the LP of Broken Stars. Expands Benjamin:
image.gifThis EP is a small serving of what the LP version of Broken Stars will be in March 2022. These songs were definitely the earlier writings on the record, they were the gateway into me finding the overall theme of mentality and space. They venture through different atmospheres of mind, artists, and cities. I really consider this collection to be a step further out of my comfort zone lyrically and harmonically.
The recording process of creating these tracks was probably the most ambiguous one I could ever have imagined. I recruited many musicians of many different instruments to play; I got to work with a string quartet, a horn trio, and include artists who brought beauty to these songs. Some of the arranging developed at the studio before Pascal would hit record while other arrangements I had fleshed weeks before the sessions took place. The pandemic really made this into a collecting pieces of the tracks over the course of a year.
Broken Stars Playlist
Bo Armstrong was just as captivated as the rest of us when he viewed the Billie Eilish documentary earlier this year. So much so, that he chose to cover “When the Party’s Over,” an already devastatingly beautiful and heartbreaking song. His version of the song takes a more delicate hold than even Eilish’s, building slowly with the introduction of each new instrument. The sadness is palpable in his vocals, as he reflects on the subject matter and its devastating impact.
I lost someone else to suicide a few years prior, and my response was somewhat similar —it’s just hard to feel anything but helpless. But after watching the movie —and hearing those first few notes of “when the party’s over” over and over again in my head —I had the idea to record a version of the song and use it as a tool to help me raise money for organizations that are working to promote mental health awareness and prevent suicide. It felt like it could be a way for me to not do nothing.
We are going to be sitting in the corner with our goosebumps, surrounded by his gorgeous voice.
Proceeds from this release are being donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Mental Health America.
Pop hip hop project DARKMINDS formed in recent years when two established and talented artists Daniel Ellsworth (Daniel Ellsworth + The Great Lakes, Chaos Emeralds) and Christopher “C4 “ Umana (Big Sean, Trey Songz, Kelly Rowland) came together for a songwriting session. Because. of their obvious chemistry, they continued to make music together, and 2021 sees no gap in creativity. Two full-length albums are due this year from the duo.
Their new track, “Til’ The World is Gone”, is quite enchanting, actually. The duo went a little more dark pop with this particular release, a song that brings about the idea of Tim Burton-meets-One Republic. The lyrics are hopeful and vibrant, surrounded by entrancing percussion. The duo builds instrumentals around the lovely thought of loving something (or someone) so completely and deeply until everything is over.