Loma have previewed their upcoming album Don’t Shy Away with a new song called ‘Elliptical Days’. The track arrives with an accompanying music video directed and edited by the band’s Emily Cross and Dan Duzsynski in Dripping Springs, Texas. Check it out below.
“‘Elliptical Days’ was one of those songs that was pretty well fleshed out by Dan and Jonathan [Meiburg] by the time I heard it,” Cross said in a statement. “I loved how different it sounded from what we usually make together, but it was somehow still in the Loma realm—and the horn arrangement made it really special for me.”
Dan Duzsynski added: “I started ‘Elliptical Days’ as a sketch in Ableton- an exercise to learn the software and dig through some synth sounds. Jonathan heard me messing with it and walked into the control room asking, “Can we use this?” The song really came to life as he and our good friend (and touring member) Emily Lee started overdubbing piano and koto parts—and as usual, our collaboration transcended what any of us could do alone.”
New York rapper Junglepussy has announced a new album: Jp4, the follow-up to 2018’s Jp3, arrives on October 23 via Friends Of/Jagjaguwar. In addition to the announcement, Junglepussy – real name Shayna McHayle – has also released the lead single, ‘Main Attraction’, along with an accompanying music video. Check it out below, and scroll down for the album’s cover artwork and tracklist.
Jp4 features guest appearances from Gangsta Boo and Ian Isiah. “The number three is very powerful for manifestation,” McHayle said in a press release. “Number four though is really securing the foundation. From the genesis of Junglepussy, I struggled with my sound, because what I was doing at the time, I knew it wasn’t really, really, really what I wanted to do. But I just didn’t know how to get there. ‘Jp4’ really sounds like and feels like I got there.”
Junglepussy released her debut album, Pregnant with Success, in 2015.
Jp4 Cover Artwork:
Jp4 Tracklist:
1. Bad News
2. Main Attraction
3. Telepathy
4. Morning Rock
5. Out My Window [ft. Ian Isiah]
6. Spiders
7. What You Want
8. Arugula
9. Stamina [ft. Gangsta Boo]
10. No Band Aid
Holly Humberstone was among the musicians who performed at Guitar.com Live, the three-day virtual guitar show organised by media brand Guitar.com over the weekend. Standing in her back garden, the singer-songwriter played stripped-back renditions of the songs ‘Overkill’, ‘Vanilla’ and ‘Deep End’ from her debut EP, Falling Asleep At The Wheel. Check out her performance below.
Before ending her set with ‘Deep End’, she explained why the song is her favourite from the project. “I wrote it about one of my sisters, who when I wrote it at the time was going through a really difficult patch with her mental health,” she said. “I personally find conversations really tricky to have, especially uncomfortable ones about mental health. I just wanted her to know I was there for her, even if I couldn’t fully understand. Putting it into a song was easier than having a conversation with her about it, and so I wrote ‘Deep End’ for that reason.”
In addition to Humberstone, St. Vincent, Carlos Santana, Jason Isbell, Anderson .Paak’s backing band Free Nationals, and more also appeared at Guitar.com Live.
Netflix has unveiled the trailer for the upcoming BLACKPINK documentary, due out later this month. Announced in September, Blackpink: Light Up The Sky is directed by Caroline Suh and is described as “an all-access documentary about one of the world’s most popular groups”. Check it out below.
A statement on the documentary reads: “As Blackpink continues reaching new heights in their career — from headlining sold-out world tours to becoming the first female Korean group to perform at Coachella — each member reflects on the ups and downs of fame and the long, often challenging journey that brought them to worldwide success.”
In addition to releasing the trailer, Netflix has also shared a clip of the K-pop group reacting to it. Watch that below as well.
BLACKPINK’s debut studio album, The Album, came out last Friday (October 2). Light Up the Sky is set to premiere on October 14.
Bruce Springsteen will be releasing a documentary film about the making of his new album Letter to You on Apple TV+ on October 23. Written by Springsteen and directed by frequent collaborator Thom Zimny, Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You chronicles the five days he and and his band spent in his studio in Colts Neck, New Jersey to record the album late last year. The film will also feature never-before-seen archival clips, in-studio footage, and meditative spoken word passages from Springsteen. Check out the trailer below.
Springsteen’s new album, which follows 2019’s Western Stars, is out the same day. It includes the previously released title track and ‘Ghosts’.
Travis Scott‘s ‘Franchise’, his new single featuring Young Thug and M.I.A., has debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. It marks M.I.A.’s first No. 1 single and her fourth entry into the Hot 100, following ‘Paper Planes’ (No. 4) in 2008, ‘O… Saya’ (No. 93) in 2009, and ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’ (No. 10) in 2012.
‘Franchise’ is also Young Thug’s second No. 1 single, the first one being 2012’s ‘So Much Fun’. Scott has already had three songs peaking at the No. 1 spot within a year – following last October’s ‘Highest In The Room’ and his Kid Cudi collaboration ‘The Scotts’ (which also gave Cudi his first No. 1) – thus setting a new record for the fastest accumulation of No. 1 debuts in the chart’s history.
Having launched with 19.4 million US streams, 98,000 copies sold, and 10.6 million radio impressions in its first week, ‘Franchise’ is the 44th single to debut at No. 1 in the history of the Hot 100, and the ninth to do so this year.
Billie Eilish and FINNEAS were the musical guests on last night’s episode of f The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. They performed the new James Bonde theme ‘No Time To Die’, for which Eilish recently released the music video. The two musicians also sat down to discuss the Grammys, her speech and performance at the Democratic National Convention, and more. Watch it happen below.
“Genres keep us in our boxes,” Bartees Strange declares on ‘Mossblerd’, the eighth track on his 11-song debut album, Live Forever. By the time we reach that point on the record, though, it’s already kind of an obvious statement – the D.C.-based songwriter and producer does more in the span of half an hour to showcase his eclectic, genre-blending approach than most artists do across their entire discography. Bringing together elements of rock, rap, and electronic music in a way that feels both effortless and refreshing, Strange carves out a space where he can be truly himself. The result is quite simply one of the most versatile and compelling debuts in recent memory, and one that – as its title aptly suggests – is bound to leave a lasting impact well into the future.
It’s hard to overstate just how much variety there is on this album, and how skilfully Strange manages to pull it all off. ‘Jealousy’ is a spacey, meditative opener in which Strange’s performance atop the cathartic “Cut out my anger” mantra recalls the vocal dexterity of Moses Sumney before bursting right into the driving alt-rock of the lead single, ‘Mustang’. That track packs the same dizzying energy as its follow-up, ‘Boomer’, a startling bricolage of sounds that’s once again anchored by Strange’s dynamic vocal presence – he sounds just as comfortable rapping as he does screaming his heart out. “Sometimes, it’s hard to tell exactly where I wanna go/ I know it don’t show,” he sings on the pre-chorus, and he’s right – it doesn’t.
And yet, as confident as Live Forever sounds, what renders it so emotionally potent is the fact that Strange allows himself to be vulnerable. So many “genre-defying” records fail to augment their own inventiveness with any substance or heart, but the writing on this album is deeply rooted in Strange’s personal upbringing and the insecurities that haunt him to this day. ‘Mustang’ reflects on his experiences growing up in a rural, mostly white town in Oklahoma and the ways it made him feel unseen and unworthy; ‘Mossblerd’, which he says is a combination of “Mossberg (shotgun) and black nerd (blerd)”, highlights how the limitations of genre are tied to systemic racism. The whole album is peppered with references to feeling like a ghost and wanting (not) to be seen, a thematic through line that makes this shapeshifting LP feel like more of a holistic experience.
It also helps that the album is both ingeniously sequenced and tastefully produced from front to back. Remarkably, not a single track here sticks out like a sore thumb – clocking in at just 35 minutes, Live Forever achieves the rare feat of being ambitious without feeling bloated or painfully self-indulgent. In fact, if there’s one flaw to the album, it’s that it leaves you wanting more – a couple more tracks wouldn’t hurt, at least. But just when you think the album must be drying up of ideas, Strange keeps coming up with more: ‘Kelly Rowland’ slides into a hazy, intoxicating hip-hop rhythm, while the horns on the cinematic ‘In a Cab’ are reminiscent of Radiohead’s Kid A and ‘Flagey God’ traverses the same nocturnal electronic spaces of Burial’s Untrue. So when Strange delivers that “genres keep us in our boxes” line – against an industrial hip-hop backdrop, no less – he’s surely proved his point.
And yet! Turns out Bartees Strange has a few more tricks up his sleeve – ‘Far’ starts out as a spare acoustic ballad before erupting into a climactic whirlwind of electric guitars, while ‘Fallen for You’ remains an intimate, heartrending singer-songwriter affair throughout its runtime. The record ends with ‘Ghostly’, a song that swaddles you in its dreamy, Blonde-esque textures before Strange picks things up in the second part in an attempt to rise above that foggy mindscape. “But each morning morning I don’t feel worth it/ Pull up to my job almost on time/ Wish I could disappear more often/ Just run home and hide,” he sings. It’s a bleak sentiment, but the music implies the opposite of what’s being said: Bartees Strange has found his voice, and he’s not afraid to use it whichever way he wants. Ultimately, he rests on showing us there’s strength in vulnerability; a cliché, for sure, but just like genre, Strange deploys it in a way that’s genuinely exciting and almost unrecognizable.
The music industry has never been an easy place to make your fortune. Heck, many of the independent and “up and coming” bands that you listen to probably have day jobs. And in the current climate, it’s harder than ever for independent musicians. Every time you plug in your amp you face the same string of anxieties. Maybe you’re not commercial enough. Maybe you’re getting too old. Maybe you just don’t want it enough. Maybe the tides of public taste are pulling in the opposite direction to you. Maybe your dreams of rock stardom should be buried in the attic with your guitar strap and lucky plectrum… Or maybe you owe it to yourself to identify the reasons why your band isn’t getting taken as seriously as it should and take effective action.
In an age where there are more opportunities and fewer gatekeepers, many feel that the changing nature of the music industry actually makes it harder for promising artists to get discovered. But here are some of the reasons why you may not be taken as seriously as you deserve… and what you should do about it.
You care more about “making it” than being great
You’ve been doing this since your teens. And while many of your peers grew up and got “proper jobs”, you never abandoned your dreams of rock stardom. You’ve become an expert at trying to market your band’s brand, reaching out to t-shirt printing companies to create merch and trying to bill yourself to music bloggers as the next big thing.
And while all this is important, it shouldn’t supercede putting in the hours with the band and making sure you sound awesome.
Your demo screams “amateur”
Your demo is your calling card to the industry at large… Just make sure it’s saying all the right things about you. While you certainly don’t want it to sound over-produced (A&R professionals may assume that you’re over-compensating for a lack of raw talent) you don’t want it to scream “amateur hour” either. While there are many guides to recording your own demo out there, there’s no substitute to the expertise of a real Recording Studio. While we’re all feeling the pinch financially at the moment, investing in a professional sounding demo is an expenditure that you should absolutely consider.
So does your EPK… if you have one
If you want to get the music press on your side, you need a helpful, useful and attention-grabbing Electronic Press Kit (EPK). Keep in mind that music journalists see dozens of these every single day. And if they see one that’s riddled with typos, poorly formatted and lacking in the essential information that they need to do their jobs, they’re unlikely to give it a second glance.
You can play… but you can’t pitch
Finally, if you expect to be able to make it in the music business, you need to look at it as a business. And that means learning certain business skills… like the elevator pitch. You need to be able to engage A&Rs and music journos and bloggers with a succinct and easy to understand pitch. Like “We’re Slade meets Kasabian”… whatever the heck that might sound like.
The Kills have announced a new rarities album called Little Bastards, out December 11 via Domino. The collection will include B-sides as well as demos the band recorded from 2002 through to 2009. They’ve also released the video for a previously unreleased demo titled ‘Raise Me’, which the group’s Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince made around the time of their 2008 LP Midnight Boom. Check it out below.
The title of the album is named after the nickname for the drum machine the band was using at the time. “It was a Roland 880,” Hince said, “which isn’t strictly a drum machine – it’s a sequencer, and an eight-track recorder, with its own drum machine built in, and that’s what we’d record all our beats on.”
The Kills’ most recent studio album was 2016’s Ash & Ice. Mosshart recently released her debut solo spoken word LP, Sound Wheel.
