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PONY Releases New Song ‘Did It Again’

PONY, the Toronto pop-punk outfit led by Sam Bielanski, has dropped a new single called ‘Did It Again’. “It highlights how well we can mask our emotions, even right up to the moment that we break down,” Bielanski said in a statement, commenting on the single’s cover artwork. Check it out below.

‘Did It Again’ follows PONY’s debut LP, TV Baby, which came out last spring. Earlier this year, Bielanski joined the cast of the My Little Pony series Tell Your Tale, voicing the character of Jazz. Next month, they’ll be accompanying Fucked Up on their David Comes to Life tour.

Check out our Artist Spotlight interview with PONY.

Peach Fuzz (New Group Featuring Raffaella and Samia) Announce Debut EP, Share New Song

Peach Fuzz is a new supergroup featuring Raffaella, Samia, Sara L’Abriola (Hank), and Victoria Zaro (Ryann). Today, they’ve announced their debut EP, Can Mary Dood the Moon?, which comes out July 22 via Psychic Hotline, the label founded by Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn. It was produced by Sachi DiSerafino (Joy Again), Jake Luppen (Hippo Campus, Lupin), and Caleb Hinz (Baby Boys). Check out the new single ‘Hey Dood’ below, along with the EP’s cover art and tracklist.

Raffaella dropped her latest single, ‘BUICK’, earlier this month on Mom+Pop. Samia followed up her 2020 debut The Baby with the Scout EP last year.

Can Mary Dood the Moon? Cover Artwork:

Can Mary Dood the Moon? Tracklist:

1. Hey Dood
2. Shaking the Can
3. I Saw the Moon
4. Mary’s Gone Crackers

R.E.M. Announce 40th Anniversary Reissue of Debut EP ‘Chronic Town’

R.E.M. have announced a reissue of their debut EP, Chronic Town, in honour of its 40th anniversary. Featuring songs like ‘Gardening at Night’, ‘Wolves, Lower’, and ‘1,000,000’, the new edition is due for release on August 19 (via I.R.S./UMe) on CD, picture disc, and cassette.

The reissue comes with liner notes by the original producer Mitch Easter. “One might fancifully say that Chronic Town was the sound of an expedition, ready for anything, setting forth,” Easter said in a statement about the EP, which followed the band’s breakout 1981 single ‘Radio Free Europe’. “If R.E.M.’s ‘Radio Free Europe’ single was a signpost, the Chronic Town EP was the atlas.”

Chronic Town EP Cover Artwork:

Hudson Mohawke Announces New Album ‘Cry Sugar’, Shares New Song ‘Bicstan’

Hudson Mohawke has announced his third studio album: Cry Sugar arrives on August 12 via Warp Records. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the new single ‘Bicstan’, which is accompanied by a kingcon2k11-directed visual, as well as ‘Cry Sugar (Megamix)’. Take a listen below, and scroll down for the LP’s cover artwork (by Wayne horse Willehad Eilers).

For Cry Sugar, Mohawke drew inspiration from apocalyptic film soundtracks by everyone from the late Vangelis to John Williams. The album follows a series of mixtapes the Scottish producer put out in 2020: B.B.H.E., Poom Gems, and Airborne Lard. Back in 2016, he composed the soundtrack for the video game Watch Dogs 2.

Cry Sugar Cover Artwork:

NNAMDÏ Announces New Album ‘Please Have a Seat’, Releases Video for New Song

NNAMDÏ has today announced a new album, Please Have a Seat, his first for new label home Secretly Canadian. It’s slated for release on October 7. The first single ‘I Don’t Wanna Be Famous’ is out today, and it comes with an accompanying video directed by Austin Vesley. Check it out and find the album cover (by Austin Call/duhrivative) and tracklist below.

NNAMDÏ wrote, produced, and performed the 14 songs on Please Have a Seat entirely himself. “I realised I never take time to just sit and take in where I’m at,” the Chicago multri-instrumentalist said in a press release. “It’s just nice to not be on ‘Go, Go, Go!’ mode, and reevaluate where I wanted to go musically. I wanted to be present.”

NNAMDÏ released his last LP, Brat, in 2020. It was followed by two EPs, Black Plight and last year’s Are You Happy.

Please Have a Seat Cover Artwork:

Please Have a Seat Tracklist:

1. Ready to Run
2. Armoire
3. Dibs
4. Touchdown
5. Grounded
6. I Don’t Wanna Be Famous
7. ANXIOUS EATER
8. Anti
9. Dedication
10. Smart Ass
11. Benched
12. Careful
13. Lifted
14. Somedays

Jim James Announces ‘Regions of Light and Sound of God’ Reissue, Unveils ‘Read Between (Begin Again)’

My Morning Jacket’s Jim James has announced a deluxe reissue of his 2013 debut solo album, Regions of Light and Sound of God, which will include the original nine-track album along with a bonus LP featuring rare B-sides, previously unreleased demos, and alternate takes. It will be available on July 29 via ATO Records. Listen to the previously unheard song ‘Read Between (Begin Again)’ below.

“I have changed a lot since then, many times over,” James reflected in a statement. “So, in a lot of ways, it’s like a time machine, thinking about these songs, remembering what life was like back then. What I have gained and lost since. It makes me feel grateful for all of the gifts I have been given and for all of the love I have experienced in my life. It also makes me really miss some people, places, and things as well that I know I can never get back. It’s wild how as we age, we become more and more aware, more and more conscious, at least it seems that way to me. For most of my life, I feel like I was just RUNNING…trying my best but not fully conscious or aware of what was really happening. So lost – for better or worse. Not that we ever will be fully aware of anything but when I look back a lot of the time, I get this feeling where I am just blown away by how much we change as life goes on, and it seems to me one of the supreme gifts of getting older is increased awareness.”

Commenting on ‘Read Between (Begin Again)’, he added:

I wrote ‘Read Between’ about my great aunt who was suffering from dementia at the time,” James says. “It is so wild to watch someone you love slowly disappear right before your eyes mentally while their body continues to hang on for a while. Really made me question the nature of the soul and spirit – what exactly is it that truly makes a person who they are? Where does ‘the soul’ go as dementia sets in? Is the soul slowly slipping into the next realm but part of it is hanging on and doesn’t want to let go yet? Is the soul gone and the body left to just spit out random information? It’s so WILD to watch that notion of ‘soul’ slip away in someone and wonder if one day it will slip away for me too in a similar way? As I zoomed out from it and thought more about the nature of death in general, I really have learned in a lot of ways to come to peace with death and accept that it is just another doorway – the ending of one chapter and the beginning of another, so in that way it also makes me feel really excited about what possibilities lay beyond the end of this particular lifetime. Not that I am in any hurry for this lifetime to be over but also, I am excited to see what comes next. Who knows?!

Last year, My Morning Jacket released their self-titled album. Jim James’ last solo LP was 2018’s Uniform Clarity.

Regions of Light and Sound of God (Deluxe Reissue) Tracklist:

Side A:
State of The Art (A.E.I.O.U.)
Know Til Now
Dear One
A New Life
Exploding

Side B:
Of The Mother Again
Actress
All Is Forgiven
God’s Love To Deliver

Side C:
All Is Forgiven (Alt Version)
State of The Art (A.E.I.O.U.) [Demo]
A New Life (Alt Version)
Dear One (Demo)
God’s Love To Deliver (Demo)

Side D:
You Always Know
Read Between (Begin Again)
Epichord
Sweets
Moving Away (Alt Version)
Hallway of Trees

Superorganism Enlist Stephen Malkmus, Gen Hoshino, and Pi Ja Ma for New Song ‘Into the Sun’

Superorganism have unveiled a new song called ‘Into the Sun’, which features guest appearances from Stephen Malkmus, Japanese actor and musician Gen Hoshino, and Pi Ja Ma. It’s the final advance single from the band’s forthcoming record, World Wide Pop. Check it out below.

“The whole record is all about combining different worlds and scales, so it was a real thrill to be able to mix Gen into a track with Malkmus and Pi Ja Ma,” Superorganism’s Harry commented in a statement. “It’s a carefree song, somewhat about being in your own bubble, so bringing those French, American, and Japanese artists into that world reconnects the SuperO universe with these other bubbles – a bit of a multiverse!” Orono added: “It all came together super naturally, a cute little lovebug song moment.”

‘Into The Sun’ comes with an animated visual directed by AEVA. “The video for ‘Into The Sun’ stemmed from the lyric about being a fruit fly, watching the world go by, whilst nature and time flow by around you,” Harry said. “We liked the idea that the seed planted by one person can grow into a tree that is enjoyed by another, and that the fruit of that tree provides the seed of the next. Gen Hoshino as a fly buzzing around cracks me up too.”

World Wide Pop gets released on July 15 via Domino. It includes the previously shared singles ‘Teenager’, ‘It’s Raining’, ‘On & On’, and ‘crushed.zip’.

Album Review: Regina Spektor, ‘Home, before and after’

“Why doesn’t it get better with time?” Regina Spektor ponders on the opening track of her new album, Home, before and after. It’s a question we all ask ourselves sometimes. The Russian-born, New York-based singer-songwriter, however, is addressing none other than God – and, at least in this imaginative scenario, not in a strictly metaphorical sense (they’re having a beer). Even Spektor’s signature wit (“We didn’t even have to pay/ ‘Cause God is God, and he’s revered”) and theatrical flair aren’t enough to mask the loftiness of that question, which becomes weightier still when you consider two important facts: this is the musician’s first album in six years, and the song itself dates back to the early 2010s, when Spektor first debuted it live. I never got to witness it in that context, but I can only imagine hearing those same words nearly a decade later: Why doesn’t it get better with time? 

The song is called ‘Becoming All Alone’, and despite the flashy production choices that mark the studio version, its raw melancholy is hard to ignore. In fact, the decision to make it dramatic as possible, adorning it with luxurious strings and even providing a sturdy drum beat, almost has the effect of underscoring the heart-wrenching loneliness at its core. God may be revered, but he soon becomes irrelevant: the narrator is alone with her thoughts, embittered, and the second time around not even He seems to respond to her call. The arrangement wants to trick you into thinking this is an elaborate stage production, but it’s clearly a one-woman show – and a powerful way to kick off the album.

Spektor’s 2017 effort, Remember Us to Life, was one of her most poignant and compelling, spanning intimate piano ballads and lusciously orchestrated pop while maintaining an unusually somber attitude. On its follow-up, co-produced with John Congleton, Spektor continues to strike a balance between ambitious, expansive (and expensive-sounding) production and playful, earnest songwriting. Although the results aren’t always as memorable, the album is not only more tonally consistent – despite the deliberate contrasts that arise, like the one on ‘Becoming All Alone’ – but also refreshingly daring. Spektor is known for her vivid storytelling, but ‘Up the Mountain’ manages to be engrossing with very little narrative and a lot more drum programming than you’d expect. Meanwhile, ‘One Man’s Prayer’ and ‘Sugar Man’ could have easily been examples of Spektor’s sympathy being stretched too far (depicting the titular men in an all too positive light), but by trading the bombast of other songs for a more unassuming kind of pop, she highlights the sardonic nature of her lyrics.

Though it never falls flat, there are moments on Home, before and after that don’t quite have the same impact. ‘What Might Have Been’ uses a series of contradictions to hint at a story of lost love, but ends way before it has the chance to become fully-realized. That theme is more effectively explored on ‘Raindrops’, a more straightforward Regina Spektor song that, along with ‘Loveology’, has been in search of a home since her early career. Both fit neatly into this collection, whose most endearing quality might be its penchant for the absurd – as sincere and heartfelt as her songwriting can be, Spektor appears so self-conscious about embracing any universal philosophy that when she concludes that “Love is enough of a reason to stay” on ‘Coin’, the next song must arm itself with an accusation: “Oh, an incurable humanist you are.”

The singer’s preoccupation with time and its unpredictability doesn’t go away, though. She lets it all unfurl on ‘Spacetime Fairytale’, a nine-minute odyssey that gains mass and changes direction but never helps her escape what she already knows to be true: that’s there’s “no such thing as time,” “no such thing as mine.” Its own portentousness grows comically haunting, the framing less cosmic than purely personal, an attempt to see the world – and her contribution to it – as being defined by change rather than stasis, relationships rather than transactions. “I tend to live in a world of miniatures, so even my biggest work feels like a blink to me,” Spektor said in a recent interview. “It’s just a tiny little thing that comes and goes and floats away.” On ‘Spacetime Fairytale’, she acknowledges, “Some days it’s yours, some days it’s mine/ Some days it’s cruel, some days it’s kind.” Does it get better? Well, maybe. “It just can’t stay the same.”

Reviewing The Crypto Games

Cryptocurrencies are beginning to take root more and more densely in our lives, sometimes appearing in the most unexpected areas! If earlier the owners of digital money preferred to keep them, watching the exchange rate fluctuations and selling at the right time, now it`s possible to actively pay with cryptocurrency on casino platforms.

By the way, some clubs specialize just in crypto games, offering bitcoin dice or slots. Let’s take a look at which games you should pay attention to in 2022, as well as analyze their main advantages and disadvantages.

What Games to Play?

The very first entertainment in which you could pay with Bitcoins, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies was pokies — both classic and innovative ones with super unusual features. When that wasn’t enough, sought-after brands started adding BTC, DOGE, Eth, and BTG dice games, as well as various card & table entertainment to their ranges.

Thus, now active gamblers who want to bet in their favorite cryptocurrency can choose between dice, slots, bingo, poker, roulette, blackjack, and many more popular games.

Pros & Cons of Cryptocurrency Games

Why do users like crypto entertainment so much? There are several reasons and these include:

  • most cryptocurrency platforms are honest and reliable, so you can get winnings from entertainment in these clubs and request a withdrawal of funds;
  • as a rule, in crypto games, the house edge is no more than 2.5%, so the chances of winning are quite high;
  • the speed of payments through cryptocurrency services is high, so when playing such entertainment, customers will be able to quickly replenish their account and withdraw the funds won.

On the other hand, there are also disadvantages to such activities. For example:

a limited range of clubs that support crypto activities;

the design of such games usually does not offer expressiveness and brightness, it is done in minimalism, which some customers do not like.

Despite the presence of several drawbacks, the popularity of such entertainment is only increasing — bitcoin dice or slots can be embedded on 80% of large gaming websites.

Important Nuances

First, before choosing a game on the portal, check how the resource stores its cryptocurrency assets. Ideally, when the platform has reliable cold wallets for savings and transfers funds to hot storage only after a direct withdrawal request from the client.

Secondly, before registering on the platform, make sure that it supports exactly the cryptocurrency that you plan to use when betting and gambling. For example, if a site supports BTC dice, then customers cannot pay with Ethereum, Cardano, or Dogecoin. Of course, you can use an exchanger, but this is a waste of time and money (the rialto`s commission), so it’s better to immediately choose a site that supports the desired token.

And finally, the last tip — check if the selected games offer bonus cryptocurrency options! This is a great opportunity to save on account replenishment using additional digital funds from the platform. However, keep in mind that later you may have to wager them back, otherwise the money won may burn out.

Janashvili Will Bring Georgian Music To The European Billboard

Music is a crucial pillar of the vibrant Georgian culture. Folk music is the first thing that comes to mind when considering Georgian culture. It was so important, traditional instruments were featured on Georgian stamps during the Soviet era. Georgian, polyphonic singing is a rare and beautiful sound to hear. Times are changing, and so too are the trends in popular music. DJ Gia Janashvili is one of the torchbearers of the new trends, inspiring many of his Georgian colleagues to harness the potential of Spotify and YouTube. All in an attempt to change the stereotypes about Georgian music.

In previous decades the Eurovision song contest was the only international platform for singers and bands from the small country in the Caucuses. However, thanks to social media, local artists are reaching out and sharing their melodies with the wider European music scene.

The Beats of the Caucasus

The modern Georgian music scene didn’t sprout out instantaneously – it traces its roots to the 1980s. At that time, Tbilisi was the epicenter of an active underground scene, where music enthusiasts could experience and experiment with rock, punk, hip-hop, and heavy metal. Not surprisingly, Tbilisi hosted the first official rock music festival in the USSR in 1980.

Following the country’s independence after the fall of the Soviet Union, the newfound freedom expedited the development of a modern domestic music scene, with newer generations willing to express themselves with English lyrics.

One unforeseen boost was the success of Katie Melua. Although a British citizen, the singer was born in Georgia as Ketevan Melua and migrated when she was 8 years old. Melua’s international success, coupled with the media revelation about her ethnicity, helped influence a shift in perception that Georgia may have more to offer than folk songs.   

At the same time, social media platforms were coming online, and talent shows enabled Georgian bands to get wider exposure. Musicians such as Gia Janashvili are making Spotify and SoundCloud the key components in their strategy to attract fans and carve out a place for Georgian pop music on European record charts.

Talents That Open Musical Frontiers  

There are many Georgian bands and singers with a cult following on YouTube, where video views numbering in the millions validate their talent and advertise the quality of the new wave of musicians from Georgia.  

In recent years, several names have emerged on the international scene, and most of them used song contests as a launching point. One of these names is Nina Sublatti, who gained prominence in 2013 after winning the Georgian Idol contest and the opportunity to represent her country in the Eurovision Contest in 2015 with the song Warrior.

Mebo Nutsubidze took a similar path after participating in two versions of the X-Factor. The experimental concept of acoustic music practiced by Mebo has won many hearts, especially the hit single Holding You. Today, Nutsubidze is a regular guest on the European festival circuit.

Natia Todua is another expatriate making a name for herself. The fairy tale story of Todua starts in 2016 as a helper in a German family, and one year later, she triumphed at The Voice of Germany contest. Todua’s career took off with numerous concerts in Europe and a position as judge of the Idol contest in her native Georgia.

The alternative scene is on the rise with singers and bands like Frani, Kung Fu Junkie, Eldrine, Tamta Goduadze, Okinawa Lifestyle, and many others promoting the Georgian music style. Without knowing the country of origin, some of their songs will leave listeners with the impression the artists are from a prominent USA music label.

Ambitions to Climb the Billboard Charts

Climbing the Billboard charts is not easy, even for renowned US musicians. Yet Georgian artists are patiently buying their time and recruiting fans with catchy tunes that speak to the global audience. 

DJ Gia Janashvili is one member of the Georgian music community striving to export his authentic take on the pop genre by branching out onto platforms where the global fan base gravitates.

The ever-growing music industry in Georgia produces new offerings from artists trying to accommodate various tastes that are increasingly aligning with global trends. The sheer number of festivals throughout the year mobilizes foreign music lovers to visit and experience the immersive atmosphere created by renowned musicians and a handful of uncut music gems.

The unbridled artistic potential of Georgian musicians is knocking on the international stage. Although traditional Georgian folk music still captivates audiences, the progressive voices are equally appealing to the ear. 

It’s safe to say that it’s only a matter of time before a local hit single gets recognition among the top 100 Billboard songs.