Category Archives: New Release Section

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Everything But The Girl have today revealed their brand-new single “Run A Red Light” and its accompanying video, directed by Charlie Di Placido (Kojey Radical, Jungle) who made the band’s recent “Nothing Left To Lose” video which has been watched over 1 million times on YouTube.

“I met a lot of characters during my years in clubland,” says Ben of “Run A Red Light,” “and I wrote this song about the guy at the end of the night, who dreams his big moment is just around the corner. All the bravado and good intentions masking the vulnerability.”

“The video is like a dream of the story,” says Tracey. “We’ve found with this record that choreography can express the emotion in our music without having to be too literal. The characters, the clothes, the movement, the direction all just fit. Charlie and his team really get the feelings we’re going for. It’s been a great collaboration.”

Of the music, Ben says,”I used mixed technology in the production to lend character. The piano is a looped iPhone recording; the synth that follows the vocal is a live take on an analog EMS VCS3 which were first made in 1969. Tracey chose to sing super-close to the mic to add intimacy. Some vocals are untreated, some auto-tuned. And then at the end we let the music appear to evaporate. It all just seemed to suit the story.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds today unveiled the Robert Smith remix of “Pretty Boy.”

The Cure frontman has taken the driving urgency of the original and transported it into a gloriously spangled, spaced out new dimension, complete with scattered drums and a soaring guitar solo. Speaking of his remix, Robert Smith says, “I was surprised and delighted when Noel asked me to remix this gorgeous song, and I had a lot of fun slowing it down and spacing it out—Cure drummer Jason Cooper gave me a great vibey drum track to play along with—and the rest just phased into place under the starry sky of my distant moon…”

Released in November, the original version of “Pretty Boy” was the first single taken from Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ eagerly anticipated forthcoming studio album Council Skies. As well as a raft of acclaim from fans and critics alike, “Pretty Boy” garnered major support across key radio networks including BBC Radio 2’s Record of the Week and A-list rotation, spending 15 weeks on the Radio X playlist and 18 weeks on the Absolute network. The song peaked at number 14 on the national airplay chart.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Fishbone is a band. Fishbone is a Familyhood. Fishbone is Red Hot. Today Fishbone share their new single “All We Have Is Now” and its accompanying video. The song is taken from the Bottle Music for Broken People compilation, also released today via Bottles to the Ground, Fat Mike’s new label started by Mike and NOFX.

“All We Have Is Now” was recorded and produced by Fat Mike and Fishbone’s Norwood Fisher notes: “Fishbone and NOFX go waaaay back. We’re in the mutual admiration club, great appreciation for our individual approaches to the music that we’re known for. I don’t remember exactly when Fatty 1st expressed interest in producing Fishbone but it seems like it was a long time ago. A random encounter in a parking lot in more recent history, led to the current song. Mike’s batshit crazy but highly functional, with incredible integrity and follow through. Just right for Fishbone’s batshit crazy, dysfunctional world. Yet we are functional enough to make it this far, asses! It was a long time coming and we hope you love it like we do. Enjoy if you will.”

He continues, “Sometimes a note to self finds its way to the song form. ‘All We Have Is Now’ is a prime example. Philosophically, it’s far from a new concept. Eckard Tolle, Allan Watts, Joseph Campbell and many others have contemplated and pontificated on this topic. The pursuit of self inquest, in the hopes of experiencing an extended, extraordinary sense of Being, the song, wrapped in a fully blown Fishbone party, reminds me to take advantage of the gift of the ever present now. Feel free to interpret it however it speaks to you. Ain’t nuttin’ buttah potty…”

After years of touring and rotating members, 2023 finds Fishbone back to their most solid line up which includes four of its six original members. “All We Have Is Now” marks the first release with Chris Dowd back in the band since 1994 and it’s the first song recorded with these members in 29 years.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Frankie Rose shares “Come Back,” the third single from her new LP, Love As Projection, and the most synthpop leaning track on the record.

After spending nearly two decades establishing herself across New York and Los Angeles independent music circles, Frankie Rose returns after six years with a fresh form, aesthetic, and ethos embodied in her new full-length album Love As Projection, out March 10 on Slumberland. Celebrated by countless critical and cultural outlets over the years for her expansive approach to songwriting, lush atmospherics, and transcendent vocal melodies and harmonies, Love As Projection is a reintroduction of her established style through the new lens of contemporary electronic pop.

Painstakingly written, recorded, and engineered through some of the most tumultuous times in history, this new collection of songs harnesses the power and propulsion of Frankie’s early DIY-centric punk days without losing sight of the immersive, dreamlike world-building she’s been known for in recent years. Her love of new wave hooks and post-punk drive remain omnipresent, elevated by her utilization of modern production and an improved, polished palate of state-of-the-art instrumentation.

It’s more than a rebirth, a refinement, a resurgence—it’s a culmination of influence, a newly-defined scope using the tools at her disposal, a long-form project that was heavily considered for half of a decade—resulting in the most personal and accessible collection of art-pop that Frankie has delivered yet, propelling her signature melodies and dense, ethereal harmonies into the future.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | The new New Man EP, “The New New Man,” is infectiously catchy, amusingly witty and pushing the boundaries of what you expect from a pop song. The kind of pop songs that are inspired by Harry Nilsson, XTC, or Jellyfish. The kind of pop songs with squishy keyboards, race whistles, and vocal layering abound. “The New New Man” is full of delightful surprises; unexpected but pleasing in every form.

Cody Newman, aka New Man, has always had a keen penchant for writing taut and infectious pop songs brimming with their own identity. Calling it “Power Pop” would be understandable because it’s layered with harmonies and it’s catchy as hell but it also isn’t right as these songs flourish outside the rules of that genre. “Pop” means a million different things. “Indie Rock” is near meaningless. Maybe there’s a Venn Diagram overlap with “Baroque Pop” and “The Beach Boys” and “Fun Beck-like Songs.”

We won’t go as far as to say that New Man lives outside of genre because that’s absurd. As soon as you hear it, you’ll know it. It’s familiar and comfortable but it’s never rote or predictable. “The New New Man” is absolutely brimming with fascinating arrangements, instrumentation and memorable moments. We can’t wait for you to hear them all.

The first of six singles is out today, “Hedgerow.” It’s the last song on the new EP and every two weeks we’re going to release another song until they’re all out in the world. Keep your eyes peeled for future song announcements. Oh, and one more fun fact, all of the artwork for these releases was create by Midjourney; the AI assistance that turns prompts into visuals. Get a more detailed look at each over the next few weeks!

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Ben Folds will release his new album What Matters Most on June 2 via New West Records.

The 10-song set was co-produced by Folds and Joe Pisapia (K.D. Lang, Guster) in East Nashville, TN and features guest appearances by dodie, Tall Heights, and Ruby Amanfu. What Matters Most is Folds’ first studio album since his chart-topping collaboration in 2015 with the string ensemble yMusic.

Folds says, “There’s a lifetime of craft and experience all focused into this one record. Sonically, lyrically, emotionally, I don’t think it’s an album I could have made at any other point in my career.” He adds, “More than anything, I wanted to make an album that was generous, that was useful. I want you to finish this record with something you didn’t have when you started.”

Today, Folds shares the first new music from What Matters Most with the album highlight “Winslow Gardens,” an off-kilter pop song about losing track of the passing time while isolating with a loved one.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Philip Selway releases his much-anticipated new album, Strange Dance, on February 24 via Bella Union. Having previously shared videos for the singles “Check For Signs Of Life” and “Picking Up Pieces,” Selway today shares the atmospheric title track from the album.

Commenting on the track Selway says: “’Strange Dance’ had a very long gestation as a song. In its original form, it was the first piece from the album to be written, over 20 years ago. It was also the last song to be completed on the album, with the lyric taking shape in the final recording session. The strange dance I write about refers to the contortions we all perform as we try to balance seemingly irreconcilable elements of our lives, and the relationships that help us navigate this uncertainty.”

In other news, Selway has announced a number of independent record store appearances for album signings during the week of album release. 24th February will see him visit Resident Records in Brighton for album signings and a Q&A with Bella Union label boss Simon Raymonde. The following day will include signings in Portsmouth (Pie & Vinyl), Oxford (Truck), and Kingston (Banquet Records) before he heads north on 26th February for appearances in Sheffield (Bear Tree), Bingley (Five Rise), and Crash (Leeds). Then on 27th February Selway will perform tracks from the album at London’s Rough Trade East accompanied by The Elysian Collective.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Inspiral Carpets have shared The Go! Team’s new remix of “This Is How It Feels” ahead of the release of The Complete Singles, an album compiling all of the Manchester band’s 24 singles to date. The Complete Singles will be available on double vinyl, and as a 3CD set with an exclusive remix bonus disc via Mute / BMG on 17 March 2023.

Clint Boon, talking about the remix said, “This is one of my favourite Inspirals remixes. Relatively faithful to the original but with lashings of all the magical elements we love about The Go! Team. I reckon the spirit of Joe Meek was in the studio when The Go! Team did this remix!”

The Complete Singles coincides with the start of a major UK tour. Kicking off in Northampton in March, the tour includes festivals and performances at Manchester’s Albert Hall and London’s Shepherds Bush Empire.

The Complete Singles sees all of the band’s singles remastered and available on one album for the first time. From 1988’s “Keep The Circle Around” to their latest single, 2015’s “Let You Down” featuring the unmistakable tones of John Cooper Clarke, the album will be available on double heavyweight “midnight licorice” black vinyl and as a 3CD set with an exclusive remix bonus disc that collates classic, rare and unreleased remixes from across their career alongside two new unreleased mixes, from The Go! Team and Martyn Walsh & Simon Lyon.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | L.A. Guns have announced the upcoming release of their latest studio album, Black Diamonds on April 14, 2023. Produced by founding member and guitarist, Tracii Guns, Black Diamonds is a tour-de-force of rock ‘n roll that fans have come to expect from the long-running hard rockers.

Written and recorded over the course of 2022, Black Diamonds sees Tracii Guns, Phil Lewis, and company continuing on the same successful and inspiring sonic journey that they’ve been taking on their most recent albums, Checkered Past, The Devil You Know’ and The Missing Peace.

The band doesn’t shy away from flexing their hard rock influences as they always have, but also incorporate more introspective acoustic tracks reflective of their classic rock influences from the ’70s. This makes for a potent and highly listenable cocktail of an album in Black Diamonds.

Since their self-titled debut in 1988 to their widely praised recent suite of “comeback” albums, L.A. GUNS, led by Tracii Guns and Phil Lewis, have always delivered solid rock ‘n’ roll to their fans. Since core members Tracii and Phil reunited under the banner of L.A. Guns in 2017, a rekindling of the band’s creative energy has been continuing unabated over the course of, now, four studio albums. Black Diamonds shows no signs of this renaissance slowing down…

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The DIY post-punk, new wave, and ska pioneer Kate Fagan shares “Say It,” the second previously unreleased song made available from the forthcoming I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool (Expanded Edition). Originally a coveted self-released single put out in 1980, this version of I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool has been re-mastered and made into a full-length vinyl album featuring four additional, previously unreleased, ahead-of-their-time tracks, due out February 24th, 2023 via Captured Tracks. The release of “Say It” comes with a new video edited by Timothy Watson with archival footage by James Pasta.

The reggae-tinged “Say It” features production from the reggae legend Peter Tosh and Bob Marley’s guitarist Donald Kinsey who flew in from Jamaica to record with Heavy Manners (the seminal ska group that Fagan co-founded) after witnessing their impassioned live show. “Say It” is among 4 previously unreleased songs originally composed for Fagan’s rock opera The Kissing Concept, a semi-autobiographical love story inspired by the ‘70s/’80s nightclub scene that Fagan had explored during her time in New York, which premiered at Park West and Limelight nightclubs.

Fagan shares the following about “Say It”: “Emotions become overwhelming when lovers’ expectations collide and the lyrics of the song express a sad reckoning.” Further adding: “Peter Tosh and Don Kinsey locked in the groove and accentuated the reggae bubble. This is a stripped down mix with a clap track added by Peter. He intended to make this the bottom floor of a dancehall dub.”

“Peter Tosh‘s greatest contribution to our sessions was that his presence made us focus, really listen to what was going down, and he motivated us to give our best performances. My recollection about Don Kinsey is he knew how to enhance a groove; he doubled guitar and bass tracks throughout the song to give the bottom a heavier feel.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Jake Shears (the multidisciplinary musician and frontman of seminal NYC indie glam-pop greats Scissor Sisters) is back with a kinetic new single “Too Much Music,” the first taste of his new forthcoming solo album Last Man Dancing, that will see release on June 2nd, 2023 on his new label home of Mute.

One of modern pop’s true trailblazers, “Too Much Music” is an instant Jake Shears anthem that feels as much a fresh start as it does a return to self. An experimental mix of glam-rock overture, disco groove, and soulful harmony, it asks why you’d ever stand still in life, when “there can never be too much music for me.” Directed by Callum Macdiarmid, the stunning “Too Much Music” video sees Shears in suitably subversive form, with cinematic and unexpected results.

“Too Much Music” is an exhilarating introduction to Jake Shears’ new album Last Man Dancing. Recorded between the US, Portugal and London—where he relocated from his New Orleans home during the pandemic—the project features production from the likes of Boys Noize (Kelis, Skrillex), Vaughn Oliver (Latto’s ‘Big Energy’) and includes the sort of head-turning party guestlist that, in Shears’ universe, somehow make total sense: Kylie Minogue, Big Freedia, and Amber Martin all feature, with a cameo from Jane Fonda and some timeless words of wisdom from Iggy Pop.

Last Man Dancing is full of incandescent nods to fellow dance music pioneers, a Sylvester falsetto here, a Patrick Cowley cowbell there and a Berghain pulse, all modernized, personalized and right at home in 2023. Hedonistic, poignant and surreal, Jake Shears has now turned a lifelong love-affair with club culture into his most ambitious material to date.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | For her austere new album Domestic Sphere, Josephine Foster performs solely with her electric guitar and then subverts the usual range of her voice to embody other frequencies and sounds beyond the surface layer of the songs.

“Since first hearing it, I’ve been listening to Domestic Sphere on repeat. It cuts through every bad feeling I’ve been having and sends me into a place I want to live in always, which is art itself. Josephine Foster communes so completely with every sound on the record, with the past and the future, animals and insects and birds, those so tenderly dead, and those of us who are alive. I don’t say it lightly: listening to the record is a transcendent experience. It’s an exorcism, one that exorcises you.” —Amina Cain

Josephine Foster’s Domestic Sphere is an altar cloth of songs stitched together as liturgical music for a restless homestead, whose values insist simply that everything is music and that our daily life is a sacred, innately creative practice. In such a world creaking doors reveal natural orchestras with wailing cats in service of melodic collaborations with Tennessee songbirds, Foster’s world is an extra-sensory radio play in two acts, where songs overlay structures like creeping vines.

“Domestic Sphere is also a seance by song. Josephine channels sounds from her interior and exterior landscapes, whether integrating field recordings reflecting daily life in a Spanish village and other moments in her life as a nomadic musician, or, as in one tender cameo, the voice of her great-grandmother comes from the other side, framed in a union aided by her co-production with Daniel Blumberg. These songs are vigils, melodies sung intently, to be set aflame and sung off with the wind.”
—Chris Davis

VIA PRESS RELEASE | “I think it’s important for us to share some of our most basic and common experiences with each other, however we can. That’s what we really, really need right now. I know we have common experiences, and it’s important to telegraph those back because they don’t have to be lonely experiences.” —Josh Ritter

Renowned singer, songwriter, musician, artist and best-selling author Josh Ritter will release his anticipated new album, Spectral Lines, April 28 via Thirty Tigers—pre-order here. In advance of the release, two album tracks are debuting today: “Sawgrass” and “For Your Soul.” Watch a video for both songs, created by flatspot and filmed in Alaska and Brooklyn below.

Produced by Ritter’s longtime collaborator Sam Kassirer (Lake Street Dive, Langhorne Slim), Spectral Lines finds Ritter expanding beyond the bounds of his previous work to create a record both atmospheric and profound. Dedicated to the memory of his mother, Ritter searches for commonality across these ten seamless tracks by exploring life’s most universal ideas—love, devotion and what it means to be connected, to both each other and to ourselves.

One of today’s most thoughtful and prolific voices, Ritter has released ten studio albums including 2019’s widely acclaimed, Fever Breaks, of which NPR Music praised, “He remains a hydrant of ideas while embodying an endless capacity for empathy and indignation, often within a single song.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Legendary post-punk musician, artist, and filmmaker Gina Birch has shared the title track from her debut solo album, I Play My Bass Loud, arriving via Third Man Records on Friday, February 24, 2023. Pre-orders are available now. “I Play My Bass Loud” is available now at all DSPs and streaming services and is joined by the release of an official music video directed by Vice Cooler (who is also a multi-talented musician and performer himself), with concept and choreography by Brontez Purnell.

“Vice asked his long-term friend writer, dancer, and choreographer, Oakland-based Brontez Purnell, to be the central character of the video,” explains Birch. “There are five women bass players performing in the video, Emily Elhaj (Angel Olsen), Hazel Rigby (TBHQ), Mikki Itzigsohn (Small Wigs), Staz Lindes (The Paranoyds), and myself. We shot the video in L.A. so the bass players in the video are not primarily the ones on the track apart from Emily Elhaj who plays bass with Angel Olson and Gina B. The song is a celebration of bass guitar as a voice, simple or layered, pounding or dancing, or everything at once. A celebration of a shout, a yell from the window, and the I am Here, of a woman’s creativity on the bass guitar. I play my bass, my bass my bass my bass, I play my bass loud.”

The album was announced in November of last year with the propulsive first single, “Wish I Was You.” The track – co-written and co-produced by the legendary Youth and featuring guitar by longtime fan Thurston Moore – was also joined by an official music video, directed by Gina’s filmmaker daughter Honey Birch and streaming now on YouTube.

“The album distills my years of musical, political, and artistic life with these genre-breaking songs,” says Gina Birch. “It’s a personal diary using sounds and lyrics, full of fun, rage, and storytelling.” This year will see Birch celebrate I Play My Bass Loud with an eagerly anticipated UK/Ireland headline tour, getting underway March 21 at Brighton’s Hope and Ruin. Additional dates will be announced soon.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Legendary British duo Sleaford Mods are pleased to announce a new album, UK GRIM, out March 10, 2023 on Rough Trade Records. The album will be available on LP, CD, and cassette, including black and white vinyl on the webstore, and an exclusive silver vinyl variant available via independent record stores. Sleaford Mods will tour North America this April in support of the new record, with stops in most major cities and appearances at both weekends of Coachella.

Lead track “UK GRIM” is out now and is accompanied by the first-ever music video created by British collage artist and satirist Cold War Steve, who has previously done covers for Time magazine and The New Statesman. The track continues Sleaford Mods’ uncanny ability to call out our times with anger and art, electronic innovation and erudite vision. Though no strangers to the dancefloor, the track’s minimal yet immersive beats add a physical power to the duo’s ever-insightful take on society.

War, rising energy costs, inflation. A sclerotic political class and a divided country. Malaise, acts of national self-harm and other doomed flights from reality. Despair, anger and alienation. Has it ever been worse out there?

Welcome to UK GRIM. Building on the unique, insurrectionary strengths of previous records while refining them in gripping new ways, Sleaford Mods’ newest album is a stunning step up. This is nothing less than a defining band and a voice of the people—like The Jam, The Clash, or Public Enemy were—more fully realized than ever before. It is, unmistakably, the real deal.

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