Hawksley Workman has shared a free stream of ‘Lazy’ from his forthcoming new album Median Age Wasteland, out on March 1, 2019.
He also unveiled the video for the track;
“It’s an exploration of love and memories,” Workman said in an e-mail. “Childlike images of winter and school portables give way to a lover’s proclamation of staying awake and staying the course. The profound decision of love meets the feeling of love.”
Toronto rock band The Fame have shared a free stream of their debut single ‘Wide Awake’.
The band says that the track, “focuses on the topic of self-reflection and the happenings of everyday life.”
The band drew on their personal experiences and musical influences while crafting the song to create something they hope that everyone can relate to. The Fame are aiming to release their first EP, produced by by Brian Moncarz (Our Lady Peace, Moneen, Circa Survive), in early 2019.
LA-based artist Empress Of, aka Lorely Rodriguez, has shared the self-directed visuals for ‘I Don’t Even Smoke Weed’ from her latest release Us, out now on Terrible Records.
The video finds her performing in front of crowd at a warehouse party with her own distinctive dance moves and vocals.
The new album finds Rodriguez shifting her focus outwards and building a sense of community with listeners as well as collaborating with other artists such as Blood Orange and DJDS.
She recorded Us all over Southern California. From a studio with no windows to one in her home of Highland Park, it also included a studio with, “A really loud cricket. He was there, like, all month,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “And I was trying to track vocal tracks and he’d be like, CHIRP, CHIRP!”
It marked the first time she recorded an album in isolation. She would later invite collaborators Blood Orange, DJDS and Spanish electronic producer Pional. Us remains a showcase for Rodriguez as a producer and lyricist, though she remains modest.
“Lorely plays every instrument half-assed,” she said, “Put that in the bio.”
She also remains coy about her songwriting process as well; “I don’t write out chords for my songs. Everything is intuitive in production. I don’t have one piece of sheet music for my songs,” Rodriguez said.
Though she received help from her friends, she estimates she produced 70 per cent of the album. Rodriguez also feels frustrated that the media fixates on her jazz music education since she feels that singing to Celine Dion and Mariah Carey in her living room were far more formative. She also lists her mother as another influence.
Her debut album’s title, Me, was deeply personal, so much so that she admitted that performing the songs live was difficult.
“It was, like, every day, just giving myself to the audience,” she said.
Rodriguez aims to shift this dynamic on the new album, creating an equal exchange of energy between her and the listener.
“It’s not just love songs. It’s about different experiences of the heart,” she said. “I want it to be like a mirror, and [the audience] sees a little bit of themselves in every song.”
Empress Of also announced the dates of her North American and European tour;
Toronto dream/alt-pop artist Rosemary Fairweather has shared a free stream of her track ‘MTV’.
It can be found on her forthcoming album Heavenly: A Second Collection of Songs.
Royal Canoe frontman/multi-instrumentalist Matt Peters had this to say about their latest single ‘Peep This’ in a press release;
“’Peep This’ is a song about going through a process of re-evaluation in a relationship. As the years go by, you’ve both clearly grown as people, but how has that impacted your partnership? The more you look outward though, the turbulent uncertainty overwhelms and you can’t imagine letting go. You find yourself awash in desperate energy as you realize how much you depend on each other to stay afloat – how could you make it alone?
One of my favourite, serendipitous moments from the recording of Waver comes from this song… at some point while we were working on the session in ProTools the acoustic drums accidentally got nudged backward a tiny amount relative to everything else for a portion of the song (definitely some sloppy mouse-clicking in-play). All of the electronic drums, keys, bass were still ‘in time’ which created this great grinding sensation where the drums feel like their tripping off the back end of the pocket. It’s a subtle shift and only occurs at the end of the 2nd and 3rd chorus’, but it makes me feel like the floor is tilting.”
The band has offered a free stream of the track. This follows the release of the first single ‘RAYZ’ from their forthcoming album Waver, due out on January 19, 2019 on Paper Bag Records;
The new album found the band entering new territory, following the seed of inspiration for each song through completion then deconstructing and rebuilding each track.
Sonically, Waver is influenced by pop, rock, R&B and hip-hop. The instruments on the new album are centered around the vocals.
“As we continued to peel back the layers, the lyrics struck a more personal tone, but the things we found ourselves reacting to were less nostalgic than on previous records,” Peters said.
Royal Canoe also announced the dates of their winter tour of Europe, North American dates will be announced soon;
01/25 – Baden, CH @ Werkk Kulturlokal
01/26 – Bulle, CH @ Ebullition
01/29 – Prague, CZ @ Roxy
01/30 – Berlin, DE @ Kantine am Berghain
01/31 – Hamburg, DE @ Nochtwache
02/01 – Copenhagen, DK @ Lille Vega
02/05 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Upstairs
02/06 – London, UK @ Thousand Island
02/08 – Paris, FR @ Le Pop-Up du Label
Twin Shadow, aka George Lewis Jr., had this to say about his new single ‘Hollow Days’, which finds him exploring his Dominican roots in addition to the country sound he’s known for;
“Growing up in a house with a Dominican mother the house was filled with the sounds of Latin music, specifically Bachata and Merengue. It is a genre of music I’ve wanted to explore since my parents moved back to Santo Domingo 8 years ago. Their return to my birthplace has given me an opportunity to feel more connected to the island by visiting between recording in Los Angeles. In blending what I’ve been doing with songwriting as Twin Shadow and the rhythms of these genres I hope to intensify the bond I have with a place I hope to one day again call home,” Lewis said in an e-mail.
The release of the Wynne Bennett-produced track follows the release of his new album Caer in April 2018 and a summer tour with Beck and Alt-J.
Young Galaxy have announced that they will take an indefinite hiatus following the release of their EP Snow Leopard on September 28.
The EP features tracks recorded during the sessions for their last album Down Time. The band also shared the video for ‘Future’ from the EP.
The band had this to say in an e-mail;
“Young Galaxy has been the singular site of all our creative coordinates since 2006. Generativity, as source, as the conduit for all our content, and as the bloom of each album cycle, it is the flower we have presented to all those who want to listen, see, and appreciate.
YG has had a linear movement until now with Stephen and I as it’s central driving force. And to satisfy our need to change and be challenged, each album bloomed differently than the last with loved and varied people to help present it. But now the two of us see that it is a matter of survival, personally and creatively, that we transform our singular process from its linear movement to multiple processes / branched movements.
Young Galaxy will go on hiatus so that we can go inside, stir it up, and regenerate. There will be many more Ramsay and McCandless blooms but they will have new and varied origins, conduits, and presentations. We both wish to focus on solo work, interdisciplinary collaborations, and ways of presenting content beyond prescribed music industry limitations.
Most of all, we want to thank you, the fans, for your support. To all who have listened, come to our shows and kept in touch, you have truly been the reason we have continued to love doing this and believe in it, through the ups and downs of these past 12 years. Thank you again.
We will have lots to announce in the coming months. We will see you soon.
caterpillar to butterfly.”
