Jan 14, 2025

Blondshell • T&A • 2025




“There’s a Rolling Stones song on Tattoo You called ‘Little T&A’ and at one point in the song, he says ‘tits and ass,’ so I’m borrowing that,” Teitelbaum said. “I think in music, it’s easy to see things as either more sexualized or more romantic, and I wanted this to be both. I see it as a love story — maybe not the most fairy tale love story — but I wanted it to feel like a really narrative song, where one thing leads to another and then you end up somewhere you didn’t expect. Normally that’s not how I write, but I wanted a song like that.” stereo

Samia • Bovine Excision • 2025



PANIK FLOWER • alkaline • 2025

“Trying to boil down this new female-fronted five piece means first contemplating Leopold’s voice, powerful in its ability to go low, then break into a calm, breathy rush reminiscent of The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan — dark and vulnerable all at once. Then there’s the band as a whole — a wall of surfy and washed-out guitar, driving bass lines and dynamic drums that squanders and builds momentum in tight, catchy turns, steering the audience from a place of silent awe to a mass communal headbang.”




The Convenience • I Got Exactly What I Wanted • 2025




If you hadn’t been paying close attention, it may have seemed that the band’s Duncan Troast and Nick Corson have been taking it easy since 2021’s Accelerator, but the two have been busy backing Video Age and Hovvdy on tour and honing a refreshing new sound. Across thirteen vivid, angular tracks, The Convenience explores an invigorating sound that's just a tad psychedelic on the new record

Jan 12, 2025

Avery Friedman • "Flowers Fell” • 2024


“The opening melody for “Flowers Fell” came to me on a headphone-less walk home one night down Greene Avenue in Brooklyn. I had noticed that the flowers that once lined the branches had been replaced by leaves -- seemingly in the blink of an eye. I was briefly disappointed until I considered that the petals had made way for something more sustainable – and equally full of life.  The song became a meditation on the concept of place – how things of our surroundings like ‘sidewalks,’ and ‘balconies’ and ‘trees,’ can act as fixed backdrops upon which we measure our personal evolutions (and the evolutions of our relationships) across the span of many seasons.” – Avery Friedman 



“Having frequented bills with artists such as Sister. and Dead Gowns for the past year, Avery Friedman has consistently left an impression on those that have caught her sets, oftentimes performing solo, creating a space in which her vivid imagery and tender melodies greet new ears with welcome and understanding. Produced by James Chrisman (Sister.) and with contributions from Felix Walworth (Told SlantFlorist), “Flowers Fell” plays to the in-between moments as Friedman defines new beginnings.” – The Ugly Hug

Jan 8, 2025

girlpuppy • Windows • 2025




In the peak season for being wistful and nostalgic and sad but ultimately hopeful, Becca Harvey — the Atlanta, GA-based musician behind girlpuppy — is kicking off the new year with an outside-looking-in approach that's far subtler; more in the vein of driving by an ex's house out of muscle memory, scanning the darkness for light-soaked material proof. exclaim!

Jan 7, 2025

ZZZAHARA • IN YOUR HEAD • 2025




Spiral Your Way Out finds zzzahara in the aftermath of a relationship spent trying to fit someone else’s mold, being jerked around by indecision, and then hitting “emotional rock bottom.” Made in a three-month burst that let all their pent-up frustrations loose, Spiral Your Way Out is in part a work of self-reclamation. It marks another sonic evolution as much as an emotional one. zzzahara’s songs have always come wrapped in a warm glow that reflects how they were written – namely at home in their bedroom. That glow remains on Spiral Your Way Out, but it also packs an ambitious streak and a gutsy punch. Taking a more collaborative approach than usual, zzzahara worked with a range of producers including Jorge Elbrecht (Japanese Breakfast, No Joy, Sky Ferreira), Sarah Tudzin (boygenius, Cloud Nothings, The Armed), former Ducktails guitarist Alex Craig (Jelani Aryeh, re6ce) and Halsey tour drummer Franco Reid, who helped harness their intimate style of writing and blow it up into something more panoptic.

Jan 6, 2025

Zack Keim • Battery Lane • 2025





Sophmore Album by Zack Keim out on Evan Westfall of CAAMP's label Super Sport Records. Keim’s music glimmers with a retro-twinged pop sheen and a bright folk-driven optimism. Feat contributions from Matt Costa, Jordan Clark (The Frights), Evan Westfall (Caamp), and mastered in Nashville, TN by Pete Lyman (Tyler Childers, Weezer, John Prine).

Jan 4, 2025

Red Sleeping Beauty • Late Nights • 2025




”Another indie pop gem in electronic guise", one of the albums of the month - HELSINGBORGS DAGBLAD

“Mini-masterpiece”, “Everything is perfectly formed and immaculately conceived” - LOUDER THAN WAR

“All very elegant, refined but always engaging.“ - INDIE FOR BUNNIES

“Experts at constructing this sort of agile Euro-pop” - DAGGER ‘ZINE

“It's absolutely as superb as you'd hoped it would be“ - A PESSIMIST IS NEVER DISAPPOINTED

Dec 31, 2024

ifitbeyourwill Podcast 2024


 These are some of the amazing artists that join me on ifitbeyourwill Podcast in 2024… A playlist of a few of the artist featured. If you missed any or wanna catch up on the show check out all the episodes https://ifitbeyourwill.buzzsprout.com In 2025 we’ll start the engine up again with a new slew of amazing artists. Thanks for listening ❤️ 

Dec 30, 2024

best of 2024 • Hurray for the Riff Raff • Buffalo




Following a performance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Hurray for the Riff Raff has released an official music video for their song “Buffalo.” One of many highlights from The Past Is Still Alive, the 2024 Nonesuch album that Pitchfork just declared one of The Best of the Decade So Far, “Buffalo” is a love song about survival, patience, miracles, and memories of real people and places that bandleader Alynda Segarra (they/them) experienced during trips to New Mexico. In the video, directed by The Past Is Still Alive collaborator Jeff Perlman, Segarra takes over the Field Museum in their brand new home of Chicago, roams alongside a herd of wild buffalo, and shines a light on extinct and endangered species. none


Dec 28, 2024

best of 2024 • Shining Bird • No Silver Lining



best of 2024 • Devarrow • Likewise




Check out ‘Likewise’, the memorable new single written, produced, and performed by songwriter Graham Ereaux, also known as Devarrow.  Blending folk and indie influences, Devarrow has created a hugely compelling song, featuring a gorgeous melody and a sense of sonic urgency in the performance.  When writing songs for his new album, Ereaux discovered this amongst old demos and breathed new life into it.  He took the infectious, energetic outro, which stuck in his mind, and rewrote it as a dynamic chorus.  The end result is breathless and hugely likeable. AMUK

best of 2024 • hey, nothing • Maine (Live in Maine)



The group describes the message behind “Maine” as “an apology to those hurt by your distance but an acknowledgement of the pain you experience without it.”

Rough at the edges, the song is brutally honest and packed with experience — something that couldn’t be created from imagination alone. With lyrics like “I can’t wait not to go home, so far away from everything I know,” Tyler Mabry and Harlow Phillips use their pain to create a safe haven for themselves and everyone who’s felt the crippling guilt of leaving home and feeling better off because of it. luna

Dec 26, 2024

Finale • ifitbeyourwill S04E29 • Ellis Jones of Trust Fund

Thanks for listening to Season 4… Back in 2025 xox

Ellis Jones from Sheffield takes us on an emotional journey through the years, from strumming his first guitar at the age of five to forming Trust Fund in 2010. His story unfolds with tales of childhood bands and teenage recording sessions, eventually leading to Trust Fund's recognition in the mid-2010s. Ellis opens up about his creative process and the influence of Bandcamp during the height of his musical releases, offering heartfelt insights into how evolving personal interests have always been at the heart of Trust Fund's unique sound.

A new chapter in music-making begins in Bristol, where shifting priorities in our mid-30s have shaped a practical and heartfelt duo with my partner and bandmate, CD. We find inspiration in lyrical ideas that give birth to melodies, exploring how those creative sparks evoke emotional responses both for us as creators and for our audience. Balancing the quest for perfection with the permanence of music releases becomes a shared challenge, as we navigate the repetitive yet rewarding process of mixing and finalizing tracks.

The pandemic years have brought about a surprising transformation for many artists, including one musician who traded electric for classical guitar, crafting an introspective and courageous new record. The themes shift to a more observant tone, with raw, voice-and-guitar compositions that leave nowhere to hide. As the narrative unfolds, we confront the challenge of staying emotionally connected amidst professional demands, reflecting on personal milestones and relationships that might blur into the background. Join us for an episode that encourages reflection on balancing life's demands with heartfelt connections.







We thought it was all over. When Ellis Jones drew a curtain around his career as Trust Fund, it felt like the end of a particularly bittersweet long-distance relationship. That was in 2018, and Ellis had just dropped Bringing the Backline, the quintessential Trust Fund album: full of wry humour, heartache, energetic punk-pop hooks and glittering moments of indie-folk prettiness (it also gave us Carson McCullers, which, in this household at least, will always be one of the greatest pop songs ever written). That Jones had chosen to leave on such a high seemed like a statement of finality, an exclamation mark at the terminus of a convoluted, messy, beautiful sentence. KLOF



Dec 23, 2024

ifitbeyourwill S04E28 • Garlen Lo


Garlen Lo takes us on a personal journey through the vibrant musical landscape of his youth, growing up amidst the eclectic sounds of his London household. With a nod to nostalgia, Garlen recalls his auntie's love for country tunes and the bold Britpop rebellion of Oasis that shaped his songwriting vision. Discover how iconic albums like the Beatles' "Revolver" and the swagger of the Gallagher brothers fueled his creative fire, leading to a rich tapestry of over 180 songs. Garlen shares the serendipitous moments of inspiration that drive his songwriting, highlighting the delicate balance between catchy melodies and compelling storytelling.

But the journey doesn’t stop with Garlen’s past. We explore his current artistic endeavors, from crafting evocative music videos with a DIY flair to ambitiously planning future releases. Garlen's commitment to releasing four singles a year pushes him to explore new musical frontiers, leaving us with a sense of anticipation for what's next. As he reflects on his evolution from teenage aspirations to pushing production boundaries, the excitement in his voice is contagious. Don't miss the chance to hear directly from Garlen about his growth and future plans, as he invites listeners into his world of nostalgic and hopeful love.

 

Direct Link MP3


The eighth single in the catalogue of singer-songwriter Garlen Lo is ‘Pretty Baby’, a romantic number written over twenty years ago when the Londoner was only seventeen. A favourite at family gatherings, Garlen decided it was time to show the world. I can see why.

I must admit that before I gave the song a listen I was sceptical. There are many times where a simple chord progression sounds bland or inauthentic, but on this occasion it doesn’t. Knowing ‘Pretty Baby’ was written by a teenager in love, the admittedly corny lyrics give the song a rawness and provides an opportunity for us to reminisce about the euphoria of being young and in love rgm

Bonus Content - The whole episode on Video…. Please Support the show



Dec 21, 2024

best of 2024 • Little Kid • Bad Energy


On Little Kid’s new album and Orindal Records debut A Million Easy Payments, the urgency in Kenny Boothby’s voice matches the stakes of his lyrics, epic ballads and reveries that come at life from all angles and exposures, driving at and a little over the limits of self-reflection. The band’s lilting folk rock arrangements carry Boothby’s stories, occasionally lifting them skyward with flurries of cello samples, pedal steel, flute, and electric piano. It’s a record of depression and frustration that doesn’t stew in piety or aestheticize pain, that also explodes with life. Fragile and abundant. It’s a record with blood in its veins.



in occupied palestine
near the birthsite of christ
caught some footage that you wouldn't believe
that night on channel 7
ran a slanted segment
through the midwest on the mid-middle east
but you’ve told me how
you keep your volume down
cause all that's coming from your humming tv
is bad energy


“Bad Energy” is a song with many verses. Each verse talks about the concept of “bad energy” from a different angle. My overall goal with this song was to implicate Christianity – or, at least, the twisted, Americanized version of it that I grew up with – in a lot of the evil going on in our world: war, genocide, rape culture, capitalist greed, resource exploitation, climate change… There is some personal stuff in there, and some pretty universal stuff.
I was pretty preoccupied with form when I wrote this one (and the other long ones on the record), and I think I was pulling a lot from Bob Dylan’s approach to his longest, most repetitive songs. David Byrne summed it up well: Dylan lifted the style of his “epic songs… from old folk ballads with their many many verses, but then he added a genetic mutation to the form — surreal imagery and metaphors rather than the traditional narratives of the old ballads” (from this Stereogum feature on Bob’s 80th birthday). I think Gillian Welch’s “I Dream A Highway” (my favourite song) might do this even better than Dylan’s best ones did. StereoGum

best of 2024 • Nap Eyes • Passageway



I had the last verse of this song written for a long time, along with a bunch of earlier verses that I didn’t like as much that I eventually discarded. One quiet day when I was not doing too much of anything, I started to come up with the lyrics of the earlier verses — just in my head without an instrument or speaking them out loud, which is unusual for me. So the song was generated by this out-of-the-ordinary writing method, but I think this resulted in a song that is pretty different from anything else I’ve written to date. 




These songs are poetic, and not just because the words are poems. Their poetry lies in the music itself: Chapman’s reserved but powerful delivery, their lulling, hypnotic repetitions, the avian chorus of squawking guitars and chirping synths. This marriage of words and music captures something ineffable that lies between thought and expression (to borrow a phrase from Lou Reed), and with it, Nap Eyes have produced a beautiful, literary, aspirational, and inspiring work. post-trash

On the parade ground across the great divide
I saw 1000 candles flickering
And through a peasant’s eyes I saw a green-clad man
Ringing blue bells of offering
Beside him, astride, in neon fuchsia robes
And more beautiful than anything
A woman the sight of whom changed his mind
In a permanent way
Well, as for me, I rode the three miles north
Back to old York town
And lodged my horse in a stable there
Before walking to the castle grounds
Strange to make a parade so far away
Where there were so few others around
But I let the thought drop from my head
And that night my sleep was sound
When I awoke, I knew not the hour
But it seemed all the people had fled
I returned to my room and where the mirror had been
I found a blue doorway instead
Bracing myself against a bone-chilling wind
I wrapped my scarf around my head
And entered down a rainbow crystal pathway
Strangely compelled to follow where it led

Well, ever since then I’ve been in this gem-sea land
Where the night is as warm as the day
People talk on phones and they drive down roads
To places many miles away
As for me, I remain by my edge-of-town home
Watching the ocean’s peaceful sway
I’ve been drifting in and out of a mysterious dream
Of that old-time passageway
Is this what I get for listening to “Iris”
At nine o’clock on a Monday morning
In the shadow of the foreboding sculpture
In the diamond circular saw ring?
Far away, the dawn-bright dew
On some blue fields sparkling
In the deep mind, in the well,
In the heart of things

Dec 19, 2024

ifitbeyourwill S04E27 • Malia DelaCruz of CIAO MALZ


Ever wondered how a white MacBook and GarageBand could spark a musical journey? Meet Malia DelaCruz of CIAO MALZ, a talented musician from Brooklyn, who takes us through her captivating origin story. From her childhood fascination with instruments like the piano and clarinet, to those early days of crafting songs with the hum of background TV and basketball games, Malia reveals how he discovered his unique creative process. Her story is a testament to the power of embracing distractions and letting go of overthinking to allow musical ideas to flow with ease.

Malia's narrative unfolds as we explore her evolution from band member to solo artist. Listen as she recounts the serendipitous encounter with the band Frog and the label Audio Antihero, which opened doors to dream collaborations. Transitioning from collaborative projects to solo endeavors, Malia shares the liberating yet challenging experience of finding her voice and style. Her heartfelt EP Safe Then Sorry, showcases her growth as an artist and her commitment to creating richer musical textures.

Navigating the world of music production and performance, Malia offers insights into the balance between technical skills and songwriting. From opening gigs for bigger bands to receiving uplifting feedback from peers, her journey is filled with motivational moments that inspire aspiring musicians. Emphasizing the importance of consistency, discipline, and seizing opportunities while maintaining one's unique charm amidst a world of repetitive patterns. Join us for this lyrical journey, celebrating individuality and the allure of CIAO MALZ's irresistible presence in the music scene.

 

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"Safe Then Sorry is a rest stop on the path most traveled. I wrote the bulk of the EP after work, these stories and characters came to me subconsciously and asked to be spoken into existence. These songs are about the unlikely connections we make, how they’re simultaneously inexplicable and meaningful. I work through these contradictions with unpredictable melodies, explosive choruses, and with the recording process itself. We did everything on the fly to capture as much raw emotion as could fit in the four walls of the basement studio. I wanted the project to feel how it did when I was messing around on GarageBand on my first computer — unrestrained." – Malia DelaCruz (CIAO MALZ)