MAITA • Waking up at Night • 2024

linktr.ee/maitamusic

Portland indie rock artist MAITA has released a devastating new album called want via Fluff & Gravy Records. Led by Japanese-American singer-songwriter Maria Maita-Keppeler, the band’s third full-length release is their most crystallized work thus far. With the album’s release, the band also shares the official music video for “waking up at night,” a tender anti-lullaby about depression and self-improvement. As Maita-Keppeler says, “Sometimes all you can do is research every vitamin, tackle every deficiency, gain control of some aspect of your life that perhaps might be improved upon.”

 

The band has also announced a fall/winter tour in the Pacific Northwest, with stops in Portland, Seattle, Boise, Spokane and more. See a full list of dates below, and find more information HERE.

Lea Thomas • The Gift • 2024

Lea Thomas’ album “Cosmos Forever” unfurls in a moment of exquisitely gentle suggestion: “Let’s go for a walk/Don’t talk.” Hers is a voice that is at peace with itself, that is trusting of its own ability to convey the truths of her experience and her personal philosophy, and to express her enduring love for the natural world. These truths, inspired by growing up on Maui, are embroidered with elegantly simple imagery. Fragments and fine details of a myriad different landscapes–a spray of leaves, a winding river, a bracing trade wind–seem to weave themselves together into a blanket of sound that is warm and wholly enveloping.

linktr.ee/lealeathomas

Starflyer 59 • 909 • 2024

https://velvetbluemusic.com/?product=starflyer-59-lust-for-gold

In the early ’90s, as his solo debut was gestating, Jason Martin lived at home with his parents in the suburban sprawl of Riverside, Calif. Refered to as the 909, by its area code.

Martin would frequent his local record stores, patiently waiting for the latest batch of import singles, EPs, and LPs from his favorite UK bands: Ride, Slowdive, the Stone Roses, Pale Saints, MBV, Catherine Wheel — devouring obscure B-sides and deep album cuts alongside the “hits.” 

Over this period, Martin was also penning the songs that would become the first Starflyer 59 record. While the album is officially untitled, fans affectionately refer to it as “Silver,” due to its monochromatic metallic cover, while its follow-up, a second untitled album, is referred to as “Gold,” for similar reasons.

These first two efforts firmly cemented the band in the history of the genre of noise pop or shoegaze. The pair are often mentioned in lists of the greatest shoegaze albums of all time — for reference, see Pitchfork, Stereogum, and Revolver, which found room for “Silver,” in its top-11 list.

Snowy Band • Age Difference • 2024

Age Difference is the third album by Snowy Band, but the trillionth album by Liam Snowy Halliwell. This one is a collection of songs that - as the title may suggest - explore concepts and constructions of time, memory, experience, reflection, and just existing in the shadows and light of it all - Blossom Rot Records

numb talking • walk with u • 2024

the credits roll at a midnight screening. an early 2000’s horror movie.

you didn’t ask for this. you pray you can say good night to an answering machine. in secular worship. trying to raise the dead.

released July 24, 2024

linktr.ee

numb talking is the solo project of sufian m, a musical space exploring the duality of extremity and its absence, distance and closeness, acknowledgement and disavowal, pain and its mending, home and its cross-border search.

at the core of numb talking are the wishmaking and healing capacities of songs as hummed prayers, admissions, cautions, reminders and celebrations. the voice whispers and projects in a mix of shoegaze and nu-metal tendencies that invite, warn and laugh with the listener.

the music explores the electric guitar’s timbres and potential to vocally express without word, setting tension/connection between the spoken and unspoken. from overwhelmingly distorted arrangements to dreamier reprieves, the instruments play with energy and fatigue among layers of synthesis, distortion, and expression of the voice and its disfigurement.

The Clearwater Swimmers • Heaven's A Bar • 2024

Linktree

The Clearwater Swimmers self-titled debut is, at its core, a collection of field notes exploring gratitude, and how to shape it into a salve, armor, and engine. With songwriting often invoking themes of the natural world, community, and the spaces between, this album deals in the components a person is made up of: millions of small, fleeting moments, experiences, people, feelings - some painful, and some soothing. As much as the lyrics are autobiographical, they are just as much a letter to the threads that comprise the group, what ties them together, and what extends beyond.

Laughing • Don't Care • 2024

https://www.instagram.com/laughingonline/

What's so funny about peace, love, and understanding? Laughing are Montreal-based rock n' rollers who take cues from some of the greatest pop songwriters of the past five decades. Four unique voices from across the Canadian expanse. Cross-stitched material and temporary ego sublimation serve them well in their pursuit of the holy grail: a perfect song. Their debut album Because It's True is an honest attempt at inviting you in on the cosmic joke. Heap your praise, adulation, scoff, or scorn upon them; they'll still be Laughing.

ifitbeyourwill Podcast • 2500 Downloads

https://ifitbeyourwill.buzzsprout.com

Devarrow • A Long & Distant Wave • 2024

devarrow.com

"A Long & Distant Wave" is a captivating exploration of memory and time, and marks the beginning of a string of upcoming releases. The new album marks a departure from Devarrow’s signature four-on-the-floor folk-pop aesthetic, embracing experimentation with the lo-fi, tape hiss, home studio spirit. Despite the DIY approach, the album maintains a pop sensibility with catchy hooks and strong melodies that linger in the mind long after listening. 

Big Warm Bed • Can't Quit • 2024

https://linktr.ee/bigwarmbed

Crafting laid-back yet wistful musings under the alias Big Warm Bed, Yorkshire-based songsmith Jacob Andrews has partnered with revered indie label Dance To The Radio for the release of his upcoming EP, with debut single ‘Should’ve Seen it Coming’ arriving earlier this summer and receiving backing across BBC 6 Music (Emily Pilbeam) and the tastemaker community (So Young Magazine).

Katie Malco • Fatal Attraction feat. Laura Stevenson • 2024

IG

Deeply impressive - a work of real tenderness and stark honesty that finds Katie Malco in full command of her artistry."

CLASH

"A soaring string of marvellous, ever-grander choruses."

NPR

“Katie Malco captures the zeitgeist of a generation lost” 4*

DIY

"Phoebe Bridgers if she was from Peckham… [Katie can] capture fleeting beauty and resilient war with brilliant flair"​

Dork

"Trembling and raw"

Stereogum Armed with only an old telecaster (played upside down) and her storied lyrics, Katie has toured with Julien Baker, Jenny Lewis, Fenne Lily, Alvvays, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü), Dawes, This is the Kit, SOAK, BC Camplight, Laura Stevenson, The Joy Formidable, Peter Buck (REM) and more. She also opened for The Lumineers at their sold-out Crystal Palace Park show in summer 2023 and was invited by Julien Baker to open her extensive nationwide US tour in 2021.

Ducks Ltd. • "When You're Outside” • 2024

https://www.ducksltd.co/

Ducks Ltd.’s soaring new single “When You’re Outside,” is three minutes of jangle-pop bliss that deals with conflicting feelings of trying to love someone who is making it difficult to do so. Recorded early in the Harm’s Way sessions – at a time when country music was heavily influencing their arrangements – their lofty goals for the harmonies were realized by members of Ratboys and Moontype. Despite exclusion from the album, it seems apt for a track of this caliber to see its own release. Carpark

Chitinous Mandible • Calm Summer Night • 2024

Instagram

Until mid-September I'm going to be putting out a song once a week and I just wanted to pass that along in case you're interested in listening in on what I'll be releasing.

Redshift Headlights • If You Are Around Still • 2024

Wisconsin indie-rockers Redshift Headlights completed tracking their fourth studio album with legendary recording engineer Steve Albini in March of 2024. Albini passed away two months later. The self-released album, entitled If You Are Around Still, comes out Friday, July 12th, 2024 on their redshiftheadlights.bandcamp.com page and via all streaming and online platforms. The 9-song album blends influences from rock, country, progressive rock genres and explores life, love, loss, and nostalgia. The album marks a shift toward rock and away from the more layered and orchestral pop arrangements from their previous three records.

All songs on the album were written collaboratively by the four core longtime members of the band, Stephen McCabe (vocals/guitar), Dean Hoffman (vocals/bass), Jay Spanbauer (guitar), and Justin Mitchell (keyboards). Chris Sasman joined the band in summer of 2023 after most of the songs had already been written but he breathed new life into each.

The album's first single "If You Are Around Still" will be accompanied by a music video recorded at Electrical Audio and featuring the band and all engineers, including Steve Albini. Glide Magazine will be premiering the video in the U.S. Friday, June 12th and Spill Magazine will run the Canadian premiere on Monday, June 15th.

Recorded by Steve Albini and Lauren "Mac" McDonald at Electrical Audio in Chicago on March 8th and 9th, 2024

ifitbeyourwill Podcast • Season 3

https://ifitbeyourwill.buzzsprout.com/

We’ll be back in September… Till then season 3 was amazing, great chats with spectacular indie artists await your listening pleasure.

Happy Summer 🌞 

Jessica Pratt • Life Is (LIVE on The Late Show) • 2024

bio.to/JessicaPratt

Tony Jay • The Darkest Corner • 2024

This collection delves deeper into the realms of ambient noise and collage, territories previously hinted at in his earlier works. The songs, themselves, retain a skeletal elegance, a stark contrast to the swirling chaos that surrounds them. The final product evokes the image of a charcoal sketch, rendered with swift strokes and unwavering confidence, a fleeting moment of beauty captured for all time.

Hunters of the Alps • DRY RUN • 2024

IG

Spanning psychedelic soundscape, pulsating 80’s electronic elements, and Scott Walker and 80s Julio Iglesias-inspired journeys, “Dry Run” showcases the duality of Hunters’ nostalgic internal language mixed with the exaltation of new beginnings and the insecurity of perceived missed opportunities.

JOSEPH SHIPP • Dig Deep • 2024

Joseph Shipp is a multifaceted artist who weaves threads of music, design, and

photography into a rich, colorful career that defies conventional boundaries. Born between the

storied musical cities of Nashville and Memphis, Shipp’s creative journey is one of constant

evolution, driven by an insatiable curiosity and a deep reverence for the power of art.

https://www.josephshipp.band/

The son of a second-generational photographer, Shipp’s musical influences were shaped early on by the eclectic tastes of his dad. Neil Young, Leo Kottke, traditional Irish folk, and Classical were common sounds around the photo studio or car. Like many young kids of his generation inspired by Kurt Cobain, he started learning guitar at age 12. And at 18, he began writing songs. While living in San Francisco, he and his wife, also a musician and designer, became immersed in Old Time and Bluegrass music endemic to where he grew up. Shipp picked up the fiddle and his wife the banjo and, for a few years, performed traditional folk music as the duo The Family Shipp.

Ben Seretan • Allora • 2024

Tiny Engines welcomed Ben Seretan to the TE family last year with the promise of a new album in 2024. That new album is called Allora and is out July 26th. The album is the long-awaited "rock" follow-up to Seretan's critically-acclaimed 2020 album, Youth Pastoral. "New Air" was the explosive first single released in April and covered in the NY Times. "Bend" was the second single released in May. The third single "Climb The Ladder" is out now alongside an interview with Stereogum.    It’s a record of many wonders spanning a vast stretch of personal and sonic upheaval...The wild and wooly guitar jams of “New Air” and “Free” take nearly half of Allora’s run time, balanced out shorter, impressionistic musings on impermanence and death. Somewhere in between is third single “Climb The Ladder”... - Stereogum benseretan

Ghost Fan Club • 2024

Knifepunch Records

“With a soft and cautious style, the track tiptoes forward with something between bummed out slacker stillness and a kind of weighted trepidation, as sad and scared and bored as any spirit unable to pass on. But the ghost here is still very much living, the life slipping past before his eyes very much his own.”– VARIOUS SMALL FLAMES

“While on its surface, the statement feels like it reflects an empty way of moving through the world—there is a richness to the lived experience of drifting. Costolo puts words to the current way many of us are experiencing everything today, no longer real participants in our lives, but spectators of them.” –DOUBLE NEGATIVE

“Inspired by emo bedroom music and released through the Florida DIY label knifepunch records, we hear elements of Elliott Smith, Sparklehorse and The Antlers in the poignant guitar sound as Tyler discusses the never-ending pressure of life and reveals how painful it is when you feel that you are just drifting as life passes you by.” – SPECTRAL NIGHTS

https://linktr.ee/ghostfanclub

“I wrote these songs during a point of major turmoil in my life. I was mostly drifting along, trying to make peace with so much of my existence being out of my control and time slipping by while I was trying to catch up. I started working on a lot of the songs all the way back in 2021 but wasn’t in a situation where I could comfortably record. I felt desperate to get the tracks finished but was bouncing around unable to find any footing, which I think you can feel in the songs themselves. 

I wanted actual drums for the first time in my music making journey which is where Tom Morris came in. I think that addition really makes a difference between these songs and my previous body of work.” – Tyler Costolo (Ghost Fan Club)

Pleasant Mob • 2024

At a glance Pleasant Mob evokes a carefree spirit, but below the surface, their uncluttered compositions are a comforting utopia. Their judicious use of tone, color, and melody strike the perfect balance between masculine and feminine energy - take that Piet Mondrian. Their clarity and resolved tension has smoothed down the sharp edges of rock and roll into a joyous flower powered jangle.

Sad Eyed Beatniks • You Belong With Us • 2024

Ten Brocades pulls from songs written and recorded over the last two years. Mike Ramos (Tony Jay, Flowertown) and Karina Gill (Cindy, Flowertown) played on and helped record the backing tracks for "Barong Mask," "Nail In The Coffin," "The Broken Playwright Waits," and "Barefoot On The Burning Marble." All of the recordings were started on cassette 8-track or cassette 4-track, then expanded upon digitally. 

linktr.ee/kevin_linn

Anna McClellan • "Like a Painting” • 2024

New Anna McClellan Alert ✧ “Like a Painting” a palpable interplay between emotion and melody is out now

McClellan’s lyrical narrative unfolds like a series of snapshots, each verse a glitchy reminiscence of a love once fervently embraced

https://www.instagram.com/annamcclellan/

ifitbeyourwill Podcast S01 E04

Lonesome Shack (feat. Tom Walbank) • Monsoon Lightning • 2024

Lonesome Shack conjures a spirit that drifts between city and desert, navigating trials of love, loss and the natural world. With an ear to folk and blues traditions, they craft songs that stir the heart and shake the soul. On their eighth studio album Song Of The Horse they dig deeper into forces of nature and elemental grooves. Song Of The Horse was recorded by Johnny Goss in a three day session at Dandelion Gold on the outskirts of Tucson, AZ. The band was joined by their old friend and legendary Tucson musician Tom Walbank on harmonica for the session. MW

Website

Human Interest • Better Press Repeat • 2024

Hailed by The Sunday Times as “an intriguing musical concoction that doffs its cap to grunge, The Kinks, Iggy Pop and T.Rex”, and following substantial press backing from the likes of DIY, Dork, Clash, The Line Of Best Fit, So Young, CMU, Rough Trade, The Forty-Five, Human Interest have fast become mainstays on the BBC 6 Music (Steve Lamacq), Radio X (playlisted) and Sirius FM airwaves. With their biggest ever headline show announced for The Lexington, London this September (13th) to coincide with their EP release, the quartet are primed to capitalise on their acclaimed summer festival run with a slew of tastemaker festival appearances later this year.

Instagram

ifitbeyourwill S03 E39 Finale • Idaho

Thanks for listening to season three… off for the summer! Back in September for another great season.

What happens when a band defies the constraints of time and still remains relevant after four decades? Join us for an intimate conversation with Jeff Martin of the band Idaho as he opens up about their cult status, the unique bond with fans, and their long-standing influence on the slowcore genre. We explore Jeff's recent whirlwind of creativity, including a new record, a remastered box set, and a heartfelt documentary. Discover how Idaho's stripped-down, textural guitar sound continues to captivate both long-time followers and new audiences alike.

Jeff delves into the evolution of Idaho's songwriting craft, highlighting the deliberate pace and melodic bass lines that have become their hallmark. He shares the challenges and rewards of creating music at a slower tempo, enhancing the band's distinct sound. Our discussion also touches on the natural progression and subtle improvements in Idaho's lyrical content and cohesiveness over the years, reflecting their growth and experience. Jeff provides insights into the band's early days, his high school friendship with co-founder John Berry, and the enduring legacy they've built together.

Reignite your passion for Idaho as Jeff recounts the creation of their album "Lapse" and the renewed energy brought by guitarist Robbie Bronzo during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jeff reveals the motivations behind releasing a new album after an 11-year hiatus and the emotional significance of music creation. We also explore the meticulous process behind their remastered box set and the making of their documentary, capturing the band's journey through extensive personal archival footage. Whether you're a die-hard fan or discovering Idaho for the first time, this episode offers a heartfelt appreciation for the band's enduring artistry and legacy.

 https://www.idahoband.com/

Chappell Roan • Tiny Desk Concert • 2024

https://www.iamchappellroan.com/

Roan’s marvelous debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, came out last September — just in time to fit into the window of eligibility for the 2025 Grammys, hint hint wink — and it finds the singer toying confidently with a persona inspired in part by drag performers. Flanked by a pink-clad band, she wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to serve up an absolute look, complete with white makeup and a towering wig (bolstered by a wadded-up trash bag tucked inside, as well as an assortment of stubbed-out cigarette butts), which now sits comfortably atop a skull Cypress Hill left us.

It’s only appropriate that Roan would forever alter the Tiny Desk. Because, at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, this is a stunning set: Performing five songs from Midwest Princess, Roan worked through songs of youthful heartache (“Casual”), queer liberation (“Pink Pony Club”), mournful alienation (“California”) and two decidedly different forms of chaotic seduction (“Picture You,” “Red Wine Supernova”). In every mood and every song, she’s utterly commanding — witty and whip-smart, vocally assured and charismatic beyond words.

She didn’t just leave her wig; she left a mark.

SET LIST

“Casual”

“Pink Pony Club”

“Picture You”

“California”

“Red Wine Supernova”

My Best Unbeaten Brother • Pessimistic Pizza • 2024

‘Pessimistic Pizza’ is the debut mini-album from My Best Unbeaten Brother. This is a new project from the returning Ben and Adam Parker of Nosferatu D2. The past work of the Parker brothers has been lauded by Pitchfork, Drowned in Sound, Los Campesinos!, The Line of Best Fit and DIY Mag, while their unconventional legacy was the subject of radio stories for BBC 6 Music and Public Radio International (“The World”). 

“Seven songs by three men from Croydon. Inspired by getting older, getting sadder, getting angrier with a post-Brexit world where The Smiths have been ruined by the actions of the ex-singer. Learning to let go; learning to be Spider-Man; trying to understand The Fall; trying to understand life and death, and trying to understand records by The Steve Miller Band.” – Ben Parker (Guitar & Vocals)

The Felice Brothers • Crime Scene Queen • 2024

https://www.thefelicebrothers.com/

“A few years ago, I started revisiting old demos that had never seen the light of day and recordings that hadn’t found a home on previous albums, and I started thinking of them as the Valley of Abandoned Songs,” explains Ian Felice. “At a certain point, I realized that I had a particular group of tunes that worked really well as an album, and so I shared it with Conor, along with my idea to post it online, but he immediately texted back that he loved it so much he wanted to start a new record label just to put it out.”