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  • Bug Teeth x ugly hug | Guest List vol. 23

    September 11th, 2024

    Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week, we have a collection of songs put together by UK-based group Bug Teeth.

    Starting back in 2018 as a solo project by front-person PJ Johnson, Bug Teeth has expanded into the ethers, a functional force of members and a whimsical array of sounds and spirits that culminate in the natural beauty all around us. Their latest EP, Lucky Me, Lucky Mud transcends any defined boundaries, showing a band that has been established in their strengths while also embracing what may be beyond; ecstatic percussion, inventive tension, experimental atmospheres and literary thematic excursions all brought to life within a forceful DIY spirit. With the release of a new single, “Landscaping” earlier this year as well as a soundtrack by PJ called “Things That Grow” for a film exploring the microscopic world of bacteria, Bug Teeth are in the works of finishing new music to be released in the near future.

    Today, the members of Bug Teeth curated a playlist for your listening enjoyment.

    Feature Photo by Georgia Zimmerman

  • Anne Malin Finds Sturdy Ground on “River”, Announces New Album Strange Power! | Single

    September 10th, 2024

    Anne Malin Ringwalt, who performs and writes under the name Anne Malin, is an absorbing artist and poet, branching through a career that is transcending of any boundaries as her art collects upon her most basic instincts as an individual. Following 2022’s album, Summer Angel, the North Carolina artist returns today to Dear Life Records to announce her fifth album, Strange Powers! (due 10/25) as well as share its first single, “River”, along with an accompanying music video.

    Pivoting within an ever vivid sense of self, “River” becomes part of Ringwalt’s journey towards recovery, as she rebuilds trust in the earth and feels its reciprocation. In a bloom of violin played by Lily Honigberg, both cinematic yet simple, “I saw my heart beating in a river and left it there for the earth to save / Some muscle wet in the weeds, and flooded through still I will sing” – rests with some weight on top of Ringwalt’s fingerpicking as her articulated vocal expressions ebb and flow with such delicate intention as the track breathes in and out without congestion, immortalizing these moments of calming reassurance and understood fear amongst its wandering pace.

    “River” is accompanied by a music video shot by Abby Jones at Eno River and Jordan Lake in Durham, North Carolina in a spurt of pouring rain. Shot on super 8, the video becomes a representation of solitude, as Ringwalt moves across the natural landscape, falling into the spirit of the enduring earth and the timeless warmth of the tape’s hue. 

    “River” is also used as a bridge that joins the release of Strange Power! and What Floods, a new book-length poem written by Ringwalt published by Inside the Castle.

    Written by Shea Roney

  • Red PK Shares “Bedroom” and “Moving Off the Line”, Debut Singles

    September 9th, 2024

    If you have ever experienced the rich communal impact of the Chicago music scene, there is a chance that you have caught a performance by guitarist and pedal-steel player, Andy “red” PK, who has become a substantial player in countless Chicago acts such as Free Range, hemlock, Tobacco City and other touring groups. Although PK’s presence in the scene feels matured, established and highly influential, their skills as a songwriter are a new endeavor for them, as last week saw their debut singles as a songwriter, “Bedroom” and “Moving Off the Line”, added to streaming platforms for the first time, marking the start of a new talent that stands out on its own with such sincerity and contextual instinct.

    Stemming from immediate inspiration and recorded directly to tape, these singles are brief, yet dense with intention and clarity. “Bedroom” plays within a confined space, a collective exhale – a rummaging of thoughts that plunder our consciousness when the latch of your bedroom door comes to its purposeful resting spot. “And I heard you driving / I looked away too long and I missed you,” PK sings in a hushed whisper, lingering amongst layers of guitars that create a comfort of stringed textures underneath. In a more eager push towards folk-pop, “Moving Off the Line” so cleanly plays to both of PK’s skills as a melody maker and compositional instrumentalist. Progressing with a lively and nostalgic drum track that holsters an array of off-beat accent points, the track still leaves room for the underlying bass to speak for itself as PK’s established guitar voicings kick in. “If anybody told you / That I’m moving off the line / You’d listen close for warnings / But you’d hold on to the signs,” is noted by anyone who lives in Chicago; bustling, pragmatic and essential to navigating a complex city, let alone navigating your own placement on an individual level. Balanced with a string of harmonies that are performed with familiarity in influence, PK’s debut singles already feel timeless at their core. 

    You can listen to “Bedroom” and “Moving Off the Line” on all streaming platforms now, as well as purchase them at Red PK’s bandcamp. 

    Written by Shea Roney

  • Dog Eyes Are Your Friends Too | Feature Interview

    September 6th, 2024

    dog eyes is the lo-fi duo of Hailey Firstman and Davis Leach, who, as of signing to Grand Jury Music, released their sophomore album holy friend last month. This marked an exciting next step for the Oakland-based duo, as they continue to expand their range as well as evolve into their own endearing sound and conceptual vision as a homegrown project.

    holy friend is a sonic reverie that flows through full, vibrant and admirable lo-fi production. It is not an album that rejects minimalism, playing amongst a multitude of layered harmonies and textured instrumental tinkerings, but rather one that embraces a process of both trust in the duos collaborative strengths as well as the simplicity in writing what you know best.

    The intimacy at which Firstman and Leach perform from feels like the weight of a large and colorful comforter. Hiding underneath one was often what sleepovers were resorted to as a kid – flash light in hand, accidentally blinding one eye at a time, only to keep the party going in forcefully hushed secrecy because you know you were supposed to be asleep an hour ago. Those are the moments that stick to you and dog eyes knows it. As a collection, holy friend is an embodiment of memories like that, the small things; uncontrollable fits of cry-laughing, awkward relational firsts, finally knowing that your roommate’s dog loves you, the last drive in a cherished old car, or simply just making music with your best friend.

    We recently got to catch up with the duo, discussing their strengths as collaborators and friends, articulating relationships through unique lenses, defining all goodness through the ‘holy friend’ and obviously, dogs.

    This interview has been edited for length and clarity

    Photo by Tyler Hentges

    Shea Roney: Congrats on the release! How has it been going since the rollout? 

    Hailey Firstman: It’s been great! It feels really good to have it out there.

    Davis Leach: It’s definitely the most exciting release that we’ve ever done. It’s just been really cool connecting with random people who reach out because they listened to it. 

    SR: Having worked closely together before on Mr. Marigold and your dog eyes debut, good, proper send off, were there any shifts, not only in your style, but the way you two collaborated that you saw stand out on holy friend? 

    HL: Well, we initially started working together on my project Mr. Marigold when Davis offered to help me record it and that’s when we first became friends. I feel like with each new thing we’ve done it’s been a progression of our tastes together, and also a progression of what we like when we’re making stuff together. It’s just really fun.

    DL: I mean, all of it is just fun. I feel like, at least right now, this is just kind of our hobby. So you know, we both have jobs and whatnot. But with holy friend, [speaking to Hailey] were you living in the Bay Area at that point?

    HF: I was probably halfway through moving.

    DL: Okay yeah, so that first album, [Hailey] was living like three hours south, so she would come up, and we would just have weekend-long benders of recording music, and that kind of formed our habits. We’d be up really late every night and on Sunday night she would leave at like 2 AM. But when recording holy friend, there was part of it where she was actually living up here.

    HF: So it was a little slightly healthier. Maybe a little [laughs].

    SR: The album comes together in such a beautiful collage of sounds and textures that still feel cohesive as an overall project. I am wondering where this collective idea came from. Was it brought out with each individual song to match meanings and expressions or was it decided on prior to recording?

    HF: I think that we do something where we both get really into specific albums at the same time, where we can’t stop listening to them. We had a couple like that. So it’s definitely some of those albums mixed with what we feel in the song.

    DL: Essentially it comes down to everything we can do to rip off this album [laughs]. But then the thing is, it never sounds like it, just because, you know, we’re doing home recording with a synthesizer and like a weird loop pedal that makes weird sounds, so we try and then something else happens and we end up chasing that.

    HF: There were definitely some songs where we knew what we wanted them to sound like. The song ‘fair’ was all on GarageBand and my vocals are on my laptop microphone and I recorded them when I was laying in my bed. True bedroom pop [laughs].

    SR: I find ‘fair’ to be such a lovely song that holds a lot of nostalgic value in the way it was recorded and produced. Where do you experience auditory nostalgia, and in the case of this song, how did you manage to capture the expressions involved? 

    DL: I was gonna say adding the voice memo stuff is so easy to achieve that nostalgic feel. And I mean, it’s overused a lot, but I like when it’s just barely in there. If you listen really hard to ‘fair’, you can hear Hailey saying, ‘okay, we’re gonna start on…’ and it makes me think of blowing out birthday candles or something. And then I think just trying your best to go either hyper digital to where it starts to sound messed up and robotic, that is a very nostalgic auditory sound for me. Or going the complete opposite direction, fully analog, like we have this busted up tape machine that we use a lot that is an easy way to make those emotions come out a little more too.

    HF: Actually, the recording under ‘fair’ is from a completely other song that me and my friend made, and I just autotuned it to be in the key of the song. But I feel like there’s always nostalgia in hearing a random conversation with a good friend, and I also sped up my voice to be a little higher which kind of sounds like I’m a kid. 

    SR: I like how the song ‘moment’ feels to be given its very own standout moment on the album, living in this standard pop sound, but also continuing that emotional throughline of nostalgia as well.

    HF: Well at first we were very into the idea of our second album being a pop album, like a true pop album. I feel like ‘moment’ is kind of the only actual pop song that came out of our making a pop album [laughs].

    DL: But we did try a couple of other ones, but they just didn’t work as well as ‘moment’. That was probably the hardest song for me because it was kind of a pain getting that one done. And then at the end, I feel like we weren’t super happy with it until my roommate Cameron actually started mixing it.

    HF: We have certain songs that we call “Hailey GarageBand songs” at first, where I just kind of get crazy with GarageBand or Logic. I wrote ‘moment’ while I was also producing it, which is kind of unlike a lot of other songs I write. But I just remember being very excited when I wrote, “if I could hold this moment in my hands”, and I had to check to make sure no one else has written that yet [laughs].  It can go both ways, it’s earnest and could not be earnest as well, and yeah, kind of hearkens to that early 2000’s cheesy love song, but it’s truly how I felt.

    SR: More often than not, when we think of a relationship album, we are prone to think of romantic love or heartbreak. But what I admire so much about holy friend is I can jump from a song about losing a childhood friend to losing a cherished car, and yet it’s still a universal and relatable feeling that is just put through a different and unique lens. Can you tell me about your experience repurposing what a ‘relationship’ album can be?

    HF: I think I am just very interested in relationships of all kinds in general and how people fall into patterns. Sometimes even when I am writing a song to understand an experience, even if it’s not an experience I’ve necessarily had before, it’s something I enjoy. Almost like writing a book about something that you’ve never done and putting yourself into a character or experience. You can feel it and you know it. It helps to process my own things.

    DL: Yeah, I guess writing a breakup album, you know, happens a lot, but while recording holy friend I was really into thinking about platonic friendships and a lot of the rights and wrongs that can happen in those relationships as well. You can have a love song about a friend or a breakup song about a friend too, and that’s kind of what I was thinking about the whole time. 

    HF: That’s true, I mean, Nora my car, that’s also a relationship I had. I actually want to make a playlist with all the songs that I’ve written about my car now. But Nora had moss growing inside because there was a little leak in it, so when it rained, the fabric on the top would get wet and it started growing moss, like a free filtration system. But there is something about a big old car that is very emotional, and now I have my mother’s cube car, which is nameless, because it’s just not as cool. 

    SR: When expressing the idea of the ‘holy friend’, you described it as a perfect being. Can you tell me a bit about where the holy friend comes from and did its presence shift at all while the album was coming together? 

    DL: At the time I had a lot of friends and people close to me that I either felt I was wronging them or vice versa. I kind of struggle socially sometimes, so I was just thinking about all these different relationships that I have and friendships that I have and I guess I was just kind of combining them all into one person. 

    HF: [To Davis] I remember when you were first telling me about it, you said it combines the best qualities of them, so it creates an ideal being.

    DL: Yeah, now that I think about it, it’s kind of religious. I’m not religious at all, but it is kind of like a God thing. I don’t know.

    HF: Like Jesus [laughs]. 

    DL: Yeah, like Jesus [laughs]. I can’t really speak much about religion or anything, but it was kind of like the goodness in all of my friends, and thinking about that makes me feel really good. 

    SR: Did constructing the holy friend through writing these songs help put your own personal relationships more into perspective? Especially when walking this fine line with such nuance and consideration when writing about them.

    DL: Actually, yes, like majorly. When I would start thinking about all of my friends, I’m like, ‘man, how can I be like that?’ I know my friend would always do this, why don’t I do that for this other person and just try to be positive and work on my relationships and actually be intentional. I feel like, right now, I’m kind of in a place where my closest friends are my housemates and we’re all actually moving out at the end of this month, so now I’m having to learn how to be an actual active participant in a friendship, which sounds insane, but that’s where I’m at. 

    Photo by Hector Franco

    SR: Were there any types of relationships or emotional connections that you found were particularly difficult to articulate? 

    HF: For songwriting, I’ve realized over the years that there’s kind of a sweet spot with timing with where I’m at emotionally about a situation. If there’s too much emotion, it becomes kind of muddy, like if you’re thinking about painting and there’s too many colors, it can all start blending together. Sometimes it feels good, and I need it to happen to write a song, but it doesn’t always make my favorite songs. The romantic ideal, the romanticism, or the powerful emotions recollected in tranquility, I feel like the sweet spot is once I’m at peace with a person or a situation is when I’m able to collect the nuance, like as you were talking about, and even make it kind of funny, too.

    DL: I feel like there’s a lot of humor in some of your songs [to Hailey]. Like ‘firsts’, some of those lines are really funny. 

    HF: Yeah, and letting it sit for a little bit, or sometimes I’ll write half of a song and then months and months later I’ll finish it and get even more tranquility from it.

    SR: You guys do manage to combine humor with sincerity very well. I especially like the line “I don’t exist outside of his big ears” from ‘rusty, my dog’ because it deals with this universal sense of placement and belonging that many different types of relationships have, but so adorably told through the eyes of a dog. 

    DL: Being perceived by a dog just melts me completely. I’m specifically singing about my roommate’s dog. His name isn’t actually rusty, but you know, that’s off the record [laughs]. I love him so much and I find myself just wondering, ‘what does he think of me?’ I always read these articles of people talking about how you need to pay attention to your dog because you are their ‘everything’, so I was thinking what would it be like to only exist to my dog, and nothing else. It’s a funny song, and it’s cute and sweet because I got my housemates involved, but it can be weird the more you think about it. I mean, we do have a lot of dog related stuff, I mean the name dog eyes, but there is so much beauty in dogs.

    SR: Do you have a dog, Hailey? 

    HF: I don’t. I actually didn’t grow up with any animals because my mom is allergic. But I’ve lived with a dog and that’s when I started thinking about dog’s eyes. I was gonna say that one time I was Googling dog eyes, as one does, and this article popped up that was titled something like “Seeing God in your beloved dog’s eyes”. I didn’t read it, but I really liked the title [laughs].

    Photo by Hector Franco

    SR: Do you guys have anything coming up that you are looking forward to? 

    HF: We have a lot of songs we are looking forward to recording! We have a shared notes folder of the songs that we’ve each written or songs we’re writing together, and we just keep them all there for a while and simmer with them. It’s pretty giant, which is a cool problem to have, but this is the longest pause we’ve ever taken between albums and I think that’s good. 

    DL: Yeah and again, at least for right now, this is just a hobby for us. But with the signing to Grand Jury and having a lot of people listening, like way more than ever before, we’re definitely thinking about recording our next record, playing a lot of shows, or maybe doing a small tour. But at the end of the day we just really enjoy making music because it is just very foundational to our friendship.

    holy friend is out on all platforms now as well as a limited edition deluxe cassette of holy friend and dog eyes’ first record good, proper send off.

    Written by Shea Roney | Feature Photo by Hector Franco

  • Why Bonnie x ugly hug | Guest List vol. 22

    September 4th, 2024

    Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week, we have a collection of songs put together by Brooklyn-based artist Blair Howerton of Why Bonnie.

    Why Bonnie released their sophomore LP Wish On The Bone last week, marking an explosive step forward for the Brooklyn-based group. Two years since their country-tinged, sun-soaked release of 90 in November, Blair, along with mates Chance Williams (bass) and Josh Malett (drums), have spent that time building on their strengths to blend a collage of new sonic voicings that only enhance Blair’s dynamic vocals and instinctively holistic and sharp lyricism. Through maturing stories of trust and curiosity, its a record that refuses to feel lethargic as the summer heat takes one last swing, making Wish On The Bone an exciting reminder that there is always a path forward in moments of little hope.

    To celebrate the album’s release, Blair curated a playlist for your listening enjoyment!

  • Levi Minson Exudes with Grace and Flow on Violet Speedway | Album Premiere

    September 4th, 2024

    The “flow state”, only reached when a racecar driver hits 180+ mph, feels like a momentary lapse in time, where all movement becomes one and control over the situation begins to feel effortless.  Today, the ugly hug is premiering Violet Speedway, the debut record from Sacramento artist, Levi Minson, which is set to be released this Friday via Anything Bagel. Although not reaching the speed at which the engines rev and the heart is left in synchronous palpitations, Violet Speedway is a flash of grace, as Minson smoothly transitions in and out of stories of love, loss, fear and most of all, hope.

    Oftentimes minimal, Violet Speedway confronts the open spaces with soft, yet hearty soundscapes. Recorded fully in a bedroom on a tascam four-track, these deceptively sparse, lo-fi songs live in this subtle density of Minson’s instrumental expressions of looping guitars, light synths and heavy drums that spackle in the cracks. Songs like ‘The Shadow’ and ‘I Can’t Say It At All’ play with persistence, as Minson’s somber melodies sit on top of the chunking of heavy guitars – attuned to that of the early catalog of Elliott Smith as he transitioned from the rock roots of Heatmiser. ‘The Gleam Is All I See’ is a rambunctious indie rock stinger that plays passenger to the melancholic feel of the lo-fi recordings at hand, yet the distorted undertones are still muddily layered and excitingly harsh at its core. The harmonies on ‘Colin Is’, featuring Taylor Vick, build and flow with such tender vigor that any hints of pain begin to blend with bits of satisfactory release.

    This type of writing – reminiscing on momentary feelings and the duality at which they are experienced and then later remembered – so creatively opens up little worlds within each one of Minson’s songs. As the third generation of a dust bowl family, Minson’s writing articulates a rural life; the stories of time, place and being that stick out while fine details help hammer them down with sincerity and charm. ‘Anyone can do it/Sidekick’ begins with one of the most subtle moments on the record, letting each word hang in the air as staggered guitar strums reverb around them in a bare mini two-part epic. “My old man was a psychic / When he said I won’t need him / Cuz I’m your sidekick”, he sings with a stirring string of harmonies. ‘Did You Try’ plays through a stumble, falling into minor intonations as the guitar picks along, fixated on its pacing as it tries to grasp on to anything other then solitude. ‘I’ll go, you stay here’ marks Minson’s presence as he toys with distance. With the beautiful subtlety of synthetic strings – a restrained form of cinematic trust within the track – the song turns into a doomed romance as Violet Speedway reaches its most inflicting emotional height.

    Minson sings of shortcomings as if he is one step ahead, reflecting while simultaneously looking at the path forward. “Do they look both ways yet? / I know all about regret”, he utters out, with no hesitancy, bringing the album to a close with the song, ‘Memory’. It’s not really a love song, and yet, it’s not really about heartbreak either, but a sincere glimpse at Minson’s heart and mind beginning to flow together.

    Listen to Violet Speedway early below.

    You can now pre-order a limited screen-printed tape of Violet Speedway from Anything Bagel at their bandcamp. Make sure to check out the rest of their excellent catalog!

    Written by Shea Roney

  • The Spookfish Shares Soundtrack for New Rebel Jester Studio Game, To The Flame | Tape Preview

    September 2nd, 2024

    Running through the Catskills, cultivating in the heart of Maine and now resting in New Paltz, New York, the sonic tinkerings and lethargic dreamscapes of The Spookfish have been sprouting across the Eastern United States for some time now. Brought to life by Dan Goldberg, The Spookfish is a cherished project, one that revels in the heart of natural beauty and the experience of an ethereal being – each collection of work representing its own journey inside a textured sonic world. Last week, The Spookfish released “To The Flame”, a new tape via We Be Friends Records and the encompassing soundtrack for the new Rebel Jester Studios platform video game, To The Flame. 

    Within the dark depths of a weepy cavern, To The Flame follows the journey of a moth, whose main objective is to reach the light at the end of the tunnel; “a brutal pilgrimage to meet god”. The concept was inspired when game creator Ezra Szanton went to watch local dungeon synth artists Deep Gnomes and Covered Bridges with Goldberg at a cozy barn in Maine. The collaboration between Szanton, Rebel Jester artist Fergus Ferguson and Goldberg was a very hands-on experience as Szanton shared in a statement; 

    “Dan’s sound is perfect for this game. He combines dark ambient synths with personal instrumentals in a way that’s melancholy and spooky but also hopeful. To The Flame takes place across 4 areas, each with their own mood. Usually our artist, Fergus Ferguson, would create the art for an area first and then Dan would create music inspired by that art but sometimes it worked the other way around with Dan making music first and Fergus creating art that matched. Oftentimes I would get attached to early drafts of the songs. We decided to keep many of the early drafts in the game as variations, so when you go into an area you have a random chance of hearing essentially a demo track instead of the “final” song. This kind of variation helps keep the player interested even if they’re not making physical progress in the game (which is common because the game is quite difficult). Dan’s music really elevated To The Flame. I remember after putting the music for the main menu into the game, I just sat there for 20 minutes listening to it and thinking “we’re making a real game!!”

    The soundtrack becomes a new world in and of itself; meandering through tight and damp crevices, yet manages to feel hauntingly spacious; primitive in nature, yet ghostly in its deliverance. Most of the album was recorded on a cliff over looking the ocean in Maine and was finished in a snowy shack down in New Paltz. Whether through the methodic atmosphere and scratchy recordings of “Not Alone”, the ominous and ethereal presence of “Voice in the Cavern” or the toying pacing and intonations of “Heavenly Light”, the soundtrack creeps along its own decayed and treacherous path to join you as you make your way to that singular light at the end of the tunnel. 

    You can download To The Flame HERE

    To The Flame Soundtrack by The Spookfish are now available through We Be Friends Records.

  • Thank You Thank You Shares New Music Video for “Watching the Cyclones” | Music Video Premiere

    August 30th, 2024

    Today, the Philly-based project Thank You Thank You has shared a new music video for their latest single, “Watching the Cyclones” which was released earlier this month via Glamour Gowns. As an ever expanding project brought out by the artistic stamina of Tyler Bussey, Thank You Thank You is an imprint of the people who pass through – an articulation of the souls that make a moment long lasting.

    “Watching The Cyclones / Not long ago / The diamond gleamed in the sun / The great illusion that’s on my mind / Time standing still on the field for us / It’s going, it’s going, it’s gone.” Oftentimes, the heavy air of summer can be indistinguishable from underlying heartache and impressionable worries, but on the contrary, can be just as easily defined by the vitamin D and the chance to engage with its picturesque revelries. “Watching the Cyclones” thrives in that very tenderness of life, where momentary feelings blend together to form a brand new experience. It’s a patient song, allowing time and energy for the folky groove to exude its charm and make for an enjoyable experience – a chance to look around and see how good things can be. 

    Shot by Ty, Jesse Gagne and Sam Skinner along with animations by Julia Sutton, the music video for “Watching the Cyclones” becomes a misty morning excursion, a preservation of friendship, and an exploratory of goofing around in empty public places. 

    About the video, Ty shares, “In September 2022 I went to Coney Island with Jess and Sam, and on a whim on Monday, July 15th, I reached out to both of them to see if they’d like to go there with me at sunrise to make a music video. With nothing but iPhones and apples, this is what we made. We didn’t check the weather forecast and had no idea it was going to be so foggy.  The video is a fun testament to making things with your friends and not overthinking it.”

    You can watch the video below and stream “Watching the Cyclones” on all platforms now.

    look below for some behind the scenes photos taken by Jesse Gagne and Sam Skinner that morning at Coney Island.

    Written by Shea Roney

  • Generifus Shares “Waking Winter”, Announces New Album | Single Premiere

    August 28th, 2024

    There is a sense of longevity that resonates within the artistic musings of Olympia, Washington – almost folkloric – where projects like Generifus have been acclimated to the ever shifting scene while still manage to trailblaze their own paths after decades long careers. Fronted by Spencer Sult, Generifus returns today with “Waking Winter”, the first single from his upcoming album Summerberrys set to be released 10/18.

    Recorded up at the Unknown Studio in Anacortes, WA, “Waking Winter” plays to those cutting interludes of change and the deafening moments of stillness that seem to follow. Amidst the shuffling of drums, a reliable movement that sets the tone, Sult pushes forward into a light and hearty groove of sedated bass and spacious keys – “I don’t enjoy this / I should talk to someone / I should get it fixed,” he sings with a melody dedicated to the path ahead and the rhythm underneath. Sult and co. are patient in their delivery, stretching out the edges of their barebone roots while the different brushings of organ tones, twangy guitars and dreamy scale runs animate the track into a leading moment of realization; clarity in the cold.

    Summerberrys is set to be released October 18.

    Written by Shea Roney

  • Kennedy Mann Shares New Single “On Video” | Single Review

    August 28th, 2024

    Kennedy Mann has always held her hand out to sincerity, making a name for her musical and emotional depth at the helm of her dream-pop band, Highnoon. But as of today, Mann shares “On Video”, the new single from her solo endeavors that finds her expanding on her skills as a songwriter and producer. With production help from Grillo and Brendan Simpson, Mann reanimates a song she wrote back in 2019, emphasizing the parts of her that have become unrecognizable while simultaneously marking new beginnings as she looks ahead.  

    Over a blend of clean guitar tones and the perseverance of a lo-fi drum track, Mann marks her presence in the opening line, singing, “I watch my life on video / How the time just seems to fly.” It’s not an easy story to tell, watching your life go by, yet Mann is commanding in her vulnerability. In the culmination of secondary guitar runs, atmospheric synths and light piano voicings, she creates a spacious piece that leaves room for both personal growth and self-reflection while still filling the void of unanswered questions with the warmth in her delivery and production. 

    In a statement, Mann says, “The song is about feeling a sense of nostalgia for the parts of you that don’t exist anymore or were changed almost suddenly. I think a big part of growing into yourself is spending time reflecting on difficult memories. Sometimes you think it would be better if everything happened differently. But sometimes it’s best to just take inventory of those events and get on with it. I think this song is my attempt to do so.”

    “On Video” is accompanied by a music video made by Mann and shot by Lucy Soutter. Watch below.

    Written by Shea Roney | Album Artwork by Vic Deni

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