Mother Sun (Kamloops, British Columbia) play the kind of indie pop that might be called sophisticated. The songwriting's structures and timing isn't necessarily predicatable and Jared Doherty's lyrics are thematic and thoughtful. In fact, he said, of "Meadow 6",
"On this record with a lot of the lyrics, I became really interested in plants and humans’ relationship with them and the earth; gathering & farming, commodifying & exploiting, researching & controlling, using to alter consciousness. A lot of the early musical ideas started sitting outside playing guitar in the garden. I think with these songs we wanted to create a record that sonically speaks to the magic that is constantly unfolding all around in the natural world."
This kind of makes me think of Elephant 6 bands, The Teeth, Starlight Mints, French Cassettes or The Botticellis.
This is released by the ever-reliable Earth Libraries label based in Birmingham, Alabama.
I don't know why I'm surprised by this - given the sheer amount of music I listen to it's inevitable that I forget about bands I've posted here.
But this is the 3rd post about the work of this Melbourne, Australia based band that serves as the vehicle for the work of Dylan Young. In the past Lachlan Denton served as the drummer. Liam "Snowy" Halliwell mastered the last album "So Familiar" and plays saxophone here. Good Morning's Stefan Blair co-produced and engineered this. So Dylan Young has connections to some of Australia's best musicians
"Material" grooves and sounds more indie pop than other songs that are clearly influenced, as the Bandcamp page states, by The Beach Boys and Nillson. Previous posts also mentioned Field Music and Steely Dan.
This is being released by Spoilsport Records (Australia) and Earth Libraries (US).
What a pleasure to come across "The Lost Tapes" - a collection of demos that chronicle the only output of the band Mad Anthony. Read the entire write-up on Bandcamp to get all the details - but essentially Mad Anthony member John Schwab's son, Ben, (himself a member of Drugdealer and Sylvie) convinced his Dad and other members to let these recordings be heard publicly 40 years after they were made.
The songs sound like the bands they covered when they started out in Ohio: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Jackson Browne. I can't help but also think of Randy Newman. This recording was made in the San Fernando Valley (Southern California).
And finally, this made me think of an album I was listening to and enjoying but couldn't post because there is no physical release: Anna McClellan's "off my chest: 2012-2021".
Mad Anthony is being released by Earth Libraries - an incredibly diverse label based in Birmingham, Alabama.
Claire Molek’s voice has always been a little spooky, a clear art-pop soprano wandering through subterranean caverns of echo. She sounds a bit like Beth Gibbons, which is to say, a fragile spirit trapped in machine landscapes, and though she can unleash a powerful, gutsy belt, there’s something oddly disembodied about her vocal trills and flourishes. That’s truer than ever on this third Friend of a Friend album, recorded with partner Jason Savsani in a haunted house not far from their Chicago stomping grounds.
Beatique.net tells the story this way. Molek and Savsani booked an Air BnB for their recording sessions, a Victorian house in rural Illinois. They didn’t know, at the time, that the house been a gathering place for spiritualists or that it had served as the site for the first exorcism in Illinois. But they sensed an eerie vibe, even before the property’s owner called to warn them that they might hear weird stories about their rental from the neighbors. Creaks and knocks and an unsettling atmosphere set the artists on edge, but they recorded there anyway, and you can hear some otherworldly atmospheres floating through these gothy, dance pop songs.
Consider “Oasis,” the album’s tense, jangling opener, a hedge of strummed guitars framing Molek’s torchy alto. The music is all staccato, indie-rock introspection, a thump of drums, a slash of guitars, a cascading, flowering thread of vocal melody swamped in looming, king-sized sonic space. “I can see it in your eyes,” Molek spits, suddenly confrontational, as the dance pop drums and synths rear up behind her. It’s a fully charged, desperate turn in the music, that sounds like danger lurks in some dark corner you can’t see.
I like, too, how “FTV,” filters in from a distance, its confiding melody shrouded by hiss and static, its whispers nestled in your ear where only you can hear them. The tune is sweet and simple and inviting, but it has a ghostly, uncanny air. And “Beautiful People,” to my ears, the prettiest of these song, ululates with a nearly middle eastern flair, its wobbling guitar lick punctuated by box drums, Molek crooning and wailing like a spirit possessed. You wouldn’t want all your favorite artists to record in the midst of a séance, but it works for Friend of a Friend.
Batty Jr. are an Austin, Texas based band. Members come from other bands - Ringo Deathstarr and Wild Child. I feel like the music is in the vein of psych pop. The cello and unpredictable melodies are wonderful.
To me this sounds like a cross between Animal Collective and Lawrence Arabia. This is being released by Birmingham, Alabama based label Earth Libraries.
