[SONG OF THE DAY] Future Unlimited - "Falling"

photo courtesy of the bands Instagram

Of all the things I was excited to see in my Release Radar last Friday, I was totally unprepared for a new track from Nashville synth-pop rockers Future Unlimited. They basically had completely fallen off the radar after dropping their 2016 EP, Calm Down. Unbeknownst to me because I have too many band babies to keep track of, they very casually resurfaced briefly back in October, playing a show in Nashville that featured a new lineup and new songs.

Apparently their launch strategy for these aforementioned new songs is:

1. Get song to music distributors

2. Casually post on social media about the songs

3. Don’t respond to press when they reach out excitedly for more info

Cause I got NOTHING, fam. Like literally everything I just told you is all that anyone appears to know, which is terribly frustrating when you’re trying to be thorough in your info spreading and support.

I’m no monster though, even with barely anything to work with, “Falling” is so good that for now that’s really all you need in your life to start your Monday off right.

Believe me when I say I will not rest until I have more info for you about what is going on with these guys.

More soon!

[SONG OF THE DAY] Pavo Pavo - "Check The Weather"

 Photo credit: Emmanuel Olunkwa

On the heels of the release of their sophomore full-length album, Mystery Hour, Brooklyn’s Pavo Pavo shared a video on Friday for my personal favorite track on the album, “Check The Weather”. Directed by Charlotte/Charles Ercoli, the video is the age old tale of a man and dolphin-man falling in love.

……sounds completely normal right? lmao.

As the band explained how the video came about, “ [We] wanted something for this track that similarly treads that line of touching and bizarre. [Charlotte/Charles Ercoli] found this internet phenomenon of prosthetic dolphin masks, and had the idea to tell a classic plot-driven love story between two dolphins.” They went on to share, “Ideally we want it to look like some crap we found in a corner of the internet and sync’ed up with our song, but then when we make a cameo at the end it becomes clear that we made it - hoping the response is, ‘huh, that’s weird that they made this.’”

Personally this is the kind of weird we need more of in this life, which is why I am forever team Pavo Pavo.

If you haven’t grabbed a copy or streamed a ton of micropennies for Mystery Hour yet, please love yourself enough on this (hopefully) lazy Sunday and snuggle up to this album this afternoon.

UPCOMING LIVE DATES:

2/6 - Brooklyn, NY - Elsewhere Zone One

[SONG OF THE DAY] Big Data - "Unglued"

Happy weekend cute people! Yep I’m committing to weekend updates moving forward so lucky you!

I couldn’t possibly go another second without making sure you checked out the latest from my favorite Black Mirror pop star, Big Data. This newest offering from his forthcoming album, 3.0, “Unglued”, is about losing your mind but not necessarily solely in the traditional sense. It’s also about uploading your brain/consciousness and it going completely wrong.

While the majority of his debut full-length 2.0, featured primarily guest vocals, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much project brainchild Alan Wilkis has been feeling himself more and offering up his vocals for 3.0. It’s like he’s pulling a reverse Calvin Harris and I’m HERE FOR IT. KEEP IT UP, DUDE!

[SONG OF THE DAY] SOULS - "Hold On"

IT’S VIBE O CLOCK ON FRIDAY MY LOVES!! 🙌🏻💖🙌🏻💖🙌🏻💖

Sorry in advance if your speakers end up getting blown out because SOULS is back with a brand new single and it’s the kind of track that you find yourself inching back to turn it up *just a little bit more* but then end up doing that until you can’t turn it up anymore. Neither myself or SOULS are responsible for any hearing loss, speeding tickets, or any other accidental side effects from getting too carried away with yourself while rocking out to this song.

This wallop of a new track, “Hold On”, comes from his forthcoming sophomore album, which we have no other details about right now other than it is coming this year and clearly we need to better prepare ourselves if this is what he’s bursting out of the gate with. In true SOULS fashion, the song features sampled vocals from gospel singer Sister Ernestine Washington’s 1954(?) song, “Holding On Parts I & II”. Those of us who have long been hip to SOULS know that project mastermind David J Gledhill is a bit of a prodigy when it comes to transforming vocals from the past into astonishing present day works of art as seen on his 2016 debut full-length, Release. With this new track, however, it’s like he took an already roaring bonfire and backed up a tanker of gasoline to Washington’s vocals. I know that Release wasn’t a subdued album by any means, but damn something about this just FEELS so different.

Basically what I’m trying to say is Geldhill should be walking around East London on this New Music Friday feeling like the fucking badass in the way that I imagine Washington would be if she heard what he did with her already incredible voice. My dude has knocked it out of the PARK.

Listen now but keep scrolling because this isn’t the only thing our hero is up to!

In addition to this new SOULS single, Gledhill has actually decided to make us all look bad for not pushing our creativity to the limit by challenging himself to a weekly songwriting challenge for what he hopes to be all of 2019. Although his primary instrument of choice is typically guitar, he’s decided to return to piano, the first instrument he ever learned to play and write music with, for the challenge. The hope is to write and record one new instrumental piano song every week and as of this fourth Friday in January 2019 he’s successfully kept to the challenge so far. I have to warn you, these songs are quite literally breathtaking.

I had fallen behind a couple of weeks in checking out the pieces, but as I was preparing for this post I started with today’s track, “Once”, and work my way through the others in descending order. Somewhere between the 30 second and minute mark, I realized I had stopped multi-tasking and was sitting very calmly with my hands on my lap listening very intently to every note. They’re so delicate and devastatingly beautiful but remember this is just a random side project he decided to do.

…..fucking showoff…….

LOL. jk jk jk

But in all seriousness, you won’t regret making the effort to spend some time with these songs. In fact, I think I’m going to build a ritual around listening to this playlist once a week as a way to spend some quality time with myself. 🙏🏻💖

[SONG OF THE DAY] Hockeysmith - "Lonely Loving Me"

Yooooooo y’all ready to get kicked in the nostalgia feels something fierce? Good Lorde.

Please meet Copenhagen electro-pop outfit Hockeysmith. As they gear up for their new EP, Tears At My Age, the band has unveiled the video for their latest single, “Lonely Loving Me”. While the previous single and title track, “Tears At My Age” throws some Cocteau Twins-esque vibes, all I can hear in “Lonely Loving Me” is 80s Madonna and Janet Jackson, but in a hazy shoegazey sort of way. If you listen closely it sounds like singer Annie Hockeysmith straight up went back to 1986 and stole whatever synth they used on, the Janet Jackson classic, “When I Think Of You”. At any rate, I’m obsessing over this project and can’t wait for more folks to catch on to this.

The video for “Lonely Loving Me” was clearly built for a Throwback Thursday, incorporating footage of 80s fitness videos with action shots taken from films and video games - all tied together with Annie's own VHS-style exercise footage. Speaking about the video, Annie said: "I’m a kick boxer in my spare time. I was given these amazing pink boxing gloves and wanted to do something with them. I thought it would be a fun idea to match the 80s vibe of the track and the exercise trend of the 80s and to feature some of my favourite leading women in movies." IMO the only thing missing from the elements that Annie contributed were leg warmers, but given how quickly I’ve taken to the song I’ll let that minor detail slide.

Hockeysmith LIVE:

Jan 25th - FIVES, FALMOUTH
Mar 8th - Falmouth University, FALMOUTH  (supporting Bellatrix)

[SONG OF THE DAY] Mansionair - "Shadows"

photo credit: Jess Gleeson

Am I an influencer, y’all?

I’m not entirely sold that I am, but I’m also not sold that I’m NOT.

I swear to Sheezus that I’m not tryna get a big head from this, but damn if this isn’t a cray coincidence.

Late-ish last year I recounted that 3 years prior while scoping the band out at Pianos that I had fallen for an unreleased “piano song that broke my heart” and asked Sydney-synth rockers Mansionair what happened to the only song from their set that had me so shook that I needed to make a note of the name of it.

attn @Mansionair whatever happened to that song “Shadows” y’all were playing in 2015? I stumbled into this old show recap where I was apparently deeply moved by it https://t.co/BvFyoaAqkl

— Some Kind Of Awesome (@SKoABlog) October 19, 2018

Fast-forward to this past week when the song finally surfaced along with the announcement that their long anticipated debut full-length, ironically enough titled Shadowboxer, will be dropping on March 1st courtesy of Liberation Records. According to the band, apparently the album is about, “acknowledging that we are often our own opponent, and learning to accept our inner shadows – the ones we try so hard to ignore. It’s a record about deciding to lift our gaze from the darkness and acknowledge the light that shapes us.” They went on, “It bookends our first years of discovering who we are and what we wanted Mansionair to be, as we pushed through insecurities, uncertainties and moments of relief. It’s as much a diary of our first three years working together as friends as it is about making every mistake possible together.”

The band will be hitting the road prior to the release of Shadowboxer, hitting a few Laneway Festival dates in February before doing their first ever US headline run in March, which includes their performance at Coachella. Although I continue to harp on how Australian bands are worth importing into the US, they’re only one of a few on the festival’s bill.

Given the patience and amount of work the trio has put in over the course of the past three years, I can see 2019 being their year for sure. Here’s hoping. 💖

SHADOWBOXER TRACKLIST:

1. EST.

2. Alibi

3. Easier

4. Technicolour

5. Heartbeat

6. Astronaut (Something About Your Love)

7. Violet City

8. We Could Leave

9. Shadows

10. Waiting Room

11. Falling

12. Sierra

13. Harlem

14. Best Behaviour

15. I Won’t Take No For An Answer

16. Heirloom

[SONG OF THE DAY] Methyl Ethel - "Trip The Mains"

We’re only a few weeks away from album #3 from one of Australia’s finest exports, Methyl Ethel. The latest offering, “Trip The Mains” is a moody little pysch-pop number that glitches in all the right places. Singer and band mastermind Jake Webb says of the track, “behind every eye-twitch, a depleted mainframe barely pulses. ‘Trip The Mains’ is my moment of short circuiting.”  In addition to the track the band has also unveiled an accompanying video featuring Webb being suspended in time, defying the laws of gravity, and crashing into beds.

Good news for folks who don’t live down under: the band will hitting the road in the US with TEEN in March. Tickets are on sale now so get ‘em while the getting’s good. You can also pre-order Triage now before the album drops on February 15th.

Methyl Ethel — 2019 Tour Dates
3/14/19 – Heaven, London, UK
3/19/19 – The Echo, Los Angeles, CA*
3/20/19 – Cafe Du Nord, San Francisco, CA*
3/22/19 – Mississippi Studios, Portland, OR*
3/23/19 – Barboza, Seattle, WA*
3/25/19 – Schubas, Chicago, IL
3/27/19 – The Garrison, Toronto, ON
3/29/19 – Elsewhere, Brooklyn, NY*
3/30/19 – DC9, Washington, DC*

* – w/ TEEN

[SONG OF THE DAY] Copeland - "Lay Here"

It is absolutely freezing in New York but I am still in my pajamas curled up under the covers listening to the latest Copeland single, “Lay Here”, and honestly I kind of never want this moment to stop.

Since I was a literal #teen, frontman Aaron Marsh’s voice has always made me feel like sunshine was coating my insides and this latest track from their forthcoming sixth studio album, Blushing, is no exception to that. I’ve known for the majority of my life that this band had maximum stay power and having the opportunity to witness the evolution of their songwriting and arrangements from day one when they released their debut album Beneath Medicine Tree is something I have never taken for granted for a single second.

Blushing follows the band’s 2014 release, Ixora and will be available for you to snuggle up with in its entirety on February 15th. The band will also be hitting the road with From Indian Lakes and Many Rooms. I am going to assume that my all time favorite fellas routed their tour to make sure that they were in at Gramercy Theater as close to my birthday as possible. I certainly can’t think of a better way to celebrate, tbh.

Upcoming Copeland Tour Dates:

w/ From Indian Lakes & Many Rooms

February 8 - Austin, TX @ Barracuda (Outdoors)

February 9 - Dallas, TX @ Curtain Club

February 10 - Houston, TX @ The Secret Group

February 12 - Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade Hell

February 13 - Birmingham, AL @ Saturn

February 14 - Nashville, TN @ The Basement East

February 15 - Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle

February 16 - Virginia Beach, VA @ Elevation 27

February 17 - Charlotte, NC @ Amos' Southend

February 19 - Lake Park, FL @ Kelsey Theater

February 20 - Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum

February 21 - Orlando, FL @ The Beacham

March 23 - St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway

March 24 - Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room

March 26 - Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater

March 27 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge

March 29 - Portland, OR @ Bossanova Ballroom

March 31 - Seattle, WA @ Neumos

April 2 - San Francisco, CA @ Slim's

April 3 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent

April 5 - Pomona, CA @ The Glass House

April 6 - Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge

April 7 - Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad

April 9 - Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck

April 10 - Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater

April 11 - Chicago, IL @ The Bottom Lounge

April 12 - Detroit, MI @ The Pike Room

April 13 - Columbus, OH @ Skully's Music Diner

April 14 - Toronto, ON, @ Lee's Palace

April 16 - Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall

April 17 - Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts

April 18 - New York, NY @ Gramercy Theater

April 19 - Washington, DC @ Union Stage