Ava McCoy – Young Girl
Following on from EP Closer to the Bugs, Ava McCoy‘s first release with Acrophase Records, the Brooklyn-based songwriter has returned with brand new single, ‘Young Girl’. Recalling childhood trips back to her Oregon roots, the track represents “a love letter to my younger self and all of the dreams she had,” as McCoy describes. “There have been many iterations of my creative self, and this song ties all of the varied versions of me into one. I sing about mistakes, breakthroughs, disappointments, and my core music memories as a kid.” But, while the lyrics offer a layered picture of a personal, the sound itself opts for simple clarity. An arrangement which allows the vocals, and the narrative picture they evoke, to take centre stage, and thus highlight McCoy’s growing talents as both a songwriter and storyteller. Watch the video by director, videographer, editor, producer and colorist Aidan Millroy below:
‘Young Girl’ is out now via Acrophase Records and you can get it from the usual places.
Avery Friedman – Photo Booth
“Seems to sit in the interstitial space between trauma and growth. That lull between the ceasing of decline and visible signs of recovery, where improvement exists only as a nascent understanding of the possibilities which lay ahead in time.” So we wrote of ‘Flowers Fell’ back in January, the lead single from Avery Friedman‘s debut album New Thing, forthcoming on Audio Antihero this spring. With the release fast approaching, Friedman has returned with new track ‘Photo Booth’ to continue to develop this picture. The song leans into a spontaneous space to unveil the latent playfulness which sits inside a person, waiting to be activated under specific conditions. “Something about the novelty, containment and ephemerality of a photo booth just invites a sort of flirtatious mischief,” she explains. “This night out in particular felt like an encapsulation of spin-the-bottle-type ‘second adolescence’ that many queer people experience when coming into themselves after their adolescent years pass.”
Califone – the bullet b4 the sound
Led by Tim Rutili and brought to life by a rotating cast of collaborators, Califone have been creating idiosyncratic and emotionally charged songs for going on thirty years now, rising from the ashes of Chicago indie rock outfit Red Red Meat and pushing the envelope of folk music through all manner of experimental sensibilities. Out via Jealous Butcher Records, new album The Villager’s Companion continue this mission. Rutili pairs his singularly abstract, poetic lyricism with arrangements full of reverb and electronic whirring to create the signature Califone blend of compassionate and haunting. Single ‘the bullet b4 the sound’ is the ideal point to jump in, full of loaded imagery and opaque meaning yet ringing true with human emotion, the kind of track that has you returning in search of its elusive truths. “You never were a magazine / the bullet will hit you before the sound / before the sound / before the sound,” Rutili sings in the opening lines. “the atom’s been split / teeth marks in soft metal / throw the knife at the candle come back as a bug / come back as a snowdrift in a streetlight // sin eaters rest their eyes / too dumb to be afraid / crawl inside a warmer simulation.”
Eliana Glass – Shrine
Later this spring, New York-based songwriter and pianist Eliana Glass is releasing her debut full length album E with Shelter Press. It’s an introduction to a finely crafted yet often improvisational style which blurs the border between ethereality and the everyday. Glass adds a variety of electronic flourishes to the piano-led arrangements in a way which both deepens their impact and complicates their meaning. Lead single ‘Shrine’ is the first step into this world, presenting a level of abstraction which functions beyond simple narrative to get to the heart of memory as it is experienced. “This song is more a series of images than a clear story,” as Glass puts it. “It’s about people that you encounter in life and parts of them that live in you, unbeknownst to them. It’s also about feelings of isolation; feeling secluded or remote.”
Watch the video below, filmed, directed and edited by Jules Muir with the video concept by Costa Colachis Glass and typography by Sid Zach:
E is out on the 25th April via Sheltered Press and you can pre-order it now.
Fine Food Market – Sometimes
Fine Food Market, the recording project of Montréal-based musician Sophie Perras, takes its name from the grocery store that sat below the apartment where its initial demos were written, and something of the fact makes its way into I’m afraid to be in love with someone who crashes their car that much, the new EP coming soon on Arbutus Records. Because while Perras’s country sensibilities contain a sense of authenticity, as well as emotional immediacy, there’s also a certain playfulness, as though in writing and recording in a sincere, conversational voice, an incidental whimsy bled into the songs too. Built on pedal steel by Benjamin Vallée, lead single ‘Sometimes’ captures the tone perfectly, lifting its melancholy heart with a theatrical richness to achieve something both heartfelt and wry.
Julia Graye – Telephone
Working within a pop-inflected brand of indie folk, New York-based songwriter Julia Graye uses music as a vehicle through which to locate humanity within the contemporary experience. To make sense of a world which seems to be constantly shifting around us. New single ‘Telephone’ explores such themes with a melancholic yet compassionate tone, looking not only at all the ways in which we are altered as the years roll by, but also how we might keep the channels of communication open between the person we are and the people we have been. A track born in a specific moment of vertigo upon realising the speed and scale of change. Graye explains:
A couple of years ago I was watching old camcorder videos my aunt kept of me as a child. There I was, sitting on a plastic-covered couch reading a book aloud. I flipped the pages and told a story about a girl alone in the woods. But as the video played on, it became clear I couldn’t actually read. I was making it all up. A wave of intense grief washed over me and I started to cry. I was her, yet I felt so distant from her. I had an overwhelming sense of dread about the quickness of it all, of my childhood and of time.
‘Telephone’ is out now and available from the usual places.
Nona Invie – Called a Fool
“Its slow-building style beginning with mournful quiet but blooming into something warm and affirming, as though quite literally stepping out from beneath a shadow and into the light.” So we wrote of ‘Last of Our Shadow’ from Nona Invie‘s Self-soothing back in December, a track which embodied the spirit of the Minneapolis songwriter’s new full-length. With the album out now via Boiled Records, Invie has shared final single, ‘Called a Fool’. With its delicate piano lines, harp harmonies and Cole Pulice’s saxophone, the track continues this process of healing in the face of drastic change. “This song is about new beginnings, a hopefulness for the future,” as Invie explains. “The fool is unafraid to try new things, to fail. They are at peace with their desires.”
Watch the video by director/lead videographer Connor Lynch and videographer Zoe Prinds-Flash below:
Self-soothing is out now via Boiled Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.
Robert Ascroft – Vagabond (feat. Tess Parks)
After Ruth Radalet (on ‘Faded Photographs’), Zumi Rosow of The Black Lips (‘Empty Pages’), Britta Phillips (‘Where Did You Go?’), Kid Congo Powers (‘Devil Opens The Door‘) and Christopher Owens (‘Echo Still Remains‘), it is now the turn of Tess Parks to collaborate with Robert Ascroft on the latest single from his full-length Echo Still Remains on Hand Drawn Dracula. Complete with a moody monochrome video Ascroft made with Luz Gallardo, the song possesses all of the nocturnal allure and ambiguity which has so far marked the record. A slow, midnight sashay full of sultry longing which nevertheless bristles with a hostile edge.
Echo Still Remains is out now via Hand Drawn Dracula and you get it now from the Robert Ascroft Bandcamp page.
Uwade – (I Wonder) What We’re Made Of
Hailing from Nigeria and now based in North Carolina, Uwade is a musician and academic scholar who has so far made a name helping others—be that providing the vocals at the beginning of Shores by Fleet Foxes or opening for the likes of Jamila Woods, Sylvan Esso and The Strokes—but this spring sees the release of her debut solo album, Florilegium. Latest single ‘(I Wonder) What We’re Made Of’ highlights the tender, assured style of the Uwade sound, where a warm and rich arrangement supports vocals loaded with an authentic sense of heart. “Romantic love gets a lot of attention so when I was workshopping the project that would turn into ‘I Wonder,’ I wanted it to take on a different shade,” she explains of the track. “It was about affection, gratitude, and devotion. Who better to dedicate it to than the people who have carried me through my life: my friends.” Watch the video by director Jason Wishnow and director of photography Marco Fargnoli below:
Florilegium is out on the 25th April via Ehiose Records/Thirty Tigers and you can pre-order it now.