Next month sees the release of a brand new geoff gordon album, Sex and the City, on Five Kill Records, and the eclecticism is on full show. Their first new music since 2018 single ‘faith‘, the record is described as one of “stories, conversational asides, and emotional reckonings,” promising everything from “country-inflected indie rock to fuzzy guitar freakouts and chunky power-pop.” Indeed, the diversity of influences can often be found within single tracks, channelling early Wilco or Aimee Mann one minute, then Ratboys or Porches the next.

geoff gordon are releasing songs to build anticipation for the album, starting with the bright and sunny power pop ‘Neighbors’ which was unveiled earlier this month. Today, we have the honour of introducing another song, the wonderfully-titled ‘There’s a Lot of Horses in Oklahoma,’ a track the band says is a “little sad, [a] little yeehaw, [a] little ‘that’s life kid.’”

In a noticeable change from ‘Neighbors,’ Shannon Straney takes the lead, providing not just different vocals but a complete change in tempo. Gone is the hectic pace of of the previous single, replaced with an syrupy flow, indie pop that borrows the sad sway of the best country songs. Opening with the mournful wail of distant sirens, the track finds its easy rhythm in Straney’s crooned, slightly smoky vocals.

There is the occasionally escalation into a squall of guitars, but by the end the song finds its comfy country melancholy once more, a mood that’s at the forefront of the lyrics too. “So don’t make me leave just yet,” Straney sings, as though there’s a gap between the being hurt and feeling it. “My coat is still wet from walking over in the rain.” ‘There’s a Lot of Horses in Oklahoma’ is carved out of this space, the eye of the storm where your clothes are soaked through and are sure to get wetter still, but for this moment at least the rain has abated.

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‘Kent Lame’, the new single from upstate New York band BURLY, was born of such digi-palaeontology. Namely a post about a Grateful Dead show sometime in 1980, and the lost weekend that resulted from it. Taken from the EP Self-Titled Demon, forthcoming via Five Kill Records, the song excavates the story and reanimates its characters, reapplying meat to their bones and setting them within a hospitable atmosphere conjured from vibraphone, effected guitar, bass, saxophone, and drums.

The band cite a “hushed non-urgency” in the description of their style, and the idea is apparent across Self-Titled Demon. The lyric writing is shared by Ryan Stewart and non-performing member Timothy Furgal, the latter providing poetry which Stewart sets to music along with the other BURLY members Richard Nolan, Seth Tillinghast, Ian Nichols and Adam Muro. But, whoever is writing any given song, the unhurried sensation remains, a sluggish dreaminess permeating the songs that speaks of half-remembered things, small memories so far back in the subconscious that, when they are finally dredged up, they emerge significant and strange.

We’re sharing a video for ‘Kent Lame’ today, so take a look below and be sure to dive into the album after release.

Self-Titled Demon is set for release on the 25th January via Five Kill Records and you can pre-order it now.

Art by Brendan Dalton

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[Two Nighttimes is] a dense and sonically diverse album reflecting on questions that often go overlooked. What is the difference between loneliness & solitude? Is being cynical wise or is being idealistic naive? Can you accept fate with humility? Does a dog have buddha nature? […] Frontman Alex Muro resorts to unlikely sources like the surrealist poetry of Vincente Alexandre or the no-stone-unturned history of Robert Caro to find ways to talk about personal questions. Attempting answers indirectly by painting pictures in words.

We have the honour of sharing a video for the single ‘Track Names’, which seems like the perfect introduction to the Neighborhood of Make Believe sensibility. The song poses nagging existential questions in a manner similar to Nap Eyes, though swaps out the ironic energy in favour of a slow-burn orchestral soundscape that feels closer to Okkervil River or Kevin Morby, perhaps with overtones of Beirut. The effect is a generous sound that tends toward a sense of revival, the track pushing toward some sense of joy, however obscure and unnamed.

“You were the one to ask in the morning after hours of sleeping
an incongruous task that grew from the dreams that you were dreaming
oh, I don’t mind a question, but I can’t help it if my answers are fleeting
dreams vanished so fast, I wonder if they have any meaning?”

The video is suitably expansive for such a sound, shot in glorious wide screen and filled with vibrant sky blue, the life of the footage literally seeping through into the track as the voices of it’s inhabitants lift over the music.

Two Nighttimes is out on the 16th November via Five Kill Records and you can pre-order it now.

Photo by Alex Muro, album artwork by Brendan Dalton

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While fans of The Adventures of the Silver Spaceman would have little problem recognising the song, the change of name appears to come with refreshed style too. ‘Liars’ sees Dead Tooth retain some of the psychedelic influences carried through, though compared to the last TAOTSS release Bare Bones Part II: Electric Earth, the track is more succinct brand of indie rock. The real focus of the song comes in Ellis’s lyricism, the rhyming patterns leading to something of a rolling rhythm, energy building from the linkage of words.

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You might also know Spataro as one-third of bedroom pop masters Florist, and the Onlyness sound certainly draws from the same well of muted intimacy. The new record sees him rely on perhaps more traditional instrumentation than that used by Florist and The Firs, but the same spirit lies behind the sound. As such, Onlyness merely uses different brushes and strokes with the same airy palette to produce pictures very much belonging to Spataro’s sonic world, but distinctive enough so as to be worthy additions.

We’re delighted to bring you a brand new video for the third single, ‘Comfortable’. As well as typifying the sedate yet uplifting rhythm of the Onlyness sound, the track also shows off Spataro’s songwriting and deadpan delivery. This creates the central tension of the track, a push and pull between the sincere emotion of the lyrics and sceptical distance of the vocals, though the song’s eventual rise into a warm singalong allows the former to win out.

“Beautiful God at the
heart of the hymnal
I know you’re not real
but I know you’re a symbol
and there’s a whole lot of people
who are asking for you
cos’ they all heard the same thing too”

Onlyness will be released on the 6th July via Five Kill Records and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

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