Kevn Kinney, the singer/creative force behind Drivin N Cryin, has been going at it since the 1980s and, as he approaches 60, he’s a different person than he was when Drivin N Cryin’s debut came out in 1986. And it’s literally a different band, with only bassist Tim Nielsen left of the original lineup. Live the Love Beautiful sounds like Drivin N Cryin.
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Over the past decade, Gringo Star have made a name for themselves as one of Atlanta’s most valuable rock & roll exports, carrying the torch for hazy, psychedelic garage rock in a city primarily valued for its contributions to hip-hop. Gringo Star have outlasted wave after wave of buzz bands and indie blog darlings, carving their own career path through constant reinvention and an unparalleled work ethic, amassing a loyal and enthusiastic international fanbase along the way. Their mind-bending take on doo-wop inspired R&B and British Invasion rock & roll has garnered praise from the likes of Pitchfork, Consequence of Sound, Paste Magazine, KEXP & more, and landed them on bills alongside everyone from Cat Power and Feist to The Black Angels and Weezer, not to mention tours with Wavves, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, and their Atlanta-based contemporaries Black Lips.
Having reached their ten year anniversary, Gringo Star decided it was time to commemorate their career thus far by doing something they’d never done before: it was time to release their first live album. “A lot of my favorite records are old live albums and we’ve always wanted to have a live representation of what we do,” says vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Nick Furgiuele.
Coming this summer via Baby Robot Records, Gringo Star’s Controlled Burn is a 14-track live album recorded at The Earl, one of Atlanta’s premier rock & roll clubs, in September of 2018. The career-spanning setlist serves as a 10 year retrospective, compiling popular singles and deep cuts from all of their albums into one frenzied, sweaty celebration of Gringo Star’s music, performed before a rabid hometown audience.
From the opening of “Mr. Mystery,” off of 2018’s Back to the City, there’s a palpable electricity that permeates all of Controlled Burn. The band’s comfort on stage, honed over the course of thousands of shows, shines throughout the record as they allow the energy of the performance to flow unobstructed, speeding up and slowing down as the moment commands, but never falling out of sync with one another. This confidence is bolstered by the contributions from guitarist/backing vocalist Joshua Longino, violinist David Claassen, keyboardist/guitarist/percussionist Spencer Pope, and drummer Mario Colangelo who makes his recording debut with Gringo Star after touring with the band since 2017.
Newer tracks like 2018’s “La La La” are performed with as much passion as crowd favorites like “Make You Mine” off 2011’s Count Yer Lucky Stars, and are received with equal fervor by their fans. The diversity of the band’s sound is calculated and stands as one of the main reasons Gringo Star continues to shine. Guitarist/vocalist Peter Furgiuele says, “Throughout all of our albums, we’ve always been on a steady progression. We’ve been writing in basically the same way since we started, but with each record we’ve refined the process and have always pushed to try something new on each record. We just don’t want to ever repeat ourselves.”
Though 2008’s All Y’all serves as the start of Gringo Star’s storied career, the band’s core songwriting duo, the Furgiuele brothers, have been playing together since they were kids, born into a family with strong ties to Georgia music history. “Our grandad started out in radio in the ’40s and ’50s in Columbus, Ga.,” Nick explains. “He was a huge promoter of R&B back when it was still super segregated, and he was playing black music and putting on shows with Little Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers, a lot of Gospel shows. So we grew up hearing all these stories, listening to all this music. Our grandfather was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame posthumously. And my grandma—all her photo albums are like Jackie Wilson shirtless backstage, hanging out.”
With their family’s R&B connections and their young obsession with early rock & roll, it wasn’t long before the two brothers started making music themselves. When Nick was 15 and Peter just 11, they picked up bass and drums, respectively, formed a rhythm section and joined their first garage band. “We played together in the house and messed around on a little two-track,” Nick says. “We’ve been writing songs together since before Peter was a teenager. We even played his 8th-grade dance.”
Eventually, the brothers formed Gringo Star and began the career that has come to define their last decade. All Y’all and Count Yer Lucky Stars forced the world to pay attention. 2013’s Floating Out To See found the band experimenting with producing their own records and layering more keys and strings into their compositions. 2016’s The Sides and In Between contained some of the finest songwriting of the Furgiuele’s career, and 2018’s Back to the City reinvigorated their sound with a new intensity, equally dark and shimmering.
Despite multiple personnel changes, Nick and Peter have remained steadfast in their partnership, continuing to stand by one another through thick and thin in their artistic endeavours. There’s no telling what comes next for Gringo Star, but there’s no doubt that the Furgiuele brothers will continue to write and record on their own terms. “We’ve had a lot of opportunities over the past ten years. If we had an idea about something we wanted to, we did it,” says Nick. “I can’t think of a single thing I’d change.
Controlled Burn is out July 12 via Baby Robot Records.
“The surfy, swiftly plucked guitar solos speak to the romance of a band.” – Paste Magazine
“Hitting the sweet spot between sounding heavy and easygoing.” – PopDust
“Gringo Star has something of a counterpoint to the group’s more polished studio albums.” – Billboard
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Austin, Texas-based indie rockers Origami Ghosts have spent years honing their shimmering blend of folk-tinged jangly pop, traveling the world and drawing inspiration from the melange of cultures they’ve been exposed to in service of their DIY rock & roll aspirations. On their new LP, Healthy Travel Potions, they deftly merge the mundane with the fantastic, exploring the magic of the Earth, the complexities of aging, and the inherent joy and meaning that can be drawn from something as simple as sharing a meal. Though the band now resides in Texas, Healthy Travel Potions contains songs written all over the world as well as in their previous homebase of Seattle, Washington, where they garnered praise from The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, Seattle Sound Magazine and more, worked with studio wizard Kevin Suggs (KEXP, Cat Power, Death Cab for Cutie, The Walkabouts), and laid the foundation for what would become their finest record in a long and storied career.
Healthy Travel Potions was produced by Adam McCollum—a friend of Origami Ghosts’ frontman, primary songwriter, guitarist and creative epicenter J.P. Scesniak—at Scott Colburn’s Gravelvoice Studios in Ballard, Washington, a converted Methodist church that has previously been used by the likes of Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, and Mudhoney to record some of their most critically-acclaimed albums. Though the songs that make up the new album were written throughout over the course of the past 18 years, the initial tracking sessions lasted only three days before Scesniak and keyboardist/flautist/vocalist Cassandra Wulff packed up and departed for Austin, the chapter of their lives residing in Seattle having been given its proper send-off in the form of Healthy Travel Potions.
There’s a pervasive thread of nature-driven mysticality that runs throughout Healthy Travel Potions, whether in the airy “Keeper Sutherland” that explores human responses to the alignment of the planets atop a flute-and-guitar led track that sounds like The Shins after one too many cups of coffee, or the sparkling jangle-pop of “Solitary Beast” that marvels at the Earth’s beauty and its surreal sway over all its inhabitants. “There’s sort of a running narrative throughout the record about health, and travel, and magic,” says Scesniak. “Cassandra and I study magic, spirituality and things like elemental beings. I grew up going to church and had God in my life, but I stopped going to church when I was young, and then through travelling discovered Eastern religion and yogic philosophy. I’ve always had a spiritual outlook though, so that sort of informs a lot of these songs.”
Elsewhere on the album, songs serve as snapshots of formative travel experiences that Scesniak and Origami Ghosts have had, coaxing emotional resonance out of the often overlooked minutiae of world traveling. Songs like the folky twee-pop track “Lost And Proud” chronicle the frustrating awareness of living out Murphy’s Law in a foreign land, finding a way to wring joy from the sense of exasperation. Meanwhile, the album’s Vampire Weekend-esque centerpiece “It’s Not A Seance” encapsulates the feelings of FOMO through a retelling of an ill-fated night in Paris.
Though Origami Ghosts have been performing since 2004, they’ve undergone numerous lineup changes, with Scesniak remaining the sole constant, as the conductor of an indie-pop orchestra, swapping the surrounding instrumentation as his artistic aspirations deem fit. “I originally was playing in a band called Paper People but had these songs that didn’t fit the mood, so I linked up with my friend Joel Hanson who played hammered dulcimer, and that was the first version of Origami Ghosts,” recalls Scesniak. “From there we added a cello player, and a drummer, then eventually Joel left…It became this vehicle for me to collaborate with whomever was interested and just keep putting out records with different people.”
Ultimately, Healthy Travel Potions stands as a scrapbook of the past fifteen years, combining the experiences Scesniak and company have had through their travels with a calming dose of spiritual enlightenment that gives the sense that maybe everything will be okay. “These songs are like potions for us,” says Scesniak, grinning. “They heal us, in a way.”
Healthy Travel Potions is out July 12th.
“A track of disarming melodies that creates its own subcategory of serene prog indie.” – Glide Magazine
Origami Ghosts deliver bass-heavy grooves pulsing forward into ambient synth vortexes, with dense washes of reverb.” – Rochester City Newspaper
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With Jimmie Allen’s recent #1 song, Kane Brown’s #1 album and Grammy wins for artists like Kacey Musgraves and Brandi Carlile, country music seems to be swinging open its doors to some of the more unlikely of country artists – enter Brandon Stansell.
When CMT premiered the video for Brandon’s last single “Hometown” in November 2018, he instantly became what they called “living history.” The premiere of this video, addressing LGBTQ themes, is a first for the home of country music videos. The video then went on to be named one of Rolling Stone’s 10 Best Country Music Videos of 2018. Plus, Grammy.com will be releasing an acoustic cover of “Hometown” in June for Pride month as a part of their PRESS PLAY series.
“Country music may not be known for being inclusive to LGBTQ artists, but rising musician Brandon Stansell is redefining the genre one soulful song at a time,” says Billboard. His is a bold new voice in the genre, as comfortable making you tap your foot as shed a tear – a singer-songwriter with something to say, and a voice to remember.
A Chattanooga, Tennessee native, Stansell’s first show was on the Grand Ole Opry stage at the age of 6. He spent his earliest years earning his chops as a performer and dreaming of making it big in Nashville. After moving to the Music City to attend Belmont University, Stansell snagged a spot as a dancer on Taylor Swift’s Fearless tour. After moving to New York and putting a short pause on his musical career, Stansell headed to Los Angeles where he took a deep dive into exploring the world of songwriting, channeling his life experiences into his first EP, 2015’s Dear John.
Stansell hit his artistic stride with the release of his 2017 LP Slow Down, which earned praise from Billboard, Rolling Stone, CMT, The Huffington Post and more. Now, he’s gearing up to share a new side of himself with his fans. Stansell’s new single “Top Shelf” is an infectious, summer-ready track all about savoring the moment when the right one comes along. With his new single, Stansell is showing off a more evolved sound he developed alongside frequent co-writer and first-time producer MYLEN.
An active advocate for the LGBTQ community, Stansell has committed to playing a series of Pride festivals in June as well as GLAAD’s Concert for Love and Acceptance June 6th at Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville. With a performance set for June 9th at LA’s Pride Festival, an active touring schedule and the release of “Top Shelf,” Stansell is set to once again make the country music world take notice.
“Rising musician Brandon Stansell is redefining the genre one soulful song at a time.” – Billboard
“A man of many talents.” – Grammy.com
“Stansell is showing off a more evolved sound he developed.” – LGBTQ Music Chart
“A drinking song led by syncopated guitar riffs and a sunny chorus, lightens the mood.” – Rolling Stone
“With honesty, talent and heart, Stansell is telling important stories in the spirit of country’s adherence to three chords and the truth.” – Wide Open Country
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Widely known for possessing one of Norway’s greatest country voices as the lead singer of Lucky Lips, Malin Pettersen’s career has been a whirlwind since the release of her debut solo album, References Pt.1 in the spring of 2018. Critically lauded in Norway and recent winner of a Spellemann award (Norwegian Grammy), as well as nominated for an Ameripolitan award, the record launched Pettersen’s immensely promising solo career with widespread touring as a result.
Profoundly inspired by a trip to Nashville, which included a slot at The Station Inn with Lucky Lips for Americanafest, Pettersen returned to Norway with several songs ready to record. Wanting to do something wholly different from the band sound of her debut, she recorded a mini album all-alone in the studio. Alonesome showcases Pettersen’s compelling – and at the same time fragile – voice and unique musicianship.
First single, the beautiful and mellow “Pause” is about the fear of failing to remember fond memories and experiences. More specifically, the fear of dementia, and the hope that if one was to start to forget everything after a certain point, at least let it be after you got to a good place in your life.
The Ameripolitan nomination brought Pettersen back to Tennessee, and after the awards, she found time to record an entirely new album along with a handful of young Nashville cats, scheduled for 2020. But first up is the 6-song collection Alonesome. Previously, Malin has enjoyed support slots for artists such as Sam Outlaw, Whitney Rose and Joshua Hedley, as well as playing shows with JP Harris and performing at Nashville’s famed Honky Tonk Tuesdays at the American Legion. Having both made waves and new friends in Nashville, Malin’s momentum is still building. Look out for new tour dates, but first of all Alonesome.
“Alonesome is a follow-up to 2018’s References Pt. 1, her lauded, award-winning solo debut album after a 12-year tenure in the band Lucky Lips.” – Billboard
“Compelling – and at the same time fragile – voice and unique musicianship.” – Glide Magazine
“An absolute stunner.” – Paste
“This is a young artist with a strong voice and a songwriting style that clearly has something to say.” – Americana UK
“Pettersen is easily the most intriguing country music rising start that I’ve found in 2019” – Ear to the Ground
Americana Highways presents this premiere of Joanie & Matt’s “Sisters” from their forthcoming album Sterling, due to be released on July 19. Sterling was mixed by Jesse Lauter (Tedeschi Trucks Band), and blends feminist and LGBTQ sentiments with traditional Jewish underpinnings. “Sisters” is Matthew Check and Joanie Leeds on vocals; Justin Camerer on electric guitar, Matthew Check on acoustic guitar, Shy Kedmi on piano; and Brendan O’Grady on bass with Brian Geltner on drums.