Americana band Andrew Weiss and Friends navigate an unbalanced relationship on the jangly “This Might Hurt a Little” from their forthcoming album The Golden Age of Love & Chemistry (out March 27).
Weiss says the song came about while listening to The Beatles’ covers of Carl Perkins songs. The upbeat song finds freedom in letting go of a one-sided love story.
Facebook ? Bandcamp ? Instagram
For Albuquerque, New Mexico new wave/synth-pop band Lindy Vision, family casts a shadow over everything. The trio—comprised of three Black Native sisters, Dorothy (Dee Dee), Natasha (Na), and Carla Cuylear—has spent the last six years honing their unique sonic palette, a mix of dark ‘80s new wave, bouncy synth-pop, and ethereal indie-rock that has drawn comparisons to Santigold, M.I.A., Devo, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and more. In that time, their music has landed them on bills supporting Spoon, Durand Jones and the Indications, A Tribe Called Red, Magic Giant & more. On their new EP, Adult Children Part II, Lindy Vision continues to create sweeping, synth-heavy soundscapes that provide a foundation for their introspective, emotionally raw musings on adult life after a tumultuous upbringing.
Adult Children Part II was recorded at the legendary Sonic Ranch outside of El Paso, Texas, a residential recording studio complex that has generated records from Bon Iver, Jenny Lewis, Parquet Courts, Big Thief and more. Lindy Vision enlisted producer Enrique Tena Padilla (Thee Oh Sees, Wand, GOGGS) for both Adult Children EPs, as well as engineer Gerardo Ordonez (Bon Iver, Deerhunter, Parquet Courts) to create a record as sonically expansive as it is explosive.
The new EP is a companion piece to the trio’s 2019 EP, Adult Children Part I, and continues the band’s exploration of life as adult children of alcoholics. Inspired by Dr. Janet Woititz’ book, Adult Children of Alcoholics, Lindy Vision has crafted two strikingly honest records that serve as pillars of empowerment and acceptance. “We were hesitant for a long time to talk about being children of alcoholics, because that can be a really shameful thing for families,” says Dee Dee. “When we were growing up we were always taught to not talk about it or social services could come take the family apart. With these records, we’re coming out as adult children of alcoholics, but also showcasing how far we’ve come and not letting that limit us.”
Throughout the record, Lindy Vision discuss different everyday aspects of life and how their upbringing as children of alcoholics affected the way they respond to the world as adults, primarily when it comes to concepts of trust and stability. The EP kicks off with the noisy, distorted “Gamblers,” a blunt investigation of the dangers inherent in sexual relationships. On “Abandonment,” Dee Dee explores the sense of desperation that can accompany intimacy. “A large part of Adult Children of Alcoholics is about not feeling safe and the way that can lead to feelings of abandonment. If you get into an argument and don’t have that clarification that the relationship is still okay despite the fight, you end up feeling abandoned,” says Dee Dee. On the back half of the record, standout track “Poison” perfects the art of pairing dark lyrics with upbeat music. Carla’s pounding rhythm section lays the foundation for Na’s understated but mobile guitar lines and Dee Dee’s candid lyricism as she sings, “I got habits, I got some bad habits / I got things I need, I need everything / I’ll kill you if you stay long enough.”
The driving force behind Lindy Vision is the trio’s bond as sisters, a tight-knit solidarity formed during childhood that has carried through their lives and into their career as a band. “The instruments we play are reflective of our family dynamic. Dee Dee is the oldest and the lead singer; she’s our leader. She’s always been that way for our family. Na plays guitar, she’s the accompaniment & flair—the middle child. As the youngest, I pick up the rest of the pieces, making arrangements and doing accessory synth and drum parts. It’s very symbolic of our family order,” says Carla.
Adult Children Part II stands as Lindy Vision’s most fully-realized project to date, showcasing the trio at their most sonically versatile and emotionally honest. It’s an uncompromising look at the ripple effect of alcoholism from a stark bare first-person perspective. “As we’ve grown as a band, we’ve learned more about ourselves and what we’re willing to talk about. We’ve opened up more and have become more honest. This is our most authentic piece, both as a band and as sisters.”
Adult Children Part II is out March 6th, 2020.
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Bandcamp
Nashville trio Music Band have spent the past decade dialing in their irreverent blend of psych, classic rock & krautrock to create hard-hitting anthems that have helped cement their status as one of Music City’s premier rock & roll bands. Their previous albums, 2014’s Can I Live and 2016’s Wake Up Laughing, garnered critical acclaim from publications including Vice, Consequence of Sound, Brooklyn Vegan, Stereogum, American Songwriter & more, and opened the door for extensive tours across the US and Canada alongside JEFF The Brotherhood, Diarrhea Planet & more. Now, after some hard earned time off, Music Band are back with a brand new LP, Celebration, a ten track collection of white-hot, fuzz-laden rock & roll that finds the group building off of the foundation they’ve built over the last ten years and rocketing to new heights.
Celebration—out April 3rd on Canada’s Dine Alone Records—stands as Music Band’s most fully-realized project to date. Where Can I Live and Wake Up Laughing were compilations of songs written over a series of years, Celebration was written in 2017 as a cohesive collection, self-produced and recorded by the band’s own Duncan Shea at his home in Nashville. The record was mixed by Grammy Award winning engineer Collin Dupuis (Angel Olsen, JEFF The Brotherhood, Ex Hex) and was mastered by John Baldwin (The Rolling Stones, Deer Tick, Jessica Lea Mayfield) at his studio in Nashville. “This album is a very clear snapshot of one year in my life,” says vocalist/guitarist Harry Kagan. “Thematically, we tend to write songs about relationships, relatable stuff, but this record is specific to my thoughts on those topics when I was turning 27. It’s interesting to see this album as encapsulating that time.”
The album kicks off with “Dog,” a slow-burning exploration of late 20s anxiety that sets the tone for the rest of Celebration as Kagan sings, “How did I expect to feel in the dawn / Of my 27th year, am I having fun?” atop organ chords and atmospheric swells of guitar before building to an explosive chorus of, “My heart’s a dog without a master / Distance only makes my heart beat faster.” On “Feel Something,” the band dives headfirst into power-pop territory, showcasing an exceptional ear for melody and featuring the catchiest chorus of their career.
Elsewhere on Celebration, the trio explores the intricacies and anxieties of romance. The album’s centerpiece, “Heat,” propelled by Lee Putney’s punishing drumming, focuses on the apprehensive potential energy that accompanies romantic entanglement, while “Tell Me” initially presents as a classic love song, but with a permeating sense of uncertainty about not living up to your partner’s expectations. Though the album deals with primarily serious subject matter, much of it is presented with a wink, characteristic of Music Band’s acute self-awareness and Kagan’s tongue-in-cheek poetry. Celebration’s title track is a sludgy slacker-rock track that harnesses Kagan’s jaded energy into a sarcastic anthem for millennial ennui as he sings, “Every day my heart breaks / I’m in love with my mistakes / As long as I don’t hurt anybody / I’m having some fun / Celebration!”
Music Band formed in 2010 while Kagan, Shea, and Putney were living together as college students in upstate New York before relocating to Nashville the following year. Once in Nashville, the trio embedded themselves in the local underground scene while developing their sound and booking, recording, and promoting their band in true DIY fashion. After a decade, though, Nashville’s scene has changed, but Music Band remain steadfast in their ethos. “When we first moved here, there were so many rock & roll bands just playing basements or wherever, and it was rad to be a part of that and grow with everyone in that wave,” says Putney. “A lot of those bands have moved away or are doing other things now. But no matter what’s happening around us with the scene, we want to be a part of it as we’ve always been. We haven’t ever let anything stand in the way of putting out the music we want to make and following our vision through to the end.”
Celebration is out April 3rd on Dine Alone Records.
The sound of Kansas City rockers, The Pedaljets has changed a lot over the 36 years since their formation and on February 14th it is putting out ‘Twist The Lens’,the bands second new record since reforming in the late 2000s. It is a more expansive, less genre-restricted departure from what they describe as the “scuzzy, melodic jangle pop” of their early years. READ MORE…
The Little Miss is the moniker of Los Angeles-based artist, Hayley Johnson, who created the project in the spirit of old-timey folk and country-western music. With the addition of her bandmates, “The Cactus Kissers,” she has since found a way to blend the old with the new, focusing on maintaining the vintage western flair of a Marty Robbins while introducing the more contemporary existential and comedic elements of a Father John Misty (but with, perhaps, a *little* less self-loathing). This unique blending of genres, in combination with Johnson’s ever-relatable lyrics, has become Johnson’s signature: a presence that is equal parts heartbreakingly earnest and tongue-in-cheek.
Songs from The Little Miss’ debut EP, American Dream, have been featured on KCRW, Billboard, Wide Open Country, Tidal’s Country Rising playlist and, most recently, the FX television show, Better Things. The band has played at Bradley, CA music festival, Lightning in a Bottle, The Annie O Music Series atop The Standard in New York, and have been working to become a staple of the Los Angeles Americana circuit. The Little Miss’ debut full-length album, Best Self, is due out in Summer 2020.
If you’re wondering what to look forward to hearing in country and Americana music in early 2020, let this be your guide. Here’s all the information Saving Country Music has been able to compile on the most anticipated upcoming releases, along with a more extensive catalog of releases to have on your radar, and the always juicy “rumor mill” where uncorroborated information on new releases dwells. READ MORE…