World/folk singer-songwriter Shane Palko is gearing up to release his new album, Swahili Surreal, was recorded in studios across Tanzania as part of a joint project with the Tanzanian Parliament to help provide studio access to rural communities in the country. All proceeds from Swahili Surreal will go towards the construction of a recording studio in Mafinga, Tanzania. READ MORE…
Chandeen, will release Mercury Retrograde, on February 28, via Kalinkaland Records. The full-length features features vocal & songwriting contributions from a range of artists including Chandeen lead singer Julia Beyer, British composer/multi-instrumentalist Holly Henderson, French singer/songwriter KITTY, and 16-year-old German artist Odile. READ MORE…
For the Fun of It: A Conversation with Kate Bornstein and Eli Oberman. The friends discuss mental health, “The Queer Art of Failure,” and the fun of exploring gender. READ MORE
Kansas City’s the Pedaljets will issue Twist the Lens on 14 February 2020 via Electric Moth Records. This marks the second new release from the group since they reunited in the late 2000s. Initially formed in 1984, the group‘s particular brand of what was then known as college rock led the quartet out of the Midwest and on to national stages with acts such as the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Meat Puppets, and the Flaming Lips. READ MORE…
Listen to this week’s State of the Art Spotify playlist featuring:
Wyatt Blair – Boys Night Out (Lolipop Records)
The Black Lips – Odelia
Mail the Horse – Purple Yellow Shade (Baby Robot Records)
Sudan Archives – Glorious (Stones Throw)
The Exbats – 2027 (Burger Records)
Jeff Rosenstock – Beating My Head Against the Wall (Live off of Thanks, Sorry!)
Lindy Vision – N’girls
Verite – think of me
Duncan Barlow – Le Seul Amour
Leonard Cohen – Happens to the Heart
Saw Black – I Know What I Want – The Toys
Pond Diver – Over the Hill
POLICA – Driving
Stephie James – Silent Film
Panda Bear – playing the long game
Hollis Brown – Do Me Right
Robert Glasper, YBN Cordae, Bilal, Herbie Hancock – Gone
Man Man – Witch (Sub Pop)
illiterates – Hat Trick (Baby Robot Records)
Nuclear Tourism – Subatomic
The Menzingers – Strain Your Memory
Allah-Las – Star (Mexican Summer)
clipping. – Aquacode Databreaks
Merkules, Hopsin, Tech N9ne – Bass
Porches – rangerover
White Reaper – Hard Luck
Screaming Females – No Being Disgusting
Homeboy Sandman, Quelle Chris, Your Old Droog – Lookout
K Michelle Dubois – Feast or Famine
Rodrigo y Gabriela – Clandestino
Why? – We Are Real
Or check out the YouTube Playlist:
Photographs can be “electro-magnetic,” as multi-instrumentalist Jen Starsinic observes with her new song and video “Picture in a Frame,” premiering today on American Songwriter. The track serves as the first offering to an indie-rock record called Bad Actor, expected February 7, 2020.
“Visible wavelengths from back when we were fun / Printed out on paper to have you when you’re gone,” she sings. She waxes nostalgic for a time gone by, and together with fuzzy guitar work and a steady rhythm, she also tries to heal along the way. “I wrote ‘Picture in a Frame’ when my dad was first starting to get really sick,” she explained, “and I was also pretty fresh out of a relationship that I would later learn to recognize as having been emotionally abusive, a relationship dynamic that I was already quite familiar with.”