If It's Too Loud...

Photo courtesy John Falls While "I Know Exactly What You Mean" may not be new Velocity Girl, it's new to us Velocity Girl, and that's pretty great. Taken from the upcoming 1989-1992  compilation of the Washington D.C. band's pre-Sub Pop music, this track shows that Velocity Girl had a solidified sound even back then. It's perfect early 90's janglepop, and if you've been a decades long fan, you're goint to be thrilled to hear this track. I've long felt that Velocity Girl have been one of the most underrated bands of the 90's, and you'll see why once you hear "I Know Exactly What You Mean." It's from the band's first session with singer Sarah Shannon. This is a great song, and I'm shocked it took thirty plus years for it to be made public. You can listen to "I Know Exactly What You Mean" below. 1989-1992 is due out August 28 on Slumberland Records, and is available to pre-order here . For more on Velocity G...

Photo by Carol Fonde I'm not usually one for empowering songs, but these days I'll take any positivity I can get, especially when it comes in a song this great. Today sees the release of "Tell Your Friends" from Boston's Emily Grogan. The track is an epic pop rock track that gets more inventive than the genre typically gets. It has enough tempo and stylistic changes, and cycles through these throughout the song. The song ends up being a wildly powerful track that will give even the post pessimistic of us (i.e.: me) some hope for the future. "Tell Your Friends" starts off good, and only gets better and better as it becomes one of the best songs of the year. Emily Grogan says of her latest single: “‘Tell Your Friends’ came from feeling overwhelmed by the amount of chaos, division, and fear happening around us. I found myself pulling more inward this year, and in those moments when I step back into the world, I see the external chaos from a different perspe...

Willi Carlisle is one of our favorite Americana artists out there today. He's always seemed to be deserving of much more attention than he gets, and his upcoming Tyler Childers produced album might be what gets him there. His latest single, "The Mason Jar at the Center of the World," is everything we love from Carlisle. It's a traditional folk/country song with modern sensibilities. It feels like a troubadour song, and it's easy to picture Carlisle busking while playing this song. As traditional roots as it is, it doesn't sound old fashioned at all. "The Mason Jar at the Center of the World" is the rare song that should sound old timey but sounds completely modern without being progressive. But that's why Willi Carlisle is such a unique and special artist. Willi Carlisle says of his upcoming album: “I think this one goes to outer space. This is the widest range of influences that I’ve ever had. It touches on funk, it touches on Americana, Cajun, ...

Photo by Silken Weinberg The latest solo single from Nina Winder-Lind (The New Eves) diverges from her previous two singles. While "This is Our Life" and "Girls" were singer-songwriter/alt-folk masterpieces, "Headfirst" is more of a straightforward rocker. The song has a killer groove and lets Winder-Lind show off the more gruff aspect of her vocals. There are still traces of alt-folk and a little modern pop, but "Headfirst" is more along the lines of a modern Patti Smith. Winder-Lind is getting to show off her punk-ish side, along with some killer jangly guitar. Just when we started to think we knew what to expect from her upcoming solo album, Nina Winder-Lind throws us off with "Headfirst." Nina Winder-Lind says of her latest single: “‘Headfirst’ is the amalgamation of two elements; a spoken poem that I made whilst out on a walk in my neighbourhood, and an odd two harmony guitar riff that I recorded on GarageBand and labeled ‘televisi...

Photo by Rian Archer If you're not in the mood to be happy, you might want to avoid the latest from Wishy. "All the Rage" is a delightful, jangly indie rock song leaning heavily in the direction of pop. This one sounds like an update of the upbeat indie rock that dominated the CMJ charts in the late 90's (or, at least my college radio show). It's a bouncy track with a fun guitar solo that is just perfect for summertime. To me it sounds like a cross between The Apples in Stereo and The Anniversary. Wishy have crafted a perfect little indie rock meets pop song that you're not going to be able to get enough of. Kevin Krauter says of his band's latest single: “Hello Lovelies and welcome to the official Wishy press blurb for the second single !!!! Yayyy the song is out we are so happy!! :) Some *~Fun Facts~* about this song number 1. i wrote it after seeing artificial go and good flying birds play an awesome show major inspo 2. my roommate judah gave me some go...

Photo by Pooneh Ghana We first discovered Porcelain roughly a year ago, and now the Austin, TX band are back with new music. "Apocalypse" is an interesting mixture of noisy, aggressive alt-rock and a more melodic, indie sound. There are some vocal harmonies that kind of have an odd folk/country quality to them, and then there are straight up screaming vocals. It's a fuzzed out version of post-hardcore, and as great as the vocal harmonies are, "Apocalypse" really gets going towards the end when it's an instrumental. The song chugs along until that point, and then erupts into a controlled chaos where the instruments take on the melody versus noise battle. This marks a huge step forward for Porcelain, and we're already dying to hear more. Porcelain say of their latest single: "This is a song about the loss of innocence. Growing up, the future looked so bright and promising, like we could all make something of this world for the better. But then we witn...

Photo by Noah Lenker Vermont's Lily Seabird has an epic new single out that is going to blow some minds. "Portal to the Past" is going to remind a lot of you of Neil Young at his noisiest. It still has roots firmly in folk and Americana, but this is a noisy rock track, even at its slowest. As "Portal to the Past" plods along over its seven minute length, you wait and wait for an explosion that never quite comes, which actually makes the song better. This is a highly emotional song that is going to shatter all expectations, even those of long term Lily Seabird diehard fans. "Portal to the Past" is a song out of time, that belongs in multiple decades and none at the same time. Lily Seabird says of her latest single: “Trying to describe what inspires my writing is hard to figure sometimes. A lot of these songs on this record wrestle with time and memory, our perception as it rolls forward, as the past gets further away and the future rolls out infinitely ...

Photo by PJ Guinto We're a little over a week from hearing the new album from Josaleigh Pollett, and we have one last pre-release single to hear while we wait. "Bed of Quiet" might be our favorite single from If I Let It Quiet so far. The song is going to strongly appeal to fans of Death Cab for Cutie, as it turns out it's a collaboration with Chris Walla. You can definitely hear the influence in "Bed of Quiet," and it has that indie rock meets electronic music sound everyone was going nuts for fifteen to twenty years ago. This song is going to immediately grab you, and we're fairly certain you're going to love it as much as we do.  Josaleigh Pollett says of their latest single: “Bed of Quiet is an over-thinker’s anthem. A song for the sleepless, and the hours spent playing and replaying scenarios on a loop in your brain where there is no right decision, digging for a yes or a no in a mountain of perhaps. We wanted the production to feel like it belo...

Photo courtesy Perennial We've been huge fans of Perennial's for years now, and always felt that the Connecticut band should be much, much bigger than they are, but always assumed their sound might be too unique for the masses. That could very well change with their latest single. "Modernism" keeps everything we've always loved about Perennial. It's melodic art punk, equal parts The Kinks and Refused. It's loud and noisy, but also fully danceable, with a moments sure to end up imbedded in your head for days to come. But, they may have figured out the formula to stardom with "Modernism." It lands just barely on the side of melodic and catchy just enough to appeal to a wider audience while still thrilling long time fans. Basically, "Modernism" is a great song sure to break out of Perennial's niche fan base. You can watch the video for "Modernism" below. The album Modernism is due out September 18 on Ernest Jenning Record Co....

Photo by James J. Robinson For her latest single, Julia Jacklin decided to go in a more folk/singer-songwriter direction. "I Wish" is primarily Jacklin's vocals and guitar (as well as some harmonies provided by fellow Australians Elsie and Maggie Rigby of The Maes), and it's one of the most captivating of her career. The song grabs you as soon as Jacklin's vocals start, and I cannot stress how mesmerizing "I Wish" is. The song feels fully fleshed out and impossibly intimate, and only deepens our love for Jacklin's music. We're going to be excited any time Jacklin is releasing a new full length, and "I Wish" has us thrilled for summer to end so we can hear it. Julia Jacklin says of the theme of her upcoming album: “I want to love and be loved, but I also want to be free. The tension between those two things has been the central question of my life." You can listen to "I Wish" below. The Gem is due out September 25 on 4AD, ...

Photo by Paige Prather Jake Xerxes Fussell has an innate knack for taking classic folk songs and making them completely his own. His latest is "Rock Island Line," which started out as a spirtual and was first recorded in the 1930's. We've heard many versions of this song, but none quite like Fussell's. His latest version is much quieter and laid back than Johnny Cash's from the 70's, and is almost unrecognizable as the classic I'm more familiar with. It lands somewhere between traditional folk and a more modern version, but finds quite a bit of impact by going more quiet. Fussell has long been a favorite of ours, and a song like "Rock Island Line" only solidifies our fandom. Jake Xerxes Fussell says of his new single: “The song struck me as very beautiful, but just singing the verses wasn’t working for me. I couldn’t relate. So, I wound up putting it together with an old English nursery rhyme that I had been kicking around. ‘ Wire, briar, lim...

Photo by Betsey Carroll Philadelphia brother and sister duo Sam and Louise Sullivan have a new single out that is stunningly great. "Love & Devotion" feels like a cover song in that it instantly feels familiar, like you've heard it before, just not the way that the siblings perform it. It's an odd and quirky little slice of alt-pop with hints of folk, but the song is so well written and unique that you're going to get instantly sucked in. From there, the song keeps getting better and more infectious. It's a groovy little song that reminds me of Rilo Kiley meets The Beach Boys at their most adventurous. Even if "Love & Devotion" doesn't grab you right away, I implore you to give it a shot until the end. After that, it might end up on endless repeat for you. Sam Sullivan says of his band's latest single: “‘Love & Devotion’ is our folk-rock wedding song. It's fashionable these days to say, 'ooh, love is so hard; we have to wo...