If It's Too Loud...

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 ...

Britt Daniel of Spoon Photo by Ken Sears As one of the announcers said, Saturday at the Green River Festival was a marathon. I got there early for Lily Seabird and stayed late for Spoon. It was over ten hours of diverse music, from Americana and folk to cumbia to indie rock to experimental music. It was absolutely exhausting, in the best possible way as I tried to take in everything possible. Here are my highlights from day two! Lily Seabird, Backporch Stage I've been trying to see Lily Seabird live for almost three years now, and the Green River Festival finally let it happen. My expectations were high, and she and her band blew them completely away. I had meant to watch half of her set and then head over to Dean's Beans Stage for the second half of The Animeros, but I was transfixed by Seabird's set. Live she seemed to lean into her more indie rock side with folk elements. It was kind of like if Nirvana or Sonic Youth decided to try out Americana. Lily Seabird set the bar...

Photo by Noah Lenker Lily Seabird has always been one of those artists that seamlessly moves between folk and indie rock, and combines the two genres in many of her songs. That's not the case with her latest single. "Election Day" sees the Vermont artist going full on indie rock, with a noisy and aggressive sound. I don't believe we've heard this level of volume from Seabird, and it's an interesting and welcome change of sound. It kind of sounds like Juliana Hatfield fronting Nirvana, with her vocals moving from her more delicate, folk-ish style to a full on roar at times. There is still song twang to the guitar... until it's drowned out by the squall. "Election Day" is a killer track from one of our newer favorite artists. Lily Seabird says of her latest single: “This song is about having to make a decision and both options are painful, confusing. I wrote this song on election day which works as a great metaphor for this in our current political...

Photo by Garrett Linck As we gear up for this weekend's Green River Festival, we're going to preview some of the band's earlier in the day. If you're going, you know you'll be there to see Charley Crockett, Spoon, The Beths, Kurt Vile, Geese, and Wednesday, so I'm going to make the case to show up earlier in the day to catch some up and coming bands that you'll end up loving. Lily Seabird, Saturday, Back Porch Stage, 12:15 If you're a regular reader of ours, you know how much we love Lily Seabird. The Vermont based artist has released two of our favorite albums of the last two years (2024's Alas, and 2025's Trash Mountain ). She has this wonderful mix of traditional folk and Americana along with a more indie rock focused sound that hits us right in our musical sweet spot. Her songs are twangy and vintage while still sounding modern and fresh. Sometimes she's freak or anti-folk, others she's purely folk. Regardless of what style she's ...

Photo by Garrett Linck I've been fully onboard for everything Lily Seabird has been doing since we discovered her in 2023. Now the Vermont artist is back with a brand new single, "Demon in Me." Seabird has always blended indie rock and folk, and on this new single she blurs the lines even further. Typically her songs lean a little more into either folk or indie rock, but "Demon in Me" lands exactly in the middle of the two genres. That is... at least to start. As the song goes on, the indie rock side firmly takes over, and it becomes a giant epic that you never want to end. The song structure, and especially how much the song evolves its sound between folk and indie rock, remind me of artists like Neutral Milk Hotel and Lady Lamb. This is a great one, and even at six minutes long Lily Seabird has you wanting more. Lily Seabird has her latest single is on  “... the dark side, probably a symptom of anxiety or depression,  The beginning of the song I talk about thi...

It's just starting to get uncomfortably cold here in New England, so we're already starting to look forward to warm temperatures. Plus, warm temperatures means festival season, and Green River Festival has given us something to look forward to in June! Their 2026 edition will take place June 19-21 at Franklin County Fairgrounds with another fantastic line up. The headliners will get the most attention, with the neotraditional country of Charley Crockett, indie rock veterans Spoon, and experimental rockers Geese. We're thrilled for the undercard of this one, with many favorites playing like The Beths, Kurt Vile & The Violators, Wednesday, Lucius, The War and Treaty, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Folk Bitch Trio, Ratboys, Sunny War, Lily Seabird, and Tre Burt! Plus, there's plenty for us to discover in the next eight months as we get ready for the festival! Three day passes for the 2026 Green River Festival are on sale now. For tickets and more information, check out the ...

Photo by Eliza Callahan Friday will see the release of Lily Seabird's highly anticipated new album, and we have one last single to check out before it's released. "Arrow" deviates from previous singles a bit. While Seabird's last few singles went in a more alt-country or indie folk direction, this new one is more indie rock with some twangy elements. It still has some folk inside, and Seabird's usual intimate feel despite "Arrow" being a relatively huge song. This is filled with a huge amount of fuzz throughout, and it's the type of song that will endear Seabird to you even more. This upcoming Friday is certainly one of the biggest release dates of the year for us, but Lily Seabird's upcoming album is sure to be a highlight. Lily Seabird says of her new single: “This is one of my only love songs. It’s been really fun to play this one in the band and I like how it sounds on the recording, but I also really love to play this song on an acoustic...

Photo by Eliza Callahan Vermont's Lily Seabird has released a pair of sonically very different but thematically very similar singles. "How far away" is a just under two minute piano ballad. It's only Seabird's vocals and Sam Atallah's piano, and it's a completely compelling and beautiful song about loss. It's melancholy, but beautiful and surprisingly uplifting. "It was like you were coming to wake us back up" is about seeing someone outside of her house that looked like her deceased loved one. The second single is a full band track that is a little faster in pace, but not much. To me, "It was like you were coming to wake us back up" feels more pained, while "How far away" sounds more like reminiscing. Both are beautiful and powerful songs of loss that are well worth spending some time with. Lily Seabird says of her new singles: “‘How far away’ closes Side A of Trash Mountain and ‘It was like…’ opens Side B, but they'r...

Photo by Evan Loigon I absolutely adored Lily Seabird's 2024 album Alas,  so I'm thrilled and shocked that she already has a new album coming out in April. The first single from her upcoming album, "Trash Mountain (1 pm)," has that Americana meets indie rock sound we loved from her previous album. This one is leaning a little more heavily into the Americana side of things, particularly into alt-country. The song is quite twangy without fully being country. This is the type of song that's obviously going to work for those that love alt-country and freak folk, but it's also going to surprise fans on the indie rock side of things that typically hate Americana. Lily Seabird says of her latest single: “It started with thinking about touring and then, late stage capitalism, technology, climate change, my shortening attention span, but also shifting relationships and our ability to deal with the past and move forward.  I kinda just ended up at my house feeling really...

Photo by Jinni J For her next release, Vermont's Lily Seabird has signed with Lame-O Records and announced a new EP. The collection will feature songs from this year's excellent Alas, and two new songs. One of the new tracks has been released as a single, and you're going to want to check out "Fuckhead." This new song is a stripped down acoustic one, with just Seabird and a guitar. It's just as captivating as anything from Alas, and is almost painfully intimate. This is indie folk as it's absolute finest, and no one puts a song together quite like Lily Seabird. If you were as enamored as we were with her full length, you're going to love "Fuckhead" just as much. Lily Seabird says of her latest single: “I wrote this one when I was 16 and it felt great to sing on the day we recorded acoustic versions of Alas, songs.  It was for my friend Emmi who I was in my first band with when we were in high school. We used to think we were really cool and b...

The Thing in the Spring has been a southwest New Hampshire staple for quite a while now, sporting some of the most eclectic line ups around. This is especially impressive since Keene, NH (and Peterborough before it) isn't exactly the hippest or most metropolitan of areas. They certainly know what they're doing, especially since the 2024 festival is four days of amazing music. The whole thing kicks off on Thursday night with an eight band bill that includes Modern Fools, Paper Castles, Jake McElvie, and Rick Rude. Friday is a rager that boasts The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis, Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog, and Prefuse 73. Saturday gets a little weird with Earth, J. Pavone String Ensemble, The Huntress & Holder of Hands, and Sunburned Hand of the Man. Sunday is my personal favorite and features Buck Meek, Jolie Holland, Mal Devisa, and Lily Seabird. Of course, there are many, many more artists playing that all deserve our attention. The Thing in the Spring will take ...

Artist : Lily Seabird Album : Alas, Quick Thoughts : I don't recall tripping up on Lily Seabird's debut album when it dropped in 2021, but this follow-up is making her back catalog a top priority. Pulling from a variety of influences ranging from folk to indie pop to more traditional roots and alt-rock, we end up with an album that really doesn't miss. The record builds itself one on top of the other, with the weight of it all culminating in the truly epic "Waste" that leads into bringing the whole thing home. It's a really great listen, and one that I loved. Songs of Note : "Grace," "Twenty," "Dirge," "Waste" Artist : Marika Hackman Album : Big Sigh Quick Thoughts : Marika Hackman is quietly becoming a must-listen figure in indie singer-songwriting. She's not doing anything all that flashy, she's not blowing your socks off with the presentation. She's just making music that sticks with you (and tha...