Through the magical mysteries of social media, we came upon this band from Burntwood, Staffordshire, U.K., which happened to have just released its first EP (cleverly titled
Extended Play 1) in December. We're always looking for new and different sounds, and were immediately taken by this brass-infused track. The story goes that band leaders Michael and Russ met when they were teens, but didn't get around to making music together until some 35 years later, when Michael joined Russ at a gig. The crowd kept asking for more, the landlord booked them again, and they made up their band name on the spot - with a nod to Van Morrison.
On their new album,
Good Woman, Emily, Jessica and Camilla Staveley-Taylor expand on their folk-trio sound with the help of producer John Congleton, known for his work with Phoebe Bridgers, St. Vincent and Sharon Van Etten. The title track is getting a lot of airplay, and we'll include it in our mix, but we're featuring this bright, upbeat track that
Paste says "bursts with electronic flavor [and] casts the sisters’ glorious three-part harmonies in a new light."
What Pitchfork describes as the "eclectic agit-prop project" of Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner has a fifth album on the way, called
sketchy. Pitchfork says of this single: "Centered around Garbus’ powerhouse vocals, the gauzy, bass-heavy beat ballad delivers a potent message of self-empowerment." Garbus herself puts it in a different context: "This song is about feeling really betrayed, by my parents’ generation, and at the same time, really seeing how we are betraying the future.”
Are the members of Valley old enough to be nostalgic for 1999? Longing for the days before the internet and text-messaging? Apparently so, or at least they can imagine themselves as young adults in that time. "Let's go back before 2000," the Toronto indie-pop band sings, "Back before our love was so distracted." Our favorite lyric: "I wish that Y2K had happened / We would stay forever classic / You and I would both be trapped in 1999."
Before it gets too old to qualify for our New Music bin, we're dipping back into
Vindicator, the Blondes' fifth album, released in November. This time we're featuring the track their hometown newspaper, the
Vancouver Sun, called "One of the best songs the band has ever written. This easy-flowing funky tune begins with James Younger’s loping bass slides that could have been lifted right from the Style Council’s 'Long Hot Summer.' Then a sharp distorted guitar riff slices in and Rebecca Gray’s chiming vocals begin."
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