Dave Matthews Band: Madman's Eyes
Rubblebucket: Geometry
How did we miss the release a few months ago of a new album by Kalmia Traver, Alex Toth and their band? Four years after the Brooklyn-based group's last album, Sun Machine, we now have Earth Worship, which "once again mixes their danceable beats and weird ideas," as QRO Magazine puts it. Weird in a good way - unusual and inventive, in instrumentation and verbal twists. We had a hard time picking one of the album's 13 tracks to feature in our New Music bin, and you can expect to hear many more sprinkled into our big mix.
July Talk: Hold
The Toronto group's brand-new album provides a good example of a band maintaining its recognizable sound while pushing into new territory. "Remember Never Before is perhaps July Talk’s most refined collection of music yet," writes Spill Magazine. "On their fourth record, the now expanded band is approaching their songwriting in a nearly compositional manner, resulting in fuller arrangements and cinematic tones organically clashing with alternative rock riffs and beats." Exclaim chimes in: "The raw energy and chemistry captured on earlier albums has been refined and paired with new skills. The band consists of songwriters and co-lead vocalists Leah Fay Goldstein and Peter Dreimanis, guitarists Ian Docherty and Josh Warburton, and drummers Danny Miles and Dani Nash.
Sorcha Richardson: Jackpot
"You know I almost kissed you on the front step / Was worried of you waking up with regret / So I just sat beside you, still." Lyrics like that, exquisitely capturing moments of vulnerability and uncertainty, are a hallmark of this Irish singer-songwriter. We previously featured "Shark Eyes" and "Archie" from her second album, Smiling Like an Idiot, and now reach back in for another gem. "It’s about the very earliest days of a relationship, when ... you’re still on very unsteady footing. ... It’s my way of saying 'don’t you think we’d be worth it?' And wincing as I wait for the answer."
The Bad Ends: Mile Marker 29
Veterans of the Athens, Georgia music scene, including drummer Bill Berry from R.E.M. and vocalist/guitarist Mike Mantione from Five Eight, come together in this new band that just released its debut album, The Power And The Glory. The LP "not only serves as a celebration of all things garage and jangle, it effectively continues a story begun over 40 years ago," writes AllMusic, adding, "this is music that exists entirely in its own moment, not as part of the past."