Great summer song: Carsie Blanton's "Hot Night"

The first single from a new album by one of our featured artists, Carsie Blanton, has just dropped, and we've got it for you.

"Hot Night" puts you in an upstairs apartment in the French Quarter on a steamy New Orleans night, with the windows open letting in the sounds of the street. And Carsie makes it sound like the most delicious place in the world to be.

"Hot Night" now joins our New Music rotation. The album, So Ferocious, is due Aug. 2.

The video is wonderful, shot in New Orleans and featuring local dancers. Highly recommended. Watch:

Great summer song: Carsie Blanton's "Hot Night"

The first single from a new album by one of our featured artists, Carsie Blanton, has just dropped, and we've got it for you.

"Hot Night" puts you in an upstairs apartment in the French Quarter on a steamy New Orleans night, with the windows open letting in the sounds of the street. And Carsie makes it sound like the most delicious place in the world to be.

"Hot Night" now joins our New Music rotation. The album, So Ferocious, is due Aug. 2.

The video is wonderful, shot in New Orleans and featuring local dancers. Highly recommended. Watch:

Indie music rules our New Additions this week

Baltimore duo Wye Oak released its fifth studio album, Tween, this month. It's actually a collection of outtakes - songs that didn't make it onto the band's past couple of albums - yet it's getting a lot of positive reviews as a strong album in its own right. Pitchfork called it "unpredictable, assertive, varied and capable of capturing the full scope of their vision." Our pick for the New Music bin this week is "Watching the Watching." The mirror imagery in the album cover art is picked up in this song.

We happened to catch a live show recently by Hoboken, N.J.'s Karyn Kuhl Band. Karyn has been a member of a variety of bands going back to the punk-rock scene of the 1980s. Now with her own band, consisting of bassist Lou Ciarlo, drummer Jonpaul Pantozzi and guitarist James Mastro, Kuhl has released an EP, The Stars Will Bring You Home, that combines hard-edged rock with thoughtful lyrics about love and pain. You'll hear "Conjuring You" in our New Music rotation. We'll also give some spins to the band's unique cover of "It Was A Very Good Year."

We learned about Philadelphia band Cayetana by way of Hemming, another Philadelphia artist we've been following for a while. Members of the former accompanied the latter to record "All I Want" (see previous article). Now that song and Cayetana's "Freedom 1313" are on a new collection called Forever Beautiful that's been released as a fundraiser for victims of the Orlando night club shooting. Check that out on Bandcamp. And hear "Freedom 1313" in our New Music rotation.

Also added this week to our big mix:

• "Mercy," another track from the dynamite album by Bonnie Bishop, Ain't Who I Was
• And another selection from Falls' album Omaha - "Someone Like You" 

And stay tuned because later this week we'll be debuting something brand-spanking-new from another of our featured artists, Carsie Blanton.

Indie music rules our New Additions this week

Baltimore duo Wye Oak released its fifth studio album, Tween, this month. It's actually a collection of outtakes - songs that didn't make it onto the band's past couple of albums - yet it's getting a lot of positive reviews as a strong album in its own right. Pitchfork called it "unpredictable, assertive, varied and capable of capturing the full scope of their vision." Our pick for the New Music bin this week is "Watching the Watching." The mirror imagery in the album cover art is picked up in this song.

We happened to catch a live show recently by Hoboken, N.J.'s Karyn Kuhl Band. Karyn has been a member of a variety of bands going back to the punk-rock scene of the 1980s. Now with her own band, consisting of bassist Lou Ciarlo, drummer Jonpaul Pantozzi and guitarist James Mastro, Kuhl has released an EP, The Stars Will Bring You Home, that combines hard-edged rock with thoughtful lyrics about love and pain. You'll hear "Conjuring You" in our New Music rotation. We'll also give some spins to the band's unique cover of "It Was A Very Good Year."

We learned about Philadelphia band Cayetana by way of Hemming, another Philadelphia artist we've been following for a while. Members of the former accompanied the latter to record "All I Want" (see previous article). Now that song and Cayetana's "Freedom 1313" are on a new collection called Forever Beautiful that's been released as a fundraiser for victims of the Orlando night club shooting. Check that out on Bandcamp. And hear "Freedom 1313" in our New Music rotation.

Also added this week to our big mix:

• "Mercy," another track from the dynamite album by Bonnie Bishop, Ain't Who I Was
• And another selection from Falls' album Omaha - "Someone Like You" 

And stay tuned because later this week we'll be debuting something brand-spanking-new from another of our featured artists, Carsie Blanton.

Gabriel salutes Ali & more new music additions

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel says he wrote "I'm Amazing" a few years ago, inspired among other things by the life of Muhammad Ali. Following the recent death of The Greatest, Gabriel released the song as a seven-and-a-half -minute track filled, as you might expect, with a wide variety of sounds and beats. It's an unusual piece, but let it grow on you.

Following up on the single "Dark Necessities," Red Hot Chili Peppers have now released their 11th studio album The Getaway. The title track is our current pick for the New Music bin.

Syd Arthur

We've also picked up a new track by Syd Arthur. This U.K. band has been described as "psych rock" or even "psychedelic jazz," but we think they flow from the traditions of British progressive rock. "Apricity" will be the title track on their next album, due in October. It's an energetic song with a driving beat.

And what is apricity? We had to look it up, but it means the warmth of the sun in winter. Not literally appropriate for this season in the Northern Hemisphere, but hey, it's a metaphor.

Also in our New Releases bin this week:

• "Dreaming As We Go" by Chariots, a.k.a. Tom Read, singer/songwriter/producer from the U.K. who bills his music as "indie pop for dreamers."
• "Paper Wings" by Tyler Boone, from Charleston S.C. by way of Nashville.
• "You Don't Get Me High Anymore," a kiss-off song from Phantogram's next album, Three, due in September.

And in the not-really-new-but-new-to-us file: After latching onto the new single from The Wind + The Wave, "Grand Canyon," we've delved back into their 2014 release From The Wreckage and added "From The Wreckage Build A Home" to our playlist.

We're continuously adding to our Marvelous Music Mix. Tune in! Enjoy! And let us know what you think! Talk to us here, on Twitter, on Facebook or by email at birchstreetradio@gmail.com