An indie playlist featuring the best Indie pop / rock tracks from December 2021. Full playlist at <a href="http://www.birp.fm/">www.birp.fm</a> // Updated monthly, so save your favorites!  Indie, Bedroom Pop, Lofi, Surf Rock, etc.

Indie Playlist • BIRP! December 2021

ORDER/STREAM:
https://found.ee/ducks_modern

"Grand Final Day" is taken from Ducks Ltd.'s album, Modern Fiction, out now on Carpark Records / Royal Mountain Records.

p + c 2021 Carpark Records

Ducks Ltd. - Grand Final Day

THE ISLAS Debut EP 'OBLIVION'. Released on Friday 27th August.

Produced by Thomas Joy @ Mill Studios
Mastered by Andy Hippy Baldwin @ Metropolis
Artwork by Joseph Calhoun & Allen Key Media

SINGLE RELEASES:
Track 3: The Absence of You - Released July 2nd
Track 5: All The Same (Feat. Emily Parish) - Released July 30th

Oblivion

Fortitude Valley channel Weezer’s Blue Album for their latest single Baby, I’m Afraid. 

“This is a break up song.  It’s two people feeling that the vibe is off, but not communicating.
It’s about feeling insecure, over analysing little things and assuming the worst rather than actually speaking to the other person.”

Fortitude Valley tear through three minutes of scorching rock with crunchy riffs and indelible hooks, harnessing their vibrant slacker-pop to dissect a stalling relationship.

Fortitude Valley is the new outlet for the songwriting talents of Durham based Brisbanite Laura Kovic.

Having spent the majority of her musical career playing keyboards in other people’s bands, bringing their songs to life with a melodic flourish, it was about time for Laura K to find an outlet for her songs: awkward power-pop that’s bound to appeal to fans of The Beths, Pixies or The Weakerthans. 

She’s assembled quite the band too: Martha’s Daniel Ellis on lead guitar and Nathan Stephens Griffin on drums, and Night Flowers’ Greg Ullyart on bass.

Fortitude Valley is the heart of Brisbane’s music scene and it's also where Laura first started playing in bands before moving to the UK in 2010.  It was a place that objectively felt mythical, a suburb with a special meaning, looking back from the other side of the world and many years later. 

Fortitude Valley release their debut full length album at the end of the summer 2021.

Reaction to recent single Cassini:
“infectious indie pop gems that would sidle up nicely alongside Joanna Gruesome, Lisa Prank, or Colleen Green” Raven Sings The Blues
“the band set the sad tale of lost space hardware to a surprisingly fiery slice of power-pop, with the Pavement-like lurch of the rhythm section, contrasted by the rambunctious assault of the twin-guitars, and Laura’s vocal tumble of lyrical gems” For The Rabbits

@valleyfortitude
https://fikarecordings.com/artists/fortitude-valley

Fortitude Valley - Baby, I’m Afraid

«Superstar», the debut record from Norwegian art-pop outfit Mall Girl, represents an exciting new chapter for the buzzed-about band. The release follows a string of successful singles, including their 2018 track “Slay Queen,” which introduced them as an act to watch in the alt-pop arena. The chaotic year of 2020 brought a string of infectious, vibey singles, including “My Sweet Mall Girl” and the fierce “Bad Girl." 

Members Iver Armand Tandsether, Hannah Veslemøy Narvesen, Eskild Myrvoll and Bethany Forseth-Reichberg were forced to get creative when the pandemic hit, sidelining best-laid plans to flesh out some songs before heading into the studio together. 

"Because of COVID regulations and the four of us living in two different cities, we changed the way we worked with the songs quite radically in the months leading up to the studio recording,” Narvesen says. "We’ve always been very oriented towards the live performance of the songs, including when we compose them together in our rehearsal space. That way of working has led to some challenges when recording, as you end up listening to the songs in a different manner and might figure out you should have done everything differently."

While others put their creative endeavors on hold, Mall Girl opted to try something different. Many of the songs on «Superstar» were tracks that the band regularly performed, but they wanted to seize the opportunity to evolve their sound even more.

“We actually ended up ‘remote composing’ big parts of the album, with everyone working from their own home studio and bouncing ideas back and forth,” Narvesen explains. "This was a very welcome change of workflow for us, and it lead to us making some songs which probably wouldn’t have turned out that way had we been together in the same room."

This experimental shift in their creative process led to the creation of songs bursting with infectious hooks, hypnotizing grooves and punchy lyrics. It brings all of the edginess from their previously releases, just through a slightly different lens.

“In many ways I think we’ve kept most of the spirit in the music, just the joy of playing together while exploring different genres and breaking conventions.”

Recorded at Studio Paradiso in Oslo with longtime collaborator Marcus Forsgren, «Superstar» runs the gamut of emotions and moments of reflection on our fleeting experiences. “Feel Like Crying,” the first song Mall Girl ever wrote together, taps into the overwhelming question of where we all belong in the universe. “Machine Gun Mystery” dives into a darker realm, presenting an alter ego we all wrestle with, who thrives on power. The beautiful chaos of love is at the center of “You And I,” while “Dance Alone” highlights just how much can be said through a wave of silence. 

As a whole, «Superstar» finds Mall Girl fully realized, with a fresh perspective that positions them as one of pop’s most intriguing new acts.

Mall Girl - Bubbly Cool Drink

Monsterhouse

Let Go : Be Free

Too Many

Stream

Alone

Arrangements

Cloud Watching

Still Don't

Talk 2 U

Carbon Copy

Wish

Birch Baby

Beetle Bee,
You know the muscle eats the brain sometimes
Tried to replicate a photo are you satisfied
Is it knowing that makes you mine
Or the knowing that we were running out of time

Well, hold that pose you're looking like a fatal frame
Paid a penny out of way to make a picture last in time and
Took a polaroid just to make you stay the same
Dont move, Dont move

Who are you to say
That time don't move any other other way and
Who are you to look the other way
When time don't move any other other way

Beetle bee you swing the bat and swing away
Dont move don't move
Swing the bat and swing away 
Like a picture in a frame
At least we'll always look the same inside a fatal looking frame

Don't you move, don't you move, don't you move
Don't you move, don't you move, don't you move

Watch the muscles that are moving you
Pretending I could move you too
Only you, and only you
I wish I could be 
The photograph you left me
Only you, and only you

Beetle bee you swing the bat and swing away
Dont move don't move
Swing the bat and swing away 
Like a picture in a frame
At least we'll always look the same inside a fatal looking frame

All the sentimental pain
Of a picture of a game
At least we'll always look the same 
Inside a fatal looking frame 

Who are you to say
That time don't move any other other way and
Who are you to look the other way
When time don't move any other other way

Still Don't

andrew kamen

Related tracks