A Bit Tookish

"Black Tambourine" is the first single from Withered Hand's album "New Gods," and features guest appearances from Pam Berry (vocals) and Eugene Kelly (guitar).

Get it from iTunes: http://smarturl.it/withered-bt-itunes

Fortuna POP! (UK/Europe) and Slumberland Records (US/Canada) are proud to announce the new album by the Edinburgh based folk-rock troubadour Dan Willson who records as WITHERED HAND. “New Gods” is his stunning second album, following his critically acclaimed debut “Good News”.

Active in the world of visual art and dabbling in music for many years, Withered Hand’s Dan Willson came late to singing and songwriting at age 30, in a period of reflection between the death of a close friend and the birth of his first child. The resultant material, much of which went on to become the album “Good News,” has been praised for its depth and startling honesty.

Withered Hand has been embraced by Fife-based musical powerhouse the Fence Collective (whose sovereign King Creosote guests on the new album), seen his songs picked up on MTV and cult series Skins, and gained a legion of fans including Jarvis Cocker and Rolling Stone Magazine USA (who decreed him “Artist to Watch”).

A prolific live performer, recent Withered Hand shows have included collaborations with Pam Berry of seminal 90's US noise-pop band Black Tambourine and a rotating cast of musical friends embellishing Dan's exuberant and original songwriting alongside fragile and uplifting solo performances.

The long-awaited second album (produced by Tony Doogan – Mountain Goats/Belle & Sebastian etc - and part-funded by arts council body Creative Scotland) features guest appearances from the likes of Pam Berry, Eugene Kelly of The Vaselines and members of Belle & Sebastian and Frightened Rabbit.

The five years since “Good News” was recorded has seen Willson honing his songcraft, building his audience and gaining critical momentum. “New Gods” is a beautifully executed collection of songs from one of Scotland’s most gifted songwriters.


“Beautifully constructed lyrical frameworks ... on this banjo-tinged brand of Caledonian gospel” – **** MOJO

“the UK’s best lyricist” – King Creosote, in The Independent

“Killer melodies ... wobbly folk grooves ... tunes full of warm, woozy sing-song charm” – 'Artist to Watch' - Rolling Stone – 2011


Buy from iTunes

Withered Hand - Black Tambourine

From the album The Consistent Brutal Bullshit Gong out April 29, 2022 on Western Vinyl.
Pre-order / Listen: https://lnk.to/XHoJYpp2

On their debut for Western Vinyl, recording engineer and multi-instrumentalist Nate Mendelsohn and his band use lyrical maximalism for the powers of good. Where Market’s previous home recorded releases shifted genre restlessly, on The Consistent Brutal Bullshit Gong Mendelsohn took a core band of longtime collaborators to a house in rural Massachusetts where they carved out space for his words to speak through with humor and intensity. 

Though he comes from a background in experimental music, Mendelsohn’s ear for pop has prevailed. Certain moments on Bullshit Gong reveal his stranger side, as on the thundering bridge of “Scar,” which sounds like a more unhinged Parquet Courts, or the angular  “I Would Do That,” which takes cues from Cate Le Bon. On the whole, though, this band of close friends insists on directness, their arrangements clear despite the intricacies. Guitars and synthesizers tangle fluidly atop the rhythm section’s tight bedrock, evoking the tenderness and backbeat-centric qualities of Elliott Smith or Big Thief. 

After college, where he met most of the members of Market, Mendelsohn became an engineer and producer at the Brooklyn studio Figure 8 Recording. Through that community he’s recorded artists like Frankie Cosmos and Wendy Eisenberg, and played with Yaeji, Vagabon, Katie Von Schleicher (who co-produced Bullshit Gong with him), and Sam Evian, who mixed the album. 

While writing Bullshit Gong, Mendelsohn grappled with long-gestating OCD, watched a formative relationship dissolve, and experienced a mental health crisis that lasted a full year. During this turbulent time, Mendelsohn began to consider the ways he has approached friendship, partnership, and especially family. Those observations and partial conclusions make their way into the songs in an essential capacity, as he mixes the small with the very big on a dogged search for empathy. On “Control” he sings “I heard a kid ask a teacher today / ‘What is a memory?’ / Man, sometimes life is great / At 4:15 I was awake and a mess / My mind’s a broke machine.” 

The words flow in much the same way as Mendelsohn’s thoughts, with observation and memory giving way to moments of profound anxiety. This emotional heft is met in crucial ways by his band. On the tender “Watergate,” a love song set against both the Watergate scandal and James Comey’s senate testimony, the arrangement is simple and trusting, adding depth and intimacy to each word as he compares his life, love, and temperament to that of his parents. 

While recording “Old,” the band sat around an omnidirectional microphone shaking percussion instruments and singing out certain lines. In the background, you can hear Mendelsohn pick up his clarinet and eke out a few notes, a spontaneous act of playfulness that made the final cut. These tonal shifts matter deeply, as the words he sings could be interpreted differently in a darker setting: “Half of these feelings aren’t my feelings anymore / But I guess I could still enjoy the notes and chords / Maybe that’s just the way it goes / We always sing about things that are old.”

Creating intimacy out of manic self-reflection requires a delicate balancing act, one Mendelsohn tackles with abandon. His words never skew too poetic or grandiose, and when he invokes the ugly it’s met with a sonic tonality that sets him right again. In tender moments, his voice is often flanked by bandmates Natasha Thweatt or Von Schleicher, who help skew his words toward the universal. Still, Bullshit Gong is an obsessive look inward, one in which Mendelsohn simply asks himself if he is good to those he loves. It’s an act of trust between the artist and the imagined listener he takes with him.

The Consistent Brutal Bullshit Gong

Market - "Scar"

"Lilac in Hand" appears on Love, out now. 

LP/CD: http://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/products/sbr113-amen-dunes-love
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/love/id820487768?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amendunes/
Bandcamp: https://amendunes.bandcamp.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amendunes/?hl=en
Twitter: https://twitter.com/amendunes

Tourdates: https://www.facebook.com/amendunes/app/123966167614127/


iTunes

Amen Dunes - Lilac In Hand

Beirut - Scenic World

Our debut single "Hit Me" - off the new "Forever" EP will drop November 4th via Sire Records. Pre-order now on iTunes: http://smarturl.it/ColdFronts-Forever

Thanks to our buds @Earmilk for the kind love: http://earmilk.com/2014/10/20/cold-fronts-release-hit-me-premiere

Follow COLD FRONTS:
www.coldfronts.us
http://facebook.com/coldfrontsmusic
http://twitter.com/coldfrontsmusic
http://instagram.com/coldfronts
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@cold-fronts

"Hit Me"

maybe it's enough.

Free download of our second single off the upcoming Golden Age EP!

Tell Me What To Say

from ELEL's debut album "GEODE" available now via Mom+Pop Music

iTunes: http://bit.do/geode_itunes
Official Store: http://bit.do/geode_store
Spotify: http://bit.do/elel_spotify

Follow ELEL
https://www.facebook.com/elelmusic/
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http://www.elelmusic.com/

Kiss Kiss

"Animal" taken from the forthcoming full-length album  from Fast Romantics, coming in summer of 2016.

Written by Matthew Angus
Performed by Fast Romantics
Produced by Gus Van Go, Werner F, and Gavin Brown.

Animal

This song was made to inspire my friends all around the world to be a change agent for good.  Get involved.  Speak up for your rights.  Do good deeds.  Consume locally, be aware globally, and never let anyone tell you that you can't make a difference in this world. 

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" -edmund burke 

Passenger - Single

Passenger

The Passenger - Bernie Sanders song

First single off of Flaural's second EP 'Over Imaginary Cigarettes' releasing March 12th everywhere via Play Plus Record

Nonnie

MUSIC by TEAM PICTURE

REC. by MATT PEEL & TEAM PICTURE

PRODUCED/MIXED by MATT PEEL

MASTERED by Robin Schmidt/24-96 Mastering

Strange Year

Frightened Rabbit - The Loneliness And The Scream

Fangirl, coffee addict, music junkie, rabid playlist assembler. Likes any and all music that sounds awesome, because genre-normativity is so last year.

Frightened Rabbit - The Loneliness And The Scream

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