"Beth Israel" - the first single from the upcoming debut Kitner full length, Shake the Spins.  Available now to pre-order on 12" white vinyl.

"“Beth Israel.” It’s our first taste of Shake the Spins, the band’s debut full length and one of the best albums of the year." - The Alternative

Kitner - Beth Israel

Artist Bio~
A.S. Wilson grew up in an oilfield town south of New Orleans, and his songs are marked by the place – in their attention to the little indignities of love and work, a stubborn preoccupation with religion, and an abiding sense of impermanence. After a decade spent in bands across the Midwest and Southeast (Strange Bedfellows, Bad Hand), along with a stint in divinity school, Wilson found himself in New England in 2018 without musical community. This newfound solitude led to a renewed commitment to songwriting, leaning on lifelong touchstones like David Bazan and Magnolia Electric Co. while incorporating recent explorations of shoegaze and folk music developed in other projects. The result is a collection of largehearted indie rock songs which, through their close attention to texture, space, and narrative, incline toward tenderness.
The album’s title, Convinced Friend, comes from the Quaker term for conversion. The songs all center on this process of becoming convinced – of weighing the evidence and committing to a way, a person, or a life, with a clear look at the uncertainties that remain. For Wilson, this means coming to terms with a fact: life’s limitations – whether inherited or chosen – are not objects for regret but rather the frame that gives our lives meaning. “In writing this record, I always returned to Jack Gilbert’s line about having ‘the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world,’” Wilson says. “That sense of not allowing suffering to make us solipsistic, but instead open us towards others and the world, was vital at a time when I was coming up against some looming doubts about what my life was adding up to.”
In this spirit, Wilson connected with Casey Belisle (Nova One, Burr) to flesh out the songs as a band, and then to Big Nice Studio, a converted textile mill in Lincoln, RI, to record them. Bradford Krieger (Horse Jumper of Love, Ian Sweet) served as producer over the course of quick and collaborative sessions, in which the three musicians took the long-still bones of songs and gave them depth and heft, recovering the joy of musical community Wilson had been missing in the writing process. From the motorik pulse of album opener “White Collar'' dissecting the alienation of modern work and wellness, to the dusky waltz of “Safeway'' addressing lingering questions of long-term commitment, to the pensive and layered arrangements in “Open Bloom” and “When I Go”,  the album incorporates a wide swath of dynamics centered on lush guitar work and a clear lyrical voice and resolve. 
Convinced Friend takes a close look at the fissures between the lives we imagined and the ones we live. The songs, taken singly and as a whole, cohere into a clear-eyed and quietly hopeful work: a steady prod at a heavy mind, intent on cracking it open.

Convinced Friend - Safeway

"Bat Signal is a collage of thoughts and images. I had written the outro several years ago, when it was an entirely different song. At the time, I was feeling obsessed with and dependent on one person, and the waiting around was happening in the present tense. The melody in the verses was completely different too, it was sentimental and fingerpicked. I revisited the song more recently and had a different perspective on that situation, so I rewrote the verses while keeping some of the same imagery- the bat signals, the missing person. It turned into a song about self-reliance."

BIO
The debut full length from Massachusetts based Sailor Down opens by asking, "What's that word for letting go? Two magnets getting close..." as if needing a hint completing the Sunday crossword puzzle. And though lead songwriter Chloe Deeley weaves intricate alternative tunings between many questions like these - it’s like the answers are already filled in. Both letting go and getting close are repeated themes throughout the record. Having recently relocated from Northampton back to her hometown on the Massachusetts North Shore for a middle school teaching position, Deeley is able to look back and ahead at the horizon with varying levels of optimism. 
Sailor Down leaves behind lo-fi bedroom recordings on Lookout Park and expands into full band studio versions featuring everything from early Saddle Creek pedal steel to electronic programming by way of an op1 synthesizer. The latter being showcased on the impossibly catchy lead single “Bat Signal” accompanied by poignant affirmations like “I’m taking a break from falling down. I’m gonna learn how to follow myself around”. Whether getting close or letting go, Deeley finds new ways to use introspective hooks to help appreciate both.

“…spare but lovely with gently-strummed guitar and double-tracked vocals, that should appeal to fans of Phoebe Bridgers and confessional, lo-fi singer-songwriters.” - BrooklynVegan

FFO: Rilo Kiley, The Softies, Soccer Mommy

Sailor Down - Bat Signal

Keep It Together

Lost Film - Exist

Single of of the upcoming Oh, Yes album Crooked Wine Smile.

Oh, Yes is led by multi-instrumentalist and Boston native, Conor Maier. Though he rarely records in solitude, rather opting to enlist a cast of friends of “whoever is around the practice space”. That confidence and curiosity of where songs can go is highlighted throughout Crooked Wine Smile. The debut release from the 29 year old songwriter features 9 meticulously crafted experimental pop songs. Each track hovers around the 2-minute mark but the sample-heavy, guitar-centric collection manages to pack in a plethora of instruments making for countless genre-spanning moments. “Heaven Sent” perhaps captures the optimistic mood of the whole record by simply reassuring that “It isn’t always as bad as it sounds” while “Brass Locket” chooses to take an abrupt and explosive trip-hop detour mid-way through. There are touches of slow-core and tinges of emo but an Oh, Yes song doesn’t stay in the same lane for long and its not because they’re restless or in a hurry to get there, they just like going for a drive.

Crooked Wine Smile

Oh, Yes - Corduroy & Cotton

25 year-old New Hampshire native Ezra Cohen cut his teeth the past several years touring and recording with melodic punk band Notches. Though his solo output trades distortion and overdrive in for acoustic guitar and pedal steel, Cohen’s conviction and knack for hooks remain. Granite State Grass, was originally released in 2019 as a 4 track EP and now reissued with 2 brand new songs.  All instruments performed by Ezra Cohen with help from Max Grazier, and Calvin Joss (Caspian) on pedal steel and mandolin.  

FFO: A.M.- era Wilco, Slaughter Beach, Dog, Teenage Fanclub, WIld Pink.

Granite State Grass

Ezra Cohen - Car Wheels And Concrete

Taken from the upcoming Oh, Yes album Crooked Wine Smile out February 26th on Relief Map Records.

Oh, Yes - Broken Arm No. 2

Oh, Yes - Expectations

Bonus track from the upcoming Granite State Grass EP tape re-issue by Ezra Cohen on Relief Map Records.

Ezra Cohen - Mercy

Relief Map Records
hear to help
est. 2021

Lost Film - Exist

Relief Map Records

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