The Century Family Records. Alt.Pop artist Little Hurt is heading out on a co-headlining tour with Hembree to support his new single ‘Buttercup’ . The song is a compact, clever nugget of pristine pop-rock perfection that features longtime friend The Ready Set on guest vocals. ‘Buttercup’ offers a frank confession of romantic uncertainty and insecurity — set to a funky backbeat, pulsing guitars, colorful layers of emotion and an instantly memorable whistled refrain. Little Hurt (Aka Colin Dieden, former Lead Singer of The Mowglis) says “I wrote ‘Buttercup’ with my some of my best friends in the world (Ryon, Studaboi & Dan Geraghty) and it was one of…
Author: Heather Savage
We’re watching a career blossom in front of our eyes. Milanis Clark’s steady ascent from obscurity towards eventual stardom has its latest stop with a role in the new Broadway production Ella: An American Miracle. This theatrical production exploring Ella Fitzgerald’s life with the aid of the vast songbook she left behind. It’s attracted other top flight talent such as Charity Angel Dawson and Dee Dee Washington and promises to be one of the most important Broadway productions in recent memory. The experience that Clark will gain from her participation is invaluable. It’s hard to believe she started on this path…
If you know Everett De Morier, you know unpredictability. In a career that has spanned more than twenty-five years, Mr. De Morier has written everything from the Weekly World News’ My Wife Is Having the Reincarnation of Elvis to the Hollywood optioned Thirty-Three Cecils. He’s an essayist, an author, a humorist, a contributor, a thinker. And, a seeker. Because a decorated career that has included appearances on the likes of CNN, Fox, NPR, and ABC has enabled him to just scratch the surface. ABOUT EVERTT DE MORIER: https://everettdemorier.com/ The chameleonic nature of his literary and theatrical work, ranging from the…
One of the best things a rock star can do is have a “come to Jesus” moment. It’ll never not be divisive, ask Bob Dylan, but the wealth of culture, spirituality, and level-headed assuredness that comes from the idea of performing records for something far bigger than just yourself or your fans can be one heck of a driving creative force. Indie legend Sufjan Stevens is guilty of making an entire career out of covert Christian records, and most critics would agree that his music is some of the best on the market. FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/DavidRaybuckMusician Newcomer David Raybuck is joining…
Global Rock band Sick Puppies are collaborating with ESPN/ESPN+ to launch their new single ‘Ready Steady Go’, a cover of the Paul Oakenfold hit song. The music will be used in National Hockey League (NHL) on ESPN promos on all their platforms through the end of 2022. Watch the initial ESPN promo spot here: The intense, driving version of ‘Ready Steady Go’ has been released on all streaming services and is sure to have Hockey fans around the world pumping their fists as they cheer on their favorite NHL teams. Kevin Wilson, creative music director for ESPN, says “Ready Steady Go’ is a…
Modern Rock powerhouse Messer are sharing their empowering new single ‘Unfvckwitable’, the follow-up to their Top 40 Active Rock song “Hope In This World’. Known for their catchy hooks and high energy live performances, they continue to build their career as a truly independent Rock band. The band says “Unfvckwitable” is a state of being. It’s the conscious decision to be unfazed and unaffected by the storms around you. It’s a commitment to strength of character. Having the clarity to not back down from your goals no matter what life throws at you. Strive to be Unbreakable, to be Unstoppable… To BE UNFVCKWITABLE” They continue: “To…
Starting out in music at the age of 10, you’re bound to have a slew of musical references and ambitions that go well beyond your peers. For Christen Cooper, this interest would grow into receiving placement on the Nashville Songwriters Associations International “Ones to Watch” and “Recommended for Publishers Luncheon” lists, with a whopping four hundred songs handwritten in her arsenal. INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/christencoopermusic/?hl=en There’s very few places for a musician as ambitious as this to go, and “up” seems to be the best choice so that’s precisely where Cooper has been headed. Steadily releasing a wide array of singles all…
Bloom celebrates self-love in all its form with their newest song “Elevate” from the album of the same name. Something Bloom has been incredibly vocal about in the lead to their album is the importance of empowerment, saying “just knowing we have that light gives us a sense of self-empowerment and the ability to overcome adversity.” It’s a perspective that’s been lacking in the last few divisive years that I hope doesn’t fall on deaf ears. The song is expertly crafted across the board, with a sonic emphasis on brass, gospel influence both subtle and overt and excellent drum work.…
As much as some folks in the industry might tell you otherwise, you can’t overstate the importance of the studio cuts that come after the first few you attach your name to, and I think Iva Toric was thinking about this when she recorded her new effort “Trust Fall” just recently. As a single, there’s nothing unconventional about the way this song has been produced, but from an aesthetical point of view, it’s got heart and emotional presence unlike most of the alternative rock and post-grunge I’ve been listening to this past summer and early fall. Iva Toric is playing…
Lyrics can both tell us a story and offer us deeper insight into the emotional depth of the person composing them, but in the new single from AV Super Sunshine, the aptly-titled “Scarecrow,” they undisputedly do both. AV relates to the listener in poetic terminology on the conventional level only when it is convenient to make his point clear; the rest of the time, he’s getting harsh and honest with the contents of his heart whether we’re prepared to accept the realities of the moment or not. Steeped in duality, “Scarecrow” neither denies the fact that it’s a self-aware ballad…
Objectively discussing jazz music has to be one of the hardest genres to tackle in an academic sense. The genre is built on being unknowable, and the impenetrability of the best compositions the genre has to offer come across as nearly insurmountable to newcomers at best and imposing at worst. To get jazz, you have to dive in headfirst and hope for the best. For some, they get an education from their school’s various arts programs but for others, there’s no easy way in — for them, Louis Siciliano & Mauro Salvatore are here with their latest record Heat the…
Rae Radick often describes herself as, “The Love Child of Shania Twain + Miranda Lambert + a dash of New York City.” She recently opened for Miranda Lambert and Brett Young at Citadel Country Spirit Music Festival in 2021, and Broadway’s Palladium Theater in Times Square. She’s a prime example of the new wave of feminism: fierce yet vulnerable, classy yet authentic, free thinking, and finding your path in a technology based world. Rae Radick has been a singer/songwriter since she was sixteen. Hailing from Bucks County, Pennsylvania she’s lived in New York City for the past eight years and…
Maryland based David Arn has dazzled listeners around the world with the poetry of his song on three albums so far. His fourth release Watershed features eight songs bursting with deceptive simplicity and ultimately amounting to one of 2022’s most impressive musical and lyrical statements. The interpersonal focus of Arn’s writing will connect with countless listeners because he has the skill to marrying deft turns of language and imagery alongside a plain-spokenness that doesn’t deny listeners deeper meaning. “Blood and Bone” is an outstanding opener. The acoustic thrust of Watershed doesn’t restrict its melodic potential as Arn shows newcomers and longtime fans alike his…
Shelley Loving’s passion lies in helping others cook and eat a little healthier without dieting or having massive restrictions. After her husband’s heart attack, she decided to take ownership of their health by cleaning up what they were eating. After two nutrition schools and culinary school, she now teaches others what she applied to her own life. Eating healthy doesn’t have to be complicated, time-consuming, or boring. And Shelley is on a mission to teach you how to do it in a way that will leave you feeling great. Her certifications include Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, Certified Culinary Nutrition…
Strings fill our speakers with a wintry melody at the start of “Merry Christmas in Heaven,” the new single by Rob Alexander, and though their presence is undisputedly as captivating as a chilly December sunset, they offer just a small sampling of what’s to come in the next few minutes of play. Rob Alexander has been garnering a lot of attention from both underground and mainstream critics in 2022, and while “Merry Christmas in Heaven” is a song designed around a very specific genre and theme in popular music, I see it as an extension of his artistry beyond that…
There’s something about the autumn season that always makes darker music sound just a bit more fetching than it normally does, and it’s perhaps in this spirit that the upcoming November release of The New Jacobin Club’s new album Empire of Dis feels so appropriate. 2022 hasn’t brought a lot of smart goth rock out of the underground, especially in comparison to recent landmark years for the iconic indie genre, but I don’t know that Empire of Dis needed the lack of serious competitors to sound like a stand-out release right now. With tracks like “The Hunter” and “Lord Henry Steps Out” serving as…
Arguably shaped by its quiet moments just as much as it is its chaotic, neo-symphonic interludes, there is no label nor style that I can use to categorize Sun King Rising’s stunning Signs & Wonders; it’s something that is simply too classical and too futuristic at the same time to fit into any of the predesignated boxes some critics live and die by. For the rest of us, SKR’s masterful performance here is one to be consumed slowly and with a lot of attention to the most understated of details it includes, starting of course with the introduction created by “Bitter…
Ludlow Creek, in a way, is a band born of COVID-19, but the band’s roots run deeper. The band ran for six plus years as a quintet called Southbound covering popular songs throughout their home state Ohio and the surrounding region. The band mates and friends decided in 2019, however, that they wanted to follow the winds of fortune, fair or foul, change the band’s name, and begin recording and performing original material. Their first release Hands of Time reset the table for the band as few such acts could ever claim. Their new album Which Way is Forward?, however, expands the possibilities…
When looking at the new record Justice Now by Barista from an instrumental perspective, there’s a distinctly progressive element to songs like “Breath,” “The Night Train,” “Little Bird,” and “Bitch,” and yet it never verges on artsy. For Barista, making blue-collar rock that stands within a classical-level realm of elegance was essential to telling the tale at hand in Justice Now, and when taking into account the meticulousness of the final product, I think this was the right move to make. Some prefer simplicity in this kind of music, but to me, there’s no competing with the symphonic intricacies found…
North Carolina native, Avery Roberson, realized his love of music and acquired his talent for entertainment from his father and grandfather. Music was all around Avery growing up, and Dad, Tony, played in a country music band called the Hutchins Brothers. They had a Top 100 hit in the late 80s. As a result, Avery picked up the guitar and started singing at an early age. It didn’t take long for him to fall in love with Country Music. Avery got his break when NBC’s The Voice cast him in their 20th Season. He finished in the top 28, and…
For as long as the genre has existed, the idea of blues musicians intermingling with the Devil and all His external influences has stayed tied to it. Metal came in and stole the genre’s thunder a little bit, sure, by making their entire image about Hell and Beelzebub, etc., but the blues did it first — if you don’t believe me, look into Robert Johnson. Case closed, moving on! The Rusty Wright Band is a blues group intent on keeping the devilish tradition alive and their new album Hangin’ At The DeVille Lounge, a loose concept album based around the…
Jett Jenkins is a Texas based indie pop artist who layers dreamy, colorful production behind heavy lyricism. With stylings residing somewhere between Billie Eilish and Blondie, this poignant singer-songwriter leaned into her passions after having an inspirational experience at a Clairo concert. Years of playing the guitar and performing in musical theater prepared this emerging artist to dive into her music career; her debut E.P. is described as relatable, emotional, and delivering “lyrics beyond her years.” Alongside her debut in music, Jenkins is preparing to make the transition into young adulthood as she anticipates the move from home to college.…
Alone but not quite removed from the audience he’s playing for, a stoic Andrew Z is ready to introduce us to a kaleidoscopic world of melodies in his new single “Growing Pains,” even if they are some of the more muted tones of vibrancy to debut in an indie track this season. Where a lot of his contemporaries have been embracing stylizations that have more in common with minimalism than they do surrealism lately, Andrew Z wants to experiment with the postmodern in “Growing Pains,” and to me, it results in some of the smartest content a singer/songwriter has produced…
The accolades that Elizabeth Sombart received for her new album Singing the Nocturnes were hard to ignore when the record first debuted, and with swelling Grammy buzz around the musician, it’s unsurprising that discussions around her talent have persisted for the better part of 2022. Sombart’s delicate approach to melodicism is perhaps the most intriguing and inspired element of her sound, but if you think this is the lone reason why people have been getting excited about her output, you haven’t given her content a chance to immerse you in its multilayered sensibilities. Try as they might, the competition can’t…
2022 has been a busy year so far for Alt.Pop artist Little Hurt (Colin Dieden, Ex-The Mowglis) with touring ramping up again. He continues to explore the edges of Alt. Pop & Alternative Rock with new single “Cooler If U Did”, due to be released on Friday, 9/16.The song features a tight groove and a soaring atmospheric chorus that is instantly memorable. Dieden says “Cooler If U Did’ was a song that was written after I went through a really difficult breakup. I got together with Jordan Witzigreuter from The Ready Set and my friend Ryan Baharloo and we rented a house in Venice Beach. It was a great,…
Crafting a classic pop song might seem like the easiest thing in the world but it’s maybe one of the most difficult tasks any musician could sign themselves up for. Crafting a hit is a science that has plagued the music industry for decades, with the usual formula not working anymore — there are rare instances of factory-manufactured boy bands (One Direction, BTS, etc.) coming together from record label-puppeteering to craft total pop domination, but then there are the more frequent instances of one-time pop stars falling from grace and losing their “spark.” In DICI’s case, he’s just getting started,…
Italian band, Red Roll, is making 2022 their best year yet. They just released their new song, Shrift, which will be followed by the release of their full length album later this month through Universal Music Italia. The album was recorded in Monza, Frequenze Studios, January 2022, and according to the band, creating this album was very therapeutic. Each song depicts a state of mind, a marginality, an extreme; a departure from what is socially acceptable in daily life. A departure from what we say out loud in everyday life. The band, Red Roll, was born in the summer of…
It’s a bit of confidence on display for Tia McGraff to begin her latest release With Love with its title song. It’s also an unabashed statement from the performer that says no matter how corny you think this is, how overly optimistic, this is who I am, and this is what I lead with -, my heart. A rational human being cannot help but honor such a noble soul. The EP’s release date September 3rd honors the recent passing of McGraff’s dog Jake and you hear that radiant and self-renewing love emanating from every song on the EP. The production, as…
Harmony Dreamers is a project conceived and guided by composer/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Byron Lee Scott and one of 2022’s most notable musical events so far. It would be interesting for me and I am sure others to delve into the thought process inspiring Scott to write these songs and adopt the conceptual framework that defines this release. It’s undoubtedly the work of a songwriter well aware of the countless challenges our world faces today and, seeing the need for us to find common ground to overcome any of these difficulties, Scott has dreamed up a project that embodies such principles far better…
OneGunn has been in the right place and time in his musical career. There’s no question of that. He’s had the good sense, as well, to put those opportunities to the best possible use in hopes of realizing his own musical ambitions and dreams. The Milwaukee born Marvin Gunn moved to Minneapolis in the early 1980’s and it couldn’t have come at a better time for a young man in love with music. His talent and hunger to learn found fertile ground in those years and Gunn blossomed accordingly. The next pivotal event bringing him to where he is today…