Birch Street Radio

Saturday, December 21, 2024

Lucius, George Marinelli, Michael Kiwanuka, Movieland, Lauren Mayberry bring the news

Lucius: Old Tape (feat. Adam Granduciel)

Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig are joined by the guitarist/vocalist from The War On Drugs on this new single from an album expected in the new year. "We wrote 'Old Tape' while working on new music at [bandmate Danny Molad’s] studio in LA," the two say. "We were discussing the loops we get stuck in, the rabbit holes our minds go down." For the sound of the track, they "wanted to make something that was both driving and uplifting," so they called Adam - for whom they had provided guest vocals on TWOD's “I Don’t Live Here Anymore.”

George Marinelli: Except Always

This is the title track from a new album by a founding member of Bruce Hornsby & the Range and more recently Bonnie Raitt’s lead guitarist. It's quite literally a solo LP: he plays every instrument, recorded the songs himself, found time to mix and master them and created all the artwork for the album.

Michael Kiwanuka: Rebel Soul

The new album Small Changes, says Kiwanuka, was inspired by the birth of his two children and moving out of his hometown London. He was motivated by the desire to transcend what’s deemed “cool”, adding: "We were trying to shoot for something that might have made it onto a Bill Withers album or a Sade album" - a good description of this track. (Photo by Marco Grey)

Movieland: I Relate

Here's a "new" track recorded in the 1990s by this Vancouver shoegaze group. Released only on a cassette back then, it's been remastered and included on a new collection of the band's work, Then & Now. The LP is part of a new archival series from 604 Records, paying tribute to Vancouver’s overlooked artists from decades past. Singer-guitarist Alan D. Boyd says this song is "about being in a flux state after meeting somebody."

Lauren Mayberry: Crocodile Tears

The Chvrches lead vocalist explores a range of different pop sounds on her new solo album, Vicious Creature. The Guardian says the album "shapeshifts frequently, often into realms that feel wilfully unbothered about current notions of 'cool.' 'Crocodile Tears' is so 1980s it should come with an obligatory tight perm." Mayberry says she wrote the song when feeling "trapped in an unhealthy, negative feedback loop with someone." She adds that she "consciously put in a lot of animal imagery (crocodile, rabbits, wolves) because I wanted it to feel escapist."

NOTE: This will be our last New Music update for 2024. Onward to 2025!

Saturday, December 14, 2024

New sounds: Inhaler, Beach Riot, Krooked Tongue, KC Armstrong, The Sea The Sea

Inhaler: Open Wide

Here's the title track from the Irish band's next LP, scheduled for February release. An earlier single, "Our House," had the indie-rock sound we've come to expect from the band, but this track uses a wider palette, "featuring a rolling bass line, expansive guitar lines and Balearic-style percussion," as NME puts it. Photo by Lewis Evans.

Beach Riot: Meltdown

The new single from this Brighton, UK, "fuzz pop band" is its first release since a pair of songs early last year. "We’re sorry we’ve been quiet for a while, but hey…life gets in the way sometimes. ... Thank you so much to everyone who still listens and turns us up loud," the band said in a post that suggested they're having "just a little pause." Hopefully there's more to come.

Krooked Tongue: Ember Mile

Jumping a couple hundred klicks from Brighton to Bristol, we catch up with the latest single from this rock trio. Vocalist Oli Rainsford describes the song as a “kick up the arse” for anyone who talks about their dreams but never quite follows through. The title "refers to a proverbial golden, fiery strip of road where the final idea awaits on the horizon."

KC Armstrong: Waiting For The Rain (To Fall)

This singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Brantford, Ontario, has spent years playing festivals and bars across Canada, including a stint as one of Ronnie Hawkins' Hawks. In recent years he honed his producing skills, then built a recording studio in his basement (and we do mean built - framing, putting up drywall, insulating, etc.). The result was his LP Finally Crafted, released a few months back. We're catching up with this "swamp-rock/southern rock song" that concludes the album.

The Sea The Sea: All Along

We're happy to catch this new single from a duo we've featured before, Mira and Chuck E. Costa, now based in Nashville after years in New York's Hudson Valley. The lyric suggests finding what you're meant to find (love? destiny?) when you're not looking for it. "What are we waiting for / It was right here all along."

Saturday, December 7, 2024

Our latest picks: Larkin Poe, Warren Haynes, Vanishing Shores, The Accidentals, U2

Larkin Poe: Mockingbird

This news snuck up on us: The Nashville roots duo of Rebecca and Megan Lovell have a new album, Bloom, coming in January - and they've already released four singles, each of them excellent. The album theme, says Megan, is "finding yourself, knowing yourself, and separating the truth of who you are from societal expectations." Rebecca says it embraces "the flaws and idiosyncrasies that make us real." The theme comes through in this song's lyric: "I'm a mockingbird / Singing a thousand songs / That don't belong to me ... But if you listen closely ... you just might hear ... my secret melody."

Warren Haynes: This Life As We Know It

Continuing in the rootsy-bluesy-rock vein, we have this track from Million Voices Whisper, the latest solo album from the Grammy-winning guitarist best known for his work with Gov't Mule and the Allman Brothers Band. We'll be adding several tracks to our Marvelous Mix, but our pick for the New Music Bin is this optimistic number. "I was in Montauk on vacation with my family over the 4th of July, and there was a full moon and fireworks. We were looking out over the ocean, and it was just this spectacle, this beautiful thing," Haynes told Relix. "The next thing you know, I had this lyric that was all about moving forward and looking at life through a more positive lens, which is not a very typical lyrical approach for me."

Vanishing Shores: Coast Road

Here's one of the many indie artists we keep following, featuring on our stream, and wondering why they aren't better known. This latest single is a new version of a song that frontman Kevin Bianchi originally recorded with his former band, The Chestertons, in 2017. "The new version is energized and full of vivid color and passion," Bianchi says. It features his brother Brian, who was also in The Chestertons, and vocal harmonies by Kelley Elle.

The Accidentals: What A Waste

Another fine indie band, but new to our ears and playlist, is this trio from Traverse City, Michigan. Founded by high school classmates Savannah Buist and Katie Larson in the early 2010s, the band now includes drummer Katelynn Corll. This song is a co-write with Nashville singer-songwriter Mary Bragg.

U2: Evidence Of Life

We round out this week's New Music picks with another of the new/old tracks on How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb, the "shadow album" of unreleased songs from the two-decades-old recording sessions for How to Dismantle... Yep, it sure sounds like classic U2!

Saturday, November 23, 2024

Kim Deal, The Weather Station, 21 Dark Years, Dangermuffin, Colin James in the New Music Bin

Kim Deal: Crystal Breath

The veteran of the Breeders, Pixies and Amps just released her first solo album, Nobody Loves You More. AllMusic notes the "outsized influence she's had on indie and pop music since the late '80s," adding that the new LP "reveals she can still surprise ... getting more overtly personal than ever before." The site says this track fuses "crunchy beats, a harmonica breakdown, and wagging guitar hook into 'Cannonball' levels of catchiness.

The Weather Station: Window

The musical project of Toronto's Tamara Lindeman will release its seventh album in January. Lindeman says its title Humanhood, "is a word that opens up so many thoughts for me in this time when the very state of being human feels so shifted, so uncertain, amid the attempt to invent AI, amid climate collapse. Amid my own personal journey that led to this record ... a journey from dissociation back out to connection." On this track she sings: "My heart is racing as a window opens somewhere to let me out - to let me in."

21 Dark Years: We Drift Through Time

New music from a new band: This "indie rock/alternative rock/pop rock" group was formed in Chicago just this year. So far they haven't revealed much about themselves, saying they believe "it's all about the music, not who they are." They have released two EPs in recent months; this track is on Stand Tall, which came out in July.

Dangermuffin: We Push Mountains

We dip again into this South Carolina-based jam band's self-titled album, released a few months back. It marked a return from a hiatus the quartet took after their 2017 release, Heritage. Hometown publication Charleston Magazine says this track, the new LP's opener, "is classic Dangermuffin, with punchy, orchestrated stops complementing the feel-good shuffle."

Colin James: Protection (feat. Lucinda Williams)

The Vancouver-based blues-rock guitarist opens his 21st album, Chasing the Sun, with a track that is both a cover of a Lucinda Williams song and a duet with the singer-songwriter. “Lucinda is such a revered songwriter, such a legend,” James says. “But she’s so nice. And hearing our voices together on tape was such a pleasure.” Gospel singers Ann and Regina McCrary chime in as well. Photo by James O'Mara

Saturday, November 16, 2024

More new music variety: EWAH, Brett Dennen, Amy Helm, Sadie Campbell, The Harbours

EWAH: Touch The Light

We reach all the way around the globe from the Birch Street Studios to pick up music by this artist based in Tasmania. The frontperson of EWAH & The Vision of Paradise will release her first solo album in 14 years, Souvenir, next month, and we're pleased to have early access to this single. The LP is billed as being "full of cautionary tales, struggle and self-discovery." This song advises: "Keep the people close who don’t bring you down / Hold onto the ones who pull you up." Photo by Bree Sanders

Brett Dennen: Careful What You Wish For

The California singer-songwriter just issued his eighth LP, If It Takes Forever. This track has a slinky, Tom Petty-ish sound as Dennan cautions, "I may be your guardian angel / I may be the devil too." The album is dedicated to and inspired by Dennan's father, who passed last year. "This album is about life and how I look at it now. ... Ultimately it's about love. It's meant to be a celebration."

Amy Helm: Money On 7

We previously featured "Baby Come Back" from the new album, Silver City, and now we dip back in to feature another selection. Americana Highways calls this song "Helm’s ode to shunting away the fears of the night with each sunrise," adding: "the harmonies bring an almost gospel feel to the song." We'll add that the woodwinds and horns bring great depth to the track.

Sadie Campbell: Metamorphosis

This is the title track from the first full-length album by a Canadian-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter. Campbell mixes strands of country, rock, and soul in her songs about sadness, discovery and joy. “I wanted this record to have songs about these totally polar opposite topics, because that’s life,” says Campbell. “Songs about anxiety and hopelessness can live on the same record as love songs and hopeful songs.”

The Harbours: Live It Up

Although this band was formed just this year, the outfit from Leicestershire, UK, has already released six singles. We previously featured "So Sweet," and now liven up our New Music bin with this new party-time track. We're in good company - it was a recent song-of-the-week on BBC Introducing.