Birch Street Radio

Saturday, March 8, 2025

New music variety: Tune-Yards, Illuminati Hotties, Chris Church, I'm With Her, The Moons Of Jupiter

Tune-Yards: Limelight

The duo of Merill Garbus and Nate Brenner make music that doesn't neatly fit into any genre or category - maybe a bit like Rubblebucket in that way. Their last album was 2021's Sketchy, and now they've announced Better Dreaming is due in May. This bouncy first single was inspired by the couple's dancing with their 3-year-old to George Clinton music, and the toddler can be heard vocalizing on the track. "This one almost didn’t make it onto the album because it felt trite," says Garbus. "But it kept coming back as people kept responding positively to it, in particular our own kid."

Illuminati Hotties: 777

LA-based Sarah Tudzin "has pulled off a lot of different sounds under the banner of Illuminati Hotties, and her new single adds another one to the mix," writes Stereogum. "Heaping mounds of distorted guitar are pulled along by a relentless undertow, with Tudzin’s gleaming vocals and screaming/dreamy guitar melodies taking turns leading the charge." The single comes less that seven months after the most recent IH album, Power.

Chris Church: She Looks Good In Black

The word on this Lenoir, North Carolina, musician is that he has crisscrossed genres over a three-decade career - performing, writing and recording with power-pop, prog-rock and metal bands and releasing solo albums ranging from art pop to hard rock. Church describes this track as "suggesting country-rock." Its sound and lyrics also put us in mind of Marshall Crenshaw (think "Cynical Girl").

I'm With Her: Ancient Light

It's been seven years since modern folkies Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara Watkins released their first album as a trio, See You Around, and now they've announced their second, Wild And Clear And Blue, is on the way. The group says this first single "sets the tone for the entire album, communing with our past and future selves."

The Moons Of Jupiter: Dancing With Destiny

The English duo of multi-instrumentalist Nicky Rowe and vocalist James Harris just released their self-titled debut album, which expands on their 2023 EP Ghosts. They cite classic eletro-pop bands like Depeche Mode, The Human League and Tears for Fears as influences, and add a modern darkwave overlay.

Saturday, March 1, 2025

New music by Deep Sea Diver, Keeton Coffman, Gigi Perez, The Head & The Heart, Sleep Theory

Deep Sea Diver: What Do I Know

Vocalist Jessica Dobson, drummer Peter Mansen and their band just released their first album since 2020, Billboard Heart. We featured the title track when it came out as a single a few months ago. We'll be playing lots more from the LP, starting with this track, which Clash Music says is "full of punchy energy. Each member is given an opportunity to shine with swirling guitars in the middle section and synths also present. There is a lot going on but it never drowns in its ambition, finding the right level of chaos."

Keeton Coffman: I Think About It

We've had this Houston-based indie artist in our mix for a half-dozen years, and picked up his singles "Violet" and "Kathryn" last year. His new album, Coefficient of Fiction, marks a move from his earlier, guitar-based Americana style to what he calls "cinematic pop," with drum machines and synths in this mix - as on this slinky track.

Gigi Perez: Chemistry

This singer-songwriter's "Sailor Song" broke out in a big way last year, probably due mostly to its sexy lyrics. Its bedroom-demo sound didn't make it to our playlist, but we're giving this new single a shot - in its slightly edited but still suggestive form ("I'll never tell a soul about our secret life.")

The Head & The Heart: After The Setting Sun

This single comes with word that the Seattle group's sixth album, Aperture, is on its way. Consequence of Sound reports it's "the band’s first entirely self-produced album, and their first with a brand new songwriting style. Each band member brought something different to the process, trying out new roles and centering Aperture as the work of a band, not just a songwriter and his instrumentalists." It says this track kicks off the album with "harmony-laden majesty and homespun folk."

Sleep Theory: Stuck In My Head

This quartet from Memphis, Tenn., will release its debut LP this spring. Lead singer Cullen Moore says this preview single "is about someone you just can’t shake, no matter what you do. While the feeling can be more annoying than fun, we wanted to make the song both relatable and energetic."

Saturday, February 22, 2025

Sam Fender, Lucy Dacus, Lily Monaghan, Since11, Adult Leisure added to our New Music bin

Sam Fender: Arm's Length

The title track of his new LP, People Watching, has been getting airplay for the past few months, and now the full album is out. We're choosing this song for the New Music bin - one that's less depressive than most of the tracks and features backing vocals by Brooke Bentham. The lyric suggests two people getting closer - "Arm's length, small talk, and then some company" - while being wary about opening up: "Do you have to know me inside out / To have a good time?"

Lucy Dacus: Best Guess

Here's the latest single from the upcoming album Forever Is A Feeling by the Virginia-born singer-songwriter who is also part of Boygenius. Northern Transmissions calls this track "Dacus’ take on a love song, an anthem of queer tenderness that captures that mix of excitement and uncertainty as two people take a romantic chance with one another."

Lily Monaghan: Willing To Wait

From Edmonton, Alberta, comes this singer-songwriter who cites Brandi Carlile and Hozier among her inspirations. We previously featured "On Hold" from her debut EP, and this track will be on her sophomore effort. "This song is a love letter to friends," she says. "I’m a firm believer that platonic relationships can be as fulfilling and nourishing as romantic relationships, and I am aware that I’m lucky enough to have a massive abundance in these types of relationships."

Since11: Magic Moments For Rent

OK this is different - Two guys from the Swiss Alps making music that, as they put it, "sounds like a cocktail on a Hawaiian beach." The lyrics of this new single evoke casual flirtation by the sea: "This game of glances, fun in the sun / Both playing it cool, not fooling anyone / Just in that moment, a beachside scene / Nothing serious, living the dream."

Adult Leisure: Dancing Don't Feel Right

The latest single from this Bristol, UK, band is billed as "a refreshing dose of escapism." The band says the song is "about the urge to let loose, to break out of the mould and do the bad thing."

Sunday, February 16, 2025

New music from Soda Blonde, Horsegirl, The War and Treaty, Lilly Hiatt, Krooked Tongue

Soda Blonde: People Pleaser

The Dublin quartet that released its sophomore album Dream Big in 2023 has popped out a couple of singles since, and just dropped this one with the promise of more to come this year. Vocalist and songwriter Faye O'Rourke says the song is "an anthem for people who love too easily, lose themselves too often, and mistake validation for love."

Horsegirl: Well I Know You're Shy

Three years after their debut album, Versions of Modern Performance, and following a move from Chicago to New York, this group is out with its second LP, Phonetics On and On. AllMusic writes that they've moved away from noise-rock, opted for "crisp, clean production helmed by Cate Le Bon." brought the vocals to the front of the mix and slowed their pace on many of the songs. Our pick for the New Music Bin is one of the peppier tracks on the album.

The War & Treaty: Love Like Whiskey

The duo's new album, Plus One, opens with this "strutting, horns-punctuated country-soul" number (as AllMusic calls it), cowritten by Miranda Lambert. The lyric describe a couple in a break-up-make-up cycle - or would that be a cycle of war-and-treaty?

Lilly Hiatt: Ghost Ship

From the new album Forever comes this track that Americana Highways calls "a mesmerizing, hypnotic, cigarette-dangling, fast-car-driving, blurry-warm-summer-night, convertible anthem." The album as a whole combines personal, self-reflective lyrics with a rough-edged alt-rock sound (including distorted vocals that get to be too much on some of its other tracks).

Krooked Tongue: Let 'Em Loose

We picked up this Bristol, UK, trio's "Ember Mile" single a couple of months ago, and this latest track comes with word of a "longer body of material" (album? EP?) in the works. Vocalist/lyricist Oli Rainsford says the song is about "the technological age we found ourselves in today" and our addiction to screen time. (If you say so; frankly we can't make much sense of the lyrics.)

Saturday, February 8, 2025

New from Sharon Van Etten, The Black Keys, Inhaler, Momma and (psst) Modest Mouse

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory: Idiot Box

After issuing a half-dozen records as a solo artist, the singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist presents her latest album as a creative collaboration with her band. Pitchfork reports: "During rehearsals for her 2022 tour, Van Etten grew tired of her own voice and impulsively asked her band to 'just jam.' The experiment yielded two songs ... and left the singer 'feeling very inspired.' ... On Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, the frontwoman surrenders to the rhythm on a stormy, unsettled album centered on groove and mood." This track bemoans the modern impulse to replace personal interaction with electronic devices: "All these things we think we lack / All this time we can't get back."

The Black Keys: The Night Before

The 13th album from Dan Auerbach's project with Patrick Carney, No Rain, No Flowers, is on its way this year. This first single comes just 10 months after the duo's Ohio Players LP. It also follows a dispute with their former management company that resulted in the cancelation of their 2024 tour. Carney says: "We were already on a creative streak, and the best thing we could do, rather than sit at home, was just go back in the studio."

Inhaler: All I Got Is You

We previously featured a couple of the singles from Open Wide, and now with the release of the full LP, we're picking this track for the New Music Bin. Reviewers have noted more variety of styles and influences here than on the band's previous albums, with Glide Magazine hearing "touches of The Smiths and The Cure" on this number.

Momma: I Want You (Fever)

Ahead of the Brooklyn indie-rock quartet's next album, Welcome To My Blue Sky, comes this song of jealous love. The group says it's "about wanting to be with someone who has a girlfriend, or someone who isn’t over their ex. It’s pining after someone, but there’s also some confidence knowing that that person wants to be with you." There's not much subtlety in the lyrics: "Pick up and leave her / I want you, fever."

Modest Mouse: Kingdom of Could'a

Talk about a limited release: Good Music to Lift Los Angeles, an extraordinary collection of 90 tracks by as many artists, put together as a fund-raiser for California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Recovery Fund and the LA Regional Food Bank, was available for just one day (Feb. 7) via Bandcamp. The website also donated all its fees that day to MusiCares. Luckily we got the word in time to snag the bundle of originals and covers, demos, alternate takes and live recordings - including this song that we understand has popped up in Modest Mouse live sets but never had a studio release.