SIMON P MOORE, SIMON P MORE HAS DONE AND GONE DONE THE GONEST THING

Blaring horns! Lush strings! Songs about the annoying neighborhood chihuahuah caught up in a pit bull’s jaws! Simon P Moore’s latest album, Simon P Moore Has Done and Gone Done the Gonest Thing, ha…

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KATE DAVIS, THEN WE COULD BE TOGETHER AS A FAMILY

“I am not me, just a meat suit with preference for reality frequency,” Kate Davis sings on her latest offering, a three song EP called Then We Could Be Together As A Family. It recalls the moving s…

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ERICK NEWBILL, I JUST FORGOT MY LINES

“And in this hollow I know we could be given a try / but it’s the same old joke and the same old script I write,” Seattle’s Erick Newbill who is known for his work with Subways on the Sun sings on …

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SWELL SEASON, FORWARD

“Just a hundred words that I have for you / the same hundred words that I want from you,” Marketa Irglova sings to end the recent reunion release of Swell Season with old partner, Glen Hansard in 2…

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MICHIGANDER, OVER BEFORE YOU KNOW IT

“Some days I might not feel like living / But something in us never dies.” With influences from Oasis to LCD Sound System to, dare I say, Youth Lagoon, Michigander’s Jason Singer manages to carve o…

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HAYLEY WILLIAMS, EGO DEATH AT THE BACHLORETTE PARTY

“The pleasure and agony’s all mine,” Hayley Williams sings on her new hit solo album Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. There’s hints of her band Paramore, and many of the songs, if they lose their…

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BILL HOMANS & THE RIGHTEOUS RAMBLERS, GOT A BAD HABIT

“If your plans fall through, as they sometimes do, I think you oughta come see me.” Baltimore’s Bill Homans sings songs about the tenderness and tenuousness of love, with his band The Righteous Ram…

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ICARUS PHOENIX, GALLOP

“Self awareness turns me on / accountability is sexy,” Baltimore’s Drew Danburry of the proto-pop indie band Icarus Phoenix sings of his latest EP, Gallop. It has in its DNA bands like Moldy …

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MICHAEL CLOUD DUGUAY, KINGDOM COME, KINGDOM GO

“The spirit hovered over the waters.” That is a scripture that came to mind as I was listening to the recorded wind in the song “Tilting” off of Michael Cloud Duguay’s latest album, Kingdom C…

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MEWITHOUTYOU, BROTHER, SISTER 20TH ANNIVERSARY

“Oh what am I to think what the writing of a thousand lifetimes could not explain, if all the forest trees were pens and all the oceans—ink?” mewithoutYou’s Aaron Weiss sings on their 2006 album, B…

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HEGIRA, CROSSING A RIVER

Vancouver artist Jordan Klassen has teamed up with pianist Alstad to form the group, Hegira, a magnification of each artist’s beautiful moodiness in an EP called Crossing A River. “Cause I won’t de…

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ERIN LUNSFORD, RHINESTONES

Country and country-adjacent music, like Erin Lunsford’s, an award-winning artist out of Virginia—when it’s done well—seems to be just an extension of the land, an overflow of meaningful relationsh…

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KISHI BASHI, TALL TALL TREES, & THE SOUND SANCTUARY

As a direct response to AI companies trying to profit off of musicians’ creations in something of a violation of creators and the creative process and even the natural world, Joyful Noise has decid…

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SANSYOU, EVERY LIVING THING

You’ve heard the phrase, “Touch grass,” before. It’s an admonition to get off your computer, unplug, and experience a bit of the outside world. Well David Nicholas of the band, Sansyou, has offered…

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WE’RE NOT A CULT, WE’RE NOT A CULT, THE GOVERNMENT IS

“We’re not a cult / So please calm down / We’re only here / To rock your town.” In the spirit of Elephant Six community rock (with trumpets and gang vocals and freak folk guitars galore), Pennsylva…

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KEYTH JONES, LOVE YOURSELF

When an artist in a band does solo stuff, it tends to be a bit of a departure, oftentimes a downgrade, from the regular band stuff. Maybe songs that didn’t make the cutting room floor for the band’…

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VEST WITH HOOD, COLLECTED EP

“You fell asleep in your easy chair,” Brandon Buckner of indie apartment rock outfit, Vest With Hood, sings on the song “Recumbent” to open his seven track album, Collected EP, which came out this …

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DUSTY HOUSECAT, LOSS

“The weight is replaced with lightest embrace, the tightrope artist coming face-to-face / with how truly paper-thin the wire is.” Dusty Housecat, otherwise known as Jason Reed, tackles grief …

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GIA MARGARET, SINGING

Gia Margaret starts her latest album, Singing, a supremely danceable album, about how there was “Everyone Around Me Dancing,” but she was “static” and immobile. That sort of paradox rules the album…

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AUDIBLE VOID, WAKE ME WHEN I’M DEAD

Luther Burke, otherwise known as Maryland’s ambient composer Audible Void, has been having trouble sleeping lately, but when he sleeps he’s been having crazy dreams. Have you heard of Mallworld? Ap…

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FRIENDSHIP, CAVEMAN WAKES UP

“Oh would you help me out? / With some papers for the DMV?” Philadelphia’s Dan Wriggins from the indie country band Friendship starts his latest album, Caveman Wakes Up. Like the title of the album…

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7-11 JESUS, WHITE NOISE

“To be sincere, you’re idle by fear.” If Hum met Pile met Modest Mouse met the Deftones, it would sound something like Boston’s 7-11 Jesus, back with their first album in five years. They sing on t…

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ELLA HUNT, BLINDSPOT

“White knuckles on the wheel at ten and two / if you still want it then tell me you do,” Ella Hunt from London and New York sings on her debut album, Blindspot. She sounds like a stripped down Regi…

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DOTOM, CAPTURE

“The portrait of a wistful romantic” is how Brooklyn, New York’s Dotom describes himself and his music. It is something that recalls Owl City’s sugary sweet electronic pop, and perhaps even Justin …

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SWITCHFOOT, FOREVER NOW

“Rise and shine / the morning sun like a warning sign,” Switchfoot start their latest album, Forever Now, with the song, “Wake Up, Mr. Crow.” The whole album deals with the darkness intrinsic in li…

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MATT PLESS, WATER SIGN LANGUAGE

“If artists borrow and genius steals / I’m a criminal on the run,” Baltimore’s folk punk aficionado Matt Pless starts his latest album of songs called Water Sign Language. It is ten songs, with jus…

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HALF-HANDED CLOUD, TOOTHPASTE HORSE/I DON’T HAVE A BIB

What does a kinda famous melody maker who’s a dad do to corral the kids to get out the door or brush their teeth or clean up their toys? Put it in a song, of course! John Ringhofer of Half-Handed C…

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KAREEM RAHMA & TINY GUN, PLEASE RESPOND

“Where’s the punchline? / There’s no such thing / As an ordinary life,” Kareem Rahma and his band Tiny Gun sing on their latest EP, called Please Respond. Kareem is the ubiquitous face behind the i…

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KEENAN O’MEARA, BATHE IN THE EVERLASTING LIGHT

“Heaven is here again / It’s back on my mind / All is submerged again / The cruel kill the kind,” Keenan O’Meara sings on his latest album of mercy-dripping country-influenced alternative folk tune…

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