Caroline Rose announces 2024 North American tour dates.

Photo Credit: CJ Harvey

Caroline Rose’s live show “explodes in color. Angry reds, deep blues, vibrant yellows, and every shade in-between flex and melt onstage in a dazzling light show dance that only grows in intensity as the set goes on” (NYLON). Today, Rose announces a 2024 North American tour in support of “their strongest and most resonant record yet” (Under The Radar), The Art of Forgetting, out now on New West Records. The Art of Forgetting was released earlier this year to a wealth of praise from the likes of The New York TimesNPR, and Document Journal, who hailed it as “a confessional, layered with personal anecdotes, Southern storytelling sensibilities, and unreserved exploration of the ever-evolving self.”

Rose’s 2024 tour includes stops in ChicagoWashington, DC, and Boulder, plus two-night stints in Los AngelesPortlandSeattle, and San FranciscoMetropolis Ensemble, founded by Grammy award nominated conductor Andrew Cyr, will join Rose in Brooklyn and Northampton for a special set-up featuring eight auxiliary players. Fans will also have the opportunity to attend VIP screenings of Rose’s The Art of Forgetting short film, taking place in many of the venues following soundcheck. The film has earned many accolades, including the title of Best Music Video at Hollywood Shorts Fest, New York Indie Shorts Awards, and ARFF Amsterdam, in addition to being a semifinalist at Indie Shorts Awards Cannes and an official selection at Hollyshorts Film Festival. A full list of tour dates are below, and tickets are on sale to the general public now.

Stream/Purchase The Art of Forgetting
Watch the “Miami” Video
Watch “Tell Me What You Want” Video
Watch the “The Doldrums” Visualizer

Caroline Rose 2024 Tour Dates
Sun. March 31 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre
Tue. April 2 – Northampton, MA@ Bombyx
Wed. April 3 – Northampton, MA @ Bombyx
Fri. April 5 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
Sat. April 6 – Fairfield, CT @ The Warehouse
Sun. April 7 – Boston, MA @ Royale
Tue. April 9 – Montreal, QC @ Studio TD
Wed. April 10 – Toronto, ON @ Concert Hall
Fri. April 12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Sat. April 13 – Washington, DC @ 930 Club
Sun. April 14 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
Tue. April 16 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Fri. April 19 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
Sat. April 20 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave
Tue. April 23 – Iowa City, IA @ Englert Theatre
Wed. April 24 – Kansas City, MO @ RecordBar
Fri. April 26 – Fort Collins, CO @  Aggie Theatre
Sat. April 27 – Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre
Sun. April 28 – Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf
Fri. May 3 – Tucson, AZ @ Congress Plaza
Sat. May 4 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up
Mon. May 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
Tue. May 7 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
Fri. May 10 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Rio Theatre
Sat. May 11 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Sun. May 12 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Tue. May 14 – Sonoma, CA @ Gundlach Bundschu Barn
Thu. May 16 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Fri. May 17 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Sat. May 18 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
Sun. May 19 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox

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[Thanks to Ben at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Austin Psych Fest announces first wave of 2024 lineup.

The first lineup announcement for the 2024 Austin Psych Fest is here, and it’s already impressive. The Saturday lineup alone is worth the price of admission.

Friday’s top three, Courtney Barnett, Chicano Batman, and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets are top draws at festivals around the country. The Black Angels are must-see whenever they play, and All Them Witches are finally playing a Levitation festival!

Saturday is a “witchy” day all-around with not only All Them Witches, but also WITCH, Frankie and The Witch Fingers, and L.A. Witch all playing that day, and don’t miss Earthless or Minami Deutsch that day.

Alvvays and Kurt Vile and The Violators closing out Sunday is a big score, not to mention indie-rock stars Dehd.

More bands will be announced in the coming months, and tickets are on sale now. See you there?

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Slowdive announces 2024 North American tour.

Photo Credit: Ingrid Pop

Earlier this year, Slowdive released everything is alivetheir first record since 2017’s self-titled album and first record with Dead Oceans. The record was met with critical and commercial acclaim, garnering praise from the likes of Vulture (“hypnotically gorgeous”), Billboard (“a dreamy yet taut melding of their strengths”), Brooklyn Vegan (“perhaps the best record of their career”), and more. On the heels of their sold-out fall U.S. tour, Slowdive have announced they’ll be returning to the US for a spring North American tour next year. Including the already sold out Sick New World festival in Las Vegas, they’ll play many cities not yet played in support of everything is aliveAtlanta, Dallas, Denver, New Orleans, and more.
 
As the Chicago Tribune commented, “Experimental and shimmery, [everything is alive] packs a lush and enigmatic punch. Don’t take their latest releases and live shows for granted. Who knows when this influential band will be back in town?” Tickets for all shows will be on sale Friday, December 8th at 10AM local time and more information can be found here.

 
Slowdive Tour Dates
(new dates in bold)

Tue. Jan. 16 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Wed. Jan. 17 – Paris, FR @ La Cigale
Thu. Jan. 18 – Cologne, DE @ Live Music Hall
Sat. Jan. 20 – Hamburg, DE @ Grosse Freiheit 36
Sun. Jan. 21 – Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA
Mon. Jan. 22 – Oslo, NO @ Sentrum Scene
Tue. Jan. 23 – Stockholm, SE @ Munchenbryggeriet
Wed. Jan. 24 – Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA
Thu. Jan. 25 – Berlin, DE @ Columbiahalle
Sat. Jan. 27 – Warsaw, PL @ Progresja
Sun. Jan. 28 – Prague, CZ @ Divaldo Archa
Mon. Jan. 29 – Munich, DE @ Muffathalle
Tue. Jan. 30 – Zurich, CH @ Volkshaus
Wed. Jan. 31 – Milan, IT @ Alcatraz Club
Fri. Feb. 2 – Bologna, IT @ Estragon Club
Sun. Feb. 4 – Lyon, FR @ La Transbordeur
Mon. Feb. 5 – Barcelona, ES @ Razzmatazz
Tue. Feb. 6 – Madrid, ES @ La Riviera
Thu. Feb. 8 – Brussels, BE @ Cirque Royale
Fri. Feb. 16 – Brighton, UK @ Brighton Dome
Sat. Feb. 17 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
Sun. Feb. 18 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute Birmingham
Mon. Feb. 19  – Norwich, UK @ LCR UEA
Wed. Feb. 21 – Liverpool, UK @ O2 Academy Liverpool
Thu. Feb. 22 – Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK @ NX
Fri. Feb. 23 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom
Sat. Feb. 24 – Edinburgh, UK @ Liquid Room
Mon. Feb. 26 – Cardiff, UK @ Cardiff University Great Hall
Tue. Feb. 27 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Academy
Mon. Mar. 11 – Tokyo, JP @ Toyosu Pit
Wed. Mar. 13 – Osaka, JP @ Namba Hatch
Thu. Apr. 25 – Ventura, CA @ The Majestic Ventura Theater
Fri. Apr. 26 – Pomona,CA @ The Fox Theater Pomona
Sat. Apr. 27 – Las Vegas, NV @ Sick New World Festival
Sun. Apr. 28 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
Tue. Apr. 30 – Albuquerque, NM @ The Historic El Rey Theater
Wed. May 1 – Denver, CO @ Levitt Pavilion Denver
Fri. May 3 – Kansas City, MO @ The Truman
Sat. May 4 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
Sun. May 5 – Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
Tue. May 7 – Louisville, KY @ Old Forester’s Paristown Hall
Wed. May 8 – Pelham, TN @ The Caverns
Fri. May 10 – Dallas, TX @ Longhorn Ballroom
Sat. May 11 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
Sun. May 12 – Austin, TX @ ACL Live at The Moody Theater
Tue. May 14 – New Orleans, LA @ The Civic Theatre
Thu. May 16 – Birmingham, AL @ Avondale Brewing Company
Fri. May 17  – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
Sun. May 18 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit
 
Purchase everything is alive
Watch “alife” Video
Watch “kisses” Video
Watch “skin in the game” Visualizer
Watch “the slab” Video

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

A Place to Bury Strangers announces European tour dates.

A Place to Bury Strangers are gearing up to crush Europe in April 2024 with shows ranging from the Netherlands to France. Don’t miss them if you’re in any of these cities. Heck, make a trip to see them while you’re are it. You won’t regret it.

They’re also doing a New Year’s Eve DJ set in Brooklyn!

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[Thanks to Steven Matrick.]

Olivia Belli shares a beautiful single, “Anima I,” from her album due this spring.

Credit: Dovile Sermokas

Italian pianist and composer, Olivia Belli is known internationally for her delicate, melodic compositions that draw inspiration from the natural world.  Whether reflecting on the sun or the night sky or on her beloved local Italian landscape, this sensitive artist draws her creative impulses from nature which she shares with her audiences through her captivating, filigree-like compositions.

This first single from the Spring 2024 album already gives listeners a hint that Belli is taking things one step further here, representing in music not only the natural world around her but also the deep and meaningful spiritual world within.  The word anima refers to an original animating principle or essence, translated from the Greek ‘psyche’.  For Belli, ‘Anima I’ (pronounced “Anima Uno”) represents that auspicious moment just before a journey of transformation begins.

Says Belli of this first taster from the new album: “’Anima I’ has a calm, elegiac quality.  I composed it during a deeply meditative moment, where I was contemplating deeper meanings in life than superficial material gains and was searching for a way to share a more profound and spiritual connection with listeners.”

The result is a restorative, intimate and tranquil track that offers respite from turmoil and stress and welcome balm for the soul.

Born in Mantova and raised in Trieste, Belli studied piano and soon developed an affinity for composers of the 20th and 21st century, such as Glass, Ligeti, Reich and Stockhausen. Always surrounded by art and music, she founded her own arts festival and worked collaboratively across a range of genres with other artists including dancers, actors, photographers, writers and painters. Despite having always performed and composed, Belli had never thought to put her own compositional work into the public arena, having always kept it private. Once she did start sharing her own music on social media and streaming sites, however, she was hugely encouraged to continue by the overwhelmingly positive responses that she received, as ever more listeners connected to her deeply personal musical messages. This process lead to her signing with XXIM Records and an outpouring of her intricate and beguiling music.

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Mandy, Indiana release new remix and tour dates for this winter.

Photo Credit: Harry Steel

Today, i’ve seen a way — the acclaimed debut from Manchester quartet Mandy, Indiana released via Fire Talk Records — was named one of Rough Trade’s Best Albums of 2023. In conjunction with today’s announcement, Mandy, Indiana present “Sheared (Pinking Shears Rework),” clipping. remix of album standout “Pinking Shears.”
 
clipping.’s rework of “Pinking Shears” filters the politically charged track through a US lens. “The dream is all crooked cops, retail mark-up on basic goods, an ex-president getting away with treason,” raps Tony and GRAMMY Award winner Daveed Diggs. Rough Trade’s exclusive 12”features the clipping. remix alongside the original “Pinking Shears” and an instrumental version of the track.
 
Next month, Mandy, Indiana will bring their ”physically — yet brilliantly — overwhelming” (NME) live show to the US for their debut tour, featuring stops in New YorkLos AngelesSan Francisco, and a newly announced date in Chicago. Mandy, Indiana thrive in the unexpected, and their performances  have become a vehicle to explore the boundaries of tension and release. A full list of dates are below and tickets are on sale now.

Listen to “Sheared (Pinking Shears Rework)”

Mandy, Indiana Tour Dates [New Date in Bold]:
Sat. Dec. 2 – New York, NY @ Baby’s All Right [SOLD OUT]
Tue. Dec. 5 – Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle
Thu. Dec. 7 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
Fri. Dec. 8 – San Francisco, CA @ Popscene – Brick & Mortar
Fri. Feb. 9 – Dublin, IE @ The Workman’s Cellar
Sat. Feb. 10 – London, UK @ Village Underground
Thu. Feb. 22 – Nijmegen, NL @ Merleyn
Fri. Feb. 23 – Utrecht, NL @ EKKO
Sat. Feb. 24 – Groningen, NL @ Hybrid Festival
Wed. Feb. 28 – Berlin, DE @ Kantine Am Berghain
Sat. July 6 – Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival

Stream/Purchase i’ve seen a way
Watch “Pinking Shears” Video
Watch “Drag [Crashed]” Video
Watch “Injury Detail” Video 

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[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]

You might “Never Get Enough” of Busty & The Bass’ new single.

Next month, Busty and the Bass will release their newly announced album, Forever Never Cares, a record which sounds, at once, of a bygone era and completely modern. They recently shared lead single, “Give Me A Smile” ft. Son Little, and today they are sharing a new preview of the record, a track called “Never Get Enough“, led by the smokey vocals of ascendant soul singer Katie Tupper.

The sensual R&B single is an emphatic ballad about the conditional longing and desire for the one you love: ‘We got less time than you think we do / Forever ain’t long enough’ Katie’s sultry voice soars throughout the song, while building budding tension until the band swoops in with an anthemic coda.

“The words and vocal melodies came relatively quickly to me once I heard the track the guys had made,” says Tupper. “I knew I wanted a lot of vocal layers and harmonies to hold their own against the lush production that comes with a busty song. I wanted the lyrics to be classic and soulful and the idea of never getting enough of someone even if you could spend forever with them seemed right.”
 
“For me, I’m playing off of Katie’s theme of ‘forever ain’t long enough’,” says founding member Alistair Blu. “While her theme is referencing a lover who’s eternal presence isn’t enough, my lyrical themes relate to the broader concepts of eternity and forever-ness (hence where the album gets its name, Forever Never Cares) and the desire to let go of clinging and attachment.”

LISTEN 
to “Never Get Enough”
HERE
 

MORE ABOUT FOREVER NEVER CARES
For the Canadian-American soul-jazz collective Busty and the Bass, collaboration has always been at the forefront of their music. Formed at McGill University in Montreal over a decade ago, the group is now scattered across four North America cities from coast to coast. Yet, with a collaborative spirit at the heart of their third studio album, Forever Never Cares, the members have never been more connected.

Over the years, the group has collaborated with legendary artists George Clinton, Macy Gray, Earth Wind & Fire, Slum Village, and exciting new voices like Polaris Music Prize winners Cadence Weapon and Pierre Kwenders. Most recently, the group dropped a mini-album with Philadelphia poet and rapper STS. Despite such a strong history of partnerships, Forever Never Cares reshaped the band’s creative formula and redefined how they worked together a decade into their career.

After a founding member and primary songwriter left the band in 2022, the collective used the opportunity to re-approach their creative process for the first time in years. Songs would be brought to the group from individual members or smaller formations of two or three members writing together. Interestingly, more voices involved in the songwriting resulted in the group’s most refined output to date. 

Two previous studio albums, Uncommon Good (2017) and Eddie (2020), saw the band experiment with genres effortlessly changing styles song to song, from soul to funk to pop. 

Forever Never Cares finds the collective both broadening and distilling their influences into a unified sound that is entirely their own. This is due in large part to founding member Christopher Vincent who engineered and mixed the album. Vincent found a sonic language that would compliment all of the ​​disparate genres being stacked atop one another.

With soul and R&B as the album’s cornerstone, the record is sprinkled with cross-genre explorations. From the indie rock-inflected uptempo singles “All The Things I Couldn’t Say To You” and “Wandering Lies,” to slow-burn ballads like “Give Me A Smile” and “Never Get Enough,” to the celebratory pop-funk of “Starstruck” and “No Angels,” a touch of 70s singer-songwriter on “Smoke and the Pine” and “Holiday Drive,” and the psychedelic jazz explorations of “Far From Here” and “No Self Control” featuring saxophonist Terrace Martin, a frequent collaborator of Kamasi Washington and Robert Glasper.

Presave Forever Never Cares HERE

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[Thanks to Hive Mind PR.]

Montañera releases new single – “Santa Mar” – ahead of new album due November 17, 2023.

oday singer-songwriter and composer María Mónica Gutiérrez (aka Montañera) shares another look at her forthcoming album ‘A Flor de Piel’, which is set for release on November 17th via Western Vinyl.

‘A Flor de Piel’ is a meditative journey of self-discovery across oceans, time, and the traditional confines of genre. Originally from Bogota, Colombia, Gutiérrez began the album as a way to explore her identity after a difficult move to London for school left her feeling untethered and alone in a strange new place. The daunting 5,000 mile journey over a seemingly endless ocean, sparked the beginning of a metamorphosis, imparting her with a new understanding of herself as an artist, and as a human being. Throughout the album Gutiérrez examines the immigrant’s experience through a rich sonic lens inspired by sources as disparate as traditional Colombian and Senegalese music, contemporary ambient and experimental production, and whalesong from the depths of the Atlantic.

Produced by one of the most interesting bands of the moment in Colombia, Rizomagic, and composed by Montañera, it is an album that captivates for the singularity of her voice and melodies, and for the finely crafted production. It was mixed by Joseph Shabason and mastered in Germany by Stephan Mathieu.

The only track on the album to feature percussion, today’s new single Santa Mar is an atmospheric piece featuring marimba player Cankita from the band Bejuco and the expressive voices of Las Cantadoras de Yerba Buena, a group of traditional singers from Tumaco, Colombia.

Check out “Santa Mar” on YouTubeand on digital services.

Montañera comments: “It’s a song that talks about peace in Colombia, specifically with the afro pacific women. The lyrics were inspired by them after investigating their musical practice for my master’s studies. Understanding their personal and collective healing processes within the peace-building process of the country. I want to portray the importance of womanhood for peace-building in their territory and the song talks about the forces of the sea to cure and the sea as a female saint, of how these women have the power of the sea in themselves. The marimbas are played by the amazing Cankita from Bejuco, who is very close with the Cantadoras de Yerba Buena, he calls them his “aunts”, his masters. It’s a true honour having the voices of these elder women in the album, they have such a strong life story and nevertheless, so much vitality, strength, and drive in life, a true inspiration for me.”

Using skilfully restrained synths and electronic textures, ‘A Flor de Piel’ triumphs by re-contextualising traditional sounds and sentiments into something fresh, urgent, and pulsing with life.  It’s a fitting representation of Montañera’s personal struggles, while also echoing universal truths, as she summons the strength of past generations, to emerge as a phoenix full of hope and potential. As she describes it, “The album has accompanied me through inner journeys of finding myself in a new territory — of redefining myself, of remembering who I am — in a strange place.”  As we drift towards an uncertain future, perhaps Montañera’s A Flor de Piel’ is exactly what we need: a deep well of strength, to bring us peace, and to accompany our own journey into the unknown.

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Rubblebucket drops new single – “Teardrops”

photo credit: Chris Weiss

oday, Egghunt Records releases “Teardrops” (parts 1 and 2), the new single from RubblebucketFLOOD has the premiere here, saying that “‘Teardrops’ is a rare duet from the band, with Tōth singing lead over the main riff while Traver sings harmonies in response.”

Just two months ago, Rubblebucket released “Abbreviation (Earth Worship Remix),” a collaboration with Grammy Award winner Kimbra –– and now “Teardrops,” a mellow breath of fresh air and a sort of breadth-widening for these heroes of indie-dance-pop. 

Please stream / download stream it on their Bandcamp now.

Teardrops,” the new super groovy mid-tempo lounger from Rubblebucket is an anthem about crying out all the emotions. It represents a new direction for the band, who Rolling Stone has called “the indie rock Miami Sound Machine.” In contrast to much of their previous high-energy indie-pop work, “Teardrops” could be the perfect soundtrack for lazing on the sundeck and wistfully letting your feelings move through you (“Take me so deep I become the rain”). “Teardrops” is a rare duet from the band, with Tōth singing lead over the main riff while Kalmia Traver answers in response over a sea of 808ssynths, hazy rhythm guitars and Afrobeat horn arrangements. While mood and tempo may be slightly subdued, the hooks are are strong as ever, as Paste once put it, “catchy enough to ass-kick Katy Perry off the pop charts (in a just world).”


One of the most compelling groups on the scene since the early 2010s, Rubblebucket’s seeds were sown when Kalmia Traver and Alex Toth, the group’s front persons, co-writers and co-producers, first began a friendship as jazz students at the University of Vermont. Soon after, they formed Rubblebucket, using the project to delve into pop, funk, dance and psychedelia; performances have spanned Bonnaroo to Glastonbury to their self-curated Dream Picnic Festival, and they’ve collaborated with kindred genre-blenders including Arcade Fire and Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears. Their latest full-length LP Earth Worship showcases intricately sparkling beats, hooky vocals, and irresistible melodic complexity—a celebration of togetherness, environmental curiosity, and the pleasure of doing what you love.   

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Drop Nineteens release final single, “The Price Was High,” from their first new album in thirty years.

In a little over two weeks Drop Nineteens will release their first LP in 3 decades. Entitled Hard Light(out November 3rd on Wharf Cat Records), the album has been billed as a spiritual successor to the band’s watershed 1992 LP Delaware, and album that is considered one of the most influential shoegaze records ever released. It was announced with a single called “Scapa Flow” which Stereogum called “magnificent,” and appeared on Pitchfork’s “Most Anticipated Albums of The Fall” list, where they said that the band “have picked up right where they left off all those years ago” alongside further praise from outlets like FADERConsequence, and BrooklynVegan. 

Today, the band are sharing a final preview of the LP, a track called “The Price Was High.”
When Drop Nineteens disbanded in the mid 90s, Greg Ackell decided he would never make music again. He wouldn’t noodle around on a guitar in the basement. He wouldn’t get a group of friends together just to jam. He was done with music entirely. Following the release of the shoegaze masterpiece Delaware in 1992, and the intricate experimentations on National Coma in 1993, the group disbanded. They had a great run. They shared stages with Radiohead, Hole, Blur, PJ Harvey and Smashing Pumpkins. They went from being teenaged kids in Boston to mid-twenty-somethings with videos on MTV, sessions on the BBC, world tours and numerous festivals under their belt. So when Drop Nineteens ceased to be, Ackell felt content. He had the rest of his life in front of him to figure out what he wanted to do. Music was a closed chapter.  

That was until 2021, when a friend from the band’s early days got Greg on the phone to suggest making some music together, just to see how it felt. Instead of shutting it down like he had been doing over the years, he decided to entertain the prospect. For the first time in nearly 30 years, he picked up a guitar with intent. He immediately called up Steve Zimmeran, the band’s bassist and fellow guitarist, and the two got writing. It felt effortless for Ackell, like he never stopped writing music. “We were off to the races,” he says, “But also the question came up: What does a modern Drop Nineteens song sound like?” Enter Hard Light, the band’s stunning third record. To quote Ackell, it’s the band’s proverbial follow up to Delaware, a modern Drop Nineteens record that is completely singular in its sound and vision.  
The first task in making Hard Light, was of course, getting the rest of the band back together. Drop Nineteens is an inherently collaborative project. Ackell writes the lyrics, and he works with band members Zimmerman, Paula Kelley, Motohiro Yasue, and Peter Koeplin to create the sonic world. The record came together over the course of a year, recording at a patchwork of studios all around the country: Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. When Kelley and Ackell first heard their vocals recorded together on the opus album closer “T”, the chemistry was undeniable.  Making music together felt natural, fluid, exciting.  

Hard Light is a romantic record in the literary sense. Beauty from longing; longing from beauty. You put the album on and want to be clad in a velvet dress sprawled across a fainting couch. You want to be holding someone’s hand while you sit back in the tall grass. The guitars are expansive and expressive as ever. Ackell and Kelley’s vocals are cool, crystalline, and luminous. “Gal” comes on like a dream. The vocals pour in when you least expect them, once in the middle, where Ackell delivers one of the strangest (and best) lyrics on the record, “And there were snakes/with cats at the wheel.” Hard Light’s first single, “Scapa Flow” is triumphant and an excellent example of what a modern day Drop Nineteens song sounds like. The guitars glide cloud-like, floor toms shuffle and rumble in the background, searching. Ackell and Kelley’s vocals are as toned as they are bound. Hard Light is every bit the ride that Delaware was, diverse in its sounds, with surprises at every turn. Drop Nineteens have brought clarity and cool in 2023 to the genre they helped create. A portrait of a band 30 years later, as talented and dedicated to their craft as ever. To put it more bluntly, they’re at the top of their game. 
Drop Nineteens Hard Light is available for preorder HERE

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