Tuesday, July 30, 2019

LANDROID emerges from desert town of Landers, California (population: 2632) with a musical vision as vast as its environment.

Duo drops “Yellow Sea” video depicting dream-like afterlife journey. Track is taken from upcoming “Imperial Dunes,” out Sept. 13th.  

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LANDROID (L-R): Cooper Gillespie, Greg Gordon. Photo credit: LANDROID.

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Check out the video premiere of “Yellow Sea” by LANDROID over at MXDWN or the link below!

Grimy Goods says, “Between Gillespie’s haunting croons, which puncture in sublime fashion through the melancholy and wonder of the film — which finds a young girl, ignored by her parents, slipping through her sandbox into a dimension where her red dragon and rabbit puppets come to life — and Gordon’s otherworldly melodics, LANDROID split-the-difference somewhere between Pink Floyd and Beach House.


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“It’s easy to imagine ‘Yellow Sea’ being performed during a dreamlike lounge scene in, say, Twin Peaks or Mulholland Drive,” says Jordan Blum of PopMatters in the premiere coverage of the debut single by LANDROID. Listen here or at the link below.


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LANDROID
Imperial Dunes
Sept. 13th, 2019
(Mojave Beach Records)
  

Track Listing:

01. So Say We All
02. Yellow Sea (STREAM | MP3 | VIDEO)
03. Don’t Be Cruel
04. Closing Doors
05. Ça Plane Pour Moi
06. Wishbone Machine
07. Automatic
08. A Cloud Goes By
09. Set On Fire

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LANDROID | Live

09/20/2019: Landers, CA @ Landers Brew Co
10/26/2019: Twentynine Palms, CA @ The Palms

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LANDROID | About

Cooper Gillespie (vocals, guitar, bass) and Greg Gordon (drums, sequences) of LANDROID are veteran performers that have traveled the world as professional musicians. Now they live in the California town of Landers. Population: 2,632.

The music that Gillespie and Gordon are making as LANDROID, so named as a reference to their new home, is as vast as the environment in which it was created. Following years of playing variations on the Los Angeles-based punk and rock hybrid, Gillespie and Gordon settled in a desert land and became a desert band. The duo’s debut album Imperial Dunes arrives on Sept. 13th via their own Mojave Beach Records label.

“They are the largest mass of sand dunes in California,” Gillespie says of the actual Imperial Dunes, another real-life location that contributed to the name game. Turns out the “DROID” in LANDROID has a connection, too: “In Return of the Jedi, the Imperial Sand Dunes are the location of Jabba’s Palace,” Gillespie adds.

This bit of connect-the-dots finds its way back to the deeper substance that makes LANDROID’s songs stick. Giant production makes Gordon’s thudding kick drum sound as huge as the nearby Giant Rock Vortex, where it is believed that Earth’s magnetic energy lines intersect.

“They say it channels psychic energy,” Gordon says. “We know it sounds hippie-dippy, but we swear we can feel it.” Believe the mystical hype or not, Gordon’s drum sounds arrive from another planet.

“The dunes feel like an appropriate metaphor for life,” Gillespie observes, grounding her lyrical themes. “Nature is the ultimate power and just as the dunes change day-to-day, everything in life is constantly changing. We like to think we are in control, but nature reclaims us.”

LANDROID’s “Recommended If You Like” is more like a “Recommended If You’ve Lived.” It’s a list of inspirations and influences that read like whole lifestyles unto themselves.

Imperial Dunes sounds just like ‘em:

David Lynch, David Bowie, outer space, X, Cocteau Twins, William Blake, Blade Runner, Led Zeppelin, Buddy Rich, scuba diving, Portishead, Pink Floyd, Angela Carter, the ocean.

The album’s first single and music video “Yellow Sea,” proves the concept. Lush, but not lost in itself, the song is otherworldly and familiar at the same time.

“Yellow Sea” is a meditation on the hereafter,” Gillespie states.

Imperial Dunes by LANDROID arrives on Sept. 13th, 2019, preceded by the single and video “Yellow Sea,” out now. Members of LANDROID are available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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LANDROID | Links


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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact


Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Born, raised L.A. jazz vocalist Samantha Sidley shares her sumptuous version of Bossa nova Beach Boys classic “Busy Doin’ Nothin,’” out now.

 Song featured on out, proud “I Like Girls” singer’s “Interior Person,” arriving Sept. 13th. U.S. tour w/ The Bird and The Bee launches Aug. 11th.

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Samantha Sidley as photographed by Logan White

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Samantha Sidley | “Busy Doin’ Nothin’”



Cover Me says Samantha Sidley “digs deep for this Beach Boys tribute, eschewing the oft-covered classics for a true deep cut... It seems impossible to record a version that betters Brian Wilson’s... I’d argue Sidley’s jazzy version surpasses the original.”

“This song is from one of my favorite Beach Boys records, Friends,” Sidley says. “I was on a leisurely walk in my neighborhood listening to it and realized that the song is a story I pretty much live every day. I knew it especially when Brian Wilson says, ‘I get a lot of thoughts in the morning, I write them all down, if it wasn’t for that, I’d forget them in a while.’

Listen to Samantha Sidley covering “Busy Doin’ Nothin’” by The Beach Boys at Cover Me or at the link above!

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Samantha Sidley | Live


All dates w/ The Bird and The Bee, Alex Lilly

08/11/2019: St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club (TIX)
08/12/2019: Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village (TIX)
08/14/2019: Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre (TIX)
08/15/2019: Providence, RI @ Columbus Theatre (TIX)
08/16/2019: Philadelphia, PA @ World Café Live (TIX)
08/17/2019: Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere (TIX)
08/20/2019: Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle (TIX)
08/21/2019: Atlanta, GA @ Aisle 5 (TIX)
08/22/2019: Birmingham, AL @ The Saturn (TIX)
08/24/2019: Dallas, TX @ Trees (TIX)
08/25/2019: Austin, TX @ Parish (TIX)
08/28/2019: Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom (TIX)
08/29/2019: San Diego, CA @ Casbah (TIX)
08/30/2919: San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop (TIX)

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Samantha Sidley | “I Like Girls”



Listen to “I Like Girls” by Samantha Sidley at Grimy Goods or Jazziz or the link above now!

“It takes us back to the speakeasies of the 20s, with flirtatious saxophones and crisp, expressive vocals. The song is a sophisticated and delicious ice-breaker, serving anthemic lyrical content for an evolving culture.” — Grimy Goods

Sam tells Jazziz, “I’m a jazz singer and I wanted to sing songs that represented me but still sounded timeless. I used to just change the pronouns in standards but now I have originals in the genre especially about me and my story.”

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See Samantha Sidley performing an impromptu unplugged version of “I Like Girls” now!


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Samantha Sidley | About

Samantha Sidley is a jazz vocalist, born-and-raised in Los Angeles, and she likes girls.

The words “I like girls” are the first thing you’ll hear when Sidley’s debut album Interior Person (Sept. 13th, Release Me Records) opens. The song is an unassuming anthem, a future standard for an evolving culture. It’s also a fun and funny ice-breaker that you’ll sing along with.

“I Like Girls” is a peek into what plays out as a meticulously crafted debut album featuring Sidley’s beautifully trained voice taking confident ownership of songs written for her to sing by some of the most important women in her life.

These other “girls” include fellow musicians Inara George, Alex Lilly, and Sidley’s “Top One” favorite musician of all-time, her wife, Barbara Gruska.

Inara and Alex and Barbara wrote songs that are all very personal to my story – they literally are my story – and from my lesbian perspective, which I appreciate so much,” Sidley says. In addition to co-writing many of the songs here, and playing drums (masterfully) on many of the tracks, Gruska also produced Interior Person in a studio constructed in Sidley’s childhood bedroom.

“My whole life was a song,” Sidley says of her childhood. “If I looked at a tree, it was a song. If I felt happy, sad, joy, it was a song. When I first heard Judy Garland in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ I remember thinking: ‘I understand.’ I’ve always considered myself an interpreter, which is sort of and undervalued art form. I like to take a song and make the story true for me.”

Sidley soon discovered Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, soul music in general, and her own personal “soulfulness” itself. You know, like all seven-year-olds do. Later, considering how annoyed 11-year-old Sidley was when her vocal instructor wouldn’t allow her to sing Holiday’s “Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be)” at her first recital, it all made perfect sense.

A decade later, Sidley got to sing whatever she wanted, performing at NYC’s legendary Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, where she lived in Dorothy Parker’s room, listened to a lot of Anita O’Day and Ella Fitzgerald, and landed a rave review in The New York Times.

“She knows exactly how I express myself and what my intentions are,” Sidley says of her working relationship with Gruska. “Collaborating on this record has actually been a much longer collaboration of us getting to know each other.”

Interior Person, the debut album from Samantha Sidley, arrives Sept. 13th, preceded by the single “I Like Girls,” out now.  Samantha Sidley is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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Samantha Sidley | Links


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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact


Ryan Traster’s just-released album of Cosmic Country tunes has French title, is influenced by Judee Sill, name-drops Jesus & Mary Chain.

“Reminiscent of the wide-open ’70s Laurel Canyon sound… Traster’s best album yet.” – Minneapolis City Pages. Hear “Choses Obscures” now.

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Ryan Traster as photographed by Kimberly Traster

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Ryan Traster | In The Press

“Catchy, classic folk-rock tunes.” — 89.3 The Current (Minnesota Public Radio)

“Cuts straight to the chase, brushes cheeks with brashness, and makes no apologies.” — City Pages (Minneapolis)

“An extremely impressive slice of Americana.” — My Old Kentucky Blog

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Ryan Traster | Live

08/01/2019: Brooklyn, NY @ Gold Sounds (w/ Swampboots)

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The Big Takeover premieres Choses Obscures by Ryan Traster, calling the record a “lyrically impressive and soncially mesmerizing album” in its accompanying record review. Check out the full coverage here and listen to Choses Obscures in full at the link below.

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Ryan Traster
Choses Obscures
(Slow Start Records)
Out Now

Full Album Stream:


Track Listing:

01. Old World Present Tense
02. New Again (STREAM | MP3)
03. How Dark It's Been
04. Lost in a Sound (STREAM | MP3)
05. Libra
06. Endless Summer Blues (STREAM | MP3)
07. Kansas
08. Busy Mind Lazy Mouth

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Ryan Traster | About

The new album by Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter Ryan Traster features that warm, worn-in vibe of an album that’s been in your cool parents record collection since you were a kid. Eventually, it gets passed down to you to take along into “the real world” and is there when you need to be reminded of being a kid again.

It’s that gem of a find in a milk crate of vinyl at the local tag sale on a Sunday afternoon. The kind of album that becomes an all-time favorite, only discovered there by the person who knows what they’re looking for and has the time to dig for it.

Choses Obscures (the title translates from French as “obscure things,” and implies a “dark energy”) is both of those things, and that implied darkness provides a subtle mask that contrasts and deepens the sunny images above.

When Traster throws curve balls with lyrics of places and times that don’t abide the most famed of singer-songwriter eras (the kind that even the album’s cover art evokes), things get real.

It comes as a jaw-dropping surprise to hear Jesus and Mary Chain name-dropped on “Endless Summer Blues” when Traster sings, “We were living in Echo Park / I was smoking dope in the backyard / You were listening to all those Mary Chain records / We had the endless summer blues.”

According to Traster, the album’s cosmic-country, straight outta Laurel Canyon feel is heavily influenced by Skip Spence, Bert Jansch, and Judee Sill, all of whom passed before their time. That “beyond the grave” murkiness pervades Traster’s lyrics in a profound way, even down to that JAMC reference.

Choses Obscures is “born from the subconscious in troubled times, both personally and globally,” Traster explains.

Choses Obscures, the new full-length album by Ryan Traster, is out now via Slow Start Records. Ryan Traster is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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Ryan Traster | Links


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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact


Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Gregory Ackerman shares “We’ve Got A Runner” music video; “It will hook you in from start to finish. Outstanding.” – Folk Radio UK

Tune taken from L.A. songwriter’s latest EP, produced by Pierre de Reeder (Jenny Lewis, She & Him), out Oct. 4th via Munich Records.

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Gregory Ackerman as photographed by Andrew Wofford

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Gregory Ackerman“We’ve Got A Runner”





“I’ve had this song going around my head since I first heard it…despite the subject of break-up the song is bright and beautiful, a reflection maybe on the mad world of love and life – it could be a summer anthem; it will hook you in from start to finish. Outstanding.” – Alex Gallacher, Folk Radio UK (LINK)

“A gentle tale of breakup, over highlighted, ethereal marimba, shakers and even handclaps in the mix.  It’s a stirring percussive ensemble, over moving vocals and guitar, and an enticing harbinger of the upcoming EP.” – Melissa Clarke, Americana Highways (LINK)

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Gregory Ackerman
“Stresslove” EP
Oct. 4th, 2019
(Munich Records)


Track Listing:

01. Dawg
02. Follow Through (STREAM | VIDEO | LYRIC VIDEO)
03. We’ve Got A Runner
04. Future

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Gregory Ackerman | Live


08/10/2019: San Francisco, CA @ Milk Bar

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Gregory Ackerman | About

“We’ve Got a Runner” was a song I wrote after a break up,” explains Los Angeles-based songwriter, Gregory Ackerman. “I recorded it in my room and posted a demo on Soundcloud in 2015, but I always wanted to resurrect it in the studio.”

The song is now the first single from “Stresslove” (Oct. 4th, Munich Records), Ackerman’s upcoming EP of tunes that were written as “love songs meant for those who had fallen out of love.”

As with his 2018 debut album And Friends, the “Stresslove” EP was produced by Pierre de Reeder, former bassist with Rilo Kiley, and the engineer of recent recordings with bandmate Jenny Lewis, M. Ward, She & Him, and other notable songwriters.

de Reeder adds some sonic hypnotic mysticism to Ackerman’s sunny 70’s-era California sunset melodies, as well as a foil to the expertly navigated lyrical turns that helped Ackerman’s single “Ten Little Indians / And The There Were None” to catch the attention of American Songwriter in 2018. The song also became a top ten finalist out of nearly 20,000 submissions in the latest International Songwriting Competition.

In addition to “We’ve Got a Runner,” the “Stresslove” EP contains the tunes “Dawg,” “Follow Through,” and “Future”.

“I had the song “Love of the Loveless” by Eels in my head while I was writing these,” Ackerman explains. “I was thinking a lot about my relationship to love at the time. I had been going through some flings, but nothing that was sticking.”

“The EP follows the arc of a failed relationship,” Ackerman continues. “It’s like a sonic version of 19th century painter, Thomas Cole’s series ‘The Course of Empire,’ but for the stages of love.”

“Stresslove” is the upcoming four-song EP by Gregory Ackerman, out Oct. 4th from Munich Records. The “We’ve Got a Runner” single is out now. “Stresslove” is the follow-up to Ackerman’s 2018 debut album And Friends. Gregory Ackerman is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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Gregory Ackerman | Links


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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact


Monday, July 15, 2019

Is Vincent Sinex a pseudonym? Los Angeles native’s upcoming “Wild Places” album rides late 70s / early 80s time when pop became new wave.

Inspired by landmark 1982 concert film ‘Urgh! A Music War,’ The Late Innings channels energy, intensity of the era. Hear “Our Secret”single now.

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Vincent Sinex of The Late Innings as photographed by Daniel Lennox.

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About | “Our Secret” by The Late Innings



 “Glistening synths waves, grounded by sonorous trumpets. Irresistibly catchy,” says Glamglare in its premiere coverage of “Our Secret,” the lead single from the upcoming new album by The Late Innings. Listen here or at the link below!

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“Our Secret,” the first single from the upcoming new album by The Late Innings, sounds straight out of the era of high-waisted pants, even higher hair, and Day-Glo-decorated keytars, but the message is darker. “Our Secret” is a song about a guy who returns to his favorite vacation spot, only to find that it is now overrun by tourists.

“I think of this track less like a ‘song of the summer’ and more like a ‘song of the bummer,” Vincent Sinex of The Late Innings half-jokes. Sinex recalls, “We went to a beach that seemingly no one knew about, and we had the whole place to ourselves that afternoon. After that trip, I thought, ‘The next time I want to go back there, will it still be a secret, especially since in the age of social media, nothing is a secret anymore?”


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The Late Innings
Wild Places
Sept. 6th, 2019
(The Late Innings Company)
  

Track Listing:

01. Last Resort
02. Our Secret (STREAM | MP3)
03. The Name Above The Door
04. Tonight
05. It’s Not Over
06. Stand By My Side
07. Slip Out Of Your Fingers
08. Long Way From Home
09. You Got Me All Wrong
10. Blue Skies Every Day

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About | The Late Innings

Is Vincent Sinex a pseudonym?

It may be hard to convince you otherwise after listening to Wild Places, Sinex’s upcoming new solo album as The Late Innings, out Sept. 6th. The album’s lead single “Our Secret” is streaming everywhere now. The Los Angeles native’s music sounds like his name. It rides that edge of time when the late 1970s became the early 1980s. When pop became new wave. When AM became FM.

“I have been recording since my early 20’s when I first got a four-track cassette recorder, a couple of guitars and a drum machine,” Sinex says. “I was inspired by the performances in the 1982 concert film ‘Urgh! A Music War,’ which captured the energy, intensity, and diverse sounds of 80’s new wave bands.  When I saw groups like XTC, Magazine, and Echo and The Bunnymen in that film, it made me want to pick up a guitar and try to make that kind of music myself.”

Based on those incredible influences, Sinex went on to teach himself some recording basics, knock out a few cover tunes, write and record some songs of his own, and ultimately form a short-lived band. Then, a ten-year detour into a more institutional type of education followed, earning Sinex a Master’s degree in Computer Science, but keeping him from music, and the march of technology.

“Once I had my degree, I returned to working on music, but technology had changed a lot,” he remembers. “Even though I had new gear, I initially struggled to write any new material.”

The dedicated science student that he is, Sinex decided to take an analytical approach to writer’s block.

“I had to teach myself the craft of song construction, so I got a bunch of songbooks by people I admired, and I started studying how their songs were put together,” he explains. This exercise led Sinex out of his slump and to the writing and recording of his debut album Arrived and Departed, released in 2015.

For Wild Places, Sinex performs everything you’ll hear, including the meticulously layered background vocals. The album explores themes that are particular to today’s cultural challenges, mostly relating to privacy in a society where almost nothing is private anymore.

Well, almost nothing. Because if Vincent Sinex really is a pseudonym, that secret is still safe.

Wild Places, the latest album by The Late Innings arrives on Sept. 6th, preceded by the single “Our Secret,” streaming now. Vincent Sinex of The Late Innings is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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The Late Innings | Links


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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact