Movie Jail’s debut single “Call The Neighbors” (out now) is a “hooky sonic barrage” (MAGNET) of “hypnotic, airy indie rock” (Brooklyn Vegan)

See video in which a comedian bombs so badly “his microphone decides to make an escape.” EP mixed by John McEntire of Tortoise out this Friday.

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Movie Jail (L-R) Kim Conlee, Nick Coleman, Dave Cobb, Austin Wilkerson, and Thomas Sinclair as photographed by Nick Thelen

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Movie Jail | In The Press

“Hooky sonic barrage.” — MAGNET

“New wave guitar scratch against lush and shimmering Stereolab-style.” — Treble

“Hypnotic, airy indie rock.” — Brooklyn Vegan

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PLAY, POST & SHARE

[YOUTUBE]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMzGV1SYczY

[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/MovieJail-CallTheNeighbors

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“The video started as one of those ideas you write on a scrap of paper before falling asleep,” explains Dave Cobb of Movie Jail about the clip for “Call The Neighbors,” the band’s debut single. See it now via MAGNET here or at the links above. Cobb continues, “A comedian is bombing so badly that his microphone decides to make an escape. I like stories that pit characters against unseen forces or absurdity. And there are a lot of parallels between comedy and music – how they either captivate an audience or fall flat.

“The main actor, Ruda Tovar, does stand-up comedy in real life, so we relied on his ideas and instincts throughout the shooting. He improvised the scene where he is leaving notes on the dressing-room mirror, which ended up fitting the overall theme. I suppose the message is: Don’t chase the mic!”

Members of Movie Jail are available for interview. Please contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more info.

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Movie JailSelf-Titled EP(Desperate Spirits Records)March 3, 2023

Track Listing:

01. Stop At The Mark

02. Call The Neighbors (STREAM | VIDEO)

03. Porous Rock

04. Ship Dream

05. New Way To Walk

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Movie Jail | Live

03/04/2023: Lexington, KY @ The Green Lantern (Record Release)

03/22/2023: Lexington, KY @ WRFL 88.1FM (In Studio, Stream)

03/31/2023: Cincinnati, OH @ The Comet

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Movie Jail | About

“Movie Jail” is a phrase referring to unspoken sanctions imposed on a director after a career failure or refusal to join a lucrative project. One might assume a band bearing this name has rejected entertainment for its own sake, but the truth is a bit more complicated. Despite a noisy veneer, Movie Jail finds its center in an unabashed love of hooks, melodies, and solid grooves.

From the weird musical hinterlands that gave the world Slint, Hair Police, and Cage The Elephant, the Lexington, Kentucky-based five-piece Movie Jail offers further proof that college towns can provide fertile creative ground.

The group will release its self-titled debut EP on March 3, 2023 via Desperate Spirits Records. Mixed by John McEntire of Tortoise and featuring McEntire’s own vibraphone as accompaniment, the record brings to mind a post-rock band hired to play an airport lounge, trying to reconstruct decades of pop music based on memory alone.

Movie Jail is just as likely to cycle through secondhand jazz chords as to careen headlong into jittery new wave territory. The band’s first single, “Call The Neighbors,” (hear a sample now!) captures all these contradictions, opening with a volley of strident guitar and lyrical jabs at the bootstrap generation but secretly hoping to retreat to a hotel room for drinks and an afternoon nap.

According to the members of Movie Jail, “Call The Neighbors” is about “the tension between a generation that views work as inherently valuable and those who see it as a means to an end. It's a song about the joy of making questionable decisions i.e. ‘making snow angels in the middle of the road,’ as the song’s opening line suggests.”

The debut self-titled EP by Lexington-based Movie Jail arrives March 3, 2023 preceded by the single and video “Call The Neighbors,” out now.

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Movie Jail | Links

ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP

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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact

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Resurgence of Elephant 6 psych-pop sound perfectly captured in latest single by The High Water Marks, featuring lead vocals by collective’s co-founder, Hilarie Sidney.

 Your Next Wolf (out June 9) is band’s third album in three years; Live follow-ups to last year’s support of Pavement includes upcoming festival, headline appearances.

 

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The High Water Marks (L-R): Per Ole Bratset, Hilarie Sidney, Øystein Megård, Logan Miller.

Photo credit: Photograph by Amanda Burford. Illustration by Per Ole Bratset.

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The High Water Marks | “An Imposed Exile”

[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/TheHighWaterMarks-AnImposedExile
“It’s a great mid-tempo pop cut with a Pixie Stix-soaked hook right in the middle. Pretty irresistible.” – Dagger
 “‘An Imposed Exile’ is about being made to stay home during the pandemic,” says Hilarie Sidney of The High Water Marks. “We actually had it really nice here in Norway, and it’s more or less how we live anyway, out in the districts of Norway in a tiny crack between some tall mountains.
“But, you still have to live in your head, and you still have to deal with people and do things that society demands. Oh gosh, I think I might be a hermit!”
Members of The High Water Marks are available for interview. Please contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more info.

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The High Water Marks | About

“It was insanely fun!,” says Hilarie Sidney of The High Water Marks about making Your Next Wolf, the band’s upcoming 17-track album, scheduled for release on June 9 via Chicago-based imprint Minty Fresh.

Your Next Wolf is the third “comeback” record in as many years by Sidney and her band mates in The High Water Marks, following the end of a 13-year absence.

The songs on Your Next Wolf contain all the memorable pop melodies, intricate, blazing guitar solos and riffs, washes of psychedelia and percussive punch (plus Sidney’s unmistakable voice) that have been trademarks of her long music career. Here, they are an even more to-the-point, sophisticated, and amped up experience.

Based in both Grøa, Norway and Lexington, KY, the current incarnation of The High Water Marks — which includes Sidney, Per Ole Bratset, Øystein Megård, and Logan Miller — had never performed live in the same room.

That was until October of  2022 when, “We played our first show with all four of us together in Oslo opening for Pavement,” Sidney says.

Most artists would consider this a big break, but Sidney goes way back with Stephen Malkmus and the boys, having toured together before as part of her previous band The Apples In Stereo.

The Apples In Stereo is one of the three cornerstone groups (along with Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control) that comprised the Elephant 6 Recording Co., the revered recording collective and record company that was the recent subject of a festival circuit feature documentary and an exhaustively researched book, both released in 2022.

Sidney was the sole female co-founder of Elephant 6 and The Apples, but in a music world where women continue to fight for recognition from gatekeeping men, this fact remains one that must continue to be talked about.

“It’s not often mentioned how much influence women had over the Elephant 6 movement at the time,” explains Bratset. “Hilarie is the founding member cranking out the most new music right now.”

And Your Next Wolf is pretty exciting!

This time, the band was able to record in the same room at Miller’s studio in Kentucky.

“After making two albums remotely, we proved that we could come together in person and make music that way too,” Sidney says.

Acclaimed engineer, Justin Pizzoferrato (The Pixes, Lou Barlow, Dinosaur Jr) had become a fan of The High Water Marks and offered to mix Your Next Wolf, resulting in the most in-your-face sounding crunch that The High Water Marks has ever produced.

Your Next Wolf does not let up!

Once again, the record is accompanied by hand-drawn art by Bratset, whose images have become synonymous with The High Water Marks and something that fans immediately recognize.

“We are really happy with this record and we feel like it has the cohesive band sound and flow we were going for,” Sidney concludes.

Your Next Wolf by The High Water Marks arrives June 9, 2023 via Minty Fresh.

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The High Water Marks | “Trouble From The East”

[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/TheHighWaterMarks-TroubleFromTheEast
[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKxV8hUHuqk
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“This song is basically about chilling the fuck out,” says Hilarie Sidney about “Trouble From The East,” the first single from Your Next Wolf, the third album in less than three years by her Norway-based band The High Water Marks. Your Next Wolf  is scheduled for release via the Chicago-based label Minty Fresh on June 9, 2023.

Sidney continues, “We aren’t a political band, but politics affects us all. 2022 was an insane year over here in Europe with the Ukraine war. In Norway, we border Russia (our trouble from the north and east) and especially in the beginning, there were a few times we thought there was a nuclear threat.

“People are angry and scared. We just want to see everyone calm down and enjoy what we have. Our little blip of time in this world should be marked with what we did to spread joy, what we did to help, and what we did to try to make a difference in ourselves and the people around us.

“It’s been crazy. Right after the war started, there was an attack on a nuclear facility in Ukraine. Then Russia started talking about using nuclear weapons. Norway’s national guard inspected every single bomb shelter in the country to see if they were up to code and repair/replace anything needed. It was really scary!”

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The High Water Marks | Links
 
ASSETS : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : BANDCAMP : SPOTIFY : APPLE : MINTY FRESH
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

Opal Eskar gathers some of Philly's most prolific underground artists including Karl Blau, duo Later Fortune, members of The War On Drugs.

Debut follows-up last summer’s one-off single as a trio; Now a five-piece, band to release six-song EP May 19. Hear “Sunlight Is Breakin’ Out” now.

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Opal Eskar (L-R): Chet Delcampo, Karl Blau, Heyward Howkins. Photo credit: Mecky Elvita Madl.

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[YOUTUBE]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRBeB1YX2AI

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“Dreamy... a reflection of the languid heat wave energy while a solid means of keeping sonically cool.” — WXPN (NPR), Philadelphia

Karl Blau describes “Sunlight Is Breakin’ Out” by Opal Eskar as “feel good summer vibes bottled up in a song.” The song – originally a one-off – will be followed up by a six-song Opal Eskar EP on May 19 via Spiral Valley Records.

After releasing “Sunlight Is Breakin’ Out” as a trio comprised of Blau (vocals), Heyward Howkins (vocals, guitar), and Chet Delcampo (vocals, guitar, bass, keys) last summer, Opal Eskar is now a five-piece featuring two more members of the Philly fabric: Charlie Hall and Robbie Bennett of The War on Drugs.

Blau met Howkins and Delcampo after relocating to Philly following a highly prolific period in the Olympia, Washington area where he released dozens of records and helped nurture the scene that brought the K Records label and influential artists such as Laura Veirs, The Microphones, and Earth — many of which Blau recorded and performed with — to prominence.

More recently, Veirs, along with My Morning Jacket front man Jim James, appeared with Blau on a cover of Link Wray’s ten-minute epic “Fallin’ Rain,” a cut from Introducing Karl Blau, a covers collection of overlooked country songs by Blau, released by legendary UK record label Bella Union.

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Opal Eskar
Self-Titled EP
(Spiral Valley Records)
May 19, 2023

Track Listing:
01. And Yet Love Rules02. Open Mind03. The Woodsman04. Soft Exchange05. All I Wanna Do06. Sunlight Is Breakin’ Out (STREAM)
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Opal Eskar | About

Opal Eskar is the latest convergence of some of Philadelphia’s busiest indie musicians.

After releasing a one-off single “Sunlight Is Breakin’ Out” (“Dreamy,” said NPR-affiliate WXPN) as a trio comprised of Karl Blau (vocals), Heyward Howkins (vocals, guitar), and Chet Delcampo (vocals, guitar, bass, keys) last summer, Opal Eskar is now a five-piece featuring two more members of the Philly fabric: Charlie Hall and Robbie Bennett of The War on Drugs.

Opal Eskar will release its debut self-titled EP on May 19, 2023 via Spiral Valley Records.

To get an idea of the band’s sound beyond “dreamy” (which it is!), look no further than the comprehensive careers of the members of Opal Eskar and the company they keep.

Blau met Howkins and Delcampo after relocating to Philly following a highly prolific period in the Olympia, Washington area where he released dozens of records and helped nurture the scene that brought the K Records label and influential artists such as Laura Veirs, The Microphones, and Earth — many of which Blau recorded and performed with — to prominence.

More recently, Veirs, along with My Morning Jacket front man Jim James, appeared with Blau on a cover of Link Wray’s ten-minute epic “Fallin’ Rain,” a cut from Introducing Karl Blau, a covers collection of overlooked country songs by Blau, released by legendary UK record label Bella Union.

Delcampo has two earlier album releases to his name, as well as another pair as Hong Kong Stingray. His list of current and former collaborators is long, including Kid Congo Powers, Joel RL Phelps, and Dave Lovering of Pixies. Last year he released a single with Howkins as Later Fortune, called “lush, sophisticated art pop” by Brooklyn Vegan.

Howkins has released two full-length albums of his own, and is a founding member of the choral group The Silver Ages with members of Dr. Dog and The War on Drugs, the Grammy®-winning rock band that features Hall on drums and Bennett on keys, the same instruments they contribute to Opal Eskar.

Like Howkins and Delcampo’s Later Fortune project, which covered David Bowie’s soul-noir classic “Win” (from the Young Americans album, which was recorded in Philly), Opal Eskar cannot help but be influenced by the man.

Delcampo says, “A few years after Bowie’s death, I was reflecting upon his methodology of assembling an interesting cast of characters into the right room at the right time. Tony Visconti, Brian Eno, Nile Rodgers, Mick Ronson, and many others.”

Inspired to assemble his own group of collaborators this way, Delcampo reached out to Blau (whose work he had long admired) and Howkins brought Hall and Bennett to the band.

Opal Eskar’s own song about modern love is the EP opener and first single, “And Yet Love Rules.” Blau says the song asks us to “let love be the governing force in exchanges with other humans. Let the innocence of our inner child — the curiosity that permeates life — help lead our actions and interactions.”

That sentiment permeates the entire EP — the blissful sound of a group of musicians with their own thing going on, but whose mutual respect for each other’s work inspires a creative curiosity that makes it to tape (yes, the EP is an analog recording!)

The debut EP by Opal Eskar arrives on May 19 via Spiral Valley Records and preceded by the singles “And Yet Love Rules” (March 17), “The Woodsman” (April 7) and “Open Mind” (April 28.)

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Opal Eskar | Links

ASSETS : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP

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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact

WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL