Fanatic is a music marketing company established by Josh Bloom in 1997 to build fan-to-fan connections between artists and the media. For nearly 30 years, Fanatic has continued to help launch careers through the strategic advocacy of creative talent.
Jared Colinger (formerly w/ Starflyer 59) lets in Frank
Lenz (Richard Swift, Pedro The Lion), Josh Dooley (Starflyer 59, Fine China) on
his “The Original Plan.”
+++
Jared
Colinger of The Enigmatic Foe as photographed by
Stacy Littleton +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE The Enigmatic Foe | “Ms. Fortune and Her
Mate” (EP)
Hear “Ms.
Fortune and Her Mate,” the latest single from The Original Plan (out
this Friday!) by The Enigmatic Foe
at Bad
Copy and click the link
below to check out the two non-album bonus tracks “Damnation’s Lullaby” and “Lost
Time (Home Demo)” that complete “Ms.
Fortune and Her Mate” EP. Jared Colinger of The
Enigmatic Foe tells us about “Ms.
Fortune and Her Mate,” explaining, “I had found out the girl I had pursued
from 2000-2005 was getting married. Obviously that relationship never went
beyond friend-status, but I got tons of songs out of that heartache.” [STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/TheEnigmaticFoe-MsFortuneAndHerMate +++ The Enigmatic Foe The
Original Plan July 30th, 2021 (S/R)
Track
Listing: 01. Simulacrum 02. The Kids Are Alright (STREAM) 03. Young Man’s Game 04. Ms. Fortune and Her Mate (STREAM) 05. The Suffering Art (STREAM) 06. Too Much Fun 07. It’s Not Who You Are 08. That Would Be Fun 09. Ninety-Nine Percent 10. Come and Go (STREAM) 11. Pavlovian Cement 12. Darkness and Light 13. Two Strong Words 14. Genesis +++ The Enigmatic Foe | Vinyl Pre-Order
Pre-order the
deluxe double vinyl version of The
Enigmatic Foe’s upcoming album The Original Plan at Bandcampnow!
Pressed on standard 160gm black vinyl with a gatefold jacket at 45RPM. Includes
download card. +++ The Enigmatic Foe | Podcast
Listen
to Jared Colinger of The Enigmatic Foe in conversation with
his collaborators in this podcast series. Following up two
episodes with drummer, Frank Lenz (Richard Swift, Everest, Pedro The Lion, Headphones) is the
latest three-episode set with guitarist, Josh
Dooley. Colinger comments, “For those who
aren’t familiar with him, Josh is
one of my all-time favorite guitar players. His distinctive style can be heard
with his band MAP, or when he’s
playing with Starflyer 59, Fine China, Pony Express, and the list goes on. We spoke for almost two hours
about music, his gear, his approach to the guitar, and you get a real behind
the scenes look at the production of The Original Plan.” Other
topics covered, according to Colinger,
include “songwriting, music theory, the Devil’s triad, recording during the
pandemic, the 1980s influences on The Original Plan, the beauty of
failure, guitar riffs/tone, Josh’s
favorite song on the album, Eric Joyner’s
album art, and creating art through trauma.” [STREAM]:
https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/sets/the-enigmatic-foe-the-original-plan-podcast-feat-josh-dooley +++ The Enigmatic
Foe | About
The
Enigmatic Foe is the work of
Knoxville-based songwriter and musician, Jared
Colinger. The tunes on his upcoming new album The
Original Plan (July 30th)
often remind of a melancholy Andy
Partridge of XTC, which is,
frankly, a quality we all need to hear about in music more often. Essentially, Colinger’s
pop tunes are wrapped in just enough self-awareness to be relatable, and just
enough sadness to land. Back to operating The
Enigmatic Foe as a solo project, Colinger
is once again the Mayor of his own Simpleton (XTC!), although there are a few citizens about including Frank Lenz (Headphones, Richard Swift)
on Drums and Josh Dooley (Map, Fine China) on Electric Guitar. The Original Plan was mixed and mastered at Swift’s studio National
Freedom by Chris Colbert. With Colinger
alone at the helm again, he is also now in full command of articulating those
all-too-common solitary feelings of self-doubt and inauthenticity that permeate
music that sticks like this. “I’m afraid they can see right through me / That I’m
just a facsimile,” he bravely sings on album opener “Simulacrum,” a cathartic and personal song written shortly after Colinger’s father passed, where he
sings about the possibility of being an inferior representation of his Dad. The song leads right into what could be a meta address
of the “Simulacrum” concept by
lifting a song title from The Who on
Colinger’s original tune “The Kids Are Alright,” the album’s
first single. Far from a facsimile, however, the song shows off just how
singular Colinger’s voice and music
actually are. Clearly, the confinement of working within his newly
re-solo status suits Colinger well.
Or, maybe he’s just a great actor? “I’m not sure what possessed me to write from this
perspective,” he says of “The Kids Are
Alright.” “I have no personal experience with being divorced or having
kids. I may have written it out of fear!” RIYL obsessives will also hear shades of Squeeze, Depeche Mode, and The Smiths
on Colinger’s expansive 14-cut The
Original Plan. Contemporaries such as Empire of The Sun, Tahiti 80,
and Starflyer 59 (who Colinger has actually collaborated with
previously) also ring bells. The Original Plan also delves into a variety of less expected sounds,
with “Pavlovian Cement” and it’s
Latin Jazz-leaning dueling saxophones, the country shuffle of “Ninety-Nine Percent,” and a 6/8 waltz
courtesy of “It’s Not Who You Are.” The overall concepts of The Original Plan address
the idea that we often (or maybe never?) end up where we originally set out to
get to. Colinger’s route has
certainly been circuitous to the max. Over 15-plus years of releasing music, in what
venerable rock magazine The Big Takeover
calls “a classic evolvement narrative” (also noting that Colinger’s guitars twinkle “like better ‘70s FM rock,” natch), Colinger has mastered the simplicity of
reaching for and writing about what’s right there within. He makes this task that so many writers never manage
to achieve look, well... simple. The Original Plan by The
Enigmatic Foe is schedule for release digitally on July 30th and as a deluxe
two-LP vinyl set. Jared Colinger of The Enigmatic Foe is available for
interviews. Contact Josh Bloom
at Fanatic for more information. +++ The Enigmatic Foe | Links ASSETS : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP : SPOTIFY : APPLE
: SOUNDCLOUD +++ Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact WEBSITE
: FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL
“Lush yet
simple” (Glide Magazine) tune taken from sophomore album “Still Waiting
Still,” produced by Pierre de Reeder of Rilo Kiley. +++
Gregory Ackerman as photographed by Nell
T Sherman +++ Gregory Ackerman | Live
07/22/2021: Los
Angeles! Tonight! Gregory
Ackerman plays The Love
Song Bar at 930PM PST +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE Gregory Ackerman | “Full Grown”
[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVkradiG_DY [STREAM] | https://Fanatic.lnk.to/GregoryAckerman-FullGrown +++ See
the video for “Full Grown” by Gregory Ackerman at Glide
Magazine, listen
via Last
Day Deaf, or click the links above! “Carries a sense of
nostalgia that is only amplified by Ackerman’s deep and hushed vocal
harmonies and slowly strummed guitar. There is something strangely relatable
and pleasing about this lush yet simple indie folk,” says Glide
Magazine in its premiere coverage of “Full Grown” by Gregory
Ackerman, the first single from his upcoming second album Still Waiting Still, out Sept. 17th.
Music discovery site Last
Day Deaf calls the tune an “indie
folk gem,” describing a “phenomenal wave of emotions full of lush harmonies and
poignant lyrics.” “The Arroyo Seco mini-golf
course was a staple of me and my brother Eric’s childhood,” Ackerman
says about the setting for the “Full Grown” video. We would go there as
kids all the time, and eventually as teenagers as a space to escape our parents
and get drunk. I thought it was a fitting setting to film some footage for a
song about becoming ‘full grown,’ growing up physically but not yet mentally. “I included walking our
roommate’s dog, Rambis, because I’ve worked as a dog walker as one of my
part time jobs for a couple years now, and that activity had really become a
part of my routine. I also wanted to show off my neighborhood, Highland Park
and the hustle and bustle of Figueroa Street with all its history and
happenings, as well as my hometown, South Pasadena. About the song, he explains, “I wrote ‘Full Grown’ when I was
twenty-years-old back home on break from college, but for this record’s
rendition, I had Gabriel Wheaton
update it with a beautiful string arrangement, which brought about an amazingly
thematic rendition of an old classic (to me.) “I was literally feeling, as the lyric goes, ‘lost and
lonely, but all my friends are home,’ feeling as though I was floating and
struggling to find my place in life, yet all my friends were back home from
school and we were all together again.” +++ Gregory Ackerman Still
Waiting Still Sept. 17th, 2021 (S/R)
Track Listing: 01. Intro 02. Think Straight (STREAM) 03. Full Grown (VIDEO | STREAM) 04. Peace of Mind 05. Good Song 06. Seasonal Living 07. Happy Phase 08. 2023 09. Mr. Moon 10. For Rob 11. Right Again 12. My Heart Goeth
13. All This Thinking +++ Gregory Ackerman | About
“I used to feel like I
was the only one that should have a say in my process,” says Los Angeles-based
multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Gregory Ackerman of his music. “I’ve
since discovered that both life and music get better the more people you share
them with.” The latest work that Ackerman
is sharing with the world is Still Waiting Still (out Sept.
17th, 2021), the follow-up to 2019’s “Stresslove EP”
(V2/Munich Records), and Ackerman’s first full-length since his
debut album And Friends in 2018. Still Waiting
Still was produced by Pierre
de Reeder of Rilo Kiley who adds touches of hypnotic mysticism on
top of the California summer sunset melodies, which beautifully combine with Ackerman’s
plainspoken philosophical lyrics and twisty, dexterous guitar to create what is
now Ackerman’s signature sound. The title of Still
Waiting Still’s first single seems to reference the evolution in Ackerman’s
thinking. “Full Grown,” originally a spare song written when he was only
20-years-old (Ackerman is
now 28), is given a full production makeover for inclusion on Still
Waiting Still. “For the rendition of ‘Full
Grown’ on Still Waiting Still, I had violinist Gabriel
Wheaton update it with a beautiful string arrangement. His contribution
resulted in an amazingly thematicversion of what I now consider to be
an ‘old classic’ from my catalog.” In addition to Wheaton,
new friends that Ackerman has invited to participate in creating Still
Waiting Still include other Los Angeles-area talents such as Grant
Milliken, Eva B. Ross,Shelby Gogreve, and Theo and
Mark Federonic. “These are all great
musicians that I met playing shows in Los Angeles,” Ackerman says. “This
new personnel, combined with my trusty foundation (Ackerman’s brother Eric,
close friend Keenan McDaniel, and friend and producer, de Reeder), helped Still
Waiting Still become a lively collection of brand-new material mixed
with songs that I’d written years ago.” Ackerman guesses that half of Still Waiting Still’s
13 songs were written while he was in college, shortly after he had begun to
write and record in earnest. His posts of the results on Soundcloud revealed
that listeners liked what they heard, and Ackerman was later signed on
an unsolicited demo to V2 –affiliated singer-songwriter offshoot, Munich
Records. “For this album I
wanted my past self and current self to align again as one fluid artist. All of
the songs on Still Waiting Still have an inherent grit or humor
to them, and were written with a youthful ironic moodiness which I relate to
once again as a 28-year-old.” “I wanted to bring
back the states of mind that I used to feel,” Ackerman continues, going
on to reference the album’s second upcoming single, the aptly titled, “Good
Song,” in which he sings about “dredging up feelings from the past,” while
trying to write a song about writing songs. “‘Good Song’ came
out of my frustration in feeling the pressure to make ‘likeable’ music,” Ackerman
confesses. “I was constantly feeling mostly self- imposed pressure to write
a ‘hit song,’ and I remember being able to finally take a step back from that
mindset and look at it humorously. Why not write a song about trying to write a
good song?” Still Waiting
Still contains 13 of ‘em
actually, and Ackerman is proud. “It’s not perfect,
just as nothing with a heartbeat ever is, but I hope that it represents some
part of me that perhaps I could not express any other way.” Still Waiting
Still, the second album by Gregory
Ackerman, arrives on Sept. 17th, 2021 preceded by the singles “Full
Grown” (out now), “Good
Song” (July 23rd), and “Mr.
Moon” (Aug 20th).Gregory
Ackerman is available for interviews. Contact Josh
Bloom at Fanatic for
more information. +++ Gregory Ackerman | Links ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SPOTIFY
: APPLE : BANDCAMP +++ Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact WEBSITE
: FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL
Hear“Worth The Wait” from the upcoming
debut self-titled album by Elroy at It’s
Psychedelic Baby Magazine or at the link below and watch a live performance
of the song shot at Neck of The Woods
in Auckland, New Zealand. Elroy says, “‘Worth The Wait’
represents where I’m at musically nowadays. I wrote it in Los Angeles at my
friends Madeleine and Pip of Ladyhawke’s house during down time between tours with Wild Nothing. It’s an ambiguous love
song of sorts, an ode to relationships.” [STREAM]: https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/UCxoX [LIVE]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPy-zlYvjSk +++ Elroy Elroy Aug. 13th, 2021 (Grand Phony
Records)
Track Listing: 01. The Whole Thing 02. Worth The Wait (STREAM | LIVE) 03. Lost Our Mystery (SINGLE
EDIT | ALBUM
VERSION) 04. The Highest Tree 05. Frogs 06. Excite Me Much (VIDEO | STREAM | LIVE) 07. Life Is At Home 08. Way Down Above Below 09. Doesn’t It Bother You 10. Bye For Now +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE Elroy | “Excite Me Much”
Check out “Excite
Me Much” from the upcoming debut self-titled album by Elroy. Listen at FLOOD
Magazine, see the video at Glide
Magazine, and watch
a live performance shot at Neck of
The Woods in Auckland, New Zealand. “Laying down a sultry and dreamy guitar solo right out
of the gate, the song is a quiet and meditative morsel of indie pop,” says Glide Magazinein
its premiere coverage of the video for Elroy’s
“Excite Me Much” single. Elroy adds, “(Director) Jon Baxter was kind enough to let me
commandeer some lasers he had, some smoke, and his cameras and eye.” Pancakes and Whiskeyadds,
“The video is as atmospheric as the song. The two work together perfectly. Refreshing,
chilled out, and leaves you wanting more.” [VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHjrkhAPLO0 [STREAM]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/Elroy-ExciteMeMuch [LIVE]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obpddhqKL6w +++
Elroy | About After years of touring
and collaborating as a drummer and multi-instrumentalist in various groups (Wild Nothing, Connan Mockasin), as well as with his family (extensive worldwide
touring with his brother, Liam Finn
and as part of Crowded House with
his father, Neil Finn), Elroy Finn (going simply by Elroy) will release his debut
self-titled album on Aug. 13th,
2021. A talented multi-instrumentalist – “I was obviously
surrounded by instruments a lot growing up thanks to my Dad, so I was very
fortunate in that way,” he says – Elroy was written, produced,
recorded, and mixed by Elroy
himself. A brief self-release of the record in his native New
Zealand earned attention right away for the hazy, coaxing sound that Elroy says he hopes will “evoke the
weightless feeling you get just before you fall asleep.” It does. New Zealand’s national newspaper Sunday Star Times describes the album as “acquiring layers of sounds
and textures and falsetto vocal harmonies” that “gradually transforms into a
sturdy wee slab of lo-fi psychedelia.” The paper goes on to highlight the upcoming single “Worth The Wait,” describing Elroy’s performance as “a tentative
romantic assessing a new relationship, his voice sweet and airy, like a
Brazilian bossa nova singer parachuted into the middle of an indie pop song.” Elroy says the tune is only a “non-specific, ambiguous love
song,” which feels like he is speaking from a place of humility that could only
be developed by growing up surrounded by legendary songwriting talent. The tune is actually a fine example of Elroy’s ability throughout the album to
hit that sweet spot where the songs are “gentle and catchy,” but “deceptively
difficult to write,” as noted in the Sunday
Star-Times. Similarly, New Zealand’s Listener Magazine, calling the record “bold and assured,”
recognizes Elroy’s modesty, saying
he “has done well to avoid the pitfalls of emulation or rebellion.” With this
record, he takes “the tropes of the catchy, melodic music he was raised around
and deliberately drapes them in a shimmering, beguiling gauze.” In regard to his lyrics, Elroy is equally humble. “As far as lyrics go, I tend not to over explain
meanings as I think it’s really important for people to mis-hear and interpret
them however they want,” he explains, adding slyly, “It’s also better, because
it means I don’t have to admit if the song isn’t really about anything.” Perhaps this notion is just Elroy’s humility shining through yet again, or maybe it is a
defining characteristic of the deceptive simplicity of his music. Elroy
arrives Aug. 13th, 2021
on the Grand Phony label, preceded
by the singles “Excite Me Much,”“Life Is At Home,” and “Worth The Wait.” Elroy is available
for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom
at Fanatic for more information. +++ Elroy | Links ASSETS : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : BANDCAMP : GRAND PHONY RECORDS +++ Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact WEBSITE
: FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL
