Friday, September 1, 2023

Name makes you say, “Huh?” Songs makes you say, “Whoa!” Hear “gorgeous, dreamy guitar pop” (Brooklyn Vegan) of Norway’s Fuckleberry Hinn.

Pun-work extends to title of band’s sprawling 22-track debut album “Neither/Nor” (RIP Elliott), out today. Get moved by current “Nobody” single here.

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Fuckleberry Hinn (L-R): Øystein Ulvund, Tord Nyheim Hovde, Ole Jørgen Slungaard Kristensen, Øystein Megård, Hallvard Løberg Näsvall. Photo credit: Elin Stømner.


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Fuckleberry Hinn | “Nobody”



“Gorgeous, dreamy guitar pop.” — Brooklyn Vegan

“Rich in gorgeous layers of sound.” — Treble


[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/FuckleberryHinn-Nobody


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Fuckleberry Hinn

Neither/Nor

(Wonderful & Strange)

Out Now



Track Listing:

 01. Perfect Haircuts (STREAM)

02. Yes to All

03. Low Bar (STREAM)

04. Disco Dancing

05. Nothing

06. Dawg

07. Kind Rewind

08. Stone Cold (STREAM)

09. Argh, Argh

10. Nobody (STREAM)

11. Ein dram i timen

12. Work in Progress (STREAM)

13. Daybreak

14. Hello

15. Fortuna (STREAM)

16. Dead Mans Hand

17. Assumptions (STREAM)

18. Redshift Memories

19. Calm Before The Storm (STREAM)

20. Stay Down

21. Never Better (STREAM)

22. No Cover


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Fuckleberry Hinn | About

The colorful washes of My Bloody Valentine, the unflinching sensitivity of Elliott Smith, and the unimpeachable idealism of Fugazi mix with innocent wonder on the sprawling 22-track double-album debut by Norway’s Fuckleberry Hinn.


The DIY ethos of the Elephant 6 Collective is a production influence that underpins the commanding urgency heard on the more than half-dozen singles that the group has released to date.

Now, the eyebrow-raising wordplay of the band’s name extends to the title of Fuckleberry Hinn’s long-awaited album Neither/Nor (out now via Wonderful & Strange Records), a punny tribute to Smith’s modern classic Either/Or, a touchstone album for Fuckleberry Hinn’s founding core pair of Øysteins: Øystein Ulvund and Øystein Megård.

“We started out as a duo in late 2019, with no real intentions of starting a band,” Megård says. “After we somehow ended up getting booked to play a gig without really being a group yet, we gathered a troupe and became one.”

In addition to Megård (who also performs in The Sideways and The High Water Marks) and Ulvund, Fuckleberry Hinn now includes Tord Nyheim Hovde (Lâche) on Bass, Ole Jørgen Kristensen (earth moon transit) on Guitar, and Hallvard Løberg Näsvall (This Daze, Slåppy) on Drums.

Fuckleberry Hinn’s debut album displays a knack for many different styles of song, which was decidedly not by design.

“The album varies from quiet singer-songwriter tunes to noisy punk songs,” Megård explains. “There’s even a sea shanty.

“We have never had any predetermined course of action. We thought Fuckleberry Hinn would be a great name for a punk band when we came up with it years before we even started making music together.

“But our first song was so mellow and not punk that we quickly decided we would just make whatever we felt like.”

“Nobody,” the final single prior to the release of Neither/Nor is an anthem, and perhaps the album’s most memorable track.

“Am I depressed or just lazy

Is my mind playing tricks

Or am I going crazy

And now I’m rambling”

Megård taps into human frailties and failings in universal ways to great effect on this song. It’s not surprising to find out that it came to him at a time when we are all vulnerable.

‘Nobody’ started out as a dream. It really happens, it’s not just a thing McCartney claims! I woke up having dreamt a song, and after scrambling around, I managed to make a kind-of comprehensible sketch of the chorus. It took some time later to decode the recording I made on my phone.”

“Nobody will know, nobody will understand”

That’s how the chorus that arrived that night goes. It’s a sentiment that everyone has felt at one time or another, and yet somehow, the finished song makes understanding a lot easier.

Neither/Nor is the 22-track double-album debut by Norway’s Fuckleberry Hinn, out today via Wonderful & Strange Records. The band’s latest single “Nobody” is out now.

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Fuckleberry Hinn | Links


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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Loose Wing drops “Capital Alphabet,” “a gritty and defiant indie pop song” that makes it “hard not to believe… that anything is possible.”

Low’s influence on band’s Claire Tucker is subject of KEXP chat ahead of benefit she organized earlier this year; “Miracle Baby” out Nov. 10.

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Loose Wing (L-R): Aimee Zoe, Jack Peters, Claire Tucker, Bill Patton. Photo credit: Joshua Simons.


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Loose Wing | “Capital Alphabet”





“She sings it with such beauty and gusto, it’s hard not to believe for the duration of a three-minute pop song that anything is possible.” — For The Rabbits

“It’s a gritty and defiant indie pop song that rallies against the soul-sucking drudgery enforced on many by the capitalist overlords.” — Various Small Flames

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Loose Wing

Miracle Baby

(Drums & Wires Recordings)

Nov. 10, 2023

Track Listing:

01. Capital Alphabet (STREAM)

02. Skirts

03. Bleeding My Arms

04. Unnatural

05. Country Numbers

06. Kneeling Angelica

07. Dragging Days

08. Distant Lawns

09. Saucer Eyes

10. Elements

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Loose Wing | In The Press


“There’s a thinking-it-all-over feeling that calls up ‘Angel of the Morning’ by Merilee Rush and the Turnabouts — another Seattle band, from 50 years ago. They walked the same streets, and maybe some of the same dirt rubbed off. ” — Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone 

“Seattle has produced an unquantifiable amount of outstanding indie rock, and now Loose Wing are serving as an example that the area’s still got it. ” — Uproxx

“Nine songs that fearlessly explore themes of anxiety, isolation, intimacy, and teen angst that has yet to be outgrown. ” — The Big Takeover

“Captures emotional distress with poignant grace.” — Atwood Magazine

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Loose Wing | About



Legendary journalist Greil Marcus stays true to his reputation as a scholar of modern rock’s intersection with rock history when noting in a 2019 Rolling Stone column that “some of the same dirt rubbed off” in regard to how Seattle foursome Loose Wing picked up mess from fellow Emerald City singer Merilee Rush, best-known for her 1968 hit “Angel of the Morning.” 

Loose Wing hasn’t cleaned up completely since its critically praised debut album — “Loose Wing are serving as an example that the area’s still got it,” says UPROXX. Instead the band, led by songwriter Claire Tucker, has further focused its pounding and present sound via the upcoming Miracle Baby (Nov. 10, Drums & Wires Recordings.)

Miracle Baby delivers an even more potent version of Loose Wing’s ability to capture themes of “isolation, intimacy, and teen angst that has yet to be outgrown” (The Big Takeover), recalling Neko Case or LowTucker recently organized a benefit concert to benefit Low’s surviving member Alan Sparhawk following the untimely passing of Mimi Parker — set loose through the lens of Throwing Muses.

Fans of PJ Harvey, Kate Bush, and Guided By Voices will also understand.

Much of Miracle Baby was recorded at Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, WA where another sonic touchstone — U.F.O.F. by Big Thief — was produced. Being at Bear Creek made an impression on Tucker, and on the record.

“It felt like a great place to immerse ourselves in the recording process and to find inspiration,” Tucker members. “It was a bit of a rock and roll vacation. The studio has a little apartment area, where we would work on overdub ideas on the grand piano, vintage pump organ, and other instruments. Or we would soak in the hot tub by the creek.”

Things are looking up for the company

They’re gonna buy the moon

Things are looking up for the company

We’ve got a flash sale on single use plastics 

These lyrics are taken from “Capital Alphabet,” the lead track and first single taken from Miracle Baby. “I had a web development job I hated,” Tucker explains. “I was in way over my head and having panic attacks while driving to work.”

“Capital Alphabet” is a perfect example of Tucker’s ability to make plain complex feelings of anxiety about consumerism, and the rest of Miracle Baby repeats that tension, albeit around more personal reflections on Tucker’s sense of “contemporary humanity.”

While Tucker claims that Miracle Baby is “sort of a grab-bag,” thematically, the album holds together quite well, even with its divergent styles that shouldn’t work on one album, but do.

“We like to keep things interesting,” Tucker (Guitar, Vocals, Keys) says of her bandmates, Jack Peters (Bass), Aimee Zoe (Drums, Percussion,) and Bill Patton (Guitar, Pedal Steel, Vocals, Keys.) “I think we influence each other, and maybe that explains why no two songs on this album sound alike.”

Maybe Greil Marcus’ “dirt rubbed off” reference subconsciously makes Miracle Baby what it is.

Miracle Baby, the second album by Seattle foursome Loose Wing arrives Nov. 10 via Drums & Wires Recordings preceded by the single “Capital Alphabet,” out now.

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Loose Wing | Links

ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBEBANDCAMP : SPOTIFY : APPLE : LABEL

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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact

Monday, August 28, 2023

Sibling duo Charlie Belle has been a band most of their lives; “What Is This” single - out Sept. 15 - is Jendayi & Gyasi’s most personal music yet.

“Scared of something that doesn’t exist. Yeah I’m scared of something that doesn’t exist,” they solemnly sing, vocalizing a universal truth.

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Charlie Belle (L-R): Jendayi Bonds, Gyasi Bonds. Photo by Nehemiah Brent.


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[TEASER]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER4WdtQS_Fw 


“What Is This” is the upcoming new single (out Sept. 15) from Jendayi and Gyasi Bonds aka sister-brother duo Charlie Belle.


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Charlie Belle

“What Is This”

Sept. 15, 2023

(S/R)


“Helicopters flying... filming people dying. Got a roof and it’s downtown. I can hear the sirens.”

 “This lyric is about the George Floyd protests,” Gyasi Bonds of Charlie Belle explains of his sister Jendayi’s lyric, before continuing with an insight that only a sibling could truly have: “The ‘roof’ isn’t just a physical place. It symbolizes Jendayi’s mind and her anxious, scary, stressful thoughts too.”

“What Is This,” the new single by Charlie Belle, arrives Sept. 15, 2023.

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 Charlie Belle | In The Press

 “Easygoing yet innovative vibes.” — NYLON

“Definitely a band you want to know.” — AfroPunk

 “Wanna feel good? Press play.” — Vice

 “An unabashedly vibrant blend of sound.” — American Songwriter

 “The most infectious kind of power-pop.” — Wired

 “Outstanding.” — NPR

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 Charlie Belle | About

 Sibling duo Jendayi and Gyasi Bonds have been the band Charlie Belle for most of their lives. Talented, outspoken, Black, and queer, the sister and brother are perhaps most of all, more experienced at music making than their peers.

 International acclaim arrived when Jendayi and Gyasi were just sixteen and fourteen-years-old. NPR, Nylon, MTV, Vice, and Wired profiled the pair, and Jendayi and Gyasi appeared together on the cover of the Austin Chronicle, their hometown paper at the time.

 Two new singles and videos in 2020 continued the forward motion.

 “We’ve been a band for over a decade and we’ve been Black our whole lives. Now more than ever there’s a spotlight on what Black artists bring to the table in all genres,” Jendayi explained at the time.

 Now, in a 2023 world, as adults living in Brooklyn, Jendayi and Gyasi are products of a time that continually challenges them to be exactly who they are. The maturity that comes with life experience sounds great alongside their musical history on the upcoming Charlie Belle single and video “What Is This,” scheduled for release on September 15.

 The new song is a deeper groove than Charlie Belle has ever offered before, and lyrically, it reflects exactly who Jendayi is today.

 “Helicopters flying... filming people dying. Got a roof and it’s downtown. I can hear the sirens.”

 “This lyric is about the George Floyd protests,” Gyasi explains, before continuing with an insight that only a sibling could truly have: “The ‘roof’ isn’t just a physical place. It symbolizes Jendayi’s mind and her anxious, scary, stressful thoughts.”

 “It’s bittersweet watching him grow up,” Jendayi says of her thoughtful brother. “We’re so close in age, but just far enough away where I can see what Gyasi is going through from being on the other side of it. What a gift it has been to be on this journey together.”

Jendayi and Gyasi’s journey is not solitary. They speak to us, too:

 “Scared of something that doesn’t exist. Yeah I’m scared of something that doesn’t exist,” they solemnly sing on the “What Is This” chorus. This isn’t just Jendayi’s mind now. It’s everyone at one time or another.

 “Do you feel it too?” Jendayi wonders. “Because the first time Gyasi played this track for me, it gave me chills and I immediately knew we would release it. I was bumping along to it, scrolling through my notes app — where my old lyrics go to die — and I knew in my soul that this song was what these words had been waiting for.”

“With more life behind me, I can express myself with more intention,” Jendayi concludes, referencing the music that Charlie Belle made when they were so much younger. “It is so bizarre gaining recognition for shit you did as a kid, but I don’t want to replace the image people have of us, I want to add to it.”

 “What Is This,” the latest single and video by sister-brother duo Charlie Belle arrives September 15.

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 Charlie Belle | Links

 ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : TIKTOK : BANDCAMP : SPOTIFY : APPLE

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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact