Sloan Simpson has recorded his friends for years; Now he convenes with them on his debut album as Sloan Brothers.

NEWS

Sloan Simpson has been recording for over two decades. Until now, none of the music has been his own.

This changes with the release of his debut album System Update (May 13th, 2022, Science Project Records) under the name Sloan Brothers.

The Athens, Georgia-based musician played rock and jazz guitar growing up, but was frustrated by the hit his talents took when a serious car accident sidelined him. Simpson sold all of his guitars and quit the instrument.

With music still in his blood, if not in his grasp, Simpson began to document, through live taping, the local scene in his new hometown of Atlanta, eventually relocating to nearby Athens after years spent driving between the two as part of his recording endeavors. His new hobby had become a good habit.

Simpson explains, “I asked my friend Robert Schneider (co-founder of The Apples In Stereo and Elephant Six Recording Co.) if he would record backing vocals on the song “Into My Mind,” and he agreed. As I kept writing more songs, I would ask more friends I knew from recording shows over the years to contribute guest parts.”

After half a lifetime taking home tapes of the personal struggles of others in song, it’s about time that Simpson is giving us the same opportunity with his unexpected, thrilling work.

System Update, the debut album by Sloan Brothers arrives on May 13th via Science Project Records,

When songwriters Chet Delcampo and Heyward Howkins team up as Later Fortune, it's a "Win."

NEWS

Their names alone spark curiosity: Later Fortune is the Philly-based duo of Chet Delcampo and Heyward Howkins.

Both are busy musicians and songwriters working at the front, back, and on stage, as well as appearing on each other’s recordings. This makes their upcoming two-song “Lateral To The Devil” single (out Feb. 11th, 2022) a rare thing. The previous Later Fortune release dropped three years ago, but patience pays. 

Even at a mere two tracks and even with one being a cover (David Bowie’s Young Americans album cut “Win,” which Bowie biographer David Buckley called “one of the most gorgeous melodies Bowie has ever written”), it’s enough to underscore the taste and talent that results from decades of adulting in music.

“Lateral To The Devil” b/w/ “Win,” the upcoming single from Later Fortune, arrives Feb. 11th, 2022.

Linda Draper leans country, 20-years into her songwriting career, on upcoming "Patience and Lipstick," out Jan. 21st, 2022

NEWS

“I asked them what the secret to a long and happy marriage was,” Linda Draper says, recalling a post-gig conversation with a pair of married fans.

“Jack is very patient,” Ivana, a flight attendant who works long hours, explained. “And Linda,” she continued, “I always carry a tube of lipstick in my purse. No matter how late it is, as soon as I turn the corner towards home, I reapply!”

Patience and Lipstick (Jan. 21st, 2022, South Forty Records) is now the fortuitous title of Draper’s upcoming new album, and the tunes on the currently Brooklyn, soon to be North Carolina-based artist’s latest feel like they came about just as naturally.

“So the secret to a long and happy marriage is patience and lipstick?!,” Draper thought. “You know, I think there’s a song in there somewhere.”

Patience and Lipstick, the latest album by Linda Draper, is scheduled for release on Jan. 21st, 2022 preceded by the singles “Tether” (Oct. 8th), “‘81 Camaro” (Nov. 5th), and “All In Due Time” (Jan. 7th).

Austin, Texas-based songwriter Jenny Parrott follows-up her Top 10 Album of The Year (Austin Chronicle) with "The Fire I Saw" on Nov. 12th

NEWS

Jenny Parrott’s 2017 solo debut When I Come Down was named one of the Austin Chronicle’s Top 10 albums of that year. Her follow-up full-length The Fire I Saw arrives on Nov. 12th, 2021.

The new album is, naturally, an evolution of Parrott’s seemingly effortless lyricism, humor mixed with despair, and ultimately, her economic use of unforgettable melodies and just-right instrumentation that makes you feel like she’s seeing you even more than she’s seeing herself.

“These arms can’t stand an ever loving man. And these eyes can’t see a never changing me.”

The opening lines of first single “I Thought” (Out Oct. 1st, 2021) stop you dead in your tracks. A perfect example of what Parrott does over the course of an album that doesn’t even clock in past 25 minutes and doesn’t need to. Parrott takes care of all business during the brief span of the eight songs on The Fire I Saw, in a way many songwriters work an entire career towards and never reach.

The Fire I Saw, the second solo album by Jenny Parrott, arrives on Nov. 12th, 2021. Listen to album opener “Knockin’ Back Some Cokes” below.

MXDWN premieres Abbreviations' dreamy debut single, out now on Red Zeppelin Records

PREMIERE

In a premiere of their debut single “Turn On You,” MXDWN praises Red Zeppelin Records’ Abbreviations for their “haunting melodies, rich spaced-out guitar tones and somber lyrical themes... merges psychedelia and dream pop into their sound, pulling from each member’s rich history in the local music scene."

Dark themes akin to Updike, Bukowski, Dostoyevsky mix with musical influences of Radiohead, Townes Van Zandt, PJ Harvey. Introducing: Dallas-based God of Love.

NEWS

James Burnett, the man behind God of Love, took up the piano at 14-years-old just so he could join his older brother’s band.

“We had a small following in Dallas but by my senior year we were ready to split up,” he says.

Break-ups and make-ups, Burnett spent the next four or five years in and out of various bands with his brother and friends, recording two albums and moving to Los Angeles for a spell to pursue the dream.

However, he ultimately decided that he was his own best band mate.

“I had always wanted to take my own solo project seriously, so I decided to take advantage and focus on my own writing which takes on a more dark and brooding tone.”

Dark and brooding it is.

Propulsive and gripping, with influences ranging from Radiohead and The National to Townes Van Zandt and PJ Harvey, the upcoming single “Take You Seriously” by Burnett’s solo outing God of Love is out July 2nd on Red Zeppelin Records.

Dallas band Abbreviations sign to Red Zeppelin Records; To release debut single "Turn On You" June 18th.

NEWS

Abbreviations is a rock band from Dallas.

Also a pop band, an alternative band, and a supergroup (of sorts) i.e. members Ashley Leer (Guitar / Vox), Matt Leer (Guitar), Chad Walls (Bass), and Tony Wann (Drums) have played in many of the city’s most active bands over the years.

Staying active makes you strong, makes you super. “Turn On You,” the upcoming debut single from Abbreviations (Red Zeppelin, June 18th) radiates understated power.

No wonder that producer Stuart Sikes (himself a Grammy®-winning superpower for his work on Loretta Lynn’s Van Lear Rose, in addition to his credits with The White Stripes, Modest Mouse, Phosphorescent, Cat Power, and many more) signed on to helm “Turn On You.”

“It’s about that moment where you realize you have feelings for someone other than the one you’re with,” Ashley says of the tune. Abbreviations is finishing its debut album now with a release scheduled for late 2021.

Gregory Ackerman is "Still Waiting Still": Los Angeles-based songwriter teams again with Pierre de Reeder of Rilo Kiley (and new friends, too) for sophomore album, Out Sept. 17th

NEWS

“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.

“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.

Jared Colinger of The Enigmatic Foe initiates podcast in the ramp up to The Original Plan

NEWS

The Original Plan - the new album from The Enigmatic Foe - arrives July 30! Fans of Empire Of The Sun, tahiti 80, and #starflyer59 (with whom E-Foe's Jared Colinger has worked with previously) will feel the first single. Now, Colinger is offering up some insight into his creative process via a short podcast series with his collaborators.

He explains, "In this episode, you’ll be hearing a phone conversation I had with Frank Lenz who did the drums, percussion, and background vocals on The Original Plan. We spoke about music, his gear, the songwriting process, and you get a real behind the scenes look at the production of the album."

Check it out via the link in bio, then pre-order the gorgeous gatefold 45RPM double vinyl here.

Elroy Finn – going simply by Elroy – to release debut album following up extensive worldwide touring as part of father Neil’s band, Crowded House.

NEWS

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.”

Chris J Norwood's vulnerable, self-effacing songwriting - salted with a bit of required brainpower- is unique and uncool. "I Am Not Cool" arrives Aug 20th.

NEWS

Chris Norwood isn’t cool.

Or Chris J Norwood, as the Dallas-based singer-songwriter bills himself, is not cool.

So “not cool” that when searching for a synonym for “uncool” that starts with “J” in order to complete a lame joke, this writer could not find one.

Pretty damn uncool.

Norwood is honest, however, and in a world that becomes more cynical by the moment, the kind of honesty that he conjures and delivers so eloquently and elegantly on his new, very uncool, album I Am Not Cool (Aug. 20th, State Fair Records), well, that kind of uncool is... cool?

The album is the follow-up to Norwood’s much-praised 2017 debut record Longshot.

In addition to Norwood’s genial ability to say things you may not want to hear and leave you appreciating the experience, he is also masterful at a kind of tongue-in-cheek levity that is sorely missing from this genre.

There’s only two kinds of music

What’s true and what ain’t

It only takes three chords to set the record straight

Norwood sings these lyrics on the “I Am Not Cool” title cut, a perfect example of how his economy of words is quizzical, meta, and puts a smile on your face all at the same time.

I Am Not Cool, the second album by Chris J Norwood arrives via State Fair Records on Aug. 20th.

Needed: Jared Colinger's The Enigmatic Foe project often reminds of a melancholy Andy Partridge of XTC.

NEWS

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.

Samantha Sidley tells LA Weekly about E.T., John Williams, and The Hollywood Bowl

NEWS

Maybe you could guess that Samantha Sidley’s “Best Gig I Ever Saw" entry for LA Weekly would involve E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial. Go over and see what this is about and also take a look at the haunting, sensual, and pleasantly disoriented video for Sam's take on one of her favorite songs, the Disney classic “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes.” It’s out now from Release Me Records!

Bay Area Reporter recommends "I Like Girls," Samatha Sidley's lesbian jazz anthem

NEWS

Cheers to the Bay Area Reporter for including Samantha Sidley’s “I Like Girls” on a Valentine’s Day roundup of “New music From LGBT artists.” The song, which “could not be clearer in its sapphic intent,” is “both witty and unique.”

Since releasing Interior Person, the album from which “I Like Girls” is taken, Sam has put out several cover songs including her new version of “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” from Disney’s Cinderella. Stream it here.

The Bay Area Reporter hails Fredo Viola's upcoming LP as one to anticipate

NEWS

“With advance words of praise from author Neil Gaiman and influences ranging from classical to electronic to the Beach Boys/Brian Wilson and Kurt Weil,” The Bay Area Reporter writes, “experimental queer singer/songwriter Fredo Viola draws us into his renewed world (following a lengthy battle with Lyme disease).”

The iconic newspaper, which has been serving the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community since 1971, has Viola atop its “Queer Tunes For Your New Year” feature. Writer Gregg Shapiro praises his “dramatic touch… at a time when we could all use some healing.”

My New Head is out April 9, 2021.