“I know I shouldn’t need it but I want affection / I know I shouldn’t want it but I need attention,” sings Amber Bain – AKA UK musician The Japanese House – on “Touching Yourself”, a sad and sexy pop-leaning earworm about desire and heartbreak. Much of second album In the End It Always Does is contradictory like this: beginnings and endings, obsession and mundanity, falling in love and falling apart. It’s the perfect circular portrait of a relationship – with others, with herself, with an experience – hence the simple, circular album cover.
Written during a creative burst at the end of 2021, In the End It Always Does is primarily inspired by the events preceding it – including Bain’s first time moving to Margate, being in a throuple and the slow dissolution of those relationships. “[These two people] were together for six years and I met them and then we all fell in love at the same time – and then one of them left,” Bain’s remembers. “It was a ridiculously exciting start to a relationship. It was this high… And then suddenly I’m in this really domestic thing, and it’s not like there was other stuff going on – it was lockdown.”
The album came together just as that chapter in her life was falling apart, with each song almost acting as a snapshot in time. From the dizzying swell of album opener “Spot Dog” (a rework of the 101 Dalmatians theme, her exes favourite film) to the emotional gut punch of “Over There” (an ode to relinquishing the throuple) and the sugar-sweet pop hooks of “Sunshine Baby” (a bright, bittersweet acceptance of the end), so much of In the End It Always Does glitters and shimmers with the mixed feelings of finally letting go. “Love was never the issue. I never wasn’t in love,” says Bain. “But I realised I wasn’t in love with myself. We broke up when the album was done.”
Hailing from the red dirt clay of Mobile, Alabama, the Red Clay Strays have spent the past year trailblazing their musical path across the nation by bringing their unique blend of tunes to stages ranging from the intimate to the large-scale in small towns and big cities all over the country. Amidst the success of their debut album Moment of Truth, the seasoned band of road warriors has kept pedal to the metal as of late making major festival appearances at HWY 30 Fest, Bonnaroo, Peacemaker Festival, Under the Big Sky, Mile-0 Fest, Lollapalooza, and CMA Fest, as well as opening for esteemed acts including Kip Moore, Nikki Lane, Old Crow Medicine Show, Paul Cauthen, Brothers Osborne, and The Steel Woods. Throughout their 2023 tenure of live performances, the band has rightfully continued to garner industry attention by touring alongside notable hit-makers such as Elle King, Dierks Bentley, and Eric Church. And the industry is certainly noticing–after a jam-packed summer tour that catapulted them onto the fast track of becoming a household name. The band was welcomed to walk into the circle at the Grand Ole Opry, culminating lifelong dreams no doubt a result of the years of hard work and drive spent honing their craft. This Fall, the Red Clay Strays prepare to continue cementing their well-deserved status as one of America’s fastest-rising bands and taking the world by storm with their first major headlining tour, the Way Too Long Tour. With their explosive chemistry on stage and eclectic rock-n-roll sound that is distinctively their own, they’re bound to burn stages down everywhere. Get your ticket while you can for the Way Too Long Tour this fall!
flipturn makes indie music for endless summers, sun-streaked days, and introspective nights. It’s a cinematic sound rooted not only in the Florida towns where the musicians first banded together as teenagers, but also in the anthemic live show that’s taken flipturn from coast to coast. In the time since
their formation, flipturn has mushroomed to reaches far beyond the walls of the Fernandina Beach garage they first practiced in. Built up by Dillon Basse (lead vocals/rhythm guitar), Tristan Duncan (lead guitar), Madeline Jarman (bass), Mitch Fountain (synth), and Devon VonBalson (drums), the band has
long prepared for the release of their debut album Shadowglow; a snapshot of a band caught halfway between youthful optimism and adult precision, with songs that target the head as well as the heart.
With over 100 million streams on Spotify alone, countless sold-out headline shows across the US, and tours with Mt. Joy, Rainbow Kitten Surprise and Wilderado, the band has more than proven their place in the indie scene. 2022 saw flipturn join the prestigious lineups of Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Shaky Knees, Hangout, SunFest, and Levitate. flipturn recently signed with Dualtone Records to further amplify the release of their debut album, joining their legendary roster of the likes of The Lumineers, Chuck Berry and Shakey Graves.
From serenading the dimly-lit corners of East London pubs to Courting interest from several major record labels, agents, promoters & publishers in a few short months, The Dinner Party have burst forth gloriously into the guitar music renaissance.
Conceived during a wine-stained evening in Brixton, the name embodies a musical and aesthetic ethos of decadence, mystery, spectacle and charm. Finding artistry in the intersection between the beautiful, sublime and grotesque, the band are guided by their favourite Romantic poets and Gothic novelists.
The preceding years of isolation and anxiety have only served to heighten The Dinner Party’s creative appeal as they usher in a new era of unashamed maximalism and untethered euphoria. They cast their net of inspiration across artists and genres, from Kate Bush and David Bowie, glam rock and new wave, to unexpected moments of twelve bar blues, classical overture and heavy synth breakdowns.
Singer Abigail, guitarists Emily and Lizzie, keyboardist Aurora and bassist Georgia weave a fantasy of haunting melodies, explosive choruses, and lyrics that embrace tragedy and triumph in equal measure. At their shows, the band lead audiences through the soaring crescendos and pin-drop silences of the most debaucherous dinner parties, gathering a dedicated and growing company of attendees with every performance.
The band are currently based in London writing, recording, and preparing for their next spectacle.
You are cordially invited.
The Dinner Party
Sam Barber was raised on a farm in a small town in Southeast Missouri surrounded by a supportive family and an abundance of friends. Most of his childhood was devoted to athletics where he learned many lessons such as the importance of a team, practice, discipline, respect and hard work. Music has not always been his passion and as a child, he never participated in music class or music performances. Sam’s music journey has been completely unplanned and his success continues to astound him. When he was 16, Sam picked up his great grandfather’s Gibson, out of tune with 5 strings and fell in love with the art of playing. He soon learned that he also had the God-given talent to sing along. Sam’s vision is to continue to grow and become stronger as a vocalist and songwriter. He wants to deliver songs that people feel in their soul. Above all, he wants to stay true to his faith, the man he truly is, and the type of music he wants to make without boundaries or conforming.
Since releasing Drowning in March Sam’s social reach has soared past half a million followers and garnered over 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Sam has hit the Global viral charts and reached #1 in UK, Aus, Ire and more.
Josiah and the Bonnevilles is a musical project led by singer-songwriter Josiah Leming. Josiah was born in Morristown, Tennessee and as a child, Josiah was fascinated by music and began playing the piano and guitar at a young age.
Josiah’s musical talents became evident to his family and friends, and he began performing as a teenager catching the attention of music industry professionals. In 2010, he formed Josiah and the Bonnevilles, which presented a unique blend of Folk, Americana, and Country that draws from his roots as a true Appalachian artist, embracing honesty and putting life’s realities into his songwriting.
In 2015, Josiah and the Bonnevilles released its debut album, On Trial. The album was praised for its raw, vulnerable lyrics and its combination of acoustic and electric instruments that underpinned the storytelling. The band went on tour in support of the album with the artist LP, performing at various venues across the United States and Europe.
Since the release of On Trial, Josiah and the Bonnevilles have continued to make music and tour, gaining a devoted fan base along the way. Josiah remains grounded and focused on his music. He has spoken openly about his struggles with mental health, addiction, and the music industry as a whole and uses his songwriting as a form of therapy. He continues to inspire his fans with his honesty and vulnerability, and his music has touched the hearts of people around the world.
As its title suggests, Revealer—the new album by Madison Cunningham—is full of confessions, intimations, and hard truths the Los Angeles singer-songwriter-guitarist might rather have kept to herself. It’s a warts-and-all self-portrait of a young artist who is full of doubt and uncertainty, yet bursting with exciting ideas about music and life, who has numerous Grammy nominations but still feels like she has far to go, who turns those misgivings into songs that are confident in their idiosyncrasies. It’s also a rumination on music as a vehicle for such revelations, what’s gained and what’s lost when you put words to your innermost feelings. “There’s a sense of conflict about revealing anything about yourself—not just what to reveal, but whether you should reveal anything at all,” she says. “When you have to vouch for yourself and present a true picture of who you are, that can get confusing very quickly. This record is a product of me trying to find myself and my interests again. I felt like somewhere along the way I had lost the big picture of my own life.”
Reassembling that picture resulted in songs full of odd turns of phrase, skewed imagery, and witty asides; Cunningham writes to figure things out, and she doesn’t settle for easy answers or pat platitudes. Instead, more often than not she pulls the rug out from under herself, playing both straight man and comic relief. “I’m not immune to a piece of bad news, I just do what I must to move on,” she sings on the percolating opener “All I’ve Ever Known.” If it sounds like a cry of determination and fortitude, Cunningham immediately undercuts herself: “Give me truth but put me under so I don’t feel a thing.”
Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners are a folk-rock group based in Bozeman, MT consisting of longtime friends Mitch Cutts, Nic Haughn, and Jakob Ervin. The trio started RMCM as high schoolers back in 2017, and since then they’ve used RMCM as a platform to independently release music and create art.
In the past few years, 25-year-old Sabrina Teitelbaum has transformed into a songwriter without fear. The loud-quiet excavations that comprise her hook-filled debut as Blondshell don’t only stare traumas in the eye—they tear them at the root and shake them, bringing precise detail to colossal feelings. They’re clear-eyed statements of and about digging your way towards confidence, self-possession, and relief.
Teitelbaum grew up in a classic rock-loving household in several Midtown Manhattan apartments, raised primarily by her single dad. During an era of sleek teen radio pop, her most formative childhood obsession was the Rolling Stones. Piano and guitar offered a means of processing the instability around her. “I had a lot of really big feelings, but I had learned as a child that I couldn’t really express them,” she says. “Performing and writing ended up being the only place where I could get any feelings out.” In high school, she discovered new indie-rock bands by scouring the websites of Bowery venues with her fake ID in hand—teen fascinations that instilled in her a love for lyrics with specificity and intensity, particularly as learned from The National, whose lyrics “informed a lot of the way I write.”
But when Teitelbaum moved to Los Angeles for music school in 2015, she began forging a different path. Entering USC’s Pop Program, she was swept into a context where the brooding pop legacies of Lorde and Lana Del Rey reigned. She dropped out after two years, but Teitelbaum studied classic and jazz theory, the art of harmonies, and found herself writing songs inside the world of pop studio sessions.
The biggest gift the pop machine gave her was the stark clarity of realizing that she didn’t quite belong there. Her music was increasingly too raw and intense to easily categorize, and after finishing her last full-on pop EP with producer Yves Rothman (Yves Tumor, Girlpool, Porches) at the start of the pandemic, she gave herself permission to write without expectation. She began penning songs just for herself, with no thought that she would release them. The process emboldened her. Subtracting self-consciousness became a catalyst for the lucid songs of Blondshell, on which her experiences all coalesce to form her truest expressions of self yet. “It was me, as a person, in my songs,” she says. When she showed a few to Rothman, he encouraged her to write an album, joining a chorus of friends saying, “This is you.”
Let’s face it: There’s no such thing as “real life”. There is only experience and the negotiations we undertake in order to share it with other people. On her second album Blue Raspberry, the New York-based songwriter Katy Kirby dives headlong into the artifice of intimacy: the glitter smeared across eyelid creases, the smiles switched on with an electric buzz, the synthetic rose scent all over someone who’s made herself smell nice just for you. An exegesis of Kirby’s first queer relationship, Blue Raspberry traces the crescendo and collapse of new love, savoring each gleaming shard of rock candy and broken glass along the way.
Originally from Spicewood, Texas, Kirby was living in Nashville when she started writing Blue Raspberry’s title track, the first of the album’s songs to take shape. “‘Blue Raspberry’ is the oldest song on the record. I began to write it a month or so before I realized, I think I’m queer,” she says. “There’s a tradition of yearning in country love songs. I like the male yearning songs better, usually. I started writing ‘Blue Raspberry,’ and I was thinking about, if I was in love with a woman, what would I love about her? Especially if she was someone that I couldn’t touch, but that I was pining for. What would I be caught on? And I thought that I would probably be particularly charmed by the choices she made on how to look after she woke up in the morning. I thought about tackiness, and the ways that’s a dirty word. That’s where the title comes from—loving someone for those choices, for the artificiality.”
Blue Raspberry follows Kirby’s acclaimed debut album Cool Dry Place, which was also recorded in Nashville and released in February of 2021. While the songs on that record unfold amidst Kirby finding her voice, Blue Raspberry is a polished and confident sophomore effort that deepens the questions that bubbled through Cool Dry Place about how people can reach each other despite all the hazard zones where human connection caves in.
