NEW Singles & Videos + Release Announcements + Brand New Signings
Hot new things, BAR ITALIA join the Matador Records roster! | MATADOR
bar italia, the London based trio of Nina Cristante, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi and Sam Fenton, have joined the Matador Records roster. In celebration the band release new single “Nurse!”.
Pitchfork noted, “On “Nurse!,” their narcotically arresting new single, the guitar tones ring out of some liminal space where the fumes of Joy Division and the Cure mingle with echoes of early King Krule, while the million-mile remove of the vocals —“A mask covered your eyes and you move like crazy to your favorite song,” someone sneers—dimly summon Thurston Moore.”
“Bar Italia are the best new band in London” – The Face
“London’s most exciting new band” – Crack
The Times ‘10 rising stars to listen out for’
50th Anniversary of TOM WAITS’ Debut Album ‘Closing Time’ | Anti- Records
March 6th, 2023, marks fifty years since Tom Waits released his landmark debut album ‘Closing Time’. Called “a minor key masterpiece filled with songs of late-night loneliness” by All Music Guide, ‘Closing Time’ features the distinctly lyrical storytelling and blending of jazz, blues and folk styles that would come to be associated first with Waits. In honor of this occasion Anti will be collecting and sharing untold stories, rare photos and more.
The album’s 50th anniversary vinyl will be available in black and clear versions as a double 180g LP cut at 45 RPM with half speed mastering by London’s Abbey Road Studios. The gatefold jacket was also specially created with thicker board and black poly-lined inner sleeves. Coming out on June 2, Pre-order it here - https://tomwaits.ffm.to/closingtime
THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH shares new single | Anti- Records
The Tallest Man On Earth – project of Swedish musician Kristian Matsson – announces ‘Henry St’, his first new album in four years, out April 14th via ANTI-. Alongside the announcement, Matsson presents its lead single/video, ‘Every Little Heart‘ . “Henry St. is the most playful, most me album yet, because it covers so many of the different noises in my head,” says Matsson. “When you overthink things, you get further away from your original ideas. And God knows I overthink things when I’m by myself.”
ANGEL OLSEN announces Forever Means, New EP Out April 14th | Jagjaguwar
Big Time, Angel Olsen’s stunning 2022 record, is “one big expanse, where the past and the future are knowable and deeply felt, fully enclosed in the moment” (Pitchfork). It brought Olsen to a deeper, truer sense of self than ever before, and was deemed one of the year’s best releases by the likes of The New York Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NPR and countless others. Olsen has announced Forever Means, her new EP out April 14th on Jagjaguwar, and presents its lead single/lyric video, “Nothing’s Free.”
BARTEES STRANGE releases new single 'Daily News' Extern | 4AD
Bartees Strange releases ‘Daily News’ to streaming services for the first time. The song was previously available as a bonus track on the physical formats of his much lauded 2022 album Farm To Table. ABOUT BARTEES STRANGE: Born Bartees Leon Cox Jr. in Ipswich, England to a military father and opera-singer mother, Bartees had a peripatetic early childhood before eventually settling in Mustang, Oklahoma. Later, Bartees cut his teeth playing in hardcore bands in Washington D.C. and Brooklyn whilst working in the Barack Obama administration and (eventually) the environmental movement. Since charting a path as a solo artist, Bartees Strange has released two records in quick succession: an EP reimagining songs by The National (Say Goodbye To Pretty Boy, 2020) and his debut album proper Live Forever (2020).
19yr old, not dvr RELEASES NEW SINGLE “prettynames” | XL Recordings
19-year-old Dillon Van Rensburg aka artist and producer not dvr returns with “prettynames”, the second release this year via XL Recordings following “emptyhouse”. Listen at the leap! This new music from Dillon builds on the success of 2022’s acclaimed “dirty tapes” EP, a release that presented a full-circle moment for a musician who went from DIY bedroom producer to an artist collaborating with Kenny Beats in just over a year.
ROE KAPARA ANNOUNCES DEBUT EP ‘I HOPE HELL ISN’T REAL’ | EPITAPH
In the past year Roe has seen his fanbase grow to over 260k followers and 4.6M likes on TikTok – in part due to his endearingly unpretentious personality, but also with his irresistibly modern swirl of indie, psych, dream pop and alternative songs. Last month he announced his signing to Epitaph with the track “Better Off” and today he shares the EP’s lead single and music video, “Preacher.”
Depicting religious symbolism and a joyfully uncomfortable deadpan delivery, Roe explains: “Preacher is an homage to the cult horror genre. It also pulls from my personal experience growing up as a community member of the Catholic church in Missouri. I want the listener to step into the shoes of a young, impressionable kid that is being manipulated and molded by their religious upbringing.”
Inspired by the vivid imagery and surrealist plots of 90’s movies such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Roe Kapara’s debut EP ‘I Hope Hell Isn’t Real’ follows a similar formula.
‘I Hope Hell Isn’t Real’ out on April 14th via Epitaph Records.
Ex Dr. Dog, SCOTT MCMICKEN AND THE EVER-EXPANDING share 'Reconcile' | Anti- Records
Scott McMicken and THE EVER-EXPANDING are sharing ‘Reconcile’, the final pre-release single before the debut album ‘SHABANG’ comes out on March 31. Watch the band perform the track among a kaleidoscope of inverted colors in the song’s new video from the title link!
Because McMicken’s previous band, Dr. Dog, was composed of lifelong friends who over time developed an unbreakable musical bond, he decided to try something totally different this time: He told producer Nick Kinsey to choose his future bandmates himself, selecting a group of total strangers who could collaborate on these songs.
NYC duo, PURR share new song/video “CAVE” | Anti- Records
“Cave,” the latest track by New York City’s Purr, talks of taking a chance on love over cool melodies with Purr’s own take on a confident, 70’s inspired style. In the song’s video half of the band’s duo, Jack Staffen, sings the track in a flickering black and white clip.
Listen + Watch “Cave” - Link in title.
Aotearoa's FAZERDAZE shares new track “Flood Into” | FLYING NUN
Aotearoa New Zealand singer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Fazerdaze (real name: Amelia Murray) has shared an addictively hooky new song for ‘Flood Into,’ making the previously vinyl-only track available across all platforms for the first time. ‘Flood Into’ appears on Fazerdaze’s first project in over five years – the powerful and cathartic ‘Break!’ EP – out now via section1 worldwide and Flying Nun Records in New Zealand. Listen at the link!
In Amelia’s words, “‘Flood Into’ is about a deep love and loss, and the reclamation of myself at the end of that cycle. It’s the feeling of my own energy rushing to fill me back up again. I wrote Flood Into in anticipation of a break up. The song embodies all the melancholy I felt from letting go of someone I loved in order to walk my own path and learn to stand in my own frame again.”
New Albums & EPs Out Now
MDOU MOCTAR - NIGER EP VOL. 2 out now on vinyl!!!!
Just a reminder - especially to our wahanu also heading to WOMAD this weekend - these two EPs are out NOW on vinyl - HIt up your fave record store to get them! Don't dilly dally - limited quantities... See you at WOMAD ...
Tours, Events and Festivals
TINY RUINS Ceremony Album Release Tour 2023 + 'Dogs Dreaming' |Ursa Minor
To celebrate the upcoming release of their fourth album, Ceremony, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland based Tiny Ruins will embark on an eight-date headline tour around Aotearoa this Autumn. Ceremony, out April 28th, is the much-anticipated follow-up to 2019’s celebrated Olympic Girls. Tickets for the tour go on presale from today, March 13! Click the header to get to the link!
Its WOMAD week y'all!! Come join!
20 Years ago WOMAD went to Ngāmotu - this is our tenth year anniversary as their publicists & we are looking to celebrate with you! 17-19 MARCH, 2023! TICKETS SELLING FAST! REDISCOVER THE WORLD OF MUSIC AND DANCE THIS MARCH! womad.co.nz
OUT THIS WEEK!!! - Rāmere/Friday 17 Maere/March
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA – V – Album release on Limited NZ Only vinyl, Standarad Vinyl, CD & cassette - via Jagjaguwar Created between Palm Springs, California and Hilo, Hawai’i, V is the first double album from the Hawaiian-New Zealand singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Ruban Nielson’s Unknown Mortal Orchestra band. Designed to play as one continuous movement and road-tested on dry California freeways, V is the definitive Unknown Mortal Orchestra car record. It’s also the fifth full-length album Ruban has released in twelve years. Across fourteen sunbleached songs – written solo or with his brother Kody – Ruban draws from the rich traditions of West Coast AOR, yacht rock, weirdo pop and Hawaiian Hapa-haole music. Over a laidback blend of singalong anthems and cinematic instrumentals, he evokes blue skies, afternoons spent lounging by hotel swimming pools and the alluring darkness that lurks below perfect, pristine surfaces. It’s a duality expressed in the dilapidated sunset blues and the salt-corroded soul Ruban explores through tracks like ‘Layla’ and ‘Nadja.