Browsing Tag indie
Werner’s Weekly (week 21)
This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:
- Gizmo Varillas – Born Again (Wildcard this week)
- Bloxx – Lie Out Loud (Wildcard last week)
- May-a – Green
- Moby Rich & Bishop Briggs – Friends*
- The Rehats – Nothing But The Truth
- Washington – Dark Parts
- X Ambassadors with K.Flay & grandson – Zen
Click the links for more info and listen to each of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player below.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist. Also added last week: Editors, Ozark Henry, Indigo Girls, The Jayhawks, and many more.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Stuck On Planet Earth – Ghosts On The Radio
Adam Bianchi (guitars/vocals), Al Capo (bass/vocals), and Andrew Testa (drums) are Toronto-based alternative rock band Stuck On Planet Earth. They formed the band as teenagers in 2007. Since then, they developed their sound over thousands of hours of playing together on stage and in the studio. In 2020, SOPE are known for their primal, high-energy live shows and a signature mix of alternative rock and R&B.
13 years after its formation, the band is finally set to release its debut album Beautiful Nowhere on 26 June. Ghosts On The Radio is their new single. A rock track with big guitars and hard hitting drums, with the vocals front and center in the mix. Stuck On Planet Earth call the new track ‘an homage to some of our biggest musical inspirations,’ delivering ‘a bass line that has Dr. Dre’s The Chronic vibe and bright guitar style chanks channelling The Police’s Andy Summers’.
Recommended as well:
Stuck On Planet Earth – Rising
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Liza Anne – Bummer Days
After earlier tracks like Paranoia, Panic Attack and Bad Vacation, new single Bummer Days adds to the party vibe 😉. Don’t be mistaken however. Okay, on her upcoming album Bad Vacation (out on 24 July) Nashville pop-rocker Liza Anne reflects on mental health, destructive habits, and toxic relationships, but all in all it’s an empowering affair.
“I was writing what I needed to hear”, Liza explains. “I was writing what I needed to feel. Quite literally I was writing a stronger, more empowered version of myself into existence.” This makes her fourth long-player a collection of liberating, thoughtful and confident songs. Art rock anthems, new wave jams, and power pop earworms, set to provide her with her well-deserved breakthrough.
New single Bummer Days is a catchy self-critique of wallowing in sadness. “I don’t know what I want but I know that I feel bad / And then when I feel good I think I make myself sad”, Liza Anne sings. “I wanna feel like I can get out of my own way.”
Recommended as well:
Bad Vacation
Panic Attack
Paranoia
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Daði Freyr & Gagnamagnið – Where We Wanna Be
Daði Freyr and his band Gagnamagnið should have won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest with Think About Things. Alas, the event was cancelled. But in March and April, it was one of the most popular songs on Carte Blanche Music, and things are looking good for May as well.
Meanwhile, Freyr doesn’t wait for things to happen. He makes things happen all by himself. His new single Where We Wanna Be continues the sound we’ve come to expect. It’s funk, it’s disco, it’s cool and it’s totally unique at the same time. Instantly recognizable, Daði Freyr & Gagnamagnið have taken off and are sure to fly way past the borders of their homeland. I bet they’ll be an established act by the time they represent Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021.
Recommended as well:
Daði Freyr & Gagnamagnið – Think About Things
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
On Video – Bête Noire
This one is for all of you who think ‘they don’t make decent guitar music any more’. East London foursome On Video are currently building a reputation for their fast-paced punky garage rock. After listening to their new single Bête Noire, your appetite for hooks and guitar riffs will be fully satisfied.
Frontman Hassan Anderson says about the track: “Bête Noire is a song inspired by our bassist George Williams. He was very misbehaved in his early days at school and was told by a teacher: “You, boy, have a bête noire inside of you.” Since then, George has made minimal improvements. This song aims to document that.”
More generally, the track is about the experience of being diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and the stigmas that come with that.
Bête Noire (French for ‘black beast’) comes ahead of On Video’s new EP Stuntman.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Sophie Hunger – Everything Is Good
Sophie Hunger is a Swiss-born, Berlin-based singer, multi-instrumentalist and film composer. 28 August, she’ll release her seventh studio album Halluzinationen. Just like its predecessor Molecules, it was produced by Dan Carey (Franz Ferdinand, Bat For Lashes). The album was captured in Abbey Road, in a very special way. Over the course of two days, Hunger and her band played the entire album six times in live, continuous takes. The album was compiled out of these six takes. She identifies this approach as ‘full risk’, but it give the album a vulnerability and intimacy that would have not been possible any other way.
Everything Is Good is the album’s new single. A great upbeat synth-pop track with an original twist, that sounds like a video game soundtrack. The song’s name is taken from a design by British artist David Shrigley. A big ‘thumbs up’ for this tune!
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Boston Manor – Plasticine Dreams
Somehow, I missed this song, but I wouldn’t want you to miss it. So here we go, after all. First of all, a little introduction… Contrary to their band name, Boston Manor are from Blackpool, UK. However, the rocking five-piece have many fans in the country of Uncle Sam.
A month and a half ago, Plasticine Dreams was the fifth track Boston Manor released ahead of their album Glue. This third album finds the band questioning the state of the world around them. They hope the album will be a call to arms for everybody who listens to it.
Plasticine Dreams for instance, is about what frontman Henry Cox calls ‘the throwaway culture of media’. He says art is treated as content nowadays. “One minute something is plastered everywhere you look and the next it’s faded into obscurity. I also feel like because it’s so easy to go viral now it also encourages people to make ‘content’ rather than art. We’re getting so much information constantly thrown at us that nothing is really absorbed or appreciated, you just click next when it’s finished.”
With its huge singalong chorus, Plasticine Dreams is destined to become a live favourite.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Wildcard (week 21):
Gizmo Varillas – Born Again
Since releasing his debut album El Dorado in early 2017, Spanish singer-songwriter Gizmo Varillas received praise from Yoko Ono, opened up for Jack Savoretti and was added to George Ezra’s Spotify playlist. Varillas’ mix of folky pop, tropical instrumentation, and Latin and Afrobeat rhythms make for an overall happy sound. But don’t be mistaken, in some cases this contrasts with sad lyrics.
His new single however, has a message of hope. In Gizmo’s own words, Born Again is ‘about personal transformation, changing from within and giving yourself the chance to start over’. “Even if we reach our lowest point, we can always rise up again. And in many ways, it’s about never giving up and empowering yourself to go on.”
Born Again is the third single off Varillas’ upcoming album Out Of The Darkness (out on 5 June). It’s also featured in the BBC’s brand-new series ‘Alabama’. The song’s chorus has a slight resemblance with XXL by Mylène Farmer, of whom I’m a big fan as well.
This week, Born Again by Gizmo Varillas is the Carte Blanche Music Wildcard. As a result, it’ll feature prominently at the top of this blog for a whole week.
Recommended as well:
Gizmo Varillas – Losing You
In the Wildcards 2020 playlist you’ll find all of this year’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcards so far.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Werner’s Weekly (week 21)
This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:
- Bloxx – Lie Out Loud (Wildcard this week)
- Shade – Morningmaker (Wildcard last week)
- Boniface – It’s A Joke
- Demi Lovato (feat. Travis Barker) – I Love Me [Emo Version]
- Kailee Morgue – This Is Why I’m Hot
- The Academic – Anything Could Happen
- Videoclub – Enfance 80
Click the links for more info and listen to each of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player below.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist. Also added last week: Alma, Nek, Sofie Tukker & Gorgon City, and many more.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Paradise Club – All You Got
After five self-released singles, Adelaide band Paradise Club found themselves a label they can call home. New single All You Got, their sixth, is their first as part of the Farmer & The Owl roster. Hockey Dad are part of their new family as well.
On 17 July, the label releases Paradise Club’s self-titled debut album. All You Got is the band’s new single, a sophisticatedly produced track for fans of The 1975. Incredible, how that band created a sound so recognizable, which found such wide-spread following.
In a press release, Paradise Club frontman Gere Russ noted All You Got was written following a tumultuous period in his life. “At the end of 2018, I learnt about some family stuff that was going on”, he said. “At the start of 2019, a close friend passed away. A month later, my dog died. It was one of the worst times of my life, but I learnt a lot from what had happened. The song is about that period of my life, how I should never take the time I have with people for granted, and how thankful I am to have a supportive network of family and friends.”
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
