Mix Tape Volume 25
Mix Tape Twenty Five is a ripper and features some awesome selections, check it out…
Tiny Ruins, the project of New Zealand musician Hollie Fullbrook, recently announced Ceremony, their new album out April 28th on Milk! Records.
They share a new track, Dogs Dreaming, one of most exuberant offerings thus far from the band. Alex Freer’s drums lay a particularly playful bedrock amidst rippling organ and strong, unyielding vocals from Fullbrook. Deft clusters of Cass Basil’s bass notes free-wheel between floating and sliding, while Tom Healy’s spirited guitar flourishes and additional vocals lace the song with a sort of mid-80s nostalgia. Dogs Dreaming was written on a solo expedition to the Āwhitu Peninsula, when Fullbroook surveyed the isolated lighthouse alone at dusk, freaking herself out in the process. The song captures the feeling of racing adrenaline: “Like the dogs in their dreams, paws know when to run / The body knows what it needs, like the beat knows the drum.”
GRAMMY® Award-winning guitar virtuosos Rodrigo y Gabriela have returned with their second single, Egoland, from their upcoming landmark new album. The single elaborates on the sonic and spiritual explorations of the album with unexpected elements enhancing their characteristic guitar proficiency including reverb-drenched slide guitar. In Between Thoughts…A New World, will arrive everywhere via ATO Records on Friday, April 21. The band is also offering a deluxe version of the album on vinyl exclusively at http://www.rodgab.com. This limited edition of 2,000 units includes all 9 Stages tracks on an opaque “Galaxy” custom colour LP in addition to the album on a translucent “Galaxy” custom colour LP in a gatefold package. All pre-orders are available now.
Much-adored Canberra trio SAFIA has announced the release of their anticipated new single Today. The track with its euphoric 3am dancefloor beats will be a firm crowd favourite and promises to be another powerful addition to the bands impressive catalogue.
The band say of the track; ‘‘’Today’ might feel familiar on the surface but fall deeper into the space and it taps into an energy much deeper and rawer. Like a dance tune from a lost ancient civilisation”.
Revered Pennsylvania punk rock band The Menzingers share an upbeat new single, Bad Actors. Chosen by the Philadelphia Eagles as part of the official ‘Eagles Gameday Series Soundtrack’, the song was played in stadium and was also featured on the team’s socials leading up to the Super Bowl, further cementing the band’s hometown roots.
Featuring bright guitars, melodic riffs and uplifting lyrics, the track was written during sessions for the band’s sixth studio album Hello Exile (2019). Tom May explains, “It’s one of the last songs we wrote for the album and finished it in the studio. It’s an ode to a dear old friend that passed.”
Fresh from a festival-filled summer including Spilt Milk, Lost Paradise and Falls Fest, Telenova will take their sophomore EP Stained Glass Love to new audiences on a 15-date regional tour this April. In addition, the band have announced a limited custom marbled black and white vinyl repress of Stained Glass Love featuring their self-remixed EP by alter-ego Telenoir mirrored on the B-side which will be released on 14th April.
To coincide with the regional tour announce, Telenova are also releasing fan favourite single Lost In The Rush, which was previewed on triple j’s Good Nights and is a highlight of their live set from the past two years of relentless touring across Australia, New Zealand and UK. In many ways, Lost In The Rush is what most have come to expect from the trio – a euphoric melting pot of strings, breakbeats and vocals taking influence from trip-hop, alt-indie and big beat.
On the making of the track, frontwoman Angeline Armstrong shares “Ed had been working away on the instrumental late one night in what could only be called a creative blizzard. He brought it into the studio to show us and immediately that string hook struck me as so evocative of another time and another place that was hard to define. We’ve been playing this one in the live set for a long time now and it’s become a bit of a fan favourite, it’s a great moment to whisk the crowd away with us into our fever dream of sorts and wanted to gift it to our fans while we’re deep in album recording mode in the meantime.”
Mashd N Kutcher have returned with another superb sample driven, festival worthy dance cut, releasing You’re The Voice, an edit of the legendary hit of the same name.
The track was initially teased as a part of Will It Mash, a weekly segment on national broadcaster Triple J. The premise of the segment was that Mashd N Kutcher have 24 hours to mash together a classic Australian vocal with another song or genre. On the program they presented their bass ready, mainstage worthy edit of You’re The Voice, which has since created significant calls for the band to release the track. It is currently sitting on 800,000 views and counting, with close to 1,000 comments praising the edit.
The inevitable hit utilises the iconic vocals from the original and delivers them to the highest of EDM heights. Following a synth and tension driving build up, the well-known chorus erupts over an up-tempo drum and bass beat which features a wobbling synth bass line and banging percussion.
Hawthorne Heights have released emotional new single Lucerne Valley. The single is out now via Pure Noise Records and is the bands first new music of 2023.
Speaking about the new single frontman JT Woodruff said: “My ideal world has basically nothing in it other than people. In a world of commerce and entertainment, I am a minimalist.
However, in terms of emotion and words of the heart, I am a maximalist. I try to be exactly where I am at that moment, with who I am at that moment. While writing this song, I was on a family retreat driving through the Mojave Desert, and I was looking out into the silence all around me. I was wondering to myself, who would intentionally move to a place so desolate, and I realised that person is me. I crave nothing from the chains and big box stores, and buying anything for myself offers me no satisfaction. So while writing this song I was thinking about how there is something comforting in loneliness, and how we have become overrun with notifications from someone trying to buy and sell our distractions. We look at our phones all day, and they wipe away all of our potential, by raining constant notifications. Maybe we are just a little too connected to each other, and we need to unplug and rewind. While in the headspace for The Rain Just Follows Me cycle, I have been using rain in different ways, as a metaphor, to describe the storm that is raging in all of us.”
The Story So Far and Elder Brother’s Kevin Geyer’s solo side project Same Side have released a new song Now. The single is out now via Pure Noise Records and is the first new music since the release of an EP In Place which came out late 2021.
Speaking about the new song, Kevin said: “Now is a song about a hypothetical wedding that, in an attempt to calm your nerves, you ended up getting way too drunk before the festivities began. Despite embarrassing yourself and probably others, you can’t help but feel relieved by the fact that you no longer have to act so normal because you finally feel accepted and appreciated for exactly who you are. For better or worse.”
Same Side released its self-titled debut EP in 2019, a collection of songs recorded four years before it came out, establishing Geyer as a songwriter capable of beautiful, carefully considered introspection.
Ontario, Canada – Bearings have released new single Scenery which is out now via Pure Noise Records.
Speaking on the new single, Dougie Cousins said: “We just wanted to have fun with this one, I think we all enjoy being on the west coast. We did the whole record in the Airbnb and it was just one of those things where we wanted to have a good time with it. We’ve written our sad songs and even on this record there’s some of those but we also wanted to write stuff that feels good. I think in this case it was just one of those things where we wanted to feel excited, wanted to jump around, and wanted to have a good time. That’s Scenery for us.”
New Jersey punk legends The Bouncing Souls recently announced their upcoming new full-length, Ten Stories High, due out March 24th via Pure Noise Records, and they’re sharing another single from the record, Shannon’s Song. For over three decades The Bouncing Souls have been one of the most reliably joyful bands in punk rock, fostering an incredibly close kinship with their loyal listeners. Now on Ten Stories High, the band have taken this connection even further, creating an album of songs directly inspired by the stories of their fans.
The new song follows earlier singles, Ten Stories High and Higher Ground, and offer’s another effortlessly anthemic track from the Souls. With razor sharp production courtesy of Will Yip (The Menzingers, Title Fight, Tigers Jaw), Shannon’s Song highlights the unique approach to songwriting that inspired Ten Stories High while also providing the big hooks that The Bouncing Souls excel at.
Ten Stories High finds The Bouncing Souls – vocalist Greg Attonito, guitarist Pete Steinkopf, bassist Bryan Kienlen, and drummer George Rebelo – making the best of the chaotic past couple of years. With touring on pause during the pandemic, the group turned to Patreon connect with their listener community, including a tier where fans could have a custom song written for them. The process would begin with the band having Zoom conversations with fans. “It was so refreshing to be like ‘Oh cool we’re going to get to know someone’,” Attonito explains. “We’ve written so many songs from our own experiences but this time we really stepped outside of that.” The Souls would learn about their fans’ lives, and then dive into tightly regimented writing sessions to turn the things they’d heard into the makings of songs. Eventually the group decamped with Will Yip in Philadelphia to hone their demos, write more, and record Ten Stories High. The result is an album that draws directly from stories of life’s ups and downs, the moments of joy, sadness, and excitement that end up bonding us together. “We’ve been writing songs together for 30 years and that’s been amazing,” Attonito says, “but this felt like something new: a way to tell someone else’s story and have a whole new journey.”
Enter Shikari are sharing Bloodshot, the third single to be taken from their highly-anticipated forthcoming album A Kiss For The Whole World, which will be released on April 21 via SO Recordings / Ambush Reality.
Bloodshot follows recent singles (pls) set me on fire and It Hurts, both of which were instantly embraced with open arms by fans old and new, and received their first live outings during the band’s sensational run of sold-out February residency shows in the UK. For Enter Shikari, rejuvenation, resilience and resurrection have been on the agenda as they introduce new music to the world. However, in the arrival of Bloodshot the band have more questions to pose themselves, and us.
Lead vocalist and producer Rou Reynolds explains:
“Every day, I seem to be asking myself “Is this article biased?”, “is this claim true?”, “Should I be more furious about this issue? Or less furious?”, “Am I being manipulated? Provoked? Radicalised by my own ‘tribe’?.
Bloodshot is about how hard it is to find truth, and how easy it is to stop thinking for yourself and simply repeat your ‘team’s’ mantras.
Everyone’s so fucking angry with everyone else and it’s exhausting. It seems like social media’s main purpose these days is to hypnotise us to hate”.
And just like that the Melbourne Ska Orchestra turns 20 Years Young, celebrating with a Best Of vinyl release, a brand new single and video, and a national tour!
To coincide with the limited edition Best Of vinyl release the band has also dropped a brand new single and video, Something Strong.
Nicky enthuses, “We are totally excited to share our new single ’Something Strong’. This band has been nothing short of a sweet circus adventure and the lyrics reflect the journey we’ve had. I also love how we’ve captured the joyous spirit of the orchestra once again and can’t wait to play this live. Bless!”
He continues, “20 years young is a valid description of where we’re at as the excitement and creativity within the band is still burning strong. With our World Tours and Awards we know we’re doing something unique and positive in the music world. This single is a snapshot so far….so much more to come….. Long Live Melbourne Ska Orchestra! Long Live Ska!”
Melbourne powerhouse Cash Savage and the Last Drinks have announced a new album, So This Is Love, to be released on April 28 by Mistletone Records via Inertia (Australia/NZ) and Glitterhouse Records (Europe).
The band has today shared the first single and clip Co-directed by Ed Fraser and Cash Savage, Keep Working At Your Job, a wiry post-punk elegy to the grind of late-stage capitalism that’s blunt, yet deeply compassionate. “I think you’re just like me”, Cash Savage sings/speaks, “Broken like the rest of us. Keep it all inside, keep working at your job”.
Chart-topping, multi-platinum, genre-bending artists Oliver Tree and David Guetta are teaming up for the first time ever with their electric new track, Here We Go Again.
“I recorded this song in London so I was channeling some heavy UK and Euro dance inspiration,” Oliver shared. “It only felt right when working with Dr. David Guetta. The lyrics tell a story of the never ending patterns that we repeat over and over again in our lives. I felt the concept tied nicely into the idea of the dance floor, where people are served one more drop after another… here we go again.”
Gold Coast singer songwriter, bella amor is back with her new single and music video for sentimental. sentimental is another testament of bella’s charm. Produced by Nova Blue and featuring backing vocals from Forest Claudette, sentimental glows with body-moving rhythms and bella’s heavenly vocals. An innate performer, the accompanying music video puts bella’s carefree attitude to the forefront and features Bryn Chapman Parish aka Heartbreak High’s Spider as bella’s past love interest.
bella on the single: “’sentimental’ is about having fun with a past lover, but only on one level in particular. Basically, it’s a funky way of telling that person you just want to sleep with them. It’s my first song of 2023 and we are starting the year off with a slay. I made this with Nova Blue and Forest Claudette which was one of the funnest sessions I’ve had. In the video, Bryn Chapman Parish, who plays Spider in Heartbreak High, is playing the boy we’re not getting too sentimental about. The whole vibe of both the song and video is kicking the past lover out when things get too serious or they get too involved. We’re letting them know this is how us baddies are gonna do it this year.”
Swiftly rising Perth indie-rockers Great Gable have unleashed their first single of 2023, Pumpernickel – a bouncing, jangly and light-hearted track which sees the band channel early 2000s Brit rock. The track is accompanied by music video that sees the band hit the road to explore abandoned sites and rooftop sunsets, and follows a national acoustic tour where punters were treated to stripped back versions of the band’s beloved catalogue.
Signed to Rainbow Valley Records / Warner Music Australia, Great Gable worked alongside Matt Corby and Alex Henriksson on Pumpernickel. Talking about the track, vocalist Alex Whiteman says “I wanted something a bit in your face. Not aggressive, but jangly and fun. We jammed through it in the studio and everyone brought it up a whole level.”
New Jersey rock band, Can’t Swim, have released their fourth full length studio album, Thanks But No Thanks, out now via Pure Noise Records.
To celebrate, the band also shares the accompanying music video for their new single, can you help me?. Directed by guitarist Danny Rico, the clip is a one-take shot of the band performing the track in the back of a truck as LoPorto combs through signs of key lyrics.
“can you help me? is a song about a friend of mine that passed away while they were in prison,” shares LoPorto. “It’s a somewhat short story of our relationship, when we met, where I was in my life at that time and being along with them while they struggled with their addiction. Being at their funeral and talking to them through the glass, a song about regret but also recollection of the impact they had on my life, good and bad.”
New Zealand singer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Fazerdaze (the moniker of artist Amelia Murray) has shared an addictively hooky new single Flood Into. Making the previously vinyl-only track available across all platforms for the first time, the new single was featured on Fazerdaze’s first project in over five years – the powerful and cathartic Break! EP – out now via section1.
Layered in with fuzzy guitars, spacey vocals and a nostalgia inducing shoegaze sound, Flood Into fuses grit and glamour in true Fazerdaze style. 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.” Fazerdaze explains “this song is for anyone who has ever lost sight of themselves in love”.
Lana Del Rey releases her new song The Grants, the third single taken from her upcoming ninth studio album, Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd.
The track which was co-written with Mike Hermosa features backing vocals from Melodye Perry, Pattie Howard and Shikena Jones who appeared in the 2013 music documentary, 20 Feet From Stardom.
The Grants premiered as Hottest Record on BBC Radio 1 and follows the recent releases of her first two singles, Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd. and A&W via Interscope Records. This month Lana was honoured with the Visionary Award at the 2023 Billboard Women in Music Awards in Los Angeles.
Everything But The Girl have revealed their brand-new single Run A Red Light and its accompanying video, directed by Charlie Di Placido (Kojey Radical, Jungle) who made the band’s recent Nothing Left To Lose video which has been watched over 1 million times on YouTube.
“I met a lot of characters during my years in clubland,” says Ben of Run A Red Light, “and I wrote this song about the guy at the end of the night, who dreams his big moment is just around the corner. All the bravado and good intentions masking the vulnerability.”
“The video is like a dream of the story,” says Tracey. “We’ve found with this record that choreography can express the emotion in our music without having to be too literal. The characters, the clothes, the movement, the direction all just fit. Charlie and his team really get the feelings we’re going for. It’s been a great collaboration.”
Of the music, Ben says,”I used mixed technology in the production to lend character. The piano is a looped iPhone recording; the synth that follows the vocal is a live take on an analog EMS VCS3 which were first made in 1969. Tracey chose to sing super-close to the mic to add intimacy. Some vocals are untreated, some auto-tuned. And then at the end we let the music appear to evaporate. It all just seemed to suit the story.”
Birdy is back! Birdy releases her bold and striking new single, Raincatchers, out via Warner Music. If you think you know Birdy, think again. The track – undoubtedly her most exciting and unforgettable to date – is the first release taken from her upcoming new album, Portraits, out July 14.
On Raincatchers, Birdy shifts from her customary stripped-back motifs and moves to an 80s influenced aesthetic laden with polished and gleaming alt-pop overtones.
In her most confident album yet, “Portraits” sees Birdy take a liberated leap into the unknown, her timeless songwriting style now infused with a fresh, exuberant rush of energy and inventive, off-kilter production flourishes. It’s the sound of a creative stepping into a new world and thrillingly, finding her true voice.“
Indie singer songwriter Katie Wighton has unveiled her sassy, challenging new single and video, Narcissist, whilst sharing the exciting news that her debut solo album The End, will be released on June 2 via ABC Music.
The much-loved vocalist/guitarist from the ARIA Award-winning group All Our Exes Live in Texas chose to release feminist anthem Narcissist in line with International Women’s Day, the song exploring the way women are held to different standards than men.
Katie explains, “This song has a few meanings. It started out being a rant about how women are always held to different standards to men (I could wax lyrical about this for eons haha). It then turned into a rant about this male musician I dated for a SECOND who was a total narcissist. After we stopped seeing each other the only time he would text me was about his single releases or to get a contact for someone… That’s what the line “Take me off your mailing list” is about. UNSUBSCRIBE!
After unveiling, Relentless, Parasites and the Classic Rock Tracks of The Week runaway winner that was Hit & Run, Empyre continue their trajectory into the stratosphere with a brand new single Waking Light.
Known for their DIY ethics, Empyre have long been creating their own artwork and videos but when it came to their new single Waking Light, Empyre have gone one step further as they decided to create both the video and single cover entirely from scratch. Well not quite entirely…
A highly debated topic in the world at large there are arguments for and against the use of AI, particularly in the field of the arts. Whereas some believe that AI threatens creativity with programmable sequencing already reaching the ability to craft entire songs and map out artwork, Empyre instead wanted to show that we should embrace this advancement of technology. The video aims to open the conversation as to where do we stand with the use of AI.
The band comment “Why go through the pain of dealing with a slow and expensive human artist when I can get mind-blowing, free results in 30 seconds from an algorithm? That being said, there are some things that machine’s simply can’t do but if the option is there, then why shouldn’t we take it?!”
Liven up your day with a sonic cocktail of hazy guitars, moody melodics, and sultry swagger courtesy of the brand new single Dead Weekend out now from Gold Coast rockers Chavez Cartel.
A track that would equally be at home sound tracking a slick HBO series as much as it appears to unfurl like a shot of single-malt whisky, Dead Weekend finds Chavez Cartel teaming up with ARIA Award-winning producer Govinda Doyle on recording and engineering duties to bring this dark and blazing tune to vivid life. Drawing inspiration from two key hypnotic, slow-burning tracks, Colossus by British rockers IDLES and In Every Dream Home A Heartache by Roxy Music, Dead Weekend also pulsates with nods to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club alongside deep and mature self-exploration, as the band elaborates, “Dead Weekend is all about deep self-reflection. It’s about everything we have been through to get us to where we are now – the current version of ourselves. No matter how low we allow ourselves to go in life, it’s always ultimately up to us to pick ourselves back up, and it’s also up to us on how high we are able to climb. Dead Weekend is all about that. And if you’re to look at that notion fully, it’s also up to us how to decide how low we allow ourselves to fall in the first place. Dead Weekend is brutal in its take on self-accountability, but it admits that it’s all part of the act. The title of the song is sort of like a grim way of looking at growing the fuck up and sorting out your life from the pit of the stomach. When we are younger, we tend to live for the weekend, but Dead Weekend is about the stage of life a little later on when we’re looking to live for a lot, lot more.”
Distorted-pop-trio The XCERTS announce their brand new single ACHE featuring Sam Carter of Architects on guest vocals. The track follows first single GIMME.
Their second single to be released this year, The XCERTS welcome long-time friend Sam Carter from metal behemoths Architects onto ACHE, adding a new depth as well a new found sense of fun that the band have discovered in spades whilst writing these songs; a brand-new attitude for a brand-new chapter of the band. The video, which also features a guest appearance from Sam, has all the feel of a track made with friends that’s been a long-time coming. Nothing but high energy and pure joy spread across the faces of all involved.
On collaborating with Sam, frontman Murray explained: “I met Sam on the first day of college, when we were both 17 years old. We connected instantly and have been inseparable ever since. He’s family at this point. Not only has he championed us publicly, but he has been there every step of the way throughout our career with nothing but support. Sam featuring on an XCERTS song is long overdue, but I’m glad we waited until now as Ache is a song about desperately clinging on to hope when your own mental well-being is crumbling; when the world at large feels too much, all you need sometimes is a glimmer of beauty to remind you that life is special. Sam has offered up countless glimmers and taught me a lot about letting go. My guy is pure love.”
Murray also commented on the creation of ACHE: “At the time of writing ‘Ache’ I was listening to a lot of shoegaze; I really wanted to bring the ‘wall of noise’ chaos and lushness of the genre into a hyper world, alongside the emo influence that has always been prevalent in our music. A lot of the songs that inspired ‘Ache’ are rooted in mid-tempos so I thought it would be an interesting spin to speed it up. The opening line of the chorus is taken from ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams which I re-read a few times during lockdown, and for whatever reason, I found those words to be profound during an intensely tough time. My (now) girlfriend gave me the book during that period, and she is the ‘beauty’ “In the darkness waving”, so the song and influence mean a great deal to me.”
KIAN & Becca Hatch have released their first collaborative single All Of Me, which is available now on all major streaming platforms. With featherweight breakbeats and killer harmonies, the song features KIAN’s smooth and soulful vocals dancing with Becca’s honeyed harmonies – the duo’s undeniable magnetic chemistry is on full display in this infectious track.
Recorded in Melbourne and produced by Lucy Blomkamp (6LACK and Miiesha), All Of Me brings together the creatives fires and varied influences of KIAN and Becca to showcase their unique blend of pop, dance and R&B in this song about the sense of belonging that comes from true human connection.
The duo explains: “‘All Of Me’ is a song about how raw a connection can be. All facets of relationships have their imperfections, but It’s about how you come together to accept and understand them. ‘All Of Me’ comes from both an internal perspective and a conversational one. It’s a reflection of two individuals holding themselves accountable and being empathetic towards one another as they navigate the ups and downs in day-to-day life. True understanding is taking someone for everything that they are, their strengths and their flaws; because after all that’s what makes us unique.”
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