How to Get on Spotify Playlists: 7-Step Plan for Indie Artists
“How do I get on Spotify playlists?” I get asked this question so often I could make a drinking game out of it. The artists I cover ask it. The artists I do promo for ask it. My uncle asks it when we come over for Thanksgiving. Everyone wants to know, because Spotify is huge. […]
Helena Hallberg’s “Cause I Can”: Imagining Acceptance
In an era that limits escape and travel, save the fantastical journeys we can conjure inside of our heads, Helena Hallberg’s newest release, “Cause I Can,” is the perfect sonic accompaniment for imagined adventures. Hallberg, a Swiss/Swedish musician with an expansive linguistic and musical repertoire, described the song’s narrative to be “a dreamy story featuring […]
“Excuse Me” by Neev: Understanding Your Worth in a Relationship
It’s always important to know when to call it quits and take a step back from things. While it isn’t necessarily easy, it’s always going to benefit yourself in the long run if you are upfront and honest. While you could say it’s a given, sometimes these messages are the type that people need to […]
“Angels of Death” and Nam Wayne’s Apocalypse
The first thing you might notice about Nam Wayne’s “Angels of Death” is the absence of his signature amps and drums. In his other songs, the drums are prominently beating away, and the amps are turned up nice and loud for a strong guitar to bust through. Instead, in this song, Wayne takes on a […]
Confronting Colonialism with Animal Saint’ “City on a Hill”
If you’re a fan of the likes of Outlander or The Last Samurai strictly for the music, or the works of Simon & Garfunkel, imagine a creative mixture of the styles from all three…and you’ll get something like Animal Saint’s “City on a Hill.” It combines the kind of instruments commonly heard in traditional Scottish […]
“7 Seconds” by Porridge Radio: Hopeful, Synthy Indie Rock
You know that hopeful song that plays at the end of a film that’s ended happily? The one that assures you everything is going to be okay in the lives of those characters? It sounds like driving fast with the windows down through the night with friends in a well-lit city. It sounds like the […]
“Don’t Bother Mountain” by Lydia Loveless: Looking Down on a Relationship
Trying to escape a failing relationship is never a situation you’d want to find yourself in. Whether it be long or short term, blame is most likely going to fly in both directions, and it’s going to hurt. It’s not always easy trying to explain this in a way which people can relate to and […]
Chatting with Jodie Marie about “Carageen”
Jodie Marie’s September 2020 release, “Carageen,” will lull you into the currents of grief and affection. Touting a dream-like, oceanic sound, this is a track about letting yourself slip into the “waves” of life and feeling everything – even when the emotions scare you. The verses are framed in a simple ascending melody, carrying the […]
Star Moles’ “The Old Man’s House”: A Psychedelic Anthem
Music is very much a meaning-making process. We pull from music not only to form our identities but also to use it as an aid to supplement memories and alter our moods. Yet out of all the diffuse purposes and auras music can conjure, I find the most special to be the feel-good anthem. But […]
Ksenia Parkhatskaya on “Rose and Blue”, Russian Jazz, and the Cosmos
There’s something uncanny about certain kinds of jazz, something that suggests a dreamy state in between memory and the present, or this world and the next. On An Empty Bliss Beyond This World, The Caretaker (aka Leyland Kirby) famously looped and manipulated old jazz records from the 20s to evoke the failing memories of someone […]
