Month: August 2020

Young Guv – Luv Always

     Young Guv has a feel like an updated late 60′s/early 70′s rock band. It’s slightly retro, but still very much accessible to the here and now. Luv Always (seen/heard here) is an example of that formula. Full of playful guitar licks with a catchy melody, Luv Always is the sort of song that will have you singing to yourself in no time. Just as the band was to embark on a tour this year, it was abruptly canceled due to the Covid 19 virus. They had the foresight to record…

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Letitia VanSant – Something Real

     Something Real (seen/heard here) is from Letitia VanSant’s just released long-player, Circadian (February 2020), and it highlights an artist with enormous skill at creating music with a strong message. There are some amazing moments within these nine tracks.  Take the lead-off track, for instance, which is up for interpretation (is it a response to #MeToo, is it about not having the guts to speak out because of the voices in your head that deny you?)  “Too long you’ve lived inside my mind You paid no rent, you stole my time Now I’m taking…

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Spygenius – Café Emery Hill

     Spygenius are,… well…, genius!…, at least as far as song-craft is concerned.  Their latest long-player Man On The Sea, out now on Big Stir Records, is absolutely one of the best long-players I’ve heard this year. Enter Café Emery Hill (seen/heard here). The playful animation in this video is a perfect match to the lyrics, melody, and spot-on harmonies. It’s just a hint at what awaits you as just one of 17 tracks on Man On The Sea. As the title of the long-player suggests, nearly every track here has…

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The Trusted – The Innocent

     The Trusted make their first appearance on Vodka with a great indie-pop tune, The Innocent (seen/heard here), that melds present-day indie-pop with 70′s post-punk. It’s a sound that works very well for this UK four-piece! There is something exuberantly positive in the feeling that this track evokes, even as the band sings of wanting more and being, perhaps, a little too willing to believe that they can have it all: “Hanging from the edge of nothing with a pair of dangerous eyes I’m hungry for something else stuck in an endless suicide yeah…

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