Fanatic Promotion

The first single from the upcoming “Music for Television” EP by The March Divide is “So It Goes,” which band leader Jared Putnam initially intended as a sweet pop song, but drummer Mike Hernandez had different ideas.

“When I got together with Mike,” Putnam recounts, “he came in beating the shit out of his drums and I felt like I had completely misinterpreted my own song!”

Of the story behind the catchy tune, reminiscent of early-era REM and The Cure, Putnam is coy. “I’d rather not get into the specifics of what the song is about, but I’ll say that it only took one stupid decision by somebody to completely change the course of my life.”

But, so it goes, right?

“Where did the love go? Was it ever there? Did I imagine it?” Janaysa Lambert of Mortar & Pestle is discussing the themes behind the band’s song “Pristine Dream,” the latest tune taken from the Oakland-based trio’s upcoming self-titled debut EP, out May 7th. “‘Pristine Dream’ is about the very moment the illusion of love fades and you realize the picture you held in your mind, is not the reality.”

Antler (antlermusic.com) is the brainchild of talented Oakland based producer Jason Collins. His musical journey began as a classically trained guitarist but his love of hip-hop, electronics and the avant-garde led him to explore much more experimental horizons. Through the use of live instruments, analog synthesizers, vintage samples, and digital sound design, Antler creates expansive textures with dirty beats and heavy bass.

“Johnny” is the latest single from the upcoming debut album by Austin-based soul singer, Candace Bellamy. The track is a co-write between Bellamy, Ruth Carter (composer for Stevie Ray Vaughn, Robert Palmer, and John Mayall), and legendary bassist Jimi Calhoun (player with Dr. John, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Wilson Pickett, and Sly Stone.)

“Johnny is the guy from your neighborhood with all kinds of potential and promise,” Bellamy says of the song’s title character. “He falls in with the wrong crowd, he’s headed for a bad ending, and he’s also influencing the people around him with his bad decisions.”

“I may have shelved ‘Atoms’ permanently if it wasn’t current when Debbie and I got together to work on this project,” says Tidelands songwriter leader Gabriel Leis of his collaborative tune with songwriter Debbie Neigher.

The pair met when Neigher, and Leis’ band Tidelands were each separately recording albums at San Francisco’s Tiny Telephone studios. The result of this new friendship is an upcoming split 7-inch single with Tidelands appearing on a Neigher track on Side 1, and Neigher performing on the Tidelands song “Atoms” on Side 2.

“I love the recording we made,” says Leis, “It was cool to rework the lyrics so that the female perspective would be in the first person for Debbie’s vocal. “I’ve been trying to bring a lighter mood to my music, but the last year has been a trying time dealing with the dissolution of my marriage, So there you have it, a real life break up song.”

“‘One of Us’ was inspired by the desire to play something with an honest-to-God riff,” says Picture Day band leader, Brian Wiegert. “We’re not often a heavy band, but it’s definitely part of our musical DNA.” Wiegert, a fan of Black Sabbath, Metallica, and Queens of the Stone Age, is also a fan of Ween, and explains that, “While we couldn’t get away with jumping stylistically all over the map like Ween, I think that as poppy as Picture Day is, we still reserve the right to be a product of our combined influences.”

“I connected with ‘Feel This Way’ because of the dark, struggling heart being poured out in the lyrics,” says producer Oliver Chapoy who works under the name Certain Creatures.  “I thought it would be interesting to take the song into a more dark, frigid, sonic landscape.”

Chapoy, also a multi-instrumentalist who has collaborated with Wilco pianist Mikael Jorgenson, brings a warmly realized, emotive sound to today’s digital landscape via his remixes for School of Seven Bells and Bear In Heaven, among others.

“It’s one of the last song that we worked on for the album,” Matthew Warn of Midnight Faces says of “Feel This Way.”  “I wasn’t sure how it would fit in with the rest, but when Phil heard it, the melody for the chorus came to him immediately, and now it’s a natural fit.”

Australian indie pop duo The Cannanes issued their first official release in over 11 years on March 19th, 2013. The “Small Batch” EP contains the fun, bouncy songs that the band’s fans know them for (and that earned them a place in Kurt Cobain’s journals.) The “Small Batch Remixes” EP featuring reinterpretations by producers Richie Phoe and Dr. Version is available April 16th, 2013.

Dr. Version (http://drversion.net) is the newest project for Explosion Robinson producer, Stephen Hermann. Highly influenced by decades of listening to Jamaican dub and riddims (otherwise known as ‘versions’), Hermann uses the studio as a member of the band, pushing the concept of the remix by employing delays, effects, and analog tape saturation to color and mangle the sounds.

“Where did the love go? Was it ever there? Did I imagine it?” Janaysa Lambert of Mortar & Pestle is discussing the themes behind the band’s song “Pristine Dream,” the latest tune taken from the Oakland-based trio’s upcoming self-titled debut EP, out May 7th. “‘Pristine Dream’ is about the very moment the illusion of love fades and you realize the picture you held in your mind, is not the reality.”

“This song was written on a plane flying from Seattle to Austin,” says Boy + Kite’s Darvin Jones about the Austin band’s latest single “Right Above Me,” out now. “Seattle at dusk was quite beautiful with the sun setting over the Puget Sound, the low hum of the plane, and the dim lights. I started having this dream of a girl and boy who just couldn’t connect and the boy flying right above her, just out of reach. I think subconsciously it’s about a relationship I had in the Northwest. I was often very unreachable.”

“‘Tactillium’ pays homage to the alchemical love story of ‘The Terrible Mother’ (prima materia) and Aether (light). The crushing analog bass conjures a cathedral event, while the syrupy vocals and thick blend of classic ’80s drum samples enclose the aural ritual of chaos worship in a warm and hauntingly maternal experience.” — Singer Taara Tati