Homeschool – “Bound To Be” (Song Premiere)

Homeschool

Today is a great day to share the new single from independent artist, Homeschool, called “Bound To Be.” Homeschool is the solo project of NYC-based singer/songwriter and actor Tom D’Agustino. On this great-sounding single, Homeschool blends pop elements with thrilling anthemic moments in a crowd-pleasing track. Homeschool shared that this single, “Blends all these different genres like electronic music, salsa beats, and indie rock, to show me that my music can be more than one thing – that it can be unfixed and fluid. I was also able to catch up with this artist for a brief interview below.

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Review: The Movielife – Forty Hour Train Back To Penn

Like many people who grew up in the height of the Drive-Thru Records era, discovering new up and coming bands was a bit of a tricky science. For me personally, I found many new artists through punk rock CD compilations, surfing the web on AbsolutePunk, getting to a concert early to check out the openers, or by skimming through the pages of Alternative Press. So how did a band like The Movielife make it so easy to enjoy their music? The Movielife were a punk rock band in spirit, but their ability to mix in hardcore elements and make their concerts an experience made me a lifelong fan. Early songs like “Hand Grenade” and “Walking On Glass” were my first introduction to the band, and it made me backtrack through their earlier catalog to grab as much music as I could get my hands on.

The third full-length studio album from The Movielife felt like a momentous opportunity for them to stand out from the pack of Drive-Thru bands that began dominating the greater part of the decade. Forty Hour Train Back To Penn was recorded at Salad Days Studio with veteran producer Brian McTernan, and his fingerprints are all over this punk classic. The band released two singles from the set, “Jamestown” and “Face or Kneecaps,” however during the promotional cycle of the record, The Movielife decided to call it quits. This kind of derailed the intentions of Drive-Thru Records doing a bigger push for the LP, but the legacy that this band left behind is still felt today. The majority of the songs written on this record were by lead vocalist Vinnie Caruana and guitarist Brandon Reilly, and they would end up being the last ones standing when The Movielife released Cities in Search of a Heart 14 years later. Forty Hour Train Back To Penn tackles many situations head-on like fractured relationships, traveling on the road, and growing up, while still having an emotional element to each track to showcase the band’s collective growth as people and musicians.

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Liner Notes (February 25th, 2023)

Snowflake

This week’s newsletter has thoughts on new music from Andrew McMahon, Ruston Kelly, City and Colour, Real Friends, and a bunch of other things I checked out and enjoyed this week. There’s also a playlist of ten songs worth your time and this week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.

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Spotify HiFi Was Announced Two Years Ago — Where Is It?

Chris Welch, writing for The Verge:

At this point, it’s fair to assume that something went wrong with Spotify HiFi. Two years ago today, during the company’s Stream On event, Spotify announced a new streaming tier that would let customers enjoy lossless, CD-quality audio from the leading subscription music service. 

Spotify felt the news was worthy of some star power and filmed a promotional video for HiFi with Billie Eilish and Finneas. It remains on the company’s YouTube page, and you can still read the blog post saying upgraded sound would arrive “later this year” — meaning by the end of 2021.