Nashville’s Free Throw are excited to announce their new album Piecing It Together, out June 25th on Triple Crown Records. The new album was recorded with producer Will Yip (Bartees Strange, The Menzingers, Tigers Jaw) and today they share the music video for lead single “Cloud Sick”. The video serves as a love letter to their home-town Nashville, highlighting some of their favorite local dive bars and rock venues off the well worn Country/Americana path the city is generally known for. The band hop in the van and chase down a mystery video thief demanding the new album as ransom as they follow clues that see them stopping by Mickey’s Tavern, The End, The Basement East, and Exit / In among other punk rock haunts and local landmarks. Just as the band were approving the final edit of the music video, it was announced that one of the locations featured (Exit/In) is in danger of being lost to developers with aims of turning the space into a high end luxury hotel. The loss of local institutions being one of the darker sides of Nashville’s rise to “it city” status. Free Throw encourages fans to donate to the “Preserve Exit/In!” campaign on GoFundMe so that the venue can continue to host shows and serve its vital role in Nashville’s underappreciated punk and indie rock scene. Like other performing artists over the past year, Free Throw found themselves off the road for an extended period of time. As unsettling as the shift was, it allowed them to slow down, and among other revelations, reconnect with their home town. “We had an opportunity to enjoy the spaces we’ve created for ourselves here in Nashville, and lean into some of our other interests outside the band--something we rarely have time for,” relates drummer Kevin Garcia. As such, part of promoting their new album (the new music video included) will be about highlighting what they love about the city and surrounding area. A town with an incredible indie and punk music scene, dive bars, art studios and other curiosities often obscured by the outsized shadow of Music Row and the downtown honkey tonks. With Piecing It Together, their fourth full-length album, Free Throw also documents their growth as individuals grappling with the hard truths, that with age, become harder to ignore or cover up with an endless string of late nights out drinking with friends. After a decade of hard work, including countless performances worldwide, the members — Cory Castro, Lawrence Warner, Justin Castro, Jake Hughes, and Kevin Garcia — have a fresh perspective on life. The band is through obsessing over what comes next and romanticizing the moments that have already passed. Instead, with some time they didn’t know they needed away from gas station snacks and “free” drink tickets, Free Throw is making music about the present, and how seeking balance in our lives is far more meaningful work than the endless pursuit of whatever we deem to be 'enough.' "In normal times, it's very hard for a band like us to feel as if we have the freedom to take time off," Garcia explains. "We’d go home to write and record, then we go on tour. Rinse and repeat.” In a way, writing and recording an album in 2020 was comparable to being a band in a control group in a scientific study. What road would they take with all of the usual outside influences held at bay? “When we got into this writing process, we stopped feeling like we existed in a mold or on a path that we were supposed to keep going on with our contemporaries,” relates Garcia. “We stopped worrying about what tour we may be fighting for next or what some other band was doing. We were just in a vacuum, writing songs for our own enjoyment." Throughout the album's twelve tracks, Piecing It Together finds Free Throw abandoning childhood notions of success and happiness through a thorough exploration of personal fulfillment. It's about reaching the heights that once felt impossible and everything that comes after. How no matter what we do or where we go, we must continue to wake up and find the strength to keep on keeping on despite everything we tell ourselves about ourselves. Piecing It Together is an exploration of self-acceptance, and Free Throw invites everyone to join.]]>
]]>Albums 4.0 is a beautifully designed, feature-rich app with more filtering and discovery tools than any other music app I’ve tried. The app is also opinionated, favoring album playback over individual songs or playlists. It’s the sort of focused, deep approach to music that Apple’s Music app doesn’t offer because it’s designed to appeal to a wider audience.
If you’re an albums-first music fan, you’ll love Albums. However, even if you prefer singles, playlists, and jumping around the Apple Music catalog as I do, Albums is worth checking out. The app’s powerful filtering opens up brand new ways to enjoy your music collection that any music fan can appreciate.
Tallahassee doesn’t attempt to re-write history but instead aims to document the very first steps in Beam's journey to becoming one of America’s most original and distinctive artists. The eleven-song collection was culled from a number of recordings that had been (mostly) forgotten by Beam himself but had been preserved by former roommate and one-time Iron & Wine member, EJ Holowicki. Holowicki, whom went on to work as a sound designer at Skywalker Sound, was a catalyst in making sure Beam documented these songs while the two were roommates in a house on St. Augustine St. near campus. In addition to serving as both engineer and bassist, Holowicki also worked as an archival producer in preparing the tracks for official release. Tallahassee, with its sparse instrumental canvas and live-in one-room takes, is very much akin to early Iron & Wine releases, The Creek Drank the Cradle, The Sea & The Rhythm, and In the Reins. From the wandering country-esque tempo of “Calm on the Valley” to the more mid-tempo Harvest-era vibe of “This Solemn Day”, the seeds of the portrait of an artist as a young man are all present. While still in its formative stages, the lyrical imagery and intimate musical nature that has become a trademark of the Iron & Wine “sound” is present and represented throughout Tallahassee. Early music file-sharers have long claimed ownership of a number of early Iron & Wine recordings, many that still have yet to be officially released. While this record will not quite correct all the wrongs of the early days of the internet, it will fill in many of the blanks for long-time fans.]]>
GRAMMY® Award winning duo Twenty One Pilots have announced their new album, Scaled And Icy, which will be released May 21st via Fueled By Ramen [album artwork / tracklist below]. Today, the band has shared the forthcoming album’s first single, “Shy Away,” which is available on all streaming platforms and is accompanied by a Miles & AJ directed official music video. Available for pre-order today in a variety of formats, with a special edition box set pre-order launching on April 9th, Scaled And Icy is Twenty One Pilots’ first studio album in three years and follows their RIAA Platinum certified LP, Trench. In addition to the news of the forthcoming album, Twenty One Pilots have also announced their first-ever global streaming event, “Twenty One Pilots - Livestream Experience,” which is scheduled to broadcast worldwide on Friday, May 21st at 8:00PM ET. “Twenty One Pilots - Livestream Experience” promises to be an unforgettable performance from the duo, with a catalog spanning setlist that will also mark the live debut of new material from Scaled And Icy. Tickets for the groundbreaking global streaming event are on sale today at live.twentyonepilots.com where the band has also launched a special pre-show virtual experience for fans to immerse themselves in as they move toward the official live date and performance. The livestream is sponsored by Chipotle and Hot Topic, while the interactive and immersive experiences are conceived and produced by lili STUDIOS, and powered by Maestro’s livestream platform [livestream admat below]. Written and largely produced by Joseph in isolation over the course of the past year at his home studio, with Dun engineering the album’s drums from across the country, Scaled And Icy is the product of long-distance virtual sessions and finds the duo processing their upended routines along with the prevailing emotions of 2020 - anxiety, loneliness, boredom, and doubt. The duo had to forgo their normal studio sessions but reached a new of level of introspection in the process, adopting a more imaginative and bold approach to their songwriting. The result is a collection of songs that push forward through setbacks and focus on the possibilities worth remembering. In 2020, Twenty One Pilots surprised fans with standalone singles “Level of Concern” and “Christmas Saves The Year.” “Level of Concern” reigned at Alternative Radio for 12 weeks straight and cracked the Top 25 on Billboard’s “Hot 100” chart, while also achieving RIAA Gold certification, and propelling the band to victory at last year’s American Music Awards where they took home the award for “Favorite Artist – Alternative Rock.” “Christmas Saves The Year” arrived at the tail end of 2020 and debuted on Billboard’s “Alternative Airplay” chart becoming the first holiday-themed song to make the list since 2012. Furthermore, Twenty One Pilots scored one final accolade in the final moments of 2020, officially breaking the GUINNESS WORLD RECORD™ for the longest music video with their history-making regenerative visual for “Level of Concern.” Conceived by the band with interactive director Jason Nickel, and award-winning storyteller / director Jason Zada, the first-ever ‘Never-Ending Music Video’ pulled in fan created content from over 162,000 user submissions, in real time, live on YouTube. Powered by Imposium, every three minutes and forty seconds a new music video was created and streamed live to YouTube, containing brand new content from fans. Besting the previous record holder, Pharrell and his 24-hour long video for “Happy,” Twenty One Pilots’ ‘Never-Ending Music Video’ for “Level of Concern” broadcasted for 177 days straight with a total run time of 4,264 hours, 10 mins, 25 seconds. Twenty One Pilots’ 2018 LP Trench ushered in a new era for the duo from Ohio. Earning Platinum certification from the RIAA, the album was met with critical acclaim with Billboard declaring, “Trench revels in the confounding genre-blurring and cavernous conceptualism that has defined Twenty One Pilots.” A true global phenomenon having surpassed two billion streams worldwide, Trench is highlighted by the RIAA Gold and Platinum certified alternative hits “The Hype,” “Chlorine,” and “Jumpsuit.” “Jumpsuit” stands as the decade’s fastest rising song to reach #1 on Billboard’s “Alternative Songs” chart and earned the duo their fourth GRAMMY® nomination (Best Rock Song). The acclaimed conceptual collection also features the RIAA Gold-certified “Nico And The Niners” and the RIAA Platinum-certified single “My Blood.” In 2019 Twenty One Pilots announced that their 2013 LP Vessel achieved a Gold & Platinum milestone with every individual track from the album receiving Gold, Platinum or Multi-Platinum certification from the RIAA. Twenty One Pilots’ 2015 LP Blurryface was the first album of the digital era to achieve this feat back in 2018, making the duo the first artist / group with two albums to reach this landmark achievement.
Chicago-based band Action/Adventure are excited to announce that they have signed to Pure Noise Records. Additionally, the band have shared that their new EP, Pulling Focus, will be released on April 30th and is now available for pre-order here. Lead single and music video “Poser” is premiering now on FLOOD Magazine and fans can also stream the song here. "When writing Pulling Focus we went in with the notion that this could be the last EP before slowing down considerably. It came from a place of exhaustion and frustration after dealing with the ups and downs of being in a band at this point in our adult lives,” recalls vocalist Blake Evaristo. “Getting the opportunity to release this with Pure Noise is a dream for us. It’s a testament to the sacrifices and hard work we’ve all put in over the last 6 years as a band. We’re all excited to share this ep and hope fans old and new can enjoy these songs that we all truly believe in and love." Chicago’s Action/Adventure is the pop-punk band you didn’t know you needed. The dynamic five-piece are all multi-instrumentalists who have been playing together for nearly a decade. Comprised solely of BIPOC, their mission is to create #PopPunkInColor and ensure pop punk is a genre where everyone is represented on and off stage. Action/Adventure has gotten attention from alt scene tastemakers like Alternative Press andKerrang!, garnered nearly 20k monthly listeners on Spotify, over one million plays on TikTok and even secured a slot at the final Vans Warped Tour in 2018. Typically landing somewhere near melodic hardcore, Action/Adventure collectively writes music that slides along the vast spectrum of pop punk. Poppy lyrics and melodies bring an air of familiarity that are simultaneously bringing a fresh perspective through a new lens and gripping riffs and thrashing breakdowns that you can nod your head to, they draw inspirations ranging from Fall Out Boy to Senses Fail and Four Year Strong. Action/Adventure has now successfully planted their flag into the national landscape of the pop-punk scene following a nearly overnight viral success of the impactful music video for their powerful 60-second single “Barricades” on TikTok. The video details specific discrimination that each member has faced as a group of entirely BIPOC while playing at pop-punk shows. Within three weeks the guys had one million-plus views of the video and an email from their dream label in their inbox. Now labelmates with the same acts they grew up listening to, the band is set to make even bigger waves in the scene. Come catch the A/A wave. Action/Adventure’s new EP Pulling Focus is set to debut on April 30, 2021, via Pure Noise Records. For more information, please visit: actadvband.com/]]>
Chicago’s Horsegirl, the noisy rock trio of 17-18 year olds Penelope Lowenstein (she/her), Nora Cheng(she/her), and Gigi Reece (they/them), announce they’ve signed to Matador Records. In conjunction with the signing, the band will perform a free livestream concert on April 12th at 6pm CST via Vans Channel 66. This broadcast is the first time many outside of Chicago will have the chance to see Horsegirl play live. Raised in Chicago, Lowenstein, Reece and Cheng each started playing music at a young age. Lowenstein and Cheng met through a local music program, where they initially bonded over their similar taste in records. After frequenting local shows together, and Reece joining one night, they quickly became friends who fell in love with discovering music, sending each other songs and videos from now defunct DIY bands and scenes. There was an immediate collective vision developing that would inform what would soon become Horsegirl. The idea of playing together felt very natural and fun, and a further way to explore music they loved together (check their weekly playlist for a glimpse). After a brief time in a Sonic Youth cover band, and one open mic later, Horsegirl was formed. Now together for almost two years, the trio have played contemporary art museums, all ages venues, and house parties. Horsegirl operate as a true unit, with a young and punk-minded aesthetic. There’s an edginess to their overall lyrics and sound, which feature dreamy guitars and distinct dual vocal melodies by Cheng and Lowenstein, and the propulsive rhythmic drums of Reece. While they’ve only released three songs thus far, they’ve already garnered praise from the likes of Pitchfork, NPR Music, Chicago Tribune, NYLON, Paste, and more, and repeat plays on Sirius XMU and BBC6. The first pressing of their 7”, “Ballroom Dance Scene” b/w “Sea Life Sandwich Boy,” sold out within 24 hours. For a deeper dive into the collective vibe of Horsegirl, head over to NME for their Radar story.]]>
]]>Yahoo Answers, one of the longest-running and most storied web Q&A platforms in the history of the internet, is shutting down on May 4th. That’s the day the Yahoo Answers website will start redirecting to the Yahoo homepage, and all of the platform’s archives will apparently cease to exist. The platform has been operating since 2005, and in the years since its relevance as a meme haven has remained intact while its practicality as a forum has waned during the rise of Reddit, Quora, and other competing internet hangouts.
]]>This data is backed up by conversations I’ve had with people who work at Netflix, who’ve said since last year that the first and second quarter of 2021 would be most affected by Covid. Netflix shoots most of its TV shows and movies several months before it plans to release them, which you have to do when you are dropping every episode all at once. As a result, it had shot most of its 2020 material. But we’re now a year into the pandemic, which means we’re seeing the effects of production stoppages from last March. April and May.
This is not unique to Netflix. If anything, Netflix is still in a stronger position than most of it competition.