Review: The Ataris – “Car Song”

Adam Grundy

The new single by The Ataris, called “Car Song”, is a touching tribute to Kristopher Roe’s late father (William Roe), who passed away in 2014 due to complications from alcoholism. “My dad was always the biggest supporter of The Ataris. He was a regular on our original website’s message board, sending out VHS bootlegs of live sets he would film and interacting with everyone—everyone knew him. He truly lived and breathed our music,” Roe shared. The song has a feeling of a band being re-energized and re-focused on unlocking the magic that the band captured on their earlier material. “Car Song” opens with the vivid lyrical imagery of “Now you rest amongst the rust of these roadside monuments / In all their former glories / The drive-in nights that came and went / You fought on hard through rain beaten nights / Past the shadows of state lines / Now this victory dance, it belongs to you and I,” as Roe’s vocals remain warm and passionate.

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Review: Samantha Crain – Gumshoe

Samantha Crain - Gumshoe
Adam Grundy

There’s something very comforting about Samantha Crain and her warm vocal delivery found on Gumshoe, her seventh album to date, and first in nearly five years. Much like that sort of feeling of listening to an old friend recounting the best days of your lives together, Crain puts a delicate emphasis on her experiences that led to this record. As recounted in the press release, ”Gumshoe is a deconstruction of the false premonition that [Crain] was destined to always be an outsider. It’s all about curiosity for the things that shape you as a partner, a friend, a neighbor: a clarity Sam found in her experiences and challenges these last few years helping her partner navigate their addiction, immersing herself within her community in Oklahoma while working at a wildcare rescue and a liquor store, and discovering how to love and be loved.” They don’t make artists like Samantha Crain much anymore, but when they do come along, you treasure these musicians with a full and open heart.

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Jack Antonoff Named Songwriter of the Year

Bleachers
Jason Tate

Jack Antonoff has been named ASCAP’s “Songwriter of the Year.”

Antonoff was recognized for his co-writes on songs like Sabrina Carpenter’s smash hit “Please Please Please,” as well as for his work on Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” “Fortnight,” “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)” and “Karma.” One of the most prolific songwriter-producers in the industry, last year he produced Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, as well as several tracks on Kendrick Lamar’s GNX and Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet.

Variety Talks With Green Day

Green Day
Jason Tate

Variety talked with Billie Joe of Green Day:

“You have to live life to write songs about your life,” says Armstrong. “I do like to take my time with the lyrics to make sure that they project the way I feel, internalize what’s going on in my own life and what’s going on in the culture. So that’s important. We live in such a crazy world. Now, everything is wide open. So I think it was at a pace of every four years, but now it’s like you put out a song or an EP, an LP, whatever it is, and with streaming there are no rules.”