Our inbox is over flowing again so we are letting you good people know exactly what is new and available out there in the music world. Well it's a new year and the inbox is flowing strong once again. The year started off kind of slow with not a whole lot to write home about but as the month has gone on we are getting some really quality bands releasing stuff. Today is kind of mellow but an interesting array of styles. If you want to see your band on one of these lists, send us streaming music and as short bio.
Band Name: Boa Morte
BMN Score: 8.9/10
What the band says they sound like: Daniel Presley, the perma-nomadic Texan producer, flew in to safeguard the
Boa Morte fundamentals: emotive yet unsentimental vocals; a disquieting ease with space and silence; percussive interventions on drum-shell, tom-rim and cymbal-cup; an abhorrence of rhythm guitar; harmonies that add
rather than dilute personality, and a bloody-minded patience when it comes
to pacing.
What we say they sound like: This track has some really great melody and harmony to it. It's somewhere between Elliott Smith mixed with Beatles-ish harmony and a slight bit of country twang. The track is ethereal and calming, it starts in a very cinematic way, painting a full picture just within it's opening notes. The emotion of the vocal helps drive the short song which feels more like in an album context will be a nice interlude. Looking forward to more!
Song to add to your playlist: Hard To Know
Band Name: Otra
BMN Score: 9.6/10
What the band says they sound like: This song was created in a late-night fever dream at home in Pacifica, where Laura cathartically wailed the chorus - reveling in a dream where people see everything she has to give. But then the dream machine alarm clock wakes her up to the sobering reality that she is not magnificently bold and creative but frustrated and burnt out.
What we say they sound like: Harmonies galore mixed with dreamy bedroom pop kind of like Tegan & Sara meets Electric Youth. Musically it's very along the lines of new indie pop songwriters like Phoebe Bridgers or Soccer Mommy but stripped of grittiness and more straight up over a pop foundation of synth tones and a palette of delay keyboard arrangements and synth strings with bass tones that just fill up space without clarity. Overall it creates a strong musical statement as the light airy vocal floats on top tying it all together.
Song to add to your playlist: Dream Machine
Band Name: Mhaol
BMN Score: 8.8 /10
What the band says they sound like: I wanted to write 'Therapy' as a light-hearted addition to the album, dealing with a very real subject matter," vocalist Róisín Nic Ghearailt says of the track. “It came from a conversation I had with a friend who was talking about a loved one not turning up to therapy, even though they were why she was in therapy, and I was thinking about people in our lives who are the reason we go to therapy and how we can often heal in spite of them.
What we say they sound like: Ok this is excellent. It's like if you took something like Wet Leg and injected it with a little bit of Poly Styrene and threw in a little Bikini Kill attitude. As I checked out another track I realized the talky vocal cadence and melody in that style like The Butthole Surfers "Pepper" was on multiple tracks and I could see that getting old fast but on the stand alone single "Therapy" I think it works excellently. The other thing helping this track is the fuzzy bass and overall punk aesthetic. In spots it also has a vibe like some of Elastica's tracks that for them were more jokey and they just kind of talked over as well.
Song to add to your playlist: Therapy
Band Name: Chris Cubeta
BMN Score: 6.5/10
What the band says they sound like: true reflection of Cubeta, almost exclusively written, recorded, mixed, and performed by himself aside from a few key contributors. Strings courtesy of Rob Moose (Phoebe Bridgers, Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver) provide a hauntingly beautiful addition to the song “I’m Tired of This,” while accenting other tracks on the record as well. Cubeta’s longtime friend Gary Atturio also aided in recording and production. While the album is decidedly reflective, it feels buoyant as opposed to mired in the past. A self-described “rhythmic songwriter,” Cubeta often finds himself experimenting with cool drum sounds and grooves that lead to inspiration for melody and chord progression. “Being a studio rat,” he says, “I need to be able to layer sounds in order to get inspired to write.”
What we say they sound like: I dig the overall feel and energy, it feels hopeful, but way more Disney sounding than something I'd be into. It's like a Peter Gabriel song if it was written specifically for the intro scene of a Pixar movie or Broadway play. Some people are way into that and will absolutely love this track and artist. For the doom and gloom crowd, you're not gonna like it.
Song to add to your playlist: Vicious
Band Name: Graduation Speech
BMN Score: 9.8/10
What the band says they sound like: Day, who also fronts the pop-punk band Aspiga, has always considered Graduation Speech a solo project, and his previous releases demonstrate this. 2017’s Quiet and Calm features just Day with his acoustic playing spacious, somber songs; on 2019’s Maintenance Required, he adds additional layers—streaks of guitars, daubs of piano, percussive textures—but the final result still feels like a solo album. 2021's Private Anxieties, shows the project shedding that designation; though the songs still center around Day’s acoustic guitar, a full band is brought into the fold, transforming these emotional, intimate songs into something more alive. Controlled Burn is the fourth EP under the Graduation Speech moniker and leans heavily on the singer-songwriter approach.
What we say they sound like: I was prepared to not like this before I listened because of the Matt Pryor and Dashboard Confessional comparison. Kind of think those guys are whiners and I'm not a teenager so the grown man with teen angst has worn on me (ie: see Jim from Beach Slang). But anyway, I checked this out and the vocal is great, it's in my opinion better than the comparisons. The track is just a dude and acoustic guitar with some low string tones underneath and it feels heartfelt and genuine and really that is all you can ask of an artist. Really dig this and will be checking out the full album in April.
Song to add to your playlist: Burn Eternal