Browsing Tag

Nada Surf

Supahoney – I Wish: There’s a New Bittersweet Symphony on the Airwaves

Posted on 17 September 2024

Supahoney’s single, I Wish, is the pulsating heart of Wishing In A Fishbowl, an album that showcases the band’s evolution into a powerhouse of raw, melancholic expression. If Nada Surf’s emotive resonance hits home for you, I Wish will strike a similar chord with endless sustain.

The single is a tender yet potent anthem for those caught between the ache of desire and the resignation to life’s less favourable circumstances. Through Dylan Wallace’s emotionally charged vocal lines, underscored by compassion-laden guitar melodies, I Wish allows you to drift in a sea of bittersweet introspection.

As the track subtly weaves orchestral elements from a string trio featuring Jenny McCullagh, Aidan Filshie, and Lily Innis, there’s a nod to The Verve’s lush arrangements as the subversive inclusion of banjo strings brings an unexpected warmth to the melancholia.

The band took a hands-on approach in the production, recording at Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie’s Oceanic Studios in Sydney. The strings were laid down in the century-old Old School Building at the University of Sydney, lending a haunting, almost illicit echo to the track’s sincerity. The passion poured into the recording process is palpable, and as the crescendo swells towards the end, your heartstrings will be left in tight knots, with nothing but the aftertaste of hope’s sting.

With I Wish, Supahoney truly crafted an indie anthem for anyone who knows the bittersweetness of wishing for something more.

I Wish dropped on September 6th; stream the single on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

LuisG delivered a raw indie-rock shot of redemption with ‘Second Chances’

Posted on 29 May 2024

If you paired the pensive sting of The Verve with the euphonic consolation of Nada Surf’s most heart-wrenching hits and added the rugged heart-in-throat signature of Chris Cornell, you’d come incredibly close to what LuisG created for the title single of his debut LP, Second Chances.

The track finds a tender way of advocating for redemption. Though many of us operate as though we have only known wrong when it comes from the vindictiveness of others, Second Chances prises your mind open to the reality that we’re all leagues away from perfection. Through this vulnerable, confessionally powerful release, LuisG put his heart on the line; you can’t help but follow suit as you sink into the absolution of the melodies.

LuisG, with roots in indie rock, pop, emo, and folk, is increasingly renowned for filtering his powerful melodic style and evocative storytelling through a Southern Cali lens. Based in Las Cruces, NM, he has carved out a niche for himself in both online spaces and local circles. His journey, marked by reflective and personal songwriting, has seen a progression from his first single, Waves, in January 2022 to his debut EP, Somewhere to Call Home, later that year.

Second Chances is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

AJ Elkins has released his indie folk meditation, Breathe In Breathe Out

Posted on 25 September 2022

With an acoustic guitar intro that rings with the same evocative timbre as Neutral Milk Hotel’s Two-Headed Boy before bursting into an art-rock arrangement, AJ Elkin’s indie folk single, Breathe In Breathe Out, is an emotionally-charged extension of sanctity.

The Nada Surf-Esque lyricism that sympathises with the trials and tribulations of the modern age becomes efficaciously consoling against the rugged progressions. The US singer-songwriter clearly has a knack for creating connective music; we can’t wait to see where his compassion and songwriting tenacity takes him – he is undoubtedly one to watch.

Breathe In Breathe Out is now available to stream on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Rouse the Boroughs have released their blissfully provocative no-wave single, Tighter is the Rope

Posted on 21 August 2021
Cosmic Creatures - Part 2 by Rouse the Boroughs

With their melodic themes that vary from no-wave to folk, Rouse the Boroughs is an exceptionally rare kind of outfit that can parallel the evocative output from nostalgia-inducing artists such as Mazzy Star, Elliott Smith and Neutral Milk Hotel. Those aren’t comparisons that I make lightly. The lead single, Tighter is the Rope, from their latest release, Cosmic Creatures – Part 2, is the perfect introduction to the Montreal-based art and music cooperative.

Instead of the cleverness of the soundscape capturing you through its vibrant dreamy -sporadically over-driven and sludgy, tones – it’s the emotion that the cooperative can express with their sound that leaves you affably hooked.  The vocals allow you to imagine what Sonic Youth would have sounded like if Thurston Moore was as vocally sweet as Matthew Caws. You’d be seriously hard-pressed to find a more blissfully provocative single released in 2021.

Check out Tighter is the Rope on Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

We’re infatuated, while Fred Whitacre, JR is ‘Less Smitten’ in his sonic Grunge single.

Posted on 22 June 2021

Fred Whitacre, JR’s latest indie grunge earworm, Less Smitten, acts as a TARDIS with one destination, the alt 90s. The over-driven distorted guitars eclipse the Seattle sound as Whitacre lends from heavier genres to ensure that the sticky-sweet melodies in Less Smitten hit with bruising impact.

If you could imagine the sweetly sentimental sound of Nada Surf, the disquiet chaos of Nirvana and the experimentalism of Pavement all rolled into one high-octane anthem where the buzzsaw riffs cut with a hint of pop-punk, you’ll get an idea of what is in store when you hit play. Quite honestly, I couldn’t be more infatuated with Less Smitten, which feels like quite the paradox, but it isn’t every day new grunge artists emerge with sludgy tones that lead to a spike of serotonin.

The official music video for Less Smitten is now available to stream via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Alt 90s outfit, Selfish Gene made a comeback with their melancholically mellifluous single ‘After the Rain’

Posted on 9 March 2021
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClsKwIvXMi2oLMKONImH-cg

Decades may have passed since alt-rock outfit, Selfish Gene garnered rave reviews and joined Sonic Youth on their Washing Machine album tour in 1996, but the Tel Aviv-hailing artist’s despondently transfixing sound is just as transfixing in the 21st century.

‘After the Rain’ is the first single to be released from their forthcoming album, produced 20 years after the original line up disbanded. With vocals which carry reminiscence to Matthew Caws (Nada Surf) and J Mascis against distorted winding guitar hooks which may as well have been played on your heartstrings, the melancholically mellifluous single is as evocative as it is innovative. Anyone who can’t get enough of alt-90s indie may finally find themselves sated by this sweetly optimistic-in-spite-of-nihilism release.

After the Rain is available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

JRtheBand has unleashed a monstrous Alt-Rock earworm with “Stray Dog”

Posted on 30 August 2020

Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist JRtheBand dropped the video to their single Stray Dog on July 30th. If you’ve forgotten how it feels to experience a fresh new take on Alt-Rock which speaks to your soul, hit play.

Starting off with a ring of discordant distortion, the soundscape quickly shifts into a melodically transfixing feat of American Rock with slight nuances of the Alt 90s sound. Reminiscences in the vocals to Kurt Cobain’s in Plateau was definitely there, but the bluesy country twang on the slightly noisy grungy vibe gave the evolution of Alt-Rock a brand-new trajectory. The artist’s endearing vibe which could be comparable to Matthew Caws (Nada Surf) was the icing on the aural cake.

You can check out the official video to Stray Dog for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast