The California Honeydrops
Nothing At All
From Soft Spot


With the street-cred still intact since their busking days on the local subway, Oakland based California Honeydrops prepare to release their new album. Soft Spot is their piece de la resistance that just happens to offer its own brand of magnetism. Taken from the record, their recent single Nothing At All and groovy b-side Good Times, a Sam Cook cover, have been looping the loop on people's playlists for a couple of weeks already. What began as a duo between singer Wierzynkski and his drummer Ben Malament soon became a band when the two friends acquired Johnny Bones on clarinet and tenor sax, Lorenzo Loera on keyboards, and Beau Beaulleiu on the bass. This full-on multi-instrumental sound has only served to elevate the underground and proud sense of worth encapsulated in their music.


A car-radio style smoothness reveals melodic guitar and piano and a funky jazz inspired drum-score adds a dash of metal and loosely framed snare. The springs rattle to the slosh of the hats as Wierzynkski dreamily begins to wave his delicately wholesome voice across the architecture of sound. Sleek and vibrant, the forms of motion picture composition rise in dramatic curls of inflection and musical fill.


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Chris Connelly
Eulogy to Lenny Bruce
Shipwrecked Industries


Scottish musician Chris Connelly has a spectacular album just out for your pre-order that highlights the cultural gifts brought to us by The Velvet Underground's guest singer Nico. The influential singer recorded an experimental album featuring risqué lyrics about drug abuse, prostitution, and sexual deviancy with the chart-topping band during Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable Tour in 1966. Nico also spent her life making her own future-proof music art that can be drawn upon in any age. Now passed away, the lead track of the album is a direct message to Nico in the form of a eulogy. The rest of the album draws on the theme by utilising elements of Nico's persona to create an album inspired directly by her. Eulogy to Lenny Bruce draws our attention to the late American comedian and musician. Famously once released by Frank Zappa, the comic's material often still holds up in today's different society. The thread of catastrophe and tragedy stitches the album's story together like a patchwork of treasured memories.


Reverb and chorus feather a smooth guitar underlay as airy synths add spectral allure to the moment. Avant-garde vocals cut through the mists of tone in a Phantom Of The Opera style rendition of the heart's secret script. Melancholy and moving, tonal shifts drape the black keys in human soul as the drawing in of strings gather the loose ends. A sombre and introspective self-searching of cliché and metaphor seeps through the compositional framework that leans in on a steadily progressing chord structure. Gothic and atmospheric, Eulogy To Lenny Bruce from Chris Connelly adapts itself perfectly to make our own imperfect living spaces a little more comfortable.


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The Adam
Featuring Rasmus Littauer
Geronimo
Stray Cat Records


A debut record that immediately hits the target is rare indeed, so there's no doubt in the quality that sits within The Adam. Known for being a member of The Good The Bad, supporting Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and sharing a stage with MC5's Wayne Kramer, teaming up with the man behind School Of X brings Adam Olsson to this new direction. Holding on to legends like Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon while raising the stakes to match the modern era, Norway's The Adam lifts the spirits of the scene with his own take on the iconic British pop-rock sound.


Palm muted and distorted guitar slurps the sound into a dreamy haze. A whistley melody snakes over the bars to form a dusty mood. Two tone vocals reach out with effects splitting the sound into distinctive branches. The story-line lyrics create a poignant image of times gone by matching modern situations as the ghost of the Native American Chief is seen peering from the clouds of tuneful smoke.


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Frankie Carvalho
A Thousand Lies
London


When Frankie Carvalho decided to extend her range with a song-writing course, taught by Whitney Houston song-writer Jud Friedman, she met an entire group of like-minded artists. Rather than putting up walls and seeing them as competition, Frankie did the best thing possible and saw them as a team. Writing this new number with two new friends she met along the way over Zoom, Jon Kendall and Samantha Jones eagerly take their places as the singers on Frankie's new record. Already known for her extremely well-received Sandstorm EP, Frankie Carvalho is on a sure route to bigger things with her expert attitude.


Keyboards and guitar begin a dreamy melodic journey through emotional phrases. Jon Kendall begins with a crisp and passionate performance. The delivery rises a notch as a rock drumbeat surges beneath the orchestrations. Strings and wind add delicate layerings between the main lane of sound from the vocal. Samantha Jones adds a brushstroke of undertone that rises through the chorus to unify the words in a wholesome approach. Evocative song-writing brings a culmination of thematics to a pristine focus as the blues guitar enters to wail into the manifested dream cloud.


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The Ember Glows
Silent Love
From Where Spirits Play EP


These aren't just any four blokes from Montreal. These are members of iconic show toppers City Lake, Scene Noir, REPO, and Room Control. We love our super-groups on Sound Read Six so these are already a treat. The Ember Glows remind Skunk Anansie's Skin of U2 and Simple Minds, so we know that they've got something going for them. Also influenced by the likes of Interpol, The Verve, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the laid-back balance of energy and story is tangible as we speak. Taken from the EP Where Spirits Play, this YouTube video for Silent Love gives a taste of the whole.


A sparkling drum solo bashes open the gates to allow the swaggering blues guitar to join the party. Bass drops the groove to match the tumbling toms and the pulse of the percussion gives buoyancy to the melody. A warm and homely vocal rides atop the cresting bars with emotion fuelled bursts of sensible rock. Forthcoming and choppy, the music pushes a strict dancing beat as the loose and dynamic vocal section adds vibrancy aloft, carried by wails of feedback guitar. A combination of high intensity blues guitar and passionate vocal delivery moves the entire piece in orchestral bursts of power that hit home and empower the airwaves.


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Frenchy And The Punk
Mon Souvenir
From Zen Ghost
EA Recordings


Inspired by a wide range of influences including Adam and the Ants, The B-52s, and Florence and the Machine, New York City two-piece Frenchy And The Punk prepare for October's Zen Ghost LP. A sneaky peek at the album comes in the form of Mon Souvenir, a smashing single that showcases their sound. Taking on the spirit of the cabaret via a post-punk dream, Frenchy And The Punk manifest a sensational semblance of new-wave and dark folk. Percussion player, song-writer, and vocalist Samantha Stephenson teams up with guitarist-composer Scott Helland, known for founding Deep Wound and Outpatients. The duo bring a focus to the album's over-arching theme of soul phantoms, tulpas, and haunting memories that stay with us.


Chunky acoustic guitar chugs a motoring melodic chord progression as drums and vocal enter on the snap. A moody projection of poetic lyrics swirls in gusty eddies that hang in gentle corners of tone. The guitar elevates into frills as the chords become expanded into rhythmic branches. Catchy and contagious, the driving pulse of music reels behind a slower and more grounded vocal section. The progression rises as the music patterns shift and evolve in the emotional out-laying of song.


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TOUR DATES 22-23
Sept 24 Clarksville, OH - Earth Warriors
Sept 30 Troy, NY - Troy Night Out
Oct 08 Poughkeepsie, NY - Gallery 40
Oct 15/16 Shepherdstown, WV - Shepherdstown Fae Festival
Oct 22 Nyack, NY - Prohibition River Live
Oct 28 Baltimore, MD - FaerieCon
Dec 10 Exeter, UK - Yule Ball
Feb 4/5 Manchester, CT - Stupid Cupid Steampunk Festival
Feb 18/19 Gettsyburg, PA - MythiCon Festival
April 01 Galveston, TX - Galveston Steampunk Festival
April 8-9 Baltimore, MD - Between The Worlds
April 15/16 Chicago, IL - Chicago Steampunk Expo

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