Weakened Friends "Quitter"
You know how sometimes you have to listen to an album a few times to warm up to it and let it really sink in? That was not the case with the brand new release from rock trio Weakened Friends. “Quitter” grabbed me seven seconds into the opening track, “Bargain Bin,” and kept its claws in me all the way to the closer, “Point of Interest.” “Quitter” is out on Friday on Don Giovanni Records, and the band is thrilled to be back on a Maine stage for the first time since 2019 when it headlines at Portland House of Music on Dec. 3.
Same Side: "In Place"
The Story So Far and Elder Brother’s Kevin Geyer has announced new EP “In Place,” Under the guise of Same Side, The Story So Far and Elder Brother’s Kevin Geyer opens his personal musical journal to the world. With his penchant for uncovering buried feelings of melancholy and yearning, often weaving and conjuring in isolation in a stream of consciousness style flow, Geyer’s Same Side alter-ego is the perfect repository for unflinchingly intimate minimalism with depth, vibrancy, and earnestness.
The Seafloor Cinema "In Cinemascope with Stereophonic Sound"
Speaking about the upcoming album, the band says, “we wanted to push ourselves in a new direction by collaborating on an album that quintessentially merged the SEAFLOOR sound with the accessible pop sensibilities our producer Courtney Ballard is known for. We had a lot of fun, and that’s what we feel the album offers sonically – pure fun. Everyone in the band is inspired by starkly contrasting styles of music that range from, emo, post-hardcore, mathrock, pop-punk, EDM, and hyperpop – and we used that to meld genres into a visceral sound that we can only describe as Turbo Emo. We wanted to put out an over the top album that absolutely nobody would have expected to come from a band with humble mathrock beginnings such as us, but at the same time be pleasantly surprised with how fresh the entire experience is from start to finish.”
Sally Anne Morgan "Cups"
Cups divines splendor and surprise from Morgan’s off-the-cuff approach to assembling the record. Steeped in a relaxed glow and flowing with acoustic reverence, the pieces push outside the rigid bounds of the fiddle tunes that Morgan was raised on and embrace the inspiration of a moment. Morgan’s composing and recording process was less centered on capturing the perfect take but instead on finding unique moments and combinations of sounds that reflect back distinct parts of herself. The steady strums of banjo and flutters of fiddle on “Prune” were initially laid atop tambura which was subsequently removed from the piece to give a stronger sense of space and slower pace. Scattered glockenspiels speckle “Night Window” as fiddle loops compound and the evening air spills through open cabin windows. “Through the Threshold” recalls the fiddle tune “Sugar in the Gourd” amongst sifting waves of legato bowings and trickles of accented percussive fiddle, handbells, xylophone and wooden frogs.