Samia returns today with Scout, the 4-song follow-up to last year’s breakthrough debut The Baby. Earlier this week she previewed “As You Are,” the most nakedly sentimental song in her quickly growing repertoire, and the moment from the EP that best represents the earnestness that runs through its four songs.

“I’m used to being around lots of people all the time so a year of quarantine forced me to consider which moments were truly meaningful and with whom,” Samia said of ‘As You Are.’ “The chorus is a mantra and a response to the struggle to believe I’m worthy of love in a vacuum, that love can be pre-reflexive and worth our blind faith in it.” The video, fittingly, features Samia in a vacuum – alone in front of screens projecting imagery from the lyrics. Like the video for the EP’s lead single “Show Up,” it was directed by Joey Brodnax.

Described as a sibling to her debut, Scout rises anew a little older, stronger, and wiser than before. If Samia was searching for answers on The Baby, here Samia is learning to trust in decisions she’s already made. In a glowing review this morning on NPR All Songs Considered’s New Music Friday podcast, Robin Hilton & Cyrena Touros note that The Baby’s album closer “Is There Something In The Movies” featured the line “I only write songs about things that I’m scared of” – a sentiment that sits in stark contrast to the celebration of love in all of its forms that animates Scout. “Show Up,” released earlier this summer, is a shimmering ode to friendship and loyalty. Elsewhere, Samia contemplates the weight of being responsible for the happiness of others atop hazy looping percussion on “Elephant.”  And she closes the EP with a pledge: “If you wait around a while I’ll make you fall for me / I promise,” on the Jelani Aryeh-assisted cover of When In Rome’s “The Promise.”  

And those who haven’t fallen in love yet will get plenty of chances later this year, when Samia finally embarks on her first tour since releasing her debut. She’ll support Sylvan Esso on the west coast, before making a trek back across the midwest and east coast on her own headline run, which is almost entirely sold out. Tickets that are left are available here.You’l be able to get physical copies of Scout at any of those dates, or if you’d rather get your hands on a copy sooner, they’ll hit stores August 13th. Pre-order now.

Front Page Photo Credit: Pooneh Ghana

We’ve been fans of Austin’s Hovvdy for years now — from the lo-fi hush of 2017’s Taster, to the gentle grandeur that animated 2019’s Heavy Lifter, to the triumphant arrival of last year’s “Runner” & “I’m Sorry” singles. So it’s a massive honor to be able to announce that we’ll be releasing their new album, True Love, on October 1st.

Recorded alongside Andrew Sarlo over winter 2020 in his LA studio, the album finds the songwriting force of Will Taylor and Charlie Martin at a creative peak. Building on the acoustic leanings of past material while incorporating the more lush studio finish of their 2020 singles, the title-track released earlier today heralds the arrival of the new record. It’s paired with the above music video directed by Dreamer Boy collaborator Adam Alonzo. Baseball, ATVs, fishing? It packages so many tiny pieces of Americana & nostalgia into its 4 minute runtime, a practice Hovvdy themselves have been perfecting for half a decade.

True Love is available for pre-order today. You can get the 12″ on an assortment of limited edition colors, all linked below – coke bottle clear in the band’s webstore & Bandcamp, hot pink at your local indie record shop, cobalt blue via the band’s hometown Austin retailers, and turquoise marble coming to the Vinyl Me Please shop tomorrow afternoon. Also available on a limited edition cassette, along with standard compact disc & trusty black 12″ at Amazon now.  The artwork for the album was shepherded by Bradley Pinkerton, whose work you’ll recognize from Runner & I’m Sorry, along with releases from a wide array of artists that manages to include both Harry Styles & Girlpool!

Early birds in Austin were treated to a preview of “True Love” this morning, when KUTX spun the song. And, to celebrate, Austin indie retailers have been giving away free cassette singles of “True Love” since their doors opened this morning. The three Austin shops where you can find them are below. Only 50 in each, and they’re first-come-first-served, so act fast!

Waterloo – 600 N Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78703
End of An Ear – 4304 Clawson Rd, Austin, TX 78704
Antone’s – 2928 Guadalupe St #101, Austin, TX 78705

And last but not least, while more touring is certainly on the horizon for 2022, the band has arranged a handful of intimate release shows in LA, NY & Austin in October. Cozy rooms befitting of this beautiful record, so tickets won’t be around forever once available this Friday!

Friday, October 22 – Los Angeles, CA – Gold Diggers
Tuesday, October 26 – Austin, TX – Mohawk Indoor
Friday, October 29 – Brooklyn, NY – Purgatory

More soon.

No, your eyes do not deceive you. This is real, actual, new Hippo Campus. It has been ages since the release of 2018’s Bambi.  The world has changed two or three times over since Demos I & II arrived in 2019. Unsurprisingly, Hippo Campus has changed with it. Good Dog, Bad Dream — coming August 6th — is a bold new EP that pushes the boundaries of what the Minneapolis indie pop group has been working on since forming back in 2013.

Of course, for fans who have been along for the journey, the progression might not be all that shocking. The lithe guitar pop of early releases like Bashful Creatures gave way to a more intricate songwriting approach on Landmark, which later ceded ground to electronics and experimentation on Bambi. But Good Dod, Bad Dream is a different animal entirely: a live wire of five occasionally absurd, weirdly heartfelt songs that routinely rival even the most high energy entries in the band’s repertoire.

Lead single “Bad Dream Baby” manages to string together Jake’s references to Britney Spears, mormonism and a dying dog on top of Nathan’s rock candy guitars and Whistler’s propulsive drumming. It’s a fitting lead single for the EP, heralded by the David Kramer directed video above – a visual triptych of interlaced performance, each a distilled kind of energy that’s always been present in the band.

The unadorned approach to the video also extends to the art. It’s Hippo’s most stark presentation yet, playing with a mostly gray palate splashed with pops of color and whimsy. The 12″ is a beautiful package – a 180g piece of vinyl with a B-side etching, all tucked in a wide spin, uncoated jacket, with 3 12×12 inserts and a printed inner sleeve. There are a bunch of color options available, following the red, yellow & white lead of the artwork. Details on each, and where you can find them, below.

New Samia incoming!

This morning we’ve announced a brand new EP, Scout, scheduled for digital release on July 23rd & available for your record or CD players on August 13th. Alongside the announcement comes the glimmering lead single and video “Show Up,” directed by Joey Brodnax. The Samia faithful will recognize it as a song she’s been teasing every Tuesday for the past few weeks.

Described as a sibling to her debut, the Scout EP comes just ahead of a gargantuan run of fall tour dates, with Sylvan Esso out West in September and her own headlining dates already selling out for October (no, really, New York sold out in 24 hours). Full list, including sell-outs below – tickets available over in the tour section.

So it’s kind of fitting that the lead single is a sentimental, shoegaze-tinged torch song with lyrics that declare an undying loyalty to the people she cares about most. It’s a song, quite literally, about showing up. Her rounded, warm voice fills the space created by the production, her presence a friend in the midst of hardship. The video depicts her alone on a stage, pouring her heart out as visuals of her friends and adventures project behind her. It’s an ode to those closest to us, a reminder of the intimacy that was prevented in the previous year, and just really fucking beautiful to look at.

Speaking of beautiful to look at, the physical version of Scout features photos from Sophia Matinazad and layout by David Kramer. It’s available in a handful of limited edition variants, pictured and explained below.

Scout rises anew a little older, stronger, and wiser than before. There’s the low-lit balladry of “As You Are,” a song about acceptance, the woozy atmosphere of “Elephant,” a song about expectations. Comforting and confident, the EP even closes with a pledge from Samia and featured guest Jelani Aryeh: “If you wait around a while I’ll make you fall for me / I promise.” Jelani joins Samia in a heartfelt cover of “The Promise” originally by When In Rome, and re-popularized a few years back by Sturgill Simpson. This version is a faithful adaptation, replete with bouncing 80s synths

“It feels like a part two — it’s The Baby’s slightly older sister letting her know that everything is gonna be alright,” says Samia.

9/6 – Troutdale, OR – Edgefield *
9/7 – Redmond, WA – Marymoor Amphitheater *
9/9 – Berkeley, CA – The Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley *
9/10 – Los Angeles, CA – The Greek Theatre *
9/11 – San Diego, CA – SOMA *
9/13 – Salt Lake City, UT – Union Event Center *
9/14 – Denver, CO – The Mission Ballroom *
9/16 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom *
9/17 – Austin, TX – The Moody Amphitheater *
9/18 – Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom *
9/19 – Houston, TX – Bayou Music Center *
9/21 – Atlanta, GA – Roxy Theatre *
9/22 – Asheville, NC – Rabbit Rabbit *
9/24 – Chicago, IL – Schubas # SOLD OUT
9/25 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line #
9/26 – Kansas City, MO – Recordbar #
9/28 – Indianapolis, IN – Hifi #
9/30 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s #
10/1 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall # SOLD OUT
10/2 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom # SOLD OUT
10/4 – Pittsburgh, PA – Club Cafe #
10/5 – Washington DC – Songbyrd # SOLD OUT
10/7 – Columbus, OH – The Basement #
10/8 – Nashville, TN – The Basement # SOLD OUT
* w/Sylvan Esso
# w/Savannah Conley

Coming off the high of their sold-out show at Brooklyn’s Sultan Room back in April, Native Sun are back today with the relentless sprint, “Off The Dial”. It might be the best encapsulation of Native Sun’s storied live show yet put to tape, so it makes sense that the music video is actually a live performance of the track – watch above. Evoking The Stooges at their gnarliest, the anti-authoritarian anthem “Off The Dial” is the companion to last month’s “Jesus,” both paired today on a double single available at fine digital retailers all over.

In a statement about the song, the band says: “Lessons of the past must be earned before we can apply them to the present…a track to summon and glorify our ability to rebel against conventionality for progress. Destroy the ennui that sucks the passion out of the quotidian, it is this hunger for abandoned ideas and sentiments that emboldens the individual — don’t let others write your future.”

Native Sun recently sat for an interview and offered up a live performance of “Jesus,” “Juarez” and “Strange Cat” for the Bring Music Home campaign, watch below. 

We’re having a hard time processing this too. We announced The Baby a little over a year ago. Since then there have probably been a few thousand tweets about how excited someone is to eventually be able to see Samia live. Well, the day has come. This morning, Samia announced a full Fall 2021 tour, with a west coast run supporting indie dance mainstays Sylvan Esso, and a run across the midwest and east coast with Savannah Conley supporting. All dates on the flyer below, and over in the tour section. On sale this Friday at 10AM.

We re-released Jordana’s sleeper debut Classical Notions of Happiness in March of 2020. Know what else happened in March of 2020? The whole world ground to a halt. Obviously that didn’t slow Jordana’s creative output down – she dropped a pair of EPs and combined them into Something To Say To You, a 12″ that earned her Best of 2020 or Looking Forward to 2021 list spots at Stereogum, Paste, NME, Pigeons & Planes and more. It’s hard to believe that touring hasn’t been a thing basically since we started working together. So it’s sort of surreal to type these words:

Jordana is going on tour.

Should we type them again? Jordana is going on tour. Still weird, but undeniably true. This morning TV Girl announced a masssssssive run of dates which will all include an acoustic set from Jordana. Poster for the tour is below. Tickets are available here.

We’ve been keeping a secret: Charlie Martin — who pillow core aficionados in the audience will know as 1/2 of Austin duo Hovvdy — is now a member of the Grand Jury family. His debut album, Imaginary People, is out in full today. Charlie’s gentle Southern tone paints in the timeless tradition of  Arthur Russel, Bill Callahan, Jon Brion, Elliot Smith, and yes, Hovvdy.

To mark the occasion, Martin has released a video for album stand-out “September.” Paste premiered the video today and profiled Martin, calling Imaginary People, “a character-heavy work of light, fresh indie.” Paste’s Carli Scolforo delves a bit into the background of the song which, “draws on Martin’s tendency to view his Sept. 1 birthday as a time to assess his life and progress toward his goals. While being driven and optimistic, the track deals with the pressures of trying to make it as a musician.”

“September is about commitment and staying on track. It takes a lot of courage to chase a dream,” says Martin of the song. “Sometimes you gotta pump yourself up.” 

We couldn’t agree more, Charlie. And that sentiment runs through a lot of the record. “I want people to hear the songs and feel comforted or lifted up. That’s always my goal.” Feel comforted and lifted up over on Bandcamp or wherever you stream music now. 

And for those inquiring minds out there, yes, we’ll have more info on what Hovvdy has been up to soon…

On “Push Me Away” — out everywhere today — Jordana joins forces with Mica Tanenbaum of simulation-dwelling synth pop duo Magdalena Bay. Their styles mesh perfectly on a song that’s essentially a runaway freight train of electro pop with a few detours into aughts-indebted guitar skuzz. The video, shot and edited by Tanenbaum out in LA, is all cyberpunk bathroom graffiti and laser-obsessed early 90s ephemera. So, in a word, perfect.

“Push Me Away” is the latest single to emerge on the heels of last year’s Something To Say To You, a record which landed Jordana on Best New Artist lists at Stereogum, Paste, NME, Pigeons & Planes and more. The song was produced by Jai Wolf and MELVV, with single artwork designed by Julia Fletcher, below.

More soon!

You didn’t read the title of this post wrong: Brooklyn’s Native Sun are back, not just with a new single, but in the actual flesh. Earlier today, everyone’s favorite Brooklyn noisemakers dropped “Jesus,” a 6-minute ripper that’s indebted to gonzo 60s psych, modern stoner rock, and the razor sharp garage punk of much of their back catalog. Seriously, the thing is heavy and somehow sounds like the MC5 covering Sleep with a metaphysics thesis in the lyric sheet. Or as FLOOD put it in their premiere post this morning, “Ty Segall’s noisiest period fit with the lyrics of David Bazan.” Both are correct. 

The track is the first from a double A-side single – the next song will be revealed in due time, people – and comes paired with a music video shot and directed in upstate New York by the multi-talented Alec Castillo of The Nude Party. Everything we said about the way the track sounds: yeah, that’s how the video looks too.

And as exciting as all of that is, we’re just as thrilled about the live music part. That’s right, Native Sun are playing music in public on the roof of The Sultan Room next week, April 21st. Socially distanced. Limited capacity. But still! A live show! It sold out almost immediately, but the lucky few are in for a treat. A statement from our friends at The Sultan Room below.

“We are thrilled to welcome you back this spring! The Turk’s Inn and The Sultan Room will once again reopen their doors April, 2021. To celebrate, we are offering a series of open-air concerts on The Turk’s Inn rooftop. Observing health and safety standards, these shows will be seated, socially distant, and require face-coverings. To start this off, we are thrilled to feature two Brooklyn favorites, Native Sun and Jachary! Each evening will feature 2 shows a night by each artist, at a reduced capacity of 42 tickets per show on our beautifully styled rooftop, to bring the joy and spirit of music and community back to our beloved neighborhood.

A year of living in pandemic times has taught us how much we miss being together and also made us aware of practices that enhance our safety. We’re embracing our responsibility of bringing people back together around musical experiences and applying the lessons we’ve learned on minimizing risks. We’ve all earned it and we all need it.”

As you might recall from those long-ago before-COVID times of 2020, the band was touring the west coast with White Reaper, on their way to SXSW, and had just celebrated their first few releases with us, selling out back-to-back shows in New York. We couldn’t be more excited to pick up where we left off. But the boys stayed busy in quarantine, releasing a covers EP benefitting The Okra Project, Border Angels, RAINN, Bushwick Ayuda Mutua, and the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network. They were also tapped to be involved in the photo and poster fundraising effort “Bring Music Home” to benefit the National Independent Venue Association, which you may have spotted in  Variety and Pitchfork. And, last but not least, the band will be featured in the upcoming documentary film Brooklyn is Burning, showcasing the Brooklyn music scene at its peak pre-COVID, how artists are coping during this time of crisis, and how the scene will be impacted in the aftermath.