“Honeysuckle” is a dark folk masterpiece in balance from Austin-based Margaret Chavez (Marcus Striplin). The track opens with hypnotic guitar arpeggiations that draw you in like waving wildflowers drawing honeybees. Then come the lyrics, which paint vignettes of tragedy that seem initially at odds with the cheerful guitar melody. As the song progresses, the track unfolds into a retrospective of loss and love. Each verse relays another heavy anecdote of someone the narrator has loved and lost in some form. The stories that hit the hardest are underscored with dark, warbly synths that make you feel as though you are being teleported into the world of memory. The lyrics are so heartbreaking, it would be easy for the song to sink into sadness as deep as Striplin’s beautiful baritone voice; however, the buoyant guitar lines keep the song in the realm of bittersweet. It will be exciting to see what else Margaret Chavez has in store on their sophomore album “Into an Atmosphere," due to release July 31, 2020, via We Know Better Records.

When someone you love causes you pain, it hurts until it doesn’t. Montreal-based artist, Michael Charles Hansford, who creates under the moniker, Molly Drag, realizes the weight of dealing with his own dark nostalgia on his latest single, “Out Like A Light.” As the first track from his upcoming record, Touchstone, we find a piece that moves like a steadily rocking boat—it’s swirling guitars offset by a relaxed, tittering rhythm. Hansford mentions, “While I was recording this album I started thinking about my hometown a lot, the small places within, the parks where I would smoke with my friends after school, the water that surrounded us always.” With the addition of sprite overdubs and subtle synth tones, Hansford creates a pool of gloom that is reminiscent of prior love and given life by the breath of the lyricism. “Out Like A Light” is the heart of Touchstone, which is set for release on October 4 via EggHunt Records—the track's natural beating is sure to unveil a record with a striking awareness, a gift to his past life.

In what can only be described as a watershed moment of peace-seeking in the on-going BK/LA indie scene feud, we here at The Wild Honey Pie are happy to premiere LA-based pop outfit Oyster Kids newest single, “Work It Out.” Know that while prideful of our BK-roots, we remain, first and foremost, humble servants of tasty indie jams. Thus, we are more than happy to extend the olive branch by linking up with Oyster Kids to bring you this tastefully saturated bopper. My intuition is that this song would pair nicely with a ride to the beach in a mid-80s Mercedes Convertible. It’s been about three years since the upbeat popsters released “Gum (Everybodys My Friend)." But now we’ve got “Work It Out,” their third single of 2019, to go along with “Breathe” and “Losing My Mind,” both of which trickled onto streaming services earlier this year. The kids are back.

If you haven’t yet, it’s time to get familiar with NYC indie-pop band Modern Diet—after a 2-year hiatus, they are back and flooding 2019 with new tracks to play back-to-back-to-back. After their EP release in March and putting single “Dizzy” out on June 28, the band quickly followed up with their latest single, “July 4,” released, naturally, on July 4th. The song is a rambunctious follow-up to the dreamier “Dizzy” and keeps you on your toes the whole way through. The song starts out on a fairly standard drumbeat and some head-bobbing guitar strums. But we quickly realize how crucial the drums are to the movement of the track as they shift seamlessly into stick-tapping ditty before billowing into a muted marching band anthem, played appropriately under the chorus lyrics, “and Uncle Sam is getting old, getting ready to explode.” The song at once creates anxiety and propels you through it with dynamic but nearly imperceptible shifts of tempo and rhythm. The instruments build quickly and intensely then dip out as the vocals slow down, humming out “ooh’s” and “mmm’s” briefly, then pick right back up. A sense of impatience hangs over the whole track, evident in the repeated, “Told you so is ringing like a dial tone,” and as it wraps up, song screeches to its peak frustration and comes to an abrupt close as it finally hangs up the phone.

Up-and-coming singer and multi-instrumentalist Zigi Porter, who operates under the moniker Darcie, strikes an inimitable balance between subtlety and spaciousness with her minimalist songwriting and maximalist production style. The eclectic, Manchester-based solo artist’s recently released track “Modern Day Housewife” captures the essence of what makes her both a no-nonsense storyteller and a mystical tour de force. The song is an artful, left-of-center rumination on the life and unbending expectations of millennials. With down-to-earth yet unapologetically honest phrasing like, “We are we are / Cosmetically / Replacing our brains” Porter points to the ways in which our obsession with constantly improving our outward appearance is rapidly contributing to our inevitable demise. Although this phenomenon affects each and every one of us, female and feminine-identifying people often feel a certain pressure to build up these fabricated, social-media-constructed personas. That being said, Porter doesn't use any gender-specific language other than the term 'housewife' which she adapts in an all-inclusive way. Porter’s lyrics might appear overly critical on the surface, but it’s important to keep in mind that as a young millennial woman she is highlighting problems that she herself faces. “Modern Day Housewife” is a communal effort to help us all understand ourselves in this current day and age a little better. Darcie’s ethereal, lo-fi pop-soul sound is truly genre-bending and impossible to classify—there is nothing else like it. Look out for Darcie’s debut EP Conversations with a Hot Dog due for release at the end of July.

L. Martin's newest single "Summer" leads with zippy punches of synth and his effortlessly entrancing voice, as he sings of the prospect of grasping onto something that will not be transient. Formerly the vocal front runner of indie-rock five-piece, The Walters, L. Martin, (a.k.a. Luke Martin Olsen), continues to create art with vigor on his own time. When inquired about the meaning of "Summer," he responded: “It’s essentially about my experiences in the music industry that have made me rethink its importance in my life”. Balancing optimism instrumentally and slight discontent lyrically, the track tugs us in with its initial 80’s feel-good sound and holds onto us with its meaningful draw. L. Martin will be releasing his EP, KICKS, which is promised to be equally as energetic as this single on August 9th.