Routine - Numb Enough
On the edge of uncertainty, propped by a slew of disappointment, Chastity Belt’s Annie Truscott and Jay Som’s Melina Duterte cling to one another in their latest musical collaboration as Routine. After the wracking letdown of cancelling tour during the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, the duo spent a month of writing and recording in Joshua Tree—leading to their debut EP, And Other Things. Infused with this desert essence and leeway into catharsis, “Numb Enough” is one of five sonic vignettes offered on the EP. The misty vocals traipse along shaded strings of guitar, in a crestfallen deliverance of one’s frustration toward a cold and detached partner. Despite the despondency, there is an element of self-assurance in the lyrics: “I’m not here to entertain you / I’m not your play doll.” The track further rises out into a sturdy fizz of guitar, clearing away into daybreak. It is a signal of renewal, culled from disappointment, that can inspire all to find release in turbulent times. Photo by Eleanor Petry.
— Katya Myasnikova on December 3, 2020
Halo Kitsch - Do You Feel Like A Sinner Yet?
LA's Halo Kitsch presents a heartbreaking serenade about mixing up love and trauma with "Do You Feel Like a Sinner Yet?" Guilt, loss and PTSD are translated easily into the slow march of acoustic guitar, the rhythmic snapping and the quiet whistling. The song feels like a prayer for forgiveness delivered in a now-empty room that was once filled with hope, even if illuminated by gaslight. 24-year-old Katrina Kerns is not new to breakup songs or writing about being hurt by old lovers. What gives the new single a special place on her repertoire might be the feeling of a fresh wound that comes from the realization that the memories you thought you missed were just mutual harm, observed, first through pink, and now through grieving glasses. "Do You Feel Like a Sinner Yet?" is the fifth track from the singer-songwriter, who started sharing her truth this year and is only getting started.
— Giulia Santana on November 23, 2020
347aidan - Dancing in My Room
I love this one, it’s the perfect bedroom pop-ish type of song. Aidan is one of the most passionate artists I’ve spoken to and this is def a hit! — Claire Rosinkranz
Follow Claire Rosinkranz on Instagram so you can stay up to date on her latest releases. And make sure you check out her music video for the newer version of "Backyard Boy" with Jeremy Zucker.
— Alessandra Rincon on November 20, 2020
Ice Cube - It Was A Good Day
This is another bop/throwback for the car. I vibe out to this one pretty hard :) — Claire Rosinkranz
California native Claire Rosinkranz brings classical work ethic to alt-pop song-scapes in her 2020 EP BeVerly Hills BoYfRiEnd. At 16, Claire says the discipline and work ethic she learned from years of classical ballet training turned into a passion to be the best at everything she does — including making music.
— Alessandra Rincon on November 20, 2020
Emilee Emiko - Quiet
"Quiet" by Emilee Emiko is a cool and reassuring drink of water in a chronic anxiety-driven dry spell. The track opens with a mellow grove and dreamy harmonies that sound like a pastel, upbeat Phoebe Bridgers. Relentlessly buoyant and easygoing, Emiko’s voice flows through verses about embracing your own agency through acknowledging what’s outside of your control. After all, if everything’s in your control, the next logical stop is that everything is in some way your fault. (Spoilers, it’s not.) You don’t exist in vacuum; you’re influenced by your circumstances and sometimes you can influence them right back. Sometimes not. Or, as Emiko eloquently sings, “If the world’s gone mad, well so have I / I put up a good fight.” It’s not a resigned sigh of defeat — the upbeat percussion, major harmonies and cheerful picked arpeggiations definitely say otherwise. It’s more like an acknowledgement that in order to adapt to unusual circumstances, you’ll probably react a bit unusually. It’s not indicative of how you’d behave under normal circumstances; that speculation is like comparing oranges and bananas. Instead, it’s healthier to slow down a bit and yield control to where you are. Take some time to process where you are, honestly. You can figure out where you have agency to move somewhere after, but it’s always worth taking a moment to get your mind quiet first. You might even find a piece of peace in it. Photo by Elsa Oluja.
— Allison Hill on November 20, 2020
Felix Räuber - Colors
German singer-songwriter Felix Räuber exposes love’s intrusive side in his latest single, “Colors.” Minimalist, droning and orchestral, the track builds an echo chamber for pining verses and a chorus that gives full authority to the speaker’s love interest. “You even control the colors in my head,” he sighs in disdain, “You even control the choirs in my head.” Räuber surrenders his own sense of presence for a distant light projection. The genius here lies in the song’s tonality — ironically gray and chromatically chilled. Overall, it is a moment of silence for romance turned sour, interrupted by noise in the spirit of unrequited love’s persistent voice. Photo by Madlen Krippendorf.
— Daphne Ellis on November 20, 2020
Kishi Bashi - Penny Rabbit and Summer Bear
Today we are announcing In The Mix, our new collaboration with Desert Door Texas Sotol, supporting the music and food industries that have been devastated by the pandemic. In The Mix pairs artist-curated playlists, free merchandise and a discounted Desert Door cocktail with the purchase of a special restaurant creation from select partnering restaurants in Atlanta, Boulder and Nashville on December 7-14.
In Georgia our In The Mix artist is Athens-based singer-songwriter Kishi Bashi. He helped inspire the special dish from Atlanta's Talat Market — Thai-style sautéed bay scallop and persimmon warm salad, complemented by a Desert Door cocktail with Ancho Reyes Verde Chile, fresh pineapple and lime juice and agave.
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Listening to Kishi Bashi is comparable to floating through the most golden day that ever existed in the landscape of your favorite childhood storybook. “Penny Rabbit and Summer Bear” is a light and gleeful representation of the whimsical sound that Kishi Bashi is known for. With the delicate plucking of acoustic guitar accompanied by a soft stream of glimmering chimes, this track infiltrates the monotony of the day and creates within it a glimpse into a more pure, more courageous existence. This sentiment reigns true over all of Kaoru Ishibashi's musical inventions; there is a certain pureness and clandestine invitation into goodness surrounding his growing body of work. Photo by Rachael Renee Levasseur.
— Laney Esper on November 19, 2020
Becca Mancari - Bad Feeling
Today we are announcing In The Mix, our new collaboration with Desert Door Texas Sotol, supporting the music and food industries that have been devastated by the pandemic. In The Mix pairs artist-curated playlists, free merchandise and a discounted Desert Door cocktail with the purchase of a special restaurant creation from select partnering restaurants in Atlanta, Boulder and Nashville on December 7-14.
Nashville's In The Mix artist is indie singer-songwriter Becca Mancari. Nashville staple Butcher & Bee has put together a special dish inspired by Mancari's complex songwriting and Americana influence — charred octopus with fermented pepper sauce, broccoli rabe, charred citrus and a delicate blanket of country ham. Paired with the meal is a special Desert Door cocktail, the Mexican Queen, with blood orange juice, orange zest, ginger beer and lime.
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On "Bad Feeling," Becca Mancari's voice rings like a church bell, pure and clear and hanging in the air. “With your hands around my throat and I say baby, please, don’t” — she places each word carefully, as if it may break, but the music isn’t dramatic or intimidating. She has a bad feeling, but she doesn’t sound surprised. If anything, the music sounds laid-back, like a breeze streaming in the windows on a warm spring day. It’s soft-rock but in an intentionally sweet way. The nonchalant flavor is a stark contrast to the harsh lyrics: “Isn’t it hard when you see me for the first time and it breaks your heart?” After the second verse we enter what seems to be a bridge, but it’s really just the song deteriorating into voices, phrases, pieces of guitar and drums and bass harmonics echoing into the ether. Photo by Zac Farro.
— Mikhal Weiner on November 19, 2020
Big Head Todd and The Monsters - It's Alright
Today we are announcing In The Mix, our new collaboration with Desert Door Texas Sotol, supporting the music and food industries that have been devastated by the pandemic. In The Mix pairs artist-curated playlists, free merchandise and a discounted Desert Door cocktail with the purchase of a special restaurant creation from select partnering restaurants in Atlanta, Boulder and Nashville on December 7-14.
Our Boulder artist for In The Mix is the beloved local rock band Big Head Todd and The Monsters. Blackbelly has crafted a special dish in homage to the band — koji-cured pork with sugarloaf chicory, pomegranate, charred leeks, pistachio crumble and pancetta. Patrons can complete the meal with the discounted Bitter Heart cocktail made with Desert Door sotol, cynar, lime, simple syrup and bitters.
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To celebrate our collaboration, we are journeying back to 1993 with Big Head Todd and The Monsters’ “It’s Alright.” Off of these Colorado boys’ album, Sister Sweetly, this track is the epitome of every slow, swaggering jam this 90’s child grew up on; it’s riding in the back of my dad’s car on the way to school, sharing the same home-burned CD real estate with “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “Mother and Child Reunion.” The vamping guitar, relaxed, methodical groove and ever-charismatic vocals of “It’s Alright” come together to create a track that’s as perfectly at home as I write this from a rainy San Francisco as it always is onstage at their native Red Rocks. Big Head Todd and The Monsters have carved a truly timeless place for themselves in the rock genre over their impressive 30-year career together, and as evidenced by their 2020 release, We’re Gonna Play It Anyway - Red Rocks 2020 (Live), they’re, thankfully for all of us, as tight as ever.
— Stephanie Lamond on November 19, 2020
Briston Maroney – Freakin’ Out On The Interstate
I always listen to this song while driving to the beach with all my windows down. It has the best carefree vibe to it :) — Claire Rosinkranz
Claire Rosinkranz has referred to her sound on the BeVerly Hills BoYfRiEnd EP as "alternative-blues-pop." Throughout the EP, she sonically depicts the see-saw of emotions associated with being a teen in 2020, especially on tracks like "Tough Guy" and "Seriouslaaay.”
— Alessandra Rincon on November 18, 2020
Bleachers - 45
There are few songs that can capture the eccentric high — the particular nostalgic fusion of elation and melancholy — of speeding through your hometown streets with the windows down. Everything around you is familiar down to the electricity in the air, but even though you may have a story for every insignificant landmark on the map, the pang in your stomach reminds you that, in many ways, what has changed most is you. Sometimes we outgrow places and, sometimes, it instead feels like they have outpaced us — as if our goals, dreams, and lives in general should have somehow been bigger by the time we’ve returned. Bleachers’ “45” nestles into this odd comfort; into the reckoning and glistening hope that we can feel all at once when we feel out of touch with the world around us. The track sees the soul of Bleachers, Jack Antonoff, construct this towering moment by swapping out his characteristic vintage synths for an acoustic guitar, light electronic tones and delicate vocal layering. Over this ethereal atmosphere, he sings of this disjointedness (“I'm torn exactly into two pieces / One who wants you and one who's gone dark”) and paints us a picture of two 45 records “spinning out of time.” Despite this, Antonoff reminds us that even in this looming gray uncertainty, the greatest thing we can do is give all we have to one cause: to endlessly seek and shine a light on the deepest and darkest parts of ourselves and those around us, and to love them, even when we feel like we might break. The anthemic chorus is undeniably true to form for Bleachers, who will leave you searching for the nearest yellow-lit concrete tunnel to speed through, aching to understand your love’s own legacy, singing, “But I'm still in sight / Your fast machine / Always holding your love supreme.” Photo by Carlotta Kohl.
— Heddy Edwards on November 18, 2020
