✨ IC Community Weekly #35
ft. Squirrel Flower, L'Rain, Sarah Morrison, Caleb Nichols, new Erick Diaz and The Native Cats singles, a Glitterfox music video, a Joe Pera gate crash, Truth Club on tour, events & more!
Hey and welcome to a new edition of IC Community Weekly!
In the week where SXSW released the first round of showcasing artists at next year’s event the IC community, as usual, released lots of great music.
Keep scrolling for that, but first, some general community news…
The first round of voting opened for the 2024 GRAMMY® Awards for any Recording Academy members - A2IM have made a guide highlighting submissions from independent labels to send to their members so keep an eye on your inbox for that!
nonclassical announced their four Artists in Residence (AiRs) for 2023-24: Kendra Chiagoro-Noel(NWAKKE), Harry Górski-Brown, Nneka Cummins and Beatrice Ferreira. They’ll be given a range of opportunities over the next two years, including paid commissions for the CoMA Festival, an orchestral commission for Southbank Sinfonia or Her Ensemble, releasing a track on Outside the Lines, Vol. 7 and workshops and mentoring throughout the scheme.
👋 If you’re an IC catalog and you’ve got news, releases, or other fun stuff you want us to include, just reply and let us know - this goes out to 2000+ inboxes every week!
NEW CATALOGS
A very warm 🤝 to…
Sentimental Records, an LA-based tape label run by producer wolfy. Their most recent release is the self-titled debut album by LA trio First Ever Boys.
NEW RELEASES
ALBUMS
🎧 Polyvinyl released Tomorrow’s Fire, the new record by Boston singer-songwriter Squirrel Flower today. She was named an ‘artist you need to know’ by Rolling Stone and in an early review of the latest album it’s been called “…nothing short of extraordinary.” (Northern Transmissions)
🎧 Mexican Summer released I Killed Your Dog, the third full-length album from acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, composer and curator L'Rain to rave reviews, including getting an 8.7 and ‘Best New Music’ badge from Pitchfork, who said that the record is “…theatrical, elliptical, and bewitching” with “every harmony, loop, and skit engorged with verve.”
🎧 Ramp Local released Attachment Figure, the new album by Tallahassee singer-songwriter Sarah Morrison, which “…depicts the strangeness of exploring new relationships” and “…meditates on questions about identity, personal growth, and helplessness.”
🎧 Kill Rock Stars released Let's Look Back, the new album by Caleb Nichols today, which has been called “…nakedly human and resolute, brave and vulnerable in equal measure” (Stereo Embers)
🎧 Slumberland Records released Good Good Great!, the new record by Lightheaded, today, which “…draws as much from 60s Brill Building, garage-pop and folk-pop as it does from the DIY indie explosion of the 80s/early 90s.”
🎧 INNI released the new album by Kjartan Holm today. It’s called Horizon and was originally written as the score for a 2015 documentary about the late Icelandic painter Georg Guðni.
🎧 Arrowhawk Records released the new Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders record New Earth Seed, an album of “…strung-out guitar jams that evoke Crazy Horse or Dinosaur Jr at their most languid and frazzled"(MOJO). Alexander has been a member of Jackie-O Motherfucker, The Iditarod, and Black Forest/Black Sea, among others, and is joined on the record by members of Animal Collective, Modern Nature, Movietone and Psychic Ills.
🎧 Keeled Scales released the new Meernaa album So Far So Good last week and it’s being called “…evocative of ‘70s-era Laurel Canyon folk, with psychedelic synths, dexterous guitars, and swaths of saxophone, pedal steel, and violin” (The San Francisco Chronicle).
SINGLES
🎧 NOS Recordings released the Bass On Da Floor, the new track by San Diego-based producer, DJ and art director Erick Diaz. The track marks the 9th release on the label and “…promises to captivate dance floors with its booming bass line and dark vocals”
🎧 H1 Massive released the “fierce, invigorating” new CARV.R single SAINT.EXE which draws influences from artists like Gesaffelstein, REZZ, and Sidewalks and Skeletons.
🎧 Lovemonk (Discos Buenos) shared Summer Rain, the first single from the upcoming debut album by New Visionaries, a band comprising UK-based Australian artist Joel Sarakula and Dutch musician Phil Martin.
🎧 Father/Daughter shared Cooking Oil, the new track by 19-year-old Australian singer/songwriter Mia June. It’s lifted from her debut EP Don't Forget Your Bags, which comes out November 17th and is now available to pre-order.
🎧 Polyvinyl put out Dysphoria Hoodie the new single by Emmy-nominated artist, author, activist and musician Laura Jane Grace, the first to be lifted from her highly anticipated, forthcoming studio album.
🎧 Chapter Music released Tanned, Rested and Dead the new by The Native Cats, a song “…about longing to win the affection of the United States, and about watching the United States slowly combust and float further and further away.”
RE-ISSUES
🎧 Org Music put out the first ever vinyl release Thrills and Oh! The Grandeur, the first two records by Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, which originally came out in 1998 and 1999 respectively.
PRE-ORDERS
🎧 Numero Group announced the release of Dream Backwards, a box set of the first two albums by C-Clamp for the Ohio Gold label, Longer Waves and Meander + Return, as well as a third LP of singles and compilation tracks. The release also comes with a meticulously annotated book stuffed with lyrics, photos, flyers, and ephemera from their all-too-brief existence. Pre-order
NEW SIGNINGS
✍️ Merge announced the signing of post-punk firebrands M(h)aol and are the North American home of their 2023 full-length debut, Attachment Styles, which you can listen to here and arrives November 17th on CD, LP, and clear/red swirl Peak Vinyl, including a previously unreleased bonus track.
VIDEOS
🖥️ Kill Rock Stars released a video for the new Glitterfox track Drive:
INTERVIEWS
🎙️ Squirrel Flower (Polyvinyl) aka Ella Williams talked to Paste Magazine about the Midwest and evoking the spirit of the community around on her newest LP, Tomorrow's Fire.
🎙️ Molly Rankin of Alvvays (Polyvinyl) is the latest guest on the Sheroes podcast, which you can listen to here.
🎙️ Truth Club (Double Double Whammy) spoke to Matt Mitchell at Paste Magazine about their origins, working with Alex Farrar as producer and North Carolina quickly becoming as important of a musical ecosystem in America as Nashville.
(NOT) FROM THE ARCHIVE
🖥️ The latest outing of a new section where I'll choose a video I love from YouTube’s treasure trove of music videos, live performances and curiosities.
This week just using the space as an excuse to share the new Joe Pera standup special, which was filmed at the Opera House of Williamsburg in June and added to YouTube in full a few days ago.
Not from the archive or music-related but a warm, gentle (+ free) hour of comedy that could be the perfect tonic for your weekend. Regular service resumes next week.
SHOWS, TOURS + EVENTS
🦇 Death Valley Girls (Suicide Squeeze) are playing a show in Mexico City tonight at Anticlub House | TICKETS
🎸 Anamanaguchi (Polyvinyl) are playing a special show of the music they recorded for upcoming Netflix animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off on the day of the show’s release, alongside label-mates Momma | TICKETS
🚌 Truth Club (Double Double Whammy) are starting their fall tour next week and have announced an album release show on November 3rd | TICKETS
🚌 Gozer Gooodspeed (Lights and Lines) is touring the UK from tomorrow when he’ll play Haywood Cider Farm | TICKETS
📆 UPCOMING INDUSTRY EVENTS
+ check out the 🎟 Events Directory for more conferences, festivals, record fairs, webinars, etc!
Oct 11th - 15th ‣ BreakOut West (Kelowna, BC, Canada)
Oct 13th - 15th ‣ Austin City Limits Music Festival (Weekend 2) (Austin, TX, US)
Oct 14th ‣ IMSTA FESTA Seoul (Seoul, South Korea)
Oct 18th - 22nd ‣ Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Oct 21st ‣ IMSTA Festa Toronto (Toronto, Canada)
Oct 23rd - 27th ‣ Redeye Label Hang* (Durham, NC, US)
Oct 24th - 26th ‣ Music Tectonics Conference (Santa Monica, CA, US)
Oct 25th - 29th ‣ Womex (Galicia, Spain)
Oct 26th - 29th ‣ Levitation Music Festival (Austin, TX, US)
Nov 2nd - 4th ‣ Iceland Airwaves (Reykjavik, Iceland)
Nov 6th - 11th ‣ Indie Week: Online Music Biz (Online + London, Canada)
Nov 7th - 13th ‣ Pitchfork Music Festival London (London, UK)
Nov 9th - 11th ‣ACCES (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)
*we’ll be there
That’s all for this one! Stay safe and we’ll catch you next week for more.
- Adam & the Infinite Catalog crew