✨ IC Community Weekly #63: Indie Week Edition
Ek gets dragged, it's (almost) Indie Week, a full-time faculty position, new music from Logan Lynn, Good Looks and Caribou, a DFA Records photo book, a Deerhoof set, a Cola listening party and more!
Happy Friday!
Positivity is a key tenet around here at IC, but we don’t take kindly to multi-billionaires suggesting creative labor is now free while simultaneously pushing an agenda of scale and extraction that makes it harder for individual creatives to have any idea what they’re earning or make a decent living. The nerve!
Indeed, we happen to believe the opposite: creative work is real work, and the people doing it deserve to know what they’re earning. That’s why transparency is at the heart of our software, why we price it to be affordable for all, and why we give everyone the same features and support, no matter your income.
We’re not alone in this! Every catalog on IC is working to get artists paid and be transparent, otherwise they wouldn’t be on IC. We couldn’t be prouder to be on the same team with you all, and we’re going to keep working our asses off to build something that helps everyone grow better together.
With that, onto this week’s crop of community news, jobs, music, videos, tours, industry events, and more from across the IC universe!
A2IM INDIE WEEK
🗓️ A2IM Indie Week is next week and over half our team will be there! Head to this handy Linktree to schedule a meeting with us.
🏆 We’re nominated for the Independent Champion award! Whether we take home the trophy, we’re always gonna be championing independence.
🧑⚖️ Hunter is also moderating a panel called Beyond Streaming: How Labels are Diversifying Revenue in 2024:
Streaming might be the lionshare of revenue today, but what other income sources should you be considering in 2024? Learn what’s been working for other labels and artists, and how diversifying your revenue is both easier and more important than it ever has been.
See you there?!
IC COMMUNITY NEWS
🆕 This week in IC: How to use the aliasing tool, a new Exploration importer, and updates to the Ochre and Ingrooves importers! Read all about it here.
🏳️🌈 Get Better Records are hosting a Pride Month Sale, with a new discount every week of June. This week there’s 50% off all vinyl - no code needed.
⏳ The final deadline for the Music Week Women in Music Awards is tonight at 11:59pm. Get your nominations in here.
👋 If you’re an IC catalog or Partner 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 3000+ inboxes every week!
IC PARTNER NEWS
Where IC Partners get to flex some news. Want to be an IC Partner? Fill out this form.
A2IM announced that Beatdapp will be their Official Trust & Safety Partner for 2024 and 2025!
AIM announced the fourth edition of their Future Independents event, a free all-day online music business conference with expert panel discussions, digital platform workshops, keynote interviews, and networking with the best in the business. Secure your spot here.
Other Record Labels released their latest podcast The Fan-First Approach to Running a Record Label, all about making music fans the main character of your label’s story.
Indie Label Market released pics from their event a few weeks ago at London’s Coal Drops Yard.
NEW IC CATALOGS
A very warm 🤝 to…
Allegro Music Group, run by former UMG A&R Nelson Mendoza!
JOBS IN THE COMMUNITY
🧑🏫 Syracuse University’s famed Bandier Program for Recording and Entertainment Industries is looking for a full-time faculty member to teach topics such as emerging technologies, social media and data for the music business. “This is a rare opportunity to join a top-ranked program and influence future generations of the music industry.” Apply here!
🧑💻 Graduation* are looking for a Streaming Manager with previous experience in a streaming role and strong industry relationships who is keen to lead multiple international and domestic campaigns. More details here.
NEW RELEASES
ALBUMS
🎧 Kill Rock Stars released SOFTCORE, the new album from queer punk Logan Lynn, which he says “…is a reclamation of himself - of his love, his personal agency, his sexuality”. Spanning 11 tracks and bookended by covers of songs by SMOG and Lynn’s friends and Portland music scene legends Chromatics, the record was “written after a really rough breakup and are about my re-emergence into the world after being hurt by someone I accidentally let get way too close."
🎧 Danse Noire released Pollution Opera, an experimental noise album from intercontinental duo Elvin Brandhi and Nadah El Shazly, a ten track record that was first conceived in 2020 with “sonic specimens” from when Brandhi and Shazly rode motorbikes together in Cairo and found the extreme noise pollution served as catharsis from the suffocating smog that surrounded them. They then developed the record at Nyege Nyege in Kampala.
🎧 Keeled Scales released Lived Here For A While, the second album from country-influenced Austin quartet Good Looks, who “write kindhearted and cathartic rock songs about the persistence required to make it through hard times… healing meditations on family dysfunction, new relationships, and how a home can become unrecognizable.”
🎧 Chapter released Proximity, the new six track EP by Sydney based singer, songwriter, producer, and shapeshifter June Jones. She said about the record: “Each song channels an aspect of myself through a persona; a woman not unlike myself, who makes music about her connections with people – romance, love, heartbreak, desire, sex, and relationships… While the lyrics on Proximity are a combination of fact and fiction, the sentiments are genuine.”
🎧 Pack Records released ROLE MODEL, the new EP from South African ‘punk hyperpop’ trio Internet Girl.
SINGLES
🎧 Merge released Broke My Heart, the new track from Dan Snaith aka Caribou. Tickets are also on sale now for their 2024 and 2025 tours.
🎧 Merge also released Oyster Cuts, the title track from the upcoming Quivers record, which comes out August 9th. Check out the music video for it here and reserve your copy of the record on limited edition vinyl from the Merge store.
🎧 Earth Libraries released the Reading Rainbow Theme Song by The Octopus Project, featuring vocals by The Flaming Lips. The full soundtrack, previously released for RSD24, will be available on June 28th and you can pre-order it here.
🎧 DFA Records put out the John Greek And The Limiters track I’m Hot For Your Body, which was originally released as a limited private press 12” single in 1979.
REISSUES
🎧 Propeller Sound Recordings released their reissue of Stands for deciBels, the 1981 record by power pop band The dB's, on digital today. The CD and vinyl will be out next week.
BOOKS
📖 DFA Records are selling signed copies of the new photo book from Tim Soter called DFA Records: The Early Years, featuring his pics from the early, era-defining days of the label: the studio, the parties, the shows, the office, the emails, the people. See some of them at Rolling Stone and Spin and head here to buy it.
PRE-ORDERS
🎧 Joyful Noise announced The Breaks, the sixth studio album from avant-rockers SUUNS, will be out September 6th. Today you can hear the album's title track with a music video directed by Alexander Ortiz.
🎧 Sooper announced that Human Human, the debut LP by Carlile will release August 30th and released its lead single Illusion.
NEW SIGNINGS
✍️ Fire Talk imprint Angel Tapes welcomed the chicago post-post-hardcore quintet Ira Glass to their roster, and released their debut single Nancy's Hell.
✍️ Gar Hole welcomed New Orleans based indie pop artist Maddy Kirgo to their family. Check her out by pre-saving upcoming track Try Harder, which comes out June 12th.
VIDEOS
🖥️ Deerhoof (Joyful Noise) just released The Free Triple Live Album, featuring the band playing their songs at legendary Berlin club SO36 on February 7th. The unedited one-shot video was filmed by Beat Halberschmidt.
INTERVIEWS
🎙️ Allan McNaughton from Bay Area punk band Neutrals spoke to If It Be Your Will podcast, covering his early musical life in Scotland, his pre-Neutrals Bay Area projects and the band’s latest album New Town Dream.
FROM THE ARCHIVE
This week: The Breeders (4AD) performing When I Was A Painter and Iris for cult British music show Snub TV in the early 90s:
SHOWS, TOURS + EVENTS
🎤 May Rio (Dots Per Inch) is playing a free show in New York on June 10th at the Chinatown Catacombs, 136 Division Street. Free but RSVP here.
🔊 Fire Talk are releasing the new Cola album The Gloss next week and they’re offering up two ways to hear/purchase it early IRL or online, all on Tuesday June 11th at 4pm ET. IRL at the Fire Talk shop in Greenpoint Brooklyn and online at Bandcamp, where the band will be ready to answer all your q’s - RSVP here.
🚌 Mister Goblin (Spartan) is starting a US tour next week in support of recent record Frog Poems | TICKETS
🎶 nonclassical are gearing up for their second 20th anniversary event, which will take place at Unit 58 in London on July 12th and feature Abstruckt percussion quartet, Klavikon, Ben Nobuto and Jlin | TICKETS
📆 UPCOMING INDUSTRY EVENTS
+ check out the 🎟 Events Directory for more conferences, festivals, record fairs, webinars, etc!
June 10th - 13th ‣ A2IM IndieWeek (New York, US)*
June 12th - 16th ‣ NXNE (Toronto, Canada)
June 13th - 15th ‣ Sónar + D (Barcelona, Spain)
June 13th - 16th ‣ Bonnaroo (Manchester, TN, US)
June 21st - 29th ‣ Rochester International Jazz Fest (Rochester, NY, US)
June 26th - 30th ‣ Glastonbury Festival (Pilton, UK)*
June 27th - 29th ‣ Summerfest (Weekend 2) (Milwaukee, WI, US)
June 27th - 29th ‣ Blue Ox Music Festival (Eau Claire, WI, US)
July 3rd - 6th ‣ Open’e r Festival (Gdynia, Poland)
*we’ll be there!
That’s all for this one! Stay safe and we’ll catch you again next week.
- Adam & the Infinite Catalog crew