Adult Mom is an indie rock band founded by musician Stevie Knipe. Initially a solo project, Adult Mom has now expanded into a full band including guitarist Allegra Eidinger and drummer Olivia Battell. They have released three full-length albums and multiple EPs, most recently 2021’s Driver on Epitaph Records.
On July 10, 2012 Prima and the Witnesses released their debut album, Return of the Wildest, on Warrior Records/Universal Music Distribution.[5] Touring in support of Return of the Wildest, the band made their national television debut on Access Hollywood Live.[6] Hosts Billy Bush and Kit Hoover had such a good time dancing along with the band that they were asked to return for the hit television show’s Christmas special that had guest Henry Winkler jumping out of his seat to join in.[7] Their worldwide tour continued through October 2013, and included a performance at the first BottleRock Napa Valley festival.[8] sharing the bill with Macklemore, Black Keys, Zac Brown Band, and Kings of Leon.
Prima’s second album, titled Blow, was recorded at Capitol Records in the same studio where his father and mother recorded.
New Zealand-born pop star Kimbra is a musical force innovating the shape of pop today as a songwriter, musician, producer, and adventurous performer. Kimbra’s 2011 debut, Vows, bowed at No. 14 on the Billboard Top 200 and was certified platinum in Australia and New Zealand.
Kimbra exploded into the public consciousness that same year with “Somebody That I Used To Know,” a duet with Gotye that earned her two Grammy Awards for “Record of the Year” and “Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.” The song topped Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in 2012 and was the best-selling song of that year in the U.S. It has sold more than 13 million copies. In 2014 she released the highly acclaimed album, The Golden Echo, recruiting artists as diverse as Thundercat, Omar-Rodriguez Lopez of The Mars Volta, Bilal, and John Legend to highlight her eclectic musical style.
Since her sophomore release, she has moved to New York, continuing to innovate her sound, performing with The Roots and David Byrne at the 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in tribute to David Bowie and also appearing at the Prince tribute at First Avenue in Minneapolis performing with his band, The Revolution, in September. Alongside releasing a stand-alone single called “Sweet Relief” with producer Redinho, she released her third LP titled Primal Heart last year, which she co-produced with Grammy Award-winning producer John Congleton (St Vincent, Goldfrapp) before embarking on a worldwide tour performing with acts as diverse as Beck, Odessa, and David Byrne. As if that wasn’t enough to keep her busy, during this time Kimbra also released an additional version of the first single from Primal Heart featuring rapper Snoop Dogg, a new take and video for the standout track “Version of Me” featuring DAWN, and an EP entitled Songs From Primal Heart, Reimagined. The EP featured acoustic versions of four songs from her acclaimed full length released earlier that year. 2019 brought more touring for Kimbra including performances of intimate, unplugged versions of her songs to accompany the release of the Reimaged EP. Kimbra is now working on her fourth album and preparing to star on New Zealand’s popular TV series “Pop Stars” as a mentor to some of today’s aspiring song writers, further solidifying Kimbra as one of today’s most unpredictable and genre-defying mavericks in music.
Since forming in 1989, Mercury Rev has made a career out of boldly exploring the fringes of artistic perception, channeling colors and sounds and visions that always seem just beyond our mortal reach. The Guardian hailed the group as “a rarity in indie rock: a band who have continually evolved their sound, pushing at the boundaries of what rock music actually means over 25 years, borrowing from jazz, funk, doo-wop, techno, folk and more along the way,” while Rolling Stone praised their “majestic chaos,” and the BBC lauded their “shimmering psychedelic pop, immersive indie-rock, [and] spectacularly engrossing passages of sumptuous instrumentation.” The band’s 1991 debut, ‘Yerself Is Steam,’ landed on Pitchfork’s rundown of the Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time, and their 1998 breakthrough, ‘Deserter’s Songs,’ was named NME’s Album of the Year upon its release. Major festival and television performances around the world solidified their status as that rare group capable of straddling the line between mainstream appeal and progressive musical and technological experimentation, but the band’s journey was also a tumultuous one, full of lineup changes, setbacks, and heartbreak.
Brevity has often been the soul of Magnetic Fields composer Stephin Merritt’s wit. Though his most celebrated work—the 1999 milestone 69 Love Songs, the more recent 50 Song Memoir—has been epic in conceptual scope, the individual pieces of each have most often been beautifully crafted, slyly funny miniatures. The Magnetic Fields most recent album, Quickies, presents his most consistently miniscule miniatures of all, with the longest track, a reimagining of a Shaker hymn called “Come, Life, Shaker Life,” clocking in at 2:35 and the shortest, the no-minced-words “Death Pact (Let’s Make A)”, at seventeen breezy seconds.
Quickies, released in May, 2020 not only describes the format of this collection, presented in as five vinyl singles, but in many ways its contents too: short bursts of melody and lyrics sketching in dreams and desires, erotic reveries, and wishful thinking. Merritt’s approach is epitomized by “Bathroom Quickie,” forty-seven seconds of carnal craving sweetly voiced by longtime Magnetic Fields singer Shirley Simms. Merritt says; “Just as ‘The Book of Love’ has become the manifesto of 69 Love Songs, ‘Bathroom Quickie’ is the fulcrum of Quickies.” In it, consummation is just one restroom stall away, if only a discreet and available one could be found. Similarly, much of Quickies addresses longing, both real and fanciful: to find a safe and welcoming place to hang out (“Favorite Bar”); to sport vestigial appurtenances (“I Want Fangs and a Tail”); to wear black leather and ride a motorcycle (“I Want To Join a Biker Gang”); to indulge in nostalgie de la boue (“I Want To Be A Prostitute Again”). On the merry “The Day the Politicians Died,” Merritt seems to be channeling nothing less than the unspoken but fervent hopes of America’s teeming masses.
The idea for Quickies developed While Merritt was recording 50 Song Memoir—Magnetic Fields’ 2017 five-disc collection of fifty tracks, each one addressing a year of Stephin’s life up to the age of fifty. The 50 Song tracks had been composed prior to Merritt entering the studio, so Merritt had time to work on something new: “I didn’t have anything to do at night, so I doodled essentially and wrote a lot of short things that seemed complete on their own.”
Merritt recorded Quickies in Brooklyn, Boston, and San Francisco with his familiar cast of Magnetic Fields characters. Shirley Simms shares lead vocal duties with him, essaying racy scenarios with squeaky-clean aplomb, as Merritt notes: “I love having Shirley sing sexy lyrics in her Catholic school-girl voice. I never sound innocent no matter how innocent I am. But she does, while being in fact no more innocent than I am.”
The other players include Magnetic Fields stalwarts like Claudia Gonson (on one-hand piano, percussion, lead vocals, and harmonies), Sam Davol (on cello), and John Woo (unamplified electric guitar) plus Chris Ewen (mellotron), Pinky Weitzman (violin), and Merritt’s friend and literary/musical collaborator David Handler (accordion).
Quickies is the twelfth Magnetic Fields album, the fifth recorded for Nonesuch, in a career spanning three decades. In addition to Merritt’s acclaimed work with the band, he has composed original music and lyrics for several music theater pieces, including an Off-Broadway adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel Coraline, for which he received an Obie Award. In 2014, Merritt composed songs and background music for the first musical episode of National Public Radio’s This American Life. Merritt also releases albums under the band names the 6ths, the Gothic Archies, and Future Bible Heroes. Upon the release of 50 Song Memoir, New York magazine called the box set “a celebration of Merritt’s sky-high range as a writer and a player, through the exploration of the circumstances that helped cultivate it … a delightful flip through the untold back pages of one of rock’s most singular voices, and, all in all, the best damned Magnetic Fields album in the last ten years.”
In contrast to 50 Song Memoir, Merritt states: “I should emphasize that although that last album was non-fiction, this album is definitely fiction and I do not in fact wish that I had fangs and a tail. I do not in fact wish I was in a biker gang. Well, hmmm. I sometimes wish I were in a biker gang, but not that particular kind. I was not actually a prostitute, but I have two friends who have literally said to me, ‘I wish I were a prostitute again.’”
—Michael Hill
Since their start in 2014, power pop group Teenage Halloween have nurtured DIY roots in the New Jersey punk scene. Teenage Halloween was founded by Asbury Park locals Luk Henderiks(lead vocals/guitar) and Brandon Hakim(sax) and had operated on a rotating cast of members. Over the past few years a solid lineup was established including Eli Frank(lead guitar), Jane Lai(keyboard), Tricia Marshall(bass/backing vocals), and Peter Gargano(drums).
Their 2020 debut self-titled album “Teenage Halloween” was recorded by Evan Bernard at Big Mama’s Recording Studio in Philadelphia, PA and released by NJ based label Don Giovanni. The songs pack punk, pop, and emo styles as well as themes of gender euphoria, mental illness, existential experience, and dreams of a world without government. The lyrics are politically charged and paired with high energy performances, but most importantly, these songs emphasize community for the marginalized. They make space for those who need it most while also granting listeners an opportunity to reflect on their own privileges.
The debut album was enthusiastically received and made it onto multiple end of the year accolades. It was ranked in Stereogum’s “The 40 Best New Bands of 2020,” Brooklyn Vegan’s “Top 55 Albums of 2020,” and nominated for The Alternative’s “Best Debut Album of the Year,” among many others. Despite the toll the pandemic has taken on their plans, Teenage Halloween continues to write, record, and plan for the future.
Recording as Pedazo De Carne Con Ojo, Steven Pérez mainly keeps his vocals to a mumble, but his debut full-length is a full-throated statement. ¿Pero Like Cómo E’ta? sees the Philly-based hip-hop artist pay homage to the Dominican music he inherited from his parents while mixing in his own interests, from jazz to trap. It all adds up to a lively and thoroughly wrought album with a sound all its own.
Ceschi Ramos’ music was created within the worlds of underground Hip Hop, Hardcore Punk & Folk. His version of songwriting may include machine-gun-speed-raps or emotive ballads inspired by Latin American troubadours.
This approach of keeping things fresh for both the audience and themselves reflects the music veteran sensibilities of both members. Both band members — the newly married Elizabeth Hart and Iván Diaz Mathé — have been and are currently involved in other projects. Hart still records and tours with her band Psychic Ills, and Mathé runs the Crang Records record label, does dub work in the band Nairobi (when they’re not on hiatus), and plays harmonica. Mathé produces music, and, he explains, “Being a producer I understand what kind of set produces a certain atmosphere.” With Tierra del Fuego, the atmosphere they are going for is a finely tuned balance of chill and dance.
