With honeybee table at the butterfly feast, Teen Suicide mastermind, Sam Ray, offers some of the most ambitious work of his career. The sixteen song opus toggles between a wide range of sounds as deftly as it tackles difficult existential ideas. "i will always be in love with you (final)" is an openhearted acoustic ballad with layered harmonies and a sugary sweet melody that's then echoed in the following song, "new strategies for telemarketing through precognitive dreams." Despite it's winding title, the track is one of the album's more direct rock songs, led by crunchy guitars and interlocking leads that cut through the fuzz.
Stream "i will always be in love with you (final)" everywhere: lnk.to/iwillalways
Stream "new strategies for telemarketing through precognitive dreams" everywhere: lnk.to/newstrategies
Since forming Teen Suicide in 2009, Ray has led the project through endless sonic shifts and evolutions, always leaving listeners on their toes but completely along for the ride. From scrappy lo-fi punk to bombastic post-rock to ambient soundscapes, the most consistent thing about Teen Suicide--and its various permutations, like American Pleasure Club--is Ray's intense creativity and the deeply compelling songwriting that results from it. honeybee table at the butterfly feast was written over the course of several years while Ray struggled with a mysterious respiratory illness, which made it very difficult to perform and record—and eventually led to a near death experience. Yet the album is still vibrant and wide-ranging with Ray's artistic restlessness resulting in a genre-spanning journey that finds the songwriter beginning to unpack a new phase of life.
Teen Suicide have two headline shows in Brooklyn and Los Angeles coming up in October. Tickets are on sale now, see itinerary below.
Guitar pop extraordinaire Tony Molina has released his highly anticipated new album, In The Fade. Out today via Summer Shade (a new imprint from Run For Cover Records curated by Madison Woodward of Fury, Object of Affection, and many other great bands), In The Fade manages to encapsulate all of the sounds and styles from each of Molina's previous releases, and combine them all into one immensely appealing album. In just 18 minutes, the record bounces from satisfyingly crunchy power chords, to scrappy jangle, to legitimately Beatles-esque arrangements, never letting the sheer hookiness lag for even a second.
To celebrate the album's release, Molina has shared a new music video for "Burn Everyone," a cut of perfect pop set to footage of a rare live appearance last month in San Francisco.
Tony Molina is one of modern guitar pop's best and most unique songwriters. The Bay Area musician is serious about the craft that goes into songwriter, and not much else. Following Kill The Lights, his more pared-back 2018 full-length, Molina found that some listener reactions threw him off. "I kept hearing: 'Oh, he's maturing, he's getting into other shit, writing more mature stuff," he explains. "I thought, 'Man, that's kinda lame, no I'm not...'" In The Fade finds Molina still incorporating the delicate '60s folk rock elements from his recent work, while also returning to some of the distortion and volume of his early days. The result is an album that offers something from every phase of his catalog, almost like a Tony Molina greatest hits, except with all new songs. Very few artists can credibly evoke everything from The Beatles, to The Fastbacks, to Weezer, to Belle and Sebastian, and even fewer can do that while still sounding completely like themselves--but that's why there's only one Tony Molina.
Runnner, the musical moniker of LA-based songwriter Noah Weinman, has returned with a bite-sized new single, "Vines To Make It All Worth It." Out today via Run For Cover Records, the track follows Wienman's 2021 release, Always Repeating, and offers an enticing hint of where Runnner is heading next.
Clocking in at just one minute and thirty six seconds, "Vines To Make It All Worth It" wastes no time in introducing everything that makes Weinman's songwriting so compelling. The song builds on a foundation of fingerpicked banjo and gently swells towards a conclusion of layered vocals and shimmering keys that leaves the listener wanting more.
Weinman discussed the new single saying: "I wrote 'Vines' a few years ago. It’s a tiny song about placing a lot of weight on seemingly small memories, and living with the love and frustration of those moments, both then and now. The title was inspired by a conversation with my sister and I want to thank her for that because I write most of my songs starting with the title."
Since 2017 Weinman has been releasing music as Runnner, and the songwriter has already amassed an impressive catalog of beautifully homespun indie folk. Runnner's music often manages to feel both deeply intimate and cinematically sweeping all at once, utilizing a unique mix of hifi/lofi dynamics and intricate arrangements that incorporate guitars, banjo, synths, piano, and most importantly, Weinman's warm vocal and inviting vocals. The songs often unfold in ways that are instantly appealing but reveal themselves even more with each listen, offering new musical and lyrical insights like an old friend that's still always surprising you.
Runnner have also announced an upcoming headlining show in Los Angeles at the Troubadour scheduled for September 8th. Stay tuned for more from Runnner.
Upcoming Shows: 09/08 Los Angeles @ The Troubadour
Rival Schools have teamed with Run For Cover Records for a 20th anniversary deluxe reissue of their legendary debut full-length, United By Fate. With the standard edition/digital due out October 28th and the deluxe/collectors editions in-stores in time for RSD Black Friday on November 25th, this re-release of United By Fate offers a chance to rediscover one of the most impressive and influential post-hardcore albums of all time.
United By Fate Deluxe Edition provides something for both longtime fans and those looking to discover this important album for the first time. In addition to the original 13 songs (all remastered for vinyl) the release includes every official United By Fate b-side, all of the Rival Schools tracks from their split with Onelinedrawing (never before released on vinyl), and the new take on "Holding Sand." The 23 total songs sound just as vibrant and essential today as they did over 20 years ago when they first came out. And for the ultimate fans, the collectors edition of the reissue is housed in a hard-cover linen case with stamped lettering, holding a hardcover sixty-four page book that includes handwritten lyrics and never-before-seen photos from the band’s personal archives.
Featuring a lineup of NYHC greats--guitarist/vocalist Walter Schreifels (Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today Quicksand), drummer Sammy Siegler (Youth of Today, Judge, CIV), bassist Cache Tolman (Iceburn, Institute) and Ian Love (Burn, Atlantic/Pacific)--Rival Schools' 2001 debut is a post-hardcore masterpiece that managed to seamlessly blend the sheer kinetic energy of aggressive music with deeply melodic rock songwriting. Not only is the album packed with untouchably catchy and innovative songs, it also solidified Schreifels legacy as a trailblazer and created a blueprint that allowed many younger musicians in hardcore to feel comfortable with allowing themselves to grow and change creatively.
To mark the announcement Rival Schools have shared a new version of United By Fate standout, "Holding Sand." Recorded by Schreifels, the acoustic take strips off the distortion and churning bass of the original to reveal the expert song-craft that has always been at the core of the musician's storied career.
Today, Virginia band Turnover announces their fifth full-length album Myself in the Way due November 4th. Along with the album's announcement, Turnover shares the title track "Myself in the Way" featuring vocals from Brendan Yates of Turnstile, which arrives with the digitally-altered, montage-style visuals of the band performing and exploring nature spliced together with artwork from bassist Danny Dempsey.
Myself in the Way was born out of Turnover's desire to continue evolving their sound, making each body of work more exploratory than the last, but it's also a byproduct of the band's growth both as individuals and collectively. Armed with a flurry of new ways for the band to express themselves creatively, they challenged themselves to make their most ambitious body of work to date. Co-produced by frontman Austin Getz alongside frequent collaborator Will Yip, Myself In The Way sounds more expansive than anything they've done, intently honing in on sound design this time around, and yet it's wholeheartedly more intimate and self-reliant on their vision and execution.Turnover is also announcing a trio of headlining shows to take place this November and December to celebrate the release of Myself in the Way. The band will play Roadrunner in Boston, Brooklyn Steel in New York City and The Wiltern in Los Angeles. Tickets will be available for pre-sale beginning today at 10AM ET and will go on sale to the general public this Friday, July 29th at 12pm ET here.
Runnner, the musical moniker of LA-based songwriter Noah Weinman, has returned with a bite-sized new single, "
