#NEWMUSICMONDAY: Kamau “BooDha”

kamau

You need to know Kamau. His Gorgeous Fortune EP, which found its way to this writer’s ears by way of a dinner party and was subsequently obsessively streamed with a fervor not personally manifested since Lemonade, is a must-listen. One of the album’s merrier singles, “BooDha,” worships a girl that can do both, she’s got the booty of a goddess and a mind of a Buddha. In the video, which dropped today on VIBE, we’re enchanted by the talents of a mesmerizing gymnast, and yes, there are awesome booty shots. Yet not to dismiss the power of the butt, which is insurmountable, don’t pigeonhole Kamau as an artist who solely makes songs about women’s bodies, Gorgeous Fortune is both a beautiful work of art and a brilliant manifesto on the state of the world in 2016, with especially notable commentary on the evil the police force has shown towards Black lives. There are also some songs that are perfect for dancing in circles under the full moon, my witches. Listen to “BooDha” below and head over to Tidal to steam the EP in its entirety.

#NEWMUSICMONDAY: 4am “More”

4am_The_Band

The mysterious electro-R&B 4am released their debut track, “More,” and we’re here to share it with you on this New Music Monday. There’s little known about the male/female duo, but fans of The XX, James Blake, and Chvrches will dig the haunted, sexy cool electro beats, as staticky female vocals poke through to explain: “I need more…” The song invokes emotions surrounding that distinct mental break, hot with both sadness and the thrill of self confidence, when you finally say out loud that you need more, and decided to go out and get it.

Check out “More” below:

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#NEWMUSICMONDAY: RYAL “Jill”

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Coming off last week, one filled with mourning for the moving on of icons from earth to constellations, we found it important to kick off this cold January Monday with something you can dance to. Labeled alt pop, but twinkling like alt disco, RYAL’s single “Jill” will audibly fill your room like a thrift shop disco ball. The song comes from the New Yorker’s upcoming EP, slated to come out February 19.

Listen to “Jill” below.

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#NEWMUSICMONDAY: Seramic “People Say”

Seramic

This New Music Monday, the first of 2016, we have a debut track from mysterious electro-soul artist Seramic. “People Say” is the calm and choral first piece of the puzzle of what will surely assemble a magnificent embodiment of nu-soul. Soaring vocals and soothing melodies are just the pill to swallow on what feels like the first day of school after a long holiday.

Listen to “People Say” below.

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#NEWMUSICMONDAY: Goldensuns “I Feel This Place”

GoldenSuns

Enjoy New Music Monday with an otherworldly track from Los Angeles-based Goldensuns. The three-piece band consists of three brothers: Chase (bass/lead singer), Jantzen (guitar/vocals), and Weston Meier (drums/vocals).  “I Feel This Place” is the debut track from the indie-rockers’ upcoming project, which should be out in January 2016 with a tour to follow. One can only speculate that “I Feel This Place” could have been inspired by the band’s move from Salt Lake City to LA. The song conjures up the heady (and rare) feeling of the joy experienced when you seem to inexplicably land right where you should be.

Listen to “I Feel This Place” below.

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#NEWMUSICMONDAY: New Madrid “Don’t Hold Me Now”

New Madrid

Today we have a fresh track from Athens-based indie rock quartet New Madrid for New Music Monday. What a delightful sentence to type, with delightful music to back it up. Coming at you from their third album, magnetkingmagnetqueen, due in April via New West Records’ imprint, Normaltown Records. “Don’t Hold Me Now” is a dreamy rush of endorphins, fitting, as the song is about “that sensation when someone or something pulls you from a dream at what can feel like the worst or the best time. Your last moment of the dream before being woken up. Don’t hold me now, I’m dreaming,” writes Stereogum in their premiere of the song.

New Madrid is made up of Phil McGill (guitar/vox,) Graham Powers (guitar/vox,) Ben Hackett (bass/vox,) and Alex Woolley (drums/percussion). They are currently on tour with Nashville psych-rockers All Them Witches.

Listen to “Don’t Hold Me Now” below.

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#NEWMUSICMONDAY: Crater “Habits Die Slow”

Crater

This New Music Monday, meet Crater. Crater is a Seattle-based duo, Ceci Gomez and Kessiah Gordon. “Habits Die Slow” is the first song off their debut album, Talk To Me so I Can Fall Asleep! They won me over immediately with the lyrics “Got too Stoned on the weekend….” Apparently, the album was created from from Ceci and Kessiah’s adjoining bedrooms during the long rainy season. Fitting, since the dreamy electro-pop raining down on my ear drums in “Habits Die Slow” is perfect for sitting alone in your bedroom, watching the rain come down out the window, waxing poetic to your cat about your latest romance. Which, by the way, is something an ultimate goddess witch baby would do, despite notes of mourning, there’s absolutely nothing sad about Crater, who have already gotten the stamp of approval from glitter pop band MS MR, whom they toured with this past year.

Their debut full length Talk to Me so I Can Fall Asleep comes out via Help Yourself Records on February 26th, 2016. Listen to “Habits Die Slow” below.

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#NEWMUSICMONDAY: She-Devils “Come”

She-Devils

She-Devils is the Montreal retro-pop duo Audrey Ann and Kyle Jukka. Their debut single “Come” layers distorted 60’s psych-pop sounds stitched together by Jukka, as Ann’s vocals order the listener to “Come. Come. Come. Don’t try to resist me.”  With crunchy vocals that play like an incantation, and swirls and loops of hypnotic noise, we won’t resist at all. Take a listen to “Come” below.

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#NEWMUSICMONDAY: Tom Powell “I’ll Be The One”

Tom Powell

Sometimes you just want to listen to something beautiful. For this week’s New Music Monday Tom Powell‘s “I’ll Be The One” delivers just that. With one of those choruses that stirs something inside even the most jaded city dweller’s soul, “I’ll Be The One” will have you canceling any clubbing plans to run home to the one you love and unearth all the emotions you’ve been burying. Cambridge-based Powell reminds us of the powerful use of music as a method of story telling and expression of emotion, told through soothing guitars, Powell’s piano and warm vocals. Check out the debut track below.

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#NEWMUSICMONDAY: Late Nite Cable “All Nite Girl”

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We’re staying local and upbeat for this week’s New Music Monday. Williamsburg-based Pete Roessler and Severine Casati make up Late Nite Cable, the voice of jaded generation who may piss and moan but still know how to love and live as their 20’s creep into 30’s. “All Nite Girl” sounds like a late night walk home down Kent when the streets are clear and you’ve had a night so ridiculous and wonderful that you realize maybe everything’s not shit.

Listen to “All Nite Girl” below.

#NEWMUSICMONDAY: The Gloomies “LSD”

The Gloomies

The Gloomies is a fitting name for the ever-feared Monday, but despite the grim name, these surf punk rockers were formed in “a sun-bleached surf town in southern California.” Indeed their debut single “LSD” is a delightful blend of gloom and glow, like Halloween in paradise. Consisting of Andrew Craig, Blake Martz, Chris Trombley and Grant Martz, lead singer Andy Craig spent a brief period in our New York grey concrete jungle before heading back west in 2014, a year which he lived out of his suitcase most of the time. A rite of passage for many of the creatively inflicted, and an experience that would become the inspiration behind the single.

“LSD” / “Groves” is available on October 16th courtesy of Thrill Me Records. Listen to “LSD” – and don’t miss their second newly released single – “Groves.” Both will set the tone for a Beetlejuice celebration of a week.

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#NEWMUSICMONDAY: Denley “Following A Lie”

Denley

It’s Monday, which means a panic attacking-induing amount of coffee and new music to aid your late afternoon crash. Coming from San Francisco via Leeds, UK producer Denley (Matt Holt) is here with a debut tune “Following a Lie” off his forthcoming EP – “Close, Within Reach.” The EP is inspired by “the feeling of wanting to replace mundane drudgery with freedom of expression and emotional betterment; the idea that when we feel at our most downtrodden, that something else is out there waiting to be tapped into.” Monday goes with “mundane drudgery” like peanut butter goes with jelly – but this chilled out electro number is just the ticket to soothe your jitters. “Following a Lie” features vocals from Jagjaguwar artist Briana Marela: “The visions I seek, are close within reach, and yet I find, I’m losing time, I’m afraid I’ll be here my whole life.” Sure sounds like concerns of missed opportunity and wasted youth we’ve all experienced – but a reminder of the value of music as therapy to combat such anxiety.

Denley’s five-track EP “Close, Within Reach” is out 10/16 via Yellow Year Records. Listen to “Following a Lie” below.

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#NEWMUSICMONDAY: Greg Uhlmann “It’s Not Your Fault”

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Los Angeles-based Gregory Uhlmann of Fell Runner has released his first single under his own name, and it is divine. With a Bon Iver lullaby quality, “It’s Not Your Fault” is the perfect love song for the romantic skeptic. Too many love songs seem to be written in that first month dopamine-high of a new relationship, where you’re waking up in strange farmhouses feeling lucky to have found the person you’ve been dreaming of all your life and giving each other life-changing oral sex. That part’s awesome but easy. The hard part is sustaining beauty once you’ve smelled each other’s bad body odor and figured out what you find annoying. Chemical come downs, shitty cigarettes, and frozen over lakes – “It’s Not Your Fault” is the dreamy yet honest love song you’ve been missing.

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#NEWMUSICMONDAY: Astronaughty “Try Much Harder”

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It’s Monday, which means despite the dismal sounds of alarms, we have new music to be celebrated. Brooklyn electro – pop duo, Astronaughty, recently released their debut single “Try Much Harder.” I was sold at the beautiful long-haired men gazing at me through a purple sheen, but their appeal goes beyond the superficial. The track is a mega-fun burst of surprises, dips and dives, and unexpected tempo changes. There’s room for introspection, mellow smiles, and booty shaking.

Of “Try Much Harder,” Astronaughty says, “We wanted the track to sound like the beginning of something new that takes you back to something familiar.” Like so many late-night Brooklyn epiphanies, this one came to Sam and Charlie while riding the L train. “The melody came out of nowhere when we were taking the L train together late one night. We like to hum ideas back and forth when we are out and about and this one was very pop-y for us at the time. We remember it gave us the image of a declining pop star on the dark side of the moon, trying to make one last hit.” With a debut like this, expect plenty more from these guys before they reach their own rock ‘n’ roll suicide.

Listen to “Try Much Harder” below.

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#NEWMUSICMONDAY: Samson the Truest “Afterall”

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When was the last time you read the bible? Does wearing gothic cross earrings count? The Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Sam Geller goes by the moniker of Samson the Truest after his biblical hero, Samson. “In his music, Geller seeks to balance the power and the vulnerability embodied by Samson, delving into topics of self-destruction and transcendence as they appear in daily life.” For the record, I quoted the author’s bio page as wearing gothic cross earrings does not in fact, count as reading the bible.

“Afterall” is Samson’s first track from his upcoming album Come Back Shane, out October 2nd. The song features vocals from their frequent collaborator Aerial East, along with Xan Aird (The Virgins) on guitar. “Afterall” manages to walk the fine line between calm and impassioned, proving you don’t need to read the bible to believe in soul.

Listen to “Afterall” below.