Cory Graves
Outlets All Over The Country Premiered Songs From North Texas Artists This Week.
Now that we're moving from Festival Announcement Season to actual full-blown Festival Season, we won't take up too much space in these opening paragraphs updating you on any more upcoming fest announcement news.
But we'd be remiss not to embed this final 35 Denton announce video, which is a technical wonder, a seeming one-shot tour of the Denton square, complete with realistic models of each of this year's participating venues and anamorphic puppet versions of some of this year's performers. Honestly, we love it even more than the actual lineup itself.
Meanwhile, Festival Season seems to coincide with another phenomenon known as New Release Season. This week, tons of North Texas artists released new albums and/or singles meant to tease new spring albums, a handful of which we'll cover in this space. Even more remarkable is how many of these things earned accompanying premieres from national sites like Nylon, Paste, NPR, Stereogum and Noisey.
First up is Quaker City Night Hawks, who just headlined our fourth anniversary party at Dada over the weekend. And how did they open up that performance? With their new single, “Good Evening,” which earned its premiere via Noisey only days before. The cut comes from the band's new El Astronauta LP, which earns its release May 20 via Lightning Rod Records.
Also, on the same night as our party, the soundtrack from Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson's new erotic thriller A Bigger Splash earned its overseas release. Closing out that one is a cover of Rolling Stones deep cut “Emotional Rescue” by St. Vincent, who keeps her trademark guitar wizardry to a minimum. The soundtrack will earn its U.S. release closer to the film's release on May 4, though the song has already popped up on YouTube.
Then, just this morning, noted St. Vincent collaborator John Congleton debuted the latest single from his upcoming Nighty Nite LP via Stereogum. In case you missed it, we also posted an interview we did with Congleton earlier today. You can find that one here, and stream the new song below.
Keeping on the national premieres kick, Mind Spiders premiered a new single from its upcoming fourth LP via Paste. Pay close attention to the “random relentless machine sequence,” an introduction of pre-programmed elements into the band's already full sound. The rest of the album comes out March 12 via Dirtnap Records.
Meanwhile, over in Fort Worth, Luke McGlathery channels his inner Hank Williams on his new solo LP, recruiting some Tex-ified accordions from Abel Casillas to really put his own stamp on the well-worn sound. It's just another solid release from front to back from Britt Robisheaux at Cloudland Recording Studio, who has put out a ton of great stuff in the past year. Stream it below, and grab a physical copy at Lola's Saloon this Sunday, February 28.
And until the World Wildlife Foundation comes after him and makes him change it, Crit Morri$'s new single is called “World Wide Flava!” That is to say, you should go ahead and stream the song also known as WWF right now, before it becomes “World Wide Entertaina” in the near future.
Then there was KissedKilled, who figured that, since we weren't going to have a proper winter in Dallas, he might as well go ahead and release a summer jam. Joined by Larce Blake, his “Come Home With Me” will probably be on repeat from now through the duration of the actual calendar summer.
Newer Denton band Better Now also recently released its debut EP, Words and Wires, which was recorded by Michael Briggs at Civil Recording. Stream it below, and keep an ear to the ground for the next house show/DIY venue they pop up at so you can catch them live and grab a physical copy.
Moving on to the video front, Tiger + Man premiered its first-ever song/video via Nylon. The Brooklyn-based duo features the Dallas-sprung Tiger Darrow and her recording partner Andrew Orkin making spacey-yet-accessible electro-acoustic pop music that's likely to find an audience with Top 40 audiences without losing any of its credibility in the process (see: St. Vincent). Chegg it:
Fellow NTX expats Pale Dian also debuted a new video this week, this one via Impose Magazine. The new “In a Day” single comes from the band's Narrow Birth album, which will be available June 1 on Manifesto Records. It marks the first effort since the band changed its name from Blackstone Rangers and moved to Austin last summer.
Next up is the new visual treatment for Pearl Earl's “Witches Brew” single. That one earned its premiere via new lifestyle site The Dentonite, which has been covering the Little D scene better than pretty much anyone of late.
Finally, like those Quaker City boys, their fellow Fort Worthians in War Party not only played our little anniversary get-together but released some new media in the days leading up to the thing. Their new “Jellyfish” video was recorded at the band's album release show at new Where House offshoot The Under Where in recent weeks. Check it out below because, hey, you might see yourself.
Moving on to a handful of quick housecleaning notes:
• Leon Bridges will perform at The White House — as in the White House, as in for President Obama — as part of the Smithsonian salute to Ray Charles. You'll be able to livestream that one here at 6 p.m. today, or catch the full show this Friday on your local PBS affiliate.
• That new Jessie Frye beer will be available for tasting for the first time at her upcoming Three Links show on March 5.
• In TV news: Son of Stan's “Noxeema” was used in an episode of Fox's Cooper Barrett's Guide to Surviving Life this week, and the Old 97's' “If My Heart Was a Car,” showed up in the newest episode of The Walking Dead. See a clip of the latter below.
• It looks like Kacey Musgraves and Miguel may have potentially recorded a song together, and that's something we'd sure like to hear.
• Brooklyn trio, B Boys, which features a member of the old Denton band Final Club, has signed to Captured Tracks, which will release the band's debut next month
• And noted Drake soundalike ItsRoutine will perform at Erykah Badu's Dave Chappelle-hosted birthday party at The Bomb Factory this Friday.
Cover photo of Quaker City Night Hawks by Karlo X. Ramos. Got a tip for White Noise? Email us!
