NPR Music premieres full stream of Laura Gibson's "Goners"

Laura Gibson today premiered a full stream of her forthcoming new album Goners via NPR Music's First Listen series, where it can be heard all week leading up to its October 26 release. Listen now here. The album stream follows lead single "Tenderness," which premiered via The FADER ("Rejoice, for Laura Gibson has finally released new music") in late August, and a video for "Domestication" — co-directed by Gibson and Alicia Rose — which premiered earlier this month via NPR Music ("Gibson has grown louder, bolder and occasionally weirder in songs that can thunder ominously. Goners...is her most adventurous yet"). Pre-order Goners now here.

Gibson's tour of major US markets begins next month with a hometown Portland, OR show on November 2. More dates will be announced soon. 18 Oct 2018

Laura Gibson — "Domestication" video premiere via NPR Music

Laura Gibson today premiered her new video for "Domestication" via NPR Music. The cinematic Alicia Rose-directed clip — all pastel hues that belie its uneasy narrative — can also now be seen here. "Domestication" is the second song released early from Gibson's forthcoming new album Goners, following "Tenderness," which debuted via The FADER in late August. Goners will arrive in stores on October 26, 2018; pre-order it now here. 04 Oct 2018

Laura Gibson announces new album

Acclaimed singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Laura Gibson today announced her new album, Goners, will be released on October 26, 2018. The FADER premiered first single "Tenderness" this morning, writing, "It begins with drums pounding like feet hitting the Earth, and melts into something gentler when Gibson's vocals and strings cut in, her voice honeyed and light." Listen to "Tenderness" now here.

Of "Tenderness," Gibson says: "The songs I wrote for Goners all circle around the theme of grief, and the intimacy of shared loss. 'Tenderness' reflects on the ways we project pain, lash out, or become cracked open by the immediacy of another person. The act of holding each others' trauma and grief, is both miraculous and messy. When we're young, we adopt certain strategies for seeking and receiving tenderness. Much of adulthood is spent dismantling those strategies, and drawing new ones. I wanted to write about that dismantlement." Goners is available for pre-order here.

To celebrate the album's release, Gibson will head out on a US tour in November and December, beginning with a hometown Portland, OR show on November 2nd. More dates will be announced soon. 22 Aug 2018

Steady Holiday — "Love And Pressure" video

Steady Holiday, the dark pop project of Dre Babinski, released new album Nobody's Watching in August to acclaim from critics who praised its merging of charismatic pop sounds with ominous lyrics reflecting Babinski's anxiety over the world's evils. Babinski is taking Nobody's Watching on the road this fall, and ahead of her tourdates she's released a new video for album track "Love and Pressure." Babinski appears in the video alongside dancer/choreographer Megan Lawson, and says of the concept, "'Love and Pressure' is about feeling isolated from the oversimplified, unproductive advice that's often thrown around. I wanted to have fun with this one and take that theme very literally." The Line of Best Fit premiered the clip today, calling it "utterly brilliant."

Steady Holiday's UK and European tour kicks off this week; she will return to the US for a national tour in November. 02 Oct 2018

Steady Holiday video "Mothers" premieres

Steady Holiday released "Mothers," the latest single from her forthcoming Barsuk debut Nobody's Watching today. The ominous tone of the track is reflected in its accompanying music video, of which Dre Babinski says, "Some have a hard time distinguishing compassion from the slippery slope of altruism. This character is one of them, hesitant to 'give an inch...' anticipating what will be asked of her next. Maybe it's more convenient to keep the door locked next time."

Watch the video here. 15 Aug 2018

Charly Bliss release "Heaven", on tour with Death Cab for Cutie

Today, NYC's Charly Bliss released a song titled "Heaven," a staple of their live show. "Heaven" is the first song the band has shared since the release of their critically acclaimed debut album, Guppy, which landed on year-end best-of lists at Pitchfork, NPR, Stereogum, The FADER, The AV Club, Rolling Stone, Noisey, and more.

Of the song, Eva Hendricks says: "'Heaven' is one of the first songs I wrote after Guppy, and to me it sounds like the ending of one phase of our sound before we knew what was going to come next. We played it live every night of our album release tour and it was really incredible to see the way people reacted to and connected with the song. It's our first love song, and I basically had to force myself to write the lyrics as a songwriting challenge to myself. I think I was always worried that songwriting was something that only existed to me as a coping mechanism, and that once I was happy I wouldn't have anything interesting to say or write about. I'm proud of the sweetness and simplicity of this song, and we're super happy to release it finally!"

Charly Bliss will be on tour with Death Cab For Cutie this fall. All dates can be found here. 19 Sep 2018

Active Bird Community "Sweaty Lake" video

Active Bird Community shared their video for "Sweaty Lake," from their new album and Barsuk debut, Amends, out worldwide on Friday, September 14. CLASH premiered the off the wall, DIY-style clip, calling it "a smash hit from another dimension." Director Nick D'Agostino – who also collaborated with the band on their video for album track "Baby It's You" – explains its inspiration: "For a song that leans heavily on the notion of breaking old habits and embracing something new, we really wanted the 'Sweaty Lake' video to feel familiar but not without an interesting twist. So we started with something so familiar to them, like all the time spent practicing in their small Bushwick studio, and decided to shine a new light on it. We weren't even sure what we were going for when I stumbled into the pitch black with nothing more than a mini DVD camcorder and a flashlight, but in the end, not worrying about it and jumping in head-first ended up being the best part." Watch now via YouTube here.

Active Bird Community will kick off an expansive North American headlining tour this fall, beginning with a hometown Brooklyn show at Rough Trade on September 27 and including stops in Chicago on October 2 and Los Angeles on October 19. The tour will wrap on November 3 in Pittsburgh. Tour dates can be found here. 12 Sep 2018

Active Bird Community debuts "Baby It's You" video

Active Bird Community today debuted their video for "Baby It's You," the second song released from their new album and Barsuk debut, Amends. The lighthearted Nick D'Agostino-directed clip can be seen now here. Amends will be released on September 14. 26 Jul 2018