? IC Community Weekly #59
Hey everyone, and welcome to another IC Community Weekly.
Hunter here, beginning on a somber note as we say goodbye to legendary indie rock engineer/musician/truth-spitter Steve Albini, who passed away this week at the too-soon age of 61.
We never met him, but he heavily influenced us with his uncompromising vision of a music industry that worked for artists instead of against them, so much so that this was my first ever IC blog post. "The Problem With Music" taught this budding royalty nerd how exactly a band could sell 250k copies, earn their label $710k in profit, and end up -$14k unrecouped.?
"Some of your friends are probably already this fucked" is still true today, which is why we literally built and continue to build IC with the goal of illuminating and maybe even correcting this just a little bit. "No one signs up to IC to rip off artists" is something we like to say around here, so imho you're all very much part of the solution, and we couldn't do it without you.?
With that, on to this week's always-incredible batch of new music, videos, tours, etc. from the amazing IC community... but first, the news from IC HQ:
IC PARTNER NEWS
A new section where IC Partners - aka organizations we’ve teamed up with to further help catalogs/artists get royalties done - get to flex some news. Want to become an IC Partner? Reach out to our co-founder Hunter.
JOBS IN THE COMMUNITY
???? Secretly Group affiliate All Flowers Group are looking for a Project Managerbased in the UK to manage artist release campaigns at the global level for Ghostly International and drink sum wtr, working closely with the AFG Projects Department and international teams to implement a global timeline and strategy. Get more details and apply.
NEW RELEASES
ALBUMS
?? Merge released Pull the Rope, the new record from electronic afro-funk band Ibibio Sound Machine, last week. The London group’s latest has been earning rave reviews, with Clash saying it’s a “a fiery return… dipped in their trademark energy”, and calling the band “a force to be reckoned with.”
?? Merge also released Look to the East, Look to the West, the new record from beloved Scottish indie pop band Camera Obscura. In their recent 8.0 review, Pitchfork call the record an “appealing balance of fond memories and fresh energy” that “reminds us of better times while making it possible to believe the best is yet to come.”
?? Ransom Note Records shared Blueprints by Ammonite, the debut mini-album from Amy Spencer, a songwriter producer who has previously been a guest vocalist for Bicep (penning two tracks on their debut album).
?? Chapter Music released Satanic Lullabies, the fourth album by Melbourne, Australia pop eccentric Gregor, which sees him “pirouette across the genre spectrum, scraping soft rock, electro-pop, ambient, deranged prog, jazz and psych with his curled nails" (Boomkat).
?? Slumberland released Pop and Circumstance, the new record from Oakland, CA mainstays Lunchbox, which is “…the perfect mix of 70s AM radio, 80s mod revival and timeless power-pop”.
?? PAN released The Liars Tell… today, the new EP from Italian musician, producer and artist Heith.
SINGLES
?? Polyvinyl released the new single by indie pop balladeer IAN SWEET, a cover of the Broken Social Scene staple, Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl. It’s a “powerful and explosive rendition buoyed by her love of the track and the way it has stayed in her life, albeit changing in shape and meaning.”
?? Fire Talk released Albatross, the new single from Cola and the latest taste of forthcoming record The Gloss, which hits shelves on June 14th.
?? Earth Libraries shared Hemmy, the experimental new single from Brooklyn-based songwriter Jake Elijah, which Pilerats described as sounding “…a bit like if?Mac Demarco?maybe took one too many sips of purple drank”.
?? Kill Rock Stars released I Feel Alone When I’m With You, the latest track from Logan Lynn (taken from his forthcoming album, SOFTCORE, out June 7th), which “…delves into the loneliness and despair of being with the wrong person in a relationship while simultaneously compelling us to dance it out”. ?? Kill Rock Stars also released the new Habibi single My Moon, which transports listeners “…into a celestial realm where the delicate dance of gravity between earth and its lunar muse unfolds… conjuring images of whispered confessions under the silvery moonlight and heartbeats soaring into the cosmos”. It’s lifted from their forthcoming album Dreamachine, which comes out May 31st.
?? 2MR released Let Go, the new single by Turkish musician and filmmaker Ece Era, in which she “…consciously alters her voice, shrouding her vocals in warm layers of electronica, drifting between melancholy and optimism.”
PRE-ORDERS
?? Three Lobed Records announced Arc Of Night, the new album by Danny Paul Grady Duo will be released June 28th. It’s their third for Three Lobed and the follow up to last year’s Arc Of Day.
NEW SIGNINGS
?? DFA welcomed enigmatic duo Mermaid Chunky to their family. The band is composed of two visual artists and musicians from Stroud and South London, Freya Tate and Moina Moin, and their music is described as a party of “people, ideas, layers, kick drums, recorders, saxophones, frogs.” Their latest track Céilí, named after a traditional Scottish or Irish social gathering and dance, is accompanied by a new self-directed video, which you can watch here.
领英推荐
?? Merge announced they’ve signed Melbourne, Australia–based purveyors of jangle-damaged pop, Quivers, and announced their debut record Oyster Cuts (out August 9th), as well as releasing a video for lead single Apparition.
VIDEOS
??? Squirrel Flower (Polyvinyl) performed a set for KEXP, where she played her tracks Full Time Job, Stick, Alley Light and When A Plant Is Dying. Check it out here:
??? Good Looks (Keeled Scales) shared the music video for their?new single Can You See Me Tonight?. It was shot at Austin's historic Hole in the Wall and directed by Riley Engemoen (Buck Meek, Hovvdy):
INTERVIEWS
??? Yirinda (Chapter Music) spoke to ABC Radio National in Australia about how they were able create the big moments on their self titled record and what they had to learn along the way.
FROM THE ARCHIVE
??? Where I choose a video I love from YouTube’s treasure trove of music videos, live performances and curiosities.
This week: Steve Albini talking about smart financial decision making as an artist, taken from the DVD extras of 2002 documentary D.I.Y. OR DIE: How To Survive as an Independent Artist, directed by Michael W. Dean.
SHOWS, TOURS + EVENTS
?? Babehoven (Double Double Whammy) started a big tour of North American this week | TICKETS
?? Paper Garden Records are hosting Market Hall-Pass, the latest in their multi-sensory travel-themed experiential music series next Friday | TICKETS
?? Jeff Rosenstock (Polyvinyl) is playing a run of shows at Warsaw in Brooklyn from August 21st with various special guests | TICKETS
?? UPCOMING INDUSTRY EVENTS
+ check out the ?? Events Directory for more conferences, festivals, record fairs, webinars, etc!
May 13th - 16th ? Music Biz (Nashville, TN, US)*
May 15th - 18th ? The Great Escape (Brighton, UK)
May 22nd - 24th ? Brighton Music Conference (Brighton, UK)
May 27th - 28th ? Africa Rising Music Conference (Johannesburg, South Africa)
May 30th - June 2nd ? Primavera Sound (Barcelona, Spain)
June 1st - 8th ? Canadian Music Week (Toronto, Canada)
June 3rd - 5th ? NIVA 2024 (New Orleans, LA, US)
June 6th - 8th ? Primavera Sound (Porto, Portugal)
June 10th - 13th ? A2IM IndieWeek (New York, US)* *we’ll be there!
That’s all for this one! Stay safe and we’ll catch you again next week for more of the same.
- Adam & the Infinite Catalog crew
Founder & CEO at Good Folk Management
6 个月Ibibio Sound Machine don’t play ??