Major news alert! The Finnish alternative rock legends Penniless are back in this ball game and will release a new album later in 2018 on Soit Se Silti. They are one of my all-time favorite bands and therefore I’m thrilled about this. The excellent first single The Great Marquis from the forthcoming album surfaced a couple of days ago in form of a gorgeous music video.
Jesse Marchant – Illusion of Love
A week ago I purchased a download of the new Jesse Marchant album Illusion of Love that came out on the 26th of January. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, Jesse Marchant is a Canadian songwriter who released some great indie folk records as JBM between 2009 and 2012. Illusion of Love is his second under his own name and it’s a real treasure that ranges from the atmospheric indie folk of those old JBM records all the way to beautiful Strand of Oaks-like sonic monsters. Here’s a couple of magnificent outtakes from the new album.
Sarah Shook & The Disarmers – Good As Gold
Sarah Shook & The Disarmers are a great country band from North Carolina and they will have a new album Years out on Bloodshot Records on the 6th April. I’m really looking forward to this because their 2015 album Sidelong (that Bloodshot re-released in 2016) was already pretty damn impressive. It sounds like they’ve gotten even better since then and the first outtake Good As Gold from the forthcoming album is just utterly marvellous. I can’t wait to hear the album in a few months. Here’s the lyric video for Good as Gold. More about Sarah Shook & The Disarmers closer to the release date of the album.
The Heat Death – The Heat Death
It’s been one of those weeks when I wonder why do I even try to keep this blog alive. The weekdays just fly by too fast and there’s not a whole lot I manage to cover during these 2 am blog writing sessions on the Saturday nights. But no, I still won’t quit, because there are always songs and albums that I hold dear and I suppose even featuring a few of them is far better than none at all. If you get fed up with the slow update frequency there’s also a 2018 best of Spotify playlist on the top left corner that I’m continuously updating. My favorite songs will be added there a little bit faster and it will also include a bit more songs than I have time to cover here. But yeah, it’s just a bonus and the most important ones will eventually end up in this blog too. Whether it takes days, weeks or months is another matter.
Today I’ve been mostly listening to the self-titled The Heat Death album. This is a new side project by two Canadian indie legends, José Miguel Contreras from By Divine Right and Shotgun Jimmie. Personally I’m only vaguely familiar with By Divine Right. Sweet Confusion is the only album that I know and that came out a long time ago (feel free to give tips, if there’s something I especially need to hear, yeah I know, “listen to all of it” is probably the correct answer). Shotgun Jimmie on the other hand is a big favorite and I’ve enjoyed his indie rock songs ever since I stumbled upon this One Trick Pony video where he was goofing around with BA Johnston. I’ve only touched the surface of this Heat Death album, but it already feels pretty damn good. For example all these three singles are wonderful on this weird-ish video that you can watch below. I look forward to digging deeper into the album during the coming weeks.