RIGHT ARM RESOURCE UPDATE JESSE BARNETT [email protected] (508) 238-5654 www.rightarmresource.com www.facebook.com/rightarmresource 2/17/2021 William The Conqueror “Wake Up” The first US single from their new Maverick Thinker, out 3/5 Early adds at KJAC and WBJB “Whip-smart that harks back to Stateside influences - we’re hearing aspects of Speedy Ortiz and Pavement - alongside that scratchy, UK indie sound, the West Country group are moving in their own lane.” - Clash Music (UK) Watch the video on my site now Kaleo “Break My Baby” The new single from their forthcoming album Surface Sounds, out 4/23 #1 Most Added! New: WRLT, KRVB, WQKL, WCLZ, WXPK, WPYA, WTMD, WERS, KMTN... Early: KCMP, Music Choice, WCNR, KVYN, WCLX, KVOQ, KJAC, KVNA, KPND, WAPS... “The pounding beat and JJ’s breathless wail are practically hair-raising in their unquenchable desire...” - Atwood Magazine Tune-Yards “hold yourself.” The first single from sketchy., out 3/26 Mediabase 50*, BDS Monitored New & Active, JBE 37*! New: WTMD, KROK, WBJB, WYCE, WMNF, KXCI ON: WXRV, WRNR, WXPN, WFUV, KCMP, KCSN, WFPK, WYEP, KTBG, KXT, Music Choice, WPYA, WYMS, KVOQ, KJAC, WNCS, KVNA, WRSI, WZEW... “Centered around Garbus’ powerhouse vocals, the gauzy, bass-heavy beat ballad delivers a potent message of self-empowerment” - Pitchfork LP “How Low Can You Go” Her new single, going for adds now New: WPYA, KRML, KRVM ON: KBCO, WRLT, WRNR, Music Choice, WXPK, KTBG, KXT, WYMS, WCNR, KVOQ, KUTX, WAPS, WTMD, WDST, KMTN, WVMP, WCBE... Over 6MM streams since its release in November Fall 2021 tour scheduled Nearly 5MM monthly listeners on Spotify Official video and livestream full-band performance online now Weezer “All My Favorite Songs” From OK Human, out now Mediabase 12*, BDS Monitored 9*, Indicator 4*! Mediabase Alt 12*, JBE Albums 12*! New: WDST, KVYN, KUMT... ON: KBCO, KINK, KGSR, WRNR, WXRV, WRLT, WMMM, KRVB, WXPK, Music Choice, KCMP, WFUV, KCSN, WQKL, WKLQ, WPYA, WFPK, WYEP, WNCS, KVOQ, KTBG, WAPS, WCNR... Recorded last summer with a 38 piece orchestra Stadium tour planned Great album reviews Passenger “Sword From The Stone” From Songs For The Drunk And Broken Hearted, out now Kimmel 2/22! Mediabase 33*, BDS Monitored #1 New & Active, Indicator 18*! New: WMMM, WARQ, KOIT, WMWV ON: WRLT, KINK, WXRV, KRVB, WPYA, Music Choice, WXPK, WCLZ, KCSN, WAPS, KPND, WCNR, KJAC... Streaming over 500K/week “…a hauntingly beautiful collection of Americana gold, and likely Passenger’s finest and most focused record yet.” - Glide Taylor Swift feat. The National “coney island” From evermore, her second surprise album Mediabase #25, BDS Monitored #21, Indicator 27*, JBE Albums #23 New: KPND ON: SiriusXM Spectrum, WXRV, WRLT, WRNR, WFUV, WMMM, KCSN, KXT, KVOQ, KRVB, WPYA, WNCS, KTHX, WQKL, WKLQ, WCNR, WTMD, WYEP, WFPK, Music Choice, WWCT... “evermore is even better than folklore, thanks to greater sonic cohesion and stronger songwriting.” - AV Club The Black Crowes “Charming Mess” From the deluxe Shake Your Money Maker, out February 26 Mediabase 32*, BDS Monitored #30, Indicator #24! New: SiriusXM Spectrum, WXPK ON: WXRT, KBCO, KGSR, WXRV, WRLT, WFUV, WXPN, WCLZ, WYEP, KCSN, WFPK, Music Choice, WCNR, WTMD, WNCS, WZEW, WPYA, WNRN, WAPS... Originally set to be the band’s first single, but was left off of the album “We had plenty of hit songs on that record; I guess we didn’t need it.” - Chris Bahamas “Trick To Happy” From Sad Hunk Mediabase 46*, BDS Indicator 10*, JBE Albums ! Played this month on Kimmel New: WCLY, WCOO ON: WXRV, WRLT, WRNR, WPYA, Music Choice, WFPK, KCSN, KXT, WCLZ, WNCS, KTBG, KVOQ, WDST, WCNR, WYEP, KJAC, WTMD, KTSN, WNRN, KRSH... “Surround yourself with good people. If someone’s in your life, and they’re just giving you bullshit, cut them out— don’t waste your time on that.” - Afie to American Songwriter Future Islands “Plastic Beach” From As Long As You Are Mediabase 36*, BDS Monitored 35*, Indicator 28*! New: KRVB ON: WXRV, WXPK, KCMP, WFUV, KCSN, Music Choice, WRLT, WTMD, KTBG, WYEP, KVOQ, WPYA, WYMS, WFPK... “Herring steals the spotlight again on “Plastic Beach,” perhaps the most Future Islands-y song on this album. While he’s often fighting valiantly to win the love of someone else, here, rather, he’s struggling through a long battle to self-love.” - Paste ONR feat. Sarah Barthel (of Phantogram) “Must Stop” From his upcoming EP Mediabase Alt Top 25! New at KGSR ON: WRLT, WMMM, KCMP, WXRV, KXT, WTMD, KCSN, WNCS, WCNR, KTBG, KJAC, KVOQ, WYEP, KVNA, WCOO, WAPS, WDST... Over 1MM streams on Spotify “A song about being repeatedly hurt. About a lack of self-worth, a desperation to be in love and to be loved by someone, anyone — and the blows you can take when you leave yourself so open.” - ONR (Robert Shields) “Faith Healer” From , due February 26 Mediabase 18*, BDS Monitored 17*, Indicator 21*, JBE Albums 9*! New at WMNF ON: KBCO, WXRV, WRLT, KRVB, Music Choice, KCMP, WFUV, WXPN, KCSN, WYEP, KTHX, WPYA, WFPK, WYMS, KVOQ, KTBG, WCLZ... Great Virtual Summit Fest set! “Not only the most richly produced, pop-aware release of Baker’s career, but also her most unsparingly honest in its messiness.” - Aaron Lee Tasjan “Up All Night” The first single from Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!, out now JBE Albums 46*! New at WOXL ON: WRLT, KCSN, WXPK, WPYA, WTMD, WFPK, KJAC, KVYN, WAPS, KTBG, WEHM, KRSH, WZEW, WUIN, KMTN, KRML, WTYD, KEXP... “‘Half party anthem, half cautionary tale. It’s inspired by the times I’ve wondered if I need to get help with my drinking and what it meant that I was worrying about things in the first place?” - Aaron on the single Ron Gallo “HIDE (MYSELF BEHIND YOU)” From PEACEMEAL, out now ON: WRLT, WFUV, WXPN, WYMS, KCSN, KJAC, WCNR, WEHM, WNRN, WCLX, WLKR, WJCU, KROK... “HIDE is about being with someone because how they make you feel or the idea of them rather than who they really are. Sometimes we say “I love you, I want to be with you” but maybe we really mean “I don’t like me, I don’t want to be with myself and you can help distract me from me.” - Ron Slant Magazine praises Julien Baker’s Little Oblivions “Julien Baker’s first two studio albums, Sprained Ankle and Turn Out the Lights, found the sing- er-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist pairing her tremulous voice, gossamer instrumentation, and stark lyrical approach with themes of self-loathing, interpersonal dysfunction, and profound loneliness. On her latest, Little Oblivions, she broaches similar topics but with even more confi- dence, embracing harder-edged indie-rock textures to broaden her brand of “thanatoid pop,” a subgenre characterized by pained vocals, haunting melodies, and lyrics that alternate between auto-criticality and auto-apotheosis. The album’s opening track, “Hardline,” kicks off with an abrasive organ sound that brings to mind a B-horror flick. Despite this campy flourish, though, the song’s timbre quickly turns darker: “Start asking for forgiveness in advance/For all the future things I will destroy,” Baker sings. Around the two-minute mark, she all but eschews her folk roots, embracing an alt-anthemic instrumental mix à la PJ Harvey, Sharon Van Etten, or Angel Olsen, her voice more tonally defined—and defiant—than on her previous releases. “Relative Fiction” is one of the album’s melodic high points, reminiscent of “Souvenir” from , Baker’s 2018 collaborative EP with and . The track’s ethereally repetitive piano part is used to disorienting effect, as if to induce motion sickness, with Baker offering a grimly predictable and inauspicious mantra: “I don’t need your help/I need you to leave me alone.” On “Faith Healer,” she paints a vivid portrait of someone languishing with somatic symptom disorder (“Snake oil dealer/I’ll believe you if you make me feel something”), her voice paradoxically charged and disembodied. A shuffling drum part on “Bloodshot” contrasts compellingly with Baker’s languorous vocal. In a striking couplet that references an unnamed trauma (“Five days out from the initial event/It takes two kinds of pills to unclench my fists”), the singer describes the effects of a “trigger,” the “initial event” in all likelihood reactivating an earlier and more psychological- ly foundational trauma. She then defaults to syndromic fatalism: “There’s no one around who can save me from myself,” echoing the fixation of the tragic romantic. The textural “Favor” most resembles Baker’s prior work, the singer’s tormented voice compellingly contrasted with the song’s spry instrumentation—in this case, static-y percussion and jangly guitars. Bridgers and Dacus contribute backing vocals on the hook-y chorus, their distinct performances adding sonic range to Little Oblivions. As the album progresses, Baker fleshes out her Opheliac persona, mostly striking an authentic tone, though occasionally flirting with cliché, as with the masochism expressed in “Song in E”: “I wish you’d come over not to stay, just to tell me/That I was your biggest mis- take.” With “Ziptie,” the album’s closing track, Baker achieves a potent confluence of vocal, melodic, verbal, and instrumental virtuosity, the track ending with the proclamation: “Good God, when’re you gonna call it off/Climb down off the cross and change your mind?” With these lines, she offers a transcendent prayer to a higher power or messianic figure, an impatient brush-off to a loyal lover, or gives herself permission to end her own perennial suffering. In the latter interpretation, these oblique lyrics can be regarded as tantamount to an oblique suicide note. With Little Oblivions, Baker upgrades her erstwhile folk style to accommodate a harder rock approach, though lyrically she’s as vulnerable as ever. Like A.A. Williams, , and Soccer Mommy, she successfully translates her confessional tone and subject matter into melodically and atmospherically engaging songs, resulting in an album that represents a sig- nificant step for one of contemporary music’s most eloquent artists. Rating: 4/5” - Slant Magazine, 2/16/21 Aaron Lee Tasjan talks about his new album with American Songwriter “Aaron Lee Tasjan has always been fluid. Musically, sartorially, sexually, it doesn’t matter. An accomplished jazz musician who won the Duke Ellington Prize—presented by no less than Wynton Marsalis at Lincoln Center—as a high school senior. He eschewed his Berklee education for drugs, glam and a stint as co-founder and co-creative driver of Semi-Precious Weapons, the shock rockers who opened Lady Gaga’s Monsters Ball Tour. He’s been an Americana-impaling singer/songwriter, a New York Doll, a garage rock minimalist and a space popper, so the arrival of his most integrated hybrid, Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!, should be no surprise. “I had a goal after Karma for Cheap to make a guitar record that doesn’t really sound like guitars,” the eve-cheerful prodigy explains. “Here there are a lot of things that sound like synthesizers, second genera- tion keyboards, but often it’s a guitar I manipulated.” The delight bubbles down the phone as Tasjan calls from his Nashville home, where he’s been quarantining since COVID came on strong. “People are doing a lot of interesting things on guitars, and I wanted to find an interesting way to represent guitars that wasn’t what people expect,” he says. Whether it’s the sleek, Beatles-esque “Sunday Woman”—his voice an ether-like caress—the slinking new wave-ish “Don’t Over- think It” with a side-mouth delivery or the Cheap Trick power-pop “Up All Night” with phased vocals that tumble from the abyss, the Columbus, Ohio-born multi-instrumentalist demonstrates a Todd Rundgren-style flexibility to move from subgenre to subgenre without losing cohesion. “Trying to create a sound, a persona or a life—a person that can exist in a place that’s one thing…” The mop-haired, bespec- tacled performer’s voice drifts off. “I think it’s best to not be defined,” he continues. “I’m no stranger to the complexities of any cer- tain thing. We don’t always acknowledge them, because we want to define everything in these neat clean terms. It makes people comfortable. “But what about everything that doesn’t fit? That’s usually the most interesting stuff.” Tasjan should know. In many ways the Zelig of 20th Century Pop embraces it. He speaks of playing behind rock texture/founding father BP Fallon on the spoken word “I Believe In Elvis,” at Fallon’s behest, and opening a Kills’ special Terminal 5 show like going for milk. “It had a fuck ton of words, like a Dylan talking blues; I played slide. Afterwards, in the hallway, there’s Joan Jett. She says, ‘Was that you playing slide guitar down there?’ I said, ‘Yeah,’ and she goes, ‘You’re good,’ then turns and walks away. I was like, ‘Wow.’” Parties on top of the Delancey Hotel, thrown by Lizzy Jagger. A brainiac girlfriend who worships the MC-5 and sources his clothes. Tripping balls on mushrooms. It’s all part of the kaleidoscopic Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!. His love- and adventure-seeking ava- tar in the old school video gaming “Computer Love” clip melts the influences down, pours them into an Electric Light Orchestra string bath and flies into the universe. “We had a marathon 15 hour/two day filming session to get the videos, but I thought it was important,” he says. “No clip is ‘the definitive’ interpretation, but an access to things that don’t seem related, but are.” Ironically, his new project is perhaps the most personal. Suddenly, the smart ass chronicler (this is the man behind “That Bitch Cant’t Sing” and “Another East Nashville Song About A Train,” after all) has turned his gaze inward. He didn’t realize it was hap- pening, but suddenly, there it was. And so, the triple eponymous moniker. “I’d recorded 22 for this record,” he begins, “and I chose the 11 I thought were the best. It turned out they were all about me. I think they had musical things that hold them together, but maybe… the ones that were about me I was investing more in emotion- ally. I bring it all to everything in the studio, but there’s still something about those songs.” The darkly acoustic “Feminine Walk” traces his gender blurring, his glam roots and his journey. Invoking “Tin Pan Todd” (Snider) and suggesting he was once “a Metropolitcan Conway Twitty,” the money lines come early, I’ve got rags like a drag queen dream, coming undone at the seams/ I’ve seen Bowie, Bolan, and Jagger, too/ Grace Jones, Joan Jett and ‘To Wong Foo’… “Yes, it really happened,” he says. “With the exception of ‘Sunday Women,’ everything on here happened in one way or another. ‘Feminine Walk’ absolutely happened, but it’s how you respond to people [who say those kinds of things]. “When it comes to my sexuality, rather than define it, I would rather remain curious. That’s what I’ve found feels good to me. Bisexuality or pansexuality, does it matter? I’ve been attracted to really butch lesbians. It’s about the attraction, isn’t it?” Even more, his melting definitions seemingly also open a deeper well of truth. Yes, truth. “I had some growing up to do,” he offers, “to the point that I felt I needed to sing about it. For a long time, I was a person who’d find fault in something before I could ever find anything good about it—to the point where it put strain on certain relationships. “It came in waves, very slowly or in some ways, maybe I was resistant out of fear. When I think about it, some were destiny, or just going to happen. You can’t hold things inside; at some point, they’re going to come out. Why not make it music?” In classic Tasjan fashion, though, he’s delivered a festive, narcotic, enlivening, mellowing work from all it. The kind of album that—no matter the subjects—invites you to put on, then get your swerve on, jump up and down, make-out, chill out. “I look back at my goals, and I laugh. Play a late night TV show? Convince a major label to put out a record? You know, the dan- ger isn’t that we set our goals too high, because that’s not the deal. I think it’s how do we get creative with what we have.” - American Songwriter, 2/11/21 Coming up for adds... 3/1: Cas Haley “All The Right People,” Edie Brickell & New Bohemians “Sleeve”/“Stubborn Love”... 3/8: Ten Kills The Pack “Body” RIGHT ARM RESOURCE WEEKLY UPDATE - 2/17/2021