RIGHT ARM RESOURCE UPDATE JESSE BARNETT [email protected] (508) 238-5654 www.rightarmresource.com www.facebook.com/rightarmresource 12/2/2020 Travis feat. Susanna Hoffs “The Only Thing” The new single from 10 Songs, out now Originally written by Healy as a could-be duet, Hoff remembers the moment the stars seemed to align: “One day, he asked me to sing with him, and without hesitation, I burst out ‘Yes!’ He showed up at my doorstep with his recording gear and we recorded my vocals in the living room. Collaborating with Fran and the band has been a pure pleasure.” Grizfolk feat. Kyle Gass (of Tenacious D) “All I Want For Christmas Is A Rock Show” A cathartic original track that encapsulates everything we’re all feeling after being without concerts since March: “Stuck at home, all alone // Tired of staring at my phone // All my favorite concerts // Went from sold out to postponed // I’m feeling lonely // I’m so lonely” Official adds at WFPK and KSMF this week, spins at KRVB and KPND already Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard “Christmas Is Coming (We All Know The Score)” A new original track, added at WFPK “‘Christmas Is Coming’ may seem like the kind of anti-imperialist Christmas song that only a global pandemic could produce, but in actual fact it was written in 2018 (capitalism never takes a holiday) after I finished Christmas shopping for my friends. Nothing quite fills one with the dread of implied consumerism quite like pretending you know what you’re friends actually desire on the third floor of a TK Maxx.” - frontman Tom Rees ONR feat. Sarah Barthel (of Phantogram) “Must Stop” From his upcoming EP Pronounced like “honor” New at WUSM ON: WRLT, WCNR, KTBG, KVOQ, KVNA, KROK, WCLX, WXRY, KSLU Almost 950,000 streams on Spotify “‘Must Stop’ is 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) #32 Mediabase Alt! Dispatch “May We All” From their forthcoming album Mediabase 38*, BDS Indicator 29*, JBE Albums Debut 39*! ON: WXRV, WFUV, WRNR, KCSN, Music Choice, WXPK, WNCS, WCOO, WCLZ, WPYA, KVNA, WDST, WERS, KVYN, KRSH, WAPS, KJAC, WZEW, WCLX... “‘May We All’ led with this idea of what it means to be forsaken and what that might look like to different demographics in our country.” - Chadwick Stokes/American Aaron Lee Tasjan “Up All Night” The first single from Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!, due February 5 New: WTYD, KROK, KUWR ON: WRLT, KCSN, WPYA, WFPK, KJAC, KVYN, WAPS, WEHM, WUIN, KNBA, WYCE, WCBE, WJCU, KMTN, KTAO, KRML, WVMP, WBJB... “‘Up All Night’ is 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 Semisonic “Basement Tapes” The second single from their You’re Not Alone EP BDS Monitored New & Active, Indicator Debut 37*! ON: KGSR, WRNR, WFUV, KCMP, WXPK, WFPK, Music Choice, WPYA, KCSN, WEHM, KVNA, WTMD, KJAC... “A blazingly catchy and colorful rocker that could be about the nascent days of any rock band.” - Minn. Star Tribune “The arrangements are streamlined yet sturdy, from the propulsive “Basement Tapes” to the memorable title track.” - Under The Radar Edie Brickell & New Bohemians “My Power” The first single from Hunter And The Dog Star, due February 19 ON: WFUV, KCSN, WEHM,WDST, WCLX, WYCE, WCBE, WKZE, KSUT, WZLO, WEXT, WLKR, WVMP, WMWV... “A funky mid-tempo rocker steeped in ’70s pop and vintage Lou Reed.” - Dallas News Edie says the songs on the album represent “the mystery of self-expression, loyalty, companionship and love in the darkest sky just before dawn.” Julien Baker “Faith Healer” The first single from Little Oblivions, due February 26 JBE Albums #37! ON: WXRV, Music Choice, WRLT, KCMP, WFUV, KCSN, WPYA, WFPK, KUTX, WYMS, KVOQ, KTBG, KVNA, WERS, WCLX... Julien is also one third of Boygenius with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus “Not only the most richly produced, pop-aware release of Baker’s career, but also her most unsparingly honest in its messiness.” - Hailey Knox “A Boy Named Pluto” Her new single, out now New: WYMS, WCNR ON: WMMM, KCSN, WDST, WCLX, WVMP, KROK, WCBE, WYCE and KSLU Check out the fantastic claymation video on my site Livestream performances every Tuesday at 9pm ET Guested on American Songwriter’s Bringing It Backward podcast “Her adept guitar playing and versatile vocals are refreshing in an age of computer generated radio hits” - Artvoice Adrianne Lenker “Zombie Girl” The new single from songs, out now New: WUSM ON: KCMP, WFUV, KEXP, WFPK, KTBG, WYCE, WCBE, SiriusXM Loft, KSMF, WFHB, KHUM... Big feature in The New Yorker: “Lenker writes often about time and loss—how to cling to what we need and let go of everything else. For her, songwriting is a way of externalizing specific experiences or memories and pinning them in place, like a butterfly under glass.” Big Thief just received 2 Grammy noms Michael Franti & Spearhead “Work Hard And Be Nice” The follow up to his #1 AAA single “I Got You” Mediabase #37, BDS Indicator #7 New at KCSN ON: WRLT, WXRV, WMMM, KRVB, WFUV, Music Choice, WNCS, WPYA, WCNR, WCLZ, KPND, KVNA, KRSH, WTMD, KXT, WDST, WEHM, WCOO, KTSN, WUIN... “Franti’s mission, musical & otherwise, is convincing people they can” - Billboard His Stay At Home Concert World Tour continues Prateek Kuhad “Cold/Mess” From his Cold/Mess EP, out now New at KCSN ON: WFUV, KXT, KJAC, KTBG, WRSI, KRSH, KBAC, WCLX, WCBE, WMVY, KROK... Prateek is from India and this song has found international acclaim already Barack Obama picked it as one of his favorite songs of 2019 Over 10 million streams on Spotify and 10 million views on YouTube Has appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone India Romy “Lifetime” From the solo record from Romy Madley Croft of Mediabase #46, BDS Monitored 39*! ON: KINK, WXRV, WFUV, KCMP, Music Choice, WFPK, KTBG, KVOQ, WYMS, WPYA, WNCS, KJAC, KVNA, WAPS, WCNR, KVYN, WZEW, KYMK, WCLX, WYCE... The xx’s “” was a top 10 AAA hit Tons of great single reviews already from NME, Billboard, Stereogum, UPROXX and more Ron Gallo “HIDE (MYSELF BEHIND YOU)” From PEACEMEAL, due 2/12/21 ON: WRLT, WXPN, KCSN, KJAC, WCNR, WEHM, WNRN, WCLX, WLKR, WJCU, WYCE, 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 Ivan & Alyosha “Everybody Breaks” From their self-titled album, out now New: KTBG ON: KCSN, WCNR, WNRN, WEHM, KEXP, WCLX, KSMF, KNBA, WCBE, WJCU, KROK, WOCM, KBAC, WYCE... “Refreshing dynamicism and undeterred folk rock swagger... unveils the fragility of the human spirit without missing a beat. Ivan & Alyosha’s new video is fun, provocative, and above all, engaging: A thrilling introduction for new listeners, and a welcome visual for longtime fans.” - Atwood The Grahams “Don’t Give Your Heart Away” The second single from Kids Like Us, out now ON: KCSN, WCNR, KVYN, WCLX, KBAC, WYCE, KROK, KPIG, KRML, KLRR, WMWV, WEXT, KUWR, WBSD... Watch the beautiful somewhat-autobiographical video on my site ““Don’t Give Your Heart Away” is as much a cautionary tale for our daughter as it is a reflection on the emotional turmoil we were enduring to have her.” - The Grahams ZZ Ward “Giant” Her new single, out now Mediabase #33, BDS Indicator #30! ON: KGSR, WRLT, KRVB, Music Choice, KCSN, KVNA, WPYA, KTBG, WCNR, KPND, WCLX, WZEW, KYMK, KTHX, WDST, KTSN... “Whether it was an ex-lover that I never felt good enough for or knowing I had to find the giant inside of myself to overcome feelings of self-doubt, writing these songs helped me get to a place of acceptance.” - ZZ DIY looks at the new holiday track from Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard “Giving us the goods with the glam-rock Christmas bop we’ve all been waiting for, Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard have released ‘Christmas Is Coming (We All Know The Score)’. Speaking on the song, the band’s Tom Rees says, “Weirdly enough this Christmas song was written many years ago but I suppose the absolute grinding nightmare we call consumer capi- talism never really takes a sick day even during a global pandemic, so at least one positive take away from writing sarcastic songs about capitalism is that the situation is almost definitely only going to get worse and we can only become more alarmingly relevant as each year goes by - all of this considered I did just buy a gigantic new computer screen from Currys/PC World (another great conglomerate, on a side note, I have never actually bought anything physically in PC World, because they never have it there, I think they need to change their name, they can’t advertise themselves as a WORLD OF PC’S without actually having what you want, but I digress) so I’m not quite immune to the charm of it all, I just like to nag more than anything.” Alongside the track, the band have also announced that they’ll be playing socially-distanced shows in January as part of Independent Venue Week, performing at ’s Lafayette on 28th January and Leeds’ The Brudenell Social Club on 29th January.” - DIY, 12/2/2020 Romy talks about being open about her sexuality in her writing “The problem with being an introvert writing dance music is that eventually you will have to dance in front of other people. “I’m definitely quite a shy dancer,” says Romy Madley Croft over a video call from the home she shares with her girlfriend, the photographer Vic Lentaigne, in north London. In lockdown, with no prospect of live shows, this wasn’t a problem, but now she’s starting to nervously ponder how she will perform her upbeat, house-indebted new music. “It’s taken a long time to get to the place where I really enjoy being on stage.” Fifteen years, in fact. The familiar image of Madley Croft is as bassist and singer with the xx, the band she formed with London schoolfriends in 2005: dressed in black, shielded by her guitar, expression ranging between pensive and troubled. Even performing a sparkling dance track on stage, such as by her fellow wallflower and bandmate (“I go to loud places to find someone to be quiet with,” she sings on the chorus), she stayed largely rooted to the spot. Yet on the cover of her debut solo single, Lifetime, in an acid-hued image captured by Lentaigne, she is caught in motion, arms raised high, hair swooshed. Rooted in early-00s Euro-dance, Lifetime is one of the most euphoric pop songs of the year. It has the signature intimacy that secured the xx two No 1 albums and a , but also the soaring songcraft Madley-Croft has used when writing for stars such as Dua Lipa and King Princess during the band’s hiatus. She wrote Lifetime in April alone in her bedroom, taking her back to the reasons she began songwriting in the first place, as a teenager swapping messages with xx bandmate Oliver Sim. “It really reminded me of that time when I was confused, and had all these things that were just out of my control when I was a teenager, and I was trying to process them. If I can write about it, I feel like I’ve calmed myself down.” In that first lockdown, “everything became so still, and so simplified,” she says. “I was like: ‘What’s the most important thing to me? The people I love. And if the world ends, I just want to be with those people.’ It wasn’t my intention to write a really positive song about wanting to just seize the moment and enjoy life. I was quite pleasantly surprised that that was what came out.” Lifetime is such a rush of ecstasy, in fact, she almost chose not to release it in 2020, worrying that it was insensitive. But ultimately, she decided that joy is vital: her own pandemic therapy has been to dance with Lentaigne to the Lady Gaga album Chromatica in their kitchen, lit by a disco light she bought online. Madley Croft’s clubbing journey began in the Soho gay club Ghetto, which she and Sim would visit every Thursday night when they were 16 and 17. “It was great to have this life separate from school,” she says. “I’d stand in the corner, stare and observe. But that was fun for me!” One night, someone who worked at the club approached her and asked if she would like to DJ because he had seen her on the fringes of the dancefloor so often. She returned with burned CDs full of her favourite tracks, and discovered a new lifelong love: the joy of dropping a track such as Ultra Naté’s Free, or Corona’s Rhythm of the Night, and watching hands lift into the air. Her forthcom- ing solo album is something of a love letter to those formative queer experiences, cast in the poignant context of 2020, when that experience has been snatched from so many LGBTQ people. “I really hope that younger queer people can have those connections [in clubs] and learn how beautiful it is,” she says. Madley Croft’s queer identity is notably more front and centre in her solo work than it has been in the xx. She and Sim – who are both gay – have never used gendered pronouns in the love songs they write and perform together. Standing in what Madley Croft calls the “shared space of a song”, this gave their music its poetic ambiguity: were they singing to each other? Or per the title of their second album, did they merely “coexist”, two strangers having different experiences? That mystery was also a kind of protection. “I came out when I was 15, and my dad was really cool about it, and I’m very grateful for that,” she says. “But I didn’t feel ready when we put out that first xx album, when we were about 20, to be really, really open about my sexuality. Over time, growing up and also just noticing how the world is changing, I felt a lot more comfortable being more public.” One of her new songs is titled Love Her. “To write about loving a woman and not feel afraid or embarrassed … maybe it’s a growing up thing, and just not caring as much what people think.” She says the rise of fearless younger queer artists such as King Princess is inspiring. “She’s so young, and so unafraid to be herself.” She also wanted to create pop music for queer women that was upbeat, and didn’t take itself too seriously. “When I was a teenager, and I was looking for ex- plicitly lesbian love songs that I could connect to, I definitely wasn’t finding any pop-dance music. It was more like, lesbian acoustic music. That’s the stereotype, I think. What does a lesbian love song sound like? Someone with an acoustic guitar!” The album currently consists of 17 new songs, floating around in various stages of production, and heading towards a 2021 release. Like Chromatica and Dua Lipa’s Club Future Nostalgia, the vision is for a pop record with the songs blended to mimic a DJ set. There are ballads “within the context of club sounds”, and songs that are “very fast and upbeat”. Like much of her work, she says the album will focus on romance. “I’ve talked about this a lot with Oliver – we say that’s my default theme,” she laughs. “I’ve always loved love songs, but a lot of the songs I’ve written [in the past] have been about heartbreak. I have been enjoying trying to write a few more songs about being in love – but also, not making them sound incredibly cheesy, because there’s this fine line between saccharine and sincere.” Working on it has been a liberating experience, not least because Madley Croft has consciously surrounded herself with female, non-binary and queer col- laborators, inspired by Björk’s work on Utopia with a team of women and non-binary people. Engineer Marta Salogni brought Francine Perry in to work on analogue synths, alongside another engineer, Grace Banks. “I realised I had never been in the studio with all women before, ever,” Madley-Croft says. “It was something that I had been craving.” Forthcoming Lifetime remixes are by female and non-binary producers including Planningtorock, Jayda G, HAAi and Anz. In this context, her guarded, controlled public image and the all-black outfits read as a kind of armour All of this album work, she says, will eventually come to influence the xx. “It’s like a marriage,” she laughs. “It’s nice to keep it fresh. To have a bit of time /[/ apart/]/, come back together and have a conversation, like: ‘What have you learned lately?’ I’ve known Oliver since I was three years old. We’ve pretty much spent our whole lives together – nursery school, primary school, secondary school, on tour. It’s quite nice to not know what he’s doing. I think that will help the songwriting.” Looking back on 2009 now, and the band’s catapult into the public eye when they were still just teenagers, Madley Croft has a lot of tenderness and sympathy for her shy younger self. While battling with their newfound visibility, she was also struggling with immense grief – her dad and cousin both died when she was 20. “That year was just a blur,” she says. “It felt like five years in one year. It was the most euphoric year I’ve ever had, and also one of the most devastating.” In this context, her guarded, controlled public image and the all-black outfits read as a kind of armour. Now, she says she wants to approach the next xx music “with a bit more playfulness – which I think comes from being a bit older and a bit more confident,” she grins. “I loved wearing all black. It made me feel safe, and more in control back then. As I’ve gotten older, it’s nice to be a bit more creative, and explore.” She self-deprecatingly imagines the headlines: “The next xx album is Technicolor, rainbows everywhere!” Outgrowing the darkness is about more than moving past a goth phase, though. Madley Croft says that she wrote Lifetime about seizing the moment, because “sometimes you can worry the moment away. I’ve been feeling that a lot lately: that life is short. I think that a lot of the time, with the losses I’ve had in my life, and especially with Covid, and all this going on … to really celebrate life and live it to the best, that’s how I like to be.” – (UK), 11/27/2020 Planning ahead for January: Future Islands “Plastic Beach,” Bahamas “Trick To Happy,” Passenger and so much more RIGHT ARM RESOURCE WEEKLY UPDATE - 12/2/2020