ICYMI is a series featuring new and notable releases you (and we) may have missed
Art by Enne Goldstein, you can find more of their work here
NZCA LINES – Pure Luxury
This video rules. It came out at the beginning of last month, but the album will come out July 10th. It’s the first project in four years that’s Michael Lovett’s own, after spending time playing guitars/synth on the recent Christine and the Queens single, “People i’ve been sad,” but it’s worth the wait. With his credit card-yielding Marilyns, he deconstructs our current dystopian state here on Earth with 70s synth goodness.
SadGirl – Learn to Swim
You ever been on a lazy river? That’s this song. It’s totally relaxed and dreamy, misty at moments. But in the end, you’ve kind fo got to make the decision to quit just floating in endless circles and paddle your way through a meaningful existence. So it’s got that feeling of “oh, fuck” to it. Those oh fuck moments though are the ones that hopefully lead to more genuinely sunny times. The cute claymation plays with the same tug between coasting through an imaginary dreamland and real life.
Mamalarky – How to Say
How to best describe “How to Say,” hm? I’ll let them do it:
“I’m bored. We’re all bored. We wrote and recorded a song during this boring time,” says Bennett. “Here is exactly what it sounds like as a waveform. It’s about falling in love and not knowing exactly how to say it yet. This concept of shared love-‘you say you love me but what does that mean?’ It’s like… does love mean the same thing to both of us? Can it ever entirely mean the same thing, being different people who experience life so differently? Maybe that’s why they invented the 5 love languages, to reconcile with these little differences in how we give and take and feel love? Maybe this expression that you’re listening to now is as close to an understanding of love as anything else.
“Everything on this track is the first take, meaning we only recorded each part once. It was home recorded, right after SXSW was called off by the covid. It was meant to be a demo and then we were like… actually this sounds more genuine than it would if we just sat in a studio and hacked away at different takes, trying to make it perfect. The result is organic and cage-free, but may contain soy and tree nuts.”
Groupie – Half Wave
Groupie have been working really hard around Brooklyn for a few years now. With a few additions and subtractions in cast, they’ve settled into a dynamic in which they’re able to harness their full potential, which, as a post-punk band, takes the influences you’d expect (The Clash, The Cure, and then to Sleater Kinney). Kossakowski’s vocal influences are abundantly clear, but there’s something explicitly kind in the delivery, which speaks to the themes of intimacy and belonging at hand. (Note: the live show is anything but gentle). The first single “Half Wave” is off of their very first LP, Ephemeral, to be released later this summer.