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It was 40 flights from the lobby to Jay Z’s New York City office. But the members of the five-piece sibling band, Infinity Song, ascended in the elevator together. The members’ father, John Boyd, a songwriter and former choir leader who’d raised his nine children with music as prevalent as water in their household, joined them, his progeny. All their hard work was paying off – yet again. Infinity Song was on the way up to the office of maybe the most famous and influential person in the world. At the top floor, watched by some 70 people comprised of Jay Z’s staff and friends, Infinity Song sang, poised. Soon after, the band, successful in its tryout, signed to Jay Z’s Roc Nation label and, this month, the group has released its debut record, Mad Love. Now, the sky – well past a mere 40 flights – is just the beginning.

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The gig was so good that Ednah Holt thought she would die when it was done. That’s at least what she told herself as she was experiencing the glee and creative joy on stage and in rehearsals with the Hall of Fame rock ‘n’ roll band, The Talking Heads, for what would become their standard-setting concert film, Stop Making Sense. The live performance, released nationally on October 18th, 1984, has become a cult classic and is shown on movie theaters decades since. Beyond the band’s lead singer, David Byrne, two of the show’s stars are Holt and fellow backup singer-dancer, Lynn Mabry. The two are mirth incarnate, magnets for eyeballs. For Holt, though, the gig almost never materialized. But when it did, she had the time of her life. So much so that she thought her life might have crested right then and there.

“I thought I was going to die doing this gig,” Holt says, with a laugh. “I thought, I just can’t have fun every night! We had fun every night. We had a ball. Honest to goodness, I thought I was going to die when it was done.”

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Legendary musician, Miles Davis, would often exhaust the songs he played. He never performed the same piece the same way twice. It’s why he would change time signatures, song lengths and even keys when he would perform the cuts off his world-famous records live. It’s also why he changed genres so effortlessly, frequently and masterfully. The trumpet player, who burst on the scene with his smooth, cool, muted sound, would later evolve into one who did stadium tours, performing with distorted rock musicians and their fuzzy guitars. Indeed, Davis was far-reaching. And the artist’s most recent (posthumous) release, Rubberband, hit stores in 2019 (and soon after number-one on the Billboard contemporary jazz chart). The record is the latest in a seemingly never-ending string of songs from the musician who touched so many with his extensive sound.

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For Idyllwild, California-based songwriter and former American Idol contestant, Casey Abrams, music can often induce a good cry. Just the other day, the artist was driving and tears filled his eyes as he listened to Sixpence None The Richer’s “There She Goes,” The Beatles’ “Yesterday” and Iron & Wine’s “Naked as We Came.” Once the emotions have run their course, Abrams says, he feels renewed, refreshed. Ready. For the musician, much (if not all) of life is about vibrations. We are vibrations. Music is vibrations. Light is vibrations. So, to be alive is to engage in the interplay of vibrations. And these waves can summon passionate emotions and feelings, just like in his latest single: a reimagined cover of “Eve of Destruction,” which features the legendary songwriter, Cyndi Lauper, and is out today.

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In art school as a college student, Sam Herring, front man for the Baltimore-based post-wave band, Future Islands, studied sculpture and stage performance. He was a conceptual and performance artist. But – maybe it was laziness, he says, maybe it was the Mary Jane – his work wasn’t taking him where he wanted to go. His sculptures weren’t of Michelangelo’s caliber. But he had a revelation. Herring combined the two subjects. He began to, in a philosophical manner, consider himself to be his clay. The body was the sculpture. He adopted a bombastic stage persona, “Art Lord,” striking Shakespearean poses (or jokingly doing the “Robot” dance). He started a band with good friends. He gesticulated wildly. It worked. The local bars – and then the world – noticed. Now, his group is set to release its highly anticipated sixth LP, As Long As You Are, on October 9th.

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For Stone Gossard, co-founder of the Hall of Fame rock ‘n’ roll band, Pearl Jam, there is magic in music. And especially so when that music is forged in a group setting. Gossard, who recently founded the new rock project, Painted Shield, with the acclaimed Honolulu-born songwriter, Mason Jennings, appreciates when the sum of the parts in a band transcends the specific individuals. When that happens, Gossard knows the joyous-yet-unexplainable mystery of great music is present. For decades, this dynamic has been the guiding light for the former grunge icon. Now, Gossard and Jennings are bringing that same buoyant, collaborative sensibility to their new rock band, which will release its debut self-titled record on November 27th.

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When singer-actor-artist, Bethany Thomas, left Chicago to drive to California’s Mojave Desert to collaborate with singer-actor-comedian, Tawny Newsome, to record the music that would soon become the new co-produced LP, Material Flats, her home city of Chicago was on fire. It was the first week of June, a city tired of quarantine and systematic racism erupted – along with many others across the globe. But when Thomas met up with Newsome, the two planned to write a new record together, using the energy and insight borne from creative lives existing amidst unprecedented unrest. The two got to work, efficiently and effectively. They will release their debut LP – a mere four months after those fires – on October 9th.

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In many ways, it’s a miracle Love-Lore, the new, five-track, 35-minute LP from the San Francisco-borne band, Deerhoof, exists. To begin with, the album is an intricate amalgamation of dozens of songs and bits of classical or pop culture – from the Knight Rider theme song to Kraftwerk, B-52s and Sun Ra covers – woven together like a woolen scarf of musical history. To knit the 40-plus songs together takes the kind of skill and inspiration a single lightening bolt strike induces on the psyche. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, if you ask the band’s members, it’s astounding humanity as we know it still exists today despite shoddy politics, greed and unfulfilled social promises.

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Over the past handful of years, global circumstances have often seemed especially dire. Whether you’re observing the hellish California wildfires, the sordid social justice protests or the rapidly damaging COVID-19 virus, there is plenty to worry over. And if you were to turn on the television news on any given evening, you might think the world was going to end that same night. Well, Austin, Texas-borne rock ‘n’ roll group, The Band of Heathens, have noticed those same vents and messages and have come to the conclusion that, despite all the potential reasons to fret, there are still reasons to rejoice. So, that’s exactly what they did on their forthcoming record, Stranger, which the band will release on September 25th.

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Over the past few years, Seattle rapper, Sol, would visit New York City to see his brother, who lived in Brooklyn. Sol would stay with his brother, hang out with him and, generally, enjoy the city through the lens of their relationship. At the end of 2018, though, Sol traveled out to the east coast city, but his brother, who recently moved away, was no longer there. As a result, the emcee experienced the city alone, ridding subways and walking boulevards solo. This trip provided Sol with a fresh and unique experience when he eventually linked up with producer, Davey Ansari, on that vacation to finish their first-ever collaboration – the track, “Not Me,” which the two artists released today.

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Prolific bassist, Marc Brownstein, remembers the day John Lennon died. Brownstein, now 47, grew up in New York City. And on December 8th, 1980, he remembers the news and the outpouring of emotion that stemmed from the murder of the Beatles legend. He saw people flood the streets, make signs, talk on the news. Odd as it may seem, the multitude of responses propelled Brownstein to investigate music more. Whatever could provoke this amount of response had to be powerful. Soon, Brownstein became a Beatles fantastic, diving into their complexities. And his adoration for music continues today with his new funk project, Star Kitchen, which is set to release its debut single, “Entirely,” here with American Songwriter.

“I’d never seen anything like that before,” Brownstein says. “Seeing the responses got me interested in the Beatles’ music. I wanted to know what was behind all those people pouring into the streets to celebrate somebody’s life. So, I asked my parents for some Beatles music to understand those emotions.”

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As a young person, Eric Burton, lead singer and front man for the Austin-based rock ‘n’ roll group, Black Pumas, moved around a lot. Over one stretch of time, his family lived in several Los Angeles locales, going from Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley and other spots. As a result, it was difficult for Burton to keep up and in touch with friends. Often, he found himself alone, watching television. But he paid attention to the actors’ voices, their inflections and diction. He remembers impersonating everyone and everything he heard. It may not have been on his mind then, but this skill and the practice of it eventually led Burton to a burgeoning music career and a recent Grammy nomination for Black Pumas’ self-titled debut LP.

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James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson were brothers. Born two years apart in 1871 and 1873, respectively, the two also became artistic collaborators. James was a writer and civil rights activist. He was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. A poet and novelist, he rose to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance. John was a musician, singer and composer during the Harlem Renaissance. Together, the two created one of the most important American songs in history.

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written in 1905 by the two brothers. It was first publicly performed as a poem in celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. In 1919, the NAACP adopted the song officially as the Black National Anthem. For well over 100 years, the song has been sung and performed at important civil rights events around the world, from its inception in the early 20th century to today at protests and marches throughout the United States. (Beyoncé even added the song to her 2018 Coachella set list.)

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Every fan of the independent band, Dispatch, has a favorite song. The group, which was born from three singer-songwriters in Vermont’s Middlebury College in the mid-90s, released its fair share of underground hits. Some like the melodic “Two Coins,” others like the edgy “Headlights.” All Dispatch fans, though, can agree on one thing: “The General” is a classic. But the track, which after its release would go on to be one of the biggest file sharing success stories of the early 2000s, almost never came to be thanks to a passed out engineer and some rickety equipment.

“The recording of ‘The General’ was really ramshackle,” says Chad Urmston, one of Dispatch’s co-founders, along with Brad Corrigan and Pete Francis. “Pete was sick. And the guy recording it – we were just doing a one-off with him. Brad and I had to press record on the tape machine and run into the room to lay it down because our engineer drank and smoked himself to sleep on the couch.”

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