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Mark Everett, principle songwriter and front man for the Los Angeles indie rock band, Eels, was just trying to make his friend happy. Dora, an old friend of the musician’s who used to work on the band’s tour crew as the lighting director, was feeling blue and Everett (better known as “E”) wanted to cheer her up. The two were text messaging back and forth when, suddenly, E realized the exchange made for good song lyrics. Maybe they could be spun in a way to cheer other people up too? A day or two later, Jeff Lyster, who is known as “The Chet,” sent E a bit of music and he realized it would be perfect for Dora’s text message song. It’s an open temperament like this that’s willing to accept creative “lightening strikes” that’s buoyed Eels for 25 years. And it continues today with the band’s latest LP, Earth to Dora, set for release Oct. 30th.

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When he’s not eating, sleeping or talking, celebrated songwriter, Andrew Bird, says he’s often whistling. At first, though, the Suzuki method-trained violinist thought whistling sounded cheap, not classically musical or respectable enough for his nuanced records. But, after dropping a few without his signature high-end sound, Bird relented. Now, he and his whistle are creatively inseparable on his many anticipated releases. It even landed prominently on his forthcoming holiday album, Hark! Bird recorded the new record over two periods of time – one pre-pandemic and one during – and he’s set to unveil the complete 13-track LP on October 30th (with a vinyl release on November 13th).

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For at least a little while, Gavin Rossdale says his voice was actually an obstruction to his success, not the reason for it. The gravely-voiced front man of the U.K. group, Bush, says that when he and the band were on the rise in the late 80s and early 90s, there was a wave of music that didn’t quickly welcome in a rough, raw singer like Rossdale. At the time, Britpop was all the rage, with bands like Blur, Oasis and Suede topping the charts. But Rossdale was more into – and reflected – groups like Soundgarden, Soul Asylum and Jane’s Addiction. Rugged, ravaged bands with aggression built into their distorted chords. But, eventually, a harder version of rock took the world by storm. Suddenly, Bush was at the center of it. The band’s success continues today with the release of its 2020 album, The Kingdom, which hit number-one on the Billboard Hard Music Albums chart and is available in a deluxe format this week.

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Los Angeles-based singer and songwriter, Eric Bellinger, wants to make everything better. The artist, who has done just about everything under the sun when it comes to the music business, has collaborated with famed celebrities like Justin Bieber and Usher, opened for Ashanti while singing in an R&B group and, as a solo artist, released over a dozen records to date. Bellinger’s latest project, the forthcoming LP, Eric B for President: Term 3, highlights his smooth voice, intricate writing styles and steadfast relationship with his longtime wife. But, it may come as no surprise, that’s not the most noteworthy part. Bellinger wrote and assembled much of the album at home live in real-time with his fans during quarantine.

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It had only been a few weeks and Cassandra Peterson was on her way to The Tonight Show to meet and talk with the famed host, Johnny Carson. That’s when she knew what she’d made was going to be huge. Peterson, known better as the ghoulish goddess, Elvira (“Mistress of the Dark”), had been hosting her B-movie horror television show for just a couple weeks, she says, when the late night show called. At the time, she was a local personality in Los Angeles. With Carson’s blessing, though, she could become a star. Ever since that appearance in 1981, Elvira has become a household name, especially during the Halloween season. And this month, Peterson, in character, dropped her latest single, “Don’t Cancel Halloween!” The track is but another in a successful string of releases for the Queen of Halloween that will continue well into next year.

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Just a few days ago, Atlanta-based R&B singer-songwriter, Queen Naija, celebrated her 25th birthday. While, in many ways, she is still quite a young person, Naija has, nevertheless, already seen a great deal of life. She is a mother to two little sons, she’s been married and divorced, and she’s already built up several prominent careers. But, if you ask her, she’ll tell you that she’s “only just getting started.” The often-glamorous, smooth-singing talent will release her debut LP, missunderstood, October 30th on the heels of several successful single releases and her self-titled Queen Naija EP. But, despite the many gains, Naija continues to focus on topping herself. For the new LP, she wrote and rewrote dozens of songs before landing on the cohesive collection that comprise her forthcoming record.

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Nashville singer-songwriter, Jessie Baylin, practically grew up in a New Jersey bar. Her parents owned the restaurant and, subsequently, had to spend nearly all their waking hours there. Baylin, as a result, was treated to life lessons and people watching in the establishment that would stay with her throughout her years.

Today, relationships (and food) matter significantly to her.
She prizes interactions that feel familial, warm. This energy permeates Baylin’s forthcoming re-release of her record, Pleasure Center EP, which the musician composed with the now-late producer, Richard Swift.

Baylin will release the EP in stores on Oct 24th and digitally October 30th and we’re happy to premiere the video for the EP’s track, “Storms,” here today.

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Chris Barron, founder of the Grammy-nominated rock ‘n’ roll band, The Spin Doctors, likes to make people happy. He’s a songwriter and, as such, he says, that’s his job. He’s proud of this vocation and it’s evident in much of the music he makes – from his recent solo work to his band’s hits like, “Two Princes.” It’s also exemplified in his newfound weekly routine. Every Saturday – or, Caturday – Barron hops on Twitter and engages with his 128,000 followers, sharing and posting charming, cute and lovely pictures of cats all with the aim of spreading cheer. It’s one of the few bright spots on the social media platform that too often engages in toxic bickering or political arguments. For Barron, offering joy amidst difficulty has always been what his life has been about.

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It’s not easy to write a book. To pen a biography of, say, a celebrity-artist like Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, it takes hundreds of hours of research. You have to find the right macro- and micro-narratives. You have to interview dozens of people, ask difficult questions and be open to surprising responses. You also have to not drive yourself crazy along the way, either by taking on the dark realities you research or by thinking you can’t handle the task of writing Cornell’s biography in the first place.

This is what Northwest writer, Corbin Reiff, had to go through (endure?) in order to research, write and produce his recent accomplishment, Total Fucking Godhead, the biography of the screeching, model handsome Cornell, who died in 2017 of suicide, which is available now.

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When famed music video director, Mark Pellington, asked Matthew Caws, front man and principle songwriter for the rock ‘n’ roll band, Nada Surf, what he was reading, a world of possibilities unfurled.

Caws had been studying writings – meditations – by his father, Peter, a well-respected professor of Philosophy. At the time, Pellington and Caws were discussing a few possibilities for videos for Nada Surf’s 2020 LP release, Never Not Together. But after Caws described what he’d been reviewing, he and Pellington went to work creating the 10-minute music video masterpiece for the song, “Just Wait,” which features a desolate cityscape and both Caws and his now-late father reading existential, self-assuring lines from those poetic meditations. We are happy to exclusively premiere that video here today.

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Growing up around New Orleans in the 1960s, acclaimed songwriter, Lucinda Williams, absorbed much of what was happening throughout the turbulent country. She engaged in protests in the streets for racial equality and to end the Vietnam War, among other important social statements. She listened to artist like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Her parents were academics – a creative writing professor and a music major – so Williams’ education was fostered and supported at home. At one point, she was expelled from high school for not saying the “Pledge of Allegiance.” But her father found an ACLU lawyer who fought the verdict, saying the expulsion was unconstitutional. Today, Williams says she sees many of the same divisions in the country that she did decades prior. These themes run throughout her latest LP, Good Souls Better Angels, as well as her forthcoming group of shows set to benefit American music venues in their time of need.

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Sharon Jones was immediately memorable. At the time, about twenty years ago, Gabriel Roth (aka Bosco Mann), the co-founder of the famed label, Daptone Records, needed three backup singers for a recording session. This was before Daptone Records existed. His saxophone player, Joe, recommended his then-girlfriend. She could bring two friends with her, Joe said. Roth agreed but, the next day, only Jones showed up.

“Why pay three when you can pay me?” she intoned. From that moment, Roth was hooked on her “irrepressible” energy. In many ways, he dedicated his life to being the tide that lifted her musical boat. And that effort continues today, despite Jones’ passing in 2016, with the forthcoming release of the new covers collection, Just Dropped In to See What Condition My Rendition Was In. The LP is set for release digitally on October 23rd and on vinyl November 29th.

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Sometimes it takes a decade-plus to remember what you’ve had all along. For Los Angeles-based rock ‘n’ roll band, Local Natives, ideas of friendship and the importance of familial bonds have been the manna on which the group has subsisted ever since its early days. And they remain important sources of nourishment. But sometimes people have to be reminded of the bounty at their fingertips. Sometimes through the work and during the successes, it’s tantamount to remember what the group has had since the very beginning. The foundation is just as important as the top floor, of course. That’s what the members of Local Natives have re-experienced recently while producing the band’s new exultant EP, Sour Lemon, set for release on October 23rd.

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At first, Mike Shinoda, co-founder of the immensely popular band, Linkin Park, didn’t want to go back to the past. He didn’t want to revisit the early demos, relive the old memories. Why look back? On October 24th, 2000, Linkin Park released its debut LP, Hybrid Theory, which, it turns out, was more like a debut greatest hits record, featuring songs like “One Step Closer,” “Papercut” and “In The End.” But, thanks to some lifelong friends and collaborators, Shinoda was convinced more recently to unearth the lost material. Now, twenty years later, on October 9th, 2020, the band, led by Shinoda, released a 20th anniversary retrospective package of their seminal album that features alternate song takes, forgotten lyrics and decades-old video footage of the group, which their leagues of fans will assuredly continue to enjoy and devour.

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