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Shamir - On My Own
Shamir - On My Own

Shamir - On My Own


Follow along this week as singer/songwriter Shamir walks us through notable tracks from his expansive DIY genre-blending discography. Don't miss your chance to meet Shamir in Brooklyn at Full Bloom, our latest food, beverage and music event in collaboration with Strainge Beast Hard Kombucha, on June 25.

"This song isn't one of my personal favorites, but I get why it's a crowd favorite. It's a good practice in all the things people love about pop music, and I found a way to filter it through my DIY sensibilities and cathartic and personal songwriting. Finding strength in solitude is a very hard, but powerful thing!" — Shamir

on June 18, 2021
Shamir - Hell

Shamir - Hell


Follow along this week as singer/songwriter Shamir walks us through notable tracks from his expansive DIY genre-blending discography. Don't miss your chance to meet Shamir in Brooklyn at Full Bloom, our latest food, beverage and music event in collaboration with Strainge Beast Hard Kombucha, on June 25.

"It was not supposed to go down like this, but I think dropping an album a few days after the worldwide COVID lockdown with a song called 'Hell' as the album's opening track felt morbidly serendipitous. Especially since it was done many months before..." — Shamir

on June 17, 2021
Wallice - Dramamine

Wallice - Dramamine


During the strange era of quarantine, Wallice channeled her energy into her debut EP, titled Off the Rails, recorded between her Los Angeles childhood bedroom and her grandparents' house in Utah. Reflecting on the vulnerabilities of being a young adult living at home, Wallice enamors listeners with unguarded lyrics about the existentialism of your twenties blended with an effortless, bedroom pop sound.

A stand-out track titled “Dramamine" is enough to lure you to listen with curiosity to a song related to the motion sickness medicine. The song allows for Wallice’s self-crippling humor and doubts of a relationship to shine. “I need Dramamine when I’m with you / 'Cause you move faster than my trust issues,” she says in the song. While there’s no denying the anthem’s lyrics are relatable, the pairing of the indie synth sound makes it a nearly perfect pop hit to blast this summer. Photo by Jerry Maestas.

Erica Tello on June 17, 2021
Shamir - Straight Boy

Shamir - Straight Boy


Follow along this week as singer/songwriter Shamir walks us through notable tracks from his expansive DIY genre-blending discography. Don't miss your chance to meet Shamir in Brooklyn at Full Bloom, our latest food, beverage and music event in collaboration with Strainge Beast Hard Kombucha, on June 25.

"I think this was the first post-Ratchet song people really resonated with in a big way. It's also in my top 5 best songs I've ever written, in my opinion. Plus it's really helped me heal from a really traumatic time of my life." — Shamir

on June 16, 2021
Luna Luna - One Thing (feat. The Undercover Dream Lovers)

Luna Luna - One Thing (feat. The Undercover Dream Lovers)


"One Thing" is a bright, synth-pop break-up song just in time for post-vaccine summer romances. The latest single from Latinx Dallas band Luna Luna features dream-pop artist The Undercover Dream Lovers (a.k.a. Matt Koenig) weaving together what seems to be a tailor-made collaboration. Luna Luna’s previous two records, For Lovers Only and Carousel, are short but sweet, romantic, fun, nostalgic pop delights that just hit the mark—and this new single is no exception. "One Thing" opens with a simple beat followed by the band’s distinct retro, synth-heavy groove, funky enough to have you bopping in the first seconds. By the time the chorus kicks in, you’ll be on your feet singing along to the catchiest chorus line you’ve heard in a while, “You know you got that one thing / one thing…” Koenig's soft, hazy vocals chime in halfway through, adding some contrast to frontman Kavvi’s soulful, delicate but sharp voice. There are many things that make this track memorable, but perhaps what makes "One Thing" stand out is its ultra-satisfying structural simplicity. Sometimes all you need is, in fact, that one thing—and Luna Luna delivers. Photo by Ash Rosas.

Alejandro Veciana on June 16, 2021
Shamir - I Know it's a Good Thing

Shamir - I Know it's a Good Thing


Follow along this week as singer/songwriter Shamir walks us through notable tracks from his expansive DIY genre-blending discography. Don't miss your chance to meet Shamir in Brooklyn at Full Bloom, our latest food, beverage and music event in collaboration with Strainge Beast Hard Kombucha, on June 25.

"This is my favorite song out of all my early more electronic pop stuff. It's the strongest song at its core that when I play it with my now 3-piece rock band it doesn't feel out of place." — Shamir

on June 15, 2021
The Haunted Youth - Coming Home

The Haunted Youth - Coming Home


After The Haunted Youth’s debut single “Teen Rebel” won Studio Brussel’s talent contest De Nieuwe Lichting, it took Belgium and the world by storm with all kinds of media attention and airplay. Although those rave reviews set high expectations for the band’s newest release, rest assured, “Coming Home" absolutely blew those expectations out of the water. Now, it’s no question that The Haunted Youth has mesmeric dream pop down to the most minute detail. 

In “Coming Home,” a heightened production quality only adds to the already decadent haze signature of the band. The song seals the band in a unique position between retro and new age psychedelic pop, a position that makes this song so addictive. It’s the kind of jam you’ll find yourself setting on a loop during those warm summer nights, letting it steal you away into that wistful past and hopeful tomorrow.

Monica Hand on June 15, 2021
Miki Ratsula - second

Miki Ratsula - second


What does it mean to be loved? To be loved wholly? To be loved for who you are, for the parts of yourself that will never change and the parts that will? 

Love can feel unexplainable or unreasonable, even. Doubt and anxiety can turn slight conflicts into unsettling internal attempts to investigate why someone loves you and how they could possibly do that. Amidst the familiar uncertainty of navigating relationships and identity, it’s not hard to believe that love is undeserved. As Miki Ratsula captures in “second,” accepting love can become complicated when it feels impossible to show love to yourself. 

Ratsula’s wispy vocals deliver the unease with a gentle demeanor, lyrics gracefully bearing the weight of such a tender message: "After the scars heal you'll change how you feel, overnight." It’s natural to wonder if our partners will be able to withstand the inconstancy of an evolving identity because of our refusal to let go of the idea that their love must be conditional. Instead of looming here, Ratsula challenges the discomfort by learning that their dynamic life is not a burden and working to be uplifted by the love of those around them. Struggling with who you are can make it hard to feel sure of anything, and “second” finds a way to show just how empowering unconditional love can be. Akin to an affirmation, "I just wanna love myself so I can love you better" is Miki Ratsula’s expositional cry to move forward towards a place of pride. Photo by Ashley Osborn.

Jenna Andreozzi on June 11, 2021
Sakura - I Can't Call You Baby

Sakura - I Can't Call You Baby


“Say it,” he said in his Oxford blue button-up shirt, khaki pants and white sneakers from the other side of the room. He may as well have been on Mars; he felt that distant to her as she stood her ground on the corresponding side. How could I? she thought to herself, her eyes meeting his, telling him everything he needed to know. “You won’t say it,” he muttered to himself, cast his eyes downwards like he invented shoegaze. “It’s not that I won’t. I can’t,” she said, breaking her own vow of silence, the tears flowing now, the regret palpable now.

Written, produced and performed by Sakura herself (yes, even the backing vocals), Sakura’s “I Can’t Call You Baby” is a strings-heavy ode to resignation from toxicity. Shades of 15-time Grammy award winner Alicia Keys float to the surface around 2:33 when Sakura’s vocals reach new heights. “I hope that you’re on the way / I always say your name before I go to sleep,” Sakura sings, hinting at the possibility who or what the song is about was once a regular in her dreams and still may be welcomed at that. Attraction is such a fickle and flexible thing.

Mustafa Abubaker on June 9, 2021
Nathaniel Paul - Silence

Nathaniel Paul - Silence


It was the first time you would see my apartment, but it was my last. All set to move out tomorrow. Already moved most of my things out but kept my bed and my pots and pans to make eggplant parmesan for you and me. How could I be so unsure about our future when we were as emotionally close as we we were physically? I thought of the As Tall As Lions song "I’m Kicking Myself." You were quiet as a writer or a painter at work, but your puppy eyes were thunderous as gunfire or rockets. You would stay the night, and we would wake up here together for the one and only time, and we would either lay our heads together once more somewhere else or part ways. My future with you hung in the balance, and yet my past with you sung in Dallas, and my present with you stung in challenge.

Nathaniel Paul’s “Silence” is the type of song born out of an unexplainable uncertainty; a bizarre and hard-to-shake emotion. The song calls back to the chillwave sounds pioneered by Toro y Moi, but has its own modern influx of drum and synth work. Play this one at the beach and drink coffee to it. 

Mustafa Abubaker on June 8, 2021
Kaley Rutledge - Tough Enough

Kaley Rutledge - Tough Enough


After some years of releasing music under the sobriquet of “De Joie," which translates to “of joy” in the French language, Kaley Rutledge has made the embraved decision to attach her new releases to her given name. Under her own name, Rutledge releases an unapologetically true-to-self anthem by the name of “Tough Enough." This track is a reckoning of self, coming from a place of knowing that the vulnerability we are offered as people, to share our stories, is the most sacred and important aspect of living. “Tough Enough” is a product of the recounting of a relationship that didn’t work out and the thought process of coming to that fatal realization: “I don’t want it that badly / To change a thing about myself that I quite like." Everything about the track wriggles with release of a past thing and circles back to the self, where healing happens and good can grow. Photo by Mindy Dunlap.

Laney Esper on June 4, 2021

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