A Sunlit Walk in The Underground Forest: New Pop, Folk , Rock and Indie Music We Loved
Welcome to A Sunlit Walk in the Underground Forest: a series where I hand-pick music I love.
Featuring HAIR CONTROL,OH HE DEAD, Sweetbreads, Doom Scroll, Kitty O'Neal, Evan Alsop, Soft Science, The Male Pattern, MaryAnne Muglia and OUT IN FRONT.
Featuring: a song with serious ‘country playlist to drive to your divorce hearing’ energy (if you know you know) en par with The Onion’s parody of Info Wars; an art-pop song with spectral, haunted quality to the music video that feels like it is from a ghostly after hours show that hypnotizes its viewers; a song about being ghosted by someone you considered a friend; a song that is a lament to the pursuit of a dream and the bittersweet, human cost; a song with an opening that sounds like someone in a fever dream skipping songs on a gramophone; a dreampop song that already sounds like a classic, like it played in the background of your memories of youth; a 1990s style song about the all-encompassing nature of touring; and more!
Follow the playlist
A Sunlit Walk In The Underground Forest ☀️ Light Pop • Folk • Electronica • Calm
The Male Pattern - I'm a Soldier
The Onion recently acquired InfoWars and has turned it into a razor-sharp parody of itself and the sweaty audience it used to attract. In a recent post, they said “Job fired you. Wife divorced you. Library won’t let you look at smut on their computer. The only thing worth living for now is Infowars” which literally almost killed me. I feel like The Male Pattern (Will Schwartz) should be a musical guest on one of the episodes - a brave soldier who Goes To War Every Single God Damn Day He Wakes Up, except, unfortunately, he is the only person aware of this.
There is a serious ‘country playlist to drive to your divorce hearing’ vibe to ‘I'm a Soldier’ which I love. The song opens lamenting, “My friends have all been compromised and my enemies are in high places” feeling even more sorry for itself as the song progresses.
The delivery of the vocals has an undercurrent of persecution, the harmonicas in the background making the whole thing seem extra serious you guys, which makes it even more hilarious.
“The manager at this restaurant says that they don’t need security/I said I’d do it pro-bono for a couple of weeks just to show him how much he needs me.”
On the song, the artist shares, “In the "I'm Soldier" single, our guy reveals himself to be an internet-addled right-wing divorcee, steals valor from veterans, imagining that his struggles against lib-friends-and-loved ones online transfer some veteran-status to him. There is nothing funnier than someone who feels that they are constantly wronged and victimized but aren't, who imagines persecutors and foes everywhere but they're only in his head. It's also the most common type of person that exists in America. Failing to steal veteran valor, he poses as a security guard at a restaurant, and faces embarrassment. He heals himself with food.
I challenge Info Wars to bring this brave truth teller on.
This is taken from ‘I Was Shot in the Heart!' which will be out September 25th. Pre-order here.
Connect with The Male Pattern
Instagram
Connect with Audio Antihero (Press Contact)
Instagram / Χ
HAIR CONTROL - Seeing In The Dark
Press Photo Credit: Jared Sych
This is a new song from the Calgary, AB art-pop HAIR CONTROL that “balances existential yearning with exuberant optimism.” I love the spectral, haunted quality to the video, like it is from a ghostly after hours tv show that hypnotizes its viewers. There is something about this that reminds me of the cover of a book I had about ghosts I had as a child, where all of the main characters had hair made from pasta in a collage style.
Connect with HAIR CONTROL
Instagram
Oh He Dead - The Weight
Photo by Joe Carabeo
Oh He Dead is truly one of the best band names I have heard in a long time.’The Weight’ deals with a topic that happens to all of us (albeit one that is not explored in music to the same degree as romantic love), where a person you are close with just kind of ghosts you and the friendship seems to have ended without you knowing. It is good to have songs that deal with this subject as it is far more common than you think, but it is a situation that always feels very personal. I found this to be very cathartic.
I also loved the paper craft animated music video (made by Callum Scott-Dyson).
‘Cos, I think I just lost a friend
Did I really just lose a friend?
It was together till the end
And did I just lose a friend?
I think I just lost a friend’
Connect with Oh He Dead
Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook
Sweetbreads - Open Mic
Photo Credit: Sandy Honig
I saw that the above photo was taken by Sandy Honig, which was a nice surprise, as she directed one of my all-time favorite short films, ‘Caller Number Nine!’.
Sweetbreads (aka Melody Stolp) is a NYC-based singer and songwriter. From the moment ‘Open Mic’ started playing it had the impact on me that the most powerful folk and country music has had on me, with the lines “Genie borrowed my keys/to bump a bunch of ketamine in the bathroom stall.”
The music video and song deals with the brutal reality of chasing a dream and how difficult it is (despite what people who have never had any interest in chasing anything outside of a conventional vocation might think). The vocals are haunting and beautiful, a lament to the pursuit of a dream and the bittersweet human cost.
Connect with Sweetbreads
Instagram
Kitty O'Neal - Not At The Same Speed
This was a Bandcamp discovery, taken from UK-based singer-songwriter Kitty O'Neal’s upcoming debut album ‘Here I Go Again Feeling It All’. This opens like someone in a fever dream skipping songs on a gramophone (for some reason it makes me think of it playing through the halls of Colony House, the mansion from the horror TV show ‘From’). In fact, there is something rather ghostly and haunting throughout this whole song that I can’t quite put my finger on.
Connect with Kitty O'Neal
Instagram | Facebook
Evan Alsop - Passenger
This is taken from the album ‘Middle Heaven’ from Vermont artist Evan Alsop. ‘Passenger’ has all the hallmarks of a classic country song and the great songwriting associated with the genre; the instrumentation and lyrics flowing easily over your ears, keeping a lonesome passenger company in trails unknown.
“I may be an outlaw
In this town
I am just a passenger
In this realm”
Connect with Evan Alsop
Instagram | Facebook
Soft Science - Fade
photo by Chantel Elder
This new song from Sacramento dreamgaze band Soft Science has an absolutely epic opening, with dreamy, plush vocals swooping in like waves crashing on the shore of the beach. This already sounds like a classic, like it played in the background of your memories of youth.
"This was one of the first song ideas Ross came up with for the album. I was immediately drawn to the core of the song as it is ethereal pop but, at the same time, it has a driving force," says Katie Haley, adding '"When I was coming up with the lyrics, I imagined this song playing in the car on a romanticized road trip, driving along the coast or something like that. This is one of our favorites to play live from 'Sand'; we all picked it up really easily and it has an energy that feels good to perform."
"Matt's guitar line on the bridge and Katie's harmony on the verses are some of the high points on this track. The lyrical inspiration for the first line, "foreign lands", was from something I heard someone say: "The past is a foreign country". I thought the concept was really interesting. I got me thinking about the constant nature of change and how, over time, small changes accumulate to a moment where you realize everything has changed and what was is just a memory," says Ross Levine.
Connect with Soft Science
Instagram | Facebook | X
MaryAnne Muglia - Try Hard
This makes me think of sunflowers, of the warmth of being at home in summer, of making food in the evening. ‘Try Hard (Acoustic)’ flows over your ears like velvet and will wrap you up in a wave of blissful calm.
Connect with MaryAnne Muglia
Website | Instagram | Facebook
Doom Scroll - The Ravine
Photo: Alex Binder
When I first listened to this, it reminded me of The Saw Doctors (an Irish folk-rock band). I was curious to learn more, especially after watching the stop-motion animated video, which features several of the band members getting decapitated while a series of disasters unfold behind them, through which they continue to sing, headless and bloody.
The song deals with a simply gruelling series of events the band experienced, on which the songwriter Elliot Lozier says "Our tour van died in the mountains, we saw a dead body, we had a friend fall into a ravine, and a family member had a brain aneurysm at our house while watching our dogs, which forced us to cancel a tour. All of our gear got flooded during an outdoor show, and from then on, every single time we played outside, it would rain. Our new van even had a window smashed within a day of having it. I wish I was exaggerating.The song is about how much we've endured as a band while pushing through this run of bad luck. Instead of folding, we actually became stronger and more tight-knit because of it—and maybe a little more superstitious too."
Connect with Doom Scroll
Instagram | Facebook
OUT IN FRONT - Medicine
Photo credit: Jacqueline Day
This is so 1990s, and I love it. It deals with the all-encompassing nature of touring which lead songwriter Madie Renne wrote after forgetting her fathers birthday.
Renner shares, "It came together really fast–in three hours–one of the fastest songs we've ever made. It poured out of me after forgetting my dad’s birthday on tour and feeling so terrible. It was a reality check moment that punched me in the gut."
On the song's bassline, Renner adds, "We felt like we were missing a bass-driven track on the project, so we called up our bass player, Ryen, and he came in with this nostalgic, groovy riff that became the foundation of the song. It was one of those rare moments where everything just clicked with producer Joel Ferber." and "'Medicine' is about longing for the simplicity of childhood, when life felt lighter, happiness came naturally, and the world didn't feel so heavy. It's a reminder to look up and not let life's pace steal the joy that's right in front of us."
Although the song is about how brutal being on tour is, the music video and the soaring darkness of the song did kind of make me want to go out on tour.
Connect with OUT IN FRONT
Website | Instagram | Facebook
Follow the playlist
About Eimear O Sullivan
Eimear Ann O Sullivan is a multi-genre music producer, audio engineer and vocalist. After receiving a Masters in Music Technology from the CIT Cork School of Music, she went on to operate as a producer under the name Blakkheart. Her releases have received critical acclaim from Ireland's biggest music publications, such as District Magazine and Nialler9, alongside receiving heavy commercial radio airplay. She currently works in Cork recording studio Flashpoint CC. Previous clients of hers include the likes of Comedy Central’s Dragony Aunt star Candy Warhol, rapper Darce and Outsider YP. (Photo credit @Fabian Boros)
Contact Eimear O Sullivan at eimear.o.sullivan@musicngear.com
In this blog section we host new music releases, artist features and handpicked playlists by the Musicngear staff.
Interested in a music feature, writing a story as a guest or joining the Musicngear team as a Contributing Author? Contact us at info+blog@musicngear.com
