OUT NOW: WINTERPILLS 'LOVE SONGS'

Over a decade ago, singer-songwriter Philip Price scrawled the name “Winterpills” on the wall of The Bay State Hotel, a now-dead but fabled Northampton, MA watering hole and music venue. Initially, it was going to be the name for a dreamt-of electronica project, but, somewhere along the line, it blossomed into a critically acclaimed indie band with a deep catalog of elegant, dark chamber pop.

Now, the quintet gives us its seventh album, a provocative entry in its catalog, Love Songs, out March 18th on Signature Sounds. Recorded and co-produced by Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur Jr., The Pixies, Lou Barlow, Speedy Ortiz), the album showcases an invigorated and raw Winterpills. This new release marks ten years as a band. To commemorate this career milestone, Winterpills will also reissue its self-titled debut on vinyl. Together, these releases bookend a freewheeling folk-rock continuum. The Northampton, Massachusetts quintet are consummate masters of the slow burn; they’ve nurtured a singular aesthetic with lush and sometimes gritty instrumentation, emotive and literate lyrics, sublime vocal harmonies, and cinematically structured songs that stealthily pull you in and then destroy you. 

Love Songs is tightly thematic. "At first the thought of calling it Love Songs was intended as a whimsical nod to the other million albums of the same title," Price says, "but then casting that light on the existing songs made them jump into stark relief: they were all love songs after all, though arriving at that place through strange portals and unused back roads." The tracks are definitely not your standard missives of affection: within the 11-song album, Winterpills explores love of the idea of love, love of unrealized love, love of the dead, love of family secrets, love of the concept of eternal return, love of ideas, and love of celebrity.

The album’s emotional resonance and fresh energy comes from the environment it was created in. Philip produced and engineered three albums in a row for Winterpills in their home project studio; but Love Songs was recorded in a professional studio buzzing with music gear curiosities, setting the stage for intrepid sonic exploration, including a slightly out-of-tune vintage Vose & Sons upright piano used liberally on many of the albums tracks. 

It’s been an unexpected journey for Philip, chasing the ghost within that moniker he scribbled on a bar wall twelve years ago. But what stands out to him as the most meaningful part of the journey is the deep ties within the band. “We feel lucky we’re still good friends after all this time. And I’m in awe of what everyone in the band brings to this weird table we built,” he says. His most profound connection, though, is with Flora Reed, his wife, and creative ally. “We totally have all our eggs in one basket, and it’s been great. I highly recommend it. We do save a little money on hotel rooms.” 

OUT NOW: THE SUITCASE JUNKET'S 'DYING STAR' EP

Artist, tinkerer, tunesmith, swamp Yankee, Matt Lorenz is a one-man salvage specialist singing into the hollow of a Dumpster guitar, slipping a broken bottleneck onto the slide finger, railing on a box of twisted forks and bones, rocking till every sound is ragged at its edges, till the house is singing back. Then, unplugging all the amps and letting one mountain ballad soar over the raw strings on that guitar.

Every night is a hard-driving, blues-grinding, throat-singing search-and-rescue junket. Sooner or later everything rusts, busts, and gets tossed into the junk heap: iron, bones, leather, hot rods, muskrats, the night, the heart. The goal is to recover it. To waste nothing. To create new ways from old. This is The Suitcase Junket.

Matt Lorenz was raised in Cavendish, Vermont, the son of teachers. He learned to sing by copying his sister Kate. (The siblings are two-thirds of the touring trio Rusty Belle.) Lorenz graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 2004, having taught himself to throat-sing thanks to a South Indian cooking class. On moving day, he pulled his guitar, filled with mold and worse for wear, from a dorm Dumpster. He fixed it up and started pulling songs out of it. That was the beginning.  

The Suitcase Junket is filling rooms and drawing festival crowds all over his native New England and beyond, from Signal Kitchen near the Canadian border to Wisconsin's Mile of Music Festival, from Ireland's pubs to Mountain Jam in the Catskills, from opening nights for Lake Street Dive and Charlie Musselwhite to Mountain Stage in West Virginia. He caught the attention of National Public Radio who chose his video session for "Earth Apple" from his 2015 album Make Time as one of the year's favorite sessions. 

MID-WINTER DIGITAL DOWNLOAD SALE: 10% OFF WHOLE ARTIST CATALOGS

We're offering 10% off when you buy any Signature Sounds artists entire catalog as digital downloads (applies to any artist with more than 2 releases). You can send it to someone as a gift too! (NOTE: This is a DIGITAL DOWNLOAD SALE ONLY - No CD's or Vinyl)

UPCOMING RELEASES IN THE NEW YEAR

March 4: THE SUITCASE JUNKET
Dying Star (EP)

The Suitcase Junket will release his Signature Sounds debut, Dying Star, on March 4th. The 7- song E.P. features five songs recorded during the making of Lorenz’s acclaimed 2015 album, Make Time, and two live tracks recorded at Northampton MA’s The Parlor Room. With Dying Star, The Suitcase Junket is poised to make the jump from one of New England's best-kept roots star secrets, to a household name. 

March 18: WINTERPILLS
Love Songs

From slurry, fuzzy guitar to strings, Winterpills signature melodies see their most expansive sounds to date on their seventh album, Love Songs, out March 18 on Signature Sounds. Reminiscent of the best of the Elephant 6’s works, Love Songs came together in collaboration with co-producer Justin Pizzoferrato, who has manned the dials for Dinosaur Jr., The Pixies, Lou Barlow, Speedy Ortiz, Parquet Courts, Lou Barlow, and And the Kids. From strings to trumpets; large-scale harmonies to harmonica, Winterpills has never sounded this big before, masterfully building from a whisper to a torrent.

June 3: AND THE KIDS
Friends Share Lovers

Just finished recording in Montreal! 

Summer: PARSONSFIELD
Blooming Through The Black

DUSTBOWL REVIVAL IN CHINA FOR CULTURAL EXCHANGE TOUR

The Dustbowl Revival is currently touring China as part of the U.S. Embassy and Chinese Cultural Department Cultural Exchange program:

NOV. 19

Chongqing Music Festival , Chongqing, China

From the band:

"We neither confirm nor deny that we just attempted a music video live on the Great Wall of China. ‪#woah‬"

MORE PIPING HOT VINYL: AND THE KIDS 'TURN TO EACH OTHER'

And The Kids react to the arrival of their album on vinyl.

OUT NOW ON VINYL! DUSTBOWL REVIVAL, EILEN JEWELL, PINE HILL PROJECT, HEATHER MALONEY

We can't seem to stop with the vinyl. Here are 4 more recent releases:

BRIDGET KEARNEY & BENJAMIN LAZAR DAVIS: BAWA

Bridget Kearney and Benjamin Lazar Davis' debut EP, Bawa, (out Sept. 18 on Signature Sounds) is a collection of original songs written and recorded in Accra, Ghana, and based on the Bawa music native to the Ghana's Northwest region. Longtime collaborators in many different settings, the two first met in 2004 when both were students at The New England Conservatory and Davis was in the habit of knocking on practice room doors at random to meet potential musical partners. As Kearney sees it, this strange ritual was actually a great way for Davis to find like-minded musicians, "Ben is so creative and intuitive that the musicians that work best with him are the type that will see that about him, drop everything and go on whatever adventure he has in store." 

Since then, Kearney and Davis have been on many adventures together, touring the US as bandmates in Cuddle Magic, playing their own duo shows around the East Coast and as showcasing artists at SXSW, running the Philadelphia Marathon together and most recently traveling to Ghana together to study West African drumming and the gyl (African xylophone) music of the Dagaaba. "We are both life-long lovers of music and students of music," says Kearney, "so nothing was more exciting for us than going to the source of a music we really loved and learning about it from the masters." Translating the traditional gyl and drum parts to their two acoustic guitars and singing their own, original, indie-folk infused melodies and words over them, the music sounds, like most music you'll hear from Bridget and Ben, like nothing you've heard before.

THE DUSTBOWL REVIVAL - WITH A LAMPSHADE ON

The Dustbowl Revival is a Venice, California-based collective that merges old school bluegrass, gospel, pre-war blues and the hot swing of New Orleans to form a spicy roots cocktail. Known for their roaring live sets, Dustbowl bravely brings together many styles of traditional American music. Some call it a string band-brass band mash up. Maybe it’s swing-grass or good old Americana, however you spin it, Dustbowl creates and curates infectious, joyous music - a youthful take on time-worn American traditions.

We had the luck and the privilege to share the first single "Never Had To Go" from our 2015 release With A Lampshade On with the man himself, Dick Van Dyke and his lovely wife Arlene. They said come over and let's do a video. So we did. What a dreamy guy.

EILEN JEWELL - SUNDOWN OVER GHOST TOWN

Honesty, confidence, and respect permeate Eilen Jewell’s music, dating back to her self-released Boundary County album in 2006. Since then, the Boise native has recorded five studio albums for Signature Sounds with her road-tested touring band, and two more as a member of the Boston-based gospel-charged Sacred Shakers, which includes that well-oiled band at its core. Her latest, Sundown Over Ghost Town, is a masterful culmination of Jewell’s work to date, and rolls out May 26. 

As hard as it is to categorize Jewell’s music—terms like alt-country, roots-rock, country-noir, and Americana get used a lot—it’s even harder not to become thoroughly enraptured by the singer/songwriter’s powerful versatility, musical stories, and images. And that gorgeous voice makes you feel like she’s singing just for you, out on the breezy back porch or by a crackling campfire. She does so much, so well. 

Rich with cinematic visions, elegant sweet and smoky vocals, and hauntingly autobiographical songs, Sundown Over Ghost Town is bursting with stellar performances and is likely her most personal, fully realized album yet. And that’s saying a lot! The record, with all its songs penned by Jewell, is a poignant, ever-so-flavorful reflection of her return to Boise after nearly a decade in the Northeast.

HEATHER MALONEY: MAKING ME BREAK

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“Going in, we said ‘lets make a bad ass indie rock record with a sound as big and dynamic as we can, without compromising one single heartfelt lyric."

Singer-songwriter Heather Maloney did just that on her newest LP, Making Me Break. Working with Grammy-nominated producer Bill Reynolds (Band of Horses, Avett Brothers), the two crafted and delivered on an artistic vision to merge Maloney’s folk roots with indie rock.

“The sounds I love in indie rock are so lush, and textured, and intricate, like someone spent a lot of time on this, so they must really care,” Maloney explains, citing influences such as Ben Howard, The Shins, and Io Echo. “And as a singer-songwriter raised on folk, I am drawn to lyrics that that are meaningful, intelligent, tell a story, paint pictures... that care. So I just wanted to make an album that cared musically and lyrically. Some sort of a bleeding heart meeting a distant, unaffected, sparkly rock band. That was the goal.”

Maloney’s new music has a definite edge, but it also has a classically trained voice that delivers well-crafted lyrics over a technical arrangement—a combination we’ve recently seen getting mainstream appreciation once more. Suddenly, the term “singer- songwriter” carries serious weight again. Chalk it up to a revival of everything 90s and Maloney’s influence from “those bleeding hearts,” as she calls them, referring to artists’ like Fiona Apple, Tori Amos and Aimee Mann. 

RANI ARBO & DAISY MAYHEM - VIOLETS ARE BLUE

Violets are Blue is Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem’s fifth release, a collection of rollicking, wistful and wise “love songs from the hill.” Seven originals and five covers look at partnership through the kaleidoscope of midlife, finding forgiveness, perseverance and self-awareness in funny, mindful, longing, and satisfied songs with a wide range of moods. Where some pulse with drums, bass, accordion, electric guitar, fiddle and rich four-part harmony, others hang like spacious webs from the shimmering thread of Arbo’s alto. Confident, diverse, reflective, and loving, Violets are Blue is a bouquet from an Americana band in its prime.

THE PINE HILL PROJECT

As solo artists, Lucy Kaplansky and Richard Shindell have been making critically acclaimed albums since the early 1990s, and each have contributed harmonies to every one of those albums. But with the exception of 1998’s one-off Cry Cry Cry album with Dar Williams, the two songwriters have never made an album together - that is, until now. And it’s been worth the wait.

As The Pine Hill Project, Lucy and Richard have released Tomorrow You're Going, an Americana masterwork produced by multi-instrumentalist and two-time Grammy Award winner Larry Campbell (best known for his work with Levon Helm and as part of Bob Dylan's touring band, as well as sideman for Sheryl Crow and Willie Nelson). The album also features bassist Byron Isaacs, pianist Bill Payne (Little Feat), and drummer Dennis McDermott. 

Tomorrow You’re Going is an evocative, sometimes rollicking, deeply moving collection of 11 songs from writers as diverse as Greg Brown (“Lately”), Nick Lowe (“I Live on a Battlefield”), even U2 (“Sweetest Thing”), and Elizabeth Ziman ("Open Book"). There’s also the lovely, wistful country twang they bring to Little Feat's “Missing You”, and Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton's "Making Plans” from which the album’s title is culled. 

AND THE KIDS: TURN TO EACH OTHER

Recently called one of “the Western Mass. indie scene’s brightest creative lights” by Pitchfork, Northampton, Massachusetts’ And The Kids recently released their debut full-length album, Turn to Each Other (Signature Sounds). Turn to Each Other is more than an album title: it’s a statement of fact for the band, whose bond — as musicians, friends and creative foils — is as tight as they come. 

The album features 11 tracks full of ringing guitars from Hannah Mohan, knotty rhythms from drummer Rebecca Lasaponaro and bold accents from synthesizers and percussion by Megan Miller. Together, they create “apocaplyptic pop”, a dizzying stop-start ride with lush, intricate soundscapes that frame Mohan’s lively lead vocals. NPR Music recently raved, “Guitarist Hannah Mohan’s striking vocals rival the vibrato and boldness of Siouxsie Sioux… [And The Kids] make music that’s both fearless and entertaining.”  

An ongoing struggle with border issues for Miller, a Canadian citizen, initiated the addition of bassist Taliana Katz to the touring ensemble. Katz made her debut as part of the band at their NPR Tiny Desk Concert and continues to carry the energy of the album to the stage.