RISING ARTIST/EP REVIEW: Ryn Weaver- Promises
A couple months back, a song by an unknown Ryn Weaver called Octahate started circulating around the internet. Despite the fact Weaver was completely unknown, it was one of the most outstanding pop tracks I’ve heard in years. Rarely does a debut single sound so confident and fully formed. Of course, it was later revealed that there were a lot of reasons for this confidence. The song was produced by Michael Angelakos, frontman of electropop superstars Passion Pit, with additional production work by Cashmere Cat and Benny Blanco. It also doesn’t hurt that Charli xcx, one of the best pop songstresses today, co-wrote the song.
However, despite all her famous friends surrounding and guiding her, Octahate (and the rest of her debut EP), would be nothing without Weaver’s own personal touches. The booming and hammering chorus would be nothing without her empowering and full-throttle vocals. Each verse packs enough attitude and power to level entire buildings. Sure, the sounds and songwriting are a conglomeration of familiarity, but it’s a mix that feels fresh and decidedly now. There’s no doubt that Stay Low sounds like a pretty typical Passion Pit song. However, Weaver adds a tenderness and innocence that Angelakos could never bring by himself. The Passion Pit sound is also prominent on the booming Promises, but the sound becomes negligible when Weaver delivers the stunning chorus. Octahate certainly has that Charli xcx attitude, but Charli could never deliver vocals that big.
The EP itself, naturally, leaves a bit to be desired. 4 tracks certainly introduces Weaver while still making us want more. The project is obviously meant to be an introduction rather than a fully formed musical project. It’s 4 fantastically produced songs fronted by a woman who can handle the big production. The back half is a little weaker than the front half, but all of the songs are massive and gorgeous introductions to a talent that will soon be dominating the entire universe. Or at least the charts.
Summary: Promises, though a bit too short to truly be pleased with, is an EP that properly introduces Ryn Weaver’s penchant for beautiful production and massive vocals.
Choice Cuts: Octahate, Promises
Leftovers: Sail On
Sounds Like: Passion Pit, Jessie Ware, Charli xcx, A more subdued Florence + The Machine
B+
You can stream the amazing Octahate below. Promises is out now on Interscope.
MKE REVIEW/RISING ARTIST: GGOOLLDD- $TADARD$
There are tons of bands with terrible names, let’s face it. GGOOLLDD, a local Milwaukee synth pop band with a ton of energy, have a terrible name. It’s not really pronounceable, and spelling it out is kind of a hassle. When bands have names like this, they sure as hell better have decent music to justify this. Luckily, GGOOLLDD’s debut EP $TANDARD$, is one of the best Milwaukee debuts of 2014, and it’s one of the better EPs I’ve heard anywhere this year.
There’s a heavy sense of pop sensibility throughout the short EP, lead by Margaret Butler’s sweet and comforting vocals. The highlight of the project, the shimmering Gold, nicely contrasts the softness of Butler’s voice with walls of squiggly and wet sounding sythesizers. The song is an infectious assault of beautiful sythesizers, sounding similar to something the band Chvrches have been doing lately. The chorus on the song soars, and some little instrumental flourishes (a quiet organ backed part, the nice thick bass guitar) make the song an absolute gem that could (and should) get radio play everywhere.
Unlike a lot of synthpop these days, there’s an actual element of old school instrumentation throughout the record. The pretty Younger Days nicely features some clean guitar in the introduction, rising to prominence before the synthesizers that would come in. There’s also live drums on the project, a quality that has been consistently left out of similar groups. Electronic pop groups constantly churn out catchy tunes, but very few deliver music that feels like the product of an entire band. GGOOLLDD uses a ton of live instrumentation in addition to typical synthesizers and drum programing, and thus feels pleasantly fresh.
The EP, despite it’s brevity, does clear a sonic path for GGOOLLDD that feels unique and invigorating. Soaring hooks and nice instrumental arrangements occupy every track, making everything sound full and enjoyable. GGOOLLD is just as good as many of the synth pop bands that have dominated music blogs for many years, and this EP shows their potential to create something even greater in the future. The massive and beautiful closer Killing Times combines subtlety and explosiveness with a confident deftness, which bodes well for the great group with the hard to say name.
Summary: $TANDARD$ is a well produced and infectious Synth Pop EP, delivering fine melodies, cool synthesizers, and fresh sounding live instrumentation.
Choice Cuts: Gold, Killing Times
Similar To: Chromatics, Chvrches, Purity Ring
B+
You can stream the entire EP below. It’s available for purchase over at their Bandcamp. The group is also opening for the Polyphonic Spree this Sunday at Turner Hall.
ALBUM REVIEW: Adult Jazz- Gist Is
One of my favorite “Genre Eras” has been the Art/Chamber Rock-Pop boom in recent years. It has certainly cooled quite a bit in the past few years, and it’s mutated into plenty of other genres that are huge today (All these bands worshiping 70s Psych Rock probably would not have been around without bands like Grizzly Bear and Dirty Projectors. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten an entirely new band that paves new ways in these genres, so it’s kind of fallen on the wayside. Well, at least until a little group called Adult Jazz propped up in Leeds.
The band’s name is oddly appropriate. I wouldn’t call any of their music sonically jazzy, as it is clearly a psychedelic take on a sound that the Dirty Projectors and Grizzly Bear have been nailing for years. But each song (particularly the longer songs Hum and Spook) take on these formless song structures, with each song meandering beautifully around formless melodies and shifting rhythms. There’s a liveliness on nearly every track that gives it a spontaneity and energy not dissimilar to the great Blue Note records of the early 60s. Am Gone has a shifting rhythm that feels like ocean waves clashing against a beach; there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the pattern, but it works in a completely naturalistic way. The use of sweet woodwinds towards the rear of the song makes this bizarre Psyche Rock meets Jazz sound even more clear.
RISING ARTIST/ALBUM REVIEW: Bastard Mountain- Farewell, Bastard Mountain
OK, claiming that Bastard Mountain is a Rising Artist is a little untrue, at least coming from this blog. I’ve previously heaped praise on the Scottish label Song, By Toad (Particularly Bastard Mountain’s Neil Pennycook and Pete Harvey’s Meursault, a previous rising artist). That project, which boldly mixes together thick electronics and emotive folk, is a bold and fresh take on “Folktronica”, a genre which doesn’t generally work out very well (Probably because it’s called “Folktronica”). This year, after delivering a solid organ-driven covers album, Pennycook has decided to collaborate with a bunch of very talented musicians on a project called Bastard Mountain.
Similar to label Song, By Toad’s previous collaborative record, Cold Seeds (a record that brought together Meursault and King Creosote, among others), Bastard Mountain aims to bring together a collective of musicians to create music that’s worth more than being some kind of super-group collaboration. While Cold Seeds was certainly an enjoyable album, it was just a fine folk record that didn’t really push past the vague gimmick of being a super collaborative project. From the first track on Farewell, Bastard Mountain, it’s clear that this new Pennycook side project is an entirely different beast. The expansive emotional range of Meursault is retained (In fact, a few songs here (Pissing On Bonfires) are new versions of older Meursault songs), while the electronics are exchanged for lush orchestration and vocal harmonies. The results are stunning.
There are elements that are clearly similar to Meursault’s main body of work, but that’s completely fine considering Meursault’s work has been consistently good. Pennycook’s raw songwriting style and mixture of throaty and gentle vocals is still here in full force (and he was only the main writer on three songs, which shows just how good the other collaborators are here). However, the more expansive instrumentation and expansion in sound here brings a nice and woodsy edge to an already pretty album. The subtle accordions on The Mill are veiled by a vacillating string part that seems to circulate through the air, surrounding Pennycook and his subtle guitar work (There’s also some nice piano work in the song’s chorus that are worth noting). The sliding electric guitar on Swam Like Sharks is a sweet touch, with the notes licking back and forth behind a loud acoustic guitar to create a smooth and slick background for Pennycook’s strained delivery in the foreground.
Image Courtesy of Artist
The members of Bastard Mountain all work together very nicely to create a cohesive and generally pretty album. Dino Valenti’s songwriting on the middle track Something On Your Mind is particularly notable in how deftly it pulls off making such simple lyricism so powerfully somber, which only increases the nostalgic flair that the slide guitar gives to the song. It’s also incredible how pretty Bastard Mountain can make a song like Pissing On Bonfires sound so damned pretty. The backing vocals from Jill O’Sullivan on this track (and every other track) are astoundingly haunting, giving the entire album an overarching sense of ghastly beauty that remains consistently potent. It also helps that nearly every song has some amazing string arrangement on it, an element of the album that immediately puts it in another league.
The orchestral beauty of the album stays consistent throughout the entire album, with many of the songs staying at about the same level dynamically. There’s no vicious explosion of strings or massive crescendos into the abyss, which may make things seem a bit monotonous at first. However, the album really opens itself up with more listens, with all of the subtle ornamentation creating a beautiful mood album that surpasses any other mood album because it’s something you’ll want to listen to again.There are moments that are immediately striking (O’Sullivan taking lead vocals on Old Habits is immediately a stand-out on the album), and they help to bring out the subtler moments throughout the album (Like the gorgeous yet not immediately fulfilling Drone Armatrading). We do get close to some Meursault towards the end of Palisade, but the length of the song makes the entrance of the loud and short-lived guitar a bit odd; and while New Boy is a perfectly fine song, I’m not particularly fond of the strange horse clip-clopping percussion. Luckily, the strange moments on this album do make sense after a while, fleshing in with the ocean of strings that defines what makes this album so graceful. It’s also stunning how cohesive Bastard Mountain is as a band, considering the variety of members in it; the group has the confidence of an ensemble that has been together for years.
Despite looking like a super-group vanity project, Bastard Mountain succeeds in seeming to be the opposite. The album remains cohesive and well-directed for its entirety, while the band members all step up to the plate and deliver some heart wrenching performances throughout. Not one member of the group stands out from the rest, as it all fleshes together not as a collaboration, but as a band. It’s the perfect album to crawl up into a ball to and then cry throughout. And the thing is, it gets better with repeated listens, so you’ll find something new every time.
Summary: Farewell, Bastard Mountain is a surprisingly well-realized collaborative project, with the group sounding like an actual band delivering slow burning folk tunes with some of the lushest and most moving string arrangements on any album this year (or any other year); it’s an album that lives up to all of its member’s respective discographies.
Choice Cuts: Meadow Ghosts, Old Habits, Something On Your Mind
Leftovers: Drone Armatrading
B/B+
You can stream Meadow Ghosts below. Farewell, Bastard Mountain is out 5/12 (Monday) on Song, By Toad.
RISING ARTIST/ALBUM REVIEW: HOSTS- Hearttaker
Milwaukee is a weirdly folksy city. I mean, the entire state of Wisconsin is pretty damn folky (If you’re ever driving around up north, just pop on a Tallest Man on Earth record and you’ll immediately feel what I’m talking about), but Milwaukee is strange. For a city so urban, we have a ton of really great Indie Folk bands, and it seems like our community is pretty obsessed with the style as well (Trampled By Turtles plays here at least every couple of months). Perhaps we just have a lot of soul in our system that can only be released through acoustic guitars and banjos. In fact, that’s exactly it. Folk music is just Milwaukee soul, I guess. It’s the perfect genre to convey our weird breed of passion. That’s probably why former Milwaukee resident Miles Patzer, known HOSTS, sounds so great and so real on his debut album Hearttaker.
Now a Nashville resident, Hearttaker combines some incredibly passionate and raw vocals with a Ryan Adams flavored country rock. There are slide guitars and swinging rhythms all over the album, and they’re fronted by Patzer’s distinct vocals that seem to be a hybrid of Bob Dylan and Glen Hansard (Hansard is listed as an influence over on the album’s Noisetrade page, and damn is that accurate). Hearttaker fully establishes a distinct sound, never really falling into derivative sounds or ideas that plague Americana music like this. The opening track, Nineteen Years, meshes a frolicking rhythm of a Tallest Man on Earth Song with the breeziness of an Andrew Bird song, and it works pretty damn well.
The lyrics here are all pretty moody, mixing little anecdotes laced with an overarching despair. For an album with songs as upbeat as Hearttaker, the lyrics really help establish why exactly the whole thing is called Hearttaker in the first place. Tears, memories, fear (All of these alone are brought up on the gorgeous The Trees) are all brought up at one point or another. For a guy so young, Patzer is incredibly great at conveying some true heartbreak. Sonically, the album mostly works. There are a couple questionable flourishes here and there, like the heavy bass on I’m Lost (And In Trouble Tonight), a song that veers almost a little too far from the rest of the album sonically (Although the drumming on this track is quite nice). There are also some stunning moments on My Greatest Love, but the simple acoustic sound of the song doesn’t really lend itself to its nearly seven minute running length. Luckily enough, none of this is noteworthy enough to really detract from the album, since the entirety of Hearttaker is a pleasant but enjoyable ride. But for the most part, Patzer doesn’t make any sonic decisions that are out of line. The mix of reverb and acoustic guitar on the sparse song Take Out the Running Away is a great straightforward country song that transcends simple prettiness with Patzer’s raw delivery.
The best track on here, Until You’ve Won, is what really establishes HOSTS as an act to watch. I first heard a demo of Until You’ve Won back in 2011 when Patzer released it as a demo. Back then, it was a rough and raw acoustic track that had a lot of potential. This album version is that potential realized, with Until You’ve Won becoming a devastatingly raw track that draws from both Ryan Adams and Jeff Buckley. Patzer may not be the most technically skilled vocalist in the world, but he works around that with the raw passion he puts into all of his songs. The end of the song is a cathartic explosion, hinting of only greater things to come from this Milwaukee-Nashville transfusion.
Summary: Hearttaker, Nashville Americana artistHOSTS’ debut album, is an emotionally raw album that harkens back to Ryan Adams’ greater days. It’s sonically on point, lyrically heartbreaking, and overall intensely pleasant.
Choice Cuts: Until You’ve Won, Nineteen Years, Hearttaker
Leftovers: I’m Lost (And In Trouble Tonight)
B+
You can stream the whole album here, or you can watch a live version of I’m Lost (And In Trouble Tonight) below. Hearttaker is out now on Sun Blood Records.
EP REVIEW/RISING ARTIST: Happy Diving- s/t
2013 was a year light on newcomers, especially in rock. In fact, last year was a very rock-light year. Which, is kind of understandable. 2012 gave us tons of heavier and nastier records (Swans, Cloud Nothings, Titus Andronicus). So it’s wonderful to see some newcomers already in 2014, and one of those newcomers is the San Francisco lo-fi sludge punk outfit Happy Diving.
s/t is a short EP, just about 10 and a half minutes long. But man, these guys leave quite the impression in that time. The songs really bring the sludge to the forefront, but in a way that harkens back to lo-fi bands of the 90s. It’s almost like Dinosaur Jr. back in their prime, but even nastier. Songs like Sincere are just trudges through a great pile of noise and nastiness, but man is it enjoyable. There are more upbeat songs like Complacent that still manage to bring the grimy sounds out, but with a bit more energy. Matt Berry’s vocals have personality but they never really overthrow the rest of the sound. The drums and guitars all seem to make up the same entity, creating this gnarly smoothie concoction of fuzz. It’s been done before, but the songs haven’t been this good.
After listening to a lot of 90s bands in the past month (January just puts me in a Dinosaur Jr./Pinkerton-Weezer mood), this EP hits just the right spot. Especially the prime cut here, the closer Never Been. It has some fantastic guitar work, some stellar drums, cutesy-yet-pitchy backing vocals, and some great disinterested vocals from Berry. It’s a fantastic sound that perfectly emulates the pop-punk of the 90s, and stands on its own as a great song. Very few EPs can leave an impression this great, especially one from newcomers like these guys. Hopefully an album will come soon enough.
Summary: s/t is a sludgey joyride, with some great guitar work and a sound that’s incredibly engrossing. Plus, the fact it’s 10 minute longs helps the replay-value quite a bit.
Choice Cuts: Never Been, Sincere
Sounds Like: Dinosaur Jr., A dirtier Pavement, A more punk-pop Sludge band.
A-
You can stream the entire EP below, as well as download it over at Bandcamp. They have limited edition cassettes out next month on Father Daughter records.
RISING ARTIST: Wages- Shady Chamber
Thanks to Imveryape for posting their tunes. Another great band you’ve exposed me to!
2013, as I said in my “Most Anticipated” list, was a year that didn’t allow a whole ton of newcomers to jump into the spotlight (Sure, we got Haim, Disclosure, Savages…but these acts kind of jumped in the spotlight first in 2012). Turns out, I was looking in the wrong place.
Wages are an indie rock band from Los Angeles that make songs full of wonderful dynamic contrast and atmosphere. They somehow manage to take guitar work that wouldn’t be out of place on an Explosions in the Sky or Godspeed track and mesh them with a whispery vocal that harkens back to Jonsi or some calmer tracks by The Antlers. The second track on this EP, Pull Through, manages to put a calm and serene verse with an explosive chorus, creating a gorgeous contrast that reminds me of some great tracks off of Kveikur by Sigur Rós.
The lead vocals here never really step in front of the instrumentals, quietly taking a back seat and melting into the stellar and triumphant guitar work. On tracks like Sing, the vocals manage to be captivating without stealing the limelight from the other instruments. The calm vocals make for a sound that’s engaging and entirely unique, almost like a more straightforward version of Trevor Powers’ vocals on a Youth Lagoon track. But, on tracks like the ghostly A Little Thing, these quiet vocals can sound like their being projected across the entire earth.
Then the instrumentals create these wonderful soundscapes that ebb and flow from quietly seductive and placid to explosive and cathartic. Unity opens with some nice calm guitars, but then these pummeling drums explode and heavier strumming comes in. These guys have taken a style that makes great songs like The Funeral and Varuó and gave them a unique twist. Every song bleeds with passion, but not in an overbearing and melodramatic sort of way. Each song, while explosive, keeps a sense of subtlety that many bands that explore this style can’t get away with.
How these guys are still a little known west coast treat is astounding. Their sky-high choruses, their gorgeous use of a soft-loud-soft formula, and their expertly emotional instrumentation all work together to create a sound that, while clearly influenced by veteran bands, manages to be unique and entirely engaging.
Summary: Shady Chamer is an incredibly solid EP, combining softer vocals and calmer verses with explosive and powerful choruses to make a formula that is successful and engrossing.
Choice Cuts: Pull Through, Unity, A Little Thing
Leftovers: South China Sea
B+
You can stream the entire EP below. The EP is out now, you can download it here, via Bandcamp.
ALBUM REVIEW/RISING ARTIST: Tancred- Tancred
Topshelf Records is one of my favorite independent labels out there today, and that comes from the heart. They are always pushing really interesting and well crafted music, and a lot of it is wonderfully emotional and nostalgic (See TWIAB). Now, they have the sophomore record from Tancred, a New England singer/songwriter who specializes in breezy and warm Indie Pop. A lot of bands that try this sort of sound normally fail because it’s a hard sound to pull off without sounding cheesy or overwrought. Jess Abbott, like many other Topshelf artists before her (and unlike a lot of pop singer/songwriters), manages to make the most out of her genre.
Abbott’s music sounds a lot like per-synthesizer Tegan & Sara, but with a bit more attitude and interesting ideas. The choruses here are all very pleasant, the riffs are terrific too. The meshing of thicker strumming and Abbott’s distinct but light voice on songs like Indiana work incredibly well, creating a pleasant emo sound that’s prevalent among a lot of Topshelf artists, but giving it a unique edge on the label, and let’s face it, in the genre. The choruses, the lighter guitar licks, and the relatively short track lengths help this album breeze by like a smooth Real Estate record, or a more tolerable Best Coast record (Albeit with more real emotion and much better singing).
Despite the overall sonic pleasantness of this record (and it’s really, really pleasant), this album is driven by Jess Abbott’s vocals and lyrics. There are moments where she hits high notes that make the song retrospectively incredible. Hard To Leave begins somewhat unevenly and feels a bit draggy. But the song grows and grows into this subtle and beautiful song where Abbott really shows off her vocal chops. When you return to the song, it gets better every time. Thicker riffs throughout the album tend to blend well with Abbott’s distinct and calm vocals, creating a chill mood that not many artists can get right.
There are a couple moments here that show that Tancred is still a growing artist. Thicker Than Blood is a bit too heavy compared to the rest of the album and gives off some weird Alanis Morissette vibes. However, it still is better than most debut albums I have heard this year, and it brings something fresh to a label and scene already full of fresh somethings.
Summary: Tancred is a breezy and very enjoyable emo/indie pop record that shows off Jess Abbott’s potential with some really great songs, solid production, and an overall pleasant aesthetic.
Choice Cuts: The Ring, Twelve, Indiana
Leftovers: Thicker Than Blood
B+
RECOMMENDED LISTEN
You can stream The Ring below. Tancred is out now on Topshelf Records.
EP REVIEW/ RISING ARTIST: Rhosyn- Elbow of Capture
Two rising artists in one week! A couple weeks ago, I was MP3 surfing (As one does), and I stumbled upon a gorgeous song called Glass by Rhosyn. Rose Dagul, aka Rhosyn, is a vocalist, composer, and cellist from Peckham, London. What struck me about that first song (Which is the first on her new EP Elbow of Capture), was how it combined elegant beauty with catchiness and tUnE-yArDs style looping. Glass just flows like liquid, with her gorgeous vocals and cello sounds swimming around each other in an elegant dance. It’s incredibly beautiful and incredibly creative.
The main thing that interested me about her style was how it combined a lot of what tUnE-yArDs did on her 2011 album, W H O K I L L, with a new sense of elegant beauty. She’s a great cellist, who can bring both buoyancy and bounce to any track. For example, on the ghastly Birds, she manages to transition from an elegant and dramatic bowing to one that jumps around her vocals. Everything she does with her cello comes across as a team effort. And the things they do together are amazing.
Courtesy of Rhosyn’s site
It doesn’t hurt that Rhosyn has an absolutely gorgeous singing voice, either. She has the attitude and style of Florence Welch, minus the mountain high loudness. Her vocals never really get loud. This music feels intense and spacious without actually being truly loud. Her voice brings tremendous power to the music, working with and against the cello to make a bubbling river of sound. And that’s what makes this really special and different. It sounds incredibly rich and sometimes big, but it’s made solely by a Cello and her voice (And percussion every once in a while, but whatever).
It manages it mesh different genres without feeling forced. There’s a heavy classical element here, but it never comes across as uptight or old-timey. Her vocals manage to bring an Indie Pop style to the music, and sometimes she manages to throw in some other genres for good measure. For example, the string picking on Volcano sound like they belong in the buildup to an intense EDM breakdown. And none of this feels forced. It’s an absolutely gorgeous crossover that’s effective and beautiful.
Summary: Elbow of Capture really shows off Rhosyn’s talents as a phenomenal cellist, vocalist, and songwriter.
Choice Cuts: Glass
Sounds Like: Florence + The Machine, tUnE-yArDs (At least at a barebones level), Classical Pop
4.5/5
Stream (or download) Glass below. Her EP is available now. Check her out.
ALBUM REVIEW/RISING ARTIST: Night Beds- Country Sleep
Night Beds are a Nashville folk-country group, lead by vocalist Winston Yellen. Country Sleep is their debut album, and it’s one hell of a debut at that.
Unlike a lot of recent Folk style music, this stuff brings in a strong flavor of good old country, mainly through slide guitars and Yellen’s vocals. It’s the kind of Alt-Country that we’ve lost ever since Band of Horses and The Avett Brothers watered down their sound. These tracks all manage to keep a melancholy alt-country flavor while still having elements that keep it rooted in general Indie Folk.
The main thing that sticks out on the album are Yellen’s fantastic vocals. The first track, the acapella Faithful Heights, sounds sprawling and huge with just Yellen’s vocals. On every track, there’s a sense of heartbreak and yearning bleeding through the vocals, making a lot of the sprinkling guitars and sweeping strings feel even more powerful than they were before. Yellen’s voice works like a leader, with everything around him working together to make something truly special. And on Country Sleep, they really do.
The instrumentation, while nothing truly new, is absolutely gorgeous and perfect for what the group wants to accomplish. The electric guitar and bass on Lost Springs really pick the song up and make it feel like it’s blowing around in a heavy wind. Whether parts of songs are backed by solely a guitar or by a ton of violins and drums, the songs manage to make the sadness illustrated on the cover feel painfully real.
Plus, there are no weak spots, and nothing feels truly out of place. Every track flows into the next with grace and power, with the emotional weight being carried through every track. It can sometimes be overbearing, but not enough to overtake the beauty of the music. It really manages to be a wonderful, wonderful little album. There’s nothing else to really say, other than it’s really gorgeous. And really good.
Summary: Country Sleep is an emotionally pulling, gorgeous sounding, well executed debut album, with some fantastic lead vocals.
Choice Cuts: Ramona, Even If We Try, Cherry Blossoms
Sounds Like: Andrew Bird, S. Carey
4.5/5
Stream Ramona below. Country Sleep is out 2/5 on Dead Oceans
Vantage Point Music 