Best Covers: The Black Crowes ‘Hard to Handle’

‘Hard to Handle’ failed to take on the same resonance as Redding’s other songs until it was revived by a couple of white boys from Redding’s home state of Georgia: The Black Crowes.

The result would catapult the band into superstardom, reaching number one on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart and number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100, a notable improvement on the performance of their first single from Shake Your Money Maker, ‘Jealous Again’. The cover would become permanently associated with The Black Crowes, and the band continued to perform it throughout their career. 

Introducing…Yot Club

Yot Club is a lo-fi bedroom pop project from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The band is twenty-two year old Ryan Kaiser, writing and recording everything. Ryan’s sound has been consistent since he began releasing music in 2019… distorted vocals, lo-fi beats, guitar tracks running through a chorus pedal, warm guitar leads, analog synth melodies, mixed with light pads. He’s had a great reception to his music, with over two million streams on Spotify. Ryan signed with Nice Guys, a record label out of Paris.

Yot Club has released last month his debut album, off the grid, His most vulnerable and honest music to date, off the grid is an expansive collection of lo-fi indie pop songs conveying the intense uncertainty we face alongside the thrills of excitement, transformation, and possibility.

4Ever Songs: Shocking Blue ‘Venus’

Shocking Blue were Dutch, and they made extremely catchy and efficient garage-pop. They knew how English-language pop music worked, but English wasn’t their first language, and it showed. Case in point: “Venus,” the band’s one huge international single.

The muses of La Musa: Momma

Following Momma’s beloved 2020 LP Two of Me, which introduced the world to the symbiotic writing style and profound creative intuition of founders Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten, the band’s third studio album Household Name reveals an exciting new chapter marked by both personal and artistic growth. Mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Emily Lazar, the album is a tightly-stitched collection that is magnetic and dynamic, and also marks their debut for Polyvinyl Record Co./Lucky Number—who signed Momma in the midst of the pandemic.

Bygone heroes helped inspire a lyrical theme throughout Household Name: the rise and fall of the rock star, and the tropes and tribulations that come with that arc. The theme allowed the group to celebrate (and, in some cases, directly reference) icons like Nirvana, Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins, Veruca Salt, and the Breeders’ Kim Deal, while weaving in their own perspective and experiences. The album perfects a balance of heavy riffs, deep emotions, inviting sonic production, and a lighthearted, wry sense of humor, creating a singular lane for Momma in today’s world of alt rock.

Divus Julius presents: The Wild Feathers

Forming in 2010, The Wild Feathers released three critically acclaimed studio albums, one live set and toured with major acts like Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. In 2020, they pulled back the curtain on their decade together with Medium Rarities, a collection of previously unreleased music spanning each incarnation of their still-evolving career, and are returning with their latest release, Alvarado.

Beloved by fans, The Wild Feathers‘ thoughtful arrangements draw from Southern rock and Americana with a penchant for infectious melody, and sweeping, multi-part vocal harmonies reminiscent of The Band or Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Hit of The Week: Sunni Colón “UNIVERSE 4 TWO”

American/Nigerian singer/songwriter Sunni Colón has just unveiled his latest single “UNIVERSE 4 TWO” off of his ten track third album JúJú & The Flowerbug. The genre-defying artist seamlessly blends soul, afrobeat, samba, pop and jazz for a unique and whimsical sonic concoction with “UNIVERSE 4 TWO” being no exception.

Music by Bergman: The Mary Onettes

Starting out in the Swedish town of Jönköping in 2000, The Mary Onettes have since been on a long journey containing a few downhill slopes and a lot of brick walls. The band was drawn together much due to their common interest for 80s and 90s music, with bands such as the Stone Roses and the Cure. The band’s first years weren’t unlike most bands, members came and went and their sound changed from one week to another.

It’s been over four years since Swedish dream pop band The Mary Onettes released their Portico album but now they’re back with a one-off single, “What I Feel In Some Places.”