Quick Picks | March 2023

Quick Picks

Album | EP | Single

The Sound Cafe Rating

5 star = essential, 4 star = excellent, 3 star = good, 2 = fans/collectors, 1 = for completionists only

Megan Slankard & The Wreckage: California & Other Stories (Album)

San Francisco Indie-Rocker nerd Megan Slankard and her band The Wreckage have independently sold over 45,000 copies of five self-released albums and have released their latest album "California & Other Stories". The record, which was Co-Produced with Nashville producer Alex Wong, (Delta Rae, Vienna Teng, Elizabeth & The Catapult,) showcases new sides of Megan's music, balancing delightfully belligerent rock and roll with cinematic soundscapes of orchestral instruments and robot harmonies.

www.meganslankard.com

Jax Hollow: Only The Wild Ones (Album)

Nashville Americana singer-songwriter and virtuosic guitarist Jax Hollow manages to refine the heavier, rock ‘n’ roll machismo of previous work with producer Michael Wagener (Metallica, Skid Row, Motley Crew), distilling a more distinctive sound that yields progressive Southern rock and country twang, as well as expert songwriting on her sophomore album Only The Wild Ones (out May 5). Hollow has been featured on Lightning 100’s “Artist of the Week” and opened for Peter Karp (Mick Taylor, Sue Foley) and Marco Mendoza (Thin Lizzy) on her 2022 European tour.

www.jaxhollow.com/

Charlie Fittler: Dying Breed (EP)

There is a saying that you have to live it to sell it, and if that is true, then Charlie Fittler, is the real deal. He has lived his entire 19 years on his family's fifth- generation Merino sheep property in the New South Wales Northern Tablelands outside of Armidale. This is the heartland, and country life runs in his veins.

That true country experience is laid front and centre on the lead and titled track lifted from his forthcoming EP – “Dying Breed”.

charliefittler.com.au

Shy Martin: Late Night Thoughts (Album)

Rising Swedish pop act Shy Martin (Sara Hjellström) unveils the May 19 release date of her debut album Late Night Thoughts and releases the project’s title track and its accompanying lyric video.

late night thoughts is shy’s boldest, most openly emotional, brave and beautiful work to date. An album dealing with topics including mental health, recovery, and the search for happiness, late night thoughts presents shy as she’s always wanted to be heard.

shymartin.orcd.co

Odin and Bjørn Berge: Hoohahs & Cat Calls (Album)

A contrasting mix of blues and rap that constantly flits between rhythmic club tracks and tripped/blissed out down-tempo musings, ‘Hoohahs & Cat Calls’ is a beguiling collaboration between the successful Norwegian musicians Odin and Bjørn Berge. It sees the duo explore both their musicality and masculinity on a record that deals with universal themes such as sex, solitude and climate change.

www.bjornberge.no

An Dannsa Dub: Air An Turas (Album)

Air An Turas is the dramatic debut album from folk-dub powerhouse An Dannsa Dub. Set for release on Friday 17 March, the record fuses the familiar sounds and instruments of traditional folk songs with the heavy, driving basslines of dub music.

The brain child of dub vocalist and producer Tom Spirals and Scottish traditional musician Euan McLaughlin, An Dannsa Dub, meaning ‘The Dub Dance’ in Gaelic, sits front and centre of a new wave of folk music bringing genre-bending arrangements to the tradition.

www.andannsadub.com

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