Released as the final preview single from the forthcoming album Mend, “Hopelessness” from German Error Message presents an intriguing interplay between moods. As the title suggests, the lyrics carry a particular weight to them. There’s not many of them, so let’s have a look.

I woke up wrong
Hopelessness pacing the room
Will worry forever destroy me
Early night is familiar
It’s buried in my body
Beneath the leaves
on my forest floor
nothing’s as it should be

The idea of being haunted by hopelessness is hefty sentiment if ever there was one and if you’ve ever felt depression or anxiety, these words aren’t unfamiliar. The track plays into this with the DIY bedroom recording style and contemplative acoustic guitar but there’s also a particularly optimistic tone to the accompaniment around that. Maybe that’s a hefty bit of armchair psychology coming into play but the warm, uplifting, second half of the song seems to function as a story of itself; leaving that hopelessness behind you.

That’s a grandiose review but German Error Message just invokes those kinds of contemplative feelings! Looking forward to Mend when it is released in full on March 29th, 2019.

There’s no shortage of 7″ releases from Third Man Records and sorting through it all can be difficult. Fortunately, they do a great job of selecting Nashville artists that fit within their Third Man model of being a little bit country, a little bit something else (see Margo Price, Joshua Hedley, Loretta Lynn, et al). Case in point, the new 7″ from Teddy and the Rough Riders is full of Classic Country elements but breezily integrates plenty of other familiar styles; making for a rather fresh new thing.

The downside to a 7″ is that there’s not a lot of actual music to really dive into. The upside is that if you like what you hear, there’s absolutely no filler. “I Found Something” manages to integrate plenty of accenting slide guitar, piano strikes, choral gang vocals, a touch of rasp in the verse and a head swirling, dueling solo that pays homage to the R&B tradition of a round robin showcase among the players.

“Neon Cowboy” takes a gentler approach, like a literal cowboy ambling on down the road but with a touch of the psychedelic, like a cowboy blissed out on mushrooms ambling on down the road.

All and all, a very promising release from a band that’s already been up to interesting things this year. Here’s to more coming our way.

Makeup and Vanity Set has been busy lately providing the score for the latest seasons of the podcasts Up and Vanished and Monster, as well as multiple subscriber exclusive releases to his Bandcamp fans. Somehow, on top of all that, he has released the original soundtrack to the short film Mather.

The film is unique as it was created by a deaf director, using a deaf crew, a largely deaf cast and largely contains a lack of dialogue. Makeup and Vanity Set provides some insight as to how the director was able to review the music and iterate on it:

“chase would explain that he could ‘listen’ to my music by feeling it physically. i spent time studying two incredible Deaf musicians, evelyn glennie and christine sun kim. i also spent time studying methods like demonstrating rhythm and music through ASL (American Sign Language), how words can be similar but are defined and distinguished by handshape, location, movement, orientation and facial expression; that so much information is contained in simple hand motions and movements and that together they form intense and emotional contexts.

the result was a score written with basic sources- with sine waves and human voices and strings. chase’s work is deeply personal…”

The work itself invokes some of the same ominous feelings that MAVS has perfected over the years but the style of execution is completely different. Songs are slower, drawn out and creating suspense through the ambience. It’s not entirely different for him but it’s close. All and all, it’s a sign that MAVS is willing to stretch and explore his sound, which results in both an enjoyable score and an alluring promise for future releases.

*repeat repeat has announced that they’ll be releasing their brand new album Glazed via Dangerbird Records on May 31st. Following along on that good news, they went ahead and released the first single, “Hi, I’m Waiting” and then piled on with an official music video for the track.

The video is a blend of high-energy performance (with album producer Patrick Carney on drums) and Michel Gondry style DIY set pieces. It’s colorful, engaging and sometimes a bit weird (how many times have you received an orange in the mail?). It’s a quirky and cute tale of unrequited love, which fits in nicely with the fun big riffs backing the whole thing.