Daxton – ‘Live In The Studio’ Acoustic Album Release

March 29, 2019 Leave a comment

Central Coast musician and singer-songwriter Daxton has recorded a bunch of live acoustic songs which will be released on his ‘Live In The Studio’ album, which was recorded by Russell Pilling at Damien Gerard Studios in Sydney. Daxton’s chilled out dreamy songs and moody, driving vocals make for a brilliant acoustic album which oozes a summery vibe.

‘Sanctuary’ is a great acoustic rendition of one of his most popular songs from the recent ‘In Verses’ album. Hearing it as simply vocal and guitar really shows the quality of the song.

Another album highlight is ‘Perfect Day’, a more country up-tempo and happy song featuring vocals and acoustic guitar, but still managing a strong catchy chorus, snappy verses, and even some “da da da’s’ to sing along to. Perhaps, best of all, its less than 2 minutes, which means it’s perfect to squeeze into playlist spots.

For some really nice bluesy slide acoustic and a catchy riff, go no further than ‘Ball and Chain’. It combines a great falsetto verse with a baritone chorus, adding to the rich tonal feel of the song.

With songs like ‘I Don’t Mind’, singing in high falsetto with jangly guitar line to the bubbly low tones of ‘Good Time Friends’ with its’ grungy sounding chords, ‘Live In The Studio’ covers all flavours.

Daxton’s music has been influenced by Captain Beefheart, The Dead Kennedys, The Church, David Bowie, Tom Waits, Neil Young, The Killers, Mud Honey, The Pixies and Arcade Fire.

Hear the music:

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The Sheyana Band – Soul Sister

March 20, 2019 Leave a comment

Sheyana Band FOG462 SoulSistercoverFinal

Tasmanian blues act The Sheyana Band have a new single called Soul Sister and it’s one to listen out for on the upcoming Sounds Like Cafe playlist.

The single has just scored a top 10 spot on the Amrap Regional Charts!

First week number 9 and now march 20 the single has hit the number 2 spot.

Check it out on the new playlist

Soul Sister is a remix of a track from last year’s Big Love album, for which they won the Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society’s Victorian & Tasmanian Blues Music Award for Best Emerging Act/Artist of the Year.

Led by captivating frontwoman Sheyana Wijesingha, the band has recently performed at major music events in Tasmania including Party in the Paddock 2019 and they will also be appearing at the Fruit of the Roots Festival in Turners Beach, Tasmania this April.

The Sheyana Band has also received national & international recognition and airplay, supporting some of Australia’s most respected musicians including Hoodoo Gurus, Neil Finn, Meg Mac, Renee Geyer, Diesel, The Angels, Ian Moss and Bill Chambers.

The band will tour Australia later in the year and will also head to the UK, Europe & Sri Lanka for promo opportunities and some headlines shows.

Stay tuned for the upcoming Sounds Like Cafe playlist.

In the meantime, have a listen to Soul Sister NOW!

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Julie-Anne Marshall New Single Memory

December 16, 2018 Leave a comment

A new bonus track for December is the excellent new single Memory from Julie-Anne Marshall.

Starting out with some percussion and simple piano this song quickly develops into a very catchy uptempo tune that will have feet tapping and heads nodding. Julie-Anne’s voice tells a great story of change and development we can all relate to. Some tasteful jazzy/latin acoustic guitar fits in for a nice instrumental break and rounds out the song well. Sure to be a summer favourite.

“Hailing from Adelaide, Julie-Anne is an independent singer-songwriter who is not limited by musical boundaries. Memory is her latest single release which could be considered alt pop. It’s JPY-Love is in the air, meets Lily Allen. Think Soft Rock, Easy Listening with some jazz, rock, roots and blues and a bit of folk and pop and that’s the diversity of this artist.”

Julie-Anne has had previous tunes on soundslikecafe that have all been warmly received so we are sure this one will be no different- enjoy – checkout the spotify link below for instant gratification or hear it on the Soundslikecafe Digital Playlist Track 3.

Joel Leffler – Brighton Lakes Sessions EP

November 27, 2018 Leave a comment

If you were to walk in the front door of one of those homes, turn right up the stairs and left into bedroom 3 you would find a grand piano, an acoustic guitar & an air of something recognisably creative.

This 8 track EP features popular songs from Joel Lefflers’s previous titles ‘Run With The Wolves’ & ‘Strip Me Bare’ along with 2 brand new acoustic tracks fresh out of the studio, ‘Where You Are’ & ‘Home To Me (Caledonia)’.

Much like Brighton Lakes face lift; these songs have been re-imagined to give an insight into what they sound like both in pre-production & live in show.

Joel says of his experience recording the acoustic sessions, “I was recently diagnosed with severe anxiety that found me laying in an ER bed at Liverpool Hospital…What I thought was originally derived from music actually turns out to be – that music itself is the cure!”

Brighton Lakes Sessions EP was written, recorded & produced by Joel Leffler followed by mastering by Andrew Beck at Damien Gerard Studios.

Listen here:

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Throwing Shapes – Super Natural

November 27, 2018 Leave a comment

Throwing Shapes is Fox Shannon, a drum and bass/electronic/dance performer from Perth, WA.

Unique and forward thinking electronic music, from house and club tracks to D+B. With influences from Pendulum and Sub Focus to Disclosure and Slumber Jack, Shannon’s energetic performances and catchy dancefloor hooks has won him a growing interest from local and international DJ’s. A number of tracks have also featured on dance compilations.

The title track combines a hooky four-on-the-floor disco beat and some spooky soundtrack layers on the top line. Another lead track prime for play is Pretend Your Mine, which is driven by warm electric piano chords and catchy, soulful female vocals.

Then there’s the energetic 2000 People, where you’ll get the feel of 80’s synth, house and EDM. “Good vibes, good times”, says Shannon.

Listen here:

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The Jimmy C – Songs For The Species

November 27, 2018 Leave a comment

Humourous, up-beat, catchy, power/pop/psychedelic/rock … the Melbourne one-man-band The Jimmy C opens a can of earworms that burrow deep and leave you smiling.

The Jimmy C is Jamie Coghill, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist who loves the music of the late 60’s and early 70’s. Some know Jamie as the drummer from Luxedo, Fez Perez and The Devilrock Four, others know him from his own music as The Jimmy C. He records everything at home in his spare room.

Songs For The Species is a humorous collection of songs whose creator says is sonically influenced by Super Furry Animals, The Kinks, Jellyfish, Supergrass, ELO, Pugwash, Beach Boys and The Beatles.

The album opener is Everybody Shits. “Imagine Jellyfish playing your favourite up-beat 70s sitcom theme,” Coghill enthuses. “[It’s] a bouncy pop song reminding us, “It doesn’t matter how cute you are, you still have an asshole.””

Another album highlight is the jangly Foot In My Mouth, “an ode to those of us who never fail to say the wrong thing every time we speak.” Coghill describes the song as, ” a slow plodding rocker with up-beat choruses and a chaotic split personality ending.”

Alt-country meets sunny pop in the harmony-filled “ASAPples”, which rides on some, “silly modern-life influenced lyrics” – the inspiration of texting, emojis and our technology-filled lives.

Born Without A Brain is where the drummer makes fun of drummers. “They’re my people!”, Coghill protests. Power pop guitars, lush Beach Boys harmonies and upbeat vibes makes this track a catchy and enjoyable album standout.

Songs For The Species is out now on Foghorn/MGM.

Watch the video for “Baby Blue Sky” here:

And see all SIX BRAND NEW VIDEOS from The Jimmy C here:

Listen via your favourite music provider here:

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Inside the Secretly Lucrative World of Solo Piano Music – from Rolling Stone

November 8, 2018 Leave a comment

Thanks to streaming, a small cadre of independent solo pianists are making a killing.

By ELIAS LEIGHT

On October 3rd, Michele McLaughlin got some exciting news: Her music has been streamed over one billion times.

Young artists in popular genres are racking up streams like crazy these days — presumably McLaughlin is an ascendant rapper releasing 90-second battering rams through SoundCloud? Or maybe she’s the guest vocalist on the latest reggaeton posse cut to rule YouTube?

Nope: McLaughlin is an independent artist in her forties who makes contemporary instrumental solo piano music. She’s a star in her field — to the point where another pianist says, “I’m not quite doing Michele McLaughlin numbers” — reportedly making around $250,000 a year. And she’s not alone. “We have a large group of solo piano players that are making a killing, making $7,000 to $10,000 a month,” says Kevin Breuner, VP of Marketing for CDBaby, which touts itself as “the largest global digital distributor of independent music.”

“Some of them are making far more money from their music than the artists than you see on major labels that sell OK but are not crossing the threshold of really having an income stream for years to come,” Breuner continues. “These piano players have cracked that.”

That’s thanks to the rise of streaming services and an accompanying shift in listening habits. “It used to be that, to get signed, it had to be something that somebody thought they could sell to a mass market,” Breuner explains. “But now, music gets used in so many different ways. When we dug a little deeper, this particular genre group and a lot of other genres that tend to be mellow and instrumental perform really well on streaming — there are a lot of dentist offices, a lot of work-office environments where people are putting on quiet, soothing music in the background and just letting it play.”

“I had someone ask me the other day, ‘Are you OK with being known as sleepy music?’” says Chad Lawson, another successful solo pianist. “I think he was trying to take a jab in a roundabout way. But I said, ‘Yeah, I really am.’ I have a running joke: Don’t listen to my music while you’re driving. It needs to have a warning sticker: Do not operate heavy machinery while listening to this.”

Read the rest of the article here at Rolling Stone.

and be sure to check out some of the stellar solo piano albums on our featured page from artists such as Fiona Joy Hawkins, Rachel Lafond, Andy Iorio and Loren Evarts.

Gareth Koch and Peter Bonner – Don’t Tempt Me

October 2, 2018 Leave a comment

Don’t Tempt Me

GARETH KOCH + PETER BONNER

What happens when the musical worlds of an ARIA Award winning classical guitarist and a hard-hitting rock singer collide? The answer in this case lies in an unusually refined and confident EP titled Don’t Tempt Me, Out now on Planet/MGM.

It’s not easy to describe such an accomplished EP as this one. To begin with, the arrangements are all acoustic and highly sophisticated. Little wonder, since these songwriters have roughly 1000 years of music history bubbling away in their consciousness. But alongside this knowledge is a keen awareness of contemporary sensibilities. Sparkling effervescent textures, trumpets, percussion, dobros, classical and 12-string guitars and even a 1966 ‘Beatle Bass’ all combine to create a unique and original soundscape.

This Australian songwriting team of Gareth Koch and Peter Bonner draws inspiration from medieval music to post-modern psychedelia, with every imaginable influence in between. Bonner and Koch have a strong and immediately recognisable musical identity, a new sound and aesthetic that comes with a fluid movement across genres. The result is an array of catchy pop tunes, soulful ballads, blues grooves and rock songs

Connect with
GARETH KOCH + PETER BONNER
Website
https://www.garethkochmusic.com/

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/Gareth-Koch-Music-500437070367413/?ref=br_rs

Checkout the Record

Thanks for listening!!

Mark Lucas – Prisoners of The Heart

October 2, 2018 Leave a comment

To be released Friday October 5 Soundslikecafe is proud to feature this excellent new album from Mark Lucas

Prisoners of the Heart – A retrospective

“You never sang soap opera/ or wore your hair in curls/ you still want all the trappings of the post-consumer world/ come on now, admit it dear/ you’re a thoroughly modern girl” – The Ghost of Lost Creek Road

The trajectory of Mark Lucas’s career is akin to tracing a bird in flight. Perpetually restless, banking and diving and always observing – it is these characteristics, among others – that allow his unique lyrical view on the world.

In Sydney, Australia, his home since 1981, Lucas wears an awful lot of hats. Venue manager. Band booker. Activist. Adding yet another cap, he is a prolific singer-songwriter whose productive output is as inspiring as it is diverse.

Since the 1980s, Mark experimented with rock and pop, before returning to his country and folk roots in the 1990s. These are not just stories; they are as much observational as they are impressionistic. True to his English heritage as a songwriter to match Graham Parker or Elvis Costello, he also has cynicism to burn.

With the forthcoming release of Prisoners of the Heart, Mark draws deep from his 22-year career as a solo artist and bandleader, as songwriter and masterful lyricist. His songs, like those of his heroes, Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia and Guy Clark, do not always tend to the personal over the abstract. In fact, sometimes the opposite is just as true.

The 20-track CD Prisoners of the Heartdraws from Lucas’s ten-album output, with the focus on his adroitly authored songs. His inspirations come from the worlds he inhabits, the people whose lives brush up against his.

This retrospective album tells many inspired stories of different lives, contrasting almost impressionistic lyrics with the more direct story song approach, like the cautionary tale of ‘Between The Ditches’ against ‘Shopping Town’, a meditation on commercial enterprise taking on real lives.

Whether working with his long-time backing group, the Dead Setters, or crafting his own guitar-and-voice meditations, he captures something special from the crumbs of the everyday. Like one of his inspirations, Guy Clark, he makes plain the idea that “some days you write the song/ some days the song writes you”.

Prisoners of the Heart is out 5^thOctober through MGM

Track listing

Another Town Along the Road

Rosie

The Ghost of Lost Creek Road

Walk in Beauty

Between the Ditches

Monsters Ball

Canal Road

Dryland Sea

Sisters of Mercy

Shopping Town

Until She’s Mine

Soldier’s Row

Federal Highway Blues

Small Town

Rider

All the Bonnie Birds

Prisoners of the Heart

The Onion Song

Hear the new album-

Check out more info and live dates

Finally Check out A Fine History of Releases below

Discography:
1996 ‘Bootheels of Desire’ (The Parwills) Larrikin TWNG 001

1999 ‘Jukebox Jury’ Laughing Outlaw Records LORCD 003

2001 ‘The Ghost of Lost Creek Road’ “ LORCD 028

2005 ‘White Man Soul’ TWNG 002

2007 ‘Sideshow Alley’ TWNG 003

2009 ‘Eat at Joe’s’ (Live at Joe Maguire’s Pub) TWNG 004

+ Live at the Cooks River Motor Boat Club dvd

2011 “Putting on the Dog Laughing Outlaw Records LORCD130

2014 “Sin City Blues” ep TWNG 005

2015 “Little Town Blues” Laughing Outlaw Records LORC174CD

2016 “The Continental Drift” TWNG 006

Fiona Joy (Hawkins) – New Single – Grace Chill Remix – Out Now

September 17, 2018 Leave a comment

Fiona Joy (Hawkins) – New Single – Grace Chill Remix – Out Now

Soundslikecafe is proud to feature this International Tune on the new September 2018 playlist

“I originally wrote Grace as a piano instrumental and it ended up on a Grammy winning album in 2014. I wanted to add words and record my own singer/songwriter version as I really connected with the message in the song “To be with Grace, To live with Grace, Always with Grace’. A slower acoustic recording was followed by a chill mix which featured on the first Say Yes To Love album in support of marriage equality. This current remix of Grace is punchier Dream-Pop.
The track features Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel) playing NS Bass, Marc Shulman (Jewel & Suzanne Vega) playing Electric guitar with a little Beat-Box by my son Nick Hawkins.
The song has genre hopped from World to New Age to Pop and it’s been covered by a number of other artists including Flutist Sherry Finzer and Grammy winners Ricky Kej and Wouter Kellerman.