New River Music

This Week’s New River Music

Song: Sushi and Coca-Cola

Artist: St. Paul & the Broken Bones

From St. Paul & the Broken Bones comes a fun new single about the cheap, sweet things in life. While writing “Sushi and Coca-Cola”, lead singer Paul Janeway reflects, “You know how you have moments that feel like a warm bath? …We came up with this scenario about having a bad day but finding the comfort in dinner and a drink.” Released just ahead of their Summer Anthem Tour, the group is setting the tone for keeping things funky and fresh. Their self-titled studio album is out now!

Song: This is The Killer Speaking

Artist: The Last Dinner Party

The newest from British indie-rock band is the upbeat single “This Is The Killer Speaking.” The track explores a doomed love and implies that the narrator’s partner is who killed it. It will appear on their upcoming sophomore album From the Pyre, out this October. When describing the songs on the album, the band explained: “The songs are character-driven but still deeply personal, a commonplace life event pushed to a pathological extreme. Being ghosted becomes a Western dance with a killer…. We found this kind of evocative imagery to be the most honest and truthful way to discuss the way our experiences felt, giving each the emotional weight it deserves.”

Song: Big Money

Artist: Jon Batiste

Jon Batiste goes old-school 1950s western in “Big Money,” exploring the complex relationship between wealth and capitalism in America. He shifts into a roots/soul sound that makes you feel as if you’ve stepped into a time machine. And that was the point, notes Batiste: “I think about this album being a direct statement of the importance of people keeping these traditions alive… AI is not going to ever replace this sort of practice. But I do fear that in the short term we’ll forget what this means… unless artists make statements that are definitively of the essence of communal expression in the traditions of our music, and make them in a way that’s relevant to the contemporary mind and contemporary culture.”

Song: Madalena

Artist: Goose

Goose strikes while the iron is hot with “Madalena,” from their brand-new album Chain Yer Dragon, released just months after their previous album Everything Must Go. The Connecticut-formed group has been hailed recently as one of the most talked about jam bands in the country. The group premiered “Madalena,” a tight, indie-rock piano ballad on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon this past August.