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While remaining quite elusive to genre or category, a few of Blasucci’s deepest influences can still be spotted throughout the musical and lyrical shape of his new album. New literary and musical discoveries seem to be constant for Sam, but shades of Leonard Cohen, Prince, and Bjork peak out behind this batch of songs as well as the writings of Ariana Reines, John O’Donohue, and Edgar Allen Poe.

On the newest single, "Flower," from the forthcoming LP Real Life Thing - Blasucci notes: "Inspired by the harmony of Italian-American vocal groups from the 70s as well as a Motown feel, Flower is one of the more existential songs on the album. There are shades of Marvin Gaye in its rhythm and Frankie Valli in its vocal arrangements. It was originally written in an entirely different rhythm and style, almost more of an oldies song, but it evolved over time and slowed itself down a bit to feel more laid back. It seemed more and more evident that slowness and space were important in this song so that all of its parts could fully stretch out. With the addition of Randal Fisher on tenor saxophone and Andres Renteria on Congas, it morphed into a fusion of soul, jazz, and pop."

For more info, check out Raven Sings The Blues.

Iguana Death Cult are back with a new 7" and some new US tour dates.  The A side to the upcoming 7" is called Tiny Tears and as the band explains: "I cry everyday. I cry over people telling other people what they can and can’t do with their own bodies. I cry over some dude getting crowned king over the simple fact he was born into a certain family. I cry over the atrocities brought forth by capitalism on my thousand euro phone. Necessary evil? Perhaps. Grotesque nonetheless. But I cry the loudest, when it’s Monday morning and my train is delayed, and I spilled coffee all over my shirt. Again, I do nothing. Poor old me."

Check the US tour dates below and pre-order & stream the new release here.

Oct 10 - Alex's Bar - Long Beach, CA

Oct 12 - Alta Sea (Berth 60) - San Pedro, CA

Oct 15 - Hi-Dive - Denver, CO

Oct 16 - The Black Sheep - Colorado Springs, CO**

Oct 18 - Thalia Hall - Chicago, IL**

Oct 19 - Thalia Hall - Chicago, IL**

Oct 20 - Beachland Ballroom - Cleveland, OH**

Oct 21 - Spirit Hall - Pittsburgh, PA**

Oct 23 - Quarry House - Washington, DC

Oct 24 - Mercury Lounge - New York, NY

Oct 25 - Fuzzy Cactus - Richmond, VA

Oct 26 - Snug Harbor - Charlotte, NC

Oct 28 - Woodlawn Theatre - Birmingham, AL~

Oct 29 - The Boneyard - Chattanooga, TN~

Oct 30 - The EARL - Atlanta, GA~

Nov 1 - Dan Electro's - Houston, TX~

Nov 2 - Levitation - Austin, TX~

Nov 4 - Surfside 7 - Fort Collins, CO

Nov 5 - International Bar - Salt Lake City, UT

Nov 6 - The Shrine - Boise, ID

Nov 8 - Freakout Fest - Seattle, WA

Nov 9 - Lollipop Shoppe - Portland, OR

Nov 11 - Kilowatt - San Francisco, CA

 ** w/ OSEES

~ w/ Wine Lips

“[Wahid’s] unique reference points and experiences provide nuance and taste that sets him apart.” - Pigeons & Planes, Best New Artist

“A true original who learned the rules first, just so that he could break them.” - CLASH

Orlando-based rapper Wahid announces his new EP, THEY ALL GO MAD!, out October 29th, and shares the lead single “GENESIS!” Following his recent EP feast, by ravens, THEY ALL GO MAD! continues with Wahid’s gift in merging classic MC traditions with forward-thinking cadences and melodies. In his double-time acrobatic flows, he’s distinctly post-Kendrick Lamar, and Lil Wayne – blessed with a novelist’s eye for minor detail and a virtuoso’s gift for ransacking hidden pockets of a beat. He can turn a warped post-Dilla instrumental to ashes with 16 bars and croon a plaintive falsetto wail on the hook that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Jeremih album.

“The mission statement with this EP was/is… ‘It’s time to prove a point,’” Wahid explains. “The title of the EP has a double meaning. We feel like all of the songs are ‘Mad’ or massive. Very dope, and dynamic batch of records. The second meaning kinda coincides with my temperament at the time, as I was definitely mad or upset about a few things happening in my life at that moment. Feelings of betrayal, feelings of being overlooked. I just used it as fuel to create this project. ‘It became personal with me’, as the great Michael Jordan would say.”

Nothing was a given in Orlando, Florida, a city best culturally known for its theme parks and boy bands. Wahid had lived here since the age of five, when his parents relocated the family from the Bronx. Throughout his childhood and adolescence, there were no real local role models for success. He and his best friend would try to find open mics and shows, but they were few and far between. It wasn’t until Wahid attended Florida A&M in Tallahassee when he became fully immersed in a flourishing hip-hop community. And by the time he returned home in the middle years of the last decade, Orlando had finally incubated a diverse scene that encompassed rap, folk, electronic music and indie-slanting guitar rock. 

But as soon as Wahid co-founded the nine-person collective See You Soon in 2020, his star really started to ascend. A national tour with the band 99 Neighbors and an imminent major label deal ostensibly had them on the precipice of massive success. But the usual “creative differences” soon brought about their dissolution. The ensuing depression was all-consuming. There were days where Wahid didn’t budge from bed, drawing the blinds closed, dealing with false recriminations, and numbing the wounds with bottle after bottle of liquor. Despite his best efforts to salvage the wreckage, none of his attempts yielded anything positive. But through the duress, he discovered his inner resilience and perseverance, which led to the creation of his March 2024 EP, feast, by ravens. “In regard to feast…, that project felt more like journal/diary entries of a tumultuous period in my life. It was a bit more experimental in its approach as well,” Wahid explains. “While this new project contains some of those same elements, I believe it is a lot more accessible, and potentially more enjoyable, sonically.”

“What I’m most excited about for this project, or rather, hopeful for, is the feedback and reception from it. Vitamn and I took our time to make sure the lyricism was dense yet catchy, and the same goes for the production. I’m hopeful fans of blue collar hip-hop dig it. We’re trying to bring back the blog era feel,” says Wahid. If Wahid has learned to glide with humbleness and a sense of nobility, now, there is no mistaking what lies behind the curtain. Beginning his second chapter, we now see the serious artist with his head aimed towards the heavens, aware of a higher calling yet all too aware of the snakes lurking in the grass. Grateful for survival, incapable of surprise, ready for what’s next. 

"La Mer echos a dreamy utopia-by-the-sea" - KCRW

"La Mer...branches off into tropicália and yé-yé while exploring Claude Fontaine’s hints of bossa nova in more detail" - Flood

There is a mythical island that exists only in Claude Fontaine’s imagination. It’s somewhere off the coast of France but the trade winds blow a soothing tropical breeze. The inhabitants converse in an alluring mélange of French and Portuguese. The air is fragrant and sweet. The water is the color of Lapis Lazuli. The stone citadels of this invisible city are scarred by time, but its people exist in a velvet eternity.

If you wander at night amidst the starlit cobblestone roads, you might chance upon the official house band of this halcyon offshore republic. A mysterious ensemble fronted by an American girl with a French name singing a romantic collection of spells assembled under the name, La Mer.

With their dulcet fusion of ‘60s French ye-ye pop, slinky Studio One reggae, and liminal Brazilian tropicalia, Claude Fontaine’s songs embody the best kept dreams of a globally connected world. The second album from the Los Angeles artist reflects the dream of creating the soundtrack for this utopia by the sea.

"The island was a complete figment of my imagination, but it's where I found myself living while writing the songs," Fontaine says. "A fantasy place where I could be surrounded by the people I wanted to be around, the people I already loved, and a love that I had never had. The songs felt like prayers or a manifestation about what I was hoping to put forward."

La Mer is a mesmerizing portal. It's impossible for it to exist outside of the modern moment, but it floats on the gilded dust of the past. At times, Fontaine channels Jane Birkin as backed by Jorge Ben. Françoise Hardy locked into sonic reverie with Mulatu Astatke, or Margo Guryan making lovers rock.

None of this is a happy accident. For her second opus, Fontaine assembled some of the most gifted musicians of the last five decades. First and foremost is her co-writer and producer, the multi-platinum Grammy-Award winning Lester Mendez, whose resume includes everyone from Grace Jones and Baaba Maal to Shakira and Nelly Furtado.

As with Fontaine’s self-titled first album, Tony Chin, foil for the likes of King Tubby, Dennis Brown, Lee Perry, Jackie Mittoo, Sly & Robbie, appears on guitar, bringing the orphic tones expected from someone who has played with some of the greatest reggae musicians of all-time. On bass, there’s Ronnie McQueen, one of the co-founders of Steel Pulse. Sergio Mendes’ percussionist, Gibi Dos Santos, supplies propulsive locomotion. So does Ziggy Marley’s drummer, Rock Deadrick. And that’s just the abridged list of storied instrumentalists who appear on La Mer.

In the middle of the axis mundi lies Fontaine, building an orchestral escape to paradise. Her debut found her exploring the depths of Jamaican and Brazilian music; the passage of time has allowed her to delve more intimately into the nuances of each, and fuse them with other touchstones from her musical world, creating an intimate sphere where these all form into one unique whole. Bandcamp called the first record "a spiritual sequel to Serge Gainsbourg's late '70s Jamaican sabbatical... the kind of dimly lit hideaway where Hunter S. Thompson might have guzzled Cuba Libres." And her latest experiment in timeless rhythms yields even richer and more vibrant results.

"I write love songs. That's what compels me," Fontaine says. "I'm needlessly inspired by love, but in a deeper way than just pure romance. As you evolve, your understanding of the greater themes of life evolve too."

On “Vaqueiro," Fontaine spins the tale of a gaucho, a hardened man on horseback, a rugged soul who denies love and sweats out his sorrows from the isolation of a chaparral-strewn ranch. "Love the Way You Love" is a praver for an ardor then unrealized, but later fulfilled - a levitating hymn of golden sand and coral blue waters, heartache with only one antidote. "Green Ivy Tapestry" was written on an old mahogany bed in an ancient hotel room in London, in which the enchanted beauty of this tiny chamber symbolized the walled off possibilities within.

With a polychromatic lilt, Fontaine sings in English, French, and Portuguese. But regardless of which language is used, the translations tap into a universal Esperanto. What's matters most is how welcome and inviting these songs feel. They tap into a communal experience that unites cultures - a sensibility nurtured by travel and crate-digging, and produced with the help of pioneers of these forms. La Mer is a trip to the pristine island of the mind, but one made immaculately real by the genuine love and care of its creators.

Buy/stream La Mer out now at this link

The Ojai, California-based songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist and Mapache band member, Sam Blasucci, announces sophomore album Real Life Thing out November 1 via Calico Discos/Innovative Leisure.

The occult-dancer lead single "Witching Hour" pulses with feeling through a high energy chorus built around a beautiful and bold middle section of just percussion and vocals.

On Real Life Thing, shades of Leonard Cohen, Prince, and Bjork peak out behind Sam's new songs as well as the writings of Ariana Reines, John O’Donohue, and Edgar Allen Poe.

Having spent the last 10 years tinkering with his songwriting through his extensive catalog with folk/rock group Mapache, as well as his debut solo album Off My Stars, Sam works alongside co-producer Johnny Payne for his follow up sophomore solo album Real Life Thing. Sam and Johnny take a leap from everything they have done in the past into brand new territory for this collection of songs. Sam connects new dots and bends genres with unheard style and instrumentation on songs like "Death," with words adding to the conversation of gender and sexuality. In addition to new pathways, homage is also paid to Sam’s first loves of music through the notable Motown feel of the existential soul tune "Flower," as well as the vintage pop gleam of "No Magic."

These songs are two examples of the recurring lyrical themes of life and death on this record. “Something clicked before I wrote these songs that put me in a place of wonder and confusion and bliss that I had never experienced before.” Some of the lyrics found on this record have been previously released in Sam’s debut book of poetry "Guidelines For Dying," which quickly sold out of its first print.

While remaining quite elusive to genre or category, a few of Blasucci’s deepest influences can still be spotted throughout the musical and lyrical shape of his new album. New literary and musical discoveries seem to be constant for Sam, but shades of Leonard Cohen, Prince, and Bjork peak out behind this batch of songs as well as the writings of Ariana Reines, John O’Donohue, and Edgar Allen Poe. Sam notes that the many influences around him became heavier and more vibrant after falling extremely ill for two years between 2020 and 2022. “Gaining back my ability to be active, to travel, to live - it was all very much a rebirth in so many ways. Things emerged sharper and clearer from that period of my life”. Sam is healthy and moving forward at a seemingly fast pace with this new album and the accompanying conceptual concert film of the same name.

The film - directed by Sam and produced/shot by Bryce Makela - brings these influences and songs into a literal Real Life Thing through their collaborative visions and physical representations of the album. Filmed at the same studio where the album was recorded - Carbonite Sound in Ojai, CA - the film runs like a type of musical play. The album is performed live with stage hands and different set changes to accentuate each mood throughout the record - certainly Sam’s most ambitious project to date.

Sam was born in Los Angeles in November 1994 and currently lives in Ojai, CA. Having had residence in Los Angeles, CA / Coahuila, MX / Orem, UT & New Orleans, LA - it’s safe to assume Sam will be on the move again soon and with more fresh energy to give of himself through his art. Determined to live by creation, Sam is the type of artist that is always creating something, maintaining a sort of inexhaustible hunger to make his music. Expressing himself through sound has now gone beyond joy and into being second nature and Sam’s real first language.

Read more about it on Raven Sings The Blues

Listen to "Witching Hour" and pre-order Real Life Thing