Natalie Bergman sees gospel music as “the true source of rock 'n' roll.” It's also the source of the Chicago-bred, Los Angeles–based singer’s forthcoming solo debut album, Mercy. Today, Feb. 24, marks the release of the record’s second single, “Shine Your Light On Me.” The song’s accompanying video is a nostalgic, black-and-white fever dream, sparkling with vintage Paco Rabanne sequins and largely inspired by a 1967 performance of “Reflections” by Diana Ross & The Supremes. Bergman enlisted her ex-boyfriend, Jean Lebrun (a.k.a. theOGM of hardcore hip-hop...

While acts of rebellion could be described as techno, a closer listen reveals a wide array of styles under the surface. The album was written, performed, and produced by Colombian musician Gabriela Jimeno, who spent a decade playing in a hardcore band before moving to the U.S. to study jazz drumming and synthesizer design at Berklee. Jimeno brings a raw, political punk sensibility to tracks like “el cielo no es de nadie.” The percussion-forward approach makes her upbeat songs highly danceable (“Everyone told us it’s...

She Shreds, founded by Fabi Reyna, has created a safe space for musicians—especially womxn of color—to heal.  In 2017, She Shreds Media, initially a print publication dedicated to women guitarists and bassists, started an online challenge that encourages women and non-binary musicians to commit to playing and posting one riff (a 5-minute jam session) a day for an entire month.  This January was unlike any other month of riffs, as participants met the #1RAD challenge while our social, economic, and political worlds collapsed, to put things lightly....

When Big Thief’s spring tour was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, vocalist and guitarist Adrianne Lenker decided to use her unexpected free time to take to the woods and record. The result is a duo of albums, songs and instrumentals, whose uniting principle was Lenker’s attempt to make music she describes as sounding “like the inside of an acoustic guitar.” If that means she wanted to capture the instrument’s warm tones and association with intimate, comfortable spaces, then she’s succeeded. Sparer and quieter than her...

“Mr. Know-It-All is always right/And I think the only way out of this, is somehow they lose all their power,” multimedia artist Seth Bogart muses on the title track of his second solo LP, summing up the album’s underlying theme (and what the culturally and intellectually evolved children of this hell-world have already figured out): the patriarchal systems in which we are all raised are total bullshit! Men on the Verge of Nothing contains 10 fuzzy, post-punky, poppy tracks featuring a girl gang of guests including...

Petrichor is singer/songwriter/violinist (and one-half of folk duo A Hawk and a Hacksaw) Heather Trost’s second solo album. Trost makes good use of these seven tracks, exemplifying her strong sense of journey and dynamic composition. Although written in 2019, the album is prescient of the current collective experience. Breezy, psychedelic opener “Let It In” declares, “Make the space for yourself/For others/We may not have the chance again.” Meanwhile, “Tracks to Nowhere” is dulcet heartache—a single guitar and layers of harmonies build with swinging strings and...

When Mary Wilson, founding member of The Supremes, died suddenly on Monday, February 9, 2021, we lost a true legend. Her longtime friend and publicist Jay Schwartz released a statement deeming Wilson “a trendsetter who broke down social, racial, and gender barriers.” Motown Records founder Berry Gordy remembered her as “a trailblazer [and] a diva.” In addition to her multi-decade solo career, Wilson’s name is immortalized in the legacy of The Supremes and Motown Records. Wilson co-founded The Supremes as The Primettes in 1959 along with...

On the follow-up to Ana Roxanne’s 2019 debut, the L.A.-based ambient artist expertly stitches together droning instrumentation and sparse vocals, then layers in bits of spoken word (“Untitled”), atmospheric keyboard loops (“- - -”), and sound effects (“Venus”). The seven tracks flow into one another, creating a full soundscape best experienced as a whole. With inspiration drawn from themes of the body, gender, beauty, and more, the album feels just as much like a poetic collection of verses as it does a musical effort. Let...

A special 7-inch featuring the trippy 1967 hit “Some Velvet Morning,” backed with the previously unreleased Kinks cover “Tired Of Waiting For You”—out in November for Record Store Day—is just the beginning of Light In The Attic’s year-long celebration of the legendary Nancy Sinatra. The singer, actor, activist, icon of the swinging ’60s, and self-proclaimed feminist (who remains an outspoken advocate for female musicians) boasts a body of work that spans nearly half a century. In February, LITA’s Nancy Sinatra Archival Series continues with Nancy Sinatra: Start Walkin’...

Voice is a mysterious thing. Was iconic singer/producer Genya Ravan born with that impossibly rich, heart-wrenching tone, or did she somehow inherit it along the way, picking up flecks of gold and gravel through decades of towering highs and devastating lows? One spin of her new single “I Who Have Nothing,” tells it all—and after nearly fifty years in the tumultuous music biz, there's a lot to tell. The track is included on a 7” split record featuring The Shang Hi Los, out February 19 (and available for pre-order now) on Rum...