Tag: indie pop

In October of 2013, 17-year old Sarah Isabella DiMuzio walked into Fluff and Gravy Studios, armed with an acoustic guitar, a banjolele, and a wistful voice that was impossible to ignore. She was there to record tracks for her first independent EP called Small Infinity, released under her stage moniker, Whim. John Shepski and Juniana Lanning of Fluff and Gravy Records were there, and it’s a day they won’t soon forget. they immediately realized that they were witnessing an extraordinary artist. The songwriting was mature beyond her years, the hooks were unshakeable, and Sarah’s voice was singular. She was soon writing music for film and TV, moving to Galway, and then to New York.

Fastforward to 2018, and Sarah had moved back to Portland. When she approached Fluff and Gravy Studios about recording another record, John and Juniana jumped at the chance, and eventually became her backing band for the recording. We are proud to say that on April 24, 2020, Fluff and Gravy Records will be releasing Whim’s Abuzz in the Abyss.  It’s an album of impossibly catchy indie-pop gems, shoulder bopping singalongs, and tender ballads.

Today marks the release of the first single. “Somebody Else’s Tongue” is a raw pop-rock track about a devastating moment of realization, set to a driving beat, crunchy guitars, and jangly percussion. It will draw you in from the opening guitar riff, and by the time it gets to the chorus you’ll be singing along before you even realize what it is you’re singing…

“Feels like I’ve swallowed a tongue, But not mine, Somebody else’s tongue, Maybe the wrong one”

 

Abuzz in the Abyss is available for pre-order at Fluff and Gravy Records and Bandcamp in Limited Edition Clear or Marble Yellow vinyl, Black vinyl, and digitally. You can also check it out at your favorite online streaming site.

 

 

Check out the new single “Make A Life“, from Nick Jaina. It’s the lead track from the digital album, Brutal Lives, which will be released on September 16.

Brutal Lives (Fluff and Gravy Records, Sept 2016) is easily Nick Jaina’s most daring album to date. And that is saying a lot when you consider that Nick has made a career out of re-inventing himself. The 14-track album primarily features work that he originally composed for a contemporary dance piece in the summer of 2014. Though the songs were not used, Nick thought the recordings had some value in them, so he refashioned them, adding vocals, choruses and ambient sounds to give them new life.

Stylistically, the album jumps from the indie-pop standout “Make A Life”, to the haunting “Co-Creators”, to the jarring “Saw You On The Train Last Night”. And I swear, “Fell Too Much In Love” would be right at home in a John Hughes film.  Due to the unusual provenance of the recordings, almost every instrument was played and recorded by Nick himself. He gave the collection of songs the title that he proposed for the original dance piece, which was also rejected: Vies Brutales, or Brutal Lives.

This is Nick’s second release on Fluff & Gravy Records, a follow-up to 2013’s Primary Perception. It will be available digitally on September 16, and coupled with a limited-edition printing of an essay that Nick wrote for people who are new to dance, How To Enjoy Dance. 150 copies of the essay will be released in October.

The debut album from Catherine Feeny and Chris Johnedis is finally here!  Early reviews and premiers from sites including Magnet Magazine, The Bluegrass Situation, American Standard Time, Glide Magazine and The Examiner have already begun to build a wave of excitement. It’s “a strange and powerful sound” (American Standard Time), “infectiously listenable, and like nothing you’ve heard before” (Glide Magazine).

Pick up your lp/cd/digital copy right here

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7HoFKBmmms[/youtube]

Acclaimed songwriter Catherine Feeny met jazz drummer Chris Johnedis after recording her rebellious fourth solo album. She had just come back from the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, and he was returning from 2 years of working and studying in Thailand. The two hit it off, and Johnedis helped translate the varied rhythms of “America” — which ran the gamut between vintage drum machine sounds and captured field recordings — into a live show setting.

Two years later, working with producers Sebastian Rogers (Floetry) and Sheldon Gomberg (Ben Harper, Ricki Lee Jones), in a live four-day session in Silverlake, CA the two create a universe of sound that is sparse and propulsive, yet playful, for their eponymous debut as a duo. Producers Rogers and Gomberg and mixing engineer Tony Lash (Elliot Smith, Feist) leverage Feeny’s quietly arresting vocals and classic pop songwriting against Johnedis’s R&B inflected polyryhthms, masterfully maximizing their tools — ukulele, voice, guitar and drums.

Catherine Feeny remains best known for 2005′s “Hurricane Glass. The song “Mr. Blue” was picked up by KCRW in LA, and later featured in “Running with Scissors,” “The O.C.,” and “Miss Conception.”  The attention won by “Hurricane Glass” resulted in the album being picked up by EMI Records.

Audiences across the US and Europe have been mesmerized by the spell Feeny and Johnedis cast on stage. Feeny has played internationally as a headline act and in support of: Wilco, Belle and Sebastian, Suzanne Vega, John Prine, The Indigo Girls, Kelly Jones (Stereophonics) and Martha Wainwright.

Catherine Feeny and Christopher Johnedis’ eponymous full-length cd/lp will be released on Fluff and Gravy Records on 4/21/15, preceded by a 4 song digital ep, featuring the  single “Harm” on 2/17/15.

Find Catherine Feeny and Chris Johnedis here http://www.catherinefeenyandchrisjohnedis.com/

Pre-order the ep and full-length here http://www.fluffandgravy.com/store

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhJ15yHtAO4[/youtube]