INDEPENDENT SONG RELEASE: Lauren Lakis, “Right Now”

LA’s Lauren Lakis is a garage rock songstress who believes in experiencing everything: writing poetry with homeless drug addicts, teaching English in Prague and Tokyo, working as a stripper and yoga teacher in Baltimore, mentoring autistic kids…whatever, just try it. Drink it in. It’s all fuel for inspiration.

‘Right Now’ is a single from her newest album release entitled Sad Girl Breakfast. The song concerns the heaviness of existence. While it might be great to dare new things, it’s not always easy feeling them so deeply. Lakis elaborates: “Malaise is the word that probably best describes that feeling. But it’s also suggesting that it isn’t a solitary experience, and that we can find comfort in each other.”

The song churns forward with an industrial resonance and goth-rock spirit. “Space and time / I don’t want it,”Lakis sings, dreamy and nearly breathless. A fuzzed-out electric guitar gains volume over a slow, muffled electra-beat. “The future and the past are always near…Bang your head on my chest, my dear…right now, now / Right now…” Her voice burns with urgency, even when fluttering into a higher register.

The intensity of the music builds, transgressive and provocative, reaching its climax as Lakis begins humming. Just when it seems the song might overwhelm itself, it ends with a soft roar, like that of a large piston engine cooling itself after being run too hot. The song is sexy as hell is what I’m saying. Unsurprisingly, Lakis wrote the tune during a seance in a creepy, abandoned dungeon while touring Washington state because of course she did.

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INDEPENDENT SONG RELEASE: Elise Hayes, “Giving Up”

“You never wanted me to get that tattoo,” sings Nashville recording artist Elise Hayes . “I’m going to get that tattoo.” This the start to her new single “Giving Up,” (co-written with Johnny Mo ) which is about not giving up, an ode to post-relationship defiance. There is freedom in being your own person again, even if you were the one dumped. The music itself is a tapestry of sorts: sonic styles patchworked together into a compact yet pleasing mix. Pounding drums and sitar give way to softer guitar, then back to drums, which sometimes beat rapidly as a door knock. A wake up call. The song often stops and starts as if her thoughts are coming to her in jagged fits as she’s singing them. “You never wanted me to have that haircut / Well, now I do…” It’s a hard style to pull off but Hayes does it effortlessly. She is a strong singer/songwriter, doubtlessly helped in her confidence from being featured in TV shows, such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” MTV ’s “Siesta Key,” and other

INDEPENDENT ALBUM RELEASE: Sarah Schonert, “Songs About Sounds”

I know a few too many people who have set aside their hopes for a career in art and/or music because their spouse came along, then the kids. Now there’s laundry to do and bills to pay. Making art seems trivial now. Besides, after looking into the eyes of your child, how could you ever hope to create anything more amazing than that anyway? What other point is there? All you have to say to the world is in this little human being you helped invite here. Bullshit obviously. There are plenty of projects which transcend chores and species duplication. Sarah Schonert is a musician and mother from Peoria. She writes, records, and produces her own music from her home studio. This is how her newest release, Songs about Sounds , became her fourth official LP and TENTH (!) album. Sarah is also an engineer, designer, and painter, so shut up about how busy you are to do that stuff anymore. Her music could be described as Kate Bush or Tori Amos reinterpreted by Jean-Michel Jarre. Sarah m

INDEPENDENT ALBUM RELEASE: Robertas Semeniukas, "Backstage Stories"

Robertas Semeniukas’ new album Backstage Stories is a 20-track tour de force of grandiose, crunching guitars occasionally accented by his Lithuanian vocals, delivered rapid-fire on the opening track, “Kai nieko nebelieka,” as if he’s rapping. During certain points he snarls his lyrics with such emotion that not being able to understand him is actually a little frustrating. You have no idea what he’s singing, but he certainly seems to mean it. Google Translate helps with the titles at least. The second track is a pleasing, softer standout number that includes (as many do) a duet with a female singer. It’s entitled “Nesustok,” which means “Don’t Stop.” “Kai Tu Sugrisi I Namus,” another melody-heavy duet, is translated into “When I Return You Home.” The songs titled in English are predictably instrumentals. The best of these is “Flying High (S.V.J.S.),” a showcase for Semeniukas’ nimble fret-hammering. (To be exact, only 8 of the songs have vocals.) An album titled Backsta

Tangleheads: Independent Music Reviews from New York

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