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: Ethos, “V: Parents”

Ethos is the stage name for Alex Hlavna, a 19-year veteran of the Cleveland, Ohio music scene where he played guitar , bass, and drums on numerous recordings. He has now released his own song entitled “V: Parents” from his new album Ten Commandments. The V is the Roman numeral for 5, as in the 5th Commandment: “Honor thy father and thy mother.” Each track on the album is titled this way, named after a commandment. Is this some type of “religious rap” or is Ethos being metaphoric? The actual definition of “ethos” is “the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations.” Judging from such a moniker and from statements he’s made in interviews, it seems his goal is more about making observations, rather than instructing us that “thou shalt not whatever.” It’s a more provocative approach. The song is a funk-bassline over an electronic beat and soft synths. Meanwhile Ethos ’ voice is anything but soft as he raps about honoring your

INDEPENDENT SONG RELEASE: Micheal Bruner, "Midst of a Mistake"

By Michael Bruner Getting tendinitis was surely a setback, but it also proved to be a positive constraint, an evolution in my approach to music. Instead of contorting my hand into a tense, fleshy spider, I did what felt best: Forcing my head and body to meet halfway. I kept writing. I finished the song “Midst of a Mistake,” inspired by a thieving taxi driver in China. I wanted to start producing this song, but I knew the audio production and editing would prove too strenuous to pull off single-handedly. Just a few weeks after returning from China, I received a message from Rodrigo Cotelo. I’d met him at the first installment of a house show I performed at (shortly after the onset of my tendinitis). He accompanied a handful of talented Jacob’s students who had backed me up on a set of my original songs. I knew Rod and I would click with each other from the moment I found him sitting at a table, pouring a gourd of yerba maté. Rod’s lively spirit, carefree attitude, and co

INDEPENDENT SONG RELEASE: MemoCrasher, “Burn”

One gander at their social media presence and it’s not hard to see what aesthetic the rock band MemoCrasher is aiming for. They’re an evening at the Satanic circus where mostly nude, Harlequin-style dominatrix chicks grin maniacally while juggling fire. The music video for their single “Burn” (below) starts with a top-hated, sinister ringleader informing us that we’re being presented with “a world of sex and violence where war rages as humanity peers over the precipice of doom where all blood is shed and no flowers bloom…” Love it already. While there’s always a place in the music world for the Justin Beibers and Taylor Swifts, we absolutely need bands like this to keep the evil in rock. (Part of being a well-adjusted person is accepting your dark side, no?) Less than a minute into the video, the shock value is intense. Sitting at each five points of a burning pentagram are five evil figures from history. There’s Hitler with a burned face because, you know, he was burned

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