
Hearsing – Montauk
Genre: Indie Folk, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Conspiracy theories are really a beautiful thing. You just have to always remember not to take them seriously in order to appreciate their beauty. The conspiracy theorists are artists who have never found their art form. They are people who like to tell stories but never find something worthy of their imagination in the real world, so they make up some for themselves.
Of course, conspiracy theories are found in rock n’ roll lore and perhaps even began there. Ever since The Beatles flawlessly replaced Paul McCartney with a man who not only resembled him but continues to tour into his 80s, we’ve felt the need to dig up more. That’s how we found out that Elvis Presley moved to Cuba, Jim Morrisson is a bartender in Paris, or that “Hotel California” and “Stairway to Heaven” are meant to lure young listeners into Satanic cults.
Hearsing have fun with the fact that there’s nobody hanging over their shoulder insisting that they tell the truth. Their collection of lies, fibs and imaginary occurrences all find their way on the sunny indie-rock of “Montauk.” But there must be something true to all of this. The vocal lines, after all, follow each other like great poetry recited from memory. Never bet on conspiracies being entirely untrue or on Hearsing to make up stories completely!
Ontario Red – Keeping Guard
Similar artists: Ashley Davis, Alycia Lang, Esmé Patterson
Genre: Folk, Americana
At the end of the day, you’ll probably have to forgive the ones that really did you wrong. If you love them. Even if you just slightly liked them. At the very end, it will become apparent just how faulty we are as meat machines and how easily we get distracted. And, once you stop and think about that, there’s little that is more heartbreaking.
Pop songs, strangely, don’t mine this potential for drama. No, the majority of them are either about people getting it spectacularly right or incredibly wrong when it comes to matters of the heart. It makes love sound kind of stupid and unglamorous and, of course, transforms it into something that lacks nobility. Who’d wanna waste time on that?
Ontario Red’s “Keeping Guard” is a desperate love song about forgiving the other just as a martyr might extend his arms above the savages joining in to tear him apart. Concept aside, the singing is pristine, filled with emotion and, most strikingly, wisdom. It all goes by really fast, and maybe there ain’t much time for grudges. It’s a bit of living and a lot of love keeping the singer going, and we can only hope we’ll manage to think in the same way one day.