Alt-rock outfit Sword Tongue receives Grammy nomination for 'Bonfire In The Tempest' album
Oakland-based alternative rock / darkwave trio Sword Tongue has received a Grammy nomination for their explosive 'Bonfire In The Tempest' EP, marking a significant milestone for the trio, placing them in a competitive field alongside some of the biggest names in music today. Such recognition is also a powerful testament to their unique sound and resonance with their growing fanbase.
Their fourth EP to date, 'Bonfire In The Tempest' was birthed in an age of cultural upheaval. Bursting with raw emotion, this release is tempered by sophisticated production, launching the band into uncharted territory.
This EP is a love letter to the music we adored in the 90s. Long delays, lush chorus sounds, deep flanges and modulations – a guitar tone chaser’s dream, married with deep distorted growling bass lines, hard driven drums and pulsing, electronic dance beats provide the texture over which soaring female vocals triumph. At times a whisper, and other times a roar, each song crafted in the crucible of these modern, unprecedented times.
In these five loaded tracks, vocalist Jennifer Wilde delivers alluring vocal lines that oscillate between a croon and a roar, seduction and rage. Gaetano Maleki's signature shimmering guitar tones and bass lines mesmerize and ensnare, while Dan Milligan's intricate drum lines drive the message and become the heartbeat of this sonic tour de force reminiscent of the 90s.
Capturing the essence of 90s alternative music, reimagined for a new era, Sword Tongue weaves together rock, industrial, shoegaze, post-punk and trip hop, giving voice to anguish, anger, transformation and triumph. Pulling from an array of musical styles, from electronic music to space rock, this EP is showcased by the singles 'We Are The Resistance' and 'Diamonds To Rust'.
“Originally, this album was meant to be more of a danceable opus with a trip hop flavor. However, after the U.S. Presidential election, we realized that our album had to carry a more specific message on the current pollical climate, on aging, and on transitions. We wanted to give voice to the frustration, the anguish, the strength, and the hope in all of us,” says Jennifer Wilde.
Debuting in 2020 during the pandemic, Sword Tongue creates dark music for dark times, casting a shadow of hope in the twilight. Formed by husband-and-wife duo Gaetano Maleki and Jennifer Wilde, the project is their love language and the culmination of their life’s work as musicians. Wilde, a classically trained vocalist who has performed with the Oakland Symphony Chorus, has been a guest vocalist and lyricist for seminal shoegaze band Love Spirals Downwards. Maleki brings an intensity from his background in heavy music, infusing his shimmering guitar soundscapes with sonic weight.
The pair were then joined by renowned producer and drummer Dan Milligan, whose driving contribution has infused the music with more depth, drive and dimension. The brainchild of The Joy Thieves, he has quite the history co-creating, producing and remixing such artists as Chris Connelly, PIG and Consolidated, and members of such bands as Ministry, Stabbing Westward, The Rollins Band, Killing Joke, David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails, among others.
The 'Bonfire In The Tempest' EP is out now as a first-print red variant cassette, including a special album poem inside, and also digitally everywhere, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp.
CREDITS
Lyrics by Jennifer Ryan Wilde
Music written & arranged by Sword Tongue (Wilde / Milligan / Maleki)
Jennifer Ryan Wilde - vocals
Dan Milligan - drums & percussion
Gaetano Maleki - guitar & bass
Produced by Dan Milligan
Publicity by Shameless Promotion PR
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SPIRITBOX For Grammys "Best Metal Performance" & "Best Rock Song"
Sounds Like Heavy Music’s Future - Loudwire
"Jaded" has all the hallmarks of the Canuck unit's icy alt-metal sound. Djent riffage that rumbles like a chunk of glacier breaking off and crashing into the choppy sea. Menthol-coated clean singing from vocalist Courtney LaPlante, who then quickly turns around to breathe fire when the heavy parts come in - Revolver
("Jaded")Showcases the band’s performative prowess and their fresh, stylized take on modern heavy music. - Knotfest.com
The kind of total reset of the rulebook we saw in Slipknot's debut, Pantera's Cowboys From Hell or (whisper it) Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory. One thing is certain. The metal scene may never be the same after this. - Metal Inection
"an organic modern metal sound, one that can speaks to corners of both heavy and popular music genres" - Forbes
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Miranda Lambert Earns Four GRAMMY Nominations, Bringing Career Total to 27
Reigning ACM Entertainer of the Year Also Nominated for Best Country Song, Best Country Solo Performance & Best Country Duo/Group Performance
Three-time GRAMMY winner Miranda Lambert added to her impressive tally of 23 previous nominations with four new nods, earning a nomination in each of the Country categories for the 2023 ceremony: Best Country Album, Best Country Song, Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Duo/Group Performance.
“I’ve always viewed a GRAMMY Award as one of the highest honors you can achieve as an artist,” notes Lambert. “I think back to creating these songs with some of my closest friends, not knowing where those writing sessions would lead, and it blows me away to see where they’ve taken us. These nominations are an absolute honor and I’m so proud to be representing the Country music community with this music that means so much to me.”
Best Country Album nominee Palomino arrived in April as the largest female Country album debut of 2022, produced by Lambert alongside Luke Dick and Jon Randall. Already named among the best albums of the year by TIME, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Stereogum and more, it marks the latest installment in a storied career that has spanned seven previous No. 1 solo albums, 10 No. 1 singles, more than 70 prestigious awards and countless sales certifications, earning the reigning ACM Entertainer of the Year praise from NPRas “the most riveting country star of her generation.”
With Pitchfork declaring that she “manages the hat-trick of both timelessness and timely activism” by challenging conventional gender notions in her Best Country Song nominated “If I Was A Cowboy” (awarded to the songwriters: Lambert and Jesse Frasure), the Texas native continues to expand the tent of the Country genre via her music.
“In His Arms,” nominated for Best Country Solo Performance, was originally featured on 2021’s GRAMMY-nominated The Marfa Tapes, a raw and intimate recording with collaborators Jack Ingram and Jon Randall. It was reimagined on Palomino, with Paste celebrating the reimagined song “now wrapped in gauzy guitars and echo” and Variety declaring that her “lovelorn vocal floats alongside gossamer brushstrokes of pedal steel and organ, producing a perfect little slice of nocturnal melancholy, all the more effective for resisting the urge to reach for the rafters.”
Lambert co-wrote Best Country Duo/Group Performance nominee “Outrunnin’ Your Memory” with Luke Combs (whom she sings with on the duet) and Dan Isbell, with the Tennessean declaring, “with a restless, road-worn chorus led by two of Country music’s favorite voices, the song leaves a can’t-miss mark.”
Also nominated for Favorite Female Country Artist at this Sunday’s American Music Awards, the top streaming female Country artist of 2022 was also named to the 2022 TIME100 list honoring the world’s most influential people, and her headlining Velvet Rodeo Las Vegas residency is underway now at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino’s Zappos Theater.
For more information, visit MirandaLambert.com and follow on social media @MirandaLambert.
Ashley McBryde Earns Two GRAMMY Nominations Including Third Nod for Best Country Album
ASHLEY McBRYDE EARNS TWO NOMINATIONS FROM
THE RECORDING ACADEMY
Nods for Best Country Album and Best Country Duo/Group Performance
Mark Her Fifth and Sixth GRAMMY Nominations
With Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville, Arkansas Native Receives
Third Consecutive Nomination for Best Country Album
Grand Ole Opry Induction Set for December 10
“Artists laboring in isolation devising complex ways to present precise little songs of innocence and experience...Welcome to Lindeville.” – NPR
Set to become the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry next month and praised by the Los Angeles Times as “one of Nashville’s most emotionally incisive songwriters with a voice that can channel pain as vividly as defiance,” Ashley McBryde continues adding triumphs to her milestone year as she earns her fifth and sixth GRAMMY nominations with Best Country Duo/Group Performance for her chart-topping duet “Never Wanted To Be That Girl” with Carly Pearce and her third nomination for Best Country Album for her critically acclaimed project Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville, which marked her third major label studio release via Warner Music Nashville.
“I’m so proud to be able to share these nominations with so many friends and collaborators – for a duet we wrote and took to No. 1 with Carly and the entire cast of Lindeville, where we gave ourselves the opportunity to change the approach and make decisions based solely on serving the songs,” shares McBryde. “I’ve always said that recognition from the Recording Academy and joining the Grand Ole Opry are the two best things that could ever happen to you as an artist, so here I stand just in awe of this moment. It’s such an honor to be right here right now. And especially in such good company.”
Cited by NPR as “a mischievous, and mightily pleasing, departure from the prescribed progression of a mainstream country career,” Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville was produced by John Osborne and features performances from Brothers Osborne, Brandy Clark, Aaron Raitiere, Pillbox Patti, Caylee Hammack and Benjy Davis, as AP observes, “McBryde and crew created detail-rich storylines with a John Prine level of empathy and compassion.”
“The very existence of an album like Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville is enough to restore your faith in Nashville, however far afield it might have wandered,” Variety boasts, making it “Country music’s most ambitious and oddball album in recent memory,” emphasizes Esquire.
Celebrated by Rolling Stone as “one of Nashville’s most exciting new exports, an ace songwriter who is also an ace singer and performer,” McBryde “has made abundantly clear over the course of her short but fruitful career, she is principally interested in peeling back the layers and speaking the truth,” asserts Vulture.
Summed up by Stereogum, “There’s a whole lot of beautiful writerly vision at work on Lindeville, but it wouldn’t matter if the songs weren’t great. Guess what? The songs are great… A lot of people put a lot of work into this record, and they made something that resonates on a deep, emotional level. Give it up for them.”
“When it comes out,” McBryde shared with Esquire, “I hope everybody laughs a little bit and I hope everybody says ‘What the f*ck?’ a little bit. Sometimes you look and realize, this town is such a mess, everybody here is a disaster. And in the same breath, in that same three minutes, everybody’s okay. And I love those times. Sometimes I wish I could make that stand still a little bit longer—we’re all a disaster, and it’s beautiful. And that’s true whether it’s a small town or a big city.”
Last week, McBryde was joined by Clark, Hammack, Patti and Osborne on the CMA stage for a rousing rendition of “When Will I Be Loved” after winning Musical Event of the Year for her No. 1 duet with Pearce “Never Wanted To Be That Girl.” Watch the “When Will I Be Loved” performance below.
In 2023, McBryde invites you to the revered Ryman Auditorium to experience Ashley McBryde Presents: LindevilleLive, featuring the cast of collaborators and special guests performing songs from her critically acclaimed album, February 15 and 16. Tickets are available at AshleyMcBryde.com.
Paying homage to the radio programs of yesteryear, McBryde confirms Stereogum’s observation of the ringleader: “Here’s someone who loves and respects the age-old storytelling traditions of country music and who wants to find strange new ways to honor those traditions.”
About Ashley McBryde
CMA and ACM award winner Ashley McBryde cut her teeth playing country songs in rural biker bars – and it shows. Her 2018 major label debut Girl Going Nowhere (Warner Music Nashville) charmed the New York Times, NPR, Rolling Stone, Paste, The Washington Post and more, all en route to landing a GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Album. McBryde closed out 2019 with ACM New Female Artist, CMT Breakout Artist of the Year, a New Artist of the Year win at the 53rd Annual CMA Awards and two nominations for the 2020 GRAMMYs for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance for “Girl Goin’ Nowhere.” Her follow-up Never Will was tagged by Rolling Stone as one of the most anticipated of the year alongside NPR, who also ranked her Top 10 RIAA Platinum-Certified single “One Night Standards” as one of the best songs of 2019. Produced once again by Jay Joyce, Never Will reveals the witty, confessional, detail-driven songwriting addressing a wide spectrum of blue-collar Southern women’s experience introduced on Girl Going Nowhere is still here, but perhaps even sharper. The album earned McBryde a 2021 GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Album, making Never Will the only album nominated for Country Album of the Year by the ACMs, CMAs and the Recording Academy in the same award season. Her critically acclaimed duet with Carly Pearce, “Never Wanted To Be That Girl,” went all the way to No. 1 and earned McBryde and Pearce both the ACM and CMA award for Musical Event of the Year. The Arkansas-native invites listeners to Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville, a collaborative new project featuring Brothers Osborne, Brandy Clark, Pillbox Patti, Caylee Hammack, Aaron Raitiere and more. Praised by The New York Times as “a fluorescent carnival of pedal steel and thumping guitar that proves McBryde can be a skilled curator, as well as a performer,” Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville is available now. Tickets for the two-night special event Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville Live at Ryman Auditorium will go on sale Friday, Oct. 14. For more information, visit AshleyMcBryde.com or follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @AshleyMcBryde and TikTok @AshleyMcBrydeMusic.
MANDOKI SOULMATES CELEBRATE MUSIC + MEMBERS RECEIVE GRAMMY NOMINATIONS THIS THANKSGIVING
Thanksgiving 2021 was certainly a time of celebration for Mandoki Soulmates. Case in point, two of the band members received Grammy nominations - Cory Henry for Album Of The Year and Best Progressive R&B Album and Randy Brecker for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.
In addition to the band recently releasing a video for the song “The Torch” (off their critically acclaimed album, ‘Utopia For Realists: Hungarian Pictures,’ which can be viewed/heard here: https://mandokisoulmates.lnk.to/TheTorch-2021Version), Mandoki Soulmates leader Leslie Mandoki celebrated Thanksgiving this year in New York.
Leslie: “For the traditional Soulmates-Thanksgiving, this time my dear Soulmate, Al di Meola, one of the founding members of the MANDOKI SOULMATES about 30 years ago, invited us to his home in New York, and as always, we played each other’s latest music together. Beside one of the best turkey dinners, we’re celebrating the love of life, music, and three decades of friendship, mutual music and values with Soulmates. Thanksgiving is the right occasion to give thanks for the privileged life of a musician that we can live thanks to the audience that inspires our creativity. It was truly another Soulmates ‘family reunion’ again.”
“We first celebrated with our soulmates at Al's house about 30 years ago, and had another wonderful Soulmates gathering here 15 years ago with my three children. Bringing wonderful changes, Stephanie then gave the house a whole new soul, and it was so beautifully decorated for Thanksgiving. The love, music, and more than 30 years of friendship were in the air and could literally be felt!”
“Yesterday was also time to congratulate our soulmates Cory and Randy on their very well-deserved recent Grammy nominations. When we celebrate family gatherings together with our children today or even at the end of the year, we should realize that they are the future. I am a father of three children, and we should ask ourselves in what condition we hand over our world to the children, the Young Rebels? We can only overcome the divisions in our society together with the Old Rebels and the Young Rebels. So let's wish them strength, courage and the hunger to strive for the right solutions, and let's help them while there's still time to turn the wind and pass the torch.”
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