Liverpool band The Fernweh combine the baroque psychedelic sounds of ’60s bands like the Moody Blues and the Left Banke with British folk and a modern sonic punch. Their sound is made by three musicians who paid their dues as sidemen for years and used every sonic and melodic trick they learned along the way on their impressive self-titled first album, released in 2018.
The project started as an idea years before it became a reality. Guitarist Jamie Backhouse and keyboardist Austin Murphy, where at Glastonbury in 2007 with their band, where they were joined by bassist Ned Crowther, who was playing with its own band. The trio ended up sitting atop a hill discussing their shared love of classic American bands of the ’60s, psychedelia and British folk like Fairport Convention (whose album Liege and Lief became something of a guiding light for the trio.) Somewhere along the way, one of them suggested they should start a band. The sound they came up with was classic psychedelic pop with a huge swath of folky weirdness mixed in. The Fernweh’s debut self-titled album was released by Skeleton Key in late 2018. Their new single “The Wounds Of Love” is out now via bandcamp.

Describing themselves as Craft Batch Indie Rock, Brooklyn’s Andre Salvador and the Von Kings are built around the songs of Tim Cheplick. Their debut album takes inspiration from the likes of Elliot Smith, Camper Van Beethoven and Big Star and delivers something fresh, new and yet altogether comfortable and reassuring. Born in Wisconsin but raised on the East Coast, Cheplick has largely spent his time with a singular focus on making music wherever he is. Recording and putting out music under different monikers, Cheplick adopted the current band name and self-released Rock and Roll Springtime in 2016. A follow-up, This Is Play, came in 2017, the first to include Paul Provenzano who answered a “Drummer Wanted” flier in a record store for a gig on his birthday. For their debut LP on label Last Night From Glasgow, Cheplick and Provenzano headed to Nashville to record with producer Robin Eaton (Lionlimb, the Spinto Band) at Club Roar Studios. Here they laid the foundation for a new batch of songs, recording rhythm guitar and drums which Cheplick took home to build on and craft a close approximation of what he heard in his head.