Sara Forslund – The Let Go

Era il 2018 quando sulle pagine di Triste scrivevo del secondo, emozionante lavoro di una talentuosa cantautrice svedese, spinta verso la musica dall’estro di Gareth Dickson e innamorata dell’incanto senza tempo di Nick Drake. Un ascolto ammaliante che mi segnalò Sara Forslund quale autrice da seguire con attenzione. Eppure da lì in poi fu silenzio, in questi sette anni si sono perse le sue tracce. Un’assenza che si scopre adesso non essere figlia di una mancanza di ispirazione, ma di anni difficili segnati dalla scomparsa prematura di due fratelli.

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The Cords – Fabulist (single)

The Cords are a new indiepop duo from Scotland, comprising sisters Eva and Grace Tedeschi. They started playing drums when they were little kids. They found that they liked 80s and 90s indie music more than their peers did, and so formed a band, just the two of them, with Grace on drums and Eva on guitar – and the songs started to flow. With only a cassette and a flexi single (Bo’s New Haircut / Rather Not Stay) released so far (both of which sold out in a matter of hours), Eva and Grace honed their skills by playing a whole series of gigs with some of the biggest names in Scottish pop.  Their first show was with The Vaselines, and since then they have played with Camera Obscura, Belle and Sebastian, BMX Bandits and others, while also sharing stages with the new generation of indiepop stars: the Umbrellas, Chime School, Lightheaded. The Cords were invited to record a session for Riley and Coe on 6 Music on the back of their early releases, and have now recorded their eagerly-awaited debut album, which will be co-released by Skep Wax (in the UK and Europe) and Slumberland Records (in America).  Fabulist is out today and it’s the first single taken from the debut album.
Enjoy the sound of Glasgow in the summer!

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(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 211: Bunnygrunt

Bunnygrunt

St Louis e’er-do-wells Bunnygrunt sprung fully formed into the Great Indie Pop Underground of the early 1990’s, when gas was cheap, 7” singles grew on trees, and every zine had a reader. After a hugely successful turn at 1994’s YoYo-A-GoGo festival and a steady stream of 45’s, the band hit the studio in early 1995 to record their full length debut Action Pants for LA scene makers No Life Records. Unfortunately, the band lineup shifted and the track list contracted between recording and release, leaving a few songs on the cutting room floor.
Now is the time to re-introduce the world to the Action Pants it needs now more than ever. Alongside the breezy perfection of Just Like Suppertime, the clattering feedback frenzy of GI2K, the jangle motorik of Open Up And Say Oblina, and the other hits you know and love, faithful Bungalos can now feast their ears on the shambling glory of Eggy Greggy, the transmission from another planet of Maude (in two parts!), and originally planned pre-release single Inanimate Objects. Meet Action Pants: The Thirtieth Anniversary Director’s Cut! A split release between Georgia’s Happy Happy Birthday To Me & St Louis’s Silly Moo, it’s just like the old one, only, like, better…
Action Pants 30th Anniversary Director’s Cut LP will be out on August 8th via HHBTM / Silly Moo Records. Early deluxe version orders come with a Bunnygrunt board game. 

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(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 210: The Simple Present (+ song premiere)

The Simple Present (©Steffen Schmid)

Indiepop fans of the WORLD, unite!
Today we have the honor and opportunity to introduce you to a wonderful German duo: The Simple Present. They are an indie pop band from Stuttgart, in southwestern Germany, composed of Cathrin and Sabine. They met at university, where they were both studying to become English teachers. Their love for pop, and indie pop in particular, is evident in the two songs that make up their first single, available for a long time only as a limited physical 7″ lathe cut (KUS-LC 01) exclusively available at Cologne Popfest 2025.
One of the tracks included on the 7″, the first version of Summer Triangle, was released on all streaming platforms on June 22, 2025, and now, exclusively on TRISTE©, you can also listen to the second track, I’ll Take That with Me, which will soon also be available on the band’s Bandcamp page.
Their debut mini-album, which is currently being recorded, will be released on Germany’s top indiepop label, Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten, in late 2025 or early 2026.

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(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 209: Kristin Hersh/Throwing Muses

Kristin Hersh

Kristin Hersh is a pivotal character in American indie music scene and the undisputed leader of Throwing Muses: her stance against the exploitation of female imagery and her music, which never indulges in the pursuit of easy hooks, and the angry roar with which she declaims difficult and scathing lyrics made her one of the most influential artists in the past forty years. With twelve solo records (from Hips And Makers in 1993 to Clear Pond Road in 2024) and twelve Throwing Muses records (the latest, Moonlight Concessions, out earlier this year via Fire Records), Hersh could be considered a real rockstar. Yet, she is a wonderful person and a truly music lover: upon meeting her, what strikes first is her open smile and refreshing, sincere laugh. She’s a genuine artist, eager to convey her overwhelming love for music to everyone she meets. Her eyes light up with enthusiasm and sparkle whenever she’s asked to talk about her songs, which she considers, more than works of her own intellect, to be true living organisms. Children to be cuddled, raised, and released into the world. That’s why she was so happy to give us a magnificent TRISTE© Mixtape that now we can share with you all. Enjoy!

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