Fortunato Durutti Marinetti – Full of Fire (Single and video Premiere)

Born in Turin and based in Toronto, Fortunato Durutti Marinetti (Daniel Colussi’s new moniker after Pinc Lincolns or The Shilohs) playied in various bands for the last twenty years, and quietly self-released solo albums. Memory’s Fool, a small, complete and in-depth work on the relationship between the sounds of the past and the present, a small philosophical treatise and his second release under this name (following 2020’s Desire) was his first time working with proper label support. Drawing inspiration from the restless, explorative spirit of 1970s songwriters like Lou Reed, Robert Wyatt and Joni Mitchell, Marinetti chose to first wrote all the lyrics before assembling a hybrid pickup band of jazz, folk and rock musicians to render his songs into a form he calls “poetic jazz rock”. And indeed, Eight Waves In Search Of An Ocean, his 2023 album and its first for Quindi Records is poetic jazz rock of the highest order. Known on both sides of the Atlantic for his baroque, poetic approach to songwriting, now Fortunato Durutti Marinetti returns with Bitter Sweet, Sweet Bitter, out via Quindi Records on July 25th, his most sweeping, absurd, and emotionally acute statement to date. Calling it Poetic Jazz Rock — at once a private joke and an honest descriptor — the Toronto-via-Turin cantautore (Italian for singer-songwriter) delivers an album of maximalist grace, gilded sorrow, and lyrical intensity. Today he unveils the first single from the album, Full Of Fire.

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Whitney’s Playland – Long Rehearsal (Video Premiere)

Whitney’s Playland

After making their debut in 2023 with Sunset Sea Breeze (Meritorio / Paisley Shirt), Whitney’s Playland, the duo of Inna Showalter (Magic Fig, Blades of Joy, Modern Charms) and George Tarlson (Grandma’s Boyfriend) have fleshed out the band to include drummer Evan Showalter (Blank Square) and multi-instrumentalist Paul DeMartini and have returned with Long Rehearsal, a short and sweet three-song 7” EP set to be released on June 20th, 2025 via Dandy Boy Records (Oakland, CA) and Meritorio Records (Madrid, Spain). Their sound has evolved with the additional accompaniment, and this brand new batch of songs make for a fuller actualization of Showalter and Tarlson’s brand of Bay Area jangle pop. While these new songs recall the first album’s distinct style, they diverge from their bedroom pop introduction. Long Rehearsal sees the full band performing together for the first time on a record since expanding into a four-piece. The trio of tracks bridges the divide between jangle-pop and crunchy 90’s alt rock, plumbing the depths of tonality and mood. The whole thing is anchored by Inna Showalter’s delicately determined voice, which might help you forget about your trials and tribulations for a brief moment. The result is a more polished production but still keeps in touch with the band’s lo-fi roots. All three tracks were recorded at the band members’ San Francisco, El Cerrito, and Santa Rosa home studios.

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(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 200: Exploding Flowers

Exploding Flowers (© Dean Yoshihara)

Exploding Flowers are a Los Angeles quartet who have crafted their own universe of guitar-based pop, with its flourishes of piano, organ, synthesizers, vibraphone and glockenspiel on top of a foundational rhythm section. This music continues a lineage of like-minded melody chasers, from both past and present. Led by Sharif Dumani who has worked with a variety of artists which include Alice Bag, Cody Chesnutt, Sex Stains, the Moon Upstairs, Classics Of Love, Nick Garrie, Jowe Head, Nikki Sudden, Silver Apples and many more, the quartet is comprised of members Josh Mancell (the Moon Upstairs, Cell\Borg), Happy Tsugawa-Banta (Lassie Foundation, Ray Barbee), and Mark Sogomian (the Moon Upstairs). With two previous albums and an ep released, they have been compared to everything from Big Star to the Soft Boys, and L.A.’s Paisley Underground to New Zealand’s 1980s-era Flying Nun Records guitar pop roster (such as the Chills, the Bats, etc.). Exploding Flowers explore some similar territory but expand to occupy their own space in that landscape. Watermelon/Peacock is Exploding Flowers third release packed with analog production, poetic lyricism, and the same strong melodies and hooks we’ve now come to expect from a band that prioritizes its songwriting with smart left turns. Both economic and expansive, they utilize all measures to craft something both beautiful, grand, and driving. Joined on this release by indie veterans Rachel Love of seminal pop legends Dolly Mixture, and Jowe Head of D.I.Y. legends Swell Maps and post-punk/mod/psychedelia legends Television Personalities, this is a release that has something for everyone to enjoy. The album artwork is by artist and musician Jill Emery (Hole, Mazzy Star).

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Logan Farmer – Butchers (single)

If you have been following TRISTE©, we’re sure you know Logan Farmer quite well (and you love him very much). He is a singer-songwriter and producer based in Fort Collins, Colorado. Combining elements of traditional folk, psychedelic, and ambient music, Farmer has released five full length albums since 2013, under the moniker Monarch Mtn., slowly earning him a devoted cult following. Still No Mother, out in 2020 on Western Vinyl, was the first record under his own name: eight magnificent songs, expression of his personal and evolved folk and the result of a deep sound research and refined arrangements. Farmer’s vision of folk is decidedly peculiar and modern. His second album, A Mold For The Bell was out in 2022, again on Western Vinyl with eight songs that beautifully lean on the vulnerability and turmoil of the human soul, the dignified failure, the kindness and generosity that sometimes almost goes as far as self-harm. Today Logan Farmer announced the release of his new EP, Butchers, where the songwriter’s understated folk is embellished with elements of dreamy Americana and trip hop textures, sharing its haunting and magnificent title track. The EP will be out, via Western Vinyl on May 23rd.

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(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 199: Songs of Green Pheasant

Songs of Green Pheasant

Duncan Sumpner, artist and teacher from Oughtibridge in Sheffield is Songs of Green Pheasant since 2005, when his self-titled debut album was released on FatCat. And since then, he has carved out a little space in the most hidden part of our hearts, with his fragile and ambitious songs that search for poetry in the noise and chaos of life. In the following couple of years, Songs Of Green Pheasant had two more records on FatCat: Aerial Days (2006) and Gyllyng Street (2007). Then, after a five year’s hiatus, Sumpner and his project returned with Soft Wounds, via Rusted Rail, “micro-Independent record label” based in Galway, Ireland. After self releasing two mini albums in 2015, he took another five year’s hiatus, until he released When The Weather Clears, out again via Rusted Rail on December 2020 (and reprinted a couple of times since). We had to wait four more years to have a new double A-sided digital single Have Patience/Street of Mirrors, two epic songs that paved the way for the 2025 release of the album Sings The Passing, another step forward in the musical evolution of Songs of Green Pheasant. The album sleeve features a sumptuous surrealist artwork by Sumpner himself.

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