(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 153: forceghost

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Forceghost

Eric Kinlaw (Vocals/Guitar/Bass/Sound Design) and Marcus Barfield (Production/Sound Design) are forceghost, an electronic psych duo based out of Augusta, GA. Both members sport a long list of previous bands and projects, but are elated to be bringing forceghost into its fullest realization. After their initial formation in 2019, time and circumstance have led to the reshaping of the band into its current form. forceghost is the product of impromptu jam sessions, free form experimentation, and friendship. Many years of musical evolution and collaboration between the duo have culminated into a sound both piercingly focused, and kaleidoscopic in scope and texture. Creamy guitars, soaring synths, sharp drums, and hauntingly beautiful vocals will leave the listener enveloped in a radiant afterglow. All previous recordings have fallen by the wayside. Their debut EP, unknowing the known, is outnow and it is the definitive starting point for forceghost: the band hopes listeners find themselves enriched by its listening.

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Sarah Once Was – Thumbnail Moon (single and video premiere)

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Sarah Once Was’ sound reflects their origins in the redwoods north of San Francisco and their current urban landscape of smoggy LA sunsets. The artist’s comforting melodies sail sideways against the wind of sliced up rhythm sections, shrieking violins, strummy acoustics, and west coast synths. Sarah McNamara, the non-binary artist behind Sarah Once Was goes by the name “Mac.” Mac attended Mills College in Oakland, trained in audio production at Women’s Audio Mission, and soon after, migrated south to Los Angeles, where they work as a recording engineer, mixing engineer, “producer auteur,” and are on staff with several independent studios (Wiggle World, Universal Hair Farm, etc). 
In 2023, they recorded artists such as Kelsey Lu, Circles Around the Sun and Mikaela Davis. Mac toured as stage manager and tech for Dijon, tour managed Grateful Shred, and opened for Mikaela Davis on a tour.  As artist, recording engineer, and producer, Sarah Once Was collaborates closely with members of Worthitpurchase and artist Chloe Corley to craft folk songs in the quantum vein.
Thumbnail Moon is the third single released by Sarah Once Was, following 2023’s Honest which featured bassist Dan Horne (Circles Around The Sun, Grateful Shred) and earned them a supporting tour slot for Mikaela Davis. Serving as producer and engineer on Thumbnail Moon Sarah Once Was continues to evolve their folk songs crafted in the quantum vein, bringing in new collaborators to provide sliced up rhythm sections, shrieking violins, strummy acoustics, and west coast synths over the artist’s comforting melodies. 

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(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 152: Lightheaded

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Lightheaded

New Jersey’s Lightheaded are, simply, a great pop group. Their songs are full of melody and harmony, are bittersweet and memorable, familiar yet original. Their sound is a perfect mix of jangling guitars — featuring Sara Abdelbarry’s exquisite, tasteful, but punchy Gretsch lead played over Stephen Stec’s Rickenbacker chime — anchored to singer Cynthia Rickenbach’s Hofner Violin bass. Cynthia and Stephen write pop songs in the classic sense, and though they are young they’re already familiar with the good stuff. Cynthia wears a Gene Clark tee shirt and is a fan of Dusty Springfield, The Aislers Set, and Joan Jett. Stephen worships at the altar of Big Star, The Clientele, and The Go-Betweens. As with bands like The Aislers Set and Belle & Sebastian, you hear an aural kaleidoscope, the history pop music and the best rock and roll, in the music of Lightheaded. Good Good Great! EP was their first record for Sulmberland record, out in 2023. The band’s debut album, Combustible Gems, will be out 17th May 2024, again on Slumberland Records.

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Yea-Ming & The Rumours – Ruby (Single and video Premiere)

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Yea-Ming Chen is a San Francisco-based singer-songwriter who delivers a pure and simple indie country sound with heartfelt and sincere meaning. Her low, dusky tones recall ‘60s German singer Nico, although Chen was most inspired as a young adult by pop punk indie bands like Mr. T. Experience, The Queers and Dressy Bessy. “Bands like that,” she says, “made me realize the power of a simple song.” At the same time, the drama-filled pieces on her favourite Fleetwood Mac album, Rumours, taught her that despite life being full of difficult moments, “beautiful songs are created because of its complexity. It makes the hard stuff worth it.” A songwriter for 15 years, Chen has learned from experience that a broken heart is the best for inspiration. Piano was Chen’s first instrument, but as a teenager, she picked up guitar and more recently, the drums. A classically-trained pianist from age seven, she started formal studies in music at UC Berkley, but left the program after finding it to be too academic: “fun and challenging but mostly excruciatingly boring, difficult and useless,” she says. “I craved to be more creative and expressive, which is why I picked up the guitar. I couldn’t be “leftbrained” about it because I didn’t know how to use it. It really opened up me to song writing.” Solo or backed by a band, Chen can be heard along the West Coast as Yea-Ming and The Rumours. The first album from Yea-Ming and The Rumours, So, Bird​.​.​. was out in March 2022 and a new album, I Can’t Have It All will be out on Dandy Boy Records on May 24th.

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The Libertines – All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade

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Francesco Giordani e Tiziano Casola per TRISTE©

Tiziano: A oltre vent’anni di distanza dall’esordio e a quasi dieci dal ritorno del 2015 i Libertines, trovatori erranti sempre in fuga dalla perfida Albione, tornano un nuovo disco. Amico mio, più volte io e te abbiamo parlato dell’influenza della band sulle nostre passate giovinezze, su queste pagine e non solo. Ricordo, a proposito, che all’annuncio del precedente Anthems for Doomed Youth eravamo insieme, in stivali di gomma di Decathlon nel piovoso Galles. Nei giorni successivi notammo nei supermercati le scatole Yorkshire Tea dedicate ai nostri eroi, ma da pavidi tirchi quali siamo, non ne comprammo nemmeno una. Oggi, più anziano di un decennio, ti chiedo: ma non avremmo fatto bene a prenderne almeno una? Quando mai ti sei trovato di fronte a una così sofisticata idea di merchandising? Di conseguenza, te la compreresti la maglia del Margate FC con lo sponsor della band? (Io sì). Ma soprattutto, comprerai questo nuovo disco? Ti è piaciuto?

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