The trick is to make a confession entertaining. A Private Picture, the debut album by Chicago’s Fran, delivers a collection of extremely personal experiences that have been distilled and abstracted to the point that you can see yourself in their imagery, find analogs to your own emotional history in their scenarios –when you hear them, it’s a conversation. It’s therapy, if therapy was allowed to turn you on and make you shake what you got. At its core, Fran’s music is about sharing a truth -–telling it, confessing it, yelling it—in the service of human connection. Or, as Jacobson puts it, “I feel that I am a songwriter for the same reason I wanted to be an actor. I want to tell the truth. I want to challenge myself to get closer and closer to the core of an experience, an emotion- I want to say it, sing it, in a way that says exactly what it is. I cry when I write songs because I am constantly making discoveries, about myself, about the world, about the best way to convey and connect and get closer.”

1st Pressing
200 - Translucent Red Vinyl
300 - Black Vinyl

“Leaving,’ the sophomore album from Fran, finds the band at a crossroads of loss and possibility, forged through Maria Jacobson’s preoccupation with the climate crisis as well as newfound contemplation of the intertwined nature of theology and religion. There’s an overarching spirit of home that overlays these heavy themes, however, and both gently intentional and evocative, her deliberate musings convey a type of music that feels tactile to the touch. On “Leaving” Jacobson’s sharply wry anecdotes feel astutely impactful, with effortless melodic guitar and string arrangements creating a heartrending backdrop that showcases Fran as another force to watch in the constantly evolving Chicago music scene. Angular, precise and filled with melodic entanglement, this spirited culmination of modern indie folk songwriting, strings and electric guitars highlight the potential release and joy of Jacobsen’s apt storytelling.

Get Fran’s new album “Leaving” bundled with “A Private Picture” for one low price!

Everything, the debut album from Chicago quartet Bnny, may as well be a field recording taken from the lone country of grief. Written in sessions that span several years by singer Jess Viscius as she processed the death of her partner, the album is a chronicle of love at its most complex and loss at its most persistent. In the same vein as Sky Blue Sky-era Wilco or the harrowing vulnerability of Tomberlin or Helena Deland, Viscius’ songwriting is evocative and intentional. A longstanding member of the Windy City music scene, the album was produced by Dehd’s Jason Balla, and the sparse arrangements pick apart complicated truths while feeling both timeless and transcendent. Everything is out on Fire Talk (Dehd, Deeper, Pure X, Mamalarky).

Pocket Fantasy, the sophomore album from Mamalarky is an instant-classic sunny-day record, imaginative and introspective, an enveloping listen of skyhigh hooks and keyboards that soar with joyful abandon. Its twelve kaleidoscopic tracks shapeshift aesthetically and thematically, through ideas about death and impermanence; love and gratitude; nature and technology; humor and hope. Heralded by Billboard, Nylon, The Fader and more, the new album expands on the unique sound of their self-titled debut which Pitchfork called “tenderly tangled indie rock”. On Pocket Fantasy some of the band’s purest pop tendencies collide with more warped and weird strains of quirky psych. It’s a treasure trove of playful grooves and zigzag riffs, a phenomenal album from a young group poised to carve their own place in the bins of your favorite record store.

‘Fairy Rust’, the new album from Wombo contemplates the spaces in-between, a meeting of the physicality of the land with the fluidity of the imagination, to uncanny effect. Across twelve tracks, sharpened guitar work, distorted freakouts and downtempo musings weave together a tapestry of sound that’s both intoxicating and effortless, where one minute it’s all deadpan post-punk energy, and the next Stereolab on a mountain top. The music functions as their own localized language that feels uniquely out-of-body. Conceived over the course of the last two years, the record is steeped in its own time warp of escapism, and influenced by fairy tales like the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson that blend surreal situations with the mundane. Flirting with prog, pop and effervescent post-punk, Wombo’s forward-thinking approach set them apart as one of the most exciting up-and-coming bands right now. MIxed by Dave Vettraino (Dehd, Deeper, Lala Lala) & Mastered by Jonathan Schenke (Parquet Courts, Snail Mail, Pottery).

Spirit Tamer’ is the debut album from Mia Joy available on limited edition Bright Pink and Classic Black vinyl and compact disc on Fire Talk. A member of the Chicago Children’s Choir at a young age, the record sees Joy's dual backgrounds in music and poetry evolve into a juxtaposition between soaring emotional synthpop and introspective devotional harmonies. Past press has referred to Mia’s music as “warm, ethereal, endlessly layered, and beautifully expanding”. Filled with heady atmospherics and vulnerability that abounds through the shapeshifting sonic palette, fans of Ana Roxanne or Hand Habits will find much to love in this painstakingly crafted, endearingly intimate universe.

1st Pressing
300 on Bright Pink Vinyl
300 on Black Vinyl

*also available 150 on Pink Vinyl Exclusive to Indie Retailers

“Fare Trax” is a new album by Portland Oregon based Campfires. The last one, “Tomorrow, Tomorrow”, came out about 6 years ago, also on Fire Talk. During those 5 years Campfires existed as a live band, watched seasons pass and eventually Jeff and his wife had a baby daughter named Lucy, named after “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. He wrote a song for her while she was still in the womb. Unsurprisingly, that one is called “Lucy’s Song”, and is the last song on this album. Recorded on the Oregon coast a few months ago in a house overlooking the sea and finished in Portland in a practice space that shares a wall with some local favorites, so you can hear Lithics practicing as “Grand Central Song” fades out. The record is an amalgamation of influences, the Kinks are in there and early Byrds with the aesthetics of raw 60s garage and early 80s punk or anorak pop like Television Personalities & stuff from Sarah Records. Some of the poppier Velvets tunes are a touchstone too, then there’s ambient music and experimental tape work. A guazey take on folk music, refined and perfected over 10 years, it’s tenderness is complimented by honest and sincere songwriting presented in all it’s ramshackle glory. 

Limited to just 300 copies on Black Vinyl.

Monteagle is the solo moniker of Brooklyn based (Tennessee native) singer songwriter and composer Justin Giles Wilcox. Known primarily for scoring the critically acclaimed short Documentary Twins Days for the New Yorker and for his production and songwriting for the ambient folk duo Nassau, Monteagle sees Wilcox diving further into the uncharted territory of southern influenced experimental psych folk. “A Colorful Moth” a new EP from Wilcox is steeped in vivid imagery or as Paste Magazine describes “tremulous, bare-souled vocals, which are as haunted and alluring as the caves that riddle the rocky hills of the band’s hometown.”

Justin tells the tale of “A Colorful Moth” better than anyone could...

“A while back I hit a little bit of a rough patch. I had just wrapped up a very emotionally draining project, My freelance work was drying up, My mental health was at an all time low, all this amongst some tumultuous personal issues. In the midst of all of the chaos I took a walk, and ended up sitting at a park right outside of my apt in Brooklyn. While I was just sort of staring blankly, a Butterfly flew up and landed next to me on a bench. Without even blinking I looked at it and thought to myself, “This fucking butterfly, there’s no real beauty in it, it’s just a colorful moth”. I kind of lost it. It’s like my mind became clear. I started-laugh crying and realized how casually destructive I was being and accepted that my situation was mainly my own doing. Afterwards, I felt this huge sense of relief and I immediately started writing these songs.”

This EP is unique in that it was written and recorded sequentially. As in each musical idea begot the next. If you listen there are little pieces of the previous song in the next idea. The lyrics are a mish-mash, a direct stream of consciousness, and recollection of various hallucinogenic trips Justin had been on. There’s something soothing in the way that sound and words dance around each other in a surreal exploration of mortality in relation to reality.

”A Colorful Moth” is a sibling component to an upcoming full length scheduled for early 2021.