Lucky Number Music

Sydney trio Middle Kids have today released “Terrible News“, the latest single from their forthcoming album Faith Crisis Pt 1, set for release on February 16th and available to pre-order now.

Produced by Jonathan Gilmore (The 1975, beabadoobee), “Terrible News” is a confessional guitar laden track penned by lead vocalist Hannah Joy in an insecure time during covid. “There was a lot of confusion and information and rules and anger and people judging people and loss and distrust. I eventually felt so overwhelmed by all the noise, I couldn’t take it anymore.” explains Joy. “The guitars are kinda shouty too or maybe just urgent. I wanted to stack a lot of guitar layers to create almost a guitar choir. We got a friend Brendan Champion to play some brass on it which really elevates the song as it marches along.”

Watch the music video, directed by Nick Mckk and Claire Giuffre, below:

Sydney trio Middle Kids today share “Bend” – the latest single from their forthcoming album Faith Crisis Pt 1, set for release on 16 February 2024 and available to pre-order now.

Produced by Jonathan Gilmore (The 1975, beabadoobee), “Bend” is a soaring, emotive track about “finding the truth beneath the truth”, and was recorded in the UK in Eastbourne along with the rest of the album.

“I grew up with a solid framework for what life is, but I got to a point when I started to question some of the fundamental truths of what I believed. It was very painful and disorienting. I began to have this feeling that I couldn’t hold together all the things I valued, family, creativity, work, safety, community, spirituality.” explains lead singer Hannah Joy.

The video for “Bend”, above, is directed by acclaimed sibling directors The Potter Sisters who most recently directed films Far West and Nightswim. Filmed in Austin, TX, the video features a heavily pregnant Joy centred still in the chaos of a skate park with local skaters Ignacio Arriagada, Cristobal Arriagada, Chloë James, Atlas Chaney, JD Torian Jr and Tayvian Trejo.

Kindred spirits Momma and Narrow Head are thrilled to cover each other’s recent singles, “Medicine” and “Sunday”. “Momma is one of those bands that we were hooked on immediately, we would play ‘Medicine’ at soundcheck all of the time,” Narrow Head comment. Momma say, “We’ve both been big fans of each other’s bands for a while. A year or so ago the idea was floated around about doing a cover of each other’s songs. When Jacob [Narrow Head guitarist/vocalist] sent Allegra a video of them covering ‘Medicine’ during soundcheck, we were like, OK we have to actually do this.”

“Sunday / Medicine” is streaming now across all digital retailers via Lucky Number, while 7” singles will be released by the bands’ respective American labels Polyvinyl & Run for Cover on December 1st.

Both bands have had breakthrough years. Momma – the Brooklyn-based band of songwriters Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten, and producer/bassist Aron Kobayashi Ritch – revisited their acclaimed 2022 LP, Household Name (Lucky Number / Polyvinyl), with a newly released live session for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert‘s #LateShowMeMusic YouTube series, performing the album’s dynamic single “Rockstar” in a video directed by Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell, Untitled Pavement Film). Their Narrow Head cover follows their spring single “Bang Bang” and an incredibly busy year on the road, including their Coachella debut in April and tours supporting Wet Leg, Death Cab For Cutie, Weezer, Modest Mouse, and a full UK and EU tour with Alex G. Produced by Aron Kobayashi Ritch and mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Emily Lazar, Household Name earned the alt-rock breakouts critical acclaim from Pitchfork (Album of the Day review), SPIN, The FADER, Consequence, NME, NPR, Rolling Stone, NYLON (‘Momma is Indie Rock’s Next Big Thing’), Stereogum, FLOOD (‘Breaking’), Paste, Kerrang!, CLASH, Alternative Press, and many others.

Narrow Head’s latest album Moments of Clarity (Run For Cover) has earned an array of praise for its masterful and fresh mixture of pop, grunge and shoegaze by the likes of Guitar World, Pitchfork, Stereogum, UPROXX, Paste (“one of today’s best pop bands”), Revolver (“reigning kings of shoegazy grunge”), Kerrang!, Decibel, Consequence, Alternative Press and more. Since its February release, they’ve toured extensively worldwide and are currently touring North America with Citizen.

New York’s Charly Bliss have today released “I Need A New Boyfriend”, an effervescent new single that arrives with a hilarious video directed by the band’s Dan Shure.

“I think the best breakup songs are celebratory. Thankfully, decades of dating the wrong people has prepared me to write the emo, palm-muted breakup song of my dreams,” explains Eva Hendricks. “I was in Australia when Dan had the idea for this video, so we had to create a fictional Bliss Bar where we could all be together for Speed Dating Night. I bought the entire clay aisle of our local craft store and had a lot of fun creating a miniature version of the set that we could all be green screened into. Dan is the world’s best director and editor and did an incredible job pulling everything together. Please contact CB Worldwide if you believe you may be entitled to a new boyfriend.”

Bringing part of the music video to life, the band have also created the Bliss Finder website, generating fun alternative dating profiles to assist fans in the search for a “new boyfriend”.

Middle Kids today announce their new album, Faith Crisis Pt 1, set for release on February 16th 2024 and available to pre-order NOW.

Faith Crisis Pt 1 is the Sydney three-piece’s most ambitious work to date; over 13 propulsive and ecstatic tracks, the band explore lyrical and musical territory inspired by lead singer Hannah Joy’s search for meaning and identity after personal crisis. Joy attempts to tease out the question of belief; the breaking of it, and how it is rebuilt.

Recorded in Eastbourne in the UK and co-produced by Tim Fitz and Jonathan Gilmore (The 1975, Beabadoobee), Faith Crisis Pt 1 sees Joy and bandmates Fitz and Harry Day masterfully express the sensation of being overwhelmed, swept up and dragged down in songs brimming with yearning, angst, pop brightness, belief in love and reassurance that, from the bottom, it is possible to believe in beautiful things.

This is illustrated in new single “Dramamine”, which makes a case for believing not in something bigger than yourself, but in the person by your side. “You are the only reason I believe in anything / I hope you don’t take this the wrong way / I wanna be your Mary Magdalene,” Joy sings on the bright, melodic pop track. It was co-written with Fitz, who is not only her bandmate but also her husband. “It feels like a song about the connection between belief and love.”

The track is accompanied by an extraordinary video created by notable director Nick McKinley (Julia Jacklin, Spacey Jane) and Tim Fitz and follows the release of singles “Bootleg Firecracker” and “Highlands”.

Faith Crisis Pt 1 reminds us that even in the darkest moments, belief can flourish.