Rockers Undercover Betty release new singles 'Pain', 'Take Me' and 'Cigarette Please'

The intercontinental, female rock crew called Undercover Betty have released their latest official singles, “Pain,” “Take Me” and “Cigarette Please.” The tracks have been proudly published on the Shark Alley Records independent music label. Explosive, hammering and absolutely awash in adrenaline, “Pain,” “Take Me” and “Cigarette Please” prove once and for all that Undercover Betty is a rock group fans of the genre around the world need to know about.

Undercover Betty (often abbreviated UCB) are four wild-mannered women from no fewer than three continents: Rebecca Field of England, Kana Leimbach of Japan, and Connie Bonds and Carol “Corky” Sarao of the United States. Their sound returns to the golden age of rock which was exemplified by bands like Bon Jovi, Styx, and Mötley Crüe, but with a raw and unpretentious delivery that derives its strength from masterful musicianship and top-notch songwriting. The result is a trio of songs any rock fan will be amped to hear.

UCB's rapidly growing repertoire has plenty of texture, bringing songs from the whole emotional spectrum. As an appropriate introduction to the band, the global triple release of “Pain,” “Take Me” and “Cigarette Please” covers much of their sonic style.

“Pain” represents the post-classic-rock sound Undercover Betty are perhaps most renowned for. “Cigarette Please” approaches a punkish, almost thrash-metal tone which characterizes UCB's fun-loving, 'in your face' attitude. “Take Me” is every bit as much part of the UCB experience, too, being a laid-back and rolling single which exemplifies their exceptional use of vocal harmonies and knack for writing great medium-tempo tracks that break the mold of the sappy rock ballad.

Largely based in the music hotbed of Florida's Tampa Bay Area, Undercover Betty prove their professional rock clout with a brutally tireless calendar of performances. Their official website [link provided below] shows UCB to have performed more than 36 shows in 2014, or thrice monthly, but their skyrocketing popularity means that they've already played 57 live appearances in the current year, with another 21 yet to come. This is in addition to recording dates in the studio, the fruits of which have ripened in this triple release of “Pain,” “Take Me” and “Cigarette Please” from Shark Alley Records.

“Pain,” “Take Me” and “Cigarette Please” by Undercover Betty are available online worldwide. Get in early, rock fiends. Very early.

-S. McCauley

Lead Press Release Writer

www.MondoTunes.com

Music here –

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/pain-single/id1039126607

Website here –

http://undercoverbetty.com

Rock band Shinaway releases new LP 'Love Hate'

Indie rock band from Cheltenham, UK Shinaway have released their anxiously awaited LP album, “Love Hate.” The full-length album has been proudly published on the Slaughter Records independent record label. Containing nine original tracks for an approximate total listening time of half an hour, “Love Hate” is an arresting example of brilliant songwriting and expert musicianship fans of all genres will appreciate.

At the heart of Shinaway are an uncle-and-nephew duo known as Dodders and Westwood. Asked to cite their main artistic influences, they write, “Very eclectic: the Stone Roses, the Stranglers, Sam Cooke – endless.”

Qualities similar to the above appear in Shinaway's “Love Hate” LP.

The overall composition of “Love Hate” recalls those patient rock ballads from Stone Roses, albeit in a more modern tone. Shinaway embrace a lo-fi mentality in their studio production, too, preferring to lay down a few excellently performed tracks rather than bury songs in wall-of-sound overdubs. Music by the Stranglers has the same underlying minimalism. Shinaway's penchant for penning memorable and socially relevant lyrics is akin to the artistic principles of Sam Cooke, who often attributed his success to “the art of observation” during the Civil Rights movement.

Speaking of their own themes on “Love Hate,” Shinaway write, “We wished to write songs about real issues from what's happening in the news to the very personal challenges that people can face, from mental illness and assault to broader issues such as people displacement. While the subject matter of some of the songs is a little dark, we wanted to create tunes with simple hooks to sing along to.”

The hooks are there, beyond doubt, making “Love Hate” an album which fans of pop will absolutely enjoy. However, to call the LP 'pop music' would diminish the lyrical clout of the album. Subjects like the cruelty of humankind (“Head in the Sand”) are dealt with in a straightforward and touching manner that somehow neither darkens nor depresses. These are balanced with less weighty songs like “Wrapped Around Her.”

Additionally, Shinaway have released an official music video for “Wrapped Around Her” available for viewing from their website [link provided below].

All in all, fans of alt-rock around the world have a surprise treat in “Love Hate” by England's Shinaway. The LP stands as a shining sign that the true spirit and sensibilities of the original indie-rock sound hasn't just survived – it's continuing to grow and to flourish in colorful and evocative ways.

“Love Hate” by Shinaway is available online at over 700 stores online worldwide. Get in early, indie and alternative music fans.

-S. McCauley

Lead Press Release Writer

www.MondoTunes.com

“Love Hate” by Shinaway –

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Hate-Shinaway/dp/B014GTFP82/

Website –

http://shinaway.com

UK electro-pop artist Vaughty releases new single 'Once Is Not Enough'

Popular electro-pop musician Vaughty has released his newest single, “Once Is Not Enough.” Like the rest of Vaughty's catalogue, the single has been published on the Aggro Monkey Records indie music label. A high-energy run through a digital field of pulsing beats and airborne melodies, “Once Is Not Enough” proves yet again that Vaughty is among the world's best composers of digital dance music.

Fans of Vaughty expect things from his new releases. This is because he has been consistently dependable in several respects: 1.) Vaughty singles have hooks which stay with the listener permanently – not for hours, days or weeks, but permanently. 2.) Vaughty music has a character which persists throughout his repertoire and develops from song to song. 3.) Vaughty music transports dancers and listeners, taking them to emotionally palpable realms he has either described or outright created.

“Once Is Not Enough” contains all of the above and is a fine example of what digital music lovers can expect from the artist. Coming out of the gates like a phantom of the early '90s digital underground, it quickly establishes the shadowy, urban overtones for which Vaughty has become known. Sexy and entrancing, flying headlong into the night, “Once Is Not Enough” is quite literally what it says.

England's Vaughty has a small, dedicated base of fans who have been following him since his first single, “Warm Inside,” appeared on digital shelves around the world in 2013. In the two-and-a-half years since then, this loyal cadre of listeners have haunted his official SoundCloud page like barflys at a pub, playing his showcased music over and over again.

Today there are no more than nine Vaughty singles available for listening there, four of which have been posted within the last eight weeks. Yet these songs have been played circa 10,500 times on SoundCloud alone.

That Vaughty has nearly doubled his online repertoire in the last two months is perceived as a sign of something large on the horizon. Indeed, the artist himself told fans on his official Facebook page in July that a full-length Vaughty LP was in the works and might be available as early as winter, 2015.

In any case, “Once Is Not Enough” is a treat for fans in itself, especially coming as it does with his “Static Dissection Mix” and a B-side, “It's Time (Von Mixer Remix),” for a total listening time of about 20 minutes. This makes “Once...” more of an EP release than a simple one-off, and it's enough to get Vaughty fans plenty excited for more.

“Once Is Not Enough” by Vaughty is available online at over 600 stores worldwide. Get in early, fans of electro-pop and dance music everywhere. Get in very, very early.

-S. McCauley

Lead Press Release Writer

www.MondoTunes.com

“Once Is Not Enough” by Vaughty –

http://www.amazon.com/Once-Not-Enough-Single-Vaughty/dp/B014GT7F5S/

Vaughty at SoundCloud –

https://soundcloud.com/vaughty

Halo Minor release new EP 'Further-Now You're Close'

The post-grunge, alternative-rock group from Minneapolis called Halo Minor have released their new EP album, “Further-Now You're Close.” The record contains six original tracks for an approximate total listening time approaching half an hour. It has been proudly published as an independent release without the involvement of the corporate music industry. Melodic and orchestral, thrumming and soaring, passionate and a little dark, “Further-Now You're Close” by Halo Minor mustn't be missed be fans of alt-rock and the grunge tradition.

Halo Minor cite as chief influences Queen, the Smashing Pumpkins, Pink Floyd, Failure, Alice in Chains, Faith No More, Tool, the National, Sia Furler (Crisp), the Cure, and the Mars Volta.

Some Halo Minor attributes can be directly traced to these inspirations, yet they bear the creative twists of HM, themselves. Their towering vocal harmonies recall those of Alice in Chains but with a surprisingly affirming, choral character rather than the cynical delivery of Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell. The Pumpkins-esque guitars on “Further...” (of which there seem to be a thousand) come in warm waves and reverberate from all directions, roaring, rushing, plunging and charging.

Songwriting plays a key role in the achievement that is “Further-Now You're Close” by Halo Minor, too, particularly in the instrumental composition of each track. Ignoring for a moment its exceptional vocals, the EP could easily give listeners enough to chew on with just its evocative chord progressions and startling turns of musical phrase. Taken simply as instrumentals, these songs are highly narrative.

Halo Minor's vocals – an accomplishment in themselves – supply a large share of HM's signature sound, though, and their lyrics are satisfyingly deliberate in an age that often rewards the insipid and punishes the thought provoking. If the same above experiment were applied to the vocal tracks on “Further-Now You're Close,” the result would resemble a haunting yet beautiful choir.

HM's total personality depends on more, however. Bass lines tell their own story, marrying the guitars to the drums and often sounding somehow heroic when rising above the din. Keyboard phrases appear, filling out the sound in ways one wouldn't think possible and falling back into the music so subtly that the listener sometimes still hears them after they've gone. The percussion of Halo Minor represents a wonder of tasteful aggression, having an almost jazz-like quality in its spaciousness and an explosiveness in its timekeeping, like a remarkably mindful and creative combustion engine.

Naturally, the combination of all the above produces the greatest effect, that of Minnesota's own Halo Minor.

Halo Minor's current official bio describes their songs as “sonic descriptors of feelings, people and places left behind; beautiful living memories and yet, due to time, sometimes corrupted like a faded photo, beauty in a state of repose and then reborn from remembrance.”

“Further-Now You're Close” by Halo Minor is available at over 700 stores online worldwide. Get in early, fans of alt-rock and grunge. Very, very early.

Halo Minor are Blake Nolan Hanson (Floozie, Livid Lover) bassist Kerry Dalton Hanson (Black Flood Diesel, Numm, Atlas Shrugged), keyboard/vocalist Zack Jones, lead guitarist Danny Gan and drummer Devin Tomczik.

-S. McCauley

Lead Press Release Writer

www.MondoTunes.com

Music here –

http://www.amazon.com/Further-Now-Youre-Close-Halo-Minor/dp/B014JEOULC/

Official website –

www.halominor.com

Singer-songwriter Stephen Edington releases new single 'Stay'

Musician Stephen Edington has returned to the indie music stage with a new official single, “Stay.” Like his other material, “Stay” has been published as an independent music release without the influence or support of the corporate music industry. A return to songwriting at its purest and most evocative, “Stay” is a heartfelt, sparkling example of what love and longing sound like when sung by a top-shelf performer such as Stephen Edington.

Edington cites as main artistic influences David Gray, Elliott Smith, and Ray LaMontagne. The crossroads where these musicians meet stylistically is easy to imagine, but Edington's own sound isn't quite that. As unassuming as Gray, Smith and LaMontagne are, “Stay” by Stephen Edington sounds less pretentious, more genuine. His vocals strike the ear more clearly than those of the above, too, crystalline in tone and clarion in delivery.

That the tenor of Edington's singing matches his lyrical themes in “Stay” is a natural result of honest artistry. The song doesn't have a message so much as it is a message.

Edington writes, “My wife and I lost everything financially with the burst in 2009. We both worked and I went back to school. Through these past years working nights we have both gone to bed alone many, many times. This song is about missing the person you love.”

Stephen Edington's songwriting is perhaps the most striking quality of “Stay,” as well as of the artist's other material, such as his 2012 Christmas anthem, “The Newborn King.” He writes in the true spirit of the great folk musicians, but with an undercurrent of power which draws from the rock genre. His lines are direct without sounding aggressive, masculine without sounding macho, beautiful without sounding embellished.

The result is music which appeals to fans of a great many categories, particularly folk, alt- rock, classic rock, and contemporary singer-songwriter music.

“Stay” by Stephen Edington is available at over 700 digital music stores worldwide. Fans of excellent songwriting and impeccable performances should hear. Be sure not to miss Edington's “The Newborn King,” too, also available everywhere great music is found online.

-S. McCauley

Lead Press Release Writer

www.MondoTunes.com

“Stay” by Stephen Edington –

http://www.amazon.com/Stay-Single-Stephen-Edington/dp/B014B5ZP7M/

Psychedelic rocker High Pines releases single 'You're The Only One Who Understand'

The psychedelic rock artist from Brooklyn known as High Pines has released his latest official single, “You're the Only One Who Understand.” The track is the first single to be released from his second full-length album. Like his other music, it has been proudly published on the Mind Pattern independent record label without the involvement of the corporate music industry. Hazy, ethereal, rebounding with beats and resounding with ghostly guitar work, “You're the Only One Who Understand” from High Pines is one of the most intriguing singles to appear at the close of summer 2015.

Asked to name some favorite music acts, High Pines cites as influences Radiohead, Can, the Jesus And Mary Chain, Steve Reich, MGMT, the Verve, and Stone Roses. Imagining the confluence of these groups approaches a tone, an overall sound that is High Pines' own, but “You're the Only One Who Understand” is a track that must be experienced to be understood.

And it is an experience, rather than a music piece to which one merely listens. High Pines' music is full and ambient, enveloping the listener with foggy sonic textures and cool-blue moods. Music fans preferring songs which reach out from many directions at once, rather than seeming very predictable and linear, will appreciate this highly creative cross between shoegaze and psychedelic rock.

High Pines is originally from Santo Domingo, one of the Caribbean's oldest surviving cities. Living in New York City's Brooklyn borough since 2007, he published his debut EP album, “We Are Humans,” in 2011 on his own Mind Patterns label.

Talking of his upcoming second record, on which “You're the Only One Who Understand” appears, High Pines writes that he “found inspiration in musical patterns like repetition, unconventional tuning and time signatures.” He has also stated that the record is highly influenced by minimal artists such as Steve Reich and Brian Eno, as well as others not-so minimalist, such as Can, the Jesus And Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine.

UK music blog the Sound of Confusion calls music by High Pines “A misty psych sound that has its roots in the European experimenters of the '70s as much as American flower-power.”

“You're the Only One Who Understand” by High Pines is available online worldwide.

-S. McCauley

Lead Press Release Writer

www.MondoTunes.com

“You're the Only One Who Understand” by High Pines –

http://www.amazon.com/Youre-Only-One-Who-Understand/dp/B014JET1OI/

Website –-

highpines.bandcamp.com

Rapper Stoner G releases new single 'Junkie'

The rap artist known as Stoner G has released his latest official single, “Junkie.” The track has been proudly published on the 100 Entertainment LLC independent music label without the financial or managerial support of the corporate music industry. With a deep foundation on rolling, booming bass and honest, direct lines and rhymes, “Junkie” by Stoner G is a modern rap anthem fans of the genre will turn all the way up.

Stoner G cites as main musical influences Master P, No Limit Family, the Hot Boy$ (Lil Wayne, B.G., Juvenile and Turk) Soulja Slim, UGK, 8Ball & MJG, and Tupac Shakur.

That Stoner G names the Hot Boy$ as important to him is indicative of his own style and tone, both of which are eyeballs-deep in the same sound that brought the world Cash Money Records from New Orleans. It comes as no surprise to rap fans hearing “Junkie” for the first time that Stoner G's music comes from Baton Rouge's hip-hop hotbed of Scotlandville.

But there's more than just rap in Stoner G's music.

“When I say am a fan of music,” writes Stoner G, “no matter the genre – if it's hot, it's hot, and I'm bumping it.”

When he's asked to describe how he came to write his own music, Stoner G can pin the time down almost exactly.

“To be honest,” he writes, “I was sitting in my room praying for a way to take care of my family and it came to me in a dream. The next morning I woke up writing.”

This kind of earnestness is largely what lyrics by Stoner G are all about. His phrases are true, direct, and unabashed. He talks straight and puts his words to beats that are equally to the point.

So what's his new single about?

“The message behind my single,” he writes, “is basically about how ambitious I am about getting money like a junkie tries to satisfy their next fix, and I'm sure some folks elsewhere would agree they're the same.”

Friends and fans of Stoner G describe him as “a very laid-back and quiet type of guy.” Even the artist himself admits that “expressing myself through music will be a real shock to some.”

Still, he's one of the more outspoken rappers to release music in 2015, and this belies his otherwise mellow nature.

“I have no point to prove,” says Stoner G. “I've got no macho man complex. My music speaks from the heart and spirit. I plan to share my and the stories of others to the world.”

“Junkie” from Stoner G on 100 Entertainment is available online worldwide.

-S. McCauley

Lead Press Release Writer

www.MondoTunes.com

“Junkie” from Stoner G –

http://www.amazon.com/Junkie-Single-Explicit-Stoner-G/dp/B014AOEO8K/