Chris Brown

Tip Sheet: Maine Music Today

This is the state of music in the State of Maine. The best new music from Maine curated by professional music fan and inventor or Record Store Day, Chris Brown. Updated weekly.

New to the playlist this week:

Cilla Bonnie – Not Now – It’s hard to write about this song because I want to listen to it over and over. Everything about this bass-driven indie pop track is distintictive and cool. Cilla is known as an excellent and creative bassist, which takes her writing to places a guitar player wouldn’t think to go. I love her approach to keyboards. She is an alto with a lovely pure tone, which is unique compared with the breathy tone so many women use right now.

Hadley Johnson – Just So You Know – Is she the next Amy Allen? The songs she wrote in high school were impressive, but this is a fully-formed brilliant pop song. I have listened to it 30 times this week and the second bridge still gives me chills. She presents it as indie folk with a sophisticated arrangement. I don’t know who she is working with at Berklee, but goddam this is stellar. And the vocal arrangement…

Genevive Stokes – Charming – This is a very pretty piano ballad. The subtle production wonderfully fills out what be a thin-sounding piano and vocal record.

Alma June and the Persian Cats – Carry – “What did I just listen to?” you might ask. I’m not sure either but I love it. I guess it’s jazz with barely-contained chaos. Carry is the final single before the full album is released on 11/21. Every choice on the album, from the melodies to the arrangements to the mix is bold and confident.

Are they fans of Soft Machine and Robert Wyatt? A typical Robert Wyatt recording has a great song buried under the mayhem. With Alma June and the Persian Cats the song is in the foreground but the wonderfull weirdness is not far away.

Come say hi if you see me at their album relase party at SPACE on 11/21

Shout out to Equal Measure Arts for helping get this into our earholes.