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Today, Austin-based writer, performer, producer, filmmaker, and one-man tour de force Mobley announced his new album We Do Not Fear Ruins, set for release on April 23 via Last Gang Records. The genre-promiscuous, sonically expansive concept album continues the story of the character Jacob Creedmoor, first introduced in Mobley’s 2022 EP, Cry Havoc!.

Stream 'No Exit'

Pre-save 'We Do Not Fear Ruins'

Alongside the announcement, Mobley has shared the album’s lead single + video “No Exit,” first premiered via FLOOD Magazine. Blending retro rock, modern alternative, and futuristic indie sounds, the song opens with a Morricone-inspired whistled motif. Yet, beneath the cinematic swagger and groove, “No Exit” is a meditation on solipsism, solitude, and the “undiscovered country” of the afterlife (an allusion to the famous Hamlet soliloquy). The accompanying video counters the track’s weighty themes with a healthy dose of cheek and dry humor.

Mobley expands, “‘No Exit’ takes its title from the Jean-Paul Sartre play of the same name (best known for the often-misunderstood line ‘hell is other people’). The tension between the song’s laidback verses and earnest, pleading choruses mirrors the tensions in Jacob, a perpetual loner who nevertheless proclaims his love for humanity, crying out ‘What am I without people?’”

Mobley will also be performing a live showcase in Los Angeles on January 28 at The Moroccan Lounge before making his way to Brooklyn on February 11 to perform at Baby’s All Right.

When you don’t fear ruins, “apocalypse” is just another word for opportunity. This is a central theme of Mobley’s forthcoming full-length debut, We Do Not Fear Ruins, an exploration of the intimate, the infinite, and time itself. The project follows the character of Jacob Creedmoor – first introduced in Mobley’s previous EP Cry Havoc! (2022) – an ordinary man who became radicalized into a Robin Hood-esque hero in an alternate version of the early ‘80s United States. Against a backdrop of futuristic art rock, Jacob fought fascism, pulled off daring heists, and was eventually captured by the government and imprisoned in suspended animation. We Do Not Fear Ruins is the next chapter in Mobley’s ongoing sci-fi epic. The story leaps nearly 300 years into the future, when Jacob awakens in a post-apocalyptic, post-U.S. world. Having lost everyone he's known, he navigates grief, memory, and heartbreak through a range of sonic textures as expansive as the wastelands (or possibly afterlife) he finds himself wandering.

When deciding on the most effective sonic palette for his current project, Mobley turned to 1981, the year when Jacob was frozen. "When I listened to some of the songs in the air during that period, I was stunned by the incredible diversity of popular music,” he says. “You had Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson, but new wave and funk were still happening. Pop and country were doing a bunch of interesting things. R&B was huge, and there were the first rumblings of hip-hop, as well as vestigial traces of disco."

Despite the sweeping audiovisual scope of Jacob’s saga, the lyrics of We Do Not Fear Ruins remain decidedly internal: an examination of loneliness, yearning, and cautious hope – feelings that are universal, no matter what time period we’re stuck in.

The time spent between Cry Havoc! and now saw Mobley touring coast to coast, writing a forthcoming novel that expounds on We Do Not Fear Ruins’ concept, and composing musical scores for film and stage. Mobley has produced and directed the music for an Adidas commercial during the Paris Olympics and composed the theme for Webby Award-winning SiriusXM & Smithsonian podcast All Music Is Black Music, hosted by Selema Masekela and featuring guests like Kelly Rowland, Ne-Yo, and St. Vincent.

Mobley's songs have racked up millions of streams across Spotify and Apple Music and has landed sync placements on HBO, FOX, NBC, ESPN, and CW, seen airplay adds on Alt Nation, KROQ, KUTX, ACL Radio, and KEXP, and has received praise from outlets like Billboard, Noisey, Rolling Stone, the New York Times, Consequence, American Songwriter, and beyond. He's played festivals like ACL, Lollapalooza, and SXSW and has opened for acts like Cold War Kids, Phantogram, James Blake, WAVVES, Sylvan Esso, Matt & Kim, and more.

The present moment finds Mobley focused on the future. He says, “Living with and working through these songs and stories has been the most fulfilling challenge of my artistic life. I can’t wait to share it all and see the life it takes on when it’s no longer just mine.”

We Do Not Fear Ruins Tracklist:

1. The End

2. Only

3. No Exit

4. Let Go

5. Had To Be There

6. Y’r Ghost

7. Phantom Hand

8. Infinite Sunrise

9. Morning Woodwinds

10. Can’t Make You Stay

11. Worriboutta ‘81

12. Ego is

13. Now Forever

14. A Story You’d Tell at a Party

15. Yesterday’s Another Day

16. The End?

Live dates:

Jan 28                 Los Angeles, CA @ The Moroccan Lounge

Feb 11                Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right

New York musician Maia Friedman presents a gorgeous new single/video, “On Passing,” via Last Gang Records/MNRK. This is Maia’s first new piece of solo music since 2022’s Under The New Light, her “immersive and intricate” (The Line of Best Fit) debut. Co-produced with Philip Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Billie Marten, Florist) and Oliver Hill (Magdalena Bay, Helado Negro, Wet), “On Passing” unfurls beautifully with fingerpicked guitar and serene woodwinds.

***Click to save/stream Maia Friedman's "On Passing"

The track’s sublime lyrics illustrates her embrace of her own poetic lens, focusing on the beauty of the miniscule: “As you drift along // you float on course to Eden // hoping the waves will take you all the way to where you come from // Where we all come from // And from up above // the leaves fall as they ought to // crossing in hatchback upon currents in the air.”

The accompanying video was made by Ryan Faist and is composed of footage shot by Maia. 

Maia penned “On Passing” “as the health of two close friends were in rapid decline, with illnesses that led to both of their untimely deaths,” she elaborates. “Processing end-of-life is at once entirely natural and human, and at the same time, entirely abstract and unimaginable. It feels impossible to fathom, thus we vacillate through emotions; despair, anger, disbelief, confusion, and often eventually settle into a permanent melancholy (the quiet sadness) that will forever be tied to the memory of those we’ve lost. I find it healing to celebrate these memories in ephemeral moments of magic; a leaf falling from a tree, the glint and reflection of sun on water, a particular scent in the air, a bird that visits our windowsill unexpectedly.”

The palette Maia Friedman summons in her music has been described as lush, wise, and evocative. Drawing from her upbringing in the Sierra National Forest region of California, she often invokes a devotion to the natural world in her writing—an attunement to what is wild and divine in both the existential and the everyday. Her voice is a captivating centerpiece, lending a unique quality of warm comfort to every syllable.

Under The New Light garnered support from Rolling Stone, NPR Music, and BBC among others, and amassed over five million streams with widespread playlisting support. She performed the record in the US and Europe, sharing stages with Bedouine, Charlotte Day Wilson, Lord Huron, and Durand Jones & the Indications. In the two years since Under The New Light, Maia wrote, recorded, and toured with her various collaborative projects and gave birth to her daughter. This series of transformative experiences inspired new creative desires – to observe the world with unwavering empathy, to explore fresh musical colors, and to commit fully to world-building. There will be more new music from Friedman coming in 2025.

Written and Produced by Mobley —
Available Now on All Streaming Platforms: Listen | Watch

(October 16, 2024) Acclaimed indie singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mobley returns with his deeply evocative new single, "Y'r Ghost," via Last Gang.  Written and produced by Mobley himself, this release marks a return for the artist, who has not put out any new music since 2022. The track blends raw emotion with captivating sonic textures, offering a poignant reflection on love, loss, and longing.

"Y'r Ghost" is steeped in themes of heartbreak, capturing the fragility of relationships through haunting melodies and dynamic production. Mobley’s soulful vocals, paired with his intricate arrangements, make for an immersive listening experience that tugs at the heartstrings.

Mobley says, “‘Y’r Ghost’ marks the return of Jacob Creedmoor, the protagonist from my last record, Cry Havoc!. It finds him reminiscing about the night he met the love of his life and mourning her loss and the fact that she’s fading in his memory. The song’s shifts in mood and energy mirror the turmoil of our lovelorn hero while the lyrics hint at a larger story still waiting to be told.”

Mobley released the EP Cry Havoc! on Last Gang in September 2022, which was a thrilling introduction to a new sonic and narrative world.  The collection of songs was as captivating as they were catchy.  The EP served as a prelude to a forthcoming science-fiction epic from the prolific artist. More steeped in narrative than any of Mobley’s previous work, all seven tracks on Cry Havoc! were from the point of view of Jacob Creedmoor, an ordinary man who becomes radicalized into a Robin Hood-esque figure over the course of the EP. 

Mother Mother has released a 7-track EP titled Mother.  The songs were initially on the bands’ first 2005 release, with several now available for the first time digitally. 

The band (initially called Mother) released a self-titled CD in 2005. Many of those songs were re-recorded and/or re-released on Mother Mother’s (as they were eventually called) next album Touch Up. 

**Click to save/stream the Mother EP

This new Mother EP includes four of the songs that didn’t make it onto Touch Up: “Fat Kids,” “Babies,” “Mama Told Me,” and “Home Recording,” plus two songs that were eventually re-recorded: “O Ana,” and “Dirty Town.”  

Vocalist/guitarist Ryan Guldemond says,“We’ve been holding onto these for a while now (one might say two decades) and are so excited to finally share these four unreleased songs from our 2005 self-titled debut album, Mother, along with early versions of ‘Oh Ana’ and ‘Dirty Town.’ This music is near and dear to our hearts as it harkens back to an early iteration of the band, and ultimately our roots. We hope our fans appreciate a little look into the past.”

New 'O My Heart' pressed on 12” 180g single LP marble ruby vinyl, and limited to 1,000 copies worldwide. Pre-order now, expected to ship October 31, 2024.

Tracklist:

1. O My Heart
2. Burning Pile
3. Body of Years
4. Try To Change
5. Wisdom
6. Body
7. Ghosting
8. Hayloft
9. Wrecking Ball
10. Arms Tonite
11. Miles
12. Sleep Awake

** Pre-order 'O My Heart' (Red Swirl Vinyl) here

Mondo Cozmo, the enigmatic musical force, aka Josh Ostrander, has released It's PRINCIPLE!, a varied, grizzled, intense, sincere, and intricate rock album produced by Mark Rankin (Queens of the Stone Age, Adele). Listen to It's PRINCIPLE! HERE

Cozmo recently announced his upcoming fall US tour with dates including New York’s Brooklyn Made, Philadelphia’s Underground Arts, Chicago’s Schubas Tavern, Asbury Park’s Wonder Bar and more. Tickets on sale now, available HERE.

Cozmo also released a music video for title track “It’s PRINCIPLE!” - a brawny epic that almost didn't even make it onto the album. 

Mondo Cozmo stated to FLOOD MAGAZINE, “I nearly deleted a demo of this song as I thought Mark (producer) would hate it. As I was going to delete it Mark texted me saying he thinks it should open the record. I love the urgency of this song. I love the intro noise that was an accident. I love the opening line "So I'm slashing tires on Main Street America". Feels right. FLOOD also published an exclusive track by track with Mondo, check it out HERE

Throughout the writing process, Cozmo was conscious that he needed to make a concise record that was focused, but he had an unprecedented creative spark. He wrote 70 songs. With Rankin’s faith in centerpiece and title track he decided this would be his torch light, to trust the opinions of those around him whom he respected.

Fueled by this new found confidence, the album has a cocksure bluster of an artist that has run out of f**ks to give, and all the better for it. Previously released single “Angels,” is a wall of sound rock epic with momental lyrics, “Wild Horses” will stop you into oblivion, “Killing Floor” a slow burn esoteric love song,  where deep cuts like “Sundown In An Age Of Fear” are more abstract but contains a refined energy, hard to pinpoint but compelling to its core. Thus far, the album had received raving support from Consequence of Sound, Stereogum, FLOOD Magazine, Under The Radar, Relix, Riff Magazine and many more.

UPCOMING TOUR DATES: 

Oct 23 - Hamden, CT - Space Ballroom

Oct 24 - New York, NY - Brooklyn Made

Oct 25 - Woodstock, NY - Colony Woodstock

Oct 26 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts

Oct 29 - Toronto, ON, CAN - Horseshoe Tavern

Oct 30 - Cleveland, OH - Mahalls

Oct 31 - Chicago, IL - Schubas Tavern

Nov 1 - Minneapolis, MN - Turf Club

Nov 3 - Indianapolis, IN - HiFi

Nov 4 - Columbus, OH - The Basement

Nov 6 - Pittsburgh, PA - Club Café

Nov 7 - Asbury Park, NJ - Wonder Bar