The Concert Moms Virtual Showcase
Featuring a fresh track, album, and a video premiere!
Excited to bring you all something new today, working with Concert Moms to create a “Virtual Showcase.” Concert Moms are an artists services collective that specializes in throwing concerts…so you can imagine they’re hurting that these new releases can’t be performed and displayed in person. But with a lot of activity among their roster of artists in the past few weeks, we decided to put together a post where these works can all be appreciated. I know myself, along with many others in the DMV have been to some incredible programming put on by Concert Moms and look forward to going to more once it’s safe, but in the mean time this is what we have to offer. So dim the lights, grab your drink of choice (water it down a tad and Venmo $5 to a friend that bartends for a more authentic experience) and let this excellent music entertain you for the night. We have a new single and music video from Lobby Boy, a debut album from Sunstoney, and a new single as well as an exclusive music video premiere from Scorpio.
Keep up with Concert Moms:
Yours Forever by Lobby Boy
Single
This is a song for anyone that’s into cute, mean, and nasty tracks (as the genre tags on Bandcamp dictate). Barring a demo and some quarantine livestreams, Yours Forever is the first output from Lobby Boy since the 2019 EP Lore. This track seemingly details the feelings surrounding a potential breakup, featuring lyrics like
“He said, don't write those pretty songs about me. How could I not? I'm Yours Forever.”
“Every song is a love song,” is what lead singer Chez Goodspeed realized during the process of Yours Forever. “Understanding that people feel so impassioned about the tiniest things, and really adoring that about other songwriters.”
Goodspeed sings tenderly over the swirling electronic beat, courtesy of producer Ethan Wilson. “I was listening to a lot of Brenda Lee, Angel Olsen, and Alex Cameron at the time," Goodspeed said. The swirling effect is captured in the video through the one shot tracking take that follows them through the house filled out by the rest of the band members. Starting with Goodspeed taking up the frame, burning flowers, drifting in and out of focus, ultimately leading to a final shot surrounded by bandmates on the couch. If you’re going to love forever, why not have it be with the reciprocated love from a group of friends? Inspiration for the track came from paying attention to the tiny details in life.
“Remembering irrelevant details really constructs my reality. Between the way the rain wells up on car windows on the interstate, feeling a bonfire melt the bottom of my boots off, inspecting a plant’s growth each day, feeling a good blister form. These things all reduce me to tears. I’m lucky and cursed to feel as much as I do.” - Chez Goodspeed
Stay tuned until the end of the video for a special poem from Lobby Boy (poem? lyrics? Unclear, but doesn’t matter).
Stream/buy the track below
Keep up with Lobby Boy
APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK
In Your Apartment by Sunstoney
Album
Check out the album that elicited this response from me before I even got to the end.
Streaming Links
APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | SOUNDCLOUD
Hannah (of Concert Moms) sent me a link to give the album an early listen in preparation for this showcase, and it blew me away. The Qatar born/Virginia based artist Sunstoney describes the tracks on here as “depressive bops.” In Your Apartment is Sunstoney’s debut album with vocals, as she released an instrumental tape in 2020. This project is largely lo-fi R&B music, but the songs are never predictable, always throwing in elements you don’t expect. “I love blending and mixing up expectations of what R&B is suppose to be,” Sunstoney told me. The album was fueled by a love for analog sounds, all but three of the nine tracks on the album were self-produced. “I am currently falling in love with the SP404 SX which has been helping me create more loft textures and amplifying my sound completely.”
While I think this is a great album that should be listened to regardless, I’d recommend it a little extra if you enjoy artists like Orion Sun, KeiyaA, Mereba, and FKJ. The single Astral Plane was a standout for me.
Be sure to follow and keep up with Sunstoney as there are some live sessions and performances in store to support this album.
Keep up with Sunstoney
APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK
I Was Waiting For You To Call by Scorpio
Single & Music Video Premiere!
“I had to laugh, at least it’s better than screaming til you cry”
Who among us hasn’t felt this way at some point during the past year in which these lyrics were written? I Was Waiting for You to Call is the latest track from Scorpio, the stage name of DC artist Alli Vega. This is her first release since the 2019 debut EP Afterthought and trades in the rougher garage sound of that project for synth pop. The track was released on February 5th, with the video officially releasing on the 19th, but you can watch the exclusive premiere below! The video was directed by Bisagna Suh & Nabil Abdulkadir of 4421 Productions, with Maureen Smith creative directing. It centers around this theme: 80s movies, but make them gay.
“We got 80s vibes as soon as we heard the song,” said Suh, with Smith conceptualizing the idea of movie recreations. Some of the characters came more naturally to Alli than others. “She thrived in the Top Gun character,” said Abdulkadir, while Vega was a self-admitted geek about the Dirty Dancing scene. Annemarie Baldassarre, who played the role of Vega’s love interest, was “a real trooper” throughout the shoot, with Brandon Breazeale & Zach Brown filling the roles of drummer & bassist. The video was filmed around DC as well as Maryland (where they were accidental witnesses to a drag race on the second day of shooting), with other shots in Idreezus Studio and their own houses. At the end of the day, Vega says it all comes down to this: “breakups suck, friends are important, please watch this video.”
Keep up with Scorpio
APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK
What would a showcase be without a little self promo? If you enjoyed this piece, I think you’ll like a lot of what I do on this blog. Check out some of my older posts and click below to share or subscribe!