There’s pandemic isolation, and then there’s ‘trapped in a crater in the middle of the desert’ isolation. One of the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival midnight premieres, The Seeding is a slow-burn horror about the human relationships and pack mentalities that smolder outside the prying eyes of civilization.
Keep ReadingShow less
Frontpage Popular News

Mipso's "Moonlight" Is Perfect for A Summer Chill Session

Mipso recently released the official music video for their hit song "Moonlight" along with new summer tour dates.

Mipso

If you aren't a fan already, you must check out the tasty twang and soft palpable poetry of North Carolina's hottest indie-americana band, Mipso.

You know the sort of music that takes you back to sweet youthful summers and warms your heart with the echo of the past? Yet still, you recognize that its only an echo and that those times are over. Mipso's "Moonlight" does exactly that. North Carolina's indie-Americana darlings Mipso have released the official video for their track " Moonlight," from their critically acclaimed new album Edges Run.

The video illustrates the familiar and all-too-human emotion of feeling alone, even while surrounded by those you love the most. Songwriter Joseph Terrell explains, "I wrote 'Moonlight' after a breakup while I drove all day back to North Carolina from where I'd been living in Boston. I was sitting in summer traffic on the worst highway in America in a rented minivan full of all my stuff, and I kind of just had to laugh. There's that voice in your head that wants to tell the world, 'I'm totally fine!' when you're anything but."

The video release accompanies the band's announcement of a run of additional summer tour dates this August. Venturing to the Western mountain states, Mipso bring their captivating live show to Montana, Colorado, and Utah.

Giphy

They can also be seen playing festivals this summer, including the Blue Ox Music Festival in Eau Claire, WI, Clearwater's Great Hudson River Revival, the Calgary Folk Festival, and Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh, NC this September.

MIPSO EDGES RUN ALBUM RELEASE TOUR – SUMMER 2018

6/14/18 - Blue Ox Music Festival - Eau Claire, WI

6/16/18 - Clearwater's Great Hudson River Revival - Croton-On-Hudson, NY

7/13/18 - Red Wing Roots Music Festival - Mt. Solon, VA

7/14/18 - The Down Home - Johnson City, TN

7/28/18 - Calgary Folk Music Festival - Calgary, Canada

8/1/18 - Yellowstone Brewing - Billings, MT

8/2/18 - Top Hat Lounge – Missoula, MT

8/4/18 – Sweet Pea Festival – Bozeman, MT

8/5/18 – Mishawaka Amphitheatre – Bellvue, CO

8/6/18 – Chautauqua Auditorium – Boulder, CO

8/9/18 – Urban Lounge – Salt Lake City, UT

8/11/18 – Lake Dillion Amphitheatre – Dillon, CO

8/16/18 - Narrows Center for the Arts - Fall River, MA

8/17/18 - Green Mountain Bluegrass & Roots - Manchester,VT

9/6/18 - Hopscotch Music Festival - Raleigh, NC

9/15/18 - Whale Rock Music Festival - Templeton, CA

Mipso's fourth album, Edges Run, has received praise from critics and fans alike. The album's first two singles - "People Change" and the title track "Edges Run" have received over 5 million streams on Spotify so far, with placement on prominent Spotify Playlists.

Mipso has always been a creative democracy, and on Edges Runthe band takes this ideal to greater lengths than ever before. "We'd all seen a lot of change in a short period," says Sharp of the time between the band's recent 2016 release, Coming Down The Mountain, and Edges Run - recorded in early 2017. "Three of us moved out of the Triangle area and into other places. We had relationships end and deaths of friends and family members." Those events alone could account for the deeply introspective themes on Edges Run, recorded during the dead of winter in Eugene, Oregon. "We were beginning to feel, probably for the first time, that youth was more behind us than ahead, and so I think we were all feeling different pressures closing in," says Sharp. So the band took a step back to consider their songs-in-progress — and took a leap of faith in traveling far from their North Carolina comfort zone to record in Oregon with producer (and bassist) Todd Sickafoose (Ani DiFranco, Andrew Bird, Anaïs Mitchell). They carried with them into the sessions a desire to stretch themselves beyond previously known roads of composition and performance. For the first time, Mipso came to the studio with sketches of songs rather than fully-fleshed arrangements and decided to co-write songs together, also a first for the band. Call it a new level of confidence or a developing collective consciousness, but with five years as a band and hundreds of nights on the road together, with the release of Edges Run Mipso retains its traditional roots while becoming thoroughly modern, intuitive musicians with the ability to transcend conventions and embrace what lies ahead. "We have a better idea of what we can do, and how we want to do it," says Sharp.

Praise for Mipso's Edges Run

"Best New Music" – American Songwriter

"Mipso defy boundaries and limitations on " Edges Run," the entrancing title-track from their forthcoming record…" - Americana Music Association

"Mipso has discovered that rare chemistry of four people coming together and uncorking bottled lightning with every tour and trip to the studio." - Cincinnati City Beat

"Catchy and radiant, moody and meditative, [the songs will] touch you on many different levels." - PopMatters

" Edges Run...pushes the boundaries...while maintaining everything Mipso do really well. It's honest and... asks you to listen closely. The instrumentation is rich, while still convincing you that it's simple"- Red Line Roots

"...showcasing the group's tight harmonies and musicianship…[and] venturing further intoalt-country…territory." - Washington Post

"[Mipso's Edges Run] balances heavy heartbreak and introspection with poppy, good-times acoustic pop. It's a good spectrum for the quartet, in that it allows for a wide sonic and emotional range." - No Depression

"Mipso's stellar use of harmony and deep layers of sound bring out a level of maturity comparable to Neil Young, Fleet Foxes and Fleetwood Mac." - Triad City Beat

"'Artist You Need To Know' The quartet's winsome Americana is as catchy and easygoing as ever." – Rolling Stone

"[Edges Run] solidifies Mipso's position in the modern folk movement." - Amplifier Magazine

"Mipso separates from the pack with an introspective, at times dark set of songs that emphasize atmosphere over monolithic strumming and draw from folk, old-school country and modern pop with equal enthusiasm. It's the sound of a band embracing adulthood and finding its sound." - Bend Bulletin

Follow Mipso on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram


Megan Oots is Popdust writer based in New York City. She loves the sun, cooking, and playing with dogs.


POP ⚡DUST | Read More About Music...

INTERVIEW | A Great Big World's Next Chapter

#WomanCrushWednesday | Linda Bella

RELEASE RADAR | Premiere from ELZ AND THE CULT

MUSIC

RELEASE RADAR | Premieres from Ryan Innes and Ladychild

PLUS | Rosie & the Riveters, Cat Turner, and more!

Heading out for spring break? Brand new music to fill up your playlist is here for the taking.

RELEASE RADAR is here to give you the breakdown of your top singles, albums, and videos to check out as you head into your weekend. Get ready to jam out with some of our favorite up-and-coming artists, plus celebrate new stuff from those you already know and love.

Keep ReadingShow less
FILM & TV

REVIEW | "Private Life" at Sundance 2018

Tamara Jenkins opens up the festival with hilarity and heartbreak after a decade absence

Sundance festival kicks off with premiere of Netflix dramedy 'Private Life'

We laugh when people say and do ridiculous things because we know we also say and do equally ridiculous things.

This is the premise of any good comedy, but in order to add dramatic elements to a storyline, it is also required that the plot have some sort of heart-wrenching element at stake for the characters. Tamara Jenkins (whose last major work, The Savages, explored the difficult process of adult children dealing with their ailing father as he developed Alzheimer's) completely understands this as a screenwriter and director. That's why the NYU alum's films are so strong. Her latest is no exception.

Her return to the world of cinema as well as her return to the Sundance Film Festival where she had her first major short film screened comes in the form of Private Life. A couple of aging artists, writer Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) and dramatist Richard (Paul Giamatti) have been trying to have a baby for a while, and as they move later into their forties it's looking less and less likely. So persistent in their efforts they're referred to as "fertility addicts," the couple has tried almost every outlet available to them, almost. When the idea of egg donation appears and the possibility of using a step-niece (Kayli Carter) as the donor dawns on the couple, complex relationships are strained even further as Rachel, Richard, and everyone around them is forced into a hurricane of personal issues turning public.

To say that the humor in the film is simply witty is an understatement. The jokes land, from Hahn realizing that she is old and boring because she wears an Eileen Fisher like her sister-in-law to John Carroll Lynch's supporting role of trying to save a disastrous family Thanksgiving by sending Richard and Rachel home with ample leftovers after they break some awkward news. The lines on this level do not fail across the board. Then, there are the cultural references that take a bit more intelligence, but all the same are enjoyable if you're able to pick up on them. Jenkins makes this film feel so reflective of life with the inclusion of varied levels of humor.

The drama of the film plays out just as well, with Giamatti and Hahn breaking from their usual comedic tones to portray a couple that understands the process of grieving better than most should. It's compelling to see how their discussions about whether or not their continued physical and financial ventures for a baby are worth it, and discuss hard topics such as then last time they had sex or why they wanted a family in the first place when thus far all it has brought them is trauma. In the press conference following the premiere, Jenkins spoke about how these were thoughts and conversations she was exposed to herself in her own attempts at conceiving which then influenced the material. It's apparent and successful.

However, especially in the current social environment, one of the most relevant plot points in the film is when it because clear that it is Rachel is the relationship who cannot conceive. The discussions move toward what it means to be a woman, and whether or not she waited to enjoy the success in her career too long before beginning her family. One member of the audience at the premiere for the film essentially inquired as to whether or not this was Jenkins attempting to make a case to influence young women to freeze their eggs to allow for later childbirths. The answer, of course, is "no," since the procedure is quite costly, time-consuming, and tough on the body. The fact that such a question would even come to mind after two hours of witnessing a female character who is struggling with this mentality of "having it all" that is forced upon women was alarming, to say the least.

Jenkins's film, instead, is working to show the stress and drama that goes into having to feel obligated to have it all, on couples and individuals, and that even when a woman is doing well for herself, there are still so many ways in which society can tell her she is not. Private lives are becoming more public, and with that come consequences as we try to live to unrealistic standard narratives. However, we keep trying, allowing for inspiration and assistant to come as it may.

'Private Life' Stars Love Their Director, Sundance Favorite Tamara Jenkins

Find out more about Private Life here.

Keep ReadingShow less