MUSIC

Leon Bridges and Khruangbin: Texas's Sun-Drenched Dream Team

Bridges and Khruangbin invite you to soak up the Texas sun.

Photo by: Jonathan Velasquez / Unsplash

There's something particularly satisfying about seeing incredibly talented artists collaborate with each other.

Today, an unexpected but beautiful collaboration entered soundwaves when Leon Bridges and Khruangbin announced their forthcoming joint EP and dropped their first single.

Khruangbin is a group inspired by '60s and '70s Thai rock, borrowing from psychedelia, funk, surf rock, and Zouk, Indian, and Middle Eastern music. Leon Bridges is a soul singer-songwriter who also draws from '50s and '60s styles, but the two artist's music is most similar in terms of its emotional resonance and peaceful, expansive atmosphere.

Leon Bridges - River (Video)www.youtube.com


Khruangbin - Cómo Te Quiero (Official Video)www.youtube.com

They're also tied together by shared roots: Both groups are from Texas, which might explain their connection. There's no question that their forthcoming EP's lead single—called "Texas Sun"—is inspired by their homeland.

Cinematic and distinctly evocative of the desert landscape, "Texas Sun" feels like it could easily soundtrack the next dreamy Western or Americana masterpiece. Centering Bridges' weather-worn voice and Khruangbin's distinct beachy, reverb-soaked guitars, it's a masterful melding of talents.

Their EP, also called Texas Sun, will be released on February 7th, via Dead Oceans and Columbia Records. It will consist of four tracks, "Texas Sun," "Midnight," "C-Side," and "Conversion."

Khruangbin & Leon Bridges - Texas Sun (Official Audio)www.youtube.com

MUSIC

Nora Rothman, Founder of Queer/Femme Music Community Earhart, Premiers New Single

"Strange" is the bittersweet first single off activist and feminist Nora Rothman's forthcoming EP, 'Nothing New.'

Nora Rothman is setting what should be a precedent for every musician.

The singer-songwriter has long been blending her musical output with activist work, and she practices the feminist ethos that she preaches. Today, she released a new single called "strange"—an ethereal, buoyant new track that meshes her honeyed vocals and bittersweet lyrics with expert production from Kate Ellwanger (aka Dot).

The track is the first taste of her upcoming EP, Nothing New, out on July 12 on female-led label Unspeakable Records. It explores common themes of the human experience such as longing, nostalgia, and the gap between the past and the future.

It's the product of a musician who's spent much of her life blending the arts with social justice work. Rothman was born in Los Angeles, and after migrating to the East Coast to study creative writing at Brown, she returned to LA to pursue music and acting. She took a hiatus from the arts to serve as a field organizer for the Clinton campaign in 2016, and upon Donald Trump's election, she vowed to dedicate herself to uplifting "womxn's" voices through her work ("womxn" being an umbrella term for femmes, gender-nonconforming, and trans people that Rothman uses to describe the demographic her work is intended for).

She released her first EP in 2017. It was followed by a Remix EP that was created with a lineup of all-female-identifying producers such as Birch and Libra Rising, and 50% of the proceeds went to Planned Parenthood. During its release, Rothman vowed to work with exclusively female and gender-nonconforming artists, and since then, she has teamed up with artists such as Pakistani illustrator Areeba Siddique, who created the visuals for Rothman's song "Truth or Dare," and many more. Rothman has also used her artistic platform to support other feminist organizations like EMILY's List, selling out a direct-to-vinyl fundraiser for the foundation, which supports female politicians.

In 2018, Rothman launched Earhart, a platform dedicated to "celebrating femme, trans and gnc artists." Named after the legendary pilot, it's intended to foster support and community among that demographic, and features resources such as running lists of womxn in electronic music and in composition. It also curates regular playlists and features profiles of up-and-coming artists.

Rothman's music itself has drawn comparisons to the work of Joni Mitchell, Nora Jones, and other great songwriters who blend soft guitar-driven melodies with introspective lyrics. It's hard to say whether the best part of her work is that it was created by exclusively womxn or that, with its blend of dream-pop gauziness and 70's folk motifs, it's a pure delight to listen to—or maybe each these things uplifts the other, ultimately creating something truly great and profoundly relevant for our times.

Listen to "strange" here, and stay tuned for Nothing New, out on July 12.


Eden Arielle Gordon is a writer and musician from New York. Follow her on Twitter @edenarielmusic.


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