Rising Appalachia has spent their musical career focused on social, cultural, political, and environmental justice. Far before Trump’s presidency, sisters Leah Song and Chloe Smith were singing on the bywaters of New Orleans about envisioning positive change.
The Smith sisters have taken hold of their namesake, working as true wordsmiths of protest movements. The two walk their own talk, showing up in solidarity of national and global protests like #NoDAPL and Occupy Wall Street. Their long legacy of being on the frontlines has been the guiding inspiration for their music.
After years of touring globally, from Italy to Costa Rica, at festivals like Symbiosis and Envision, their latest release “Resilient” is seeing far overdue critical acclaim. Last week Rolling Stone named them among their 10 New Country Artists You Need to Know, calling their music “protest music for the modern age.”
The video for “Resilient” is void of color and frivolous extras; with nothing to cover themselves, the dancers and musicians alike offer only the truest essence of human resilience.
Describing the video, Chloe Smith says, “I wanted to strip away ‘things’ and center the visuals of this song on bodies, voices, instruments, and the simplicity of how each artist chose to express the word, ‘RESILIENT.’ In a time of so much noise and chatter, this song and video felt important to be a more elegant look at humans of all backgrounds and how we are moving through difficult times with deep expression and raw art.”
Their sentiment, philosophies, and unwavering ideals remind me of a quote from David Bowie, who said “tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.” These sisters have been listening, deeply transforming their visions into song, singing in the future they hear coming.
After a recent cameo in Childish Gambino’s sensational video “This is America,” SZA and Donald Glover pair up again in this short and sultry love story, from last year’s impeccable Ctrl LP.
Is it a cult, a genre-bending psych band, or both? Golden Dawn Arkestra share a truly trippy video for “Wings of Ra” just ahead of the June 1st release of their latest LP Children of the Sun.
With the release of her debut single “1950” last February, King Princess instantaneously became the newest icon of queer pop. Unlike her first single, which details the sensations of love won, her newest release “Talia” is a song of love lost.
Set in an airplane graveyard, the latest from folk group Handmade Moments is a more somber tune than the jazz infused, camaraderie inducing, back porch diddies of their familiar repertoire. The lyrics “This old plane is going down” could be a metaphor for many things, but the band’s tendency for political discourse makes it an easy comparison to the United States government. The song is from their new album Paw Paw Tree, which came out May 21st.
