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The Atlantic coastline often conjures up a specific set of images: sandy beaches, densely populated boardwalks, and colorful rows of umbrellas. In New Jersey, these images persist alongside those of its own cultural microcosm, one of working class pride, vintage automobiles, and all the woes on which Springsteen built his career. It’s at this nexus of idyllic and down-to-earth where you’ll find singer/songwriter HESS’s debut solo LP Lamplight Motel. But make no mistake, this is not your typical, “Rock & roller discovers Bruce” record; the ethos has been ingrained from the beginning. HESS was born in the same town as Springsteen, Long Branch, NJ, and with Lamplight Motel, has crafted a fully-realized portrait of life and death on the New Jersey coast—equally beautiful, seedy, and forlorn—all built upon dreamy layers of warm, vintage synthesizers, punchy electronic percussion and soulful, R&B-inspired vocals. 

For the past decade, HESS has made a name for himself as the principal songwriter and vocalist for New York rock & roll powerhouse Mail the Horse, garnering praise from media outlets including Brooklyn Vegan, Paste, Spin, American Songwriter, Relix, PopMatters, and more for his hand in crafting the particular brand of boisterous, rootsy bar-rock that earned the band festival slots at Bonnaroo, Firefly, South By Southwest & more. Simultaneously, HESS has established himself as one of the more sought-after keyboardists in New York City, steadily building a resume of live performance and session work that includes work with comedian John Early and his variety shows “Literally Me” and “Now More Than Ever,” touring with staple NYC Americana acts Don DiLego and Hollis Brown, and playing keys for East Village legend Jesse Malin in his full band live-stream series throughout the COVID-19 lockdown. Now, with the creation of Lamplight Motel, HESS has gracefully moved into his auteur period, taking control of his sound and recording his most personal work to date. “When you’re working with a band, you don’t get to put yourself into the music as much, it’s about the band as a whole,” says HESS. “This was kind of my first exploration into more personal storytelling. My old songs would be inspired by real events or people, but I wouldn’t dig too deep. I think I was afraid what being that vulnerable might bring out in myself.”

To bring his vision to life, HESS enlisted Savior Adore’s Paul Hammer and spent roughly a year and a half commuting back and forth between his home in Brooklyn and Hammer’s studio in Upstate New York, crashing in Hammer’s guest room between marathon recording sessions. The hours of travel and erratic schedule proved worth it in the end, with Hammer’s production savvy leading to the creation of the lush, expansive soundscapes that set the tone for the entirety of Lamplight Motel.  “Paul and I were always on the same page with the aesthetic ideas for the album,” says HESS. “We talked about mood a lot, put up pictures of 70s and 80s motels, the beach, a lot of nostalgic Jersey shore images. That’s my background and my spiritual home, so we channeled that and built the sound around that aesthetic.”

Sonically, Lamplight Motel blends 70s-inspired folk with modern psych-rock and synth-pop, while nodding towards hints of classic R&B and New Wave. On the hazy lead single “I’ll Drive,” HESS pulls influences from folk and funk and wraps them in layers of swirling, Tame Impala-esque psych. The sound is at once dreamy and melancholy, conjuring images of neon-bathed streets and palm trees, but also conveying a deep wistfulness. “‘I’ll Drive’ is for people who need the road to feel like themselves,” says HESS. “After spending years touring, many of my friends and I are more familiar with the highways than with our own families and friends. ‘I’ll Drive’ is an anthem for those of us who, when an argument hits the tipping point and we can’t face the realities of life, just drive.”

This tension between Lamplight Motel’s laid-back aesthetic and emotionally bare lyrical content results in an album greater than the sum of its already-exceptional parts. The contrast continues throughout the record, such as on “Believer Outta Me,” a stark exploration of religion and faith in the wake of loss inspired by the death of HESS’ grandfather, that opens as a piano ballad before warping into a psych-pop groove complete with 80s-inspired synths, swirling, chorus-heavy guitars and electronic hand claps. “While I was writing Lamplight Motel, some important people in my life started dying,” says HESS. “I found it was a little helpful for me to feel like they were still around in some way. It helped me deal with the loss, especially with my grandfather. It’s about the process of becoming a believer in something, even if I don’t know what.”

The concept of loss permeates throughout almost the entirety of Lamplight Motel whether it’s the loss of life outlined in “Believer Outta Me” and “No Delays (For Josephine),” the loss of romance (“Red Clouds”), or loss of innocence (“Whisper Wildwood”), while the album’s closer & title track is a reflection on life and love from the window next to a hospital bed, inspired by HESS’ uncle’s battle with lung cancer and the comfort of a home filled with memories.

Lamplight Motel is HESS’ reintroduction as a songwriting powerhouse.  As a solo artist outside of the confines of the traditional band structure, his sonic palette has expanded and his storytelling has become more poignant. With its tropical-tinged hazy melodies backing HESS’ emotionally resonant lyricism, Lamplight Motel is a full-bodied exploration of growth and loss in the working class and a reminder that darkness and loss don’t only exist in the low-lit basements and bedrooms of the world, but in seemingly idyllic beach town settings as well. 

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Steph Bishop and Robert Maril, former bandmates in queer country outfit Kings, spent years apart before reuniting as Tender Creature. Leaning into the uncertainties of transformation, instead of struggling to recreate something long gone, is in part what makes the duo’s electronic folk-pop debut, An Offering, so compelling. Bishop’s lyrics are informed by the wisdom that comes from hindsight. Lilting vocals summon frissons of emotional nostalgia in thematically heavy songs, each rife with evocative imagery—clenched fists, the salt of the sea, torn and ripped seams. Maril is playful in his digital production, bringing a certain electricity, voltage varying, to every track. 

Bishop’s tendency toward universally pleasing melodies is bent somewhat by Maril—classically trained in contemporary music, his fondness for digital music pushes him to break outside song structure status quo. “Whether it’s tweaking the melody slightly or singing the same melody over a different chord so there’s a little dissonance,” Bishop says, “Robert pushes us in directions I wouldn’t normally go.”

The songs make it clear that confronting trauma, rather than leaving it to fester, is the obvious choice: An Offering is an exploration of the painstaking work of untangling your hardships, your burdens and your heartbreak. From there, you’ll see your past and imagine your future with unprecedented vantage. 

To create the EP, songs were crafted mostly remotely, sending beats and rough cuts back and forth; Bishop lives in upstate New York, while Maril is a few hours south, in Hell’s Kitchen. Creating music in this way encouraged Bishop to explore new methods of songwriting. “I was just alone in my living room listening to this beat [Maril sent], singing nonsense over it,” Bishop says.“I had no idea where it was going to go, but it felt really good, and really natural. It felt freeing.” Maril jumps in, “I had been obsessed with this beat and sent a loop of it to Steph. I couldn’t believe it when I got back a sketch that turned into ‘If Anyone Asks.'”

The very subject matter of that track is what made its creation possible: Bishop says the song is about realizing you’ve lost yourself in a relationship and then remembering who you are. It was through reclaiming that strength that Bishop ultimately felt more grounded—and more comfortable in taking risks as a songwriter. “I think for a long time I felt a little timid about writing something that wasn’t going to catch someone’s ear super quickly; it felt important to sit down and write a song and sort of finish it and close it up like a book,” Bishop says. “Recently I feel compelled to try out different things and be a little braver in that way.” 

That’s not the only act of courage that went into An Offering; lyrically, Bishop addresses the kind of memories we often recoil at recalling. Bishop wrote the titular track about being with their grandmother when she passed on; they understood the experience as a gift—”An Offering.” “Climbing Trees” is about Bishop watching someone close to them struggle with his family’s response to his queerness back when they hadn’t found the words to express their own.

Reflecting on the death of one of their former students in the thick hopelessness after Trump’s election, Bishop wrote, “The Quietest Car,” a slow and pensive number that’s accented by the weeping of Maril’s cello. The song finishes with a gentle crescendo that makes no attempt to obscure the sad mood, yet reminds the listener of the inevitability of moving forward—and that we must make the most of our time.“The normalizing of conversation around things that might be uncomfortable is a push that I feel in a lot of ways right now,” Bishop says. “For a lot of different people.” 

If Tender Creature feels personal, that’s because it is—intensely so. The duo produced, engineered and performed the entirety of An Offering themselves. Bishop, primary songwriter and lead vocalist, plays guitar and ukulele; Maril, the primary producer and engineer, plays piano and cello, and programmed the synths. Close vocal harmonies, a touchstone of their work, are a constant thread throughout the EP.

Growth is difficult, even when you want it. Finding a way to reframe the difficulties in your past to shape a better future is precarious work, and learning who you are is a perpetual process. An Offering will resonate as a warm, helpful ushering along for many.   

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Pennsylvania art-punk outfit This Way to the EGRESS gets downright introspective on their new album RETROSPECTIVA! (out Halloween Day 2020), all the while forcing you to move your body to Balkan beats and burlesque bop. It’s a modern journey through Tom Waits-esque folk-punk junkyards, esoteric worlds of vaudevillian juke joints and underground big band Great Gatsby parties. This is an album of hindsight and metamorphosis. This trickster band of misfits digs deep into their subconscious to find meaning in this increasingly complex world of death, pandemic and societal upheaval. We’re all just wondering if we’ll make it out alive. Spoiler alert, none of us do.

RETROSPECTIVA! is EGRESS’ sixth album. They’ve played festivals alongside heavy hitters like M.I.A., Cypress Hill & The Specials and shared stages with Squirrel Nut Zippers, World/Inferno Friendship Society, Aurelio Voltaire, Red Elvises and The Dresden Dolls, including being Amanda Palmer’s backing band at her New Year’s Eve Bash. The new album was recorded and produced by Dan Shatzky at his NYC Vibromonk studio, a mecha for the NYC gypsy/klezmer-punk scene with credits including Gogol Bordello, Balkan Beat Box & Firewater.

“Working with Dan was crucial,” says vocalist Sarah Shown. “This album took on a life of it’s own at Vibromonk. He produced and helped with arranging. He put us in uncomfortable situations, tearing down and rebuilding songs. It was a pilgrimage for us. We came through this as a new band and new people.”

EGRESS is a band that thrives in transformation. They’re genre fluid, where roots, jazz and world music influences meld with punk and the experimental. The band name itself comes from P.T. Barnum grifting his audience to exit his American Museum in New York City, featuring oddball sideshow attractions like the Figi Mermaid, dwarfs and bearded ladies, so they’d have to pay again to re-enter. The music of EGRESS is an indoctrination into secret worlds of underground art and performance. Their live shows are renowned as an immersive experience involving elaborate costumes, props, puppetry and dance, creating a respite and a meeting place for other avant garde bohemian types. RETROSPECTIVA! catalogs their own odyssey into growing older, confronting the death of loved ones and navigating their own physical, metaphysical and spiritual paths forward.

This Way to the EGRESS’ primary songwriters are power duo Taylor Galassi (vocals, accordion, cello) and Sarah Shown (vocals, keys) who live, work, love and psychonautically explore together—creating the framework that holds up the skeleton of the larger EGRESS body. Jaclyn Kidd (guitar) brought the only other track not written by Galassi or Shown on this record with her “Shower Song.” John Wentz (tuba, vocals) and Nick Pecca (drums) round out the remainder of the core band, but Ian Francis LeSage (trumpet), Joe “Bone” Lynch (trombone) and Rachel Galassi (violin, iola) also brought their talents to this record.

Confronting death became a major theme of RETROSPECTIVA! after the passing of both of Galassi’s parents and the death of Shown’s sister within three years of one another. “The End is Nigh” is about confronting your mortality head on, while recognizing the skeletons in your closet. “Gravedigger” deals with the political state of the world, our innocence in childhood and the responsibility of adulthood—watching old systems crumble and seeing what’s going to emerge from the rubble.

Similarly, “City Lights,” in the wake of Taylor’s parents’ deaths, deals with how life can be overwhelming and sometimes it’s just easier to check out. It engages with how you can prepare your whole life for something that may never come. Touring from town to town, yet the city lights are always the same. Galassi’s melancholy vocals contrast with dramatic orchestral sweeps, while Shown’s vocals on each chorus seem to almost comfort Galassi, giving him shelter and companionship when he needs it most.

“I’ve always felt that life has a natural way of weaving in and out of the ebb and flow,” says Galassi. “Well, we’re here to awaken the mundane to keep things interesting. Traveling sideshows were constantly on the move, waking up town after town, telling people, ‘We’ve arrived, come see the show!’ We have also arrived.”

The dreamworld of “Lights Out” delves into that outer/inner duality as it encompasses both the passing of Shown’s sister while simultaneously dealing with the subconscious demons of anxiety and depression. The song conjures images of Dumbo dealing with pink elephants and old-timey cartoon skeletons dancing with black cats in cemeteries.

RETROSPECTIVA! delves into different concepts of transient states. Our bodies will one day be dirt again. But, can our minds transcend this mortal coil? “Skin and Bones” confronts how we spend our time and energy. We’re all going to the same place at the end, while humanity will keep going. “Knock Knock” came to Galassi fully formed as he looked at his reflection in a dirty living room window in the middle of the night. It’s about owning up to your regrets and moving forward or the train will just leave without you. RETROSPECTIVA! ,at its core, is an album of reflection and growth, a sentiment that seems to be mirroring the current American zeitgeist of social equality in race, class and gender.

Album closer “Last Call” brings us all together in these uncertain times, with gang vocals in the style of traditional drinking ballads. We can imagine the members of EGRESS and their fans swaying with drinks in hand and singing along as this ship called society sinks into the abyss. Hopefully the mystic work we’ve done with This Way to the EGRESS here on Earth has prepared us for the afterlife. 

RETROSPECTIVA! is an upbeat, fun record built to be danced to, but that often contrasts with dark introspective lyrics. That’s exactly what makes this such an exciting album. The members of EGRESS already have side projects and solo projects waiting in the wings as we patiently await the next record. Until then, we’ll continue to listen to RETROSPECTIVA! with our friends and family on the astral plane.

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“This Way to the EGRESS raises the spirits with a rousing back alley Jazz as they ask for a little comfort for their departing souls with ‘Whiskey on My Grave.’” – The Alternate Root

“… [Egress] never slow down like a madcap carnival ride possessed by ghosts — this promises to be one heck of a live show.” – PopDose

“See No Evil” [is] a cabaret-inflected story told with horns and a charismatic vocal performance.” – Magnet Magazine

“They are part circus vaudevillians, part trickster brats and they put on an absolutely amazing performance worthy of Tom Waits. ” – SLUG Magazine