@skopemag news for january 15, 2019 @ 3:30 pm est

Alice Phoebe Lou releases the “powerful and stunning” new video, “Skin Crawl,” via The FADER

“A song you need to hear today… a powerful and stunning piece of music that bloomed from horrible circumstances.” – The FADER

SUMMER WALKER NAMED APPLE MUSIC’S FIRST UP NEXT ARTIST OF 2019!

Apple Music today announces LVRN/Interscope Records artist Summer Walker as the first Up Next artist of 2019. The influential Up Next series identifies and elevates rising global talent of all genres, and over the past two years has been a key platform for showcasing contemporary R&B breakout artists. Walker will join the ranks of fellow Up Next R&B Grammy-nominated alum like Daniel Caesar, Khalid, 6lack and H.E.R.. The low-key R&B powerhouse who writes with refreshing honesty and has been described as “the love child of Jimi Hendrix and Amy Winehouse,” has become an Apple Music R&B mainstay featured across multiple playlists since the release of her breakout single “CPR” in April 2018. Walker’s “Girls Need Love” track debuted in August and is still #4 on the platform’s R&B charts under the likes of Khalid and Ella Mai (and still in Apple Music’s Top 100 Songs chart overall). Her debut LP, Last Day of Summer is the #2 R&B album on Apple Music and cements Walker’s rising star status as the #8 R&B artist worldwide across Apple Music, up 313% in the last three months.

Jäh Division shares “Isolation Dub” via BrooklynVegan

The reissue is a deluxe version of the original release, the band’s sole output. Initially a 4-track EP, the record has been expanded to include a 5th Joy Division track (“Isolation”), two unreleased originals from a scrapped album, and a bonus 7″ with previously unreleased covers of tracks by Desmond Dekker and Jackie Mittoo from the original sessions.

Agoria releases new single ‘You’re Not Alone’ featuring Blasé

Following the release of his recent single ‘Embrace’, widely acclaimed producer and composer Agoria (aka Sebastien Devaud) reveals ‘You’re Not Alone’. The track features Blasé (half of French act Haute), who is hailed by Agoria as “the perfect portrait of an open-minded generation”

Twain Debut New Song at Brooklyn Vegan, ‘2 E.P.s’ Out January 25 on Keeled Scales

Twain have shared a new song titled “Death (or S.F.?).” Singer and songwriter Mt. Davidson tells us “this song offers a positive notion of death by drawing upon the familiar experiences of sexual awakening or traveling to an exotic city.” Brooklyn Vegan premiered the “warm piano ballad.” Twain will be back on the road come February, first touring with critically acclaimed label-mate Buck Meek, then with art pop legends Rubblebucket. Full list of dates is below.

New SWMRS Song “Trashbag Baby”

Live Well Premieres Music Video For Single “Neck Tattoos”

NY-based emo/punk band Live Well have released a music video for their debut single “Neck Tattoos,” out NOW. The music video for “Neck Tattoos” is the first of many planned 2019 releases for Live Well, as the band gears up for their impending full length album release. The track tackles the theme of wanting to reach out to a previous significant other, despite knowing they are toxic to your mental health. About the release, the band states:

With a debut full length on the docket for 2019, Live Well wanted to kick the year off right with the release of our first music video for our debut single “Neck Tattoos”. The end of a relationship always takes it toll, but it’s about moving past the drama and realizing that something may not always be the best for you even though you want it to be.

ROZES Releases Inspiring New Music Video, “Halfway There”

Multi-platinum singer / songwriter ROZES has released the highly anticipated new music video for her impassioned single, “Halfway There.” Featuring stories of power in the face of adversity and strength in hardship, the music video includes every important and influential woman in ROZES’ life, as well as pro MMA fighter Jaime Colleen and her daughter.

Laura Gibson Debuts “I Don’t Want Your Voice To Move Me” Video via Brooklyn Vegan

Laura Gibson today premiered her new video for “I Don’t Want Your Voice To Move Me,” off her acclaimed album Goners, via Brooklyn Vegan. Directed by Gibson herself, the video was shot over two days across her home state of Oregon, from the forest near Portland, to the Alvord Desert in the Southeastern corner of the state; watch the clip now HERE. Of the video, she says:

Lucy Rose “Conversation” video

The track is from the U.K-based artist’s forthcoming album, No Words Left, out March 22nd via Arts & Crafts.

Jade Bird’s self-titled debut album out April 19 – listen to “I Get No Joy” now!

Breakout singer, songwriter and performer Jade Bird’s highly anticipated, self-titled debut LP will be released April 19 via Glassnote Records and is now available for pre-order. Apple Music’s Beats 1 is featuring new single “I Get No Joy” as World Record today. Of the song, Jade explains, “This song is about the stream of thought that runs through your head at all times as an over thinker. It’s about how that gets in the way of being present in the moment and ultimately ‘getting no joy’ and about the frustration of everyone’s cliché of happiness not making you feel fulfilled either.”

Telekinesis shares video for “Cut the Quick,” the first from new album Effluxion

Billboard premiere: Stone Mecca tackles racism & hypocrisy in new video “Boogeyman”

Today, Dallas-based shredder STONE MECCA unleashed the provocative new video for “Boogeyman,” a track from his recently-released LP Alienman. Mecca told Billboard, who premiered the video this morning, that he is happy to have the song and video become part of the growing dialogue about racism in our society. “It’s right in our faces, man,” he explained. “We have the internet now and people are exposed to a lot more and they can dig up a lot more, and we have this undercurrent of hypocrisy and racism, and that’s a sad thing. Anything I can do in my art to get people to see things a little different or open their eyes is something I’ll strive for.”

Rosie Tucker (LA) shares “Gay Bar”

“For example the song ‘Gay Bar’ is about having a good time at a cowboy gay bar in the Valley,”says the Los Angeles-based Tucker, 24, who uses they/them pronouns. “But the sample I used to create the sound at the end was a quote from an old interview Dusty Springfield gave to Gay News in 1970. Her refusal to label her own sexuality just about destroyed her career, though nothing she said would strike anyone as particularly edgy by today’s terms, I think.”

Watch Death Valley Girls’ new video for “Street Justice”

Justus Proffit Announces Debut LP

LA-based Justus Proffit today announced his debut full-length album L.A.’s Got Me Down will be released on March 8th via Bar/None Records. Brooklyn Vegan premiered the lead single “Painted In The Sound,” saying it’s “a nice dose of jangly folk rock that makes the record look pretty promising.”

THE DANDY WARHOLS SHARE NEW VIDEO FOR ‘MOTOR CITY STEEL’

BILLBOARD PREMIERES ASIAHN’S VISUALS FOR LIKE YOU!

Emilie Kahn (formerly Emilie & Ogden) shares new track “Will You?”

Today, Emilie Kahn shares “Will You?”, a brand new song from her upcoming album Outro, available everywhere February 22nd via Secret City Records. Les Inrocks premiered the track earlier today, with Emilie describing it as “a song that is a meditation on death, something I think about far too often. It was originally intended to remain a solo acoustic song, then somehow, it evolved into a much bigger pop sound without losing it’s melancholic tone.” Listen to it on Soundcloud, and revisit “Island,” the stunning first single via YouTube.