Watch: KT Tunstall - "Feel It All"

KT Tunstall is a long way from her native Scotland in her new video for "Feel It All" but the desert setting is also accurately reflective of her new, more back-to-basics style of the song and her forthcoming album Invisible Empire/Crescent Moon due August 6 in the states (June 10 in the UK). Tunstall recorded her new tracks in Tucson, AZ, with producer Howe Gelb (Giant Sand) and there's a low-keyed, country folksiness to "Feel It All." "I followed my path of truth and ended up in a different place," say Tunstall of the album. Indeed. More on Invisible Empire/Crescent Moon from the DC News Feed here.

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Listen: Gregory Alan Isakov - "Saint Valentine"

"Saint Valentine" give us a peak at the forecast from The Weatherman, the third album from Boulder, Colorado singer/songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov and the follow up to his critically adored 2009 album This Empty Northern Hemisphere. There's a bit of mid-career Paul Simon-ish jaunt to "Saint Valentine"'s effortlessly beautiful melody, right down to the sweet backing harmonies and interesting chord changes. This one's so immediately easy to like it's almost scary. Look for The Weatherman July 9.

Gregory Alan Isakov - 'Saint Valentine'(from The Weatherman)

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RADAR: Sons of the East

Jack Rollins, Nic Johnston and Dan Wallage are Sons of the East: three friends from the beaches of Sydney, Australia who a couple years back began writing and playing their own loose-limbed folk/pop songs as, they note, "just a few fellas having some fun." That strumfest mood along with an unassuming Jack Johnson-ish style that sounds crafted from a few beers around an oceanside bonfire wafts through the Sons' jangly melodies and rough-hewn vocals. Hardly the navel-gazing introspective types, the trio may be found playing any number of clubs along the New South Wales coastline but there's a sense that these songs should be played as loud as possible and late at night under the stars (ideally with the sound of the surf in the background). New single (and video below) "Hold On" pretty much captures the band's essence before the second verse: acoustic guitar and tasteful piano lines opening up into a toe-tapping, head-bobbing indie folk gem complete with a rollicking rhythm and a banjo dancing above the fray.

Sons of the East - 'Hold On'

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RADAR: Alice and the Glass Lake

Alice and the Glass Lake is the musical stage name of Wisconsin-born, Brooklyn-based singer and songwriter Alice Lake. It is also that space between real and imagined, she reflects, "the lens through which I live my dreams. It’s an escapist place of possibility and heartbreak. And it’s a sonic space to become lost and find truth." Big concepts, big ideas. So it's only fitting that Evolution, the June 11 debut EP from Alice and the Glass Lake, be an equally expansive musical canvas for Lake's imaginative and dramatic art/popping electronics. Evolution's five tracks balance grand progressive themes with the bold strokes and vibrant palette of more modern plugged-in artists like Imogen Heap and the more ambient leanings of Snowblink. Songs like aptly titled "Luminous" (stream below) and the just-released "Higher" mesh electronic orchestration with a strong rhythmic undertow, Lake's soaring vocals the ideal vessel for traversing the Evolution's opulent melodic structures. Watch the video teaser for "Higher" below...

Alice and the Glass Lake - 'Higher' (from Evolution)

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DC Weekly New Release Recap

Plenty of new albums to sort through this week as new music from !!! (chk chk chk, you know), Fleetwood Mac, Iggy and The Stooges and the Eagles (DVD) soaks up most of the digital ink. But, as always, we've got a few more lesser knowns that you may want to consider. Like the fine debut albums from Elena Tonra's Daughter and the buzzed U.K. alt/pop outfit Story Books. We've also taken a fancy to new albums from singer/songwriters Sara Melson, Keaton Simons and Denison Witmer as well as Swedish import Anna Bergendahl's U.S. debut produced by Larry Klein. Also worth checking out: Alessi's Ark, Gabrielle Aplin, Hawk and Dove, Cayucas and Shannon McNally's tribute to Bobby Charles -- Small Town Talk -- with Dr. John. Read the DC features, link to music streams and videos and take a gander at the full listing below...

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Watch: Parlours - "Slowly From The Earth"

"One of the nicest surprises of the year" is how we summed up All Is Here, the 2012 long-player debut from the Des Moines band Parlours. "The come on is subtle and sweet, the mood warm and sultry, recalling a style reminiscent of 10,000 Maniacs, Mazzy Star and the latest crop of Ingrid-Michaelson-schooled introspective female folk/poppers glimpsed through the rosy haze of 4AD lenses." While the band's founder and frontwoman Dana Halferty wrote most of the songs on All Is Here, the album's powerful five-minute closer "Slowly From the Earth" was penned by bandmember Steve Bergeron who also offers some interesting vocal play to a song that he simply sums up as "a break up song" adding, "it's basically two people and it's not working out and they know it." The "break up" gets literal in the recently premiered video as an old piano and a sharp axe end get up close and personal in a shattering climax. More DC on Parlours here...

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