Tag: Art Fag Recordings

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Colleen Green’s Anthemic “It’s Nice to Be Nice”

Colleen Green is a Dunstable, MA-born, Los Angeles-based lo-fi rock/indie pop singer/songwriter and guitarist. Green’s career started in earnest with her full-length debut, 2011’s Milo Goes to Compton, an effort initially released as a cassette and later on vinyl through Art Fag Recordings.

The Dunstable-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and guitarist’s debut caught the attention of Seattle-based indie label Hardly Art Records, who signed her and released her sophomore album, 2013’s Sock It To Me. Green’s third album, 20115’s I Want to Grow Up was released to critical acclaim with LA Weekly readers voting her that year’s Best Solo Artist. The album was also her most commercially successful album to date, perhaps as a result of album single “Wild One” being featured on the Netflix series Love.

Thematically, I Want To Grow Up found Green at a familiar yet profound existential crisis: Although almost always cool, she didn’t necessarily feel so at that point: Seemingly too young to be free of insecurities, she was old enough to be sick of them running — and ruining — her life.

Green’s forthcoming third album Cool is her first album in six years. Slated for a September 10, 2021 release through Hardly Art, the album’s material reportedly finds her figuring out what it means to be grown up — and realizing that being an adult, who has somehow managed to live and survive through a full and messy life is pretty damn cool. Co-produced by Gordon Raphael and Green and featuring beats by hip-hop producer Aqua and drumming from Brendan Eder, the album was recorded in several different Southern California-based studios including Glendale’s comp-ny, North Hollywood’s Tenement Yard and Los Angeles’ Cosmic Vinyl. Sonically, the album sees Green retaining the lo-fi aesthetic that has won her praise and fans globally while pushing her songs to a higher level: burnt out on bad feelings, Green wanted to have fun with melodies and beats while keeping her lo-fi aesthetic intact.

The album features “I Want to Be a Dog,” a single released to praise from the likes of The New York Times, The Fader, Stereogum, Under the Radar, DIY, BrooklynVegan, Spin, Our Culture, Closed Captioned and others. Cool’s and latest single “It’s Nice to Be Nice” is a breezy bit of power pop centered around chugging power chords, an athemic chorus and razor sharp hooks. But underneath the big choruses and power chords, the song thematically is a reminder — both to the songwriter and the listener — that in life, you often get what you give, so it’s important to be the best person you can be. And in a world that regularly seems on the verge of collapse, the song’s message seems rather pertinent.

y Renee Lusano, the recently released video was shot on a boat, just off the Los Angeles coast. We see Green making herself a simple dinner of spaghetti and meatballs and hanging out on the boat. But we see someone, who has finally gained comfort in her own skin and mind. As Green calls it, “a nice video for a nice song.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Cold Showers Release an Intimate Visual for “Faith”

Formed back in 2010, the Los Angeles-based post-punk act Cold Showers released a handful of singles through Mexican Summer Records and Art Fag Recordings that quickly established the band’s reputation for crafting a sound and aesthetic that would have fit in well among the classic Factory Records and Rough Trade catalogs.

In 2012, the Los Angeles-based quartet signed to Dais Records, who released their critically applauded full-length debut Love and Regret. Building upon a growing profile, the members of the band went on successful tours with The Soft Moon and Veronica Falls, which they promptly followed with decidedly pop-orientated material that was initially released as a handful of singles and live cassette releases. This new pop-leaning direction filtered through the writing and recording sessions for their sophomore album Matter of Choice, an effort that found the band crafting much more polished material while retaining the piston-precision rhythm section and post-punk-like hooks that won them acclaim. 

Slated for a May 24, 2019 release through their longtime label home, Dais Records, Cold Showers’ third album, the Tony Bevilacqua-co-written Motionless reportedly finds the band taking greater control of their creative process, with the band further refining their sound through the incorporation of ambient sounds, acoustic arrays and female vocals. The album’s lead single “Faith,” a dance floor friendly track centered around arpeggiated synths, thumping beats, a motorik groove, slashing bass lines, crooned vocals and layers of distortion pedal effects-led guitars, and a soaring hook. And while retaining the post punk meets shoegaze sound that has won them attention, the song focuses on the transitory nature of our reality and of shame with a swooning urgency.

Directed by Chris Slater, the recently released video for “Faith” is inspired by the intimacy and voyeurism of Warhol’s screen tests, capturing the awkwardness, the simmering hate and uncertainty, the pride and boundless joy of its subjects.