Artist Making Waves: Whitney - "No Woman", "Golden Days", and "No Matter Where We Go" [indie rock / alt-country / soul]

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About a year and a half ago, Chicago indie rock band Smith Westerns announced their breakup after penning three solid albums together. Since then, the band's frontman Cullen Omori has released a solo record on Sub Pop while guitarist Max Kakacek and drummer Julien Ehrlich (ex-Unknown Mortal Orchestra) have gone on to form the band Whitney, subsequently signing with Secretly Canadian.

Ehrlich and Kakacek share songwriting duties in Whitney, crafting warm, melancholic songs layered with jangly acoustic guitar, Kakacek's signature twangy guitar leads, triumphant horn sections, and topped with Ehrlich's soulful, unassuming falsetto. They recorded with a full band in California with Foxygen's Jonathan Rado, which makes sense seeing as both band's songs sound like they could have come from the late 60s.

Whitney will be on tour for the next couple months in support of their debut album Light Upon The Lake. Go out and catch a show and pick up a copy of their record when it hits shelves June 3rd. Check out the first two singles from the album that have been bringing Whitney lots of positive attention, "No Woman" and "Golden Days", plus their first demo, "No Matter Where We Go".

Swell Album: Mothers - When You Walk a Long Distance You Are Tired [indie rock / folk / experimental]

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Mothers is an indie band from Athens, Georgia with one hell of a debut album and an unforgettable live performance to back it up. When You Walk a Long Distance You Are Tired came out a couple weeks ago and is currently my favorite release of 2016. Singer/guitarist Kristine Leschper's gorgeously fragile voice bears a striking resemblance to that of fellow indie folkstress Angel Olsen (whose last album wound up at #2 of our best of 2014 list), but Mothers makes a name for themselves by experimenting with richer instrumentation and more complex compositions.

What begins as a simple folk song with acoustic guitar and piano, the beautiful album opener "Too Small for Eyes" really takes off when it welcomes a sweeping string orchestra into the mix about halfway through. Mothers flips the script on the next couple of songs, "It Hurts Until It Doesn't" and "Copper Mines", introducing the listener to the more rock-driven sound that they do so well, with busy intertwining guitars and powerful percussion. Not unlike other bands drawing from multiple genres, on the rest of When You Walk a Long Distance You Are Tired Mothers balances these two different styles song to song before leading us to the epic 7-minute rollercoaster of a closer, "Hold Your Own Hand", which alternates between uptempo with downtempo, catapulting you into space one moment while channeling veteran post-rockers Explosions in the Sky, then abruptly cutting the power to let you slowly drift away with Leschper's voice as your only beacon. Instead of letting you coast to a smooth stop, Mothers caps their debut with a bang to remember, one final shot for the stars.

Stream When You Walk a Long Distance You Are Tired below and get your hands on a copy of the album here.