Thus Love: https://thuslove.bandcamp.com/
Mixed by Matthew Hall and Rich Costey (on “Birthday Song”, “All Pleasure”, and “Get Stable”) and mastered by Bob Weston, All Pleasure was recorded as live as possible, with a bare minimum of overdubs, capturing the sheer infectious ecstasy that comes from a group of people sharing space together, making a divine racket. On top of being just a great album, it’s also a persuasive argument for ditching the algorithm, going off the grid, and finding a barn to hole up in with some friends and a bunch of instruments. On “House on the Hill,” Echo sneeringly sums up the empty feeling of living for nothing but likes: “Anything for convenience / anything for the gram,” she sings. “It feels like we’re never gonna get out of here.” Put on All Pleasure, tap into the energy and the message that THUS LOVE is putting out, and you just might find an escape.
“On their second album Hammer Of My Own, the band weds its dense, gauzy, texture-heavy indie rock to a formidable rhythmic chassis previously unheard in their music. Hammer Of My Own wastes no time in easing us into the band’s new sound, exploding with energy from its opening moments and recalling the miraculous early-‘90s collision of alternative rock and rave music that brought the world Primal Scream and the Stone Roses. Lead singer Jonah Paul Smith’s vocals are hushed and soothing with a worldly, cynical edge that keeps them from blending into the mix, while guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Julian Smith splashes broad strokes across the canvas with raucous guitar noise and buffeting walls of synth. Surprises and left turns abound, like the disco breakdown on “Pilates” that connects latter-day trends in physical self-care with the ‘80s Jane Fonda tradition, yet the band retains an expansive, miles-wide atmosphere that updates the best in classic dream-pop and shoegaze for New York in the 2020s. Even at just over half an hour, Hammer Of My Own is one of the biggest rock albums you’ll hear all year.”
Texas-born, NC native singer-songwriter Madison Grifaldo (Madisinn) always heard whimsical voices, dissonant harmonies, and a wide texture of instrumentation dancing inside her head. She began recording self tapes in 2016 but didn’t release anything until fall of 2022. Her music has been described as “nurtured in a world closely occupied by beautiful voices” & having a “lavender and velvet lullaby voice.” She however describes it as a mixture of everything she loves and feels. Madisinn draws her vocal influences from her classical upbringing in music and her love for great American songwriting (Judee Sill, Janis Ian, Linda Perhacs, Liz Phair, Kim Deal, Hope Sandoval, etc.)
Madisinn’s first studio EP “The Sun on My Skin” was recorded by artist Samuel Beasley at RFG Studio in Boone, NC. In the past year Madisinn released two singles “Bad Again” and “Go Away” which were both produced in Wilmington, NC. Currently, Madisinn is going to begin recording her sophomore ep in the winter of 2025.
