Happy Friday! New singles on Happens.vip Alternative Downloads this week from Blame My Youth and Michael Marcagi. Declan McKenna has his long awaited new album out today. Yesterday, Vampire Weekend announced their highly anticipated new album, Only God Was Above Us will drop on April 5th. 

Mike Oz has his final ‘Ozmosis’ show on KFRR (New Rock 104.1)/Fresno on Sunday 2/11. Pat Gallagher shifts from mornings to middays at WRIS (The Resistance 106.7)/Madison with The Greg Beharrell Show debuting in mornings. Yea Networks has another new Alternative affiliate for The Greg Beharrell Show with KZIA-HD4 (X107.5)/Cedar Rapids running the show in middays. 

Giancarlo Cordasco is no longer with RCA and Lana Abruscato has exited Arista. So sad to hear about the passing of groundbreaking artist and radio DJ Mojo Nixon on February 7th at the age of 66.  

Tonight, Vacations is the musical guest on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. 

This Week’s New Music Discovery Downloads

Blame My Youth “The Break” (Big Loud Rock)  

L.A.-based Blame My Youth is Sean Van Fleet, originally from Chicago band, Empires. “The Break” is the follow up single to “Prizefighter” from Blame My Youth, who released a debut EP, Dance With My Demons in 2022. On the new single, Van Fleet said, “Writing this one was a real good reminder that my heart hadn’t turned to stone yet. I was happy at the time when we wrote it, but I got to go down memory lane and knock on a door I had all boarded up. Somebody had asked me recently if I’d ever been broken up with before, and I said ‘yep’ and that was that. A couple weeks later when Joey and I were writing, I continued answering the question in this song.” Blame My Youth will be playing at #HAPPENS 2024 in Las Vegas on February 29th and heading out on tour beginning May 6th in Dallas.

Michael Marcagi “Scared To Start” (Warner) 

Cincinnati’s Michael Marcagi independently built a buzz and fanbase before signing to a major label. His single “Scared To Start” was released on February 7th via Warner. 

“‘Scared to Start’ is a song for the adventurers, the travelers, and the people who look forward without dwelling on the uncertainties of life,” Marcagi says of the track. “It’s about taking the risks and putting yourself out of your comfort zone, regardless of what the rest of the world has to say.”

New Music Friday With Declan McKenna

UK’s Declan McKenna releases his new album, What Happened To The Beach?, on his own label Tomplicated Records via Q Prime. It’s Declan’s third album and first since his 2020 collection, Zeros.

His new album was produced by Gianluca Buccellati (Lana Del Rey, Arlo Parks). The pop—and where it is headed—an experimental spark of inspiration is a new direction for Declan. He said, “The whole process has been less traditional. We tried to see what we could do by spending a bit more time on the recordings and getting perspective as we went along. The songs are more strange and I love that there’s this weird, wonky edge to that. I’ve taken the spirit of how I like to make music at home and just made a record out of that. It’s perhaps a record that can be listened to in a more universal context. It doesn’t always demand your attention, which I really like.”

Declan released the lead single “Sympathy” and played Lollapalooza last summer. The new single is “Muholland’s Dinner And Wine” and you can watch the video HERE. 

Raised in Hertfordshire, Declan was a multi-instrumentalist by the time he was a teenager and began releasing tracks on his Bandcamp page when “Brazil” began to attract viral followers in January 2015. He has released two full length albums: What Do You Think About the Car? (2017) and Zeros (2020). 

New Music Friday Albums To Check Out Today

Brittany Howard – What Now (Island)

Declan McKenna – What Happened To The Beach? (Tomplicated/Q Prime)

The Strumbellas – Part Time Believer (Glassnote)

Find more ALT ALBUMS HERE

 

GOING FOR ADDS

Impacting Songs Next Week (2/13):

Blame My Youth “The Break” (Big Loud Rock) 

Brigitte Calls Me Baby “Impressively Average” (ATO)

 

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