Happy Friday! Alternative New Music Friday #Happens With Washed Out. Notes From A Quiet Life is the first album in four years for the Georgia native, Ernest Greene, who records under the name Washed Out and now lives on a farm in Macon, GA. It’s Shawnski’s Favorite Album Of The Week and in this week’s New Music Friday album spotlight.

Ella Red and Robert DeLong released new singles today that are now available for airplay on Happens.vip Alternative Downloads.

Many of you saw HotWax showcase at #HAPPENS 2024 Las Vegas. Now you can see the UK band on the new Amazon Prime series, My Lady Jane doing a cover of Deep Purple’s “Sail Away.” HotWax are part of 8 up-and-coming female-fronted artists from the UK putting their own unique spin on iconic British songs on the My Lady Jane Soundtrack. I have the details for you in Alternative Music Info.

Good News! Jeff Sottolano has been promoted at Audacy to Chief Programming Officer. Eddie Ybarra has been upped to Asst. Brand Manager at Woodward Radio Group/Appleton-Green Bay and retains MD duties for WFZZ & WKSC. I love good news! Get the 411 in Alternative News.

Remember Kim Neaton from WEQX? She has a new gig at Loud Media’s 93.9 WABY ’90’s And 2000’s Rock in Albany. Kim will be hosting middays from 10am-3pm, starting Monday, July 1st.

Jason “Hammer” Squires from KFRR (New Rock 104.1)/Fresno checks in with a New Rock Soundhouse photo with Letdown. from earlier this week. Take a look on Alternative Photos.

Let’s dig in on the new music that needs to be on your radar today..

ALTERNATIVE NEW MUSIC DISCOVERY  

Ella Red “I Like You Best” (Ella Red) 

Listen & Download HERE.

Dallas, TX’s Ella Red released her new single “I Like You Best” today. Ella said, “I wanted to write a song about the taboo thoughts we as girls sometimes keep secret, and voice it for us all. It’s engrained in our society to shame women for this sort of thing while others can freely enjoy and talk about it, and I want to break that stigma. My newest single, I Like You Best, is empowering, catchy, and a tiiiiny bit naughty. It’ll push you to the edge of your comfort zone, while leaving you nodding your head and singing along.” 

The self-released single is the follow up to her lead single “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is,” which made it to Power rotation at KTCL/Denver and WQYQ/South Bend. 

Ella just wrapped up a midwest radio promo tour leading up to the release of her new single.

Robert DeLong “soft boy” (Round Hill Records) 

Listen & Download HERE.

Los Angeles-based Robert DeLong released “soft boy” today. It’s the first new music from him since 2021. “soft boy” is from DeLong’s upcoming fourth album, PLAYLIST of DOOM, which drops on September 13th. It will be his first release via Round Hill Records. 

DeLong says, “I wrote ‘soft boy’ in 5 minutes. I wanted to remind men that it’s ok (and maybe ideal?) to feel emotions or to be affected by the late-stage-capitalist melancholy we all live in. ‘Soy Boy’ didn’t sing right.” 

DeLong grew up in the suburbs of Seattle in Bothell, Washington and his first three albums were released on Glassnote Records with his breakout single “Long Way Down” in 2014.

New Music Friday #Happens With Washed Out

Washed Out has a new album, Notes From A Quiet Life, out today via Sub Pop Records. It’s the fifth album from Ernest Greene, who goes by the stage name Washed Out. The new 10 song collection features the lead single “The Hardest Part.”

It’s his first album in four years and first for the Georgia native since moving in 2021 to a former horse farm in Macon, GA that he calls “Endymion.” He named it after the pastoral John Keats poem about a lovesick shepherd, the opening line is: “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.” 

Inspired by the lifestyle change and simplicity of country living, Greene created an under 12 minute documentary that shares the story behind the making of his new album, Notes From A Quiet Life. Watch it HERE.

“I’ve read that every five, maybe 10 years, you’re practically a different person — like literally, on a cellular level,” Greene explains. “The things that you’re going through will end up changing you, and you’re kind of a different person. This album is a reflection of that. Experimenting with painting and sculpture helps my music. They influence each other. That was a kind of realization for me. I don’t want to look back on my life one day, and be like, ’Oh, it was all about maximizing productivity. I want to enjoy this.

It’s the first album he has self-produced and it was mixed with Nathan Boddy (James Blake, Mura Masa) and David Wrench (Caribou, Florence + The Machine). “Early in my career, I had a lack of technical skill, and there were some things I wasn’t 100% enthusiastic about,” he says, noting Jean-Michel Basquiat’s distinct, self-driven method as an inspiration. “Something that I was looking for was…I didn’t want any illusion of anyone else’s influences. I wanted to see this through to the end. And honestly, that was a big challenge.”

Greene says, “Each of his albums is a diary entry of his life.” Washed Out has released the following five albums: Within And Without (2011), Paracosm (2013), Mister Mellow (2017), Purple Moon (2020), and Notes From A Quiet Life (2024).

Washed Out has tour dates in August. Find the tour dates HERE. 

More New Music Friday Albums Out Today

Imagine Dragons – LOOM (Interscope)

Milly – Your Own Becoming (Dangerbird)

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – South Of Here (Stax/Concord)

Wilco – Hot Sun Cool Shroud EP (dBPM )

MORE ALT ALBUMS HERE

GOING FOR ADDS

Impacting Songs Next Week (7/2):

RÜFÜS DU SOL “Music Is Better” (Warner)