Starting August off with some new singles. Emma Ruth Rundle:  " Darkhorse " (via Rarely Unable /  Sargent House  / YouTube) Via Rarely Unable: “In the wake of weak beginnings, we can still stand high,” Emma Ruth Rundle sings over banks of electrified minor chords and ghostly guitar leads on "Darkhorse". It’s a statement of purpose and a recurring motif throughout the album. “The record is about overcoming—understanding and embracing the crippling situation and then growing beyond it,” Rundle says. “Horses keep working their way into the lyrics and visual dimension of this record. They’re powerful and beautiful yet not free really. So the dark horse works for me in a visual way, as a representation of a contained force that will win the race or exceed the expectation of society and self.” The songs that comprise On Dark Horses vibrate with restlessness and forward motion. Prodding and preening the wounds unmasked in Marked For Death , Rundle’s ...

In the early 90s, following Nirvana 's rise to fame, the Sub Pop label had enjoyed some notoriety as Seattle's premium Alt-farm for the record industry majors, many of whom were clamoring for the next flannel adorned malcontent with a shitty guitar and an impassioned yell.  Having essentially birthed Seattle's rock scene via Green River , (whose members would later form other seminal acts such as Mudhoney , Mother Love Bone , and Pearl Jam ), Sub Pop was also the label that offered Nirvana and Soundgarden their earliest opportunities as recording artists, a move that eventually led both bands to worldwide acclaim.  As regional devotees, Sub Pop curated and, consequently, informed what would be called the "Seattle Sound." With that said, TAD , whose muddy distorto-rumblings were certainly demonstrative of the scene's penchant for aural grit, I feel gets overlooked.  Started by guitarist/vocalist Tad Doyle in the late 80s, TAD was among the earliest of S...