Portland, Oregon’s Typhoon – one of the most talked about new bands – is proud to release new song “Dreams of Cannibalism” from their upcoming album White Lighter, for free download on The Wall Street Journal.

Songwriter Kyle Morton caught up with The WSJ to talk about the new record, read here.

Set for an August 20th release on Roll Call Records, White Lighter is the follow up to the band’s acclaimed EP A New Kind Of House that caught the attention of countless music critics and listeners for what NPR’s Bob Boilen calls “absolutely stunning” and “so beautiful, it makes me want to follow every single thing Typhoon does.”

Recorded at Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley, Oregon, Typhoon isolated themselves from outside distractions to arrange and record this collection of songs with an impressive emphasis on storytelling and melody.

“On the farm, we were living inside the record,” says songwriter Morton. “I had one place in the woods where I would write and rewrite one song, and a different place for working another. The whole thing was laid out spatially over so many acres. I built a small fort in the wood barn where I kept my books and guitar. Slept a couple feet away from the recording desk. When it was cold, we built wood fires, when it was warm we went swimming down the road. Friends came and went, sometimes recording with us.”

Produced by the band along with their in-house engineer Paul Laxer, Typhoon created a dynamic recording – full of horns, strings and group vocal crescendos – that will establish the band as an immensely creative force.

An inspiring hybrid of literate lyrics and wide ranging pop music – new songs such as first single “Young Fathers,” “Possible Deaths,” “Prosthetic Love” and “Hunger And Thirst” – take listeners on a journey through the experience of having it all, fighting to keep the dream and accepting your fate.

“There are several layers to this new record,” says Morton. ”It’s definitely the most autobiographical record I’ve ever done. I’m also trying to reconstitute disparate experiences into something like a meaningful sequence in the pale light of truth.”

Along with Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Alternative Press and more, Paste Magazine raves, “Music critics throw around adjectives like ‘orchestral’ and ‘expansive’ all the time these days. But here’s a band that actually deserves such labels. Portland’s Typhoon is an indie rock geek’s dream: a dynamic 12-piece with a seemingly unending reservoir of energy, emotive vocals, arpeggiated guitars, horns, multiple drum kits and strings … Ladies and gentlemen, meet your new critical darlings.”

Typhoon spent most of 2011 on the road – sharing the stage with The Decemberists, The Shins & Explosions In The Sky and performing at festivals such as Lollapalooza, Osheaga and the Newport Folk Festival – winning over concertgoers with what KEXP calls an “awe inspiring” live show.

Already confirmed for this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival, Typhoon will set out on a US headlining tour this fall. Stay tuned for more news!

Watch the band perform “The Honest Truth” – a song that made many year end lists – on The Late Show with David Letterman here.

photo credit: Ingrid Renan

The solo project of multi-instrumentalist, horn arranger and yMusic trumpeter CJ Camerieri, CARM’s reflective, atmospheric tracks rely on acoustic instruments, including brass, for their framework. Additional components, however, sometimes include things like samples, programmed drums, and electronics as well as traditional rock instruments. Justin Vernon was among the guest vocalists on the frequent Bon Iver collaborator’s 2021 debut album, CARM. New Jersey native Carmen Jonathan Camerieri, better known as CJ Camerieri, found work recording with the likes of Sufjan Stevens, the National, and Rufus Wainwright by the mid-to late 2000s. In 2008, he co-founded the chamber sextet yMusic, an ensemble that went on to collaborate widely in the indie music sector while releasing albums of their own instrumental compositions. Over the next decade or so, in addition to his work with yMusic, Camerieri contributed to Bon Iver’s Grammy-winning eponymous album (2011), Paul Simon’s Stranger to Stranger (2016), and Taylor Swift’s Evermore (2020), just to name few. In 2021, Camerieri presented his first solo album, using the moniker CARM. Co-produced by Camerieri and Ryan Olson, the self-titled set arrived on the 37d03d label that January. Consisting of varied indie-oriented instrumentals and some songs, its guests included Justin Vernon, Sufjan Stevens, and Mouse on Mars.

Crafting a thoughtful, pastoral style of indie rock that employs a dedicated violinist in addition to guitar, bass, and drums, the Ophelias were formed by Cincinnati, Ohio high school students already active on the music scene. Coming from diverse musical backgrounds that included classical performance, garage rock, and surf bands, they emerged from early rehearsals with a mature, low-key chamber pop that they introduced on their first album, Creature Native. Self-released in 2015, it led to a record deal with Joyful Noise Recordings. Singer, guitarist, and main songwriter Spencer Peppet, violinist/pianist Andrea Gutmann Fuentes, bass player Grace Weir, and drummer Micaela Adams all felt marginalized, creatively speaking, in their various majority-male high school bands. After bonding over that frustration, the teens decided to try playing together. Early sessions not only went well musically but left all four members feeling valued as contributors, and thus the Ophelias were born. Their self-released debut LP, 2015’s Creature Native, consisted of eight original songs and a cover of Jackson Browne’s “These Days.” After catching the band live, fellow Cincinnati scenester Yoni Wolf of Why? passed the album along to his label, Joyful Noise Recordings, and they signed the Ophelias for the band’s second full-length. Released in 2018, Almost was produced and mixed by Wolf.