BIG STIR RECORDS was born of the LA live music scene, and we miss it deeply. Those roots are why this week's Digital Single from EZ TIGER thrills us so much: they're simply one of the most exciting bands to grace our Burbank stage in better times. “Last Hurrah” b/w “Bird” – out Friday, August 14 and up for pre-order at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles now – mark the first blast from their forthcoming album CATAPULTING STARS (due September 15) to reach public ears, and a welcome chance for listeners everywhere to make the acquaintance of one of our hometown's most powerful and captivating bands.

EZ Tiger is an all-female power trio, with an emphasis on power, melody, and texture alike. They've created a multi-layered, melodic and driving pop/rock sound led by singer/guitarist TINA DIGEORGE’s unconventional songwriting and captivating guitar stylings. Drummer KRISTY McINNIS provides tight & explosive rhythms, accompanied by bassist extraordinaire and all-around LA scene star TERESA COWLES. EZ Tiger delivers pulsing rockers as well as ballads with crafted skill and finesse. The songs are uniquely infectious. The new album Catapulting Stars, from which “Last Hurrah” is the lead single, was produced by multi-instrumentalist Debbie Shair (Heart, The Brian Wilson Band) at the famed Tomorrowlabs Studio in Eagle Rock, CA.

“'Last Hurrah' is essentially an anti oppression anthem,” says DiGeroge. “We had a great time recording this record with the extremely talented Debbie Shair... we were able to take our time with the songs and tried to capture our live feel and sound while also squeezing everything we could out of each song. With 'Last Hurrah', we feel that the recording really captures the urgency and sentiment behind it. We’re excited to share it.” Indeed, the urgency of the band's live sound is here, befitting the subject matter: it's punk rock as it should sound in 2020, with the sing-along harmonies on the chorus obliterating any distinction between hooks and rallying cries.

The B-side “Bird”, from EZ Tiger's previous EP Above The Mystery, appropriately soars, displaying the diversity of DiGeorge's writing and the band's empathic chemistry. The guitars are alternately delicate and searing, and the vocal is tender and impassioned by turns. It is, in a word, gorgeous, and it's here to encourage a deep dive into EZ Tiger's back catalog while Catapulting Stars hurtles toward us!

Expected release: August 14, 2020

Celebrated guitar-pop veterans VEGAS WITH RANDOLPH make their Big Stir Singles Series debut with a pair of tracks so fresh that the B-side has just been completed mere hours before this writing! “N.S.A.” b/w “Show Me How” are set for release Friday, August 7 and up for pre-order at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles now. It's a double-barreled brash and tuneful new outing for the DC-centered collective that follows on from the melodic rush of their 2018 album Legs & Luggage – the band's fourth collection – and shows the award-winning group is as sharp and energetic as ever. The A-side positively kicks with drive, hooks, and the chemistry born from a musical partnership started between songwriters JOHN RATTS and ERIC KERN in high school which feels just as vital today. “Sometimes the best love comes with fewer binding ties, with no strings attached!” says the band, and that freedom is palpable on the recording, also featuring longtime VWR members DAVID PUROL and BROCK HARRIS. Meanwhile, the literally hot-off-the-mixing-board flip-side “Show Me How” is just as bracingly terrific and even more immediate – it's a song from, about, and for the days in which we find ourselves. The band explain: “In these times of global pandemic, the similar days can start to feel mundane. Still we simultaneously recognize how much each new day we receive truly is a blessing. Keeping the focus on the positive and on the opportunities still available is paramount. 'Show Me How'' explores that dichotomy, with hope and aspirations for us coming out of this better in the end: 'To move beyond my selfish plight, to lift up hearts and light them with desire, to inspire – another day is here to show me how'. And like The Beatles’ 'the love you make', the 'sun checks in' when we begin to re-spread sunshine of our own. So here’s one for 2020, re-lighting desire, and spreading some more sunshine in a world that can certainly use it.” Both tracks bear out the numerous admiring tags that have been applied to the band since their inception – “ebullient, unabashed power pop”, “thinking man's party music,” and “blissful pop songwriting at its finest” – and the comparisons to the likes of Fastball, Sloan, and Fountains of Wayne.That VEGAS WITH RANDOLPH is rocketing ahead with such gleeful abandon during these befuddling pandemic times is one minor miracle on top of another. Legs & Luggage itself marked the first VWR since the 2017 passing of founding bassist DAN AYLESTOCK. The band chose to honor him with an album that, if anything, upped the rock factor while retaining the hooks, and was hailed as their best album yet, landing on many a “Year's Best Records” list. “It is a marvel,” wrote ALAN HABER of Pure Pop Radio about L&L. “This is a new-phase Vegas With Randolph album that thunders across the plains with harder-edged chutzpah than their previous releases. The guitars are louder and the sound is more aggressive. The sound is more purposeful, but just as catchy and fun as always.” That momentum shows no signs of flagging, as “N.S.A” marks the launch of an expected run of VWR singles through 2020 and 2021 leading up to a new full-length album in the near future. BSR is thrilled to bring you the first signs that the lights of VEGAS WITH RANDOLPH will continue shining brighter than ever in the days to come!

Throughout the disorienting and unpredictable first half of 2020, Big Stir Records has hoped that our occasional pandemic-era Surprise Saturday Singles have been among the unexpected bits that have been more delightful than not, especially when they surprise and delight even ourselves. And so it is with the brand new single from one of our longtime favorites, MYLITTLEBROTHER of Cumbria over in the UK! “Janey” b/w “D.E.F.” is out today at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles … and it can safely be taken as a sign of more to come from main man WILL HARRIS and his merry band before this madhouse year is through.

"It's a song of hope, about realizing that despite feeling that everything is going wrong and life is slipping out of reach, you're still doing OK," says singer-pianist Harris of the A-side, which sees release ahead of a virtual festival appearance for the band. It's the public's first taste of what awaits fans in October on mylittlebrother's keenly awaited new album HOWL. The meaning of the cryptically-titled B-side “D.E.F.” is a closely guarded secret, and it appears exclusively here for all to ponder.

Both tunes amply demonstrate what drew BSR founders Christina and Rex to mlb when their band The Armoires landed on a bill with the Cumbrians – Harris, Dan Mason on guitar/vocals, Robin Howson on bass/vocals and Simon Buttress on drums/vocals – in the UK some years back. The band's songs and presentation are somehow both epic and intimate, inviting and personal at the same time. Harris's voice, melodies and charismatic stage presence are all world-class and the new songs from Howl reflects the band's finely-honed live sound, and project the energy of their joyous shows.

As a full band, the four-piece have mastered the art of creating harmonious, insanely catchy songs. Swathed in vocal melody, they use driving electric guitars and piano to deliver upbeat indie-rock that often hides a cynical, sometimes melancholic, darker undertone. And with their winning live presence, it's no surprise that over the past 10 years they have toured with the likes of The Charlatans, Ocean Colour Scene and Eliza Doolittle, and appeared at festivals across Europe including Glastonbury, Benicassim, Latitude, T in the park, Electric Picnic and dozens more. It's that communal spirit that led to us wishing to bring their music to a wider audience, long before we even knew we would be starting a record label. But now here we are, and here are mylittlebrother – better than ever and ready to take on this strange new world. We think you will be able to relate.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS invite you to check the first single from their just-announced debut album LONG OVERDUE before the CD is released. It's a pair of unique sides that make up the next Big Stir Digital Single, out Friday July 31 at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles and available for pre-order now. The A-side is “That Time Is Now” featuring LISA MYCHOLS, and the B-side is an exclusive, brand-new non-album track whereupon the LWH cover no less than THE BANANA SPLITS on “I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)” in grand psychedelic style, making this an essential companion piece to the forthcoming album.

This is the third Big Stir single from Akron, Ohio's finest guitar pop combo. They've all led up to the August 14 release of the cleverly-titled LONG OVERDUE, an album that stands among the classic power pop debut records of the late '70s and early '80s (think The Records, The Knack, Paul Collins' Beat, and 20/20) as a stack of nothing but should-be-hit singles. As such, a duet is all but inevitable, and LA's own LISA MYCHOLS – whose solo records and work with The Masticators and most recently The Seven And Six have earned her a place in the Southern California pop pantheon – does the honors on “That Time Is Now”. It's a ringing triumph of a radio-ready single and sure to be the highlight of the summer: a hopeful and jangling anthem of empowerment that is, if anything, more needed this year than ever.

The absolutely delightful B-side, specially recorded for this release, is another animal altogether. It launches from the already surprisingly psychedelic blueprint of the original version of “I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)” by The Banana Splits, the titular fictional funny-animal-costumed band from the late-60s Hanna-Barbera/Sid & Marty Krofft kids' variety show. We recommend you hit YouTube for a reminder of just how trippy this tune already was before hitting play on the Librarians' version, which takes its hypnotic swirl to an even deeper and more mesmerizing place and sets a new benchmark of sugary heaviness for the band itself!

The best news, aside from the impending release of the album itself, is that even in these pandemic-challenged times, LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS are already looking forward and producing new music beyond what's on their sterling debut (we've heard some of it and it's all up to the standard set by LONG OVERDUE). And they've always been a great live band, so it's to be hoped that with these inspiring tracks seeing release and a growing catalog of fine originals, the band will not only be recording new material but back on stage, and even on the road, as soon as safely possible. In the meantime, they're offering up some of the most exciting recordings of the year, and we at Big Stir are thrilled to be bringing them to you!