‘Me, Her & Lavender’ is the new, free single from Cloud’s Plays with Fire LP. The acclaimed album offers nine songs and 32 minutes of quiet optimism and greying nostalgia, mixing the wide-eyed naïveté of Jonathan Richman with the cold-weather pop of Yo La Tengo and the fractured soundscapes of Galaxie 500. Though operating on a DIY level, Cloud’s music has found praise and support from Pitchfork, Stereogum, GoldFlakePaint, Drowned in Sound, CLASH, Indie Shuffle,TLOBF, IMPOSE, The Alternative, Post-Trash, Nialler9, London in Stereo, The Grey Estates, KCRW, DIY Mag and BBC 6 Music. The single is accompanied by the exclusive non-album b-side, ‘Wild Flies, 25’.

Long Island’s Cloud (aka Tyler Taormina and friends) debuted for Audio Antihero in 2013 with the lauded Comfort Songs LP. A recurring theme of the new record is the passing of time. 2013’s Comfort Songs was an autumn-toned guitar record that saw Taormina coping with love and loss in his early twenties, while 2015’s dreampop-esque Zen Summer found him newly arrived in Los Angeles enjoying a warmer climate and better spirits, full of dreams and excitement. But Plays With Fire suggests that the colder months have come again, unsure of himself once again and afraid of the future.

With the years between records growing, Taormina sounds unsure of how many albums are still to come and of who is still listening. It’s an album that doesn’t appear to know if it’s a letter of introduction or a formal resignation, but it’s a perfect soundtrack for long nights and uncertain times. The polarizing voice remains, the sincerity remains, the sadness and the joy remain, but this is a new experience from Cloud.

“Hollywood Factory” was written after 17-year-old Kelli's dalliance with acting, delivering one of their sunniest songs with a wry smile. With their new album, The Make It All Show, set for release on May 11via El Camino Media, Skating Polly have dropped a third dose of addictive, attitude-heavy punk-rock. It follows the moreish first single, ‘Queen For A Day’ (feat. vocals from X’s Exene Cervenka), and the thrashy, ‘Camelot’.

Commenting on the track, the band's Kelli Mayo says: "We first wrote “Hollywood Factory” after I filmed a pilot for a TV show and the possibility of it getting picked up was all I could think about for a while. The lyrics were meant to poke fun at the idea of going to Hollywood and selling out, or at least trying to sell out if Hollywood will have you. Anyway, it didn't get picked up and we kinda swept the song under the rug with it, but right before we went in to record the album, we decided to work on it again, this time with Kurtis on board as our third member. We made the lyrics darker at some points and just more sarcastic overall. Despite the sarcasm, it’s probably the most poppy song on the record and the most cheerful one for sure!"

There's a difficult to describe, yet timeless quality to certain songs that transcend genre or era. It's something that you can't fake or contrive and it's what lies at the core of Skating Polly's music. Admittedly the female-driven alternative acts that inspired the band such as Veruca Salt, X, The Breeders, L7 and Babes In Toyland (the latter of whom Skating Polly toured with in Europe) aren't typical reference points for most of today's up-and-coming bands, but maybe they should be. “The thing that we identify with in a lot of those bands is that they can be really aggressive and loud while also being super melodic,” Kelli explains, adding that the new dynamic in the band helped them to be more expansive when it came to their arrangements: “Everything happened very smoothly when Kurtis became part of the band. It just felt natural having him there and writing with him.”

The threesome tracked their forthcoming fifth studio record this past Winter at Seagrass Studio in Los Angeles with producer Brad Wood (Smashing Pumpkins, Liz Phair) who also helmed last year’s New Trick EP (feat. Louise Post and Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt). With ages ranging between 17 and 21, Skating Polly continue to produce music well beyond their quantifiable years and The Make It All Show is their most fully realized work yet, hinting at an even brighter future for one of rock’s most promising acts.

'The Make It All Show' track list:

01. Classless Act

02. Little Girl Blue and the Battle Envy

03. Free Will At Ease

04. Queen For A Day

05. They’re Cheap (I’m Free)

06. Long Ride

07. Camelot

08. Hollywood Factory

09. This Vacation

10. Flatwound Strings

11. Don’t Leave Me Gravity