New Music Friday: Paige Keiner & Anastasia Elliot
Welcome back to our regularly scheduled New Music Friday blog and playlist! This week we’re featuring two excellent new artists: Paige Keiner & Anastasia Elliot.
We’re kicking off this week’s playlist with Paige Keiner’s, “Crying in the Drive-Thru”!
According to Keiner, “This song was inspired by a time when I cried in a McDonald's drive-thru while I was going through a breakup. It felt super embarrassing in the moment, but I ended up writing a really fun and upbeat song about it. I hope it can help remind listeners that it's okay to have experiences like that, and that when enough time goes by you can usually find a way to look back and laugh about it.”
If you grew up in the early 00s peak pop-punk era, like I did, then this song is sure to flood your brain with nostalgia and those crescively elusive chemicals: serotonin and dopamine! If Good Charlotte and All Time Low were female fronted, their music might sound like “Crying in the Drive-Thru”.
As the song starts, it’s not unlike the beginning of a typical pop bop; albeit slightly grittier than your average Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande. When the bass line kicks in, that evocative punk rock edge hits you in the chest and brings a smile to your face (at least it did for me). By the time the chorus comes through, Keiner will have you banging your head in the car, while speeding your way to the nearest drug store to buy their blackest eyeliner and mascara available, just so you can cry it all off!
In all seriousness, this song is incredibly fun and will be circulating through my personal playlist for many years to come. I’m sure it will be on yours, too!
Wrapping up the playlist picks is Anastasia Elliot’s single “Bones”. As Elliot shares on her Instagram, “I wrote ‘BONES’ as a snapshot into the band aid trauma bonding type of relationship that we often seek after going through something cataclysmic. The kind of childish love that makes us chase red flags while also becoming the red flags. After my plane crash, that’s exactly what happened to me and it became savage. Bones is the ultimate distraction of fun, the comic relief of the album. The part of the story where I started seeking to control others since I couldn't control myself and my situation. It can be easier that way sometimes, but it never ends well. This song was my first misguided attempts to take back my personal power, looking for it in the wrong places that came easy to me and devouring innocent hearts in the process. With the lyrical violence that is weaved into the more carefree and playful soundscape of this song, it shows the internal knowledge that at this time, there was no happy ending in a relationship with me. When you are searching for a partner from a broken place, it will always end in another little death.”
The coinciding video for “Bones”, released just last week, mirrors the ravenous, ego driven elements reflected in Elliot’s personal description. With vibrant imagery of a fiery, wrecked airplane, a throne of skeletons, and a love interest held hostage, it is quite literally a crash from which you cannot look away—but in the best way possible!
If you have music you’d like featured on the New Music Friday blog and playlist, submit your music to us in the contact section on our site!
We’re just ten days away from our all-female showcase at The Basement East, get your tickets and use discount code: HELLCAT! Can’t wait to see you there!
