Kevin Bronson on August 10th, 2022

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Midweek singles roundup: Hear the latest from Surf Curse, the Berries, Runnner and Balto …

SURF CURSE, “Lost Honor”

“This is my love letter to Nick [Rattigan],” Surf Curse co-founder and guitarist Jacob Rubeck writes on social media of the band’s new single, “Lost Honor.” “This song is about fighting for love that feels right. The love inside you that no one can take away. The love I have for making music with Nick after all these years. Every time I look on that stage and see my friends who have become my family, I feel that confetti falling on my head, a celebration of the moment where I can do this once again. To play for people who showed up and came for the songs. It’s always been an honor.” The follow-up to “TVI” and “Sugar,” the propulsive indie-rocker is the third single from Surf Curse’s first album for Atlantic Records, “Magic Hour” (out Sept. 17). The band plays L.A.’s Primavera Sound in September, and today’s single announcement promises that a Los Angeles headlining date will be announced soon.

THE BERRIES, “Eagle Eye”

“Eagle Eye” is the third single from the Berries’ third album, “High Flying Man,” out Aug. 19. Like the songs that preceded it, “Down That Road Again” and “Prime,” it’s a song weighted by existential dread — in fact, the listener is left to intuit that singer-songwriter-guitarist Matt Berry is quite possibly an “Eagle Eye” who sees too much. “I’m a citizen bored of laughter
 / Out on the porch, sun in my eyes
 / And from the morning to the evening, my friend I ain’t ever going to tell you lies.” The Berries celebrate their album release with a show Aug. 22 at Zebulon.

RUNNNER, “Vines to Make It All Worth It”

Singer-songwriter Noah Weinman — aka Runnner — has returned with his first release since his heart-stealing 2021 album, “Always Repeating.” “Vines to Make It All Worth It” spans all of 1 minute 36 seconds but plenty long enough to capture a warm, sweet vignette. “I wrote ‘Vines’ a few years ago,” Weinman says. “It’s a tiny song about placing a lot of weight on seemingly small memories, and living with the love and frustration of those moments, both then and now. The title was inspired by a conversation with my sister and I want to thank her for that because I write most of my songs starting with the title.” Runnner headlines the Troubadour on Sept. 8.

BALTO, “Spanish Wine”

“What do having sex on a washing machine in an East Hollywood Laundromat, echoes of a Marxist utopia, vintage Cuban congas and the warble of quarter-inch tape have in common?” That’s how the long-running Americana outfit Balto introduce their new single, “Spanish Wine.” It’s an easygoing folk-rocker that introduces a new lineup backing singer-guitarist Daniel Sheron, who founded the band in New York, grew the project in Portland and moved to L.A. in 2018. Sheron and longtime bassist Adam Ditt are now joined by lead guitarist Tristan Lake Leabu and drummer Sheldon Reed, both of whom joined in 2021. Of the new single, Sheron says, “I tend to get lost in nostalgia — fixated on the past, out-of-touch with the present, uninterested in the future. I wrote this song in the height of the pandemic as a rejection of that concept. I needed a reminder that the past is an illusion – it doesn’t exist anymore.”