Maria Taylor Signs with Conor Oberst’s Million Stars Records For Story’s End, Her First Album in Seven Years, out April 3

Official Video for Title Track Out Now

Today, the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Maria Taylor announces her first new album in 7 years Story’s End will be released on April 3. Alongside the announcement, Taylor shared the official video for the album’s title track that was released today. The 10-song collection marks her first release on Conor Oberst’s Million Stars Records and unfolds like a hazy, cinematic narrative—songs acting as chapters that trace love, loss, fracture, and the quiet search for solace in the aftermath of personal upheaval. 

Watch the official video for the album’s title track “Story’s End.”

Pre-order Story’s End

About the new single, Taylor explains: “For years, I would play this chord progression and melody; knowing it would be one of my favorite songs, but it took me 5 years to complete the lyrics. I had no sense of urgency… it was like I knew, somehow, the story was still unfolding and I just had to be patient.”

The album began slowly with Taylor building songs from demos in her home studio, yet it was the spark of conflict that gave her the resolve and focus to complete the project. “After spending years working on this record, an irrevocable fracture in both my marriage and a friendship gave me the urgency to finish it. I think I needed to make something beautiful as things fell apart around me,” she explains. 

The project eventually moved to Mike Mogis’ ARC Studios in Omaha, Nebraska where Taylor played drums on much of the record (following her recent stint as a touring drummer with Bright Eyes), joined by Macey Taylor on bass and Mogis on guitar. The album was ultimately produced by Ben Brodin (First Aid Kit, Bright Eyes), who also recorded many of Taylor’s vocals and added much of the instrumentation. Longtime friend and collaborator Brad Armstrong (13 Ghosts, The Glass Hours) produced the pulsing single “Never Thought I’d Feel New” that sits at the very heart of the album.

The album also features a handful of collaborators who Taylor has met throughout her career as the founding member of Azure Ray and her many solo recordings and touring projects including Conor Oberst, Nik Freitas, Mike Bloom, and more. Minnesota-based singer/songwriter Sally Dworksy joins Taylor in providing the layered, ethereal harmonies that weave throughout the album. The shimmering, panoramic strings were arranged and recorded by Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes, First Aid Kit) at 64 Sound Studios in Los Angeles with Pierre DeReeder (Rilo Kiley). 

In the end, Story’s End became an emotional lifeline for Taylor that helped find meaning and connectedness to the small, fleeting, ephemeral moments that make up a life, a person, even a family. “I was writing to have anything to do, making music with anyone who would make it with me,” she says. “I think I needed this, to whatever degree, to save my life.”

Story’s End tracklist:

01) Story’s End

02) Shades of Blue

03) Sorry I Was Yours (feat. Conor Oberst)

04) Tricky

05) Never Thought I’d Feel New

06) Powerlines

07) Nathaniel

08) Be Careful What You Want

09) Everything Is Fine (My Loves)

10) Change Is Coming Soon (Green Butterfly Sequel)

Keep up with Maria Taylor:

Website – Instagram – Facebook 

Download Hi-Res Portrait / Credit: Liz Bretz

Las Cruxes Announce EP Este Vacío and Share Single “El Gran Rey Nada”

Out Today via Conor Oberst’s Million Stars Records

Listen + Presave Here

Yayo Trujillo sees more B horror movies than listens to music for inspiration these days. 

Fittingly this Halloween, October 31st, 2025, will welcome Este Vacio, Las Cruxes new EP, via Conor Oberst label, Million Stars, into the world. The first single “ El Gran Rey Nada”is available everywhere today. 

Yayo was born and raised in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. While Spanish Rock wasn’t on the menu at home, Yayo was exposed to the legendary sounds of SodaStereo, Fobia, Mana, Duncan DHU, Danza Invisible, Caifanes/Jaguares among other hugely influential Spanish rock bands, at backyard parties in the shadow of Dodger Stadium.

Knowing at a young age that playing music is what he wanted to do there’s always been a serious sensibility to how he approached it. This led Yayo to being in rock bands like Pastilla, Howler and Wellness before forming Las Cruxes and breaking all the rules he knew.

While the experiences that oft come with art - being broke, encountering racism on the road - are a part of  Yayo’s story - so are headlining Vive Latino, playing Semana de la Juventud in Mexico City to an audience of 100k in El Zocalo, and playing the Staples Center.

Las Cruxes began as Yayo’s  solo project in Los Angeles around 2016. A self described “very gnarly loud band with pop hooks” that’s set apart by being one of few within a  growing number of Spanish rock bands in the US. 

Trujillo started writing songs and inviting friends to join organically wherever he found himself.  “I didn’t want it to be serious…” says Trujillo, who deliberately pursued a DIY direction emphasizing “a noisy raw sound without rules” — even naming the band (which translates to “The Crosses”)  as a lighthearted joke.

Las Cruxes has historically operated as  a variable ensemble—Trujillo collaborates with different musicians depending on where he finds himself.  At times, the group has had up to 20 contributors across cities like LA, Omaha, Chicago, and Mexico City. While musical influences range fromThe Sex Pistols, The Cure, Pulp and At The Drive-In, Las Cruxes see themselves as defying stereotypes: bringing a Spanish-language rock presence that transcends expectations like “timbales and congas,” as he put it.

The band released their first EP “Casa” in 2017 via AFONICO and Monterrey’s CINTAS followed by a full length “Ilusiones, Depresiones” in 2018. 

Conor (Oberst) met Yayo through friends after seeing Las Cruxes live a few times in Omaha. Their shared love of Lucha Villa along with a heavy hitters list of mutual favs led to a deep musical bond. It only made sense for Las Cruxes’ new EP “Este Vacio” to be released by Million Stars, Oberst's new label.

Este Vacio (“This Emptyiness") is in Yayo’s words:

 “kind of a personal diary without it being that intense or serious. Created in my living room after many nights of self-loathing and weird B horror movies. 

Este Vacio… connects personally with me because it lets me see there is more to this than I can see. Culturally I think it speaks tons that it’s in Spanish, especially with the climate that we are experiencing right now, especially as a brown Hispanic person looking at the incertitude of what’s going on in this mad and exciting world.

Este Vacio is meant for anyone going through a hard time with life in general. “I believe everyone goes through terrible heart aches, if it’s your own personal doing or someone else’s, everyone has a story to tell. We all love and hurt and survive situations that sometimes aren’t that awesome. But the best part of that is laughing about it and realizing there is way more. The EP would totally be a horror/comedy like “Freddy’s dead: The final nightmare” with 3-d glasses and all.”

Este Vacio EP is a precursor to a spring 2026 full length and will be supported by a number of live shows in the midwest and west coast this fall.  

Este Vacio Tracklist:

1. El Gran Rey Nada

2. Un Helado De Mierda

3. CAMARÓN

4. Fin

5. Do You Bleed

6. Una Mano En La Licuadora

Alex Orange Drink of The So So Glos to Release an album every month this Fall

A total of 4 full-length’s recorded during intensive cancer treatment are dropping before 2025’s end.

New York City DIY champion ALEX ORANGE DRINK, lead singer of The So So Glos. has announced the release of four new solo albums dropping on Million Stars Records before the new year — adding an impressive amount of music to his roster with Victory Lap (#23) being released earlier in the year as well as another handful of co-write’s with ‘Bright Eyes’ on their upcoming “Kids Table” EP. The 2025 releases are part of a series that builds upon his previous release. Each represents one of the five stages of loss — a concept rooted in the Kübler-Ross model — the grief management system originally designed for patients facing terminal illness.

IN ALEX’S WORDS: “Each record embodies a different stage in response to the nightmarish health crisis I faced. Over 60 days of radiation & chemotherapy, I was lucky enough to find myself in the studio after most treatments. Keeping a creative practice took my mind away from mental anguish. Music once again saved my life. Sonically, these next releases each focus on a different genre, varying drastically in tone and theme. I was recording in full-on survival mode and it is evident in these albums. The first album is restless and high-energy, almost manic. The second explores nostalgic melancholy. Third is straight-up anger. And finally, acceptance.”

October 3rd will mark the release of Alex’s “Future 86 LP”, the first of the four upcoming drops. This decidedly powerpop album is a high-octane, quick-witted & feverishly animated collection. Alex describes this installment as “songs to survive by”. Fast, hard & with a healthy dose of mania, the album skillfully builds a foundation on punky mod-pop compositions. It’s a rapid injection of lyrically heavy songs that yin-yang playfully with spirited melodies and breakneck chord changes. Echoes of The Kinks, The Ramones & Elvis Costello crack through the lens of Alex’s situational songwriting. Keenly aware of mortality, possibly medicated, and brash to the core. Alex Orange Drink’s most Rock ‘n’ Roll album to date proclaims, “It’s only Rock ‘n’ Roll” — but is it?

The “Future 86 LP” record release show is set for October 19th at Night Club 101in New York City. TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE HERE

PHOTO CREDIT: EDWINA HAY | CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Alex Orange Drink’s New Album “Victory Lap (#23)” is Out Now and making waves! Album Release Show on May 31 at Mercury Lounge

New York DIY hero Alex Orange Drink has released his new album Victory Lap (#23) via Conor Oberst’s record label Million Stars.

Alex Orange Drink has also announced an album release show at Mercury Lounge on May 31 with support from GYMSHORTS and special guests to be announced. 

Victory Lap (#23) is the third solo release from Alex Zarou Levine, best known as the lead singer and songwriter of Brooklyn punk band The So So Glos. Recorded in the midst of his intensive treatment for a rare and serious cancer, these 10 songs capture the intensity of his experience while maintaining an undercurrent of defiant optimism.

James Felice Surprise Releases His Debut Solo Album The Little Ones

Solo Accordion Performance of “The Giantess” 
Live From Widow Jane Mine Out Now
On Tour Now Supporting Shovels & Rope, Followed by Headline Album Release Show 

As his Valentine’s Day gift to the world, James Felice releases his debut solo album The Little Ones today via Conor Oberst’s Million Stars Records. Tonight, Felice kicks off a tour supporting Shovels & Rope before a run of headline album release shows in Carrboro, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and New York City. Find a full list of tour dates below or find them HERE. Pre-order the The Little Ones on vinyl HERE.

Today, Felice released a live performance video of “The Giantess” filmed in Widow Jane Mine in Rosendale, NY. 

About the album, James Felice explains: “I wrote this record over the course of a summer, mostly in an unfinished attic. It was so hot up there I could only work at night. I had to sing softly, so as to not wake the people sleeping below me. And so night after night, I would sing softly and sweat prodigiously in my stupidly hot attic, and these characters would somehow emerge and I would try to write songs about them. 

Little stories about little people up against the enormity of the universe and the hideous length of eternal time, and the endless confusions of love and being loved. Big serious ideas, funny little people. All sung softly in a song. 

I’ve spent my whole adult life in service to the song. Writing, recording, and playing music in ornate theaters and around campfires and rotting picnic benches in the tall grass, and gross, awesome bars and legendary clubs and sweltering attics and under overpasses and in $2000-a-day studios and in freezing cold garages and chicken coops, and my friend’s parents basements, and my brother’s girlfriend’s cousin’s kitchen, and in churches with collapsing roofs. Listening to and playing and writing songs all over the damn place for my whole life. Nothing hits like a song. I fucking love songs. So here’s some songs for you.” 

On The Little Ones, James joins the long lineage of winking American tearjerkers, the great crying-in-your-beer smart alecks like Warren Zevon, John Prine, or even Tom Waits. With a similar rollicking ease on keyboard instruments, Felice sidles up next to Doctor John and bears Randy Newman’s torch, frequently squeezing the blood of a catchy chorus from the stone of an unlikely song subject. And his sometimes wounded, side-of-the-mouth vocal delivery brings longtime collaborator Bright Eyes to mind. But this album is far more intimate than the music of his forebears - captured mostly at home and often late at night, these songs are spacious and confessional, a simple drum machine pattern just barely keeping them lashed to the Earth, longtime Felice Brothers producer Jeremy Backofen keeping it simple, direct, and effective. More often than not the record is James and his chords, with a hint of the occasional bass, drumset, or fiddle gilding the edges of the frame. These songs sound like the things you can only say after most everyone else has fallen asleep.

The Little Ones follows the release of The Felice Brothers 2024 full length Valley of Abandoned Songs, the first release on Million Stars. The album was praised by NPR’s World Cafe, BrooklynVegan, Glide Magazine, PopMatters, NPR Music, and AllMusic, who calle it one of their “most cohesive works to date” and “an album of beautifully conveyed balance and duality.”

‘Valley of Abandoned Songs’ by The Felice Brothers is out now!

‘Valley of Abandoned Songs’ by The Felice Brothers is out everywhere today on Million Stars!!

Stream it or order the LP here: https://pods.to/felice-abandoned

From Ian Felice:

“There’s a tightrope walk between light and dark in these songs between the magical wonder of existence and the ever-present sense of impending doom that comes with it. This album is my way of reconciling those things.

A lot of these songs are amalgamations. The settings can change from verse to verse and scene to scene. I don’t necessarily know who these characters are or where they come from, but they all evoke something very real in me.”