JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Rolling Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger’s 83rd birthday.
Throwback: Happy 85th Birthday, Darlene Love!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the legendary Darlene Love’s 85th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 77th Birthday, Roger Taylor!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Queen drummer Roger Taylor’s 77th birthday.
New Video: Montréal-based JOVM Mainstay Naomi Teams Up with SLM on Sultry, Club Banger “Hershey Kiss”
2026 has been a busy year for Montréal-based JOVM mainstay Naomi: She has continued to be wildly prolific while entering a bold new era working with French producer Elior Chaudagne, who produced “Univers.”
Following the success of “Univers,” the French Canadian artist returns with “Hershey Kiss,” which features Anglophone Montréal-based emcee SLM (pronounced “SLIM”). Built around a propulsive, dance-floor filling calypso-styled riddim, “Hershey Kiss” is a sultry, club banger that’s rooted in Naomi and SLM’s swaggering and defiant, girlboss energy.
“Hershey Kiss” can be trace its origins a back a little bit: Elior Chaudagne, had been pitching the Montréal-based artist an energetic beat inspired by bouyon, a Caribbean music genre that’s currently red hot right now. However, Naomi hadn’t feel confident enough to tackle the genre while adding her own touch — until SLM joined her in the studio.
The two Montréal-based artist’s collaboration, much like the song goes back a little bit: Naomi and SLM have long moved around in the same circles. But despite sharing similar sociocultural references and background — Naomi has Haitian and Guyanese roots; SLM is Guyanese. But they hadn’t worked together until “Hershey Kiss.”
Their initial artistic encounter felt natural — to the point of being seemingly symbiotic. Each artist spontaneously wrote their lyrics on the spot in a matter of a few minutes and recorded their part in practically a single take, without retouching or re-dubs. Throughout the song, they play with the conventions of bouyon with references to the ballroom scene — in both sound and energy. And as a result, there’s a raunchy, uninhibited and cheekily ribald energy to the proceedings.
Directed by Wynn Holmes and Naomi Hilaire, the accompanying video was shot at the Funhub Arcade on Cathcart Street in Downtown Montréal. The video drops the viewer into a sweaty and sultry party featuring twenty dancers performing choreography created by Naomi and Raphaël Gagnon. The video captures the raunchy energy of the song.
Photography: Public Art Fund Presents Moko Fukuyama, Ilana Harris-Babou, Las Hermanas Iglesias, Carlos H. Matos, Amalia Pica and SUPERFLEX “Between Tides” 7/24/26
Throwback: Happy 75th Birthday, Verdine White!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Earth, Wind and Fire co-founder Verdine White’s 75th birthday.
I’ve run this site for the past 16-years with a stubbornly defiant DIY ethos. But I must admit the past two years have been extraordinarily difficult. At the end of the day, even miracles need money to be achieved.
As always The Joy of Violent Movement is a completely independent and completely D.I.Y. media outlet. Over the course of this site’s 16+ year history, I’ve used my fiercely independent stance to cover music with an eclectic and global perspective that a lot of other publications just don’t have — and will likely never have.
To that end, I could use your support to continue to keep bringing you my unique global perspective on music. There are a number of ways that you can support this work.
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Another announcement for y’all: I’m having email issues yet again — because money. So until I can sort that out, if you’ve been trying to reach out to me about editorial issues, please email me at the following;
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Before I close out, I have a big (and recurring) ask of y’all: I’ve been actively looking for work — for some time now. If you’ve been out there looking for work or if you know someone who is, you’re very aware of how dehumanizing the entire process can be. But over the past 6-12 months or so, it has been especially annoying and frustrating.
Over the course of the past two-plus decades, my writing and photography has been published in a lengthy list of publications including Downbeat, Sound Collector Audio Review, Playbill (photography), The Advocate (photography), Out Magazine (photography), Premier Guitar (photography), Consequence, Earmilk (photography), The Inventory, Glide Magazine.com (writing and photography), Publisher’s Weekly, Sheckys.com, Shecky’s Bar and Nightlife Guide, New York Press, Ins&Outs Magazine (photography and writing), Dish Du Jour Magazine, Queens Ledger (writing and photography) Aussie music publication Musicology.xyz (photography) and countless others.
Concurrently with all of that, I spent about 15 years — okay, like 14.5 total — in book publishing working in the editorial departments of three different New York-based publishing houses across both trade and academic publishing as an Editorial Assistant and as an Acquisitions Editor. The bulk of my publishing career has been in trade publishing with the last 2.5 or so years in academic publishing.
If anyone has any leads on editorial, communications, writing and/or photography jobs — including full-time, part-time, contract and freelance opportunities, please feel free to contact me.
Music industry folks, if you need someone to write bios for your artists and/or bands — or to take press photos, BTS photos, live concert photos or you’d like to have a tour photographer, please feel free to contact me.
New Audio: Gotts Street Park and Celeste Team Up on Soulful Lament “Easy”
Acclaimed Leeds-based trio Gotts Street Park— Josh Crocker (bass, production), Tom Henry (keys) and Joe Harris (guitar) —acclaimed full-length debut, 2023’s On The Inside included “Got To Be Good” feat. Pip Millettt, “Fuego,” “Mountains” feat. ENNY and “Tell Me Why” feat. Olive Jones. And in the subsequent years since its release, the album has amassed over 300 million streams across all DPS with “Got To Be Good” landing in Season Three of BBC’s hit series Boarders and this year’s Finding Emily starring Spike Fearn and Minnie Driver.
Their sophomore album Somewhere Between is slated for an October 16, 2026 release through Play It Again Sam. Somewhere Between is reportedly a departure from the soul, jazz and hip-hop influenced sound of their previously released work, with the album drawing inspiration from Bill Orcutt, Dylan Day, Dick Gaughan, Jessica Pratt, Big Thief and Blaze Foley, as well as the working methods of the house bands at Stax Records and Sun Records. The result is an album that combines the collective’s signature production prowess with an even greater warmth than before, as they also draw on the spirit of the 1970s troubadour singer/songwriter movement with a cast of long-time collaborators that include Celeste, Olive Jones, Pip Millett, Matt Maltese, Sofia and The Antoinettes, anaiis and Rosie Lowe.
In an era increasingly defined by automation and AI, Somewhere Between is threaded throughout with a quiet faith as music as an inherently human act — one shared by intimation, openness and the intangible chemistry of people in a room creating together. “The title only arrived once the album was finished, and it means something slightly different to each of us,” the members of the acclaimed Leeds-based band explain. “For me, it reflects the space that collaboration creates, a place where our individual lives, moods and experiences overlap for a while to make something together. We’re all arriving from different places, but in the studio those separate worlds meet. There’s something about making music that feels like stepping into a space between the tangible and the intangible, where ideas seem to come from somewhere beyond ourselves. In many ways, that’s what this album represents: meeting somewhere between who we are individually and what we can create together.”
The album will include the previously released, acclaimed track “Some Birds Don’t Fly” feat Matt Maltese, and the album’s latest single “Easy” feat. Celeste. The Brit Award and Academy Award-nominated artist Celeste’s achingly soulful and jazzy, AmyWinehouse-meets-classic soul-like delivery strutting over a shimmering, bass-driven Daptone-like arrangement with subtle hip-hop influences.
Thematically, “Easy” examines the push and pull of a romantic relationship that’s way too complicated than what it needs to be. And as a result, the song is centered on the narrator’s bittersweet and lament-fueled realization that it’s time to move on — with the hope that she’ll find the love she deserves.
“‘Easy’ came from one of our very first sessions with Celeste around eight years ago,’ Gotts Street Park explains. “There’s a rawness and spontaneity to it that captures those early days of working together. Nothing felt overthought or overworked, which gave Celeste the space to completely own the song through her performance. We’ve held onto it for a long time, so it’s exciting to finally have the opportunity to share it.”
The band have begun to support the forthcoming album with their Somewhere Here World Tour, which bean with a set at this year’s Montréal Jazz Festival. The tour includes an appearance at the inaugural London edition of The Roots Picnic and at this year’s Newport Jazz Festival, as well as a July 30, 2026 stop at Le Poisson Rouge. Check out the North American leg dates below.
Photography: The High Line in Monochrome (mostly) 7/20/26
The High Line in monochrome (mostly).
Throwback: Happy 65th Birthday, Martin Gore!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Depeche Mode founder Martin Gore’s 65th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 61st Birthday, Slash!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Slash’s 61st birthday.
