New Video: Shudder To Think Shares Atmospheric and Intimate “Release The Ball”

Back in 2024 Shudder To Think — currently Craig Wedren (vocals), Nathan Larson (guitar), Clint Walsh (guitar), Jherek Bischoff (bass) and Adam Wade (drums) — celebrated the 30th anniversary of their groundbreaking 1994 effort, Pony Express Record, their Epic Records debut, which followed several releases on Dischord Records. 

After the initial release of Pony Express Record, the band dove into the world of scoring films and creating music for soundtracks with the 1998 releases of Jesse Peretz’s First Love, Last Rites, Lisa Cholodenko’s High Art and Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine. Shudder to Think’s Wedren and Larson have gone to be prolific film and television with Wedren working on YELLOWJACKETS, Wet Hot American Summer, School of Rock, Laurel Canyon and more; and Larson working on Our Idiot Brother, The Skeleton Twins, Juliet, Naked, the High Fidelity TV series and a list of others. 

Last year, the band made their first live performances in over a decade and released the “Thirst Walk”/”Playback” 7 inch, which drew on the band’s classic, beloved sound — melodic, unpredictable and unmistakably their own. The 7 inch vinyl sold out quickly and was repressed for the band’s most recent run of live dates. And if you’ve been frequenting this site, you’d recall that the band recently released the three-song Who Sent You EP, the first new effort from the band in almost 30 years. The EP includes the previously released, semi-autobiographical EP title track ““Who Sent You,” their cover of Depeche Mode’s “Something To Do” off 1984’s Some Great Reward and the EP’s third and final single “Release The Ball.”

“Release The Ball” is a stark, atmospheric tune built around a looping, metronomic-like guitar figure, bursts of caterwauling synths and a metronomic drum patterns beneath Craig Wedren’s yearning delivery.

“Craig had a little looping guitar figure inspired by Arthur Russell,” the band says. ” He threw the idea down so as not to forget it, sang a mostly-gibberish vocal, and sent it to the band as something that could be turned into something. But Adam was like ‘no, leave it! It’s cool.’ So we added some rhythm and texture to the demo, served with love.”

Directed by the band’s Craig Wedren, the accompanying black and white video reflects the song’s stark, intimate nature, featuring live footage of the band projected onto a glittering disco ball.

New Video: Allegories Return with Ethereal “Glorious Vanity”

Canadian experimental pop duo and JOVM mainstays Allegories — childhood friends Adam Bentley and Jordan Mitchell — just released their newest album, By accident, On purpose on this past Friday.

The album includes ““Honestly, that’s enough honesty” “They’ll Never Suspect Us” “Pure Comedy” and the album’s latest single “Glorious Vanity.” Arguably, one of By accident, On Purpose‘s most minimalist and ethereal songs, “Glorious Vanity” serves as one of the more extreme examples of the JOVM mainstay’s experimental creative process with only the title remaining from the initial composition. The result is song that’s a hauntingly eerie, slow-burning, half-remembered dream rooted in palpable yearning.

The song captures the duo’s willingness to abandon a predetermined designation that largely came to define the album. Rather than ruthlessly potting their original idea, the duo allowed instinct and experimentation to dictate what the song needed to become, crafting a weightless entry point into the album.

New Audio: Zacchae’us Paul Returns with Swaggering “TEN outta Ten”

Atlanta-born and based producer, singe/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Zacchae’us Paul released his highly-anticipated sophomore album JAZZ MONEY VOL. 2: SWINGIN’ R&B this past Friday. Sonically, the album sees the rising Atlanta-based artist effortlessly crafting a seamless blend of jazz, R&B, neo-soul and hip-hop that features razor sharp beats complementing nimble, acoustic jazz drumming, emcees effortlessly spitting bars alternating with jazz solos.There’s R&B-styled crooning and sangin.’ There are producer tags, interludes and spoken word sections. And it’s all anchored in jazz improvisation and cinematic storytelling influenced by hip-hop’s golden age.

JAZZ MONEY VOL. 2: SWINGIN’ R&B includes the previously released “LOOK TO THE SKY” “SHE F*CK WITH THE RACKS,” the Zacchae’us Paul and DJ OOOCHILD co-produced “BETTER MUST COME” feat. happy qavah, donSMITH, Keenyn Omari and Derzon Douglas, the Down To Mars-produced “STAY” feat. donSMITH and the album’s release day single “TEN outta TEN.” “TEN outta TEN” is a sleek and effortless blend of trap, R&B and jazz that pairs thumping, eardrum shattering low end and trap beats with soulful crooning, thoughtful lyricism, hip-hop swagger and lounge-ready sophistication.

As a Georgia native, Paul created the song to pay tribute to legendary local hip-hop producer Zaytoven. “I’ve always felt a connection to Zaytoven,” Paul explains. “We’re both preacher’s kids and organists whose musical foundation was built in the church. Even after all of his success, he still plays in church today. That has always inspired me because it reminds me that your gift belongs to God before it belongs to the industry.”

He continues, “Ironically, trap was the first style of music I ever learned to produce. I started making beats in middle school before I ever considered myself a jazz musician. From there, I became obsessed with exploring every branch of Black American music—jazz, gospel, blues, R&B, soul, funk, hip-hop, and beyond. To me, they’re all connected. This record is where those worlds meet: a tribute to one of Atlanta’s greatest producers through my own musical language.”  

New Audio: Monølo Shares Driving and Hypnotic “A1”

Monølo is a French classically trained pianist and electronic music artist, who has built a career exploring the intersection of acoustic piano and contemporary techno. Throughout his career, his work has seen him crafting a sound […]

Live Footage: JOVM Mainstays Gotts Street Park and Olive Jones Perform “Wake Me Up” at ATA Studios

Leeds-based trio and JOVM mainstays Gotts Street Park— Josh Crocker (bass, production), Tom Henry (keys) and Joe Harris (guitar) —released their full-length debut 2023’s On The Inside, which included “Got To Be Good” feat. Pip Millettt, “Fuego,” “Mountains” feat. ENNY and “Tell Me Why” feat. Olive Jones to international acclaim. 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. 

The acclaimed British trio’s recently released sophomore album Somewhere Between is a natural progression from the soulful-groove led sound that has defined their previously with the material drawing 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. While the album finds the band exploring new textures, arrangements and approaches to songwriting that helps to create space for a wider cast of collaborators, the material stays rooted to the understand, live-take-in-the-studio feel that has become synonymous with the band.

Speaking on the evolution of their sound, the band said: “New influences have definitely found their way into this record, but it’s still grounded in our love of soul and jazz. The sounds originally introduced to us through all of us growing up on hip-hop. It’s about new strands weaving through what we already do”.  

“The title only arrived once the album was finished, and it means something slightly different to each of us,” the band continues. ““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 includes the previously released “Some Birds Don’t Fly” feat Matt Maltese, “Easy” feat. Celeste, and the album’s latest single “Wake Me Up” feat. Olive Jones. Featuring a sultry, old-school soul-meets-Soulquarians-like groove with dusty breakbeats, a strutting guitar lick and bursts of bubbling synths beneath Olive Jones‘ breezily soulful yet yearning delivery, “Wake Up” explores the blurred lines between true love and infatuation, capturing the messy uncertainty of someone trying to decipher whether the rush — and hope — of a new romance can develop into something deeper.

“It’s about coming out of the whirlwind stage of early romance and trying to find a steadier, more enduring form of love,” Olive Jones explains. “It’s a phase of confusion and questioning: ‘Am I making the right decision? Is this the right person for me?’ It’s about not wanting to let the fun of the whirlwind go but knowing it can’t last forever.”  

The live footage of Jones and the band was shot by Andy Berriman in Leeds-based ATA Studios.