JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the life and music of R&B legend Freddie Jackson.
New Audio: Vlad Holiday Shares Groovy “By Myself”
Vlad Holiday is a Romanian-born, Nashville-based singer/songwriter and musician, who cut his teeth in the NYC lo-fi scene, building an audience on his own terms. Songs like “So Damn Into You,” “Quit Playing Cool,” and “Phonograph” introduced fans and critics to an artist with a distinct point of view — romantic without being overly sentimental, nostalgic without living entirely in the past. Sonically, his work frequently sees him blending his smoky croon with tape hiss, 60s-styled guitars, 90s hiphop beats and 808 sub ass.
Back in 2024, Holiday released his full-length debut My Favorite Drug. The album saw the Romanian-born, Nashville-based artist delving into dark subject matter with the songs openly talking about low moments in his mental health, substance abuse, the thin line between sanity and insanity and cynical patterns of familial abuse, all to place an element of love into life’s heaviest topics.
Holiday went on to tour alongside frequent collaborators Cage The Elephant and Declan McKenna. He played at Austin City Limits — and he went on his own headlining tours across North America, the UK and European Union. Adding to a breakthrough year for the Romanian-born, Nashville-based artist, he co-wrote tracks on Cage The Elephant’s 2024 effort Neon Pill, including the album’s title track “Neon Pill,” which received a Best Alternative Music Performance Grammy nomination. “Neon Pill,” along with another Holiday co-write “Metaverse” wound up becoming the band’s 11th and 13th Billboard #1 Alternative Airplay radio chart hits.
Since relocating to Nashville, Holiday has made even more of a name for himself as an artist, songwriting and producer. His latest single “By Myself” is his first bit of new material since the release of My Favorite Drug. “By Myself” features dusty trip-hop styled breakbeats, twinkling synth stabs, woozy guitar lines, atmospheric synths and a swaggering groove beneath Holiday’s cool crooning singing about fucking up a relationship — and being a bit proud because his narrator is free from an abusive, dysfunctional person. It’s an odd anthem of self-determination, fueled by heartache.
New Audio: A Cat Named Monty Shares Jangling, Hook-Driven “Welcome to Life”
David Jennings is an Aussie-born, Germany-based singer/songwriter and musician, who is an Australian Songwriting Club winner and a two-time Australian Songwriting Association runner-up, who has been a part of the Melbourne music in some fashion since the late 90s as the creative mastermind of A Cat Named Monty, which released six EPs to some critical acclaim.
Since relocating to Germany, A Cat Named Monty features members spread out across the globe. The project’s latest single “Welcome To Life” is a hook-driven tune that brings Blur, The Beatles, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, and New Zealand jangle pop to mind that take a hilarious — yet sobering — look at the difficulties of living in the modern world. Yes, first world problems but problems all the same.
Throwback: Happy 79th Birthday, Brian Johnson!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson’s 79th birthday.
Throwback: Happy Belated 53rd Birthday, Black Thought!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Black Thought’s 53rd birthday.
Throwback: Happy 72nd Birthday, Stevie Ray Vaughan!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 72nd anniversary of the birth of the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Throwback: Happy 85th Birthday, Chubby Checker!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates rock pioneer Chubby Checker’s 85th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 64th Birthday, Tommy Lee!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Motley Crüe co-founder and drummer Tommy Lee’s 64th birthday.
New Video: JOVM Mainstays Crá Croí Shares Punchy “Just Another Day”
County Cork-based JOVM mainstay act Crá Croí — RG (songwriting, production, mixing and mastering) and CD (vocals and visuals) — will be releasing their self-produced 12-song, full-length debut Tá brón orm on October 30, 2026. While the band have built up buzz through the release of a handful of singles that include “Radiation Romance,” “Fires At Dawn,” “Feeding The Fear,” and “Lost In The Electric Blood,” and “Flesh Machines,” the new album will feature completely new material.
Tá brón orm will include the previously released “Lord of the Wild,” and “Black Snow,” as well as its latest single “Just Another Day.” Much like its immediate predecessor, the album’s latest single features the incorporation of 80s New Wave-styled synths to the brooding, goth-inspired mix. But “Just Another Day” manages to channel blend of Freedom of Choice-era DEVO, Bauhaus and Joy Division anchored around the JOVM’s uncanny knack for punchy hooks.
Throwback: Happy 75th Birthday, Sting!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Sting’s 75th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 71st Birthday, Philip Oakey!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates The Human League vocalist and keyboardist Philip Oakey’s 71st birthday.
New Video: Delivery Shares Club Friendly Art School Rock Tune “Measuring Cup”
Rising Melbourne-based indie outfit Delivery — Bec Allen (bass, vocals), James Lynch (guitar, synths, vocals), Scarlett Maloney (guitar, vocals), Jordan Oakley (guitar) and Liam Kenny (drums, vocals) — emerged from their hometown’s COVID pandemic lockdowns and quickly established a sound that blends elements of post-punk, punk, garage rock and dance floor rhythms into something distinctly their own. The quintet have built moment with the release of last year’s Force Majuere, which Rolling Stone called a “statement of intent” and relentless touring to support the album, becoming one of Oz’s most compelling and restless rock bands.
The rising Aussie quintet’s highly-anticipated third album Zone 3 is slated for a February 26, 2027 release through Heavenly Recordings. Zone 3 reportedly marks a new chapter for the rising Aussie quintet. Written in the wake of extensive time on the road, the album captures Delivery as a fully-formed unit that’s confident enough to trust their instincts and adventurous enough to push beyond the sounds that initially defined them.
Conceived as a late-night record, Zone 3 is specifically for crowded bars, packed dance floors, darkened clubs and the hazy hours before sunrise. Sonically you’ll hear rigid drum-machine driven grooves, synth pulses, wiry guitar bursts, hypnotic baselines and vocals that effortlessly shift between detached cool and infectious urgency.
Recorded in a furious 12-day session at Melbourne-based York Street Studios with producer Dan Lusscombe and engineer Stefan Blair,. the Aussie quintet’s third album reportedly finds them at their most focused, playful and expansive — and may arguably be their boldest effort to date.
Znne 3′s first single “Measuring Cup” is hook-driven tune anchored around a hypnotic, motorik groove, wiry post-punk guitar lines and pulsing synths paired with coolly delivered vocals. The result is a song that sonically to my ears is one-part Sonic Youth-like art punk, one-part pub rock and stoner rock bombast, one-part dance punk.
“There is a certain kind of pressure in modern society to be vigilant about who someone is, what they stand for and if they are ‘your people,'” Delivery says. “But it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s a challenge to engage positively with people who hold different values or stances, and a celebration when you know you’ve found someone who aligns with you, whether that’s politically, socially, or personally. ‘Measuring Cup’ is like an invitation to get on a level together and join the club.”
Directed by the band’s Scarlett Maloney, the accompanying video for “Measuring Cup” features the members of the band as they plan and then commit a perfectly planned, perfectly executed heist, complete with an inside man. And the only way it could have been possible was that they were all with their people.
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New Audio: Shabazz Palaces Returns with New Wave-like “Tongue In Chic”
Seattle-born and-based emcee, musician, producer and JOVM mainstay Ishmael Butler has spent the better part of the last three-plus decades, exploring the outer edges of music: In the early late 80s, he co-founded the pioneering, Grammy Award-winning hip-hop trio Digable Planets, who released two landmark albums, 1993’s Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space) and 1994’s Blowout Comb, toured with Sade — and are still touring today. Butler is also the founder and creative mastermind of the JOVM mainstay act Shabazz Palaces, which released the experimental and highly influential debut, 2011’s Black Up. And with Shabazz Palaces, the Seattle-based artist has continued to push sonic and stylistic boundaries over the course of seven albums, including 2014’s Lese Majesty.
Butler’s exemplary tastes, verve and unique talents have led to collaborations with Flying Lotus, Thundercat, George Clinton, Clipping., Battles, Onoehtirx Point Never, Animal Collective and his own son, Lil Tracy. He has also collaborated with filmmakers Khalil Joseph and Hiro Murai, and design work with Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist and fellow Black Constellation member Nep Sidhu. And with Shabazz Palaces, Butler has toured with Radiohead, TV On The Radio, and Ms. Lauryn Hill.
The Seattle-based artist’s eighth Shabazz Palaces album, the Butler and Erik Blood co-produced, 10-song It’s a Style Sport is slated for an October 23, 2026 release globally through Sub Pop. The album, which marks the first batch of new material from the JOVM mainstay since the release of sibling mini-albums, 2023’s Robed in Rareness and 2024’s Exotic Birds Of Prey is reportedly a bold, forthright and heavy-hitting album. Throughout the album’s runtime, the Shabazz Palaces creative mastermind compiles what he’s learned from his storied and dense career into a playful, shimmering portal, yet again proving himself an artist of chameleonic ambition, fueled by curiosity, courage and a boundless imagination.
Recorded at Brooklyn’s Circular Ruin Studios, Lake View Studios and Seattle’s Hall of Justice Studios, the album will feature guest appearances from Marquette Miller, Thaddeus “Thadillac” Turner, Evan Flory-Barnes, Gerald “Tugboat” Turner, Kassa Overall and Carlos Overall. The album was mastered by Warren Defever at Detroit’s Third Man Mastering.
Its a Style Sport will include the woozy “Ahh World (I Won The Alpha Bet)” and the album’s latest single “Tongue In Chic.” “Tongue In Chic” is an 80s-styled New Wave-meets R&B bop that sounds as though it could have been recorded sometime around Chaka Khan’s 1984 smash hit cover of Prince’s “I Feel For You,” or as part of the Prince/Minneapolis sound while Butler humorously reflects on his dating life: He starts off with a tale of a relationship that quickly got off on a good foot before going quickly awry and controlling. After seeking a new girlfriend with whom he’d do the prerequisite relationship things, he meets a woman who says she’s a chef but hilarious, she doesn’t own utensils and has a messy kitchen. She’s fine as hell; but it ends with some craziness — and the search for another new, girlfriend.