Author: William Ruben Helms

William Ruben Helms is a Corona, Queens, NYC-born and-based African American music journalist, freelance writer, editor, photographer and founder of the DIY, independent music and photography site, The Joy of Violent Movement. Over the course of the past two decades, Helms’ writing and photography has been published in Downbeat, Premier Guitar Magazine (photography), Consequence, The Inventory, Glide Magazine.com (words and photography), Publisher’s Weekly, Sheckys.com, Shecky’s Bar and Nightlife Guide 2004, New York Press, Ins&Outs Magazine, Dish Du Jour Magazine, Aussie music publication Musicology.xyz (photography) and countless others, including his own site. With The Joy of Violent Movement, Helms specializes in covering music with an eclectic, globe-trotting, and genre-defying perspective that’s deeply inspired by and informed by his birthplace and home, arguably one of the most diverse places in the world. Since its founding back in 2010, The Joy of Violent Movement can proudly claim readers across the US, Canada, the UK, The Netherlands, France, Australia, and several others throughout its history. https://www.joyofviolentmovement.com https://www.joyofviolentmovement.com/shop https://www.instagram.com/william_ruben_helms Twitter: @yankee32879 @joyofviolent become a fan of the joy of violent movement: https://www.facebook.com/TheJoyofViolentMovement support the joy of violent movement on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheJoyofViolentMovement hire me for headshots, portraits and event photography: https://www.photobooker.com/photographer/ny/new-york/william-h?duration=1?duration=1#

“Victory Gin,” is the latest single off the Linus Pauling Quartet’s recently released Bag of Hammers. The video is surreal and charmingly cute as it portrays each band member as a sock puppet … But seriously, […]

Although it’s been uncommonly and unseasonably warm here in New York, Those Darlins’ “Summer’s Dead,” which was released on Tuesday, is particularly fitting for two reasons – summer has been over for about two weeks, […]

Jemez Mountain Hawkz was the brainchild of the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Dameon Lee Waggoner of Scared of Chaka, who recruited singer/songwriter Ian Moore, Waggoner’s former bandmate, Dave Hernandez (who was also a member of the Shins), Drew Church of Little Cuts, and […]

Latency Magazine feature: Avon Junkies

The September issue of Latency Magazine focused on the truly forgotten borough – Staten Island. My friend Jenny Lando had asked me to contribute to this issue for a few weeks, and eventually I did. My contribution […]

“Nationally Rollin’” by the bi-coastal Kosha Dillz, featuring Wax, Ed E. Ruger, and produced by Los Angeles-based Jon Jackson is an ode to low-riders and road trips and is full of salsa and meringue-styled horns […]

The official video for Devereaux’s “NYXT” off his Cacti Pace EP came out not too long ago, and in some way, the grainy VHS-style video is quite fitting. Interestingly, almost every cliche of 80s music videos […]

Back in July, Ending People played “Beat of My Heart” as part of Audiovore’s “Don’t Look Down” series, a series of live performances on the MCA Denver rooftop. For such a hauntingly eerie song, the […]

Just the other day, singer/songwriter Solange (yes, Solange Knowles, Beyonce’s sister), released the video for her latest single “Losing You,” on Pitchfork, at the same time that Terrible Records released the single digitally worldwide through […]

Australian singer/songwriter Emma Louise is something of a wunderkind – at 16 she won two Q Awards for her songwriting. After high school, she moved from Cairn to Brisbane to further her music career and […]

“Summer Madness S.A.” is the latest single off Karriem Riggins’ Stones Throw Records release, Alone Together which will drop later this month. Full of swooning strings, slinky bass and brief punctuations of keyboard, followed by vocals […]

I recently posted the mp3 version of the exceptionally talented Simon Spire’s “Uncomfortable,” the first single off the New Zealand-born and now, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter’s forthcoming album, Four-Letter Words which will see an October 22nd release. The song […]

Now, check out “Just For One Moment,” the first single of my man Ralph “Soul” Jackson’s long overdue national debut, The Alabama Love Man. We all need some soul in our lives, and this cat brings […]

Yesterday (yeah, technically yesterday) the Audible Doctor released a free mashup mixtape Pre-Med to celebrate the release of a full-length instrumental Doctorin’ which will drop on October 30th – and it serves as a bit of […]

A Q&A with maticulous

The Confluence EP, which was released by Fat Beats Records on September 26th, is the Brooklyn-based (by way of the Pittsburgh, PA area) producer maticulous’s latest album, and the follow up to his debut effort, […]