JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates INXS co-founder and drummer Jon Farriss’ 65th birthday.
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.
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Throwback: Happy 58th Birthday, Michael Bivins!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates New Edition and Bell Biv DeVoe co-founder Michael Bivins’ 58th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 63rd Birthday, Whitney Houston!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 63rd anniversary of the birth of Whitney Houston.
Throwback: Happy 84th Birthday, Jack DeJohnette!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 84th anniversary of the birth of Jack DeJohnette.
Throwback: Happy 67th Birthday, Kurtis Blow!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Kurtis Blow’s 67th birthday.
New Audio: Atlanta’s Go Public Shares Punchy, Post Punk Cover of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over”
Formed back inn 2022, Atlanta-based quartet Go Public — Masters of the Hemisphere‘s and Still Flyin”s Sean Rawls, Masters of the Hemispehre’s and Elf Power‘s Adrian Finch, Sam Gunn and Jay Domingo — features some grizzled veterans of their hometown’s music scene. Since their formation, the band has become a live staple of the southern post punk scene.
Go Public’s full-length debut You Are Traffic is slated for a September 18, 2026 digital and physical release through HHBTM. The Atlanta-based outfit’s long-awaited debut, reportedly sees the band firmly establishing a sound that they’ve dubbed mutant disco, “bleaky vibrant jam for end-times dance parties” featuring skronky contortions, nope wave deconstructions, prickly wisdom and post-punk pith.
You Are Traffic‘s third and latest single “Dream Over” sees the Atlanta-based band tackling Crowded House’s 1986 global smash hit “Don’t Dream It’s Over” and turning the bittersweet and melancholy yet hopeful tune into a punchy and wiry post-punk ripper, while retaining the heartbreak and defiant resilience at the core of the original.
New Audio: JOVM Mainstay George Aletras Returns with Chilly Yet Yearning “Υπνοβάτες (Sleepwalkers)”
George Aletras is a Greek singer/songwriter and musician, whose work sees him moving between indie rock, post rock and cinematic soundscapes, frequently blurring the boundaries between them. At times, his work leans into experimental territories, not as a statement of style, but a a natural consequence of exploration, where form isn’t followed but discovered.
This year, Aletras has released a couple of singles that have caught my attention, including “Τώρα,” “Όπως Παλιά” (“Like the Old Times”) and “Γιορτή”(“Celebration”).
Aletras’s latest single “Υπνοβάτες (Sleepwalkers)” sees the JOVM mainstay blends elements of post-punk, New Wave and coldwave. A breakneck, galloping bass line, tight, punchy four-on-the-floor, slashing guitars and glistening, atmospheric synths form a lush and dream-like bed for the Greek artist’s dreamily yearning baritone. The result is a mix of a chilly arrangement and an even chillier production and vulnerable vocals, that evokes an uneasy tension that’s lived-in, deeply universal, without a lot of people being consciously aware of it. The song’s narrator essentially sleepwalks through a life of mundanity, routines and despair — while longing for more.
Lyrically, “Υπνοβάτες (Sleepwalkers)” “explores the sleep of human consciousness — people moving through routines, isolation and everyday life while remaining unaware of their own disconnection.” Aletras adds, “Through images of sleep, movement and psychological tension, the song also reflects on freedom as something fragile: something we can touch, only to lose in a moment without realizing it.”
Throwback: Happy 65th Birthday, The Edge!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates U2 guitarist The Edge’s 65th birthday.
New Video: JOVM Mainstays Crá Croí Return with Brooding and Atmospheric “Lord of the Wild”
Over the past roughly 18 months, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering County Cork-based duo Crá Croí. The duo — RG (songwriting, production, mixing and mastering) and CD (vocals and visuals) — who derive their name from the Gaelic phrase for “heartache” or vexation of spirit” have employed a fiercely DIY ethos firmly establishing a sound that blends elements of 1980s New Wave, post-punk and goth, featuring melancholic synths, dark melodies, angular guitars, and sharp, hook-driven vocals.
The JOVM mainstays’ work explores themes of nihilism, love and destruction, dystopian collapse and nuclear annihilation, often wrapped in irony and paired with post-apocalyptic metaphors.
Now, as you might recall, the Irish duo’s self-produced, 12-song, full-length debut, Tá brón orm is slated for an October 30, 2026. The album will feature 12 completely new tracks, but they’ve managed to build buzz for themselves and the album with a handful of standalone singles, including “Radiation Romance,” “Fires At Dawn,” “Feeding The Fear,” and “Lost In The Electric Blood,” and “Flesh Machines.”
Their latest single “Lord of the Wild” simultaneously builds upon a sound heavily influenced by Joy Division and Interpol — but while seeing the band add a subtly atmospheric quality. The song manages to be rooted in both the modern and the ancient, with the song making references to mythology and natural phenomena.
“The mythology of Cernunnos ‘the hunter’ or ‘the horned one’ plays a central role in the songs lyrics,” the duo explain. “Elemental forces that guard sacred groves and ancient places are all around us. The “wandering king” being called home represents the soul’s reunion with nature, humanity reconnecting with something primal we’ve forgotten. A hymn to our sacred wilderness.”
The accompanying visual was created by the band and fittingly features forest imagery, ancient headstones, ritual sites and more.
