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#
Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Terry Malts’ Mournful Yet Radio-Friendly New Single

Over the past couple of months I’ve written about Party’s first two singles “Seen Everything,” and “Used To Be,” which both revealed a professional studio polish while retaining the band’s uncanny penchant for crafting infectious and catchy hooks while thematically the album’s first two singles possess a bittersweet and wistful nostalgia over the thing that have and will continue to change but a burgeoning Zen-like acceptance of the impermanence of all things. But they do so with a radio-friendly, power pop-inspired sound. The album’s third and latest single “Gentle Eyes” continues in a similar vein and while sounding as though it were drawing from classic power pop, the song also sounds as though it draws from early New Wave — in particular, early New Order. However, lyrically the song deals more directly with the end of a romantic relationship, in which the song’s narrator admits his role in the breakup and how his former lover’s ghost lingers everywhere for him.

The recently released video employs a very simple concept. Shot in a slightly purplish, black and white tint, the video features the band perfuming the song in a darkened studio, which emphasizes the loneliness and ache at the heart of the song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Certainly, if you’ve been frequenting this site throughout its six-year history and especially over the past couple of months, you’ve come across posts featuring the Brooklyn-based shoegazer rock and art collective Dead Leaf Echo. And over that period of time the members of the collective have seen a growing national and international profile as they’ve played sets at several of the country’s largest and best known festivals, have opened for a list of renowned and well-regarded bands including The Wedding Present, A Place to Bury Strangers, . . . And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, The Psychedelic Furs, Chapterhouse, Ulrich Schnauss, Weekend, Lorelei, The Ocean Blue, The Warlocks, Beach Fossils, and The Telescopes and have made appearances on KEXP‘s John in the Morning and on Nic Harcourt’s KCSN show.

Since the 2013 release of the band’s 4AD Records-inspired full-length debut effort Thought and Language and its follow up true.deep.sleeper EP, the members of the band have been working on their much-anticipated sophomore, full-length effort but in the meantime, they’re releasing a cassette tape edition of the “Lemonheart” 7 inch through Wiener Records on November 4, 2016, as the two original vinyl pressings are completely sold out. Now, you may recall that as I wrote about “Lemonheart,” the single would further cement their reputation for crafting lush, shimmering shoegaze and dream pop in the vein of RIDE, Swervedriver and Slowdive. The 7 inch’s B-side “sparks.fly.from.a.kiss” reveals a thorough change in direction as layers of swirling and buzzing guitar chords and skittering, four-on-the-floor-like drum programming and boom bap beats to create a swaggering and strutting song that sounds indebted to Primal Scream, The Jesus and Mary Chain and others, as it may arguably be the most abrasive and scorching song they’ve released to date. But just underneath the abrasiveness is a swooning and passionate declaration of love.

Dead Leaf Echo have embarked on a Fall/Winter tour to support the release of the “Lemonhead” 7 inch cassette tape edition and it includes a two Brooklyn dates. Check out the tour dates below.

Fall/Winter 2016 Dates:
11.06 – New York, NY @ Berlin (Release Party w/ Midnight Hollow, Big Band)
11.09 – Ft Wayne, IN @ The Brass Rail (w/ March On, Comrade)
11.10 – Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle (w/ Lightfoils, Ganser)
11.11 – Detroit, MI @ Echo Fest
11.12 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Louis Trophy Room (Kalamashoegazer Festival)
11.19 – Brooklyn, NY @ Pete’s Candy Store (w/ Solilians, Landing)
11.25 – Nashville. TN @ TBD
12.03 – Philadelphia, PA @ Ortleib’s

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Perhaps best known as one of the leading members of a burgeoning house revivalist moment, Chris Malinchak first came to prominence among EDM/house and electro pop scenes with the release of 2013’s “So Good To Me,” which received more than 10 million streams. And since then he’s built on buzz “So Good To Me” with a series of electro soul/classic house-leaning singles including the recently released “Tell Me” featuring a guest spot by Storm Queen‘s Damon Scott, “Please You” and “Remember Red.” His latest single “Wonderful” will appear on his forthcoming 2017 EP and the single pairs an effortlessly soulful and swooning vocal paired with shimmering synths, propulsive drum programming led by finger snaps, twinkling keys and an rousingly anthemic hook — and the result is a sweet declaration of love in a radio-friendly, club banger, that also sounds as though it channels early house music.

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Russian Indie Rock Band Return with Brooding Yet Swooning New Single and Visuals

Much like it’s preceding single “Tell Me,” Dialogue’s latest single “By Your Side” is an moodily atmospheric single consisting of twinkling and shimmering synths, swirling electronics, four-on-the-floor drumming, brief blasts of plucked guitar chords and earnest and plaintive baritone in a swooning proclamation of love and devotion while further cementing their reputation for crafting material that sounds indebted to the classic 4AD Records sound.

The recently released video features fittingly moody and brooding visuals including the band preparing to record and record in a darkened studio, members of the band walking around their town and some of its quieter and lovelier sights and so on.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Led by frontwoman Daiana Feuer and comprised of a constantly rotating cast of collaborators, musicians, and friends in a configuration that can vary between three and 12 different members, the Los Angeles, CA-based band Bloody Death Skull not only will likely win an award for best Halloween-themed band name in recent memory, the members of the band consider the band a wild fusion between performance art project and actual band. Sonically and aesthetically, the band has received attention for employing the chord progressions and song structures of early rock, R&B and soul, unusual instrumentation including ukulele, toys and other instrumentation, a punk rock sensibility and taboo-breaking lyrics focusing on love, daydreams, the cosmos, television, dead things, cute things (sometimes dead, cute things), existential crises and being a perpetual teenager forever.

Clocking in at 139 seconds, “Betsy’s Back” off the band’s recently released The Haunting of Bloody Death Skull EP sounds as though it could have been released in 1962 as the single features hand clap-led percussion, jangling guitar chords, a propulsive and rollicking rhythm section, bratty yet incredibly infectious melodies, a blistering early rock, guitar solo with Feuer’s sultry and ominous vocals that give a mischievous song an underlying sense of swaggering menace as Betsy has come back to get bloody revenge on those who have wronged her.

 

 

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: clipping’s Vicious Anti-Donald Trump Diss Track “Fat Fingers”

Recently, the trio participated in the 30 Songs, 30 Days project, contributing a vicious and scathing anti-Donald Trump diss track “Fat Fingers” in which Diggs references Nas’ legendary diss track “Ether” and the Canadian anthem “O, Canada” to a sparse yet forcefully minimalist production featuring a sample of people whislting the melody of the Canadian anthem, boom bap-beats, industrial clang and clatter. Fuck Donald Trump and everything about him and his family!

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Twin Limb’s Ethereal and Sensual, Shoegazer Cover of Can’s “Yoo Doo Right”

Interestingly, to celebrate the release of their full-length effort, the trio of Bender, Ratterman and Guthrie released a swaggering, moody, sensual and shoegazer rock-leaning cover of the legendary German experimental rock/prog rock cover of Can’s “You Doo Right” that the Louisville, KY-based trio recorded live in their studio — and as you can hear, their cover possesses a towering yet cool, self-assuredness.

As the band’s Kevin Ratterman explained to the folks at CLRVYNT: “When I was building my recording studio, La La Land, Can was one of the constant soundtracks blazing through the speakers day in and out. The meditative, flowing, ever-changing rhythms and melodies were a perfect backdrop for [not only] the monotony of construction, but the excitement of building something where so much creativity was about to be captured. When Twin Limb was a duo before I joined the band, they came in to La La Land to record an album not long after construction was finished. Through working on their record, I most excitedly joined the band and I immediately heard similarities between Maryliz [Bender]’s tribal drum style and the song ‘Yoo Doo Right’ once we started working on their album. I had a fantasy of us doing a cover of that song, and was so excited to hear both their voices together singing it; Michael Karoli’s guitar playing has always been an influence on me, and [I] was so excited to play those anthemic guitar hooks. It’s scary to cover a song by a band that carries so much integrity among some of the most influential experimental musicians of our time, but the first time we played that song, it was so apparent it was going to be so free and fun to play live, especially in a small room packed to the gills of sweaty human creature people.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of friends and collaborators Ben Greenberg (guitar, production), who has spent time as a member of The Men and  with his solo project Hubble, and is the producer and engineer, who has worked on most of the Sacred Bones Records catalog; and Michael Berdan (vocals), who has spent time as a member of Drunkdriver and York Factory Complaint, the New York-based duo of Uniform can trace their origins back to 2013 when the duo had reconnected and recognized that they were both in the same place musically. Desiring as intimate of a recorded and live experience as possible, the duo decided that they had to keep the project as a duo, eschewing a live rhythm section for drumming programming and low end synths paired with Greenberg’s guitar work and Berdan’s vocals. And the immediate result of Greenberg and Berdan’s collaboration was a 12 inch single, quickly followed by their full-length debut Perfect World.

The “Ghosthouse” 12 inch is the duo’s first proper release through Sacred Bones Records and while retaining the us of drum programming, low end synths paired with Greenberg’s guitar and Berdan’s vocals, the duo have expanded upon their sound to include the sounds of war and violent conflict including shots, explosions, implosions, things collapsing, along with industrial clang and clatter to create a murky and abrasively confrontational sound — the sound of the fearful, vicious and uncertain contemporary age we live in while being paired with lyrics that are influenced by Berdan’s own struggles with depression and insomnia.

The duo’s latest single is a Ministry and black metal-like cover of Black Sabbath‘s “Symptom of the Universe” that’s abrasive, punishing and fatalistically bleak — essentially turning the song into a love letter from the grave.

Look for the duo’s sophomore effort sometime in 2017.

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Hazy and Aching Visuals and Sounds of Jess Williamson’s “See You In A Dream”

“See You In A Dream” is Heart Song’s latest single and it will further cement the Austin, TX-based singer/songwriter’s burgeoning reputation for crafting material that’s lush and cinematic while being profoundly intimate and vulnerable. The ache, longing, recrimination and resolve at the core of the song not only evokes the lingering ghosts that drift and haunt your loneliest moments — perhaps drinking alone at your local bar, when everyone else has gone home and the bartenders are beginning to clean up and shut down for the night. And much like Vera Lynn’s “Auf Wiederseh’n, Sweetheart” Williamson’s “See You In A Dream” there’s a sense of regret and begrudging acceptance of people growing apart, of relationships ending and something that was once part of your present becoming part of a growing and complicated past.

Directed by Daniel Hill, the recently released video for “See You In A Dream” was inspired by an old Roky Erickson video and was shot mostly on VHS — with the VHS footage representing dream sequences, emphasizing both the ache and the lingering ghosts that inhabit the sparse arrangement.