Category: Alt-rock

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio/Live Footage: Two from Expanded Edition of Still Blank’s Self-Titled Debut

Rising, transcontinental duo Still Blank — Kaua’i, HI-born, Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Jordy and Manchester, UK-based guitarist Ben — have quickly established a difficult to pigeonhole, often minimalist yet emotionally rich sound that draws from shoegaze, grunge and folk. 

The duo’s unique sound comes from other unlikely roots: Jordy grew up immersed in the natural rhythms of island life in Hawaii, gigging at weddings and fundraisers by the time she was in her early teens. Her early musical efforts drew inspiration from Hawaiian traditions and Kaua’i’s solitude. Ben, who ,was raised steeped in Manchester’s rich and deep musical legacy, played some of his earliest gigs in pubs with his dad’s band. He developed a love of ambient textures, citing The Durutti Column and Vini Reilly as formative influences. 

The duo’s unlikely meeting in the UK sparked a lightning-in-a-bottle creative partnership that started as casual jam sessions in a Liverpool basement and quickly evolved to sessions ranging from stripped-back recordings on a broken, classical guitar to long studio sessions fueled by long walks through rural Wales and a shared commitment to imperfect perfection. 

As a band, the transcontinental duo’s work seemingly echoes the mood and vibe of acts like Yo La Tengo, Big Thief and Cat Power paired with lyrics informed by people-watching, dreams, nature, introspection and existential observation. 

The duo released their highly-anticipated, full-length debut last fall through National Anthem/Capitol Records. The album included their debut single, “What About Jane,” “Ain’t Quite Right,”and “Same Sun.” The duo recently released an expanded edition of their full-length debut that features two new singles “Fever Dream” and “love/guilt.” But instead of tacking the new tracks at the end, as a sort of after thought, the acclaimed duo changed the tracklisting to properly accommodate the new songs.

Placed after “Desert,” the duo’s latest “Fever Dream” serves as a bit of cool down. Built around shimmering guitars, shuffling rhythms and burst of reverb soaked, dubby keys, the song’s arrangement serves as a swirling and lush bed for Jordy’s seductive siren-like vocal selling a Faustian bargain to the listener: you get stardom for a very specific price — complete submission.

“love/guilt” opens the expanded edition of their self-titled debut and is a chugging, Alice in Chains-like anthemic rocker that showcases Jordy’s powerhouse delivery and a big, arena rock take on their sound. The new single is accompanied by a live session, which was filmed in Jordy’s gorgeous Kaua’i, HI.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Afghan Whigs Return with Sultry “Jungle Roux”

JOVM mainstays The Afghan Whigs —  currently Greg Dulli (vocals, guitar), John Curley (bass), multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson and the band’s newest member, Blind Melon’s Christopher Thorn (guitar) — will be releasing their 10th album, Soft Control on August 21, 2026 through Royal Cream/BMG.

Soft Control is reportedly a testament to the old David Bowie quote, where he describes aging as “an extraordinary process, where you become the person you always should have been.” By now, the volatile years of frontman Greg Dulli’s youth have been substituted with a wry and self-aware, Zen Buddhist-like satori. The edge and sensitive temperament remain but the unchecked conflagration of ego and rage no longer threaten personal immolation.

“I’ve worked hard on my inner peace,” Dulli explains. ““I was an angry young man, and it fueled my art, ambition and my drive. I wouldn’t change anything because I can’t.  But as I got into photography and other art forms, I realized that I’m not in competition with anyone – including myself. Now, I know what I’m doing and there’s a quiet confidence that comes with being able to back it up.” 

The band recorded 22 songs for the album in session s at Joshua Tree, CA‘s Fireside Sound, New Orleans‘ Marginy Studios, East Hollywood’s Gold Diggers Sound and Cincinnati’s Sycamore Studios. Several favorites were cut because they didn’t seamlessly fit into the album’s taut 37-minute run time. The album features guest spots from former drummer Patrick Keeler, vocalist and violinist Petra Haden, My Morning Jacket‘s Bo Koster and a list of others.

Soft Control reportedly captures the JOVM outfit’s long-held ability to craft material that can effortlessly bounce between and mesh arena rock anthems with brooding, cubist refractions of soul and R&B. The album has its Afghan Whig-style bangers — because Afghan Whigs after all. But there’a reconciliation of ear drum shattering volume and somber reflections, living life with joy and purpose while keeping one eye on the clock, while remaining aware of life’s absurdities.

The album’s latest single “Jungle Roux” is a sultry bit of R&B and soul-tinged rock with phased out guitar twang that sounds a bit like a synthesis of “Gimme Shelter,” Dr. John, and Motown, and evokes a woozy, sweaty and desperate craving. It’s arguably the album’s sexiest, song to date.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 52nd Birthday, Alanis Morisette!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Alanis Morissette’s 52nd birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 59th Birthday, Philip Selway!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Radiohead drummer Philip Selway’s 59th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 61st Birthday, Trent Reznor!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor’s 61st birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 61st Birthday, Greg Dulli!

JOVM’s Wiliam Ruben Helms celebrates Afghan Whigs’, Gutter Twins and Twilight Singers’ co-founder Greg Dulli’s 61st birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Copenhagen’s Bending Backwards Shares Yearning “i See You From Here”

Copenhagen-based trio Bending Backwards — Frederik Blæsild Vuust (vocals), Halfdan Stefansson (guitar) and Johannes Østlund Jacobsen (drums) — specialize in a distinctly contemporary take on alternative rock that sees sees the trio moving fluidly between dream pop, shoegaze, grunge post-punk, noise rock and folk.

Thematically, the Danish trio’s work touches upon recurring and uneasy dichotomies: the longing for home and stability and the pull of the outside world, and intimacy and disorientation. Their work also touches on love, especially between siblings, as well as reflections on distance, memory and everyday tenderness. Lyrically, Blæslid Vuust’s lyrics draw on a wide range of literary influences and references, including biblical passages, the work of T.S. Eliot, László Kraszenahhorkai and more.

As part of Copenhagen’s experimental and alternative music scenes, a loosely connected network of band and artists including the Movement Shaped Like A Heart Collective.

The trio’s latest single “I See You From Here” is also the first single off their full-length debut still and quiet, brother, are you still and quiet. Sonically channelling a synthesis of brooding post punk, indie rock and folk featuring Blæsid Vuust’s achingly tender, vulnerable delivery ethereally floating over the arrangement, “I See You From Here” describes the push and pull of an new relationship between two dysfunctional, deeply human people,

Bending Backwards describes the song as beginning with “the image of an apartment in Berlin . . . and a large park just down the road,” where two figures are placed within the scene. What follows is loose yet recurring sequences of events: They meet. They sit in the apartment just down the road rom the park .They took a walk in the park, then separate and return. The song captures that seemingly endless push and pull.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Foo Fighters Return with Swaggering “Window”

Foo Fighters — Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiftlet, Pat Smear, Rami Jaffee and Ilan Rubin — just released their Foo Fighters and Oliver Roman co-produced 12th album Your Favorite Toy today through Roswell Records/RCA Records. 

The album was recorded at home and engineered by Roman and mixed by Mark “Spike” Stent and features the previously released “Asking For a Friend,” the album’s title track “Your Favorite Toy,” and the album’s latest single “Window.”

Much like “Your Favorite Toy,” “Window” manages to not just sound distinctly Foo Fighters but seems a bit like a return to form, sounding as though it could have been a part of the There Is Nothing Left to Lose sessions but with a gritty barroom band-like swagger.

Directed by Jake Erland and developed from an original concept by Dave Grohl, the accompanying video stars Craig Parkinson as a window cleaner scaling the glass and steel exterior of a massive, modern skyscraper. And as Parkinson’s window cleaner dutifully does his job while listening to his favorite tunes, he observes the various inhabitants of each floor during some of their most banal and intimate moments with a detached, seemingly indifferent voyeurism. That is until he connects with one inhabitant, who is rocking out to the same tunes.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Afghan Whigs Return with Meditative “Duvateen”

JOVM mainstays The Afghan Whigs —  currently Greg Dulli (vocals, guitar), John Curley (bass), Patrick Keeler (drums), multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson and the band’s newest member, Blind Melon’s Christopher Thorn (guitar) — released their ninth album, 2022’s How Do You Burn? to widespread critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Los Angeles Times, Spin,Stereogum, Billboard and others. 

Late last year, saw the band tackling two songs — — Poliça‘s “Fake Like” and Still Corners “Downtown” — that seemed perfect for the band’s unique take on them. 

The JOVM mainstays will celebrate their 40th anniversary this year with a month-long tour with Mercury Rev that includes an April 30, 2026 stop at Webster Hall. Tour dates are below. You can visit https://linktr.ee/theafghanwhigs for tickets and more. 

“40 years later, I still get to do the thing I love the most. Writing songs and performing them with my friends all over the world,” The Afghan Whigs’ co-founder and frontman Greg Dulli says. “I truly have to pinch myself.”

But in the meantime the JOVM mainstays have shared a bit of new material that includes “House of I,” and their latest single “Duvateen.” “Deriving its title from the name of the light manipulating material, “Duvateen” is a meditative, piano-driven power ballad with the titular material being a metaphor for mortality and the dark abyss just off in the background of our lives.

At the core of the new single is a narrator with the recognition that they’re no longer young and that their own mortality is looming just over their shoulder. “When I finished “Duvateen,” it felt like my life passing before my eyes,” The Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli says. “The references to the teacher chasing me down the hall reminded me of my childhood. Digging a hole was an obvious allusion to a grave. I’m at a precipice in life where I can look behind and clearly see the forest of my youth, but I can also see the path to the other side. And it’s going to inform what I do for the rest of my days.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Afghan Whigs Share Surreal and Cinematic Visual for “House of I”

JOVM mainstays The Afghan Whigs —  currently Greg Dulli (vocals, guitar), John Curley (bass), Patrick Keeler (drums), multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson and the band’s newest member, Blind Melon’s Christopher Thorn (guitar) — released their ninth album, 2022’s How Do You Burn? to widespread critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Los Angeles Times, Spin,Stereogum, Billboard and others. 

Late last year, saw the band tackling two songs — — Poliça‘s “Fake Like” and Still Corners “Downtown” — that seemed perfect for the band’s unique take on them. 

The JOVM mainstays will celebrate their 40th anniversary this year with a monthlong tour with Mercury Rev that includes an April 30, 2026 stop at Webster Hall. Tour dates are below. You can visit https://linktr.ee/theafghanwhigs for more information, including tickets. 

“40 years later, I still get to do the thing I love the most. Writing songs and performing them with my friends all over the world,” The Afghan Whigs’ co-founder and frontman Greg Dulli says. “I truly have to pinch myself.”

But in the meantime, the JOVM mainstays just shared “House of I,” the first bit of original material from the band since the release of How Do You Burn?Anchored around propulsive and pounding drums and churning guitar roar, “House of I” is a bit of return to grittier, nastier sound of the band’s early days paired with Greg Dulli’s imitable vocal singing lyrics are simultaneously caustic yet full of aching desire and swaggering ego. 

Produced and mixed by the band’s Greg Dulli and Christopher Thorn, “House of I” was recorded at New Orleans-based Marigny Studios with additional recording and mixing at Joshua Tree, CA-based Fireside Sound. “Laid this one down in New Orleans last summer,” Dulli said. “Was looking for an up tempo banger and feel like we found one here.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 58th Birthday, Ed O’Brien!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien’s 58th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 68th Birthday, David Roback!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 68th anniversary of the birth of Mazzy Star’s David Roback.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 64th Birthday, Simon Raymonde!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Simon Raymonde’s 64th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 67th Birthday, Perry Farrell!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Perry Farrell’s 67th birthday.