JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Liz Phair’s 57th birthday.
Category: Alt-rock
Throwback: Happy 56th Birthday, Ed O’Brien!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien’s 56th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 56th Birthday, Damon Albarn!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Damon Albarn’s 56th birthday.
New York-based indie outfit Glimmer — Jeff Moore (vocals, guitar) Jaye Moore (drums) Johnny Nicholls (guitar) and Kevin Dobbins (bass) — have quickly established a sound that incorporates elements of grunge, shoegaze and hook-driven alternative rock, influenced by Nothing, Narrow Head, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine and more.
The band’s two latest singles “Buried” and its B-side “Daydream” were recorded in Brooklyn with Jeff Berner and mastered by Will Yip. “Buried” is a 120 Minutes MTV-era like anthem, built around layers of fuzzy power chord-driven guitars, a propulsive backbeat, Jeff Moore’s fittingly dreamy vocals paired with enormous and explosive choruses. “Buried” is the sort of timeless song, that you’d see kids bopping to at a sweaty, dingy club or house party at any point in the past 30 years or so.
“Daydream” is a classic alt-rock-like ballad featuring reverb-soaked guitars, gently padded drums that slowly builds up to an explosive, shout-along and raise your beer in the air worthy hook and chorus.
The member of Glimmer will be embarking on a busy month of live dates that includes several NYC area shows including February 24, 2024 at EWEL; March 9, 2024 at TBD as a result of Saint Vitus Bar‘s recent shutdown; and March 21, 2024 at The Broadway. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.
Upcoming shows:
2/22: Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s (w/ Cigarettes for Breakfast, Husbands)
2/23: Boston, MA @ Cantab Underground (w/ Cigarettes for Breakfast, Husbands, The Dreamtoday)
2/24: Brooklyn, NY @ EWEL (w/ Glitterspitter, Balloon Snake)
3/9: Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus (w/ Dosser, Wax Girl)
3/21: Brooklyn, NY @ The Broadway (w/ Gluehead, Cigarettes for Breakfast, Semaphore)
3/22: Lancaster, PA @ The Upside (w/ Joyful Forfeit, Cigarettes for Breakfast, Blind Hope)
3/23: Philadelphia, PA @ Ukie Club (w/ Cigarettes for Breakfast, Spirit Weak, The Warhawks)
Throwback: Happy 57th Birthday, Kurt Cobain!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 57th anniversary of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain’s birth.
Seattle-based grunge legends Pearl Jam — Eddie Vedder (vocals), Jeff Ament (bass), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar) and Matt Cameron drums) — will be releasing their twelfth studio album, the Andrew Watt-produced Dark Matter through Monkeywrench Records/Republic Records on April 19, 2024. Dark Matter is the band’s first batch of material since 2020’s critically acclaimed Gigaton.
Last year, the grunge legends retreated to Malibu‘s Shangri-La Studios, where they simply plugged their instruments in and played with producer Andrew Watt at the helm. Writing and recording in a frenzied and passionate burst of inspiration, with the musicians facing one another in the same space, communicating sonically and musically at the highest level, with the album being completed in three weeks.
The album channels the shared spirit of a group of lifelong collaborators and creative brothers in one room, playing as if their lives depended on it. For the band, all of the blood, sweet, tears and energy of a storied and legendary career felt renewed and poured into the album’s material.
“I’m getting chills, because I have good memories. We’re still looking for ways to communicate,” Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder says. “We’re at this time in our lives when you could do it or you could not do it, but we still care about putting something out there that is meaningful and we hopefully think is our best work. No hyperbole, I think this is our best work.”
“What Ed said about getting us in a room at this point, we felt like we were about to make a really important record. A lot of that had to do with the atmosphere Andrew set up,” the band’s Jeff Ament says. “He has encyclopedic knowledge of our history, not only as a band and how we wrote songs, but as players. He could pinpoint things we did on old songs to the point where I was like, ‘What the fuck is he talking about?’ His excitement was contagious. He’s a force. I just want to say thanks for keeping us on track. I couldn’t be prouder of us as a band. I feel so grateful for the fans, but mostly for my brothers and these people I’ve made music with.”
Dark Matter‘s first single, the swaggering album title track “Dark Matter” is built around a bombastic and forceful power chord riff, thunderous boom bap-inspired drumming, enormous arena rock friendly hooks and choruses paired with Vedder’s imitable, impassioned delivery. “Dark Matter” seems to pay tribute to the band’s legacy with the song at points bringing back memories of their legendary first three albums — 1991’s Ten, 1993’s Vs. and 1994’s Vitalogy — but with a modern take that reveals a band constantly and willing to push their sound in bold new directions while continuing to be impassioned and unflaggingly earnest in everything they do. Simply put, they may be older — hell all of us are getting older — but this song rips as much as their beloved, classic period.
Dark Matter features cover art by light painting artist Alexandr Gnezdilov. Light painting is an artistic form of photography, where images are created by adjusting a camera’s exposure for an extended period and using a light source, such as a flashlight to “paint” in the dark. The album cover art was crafted using a large, self-made kaleidoscope. Each letter visible on the cover was individually captured and handwritten midair with a specially designed flashlight to create the pearlescent effect.
The band will celebrate indie record stores with the release of a special edition of Dark Matter on Record Store Day, April 20, 2024. You can find that special edition only at participating stores. To get more information and find participating store, check out Record Store Day’s website: https://www.recordstoreday.com.
Last but definitely not least, Pearl Jam will be supporting Dark Matter with an extensive world tour — the first time, the band has announced a new album and tour, with full tour dates simultaneously.
The world tour will see the band playing 25 cities in nine countries and will see them playing much of North America, including a two night run at Madison Square Garden, September 3, 2024 and September 4, 2024, as well as stops at Wrigley Field, Fenway Park and their first hometown shows in six years at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena. The North American tour will feature support from Deep Sea Diver (leg 1) and Glen Hansard (leg 2).
The UK and European run includes their first show at London‘s brand new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. For that run of the tour, The Murder Capital will be support for much of the UK and EU dates; however, the great Richard Ashcroft will be support for Dublin and London.
The tour also sees the band’s first New Zealand and Australian dates in over a decade. Pixies will serve as support for those dates.
Tickets will be available two ways:
1. A Ten Club members-only presale will be held through Ticketmaster Request for eligible members. Only paid Ten Club members active as of Monday, February 12 are eligible to participate in this presale. More info at pearljam.com
2. Fans can register for a chance to participate in the Dark Matter World Tour 2024 registration sale at shops.ticketmasterpartners.com/pearl-jam by Sunday, February 18 at 11:59 PM local time for Europe, UK, Australia and New Zealand shows and by Sunday, February 18 at 11:59 pm PT for North America shows. This will be the only way for fans to participate in the onsale. Registration does not guarantee access to the sale.
The tour will use all-in pricing across all North America, Europe and UK shows to ensure the ticket price listed is the full out-of-pocket price inclusive of fees.
For fans in North America who can’t use their tickets, Pearl Jam and Ticketmaster will offer a Fan-to-Fan Face Value Ticket Exchange beginning at a later date to give fans the best chance to buy tickets at face value. To help protect the Exchange, Pearl Jam has also chosen to make tickets for this tour mobile only and restricted from transfer. This applies to all shows except those in Illinois and New York where non-transferability is prohibited by law. You must have a valid bank account or debit card within the country of the event(s) in order to sell through the Fan-to-Fan Face Value Ticket Exchange.
All tour dates are below.
Dark Matter World Tour Dates:
Date City Venue
May 04 Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena
May 06 Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena
May 10 Portland, OR Moda Center
May 13 Sacramento, CA Golden 1 Center
May 16 Las Vegas, NV MGM Grand Garden Arena
May 18 Las Vegas, NV MGM Grand Garden Arena
May 21 Los Angeles, CA Kia Forum
May 22 Los Angeles, CA Kia Forum
May 25** Napa Valley, CA BottleRock Festival
May 28 Seattle, WA Climate Pledge Arena
May 30 Seattle, WA Climate Pledge Arena
Jun 22 Dublin, IE Marlay Park
Jun 25 Manchester, UK Manchester Co-Op Live
Jun 29 London, UK Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Jul 02 Berlin, DE Waldbühne
Jul 03 Berlin, DE Waldbühne
Jul 06 Barcelona, ES Palau Sant Jordi
Jul 08 Barcelona, ES Palau Sant Jordi
Jul 11** Madrid, SE Mad Cool Festival
Jul 13** Lisbon, PT NOS Alive Festival
Aug 22 Missoula, MT Washington-Grizzly Stadium
Aug 26* Indianapolis, IN Ruoff Music Center
Aug 29 Chicago, IL Wrigley Field
Aug 31 Chicago, IL Wrigley Field
Sep 03 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
Sep 04 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
Sep 07 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
Sep 09 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
Sep 12 Baltimore, MD CFG Bank Arena
Sep 15 Boston, MA Fenway Park
Sep 17 Boston, MA Fenway Park
Nov 08 Auckland, NZ Go Media Stadium Mt Smart
Nov 13 Gold Coast, AU Heritage Bank Stadium
Nov 16 Melbourne, AU Marvel Stadium
Nov 21 Sydney, AU Giants Stadium
* Rescheduled date from 2022
** Festival dates are already on sale
New Video: The Smile Perform Brooding and Cinematic “Friend Of A Friend” for School Kids in New Visual
Last year, The Smile — Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet‘s Tom Skinner — released their critically applauded Nigel Godrich-produced full-length debut A Light For Attracting Attention. The album saw the acclaimed outfit collaborating with London Contemporary Orchestra and a full brass section of contemporary British jazz musicians that include Bryon Wallen, Theon Cross and Nathaniel Cross, Chelsea Carmichael, Robert Stillman, and Jason Yarde.
The Smile’s sophomore album, the Sam Petts-Davies Wall of Eyes officially drops today through XL Recordings. The album, which was recorded in Oxford and legendary Abbey Road Studios features string arrangements from London Contemporary Orchestra.
Late last year, I wrote about Wall of Eyes‘ first single, album title track, “Wall of Eyes,” an eerily haunting and meditative song that sees the trio pair Yorke’s imitably yearning delivery with a glitchy arrangement featuring strummed guitar melody, glittering strings and gently padded drums. The song evokes — at least to me — a slow-burning sense of dread and unease.
Wall of Eyes‘ latest single “Friend Of A Friend” continues a remarkable run of broodingly cinematic and meditative material that sees the trio pairing twinkling keys, gently swinging jazz-inflected percussion, mournful saxophone from Robert Stillman and soaring strings with Yorke’s achingly yearning delivery. “Friend of a Friend” manages to be a subtle synthesis of Amnesiac-era Radiohead, 70s AM rock and art film scores.
Directed by acclaimed motion picture director Paul Thomas Anderson, the accompanying video for “Friend Of A Friend” features the trio performing the song at a school assembly for a collection of first and second graders. Some of the little learners are mesmerized by what they’re seeing and listening to, others become bored and listless, others start shifting about uncomfortably, another group are roughhousing and barely paying attention. Most are kind of confused and don’t know what to make of what’s going on. The kids are adorable — and the video manages to capture childhood and the kids in their natural element with a guileless sweetness.
We also know that some of those kids will remember being at that video shoot for the rest of their lives.
Throwback: Happy 55th Birthday, Dave Grohl!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Dave Grohl’s 55th birthday.
The Smile is an acclaimed outfit that features some of the world’s most accomplished musicians — and a couple of household names: Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet‘s Tom Skinner.
Last year, the trio released their critically applauded Nigel Godrich-produced full-length debut A Light For Attracting Attention. The album saw the acclaimed outfit collaborating with London Contemporary Orchestra and a full brass section of contemporary British jazz musicians that include Bryon Wallen, Theon Cross and Nathaniel Cross, Chelsea Carmichael, Robert Stillman, and Jason Yarde.
The Smile’s sophomore album, the Sam Petts-Davies Wall of Eyes is slated for a January 26, 2024 through XL Recordings. The album, which was recorded in Oxford and legendary Abbey Road Studios features string arrangements from London Contemporary Orchestra.
Late last year, I wrote about Wall of Eyes‘ first single, album title track, “Wall of Eyes,” an eerily haunting and meditative song that sees the trio pair Yorke’s imitably yearning delivery with a glitchy arrangement featuring strummed guitar melody, glittering strings and gently padded drums. The song evokes — at least to me — a slow-burning sense of dread and unease.
Wall of Eyes‘ latest single “Friend Of A Friend” continues a remarkable run of broodingly cinematic and meditative material that sees the trio pairing twinkling keys, gently swinging jazz-inflected percussion, mournful saxophone from Robert Stillman and soaring strings with Yorke’s achingly yearning delivery. “Friend of a Friend” manages to be a subtle synthesis of Amnesiac-era Radiohead, 70s AM rock and art film scores.
Along with the new single, which was originally showcased during the band’s 2022-2023 tour, the bands announce new European headlining dates in June and August, in addition to their near sold-out run of shows in March. All tour dates, including the new ones are listed below. But tickets for June and August run go on sale Friday, January 12, 2024. Check out: https://www.thesmiletheband.com/live for details.
James Holden will open for The Smile at all of their headline shows this year.
The video for “Friend Of A Friend,” by motion picture director Paul Thomas Anderson, will be premiered alongside a surround sound album playback of Wall Of Eyes at a series of one-off events hosted at independent cinemas between January 18-25th.
The events, titled Wall Of Eyes, On Film will celebrate the new album and the band’s collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson. It will take place at 12 cinemas from Sydney to Mexico City, and includes a New York City event at The Village East. The events comprise:
- Wall Of Eyes album playback in its entirety, for the first and only time with surround sound and accompanying never-before-seen footage of the album’s recording sessions.
- The world film premiere of Friend Of A Friend and a presentation of Wall Of Eyes, both directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and shot on 35mm film*
- A programme looking back over Paul Thomas Anderson’s previous directorial collaborations with both Thom Yorke and Radiohead to include ANIMA (short film) and Radiohead’s Daydreaming (35mm), Present Tense & The Numbers.
Further information on these events and how to obtain tickets can be found here HERE.
Tickets will be on sale from 10am GMT on Thursday, January 11th.
Screening events:
Jan 18th – The Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square, London, UK*
Jan 18th – The Village East, Manhattan, New York, US*
Jan 19th – Brain Dead Studios, Los Angeles, US*
Jan 20th – SangSang Madang Cinema, Seoul, SK (x2 showings)
Jan 20th – Cinema Godard – Fondazione Prada, Milan, IT*
Jan 20th – Cine Tonalá, CDMX, MX
Jan 22nd – 190 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku, Tokyo, JP*
Jan 22nd – MK2 Quai de Loire, Paris, FR*
Jan 23rd – Golden Age Cinema, Sydney, AUS (x2 showings)
Jan 23rd – Eye Filmuseum, Amsterdam, NL*
Jan 23rd – Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow, UK*
Jan 25th – 190 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku, Tokyo, JP*
Jan 25th – Kino Intimes, Berlin, DE
*35mm presentations available in select participating cinemas
March 2024 UK and European Tour Dates
Wed 13th March: Copenhagen – K.B. Hallen
Fri 15th March: Brussels – Forest National
Sat 16th March: Amsterdam – AFAS Live
Mon 18th March: Brighton – Brighton Centre
Tue 19th March: Manchester – O2 Apollo
Wed 20th March: Glasgow – SEC Armadillo
Fri 22nd March: Birmingham – O2 Academy
Sat 23rd March: London – Alexandra Palace
June and August 2024 European dates:
June 8th – Hamburg, Stadtpark Open Air, Germany
June 9th – Cologne Palladium, Germany
June 11th – Berlin, Verti Music Hall, Germany
June 12th – Prague, Forum Karlin, Czechia
June 14th – Belgrade, Hangar, Serbia
June 15th – Pula Arena, Pula, Croatia
June 17th – Bucharest, Arenele Romane, Romania
June 18th – Sofia, Arena Sofia, Bulgaria
June 23rd – Rome, Cavea Auditorium, Roma Summer Fest, Italy
August 13th – Sigulda Castle, Sigulda, Latvia
August 14th – Warsaw, Progresja, Summer Stage, Poland
August 20th – Frankfurt, Jahrunderthalle, Germany
August 21st – Munich, Zenith, Germany
August 22nd – Vienna Open Air Arena, Austria
August 26th – Bordeaux, Krakatoa, France
August 28th – Valencia, Jardins De Viveros, Spain
Throwback: Happy 64th Birthday, Michael Stipe!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe’s 64th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 59th Birthday, Eddie Vedder!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder’s 59th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 65th Birthday, Mike Mills!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates R.E.M.’s Mike Mills’ 65th birthday.