Category: covers

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstays The Harrow Tackle For Against’s “December”

Deriving their name from the harrow, the name of a device used to punish and torture prisoners in the Franz Kafka short story “In the Penal Colony,” Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays The Harrow — currently founder Frank Deserto (bass), LeeAnn Falciani (vocals), Greg Fasolino (guitar) and John Forester (drum programming, guitar, mixing) — can trace their origins back to 2008 when its founder started the band as a solo recording project. The band became a full-fledged band in 2013 when Deserto recruited Vanessa Irena (vocals, synths, programming), Barrett Hiatt (synths, programming) and Fasolino to complete the band’s first lineup.

With their first lineup, the Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays released the “Mouth to Mouth”/”Ringing the Changes” 7 inch and their full-length debut Silhouettes to critical applause from The Deli Magazine, The Big Takeover, Impose, AltSounds as well as this site for a sound that is deeply indebted to The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, and others.

Following up on the November release of their latest EP, Cinderglow, the members of The Harrow have released a lovingly faithful cover of Lincoln, NE-based jangle pop/dream pop band For Against’s “December,” the title track of 1988’s December. Much like the original, The Harrow’s take on the song manages to be simultaneously wistful and brooding, and full of the recognition of life’s unending cycles, of time’s endless march forward and the compiling of regret and shame.

“For Against have always been a very special band for us here at The Harrow,” the band explains. “Their blend of jangle pop, post-punk, and dream pop set them apart from many of their American contemporaries, and their discography is in a word: perfect. We first heard the news of vocalist and bassist Jeff Runnings’ stage 4 cancer diagnosis in November, and we as a band wanted to show our deep appreciation and love for Jeff and For Against with this very special cover. Jeff has always been extremely supportive of our band and is a truly kind soul, and we are honored to call him a friend. 

We will be donating all Bandcamp proceeds for this single to Jeff’s GoFundMe, which can be found here: 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-jeff-runnings-battle-stage-4-cancer

The Bandcamp link for the song can be found here: https://theharrownyc.bandcamp.com/track/december

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: DMX Performs “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”

A JOVM annual tradition: DMX performing “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 58th Birthday, Sinead O’Connor!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 58th anniversary of Sinead O’Connor’s birth.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Allegories Tackle Talk Talk’s Smash-Hit “It’s My Life”

Canadian experimental pop outfit Allegories — childhood friends Adam Bentley and Jordan Mitchell — can trace their project’s origins to their members’ penchant for indulging in unconventional musical pursuits. After founding anthemic, indie rock outfit The Rest, Bentley and Mitchell embraced any opportunity to indulge their more outeé inclinations and desires. 

Back in 2014, Bentley and Mitchell began writing and recording material with no clear destination in mind, dabbling in everything from neoclassical compositions to hip hop. Gathering further inspiration from DJ’ing house and hip-hop nights, the act began to create electronic music that often shifts between the mainstream and underground spectrum. 

Throughout the past decade or so, the duo have had very busy schedules: Bentley currently works behind the scenes in the music industry. Mitchell operates a restaurant. But Allegories almost always found a way to creep back into their lives — even if only as a private amusement between the pair. 

The duo spent the better part of a decade winnowing down 35 song ideas into their nine-song album. 2022’s Endless, their first full-length album in over 14 years. “There’s a moment during the marking of an album, where you don’t know if you’ll finish it,” Bentley and Mitchell say. “Endless was riddled with these cynical epiphanies. It’s unavoidable when you’ve spent over half a decade tinkering away. But as we closed in on the finish line, there was a sense that this could be the last work you ever complete. That spurs the process on, giving urgency. If you spend 14 years between albums, you want to make every note count.”

Since then, the Canadian duo have released a handful of standalone singles, including their first ever cover, Talk Talk’s 1984 smash-hit “It’s My Life,” which was also famously covered by No Doubt back in 2003. As the story goes, the duo’s Adam Bentley has long been skeptical of the song, associating it with the No Doubt cover that he was forced to listen to “almost every day for five years” while working at a hardware store. However, Bentley’s bandmate Jordan Mitchell managed to get the British band’s biggest transatlantic hit stuck in Bentley’s head, which sometimes occurs for months at a time. And with his prodding, Mitchell got Bentley began to see it in a new light.

“The urgency in Mark Hollis’ vocals struck me. And by covering the song, I felt like I was taking back to a place of admiration and passion, and away from Gwen Stefani. Keep Talk Talk away from Gwen at all costs,” Bentley insists.

While the Allegories’ take on the song is for the most part fairly faithful to the original’s climbing bass melody and steady beat, paired with Bentley’s urgent, impassioned delivery. But unlike the original, the Canadian duo add some swirling shoegazer-like synth textures, which gives the Allegories cover a subtly otherworldly quality.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: DVTR Tackles a Québecois New Wave Classic

With the release of their debut EP, BONJOUR, the French Canadian JOVM mainstays DVTR —  Le Couleur‘s Laurence G-Do and Gazoline‘s,  Kandle‘s Xavier Caféine‘s and Gab Bouchard‘s JC Tellier — burnt up the Canadian indie scene: The EP amassed a plethora of rapturous reviews, landed on a number of Best of 2023 Lists and earned the duo a handful of awards in Québec. 

Earlier this month, the duo released an expanded edition of their debut EP, BONJOUR (BIS), which featured “Les Olympiques,” a punchily breakneck ripper an anchored in scathing sociopolitical commentary — but while seeming to draw from The Hives, The Strokes and The White Stripes among others. 

The expanded EP features a cover of Dolbie Stéréo’s 1982 Quebecois New Wave classic “Pied de poule,” which also appears in the musical of the same name. Anchored around a chugging synth-driven groove and punchily delivered shouts, Dolbie Stereo’s original is an in-your-face anthem. DVTR’s cover subtly modernizes the Quéecois New Wave classic while retaining the original’s in-your-face punchiness and irresistible groove.

The accompanying video features footage shot at a sweaty and bonkers DVTR show.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 66th Birthday, Joan Jett!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Joan Jett’s 66th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Elisapie Tackles Sheryl Crow’s Smash-Hit “If It Makes You Happy”

Acclaimed Montréal-based singer/songwriter, musician, actor and activist Elisapie was born and raised in Salluit, a small village in Nunavik, Québec’s northernmost region. In this extremely remote community, accessible only by plane, she was raised by an extended, yet slightly dysfunctional adoptive family. Growing up in Salluit, she lived through the loss of cousins who ended their lives, experienced young love, danced the night away at the village’s community center and witnessed first hand, the effects of colonialism — i.e., poverty, hopelessness, alcoholism, suicide, and more. 

Much like countless bright and ambitious young people across the world, the Salluit-born artist moved to the big city — in this case, Montréal to study and, ultimately, pursue a career in music. Since then, her work whether within the confines of a band or as a solo artist constantly displays her unconditional attachment to her native territory, its people, and to her language, Inuktitut. Spoken for millennia, Inuktitut embodies the harshness of its environment and the wild yet breathtaking beauty of the Inuit territory. Thematically, her work frequently pairs Inuit themes and concerns with modern rock music, mixing tradition with modernity in a deft, seamless fashion. 

She won her first Juno Award as a member of Taima, and since stepping out into the spotlight as a solo artist, her work has received rapturous critical acclaim: 2018’s The Ballad of the Runaway Girl was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, and earned her a number of Association du disque, de l’industrie du spectacle Québeécois (ADISQ) Felix Awards and a Juno Award nod. She followed up with a performance with the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal — at the invitation of Grammy Award-winning maestro Yannick Nézet Séguin — at Central Park SummerStage, a NPR Tiny Desk Session and headlining or festival sets both locally and internationally. 

In her native Canada, she is also known as an actor, starring in the TV series Motel Paradis and C.S. Roy’s experimental indie film VFC, which was released last year. She has also graced the cover of a number of magazines including Châtelaine, Elle Québec and a long list of others. And as a devoted activist, she created and produced the first nation-wide broadcast TV show to celebrate National Indigenous People’s Day. 

Her fourth solo album, last year’s Inuktitut features inventive re-imaginings of songs by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Blondie, Fleetwood Mac, Metallica and more. Each of the acts and artists covered have warmly given their blessing to receive the acclaimed Canadian artist’s unique treatment. Fittingly, each song is imbued with depth and purpose, as the album’s material is an act of cultural re-appropriation that reinvigorates the poetry of these beloved songs by placing them within Inuit traditions. 

Through the album’s 10 songs, the acclaimed Inuk tells her story and offers these songs as a loving gift to her community, making her language and culture resonate well beyond the borders of the Inuit territory. But the album is also a testament to the power and remarkable universality of pop music, a reminder of the universality of human life, and fittingly an ode to the experiences, memories, places and people, who have shaped us.

Almost a year since the release of Inuktitut, the JOVM mainstay returns with “Quviasukkuvit (If It Makes You Happy),” her take on the Sheryl Crow smash-hit that also took over the Nunavik radio airwaves when the Inuk artist was still a teen. Produced by close collaborator, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joe Grass and translated into Inuktitut, Elisapie’s turns the twangy power ballad into a meditative and dreamily atmospheric tune anchored around some shoegazer-like textures and broodingly cinematic arrangements. The Inuk artist’s smoky and achingly tender delivery ethereally floats over the arrangement, expressing a nostalgic yearning for a time, a place and people that you can’t get back.

Much like the songs on Inuktitut, “Quviasukkuvit (If It Makes You Happy)” is inspired by one of Elisapie’s childhood memories: 

“An image that always comes to mind, no matter where I travel or live, is of the people dancing at the magical and dramatic Ikkarivvik Bar in Kuujjuaq,” the acclaimed Inuk artist says. “In my mind’s eye, it is always Friday night, and the moon is full. Most people are either a little drunk or very drunk. The bar and the dancefloor are an escape, and people dance to forget and escape. I recognize so many faces and I can see their smiles and closed eyes as they dance.

‘If It Makes You Happy’ was so popular in the North, and it reminds me so much of when I was a teenager. It played on TV and radio, and we listened to it at home. Those lines made us want to scream along with Sheryl. Her song liberates my people in the North, giving them the words to shout about being sad without feeling ashamed.”

When I perform this song, it has Sheryl Crow’s enthusiasm, but my Inuit sensibility slows it down, echoing the rhythm of the land.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Two New Tracks from Aussie JOVM Mainstays RVG

Acclaimed and rising Aussie outfit and JOVM mainstays  RVG — currently Romy Vager (vocals, guitar), Gregor’s and Hearing’s Reuben Bloxham (guitar), Rayon Moon‘s Marc Nolte (drums), and Isabelle Wallace (bass) — have released three critically applauded albums:

  • 2017’s A Quality of Mercy, which was recorded live off the floor at Melbourne’s iconic rock ‘n’ roll pub, The Tote Hotel. Initially released to little fanfare, the album, much to their surprise received critical acclaim both nationally and internationally, landing on a number of end-of-year Best of Lists. 

  • 2020’s Victor Van Vugt-produced Feral was released by Fire Records globally, excluding Australia and New Zealand, where it was released by Our Golden Friend. The album received breathless praise nationally and internationally, with Rolling Stone Australia calling the album “the record of a lifetime.”

  • Last year’s  Brain Worms, which won the Soundmerch Australian Music Prize and the AIR Awards Independent Album of the Year.

Since the release of Brain Worms the band has been busy: they’ve made the rounds of the global festival circuit with stops at SXSW, The Great Escape, Golden Plains, Rising Festival, Dark Mofo and Splendour in the Grass. The album received applause from Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Uncut, NME, Clash Magazine, MOJO and The Fader. The album also airplay from KEXP, Apple Music 1 and countless other outlets across the globe.

Just before the Aussie JOVM mainstays are about to embark on a headlining UK and European Union tour, they shared a double A-side single “Don’t Take It Badly”/”Pet Sematary.” Recorded at Soundpark Studios with Andrew “Idge” Hehir and mixed by James Trevascus, “Don’t Take It Badly,” is a slow-burning bit of jangle pop anchored around the band’s uncanny knack for rousingly anthemic hooks paired with Vager’s heartbreakingly earnest delivery and lived-in lyrics. “Don’t Take It Badly is a song about how change isn’t always a romantic thing and can sometimes feel pretty ugly. It’s a winter song that I wrote in the summer,” Romy Vager explains.

The other A-side single is a jangling and breakneck, yet fairly straightforward cover of the Ramones’ “Pet Sematary.” “We all love the Ramones” Romy states “And started playing this in rehearsal and it instantly clicked. The lyrics are such an underrated part of Ramones’ songs, there’s a lot of imagery in this song that I love dearly.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Automatic Channels Lou Reed as They Cover “New Sensations”

Los Angeles-based post punk outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon (bass, vocals) — can trace their origins to their hometown’s DIY scene: When the trio met, they each individually […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: London’s Remember Summer Share Dream Pop-like Cover of “Wrecking Ball”

Remember Summer — Northern Irish-born, London-based Paddy Conn, a member of Swimming Tapes and English-born vocalist Angelina Dove — can trace their origins back to 2016 when the duo worked at a Forest Gate, London-based cafe. The duo started making up songs to pass the days toiling in a hot kitchen. “Summer of ‘16 became the year of collaboration for Paddy and I. We started swapping ideas at work,” Dove recalls. “It all started as a bit of fun really, sort of a distraction to stem boredom but when the cafe went bust the following year and we both got fired we realised that we’d started something we missed more than frying eggs. Since we live 5 minutes away from each other we’ve kept it up.”

Bonding over a mutual indulgence for worlds gone by, the London-based duo pair dusty synths and wistful poetry to create nostalgia-drenched take on dream pop.

The London-based duo’s latest single sees them tackling Miley Cyrus‘ 2013 hit “Wrecking Ball.” Dove and Conn pairing the original’s cathartic and rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses with a brooding and dusty soundscape of strummed, reverb-soaked guitar, glistening and atmospheric synths serving as lush bed for Dove’s pop star wailing (whci is also doused in a bit of reverb). The end result is a Still Corners-meets-Stevie Nicks-like take on a familiar song, creating a vintage hue to a modern pop anthem.

“Metaphorically spot on; I think I’m an ‘exploding doormat’ personality type. A really long fuse, but once it’s lit…Wrecking Ball resonated with me, I feel like I’ve been there,” Remember Summer’s Angelina Dove says of the cover. “The explosions, the disappointment, indifference even.”

Edited by Baby Dove, the accompanying video for Remember Summer’s “Wrecking Ball” features clips from 1967’s Bonnie & Clyde superimposed over some gorgeously shot footage of Dove in a gorgeous white dress in the desert.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ Swerve Reimagines The Stone Roses’ “I Wanna Be Adored”

With the release of their Adam Lasus-produced full-length debut, 2021’s Ruin Your Day, the Los Angeles-based rock outfit Swerve, led by Greg Mahdesian and Ryan Berti was released to critically acclaim and received consistent airplay nationally — perhaps a result of the album featuring ripping, catchy, dark and politically-minded love songs.

Locally, the album produced three #1 hits on KROQ‘s Locals Only Chart — “Escape,” album title track “Ruin Your Day,” and “Ebbs and Flows” — and the station listed the band as one of the top ten bands in Los Angeles. Adding to a growing profile, they became an official Vox Amplifier artist, and they were praised by Alice Cooper and Matt Pinfield, who also played them on their respective radio shows.

Although momentum was building, they paused so Mahdesian could focus on spending time with his newborn daughter. Despite his newfound commitments, the band fit in an orchestral, cinematic rendition of “Ebbs and Flows,” and they played a sold-out get-out-the-vote show in 2022. When the band reconvened, their sound evolved into something leaner and more focused sound, which led to their Adam Lasus and Jessica Rotter-produced The Darkroom EP.

Slated for a June 21, 2024 release, the EP thematically sees the band looking back on their wilder years, and delves into the darkness of failing relationships, endless nights and the need to be adored, which quite fittingly led to their cover of the classic Stone Roses tune “I Wanna Be Adored.”

While retaining the yearning nature of the song and the beloved melody, the Los Angeles-based rock outfit’s cover turns the song into a buzzing and slithering Queens of the Stone Age/Desert Sessions-like ripper.

“The Stone Roses made one of my favorite records (I’ve actually purposefully never listened to Second Coming) and ‘I Wanna Be Adored’ is their most iconic track,” Swerve’s Greg Mahdesian says. “It’s also a genuinely weird song that has minimalist lyrics and psychedelic/rave/rock production, and I’ve never heard a cover of it before. We’ve done plenty of covers live, from the Replacements to Black Sabbath, but really wanted to record one and take it in a new direction. When you’re writing your own song you can get locked into a style or idea of what your music sounds like. When the song is already written for you, all the creative energy can be put into the arrangement, and we went left-field with this one. Ryan used a baritone guitar, we got inspired by Desert Sessions and Queens of the Stone Age, and I sang the vocals in the dark—why not, ya know? Brandon Duncan, who plays bass and mixes our records, was given free rein and turned in a really creative mix. This is already opening up our sound and approach for the next batch of songs we’re working on.”

women who kick ass by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Italian Outfit Cut Cut Shares a Genre-Defying Cover of Muse’s “Supermassive Black Hole”

Formed back in 2020 Cut Cut is a genre-defying, experimental, Italian outfit. Since their formation, they’ve released a handful of singles.

Their latest single is a swaggering, club and mosh pit friendly take on Muse‘s “Supermassive Black Hole” that sees the Italian outfit meshing elements of industrial electronica, electro rock and techno house while retaining the bonkers arena rock bombast of the original.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 74th Birthday, George Thorogood!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates George Thorogood’s 74th birthday.