Category: dream pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Formed in 2016, Hamilton, Ontario-based dreamgaze outfit Basement Revolver — Nim Agalawatte (bass, keys) (they/them), Chrisy Hurn (vocals, guitar) (they/them), Jonathan Malström (guitar) (he/him) and Levi Kertesz (drums) (he/him) — can trace their origins back quite a bit earlier, to the longtime friendship between Hurn and Agalwatte.

The band hit the ground running with the release of their breakout single “Johnny Pt. 2,” which led to the band signing to British label Fear of Missing Out and later, Canadian label Sonic Unyon Records. The Canadian dreamgazers closed out 2016 with their self-titled EP. Over the next few years, the band were quite prolific releasing 2017’s Agatha EP, 2018’s full-length debut Heavy Eyes and 2019’s Wax and Digital EP. They supported that recorded output with touring across Ontario, the States, the UK and Germany.

2020 was tumultuous and uneasy year for most people across the planet — and unsurprisingly, it was also a tumultuous year for the Hamilton-based outfit: They had written and recorded a batch of material. The band then went through a lineup change in which one member left and was then replaced by another. But because of the pandemic and pandemic-related restrictions, they couldn’t rehearse or record in the fashion they had become accustomed. And of course, touring was completely off the table for the better part of about 15-16 months in most parts of the world.

Much like countless others across the globe, the enforced off-time resulted in moments of serious, individual reflection for the band’s members — including a reconsideration of who and what the band was. According to the band’s Nim Agalwatte, the band had planned on working on their sophomore album back in 2021, but they wound up waiting and working out what to do, eventually making changes to the material they had originally written. “The world was shifting around us – and there was some global trauma – with that, we decided we wanted to fully express ourselves. So far we had kind of held off sharing political views, but we were realizing that our silence was actually just violence. We realized that to be who we are fully and authentically, we needed to share our voice.” 

For the band’s members, that meant they had felt the need to share things in public that they had long held close to the vest: Both Agalawatte and Hurn came out. According to Hurn, the pair came out against what they describe as homophobic and transphobic environments, much like Redeemer University, a private Calvinist university, which has been the meeting place and birthplace of countless local acts in Hamilton.

Back in 2020, Redeemer University announced a policy that would discipline students for any sexual behavior outside heterosexual marriage. “While we were in the studio, the CBC released an article about Redeemer University, and their homophobic and transphobic policies. I realized then and there, I had to come out. . . ” Hurn explained.  

The Canadian outfit’s sophomore album, 2022’s Embody thematically saw the band wrestling with the serious questions of identity, sexuality, faith and mental illness in an unapologetically honest, self-aware and explicit fashion. Arguably, the most personal album of their growing catalog, Embody is rooted in hope — to physically be with and see your friends, to play songs in a darkened room with others and for others, to engage with the world with a hard-fought understanding of yourself and your much different place within the world and more. Sonically, the album’s material features a much deeper sound and a crisper production to adroitly express the complexities and uncertainties of the world.

“Red Light,” the Hamilton-based outfit’s first bit of new material since Embody is a a breakneck and anthemic bit of 120 Minutes-era MTV indie rock featuring A Storm in Heaven-like guitar textures, thunderous drumming paired with enormous hooks and Hurn’s dreamily yearning delivery expressing the annoyance and frustration of someone, who realizes that they just can’t seem to get a win at anything.

The new single was inspired by a discussion at a band practice in which the band’s Chrisy Hurn shared that they had received a red light ticket, and frustratingly, the ticket was more than their recent paycheck. As an indie band, the band’s members have received their fair share of parking and speeding tickets while touring, and in turn, they’re intimately familiar with the crippling financial setbacks that can seem to derail one’s life and dreams. It’s relatable for most people, and the band decided that it was worthy of a song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Blushing Shares Playful and Anthemic “Tamagotchi”

Austin-based dream pop/shoegazer outfit and JOVM mainstays Blushing — married couples Christina Carmona (vocals, bass) and Noe Carmona (guitar, keys) and Michelle Soto (guitar, vocals) and Jacob Soto (drums) — can actually trace some of its roots to El Paso, where Jacob Soto and Noe Carrmona grew up as lifelong friends and musical partners. 

Jacob Soto and Noe Carmona relocated to Austin around 2009. The pair coincidentally met their spouses at The Side Bar and according to the band, “naturally all four of us became close friends.” As Michelle Soto was starting to learn guitar, she also began writing material, creating guitar parts and vocal melodies in her bedroom. Christina Carmona, who’s a classically-trained vocalist, was recruited by Michelle Soto to contribute vocals to her initial musical ideas; but Christina then taught herself bass and helped flesh out Michelle’s songs. Shortly after both Jacob and Noe began to notice how much potential the material had, and they joined in on a practice session to help further flesh out those initial arrangements. And from that point on, Blushing was a full-fledged band. Their natural simpatico and like-minded musical influences helped to solidify their ongoing creative process. 

The quartet spent the bulk of 2016 writing and refining the material, which eventually led to their debut EP, 2017’s Tether, an effort that received positive reviews across the blogosphere, including this site.

Building upon a growing profile in the shoegaze and dream pop scenes, the band returned to the studio to write and record their sophomore EP, 2018’s Weak, which saw them cementing a sound seemingly indebted to Lush, Cocteau Twins and The Sundays but while also being a subtle refinement. They ended that year with the Elliot Frazier-produced and mixed “The Truth”/”Sunshine” 7 inch, which featured what was arguably the most muscular and direct song of their catalog to date. They supported their recorded output with several tours that saw them sharing stages with the likes of Snail Mail, Sunflower Bean, La Luz, BRONCHO, Illuminati Hotties, JOVM mainstays Yumi Zouma and others.

2019 saw the release of their self-titled, full-length debut, which they supported with an extensive US tour with Ringo Deathstarr that included a stop at Saint Vitus Bar that November.

During the pandemic, the Austin-based JOVM mainstays signed to Kanine Records, who released their sophomore album, 2022’s Possessions.  Possessions was an album born out of incredible patience and perseverance: The earliest tracking sessions started in 2019 and continued in fits and starts through the quarantines, lockdowns and re-openings of the pandemic. There was also breaks in production: Frazier and his spouse welcomed their second child and that was followed by massive blackouts across Texas as a result of the winter storm that wrecked havoc across the region.

When the album was finally finished, the material saw the band embracing the full and complicated spectrum of life and relationships, but while recognizing the need for escape and whimsy. The album also saw the band collaborating with two legendary shoegazers — Lush and Piroshka‘s Miki Berenyi, who contributes vocals on “Blame” and RIDE‘s Mark Gardener, who mastered the album at his OX4 Sound in the UK. 

Immediately after the band wrapped the Possessions recording sessions, they began writing new material. Noe or Christina would upload a new song idea to a Google Drive almost daily, and within the hour, Michelle would have melody and lyrics fully formed. The band didn’t want to create an album, where each song was made to fit into the same aesthetic mold. Instead, they decided to run with each each, no matter which direction it went, resulting in material that feels a bit like a sampler of the quartet’s collective influences — and much like a band playfully expanding and experimenting with their sound.

While there are tracks that will be immediately recognized as being Blushing songs, the band’s third album Sugarcoat reportedly sees the band taking the opportunity to explore their love of post-punk, psych-gaze, grunge pop, indie pop, slowcore and more. Thematically and lyrically, the album asks many questions and sees its narrators reaching out to someone to provide answers or for the answers to come from within. Much of the questioning is informed by the constant uncertainty of our world and the inherent uncertainty of one’s life. Of course, one gets older. But with the accumulation of mistakes and wisdom, there are moments where you’re forced to confront yourself and question past decisions and actions. And you do so in the face of an unknowable, even more uncertain and uneasy future.

Sugarcoat‘s first single “Tamagotchi” is a decidedly playful, Blushing-like song that’s lovingly indebted to 120 Minutes-era MTV rock featuring fuzzy and crunchy guitars, Christina Carmona’s and Michelle Soto’s ethereal harmonies, thunderous drumming and an enormous chorus. The song’s narrator tells a tale of being indecisive with a matter of the heart and desiring to be playable character that has the big decisions made for you. Would you still feel heartache and regret, if someone else were pushing the buttons?

Directed by the band, the accompanying video for “Tamagotchi” follows the band as they’re about to hit the stage. In the adrenaline-fueled chaos to start the show, a tamagotchi manages to escape from its game-based confines as a result of a spilled drink on stage, and begins to interact with the outside world, at one point becoming both the band’s 2D mascot and a third guitarist. I hope Gizmo the dog isn’t too jealous! Seriously though, the video is an adorable and playful complement to the song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Still Corners Shares Atmospheric Torch Song “Crystal Blue”

JOVM mainstays Still Corners — vocalist and keyboardist Tessa Murray and multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Greg Hughes — will be releasing their long-awaited sixth album, Dream Talk on April 5, 2024 through the band’s own label Wrecking Light Records. 

The album’s material was written in Southern France, East Sussex, UK and Woodstock. “The songs came together quickly and being able to write from anywhere kept up our momentum,” Still Corners’ Tessa Murray says. Produced by the band’s Greg Hughes at their Woodstock-based studio, Hughes says, “We tried various things like different mics, amps and effects before committing to anything. Everything was mixed analog through our new SSL console, there’s a gleam to the sound.”

The album features ten carefully-crafted songs that sees the acclaimed duo further mastering a sound and overall body of work that is focused, stylish and incredibly seductive. “The genesis for a lot of these songs came from dreams. Every night I would write down the dreams I could remember,” Still Corners’ Murray says. “While recording I would pull out my book of dreams and sing over various looped phrases Greg had been working on. The repetitive nature of the looping and singing almost felt like going into a trance. A lot of the songs came from that process, it was fun and what I thought were sort of ramblings ended up surprising us with their various meanings and imagery.”

So far I’ve written about two of the album’s singles:

  • “Secret World,” which saw the acclaimed JOVM mainstays pairing Murray’s imitable smoky croon with a shimmering and looping Western-tinged guitar line, twinkling and atmospheric synths and a gently driving rhythm. “Secret World,” continues a remarkable run of dreamy yet alluring material with a hint of danger — like the mythical sirens on the rocky shore seducing sailors to their eventual watery doom. Thematically, the song ruminates upon the perils of obsession. “Sometimes the thought of someone, wanting to know them, get into their world is dangerous,” Tessa Murray explains. “The real person doesn’t matter anymore, just the fantasy of them, which is totally wrong but feels right.”

  • Built around a shimmering and reverb-drenched guitar line that would make Johnny Marr proud paired, Dream Talk‘s second and latest single “The Dream” features a quick-paced rhythm, train-like rhythm, atmospheric synths and shakers serving as a lush bed for Murray’s smoky croon describing riding on a speeding train at night and a classically epic tale of being within “a dream within a dream,” before ending with a breathtaking guitar solo. “The Dream” is classic Still Corners — shimmering yet broodingly noir-ish, and always cinematic. Thematically, the new single is inspired by and indebted to a quote from Shakespeare: “Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.” 

Dream Talk‘s third and latest single “Crystal Blue” is a slow-burning and atmospheric torch song featuring twinkling percussion, softly padded drums and a bit of marimba, Murray’s smoky and yearning croon, a shimmering and an expressive Greg Hughes guitar solo. Seemingly channeling a handful of great 1980s ballads, “Crystal Blue” is about two lovers, separated by the sea, dreaming of their eventual reunion. Hours, days, nights and weeks go by with the waves and the moonlight being the only companions to their longing and heartache.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Hot Pink Sauce Shares Brooding and Cinematic “Feel”

Hot Pink Sauce is new music project created by acclaimed Hastings, UK-based musicians Evi Vine and Steven Hill. Vine and Hill have worked together in a couple of projects, including the ethereal, post-rock outfit EVI VINE, whose last single featured The Cure‘s Simon Gallup. They were also members of Silver Moth, a collective founded by Mogwai‘s Stuart Braithwaite that released their full-length debut last year through Bella Union/PIAS Recordings.

The Hastings-based duo’s Hot Pink Sauce debut “Feel” is a brooding and cinematic track built around shimmering and swirling reverb-drenched shoegazer-like guitar textures and thunderous, tribal drumming serving as a lush and velvety bed for Vine’s plaintive and expressive delivery. “Feel,” to this critic’s ear reminds me a bit of a synthesis of A Storm in Heaven-era The Verve, Slow Air-era Still Corners and Beach House.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Donna Blue Shares Swooning “Aphrodite”

With the release of 2017’s self-titled debut EP, which featured  “Sunset Blvd,” a track that received airplay on Elton John’s Apple Music radio show Rocket Hour, acclaimed indie duo Donna Blue — romantic couple and musical collaborators Danique van Kesteren and Bart van Dalen — quickly established a dreamy and cinematic sound that seemed influenced by Phil Spector Wall of Sound-like pop, Pasty Cline, yè yè and David Lynch‘s Twin Peaks.

2020’s self-produced and self-recorded, five-song EP Inbetween EP saw the duo continuing upon the sound that won them attention nationally and internationally — while also seemingly drawing from Roy Orbison, Julee Cruise, Nancy Sinatra, Patsy Cline and so on. For me, it’s an effort that evokes very specific memories: wandering Amsterdam in varying degrees of inebriation, passing fellow drunk revelers shouting and dancing; scantily Red Light District prostitutes dancing to American pop, summoning customers with a wry smiles and knowing winks; and walking through Frankfurt-am-Main’s Haupwatche and Romer Districts longing for a face like mine in the crowd.

The duo’s full-length debut, 2022’s Dark Roses featured 11 dreamy, film noir-like cinematic tracks that saw the acclaimed duo taking up a decidedly twangy, Western sound inspired by Ennio Morricone, Piero Piccioni and John Barry paired with dreamily sensual vocals. 

The duo’s sophomore full-length album, Into The Realm of Love is slated for a March 8, 2024 release through their longtime label home, Snowstar Records. The album’s latest single “Aphrodite” is a swooning and twangy, film-noir-like bit of pop that seemingly channels Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, and more, full of sweet and charmingly old-timey declarations of love and devotion.

“Continuing along the classic storytelling lineage from the likes of well-known 1960’s duos Nancy & Lee, Serge & Jane, and Ramses & Liesbeth, our second single ‘Aphrodite’ is a duet written as a sort of myth,” the duo explain. “An upbeat and refreshing, yet nostalgic tale about a man trying to prove to a woman he is worthy of her love, while she is only interested in what he can do for her.“

Directed and edited by the duo, the accompanying video for “Aphrodite” is shot in a gorgeous black and white, and playfully draws from Greek myths, and films from the 20s-60s.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Swirlpool Shares woozy “Evergreen”

Formed back in 2016, the German-based dream pop/shoegaze outfit Swirlpool — Thomas A. Fischer, Markus Kraus and Chris Atzinger — have remained loyal to the “sounds better with reverb and distortion” maxim, and as a result they’ve managed to win over a loyal fanbase within the global dream pop and shoegaze scenes. 

The German dream pop/shoegaze outfit’s highly anticipated full-length debut, Distant Echoes features material inspired by titans like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive while breathing fresh life into the genre’s beloved sound and approach.

Earlier this month, I wrote about Distant Echoes album single “Reimagine,” a classic era shoegaze-inspired track built around dense and towering layers of reverb and distortion-laden guitars, thunderous drumming and ethereal, yearning vocals paired with enormous hooks and choruses.  “The single was one of the first ideas Tom came up with on rhythm guitar,” the members of the German band explain. “The lyrics deal with our sometimes too perfectionistic songwriting process, where we would spend days writing new interesting parts and sometimes just get stuck in a loop. It is about the agony of slow change and the need for re-invention.”

Distant Echoes‘ second and latest single, the woozy “Evergreen” features ethereal vocals floating over strummed guitars, painterly swirls of howling feedback that ends with a gorgeous, acoustic guitar-driven coda. Much like its predecessor, “Evergreen” brings memories of Slowdive, RIDE, and My Bloody Valentine to mind, fueled with a bittersweet sense of nostalgia.

“‘Evergreen’ is all about the moment,” the German shoegazers explain. “Brief seconds that feel like an eternity. The beauty of a memory that stays with you forever. We personally like to listen to albums from start to finish. It captures a time in your life forever, with all its ups and downs. A world you can immerse yourself in.”

Directed by Daniel Dueckminor, the accompanying video continues a run of 120 Minutes-era MTV-like visuals shot on what appears to be Super 8: The video follows the band walking around the wintry German countryside, and playing their instruments in the forest with psychedelic scenes behind them.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Still Corners Share PBS “Masterpiece Theatre”-like Visual for Lush “The Dream”

Throughout their nearly two-decade career, acclaimed JOVM mainstays Still Corners — vocalist and keyboardist Tessa Murray and multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Greg Hughes — have managed to bounce between chilly and atmospheric pop and shimmering guitar-driven, desert noir through five albums: 2012’s Creatures of an Hour, 2013’s Strange Pleasures, 2016’s Dead Blue, 2018’s Slow Air and 2020’s The Last Exit. 

The JOVM mainstays’ long-awaited sixth full-length album Dream Talk is slated for an April 5, 2024 release through the band’s own label, Wrecking Light Records. The album’s material was written in Southern France, East Sussex, UK and Woodstock. “The songs came together quickly and being able to write from anywhere kept up our momentum,” Still Corners’ Tessa Murray says. 

Produced by the band’s Greg Hughes at their Woodstock-based studio, Hughes says, “We tried various things like different mics, amps and effects before committing to anything. Everything was mixed analog through our new SSL console, there’s a gleam to the sound”

Dream Talk features ten carefully-crafted songs that sees the acclaim duo further mastering a sound and body of work that is focused, stylish and incredibly seductive. “The genesis for a lot of these songs came from dreams. Every night I would write down the dreams I could remember,” Still Corners’ Murray says. “While recording I would pull out my book of dreams and sing over various looped phrases Greg had been working on. The repetitive nature of the looping and singing almost felt like going into a trance. A lot of the songs came from that process, it was fun and what I thought were sort of ramblings ended up surprising us with their various meanings and imagery.”

Late last year, I wrote about Dream Talk‘s first single “Secret World,” which pairs Murray’s imitable smoky croon with a shimmering and looping Western-tinged guitar line, twinkling and atmospheric synths and a gently driving rhythm. “Secret World,” continues a remarkable run of dreamy yet alluring material with a hint of danger — like the mythical sirens on the rocky shore seducing sailors to their eventual watery doom. Thematically, the song ruminates upon the perils of obsession. “Sometimes the thought of someone, wanting to know them, get into their world is dangerous,” Tessa Murray explains. “The real person doesn’t matter anymore, just the fantasy of them, which is totally wrong but feels right.”

Built around a shimmering and reverb-drenched guitar line that would make Johnny Marr proud paired, Dream Talk‘s second and latest single “The Dream” features a quick-paced rhythm, train-like rhythm, atmospheric synths and shakers serving as a lush bed for Murray’s smoky croon describing riding on a speeding train at night and a classically epic tale of being within “a dream within a dream,” before ending with a breathtaking guitar solo. “The Dream” is classic Still Corners — shimmering yet broodingly noir-ish, and always cinematic.

Thematically, the new single is inspired by and indebted to a quote from Shakespeare: “Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.”

If the accompanying video reminds you of PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre and its spin-off Mystery!, well that was on purpose! Filmed by the band in the English countryside, the accompanying video for “The Dream” is inspired by and based on the duo’s deep and abiding love of mystery novels and cozy crime fiction. Murray plays a detective called Penelope Braithwaite, who’s called in to investigate the “Mystery of the Repeating Dream.” As the story goes, people from the fictitious town of Reverwood, Sussex have been falling into a repeating dream trap, in which when they wake up, they realize that they are in fact, in the same dream.

Eventually, our protagonist take the train to Reverwood and arrives at a mysterious and all-too English mansion set on a vast garden, where she begins to investigate the case. Does she solve the mystery? Or does she, like everyone in Reverwood get stuck in an endlessly looping dream?

The JOVM mainstays will be supporting Dream Talk with an extensive our throughout 2024 that includes an April 17, 2024 stop at Elsewhere, as well as stops in in Mexico City, the UK and the European Union. As always, tour dates are below. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Germany’s Swirlpool Shares Stormy “Reimagine”

Formed back in 2016, the German-based dream pop/shoegaze outfit Swirlpool — Thomas A. Fischer, Markus Kraus and Chris Atzinger — have remained loyal to the “sounds better with reverb and distortion” maxim, and as a result they’ve managed to win over a loyal fanbase within the global dream pop and shoegaze scenes.

The German dream pop/shoegaze outfit’s highly anticipated full-length debut, Distant Echoes features material inspired by titans like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive while breathing fresh life into the genre.

Distant Echoes‘ first single “Reimagine” is a classic era shoegaze-inspired track built around dense and towering layers of reverb and distortion-laden guitars, thunderous drumming, ethereal and yearning vocals paired with an enormous hooks and choruses. “The single was one of the first ideas Tom came up with on rhythm guitar,” the members of the German band explain. “The lyrics deal with our sometimes too perfectionistic songwriting process, where we would spend days writing new interesting parts and sometimes just get stuck in a loop. It is about the agony of slow change and the need for re-invention.”

The accompanying video by Daniel Dueckminor is a fittingly 120 Minutes MTV era-inspired video shot on cassette tape that features secures of the band’s core members walking around at dusk or in the dark together, performing the song in a suburban and very stylish house and in an abandoned garage. Throughout the video switches between grainy VHS-styled color and a gorgeous, cinematic black and white.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Youth Lagoon Shares Meditative and Compassionate Ode to Failure “Football”

Boise-based singer/songwriter Trevor Powers is the creative mastermind behind the critically applauded psych/dream pop recording project Youth Lagoon. After a lengthy hiatus, which saw him recording under his own name, Powers returned with the critically applauded Heaven Is a Junkyard, the first Youth Lagoon album in eight years.

Powers begins 2024 with “Football,” the follow-up to Heaven Is a Junkyard, which sees him continuing his collaboration with co-producer Rodaidh McDonald. “Football” is a dreamily minimalistic track built around twinkling keys, a supple bass line, jazz-inflected four-on-the-floor-like rhythms and bursts of bluesy guitar paired with Powers’ gentle croon waxing metaphysically while telling tales of damaged people and failure with a compassionate, knowing sense of empathy.

“‘Football’ is really a celebration of failure,” Powers says. “Society has a terrible habit of only recognizing achievement while glossing over the greatness in the shadows. We’re so distracted trying to earn love, worth and value that we forget it’s something we inherently already have. I wanted to play with this idea through the lens of sports ‘cuz, in a lot of ways, sports are the truest religion. When I was young, it was the only way I knew how to connect with my dad. We didn’t have a lot in common, but we could both throw the ball. There were rules and rituals we could see eye-to-eye on. We didn’t have to argue over who was right or wrong. The difference in my family was, it didn’t matter how good I was. The act of just throwing a ball was communion. It didn’t matter if I caught it. I love my Dad for that.”

“Football” is accompanied by a video by Caleb Halter that’s nostalgia-inducing and charmingly old-timey as we see footage from old parades set in the screen, much like an old photo book.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 62nd Birthday, Robin Guthrie!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie’s 62nd birthday.

indie rock by William Ruben Helms

Founded by the members of the acclaimed Austin-based psych outfit The Black Angels and a collection of friends back in 2008 as a wholly DIY event, Austin Psych Fest expanded over the next handful of years into an international destination for the underground psych music scene. Since the inaugural festival, its organizers have sought to create a thriving center locally for the city’s independent music scene and internationally in the home of psych rock.

The event was renamed LEVITATION in tribute to legendary Austin-based psych rock outfit The 13th Floor Elevators, who reunited to play the festival in 2015.

Austin Psych Fest returned earlier this year, celebrating its 15th anniversary with a three-day throwback to its original, multi-stage, single venue format, bringing back a more intimate gathering for the Spring, while the sprawling LEVITATION will continue to take place in the Fall.

Austin Psych Fest is here to stay. And the 2024 edition of the festival will take place at the historic The Far Out Lounge during the weekend of April 26, 2024 – April 28, 2024. 2024’s edition will bring the old school vibe of the original event back outdoors and under the stars and oak trees at The Far Out Lounge’s sprawling backyard.

The upcoming Austin Psych Fest features an international slate of psych rock, dream pop and indie rock that simultaneously nods to the 1960s psych rock golden age with an eye towards the future. 2024’s lineup will feature Courtney Barnett headlining on April 26, along with Chicano Batman, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Orions Belte and more. JOVM mainstays The Black Angels will headline the festival’s second day, April 27 — and their set will feature the premiere of a new visual collaboration with TV Eye. That day will also see sets from All Them Witches, JOVM mainstays Frankie and The Witch Fingers, L.A. Witch, Japanese kraut rockers Minami Deutsch and more. The festival’s third and final day will feature a headlining set from Alvvays, and sets from JOVM mainstays Still Corners, Kurt Vile and the Violators and more. The full lineup is below.

Mind-bending liquid light and visuals will be provided by video artists Mad Alchemy, TV Eye and drip//cuts.

The LEVITATION Presale for both LEVITATION ’23 and Austin Psych Fest ’23 ticket customers went live earlier today and is here.

General public on-sale is tomorrow, December 15, 2024 at 10:00AM CST. You can check that out here.

AUSTIN PSYCH FEST LINEUP:

FRIDAY, APRIL 26 
COURTNEY BARNETT • CHICANO BATMAN 
PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS
NO VACATION • LIDO PIMIENTA
LEVITATION ROOM • TROPA MAGICA
BRAINSTORY • ORIONS BELTE

SATURDAY, APRIL 27
THE BLACK ANGELS • ALL THEM WITCHES
WITCH • FRANKIE AND THE WITCH FINGERS
EARTHLESS • L.A. WITCH • HOOVERiii
MINAMI DEUTSCH • GHOSTWOMAN

SUNDAY, APRIL 28
ALVVAYS • KURT VILE & THE VIOLATORS
DEHD • YELLOW DAYS • STILL CORNERS
BLONDSHELL • MIKAELA DAVIS

& MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED!

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Still Corners Share Lush and Dreamy Visual for “Secret World”

Throughout their nearly two-decade career, acclaimed JOVM mainstays Still Corners — vocalist and keyboardist Tessa Murray and multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Greg Hughes — have managed to bounce between chilly and atmospheric pop and shimmering guitar-driven, desert noir through five albums: 2012’s Creatures of an Hour, 2013’s Strange Pleasures, 2016’s Dead Blue, 2018’s Slow Air and 2020’s The Last Exit. 

Since the release of The Last Exit, the acclaimed dream pop duo released two stand alone singles:

  • 2021’s “Heavy Days,” which struck me as a synthesis of Dead Blue, Slow Air and The Last Exit — but while arguably being one of the more optimistic and sunnier songs of their catalog. 

  • Last year’s “Far Rider,” an expansive song that to my ear, sounds as though it could have been part of the Slow Air and The Last Exit sessions — but with a subtle modern, production flourish that features Murray’s smoky croon being chopped up and distorted. 

The JOVM mainstays’ long-awaited sixth full-length album Dream Talk is slated for an April 5, 2024 release through the band’s own label, Wrecking Light Records. The album’s material was written in Southern France, East Sussex, UK and Woodstock. “The songs came together quickly and being able to write from anywhere kept up our momentum,” Still Corners’ Tessa Murray says. 

Produced by the band’s Greg Hughes at their Woodstock-based studio, Hughes says, “We tried various things like different mics, amps and effects before committing to anything. Everything was mixed analog through our new SSL console, there’s a gleam to the sound”

Dream Talk features ten carefully-crafted songs that sees the acclaim duo further mastering a sound and body of work that is focused, stylish and incredibly seductive. “The genesis for a lot of these songs came from dreams. Every night I would write down the dreams I could remember,” Still Corners’ Murray says. “While recording I would pull out my book of dreams and sing over various looped phrases Greg had been working on. The repetitive nature of the looping and singing almost felt like going into a trance. A lot of the songs came from that process, it was fun and what I thought were sort of ramblings ended up surprising us with their various meanings and imagery.”

Dream Talk‘s first single “Secret World” pairs Murray’s imitable smoky croon with a shimmering and looping Western-tinged guitar line, twinkling and atmospheric synths and a gently driving rhythm. While continuing a remarkable run of dreamy yet alluring material with a subtle hint of danger — like the mythical sirens on the rock seducing sailors to their eventual doom. Thematically, the song ruminates upon the perils of obsession. 

“Sometimes the thought of someone, wanting to know them, get into their world is dangerous,” Tessa Murray explains. “The real person doesn’t matter anymore, just the fantasy of them, which is totally wrong but feels right.”

South in Southern England, the accompanying video for “Secret World” follows Still Corners’ Tessa Murray in a lush and verdant garden, in which she encounters some strange and fantastical creatures. “And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles,” the band says of the video.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Still Corners Share a Shimmering Rumination on Obsession

Throughout their nearly two-decade career, acclaimed JOVM mainstays Still Corners — vocalist and keyboardist Tessa Murray and multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Greg Hughes — have managed to bounce between chilly and atmospheric pop and shimmering guitar-driven, desert noir through five albums: 2012’s Creatures of an Hour, 2013’s Strange Pleasures, 2016’s Dead Blue, 2018’s Slow Air and 2020’s The Last Exit. 

Since the release of The Last Exit, the acclaimed dream pop duo released two stand alone singles:

  • 2021’s “Heavy Days,” which struck me as a synthesis of Dead Blue, Slow Air and The Last Exit — but while arguably being one of the more optimistic and sunnier songs of their catalog.

  • Last year’s “Far Rider,” an expansive song that to my ear, sounds as though it could have been part of the Slow Air and The Last Exit sessions — but with a subtle modern, production flourish that features Murray’s smoky croon being chopped up and distorted.

The JOVM mainstays’ long-awaited sixth full-length album Dream Talk is slated for an April 5, 2024 release through the band’s own label, Wrecking Light Records. The album’s material was written in Southern France, East Sussex, UK and Woodstock. “The songs came together quickly and being able to write from anywhere kept up our momentum,” Still Corners’ Tessa Murray says.

Produced by the band’s Greg Hughes at their Woodstock-based studio, Hughes says, “We tried various things like different mics, amps and effects before committing to anything. Everything was mixed analog through our new SSL console, there’s a gleam to the sound”

Dream Talk features ten carefully-crafted songs that sees the acclaim duo further mastering a sound and body of work that is focused, stylish and incredibly seductive. “The genesis for a lot of these songs came from dreams. Every night I would write down the dreams I could remember,” Still Corners’ Murray says. “While recording I would pull out my book of dreams and sing over various looped phrases Greg had been working on. The repetitive nature of the looping and singing almost felt like going into a trance. A lot of the songs came from that process, it was fun and what I thought were sort of ramblings ended up surprising us with their various meanings and imagery.”

Dream Talk‘s first single “Secret World” pairs Murray’s imitable smoky croon with a shimmering and looping Western-tinged guitar line, twinkling and atmospheric synths and a gently driving rhythm. While continuing a remarkable run of dreamy yet alluring material with a subtle hint of danger — like the mythical sirens on the rock seducing sailors to their eventual doom. Thematically, the song ruminates upon the perils of obsession.

“Sometimes the thought of someone, wanting to know them, get into their world is dangerous,” Tessa Murray explains. “The real person doesn’t matter anymore, just the fantasy of them, which is totally wrong but feels right.”