Category: indie rock

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Featuring The Eccentronic Research Council‘s Adrian Flanagan and Dean Honer and Fat White Family‘s Lias Saoudi and Saul Adamczweski, The Moonlandingz are both a side project and a semi-fictional guitar pop act, whose latest single “Black Hanz,” is as the band refers to in press notes “a song for our times, born out of abuse; abuse in the workplace, abuse in the street, abuse by the sniveling toe rags we call a government, abuse for daring to dream and to be different,” and “a celebration of the Outsider, the socially inept . . ” Sonically speaking their sound manages to mesh a facsimile of the Manchester sound — twinkling synths, guitars fed through delay and effects pedals and a driving motorik groove — paired with a sneering and ironic punk sentiment, and a mischievous and menacing spoken word section towards the song’s bridge.

The project’s full-length debut effort was co-produced by Sean Lennon and the band and was mixed by Dave Fridmann, best known for his work producing Flaming Lips and Tame Impala, and is slated for a 2017 release through Chimera Music across North America and Transgressive Records in the UK and elsewhere.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of long-time friends and Melbourne, Australia-based music scene veterans  Adam Madrid, Wya Knowles and Alex Lashlie, all of whom have spent stints in a number of locally renowned bands including Bad Family and Closet Straights before the formation of their current band, Pure Moods.  And with “Elisa Lam,” the latest single off the band’s recently released self-titled full-length, the Australian trio further establish themselves for specializing in a shimmering, moody and jangling guitar pop that sounds heavily indebted to 4AD Records and shoegaze.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Best known as a co-founding member and co-primary songwriter of renowned indie dance pop/indie funk act Rubblebucket, Alex Toth’s new side project, Alexander F, which features Steve Marion, Dandy McDowell. Christian Peslak and Noah Rubin as part of the project’s touring band, along with contributions from Kimbra is a decided change in sonic direction for him. Reeling emotionally after the suicides of a couple of musician friends and struggling with living as recovering alcoholic, Toth went to a Buddhist, eleven-day silent meditation retreat in Quebec. And during the silent retreat, a handful of Buddhist-themed experimental punk songs exploded in Toth’s head, which at the time was unexpected and surprising for him, as he’s a jazz trained musician.

While the songs manage to be aggressive, they also manage to be profoundly joyous, boisterous and frenetic  as thematically they focus on the Buddhist concepts of freedom from the self, freedom from ego and freedom from the illusion that we’re separate entities. And as you’ll hear on “Swimmers,” the first single off the band’s forthcoming self-titled, full-length album, the band specializes in an infectiously anthemic, frenetic and stompingly boisterous, pop-leaning take on punk rock — that also manages to be a playful and mischievous take on the concept of prenatal memory that imagines how it must have been to be sperm swimming towards an egg, just before fertilization.

And unsurprisingly, the project has quietly started to build up a local and national profile as they’ve shared bills with Speedy Ortiz, Perfect Pussy, Downtown Boys, Colin Stetson, Margaret Glaspy, Mac McCaughan, Delicate Steve and Reptar. So be on the lookout for them; in fact, they’ll be opening for Toth’s primary project Rubblebucket for the final show at Brooklyn’s Manhattan Inn, as well as a date at Gowanus’ Threes Brewing. Check out show dates below.

TOUR DATES:
Nov 11 – Brooklyn, NY @ Manhattan Inn (w/ Rubblebucket)
Nov 13 – Brooklyn, NY @ Threes Brewing

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Featuring members of JEFF The Brotherhood and  Diarrhea Planet, Breast Massage is a Nashville, TN-based All-Star side project that specializes in a bruising, sludgy, power chord-based rock that has had the act headlining Third Man Records‘ Devil’s Night and playing with the likes of A Place to Bury Strangers, Colleen Green and others. “Bathing The Dog,” the first single off their soon-to-be released Cruisin’ For Filth, part of Infinity Cat Records‘ limited release cassette series, is a slow-burning, dirge-like power chord heavy song with thundering, heavy metal-liked drumming that sounds indebted to the Melvins and 90s alt rock.

 

 

 
singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Gorgeously Cinematic Yet Eerie Visuals for Pamela Hute’s “Banshees”

Last month, I wrote about Pamela Hute, a Paris-based singer/songwriter, who began her music career in earnest at a very young age. As a teen she formed The Mashed Potatoes before going solo in 2006 — and as a solo artist, she’s released two albums, 2010’s Tales From Overseas and 2013’s Bandit, with Bandit being mixed by John Agnello, who has worked with the likes of The Kills, Sonic Youth and Cyndi Lauper. Both of those albums revealed that Hute specializes in jangling guitar pop with rousingly anthemic hooks paired with earnest lyrics as you’ll hear on The Breeders and 90s alt rock channeling “Banshees,” the second and latest single off her self-produced effort Today. But at its core, Today manages to reveal what may arguably be Hute’s most personal songwriting, influenced by a trip she took to California.

Now, as you may recall I wrote about the live video, which featured Hute and her backing band performing “Banshees” at La Fourmi in Limoges, France. The recently released official video, which Hute made with her cousins and nephews this past summer is shot in a gorgeous and cinematic black and white and it features three characters dressed as crows participating in a weird, almost pagan-like ritual in the woods, before following the trio as they walk about the countryside. It’s arguably some of the most artful and yet eerie imagery I’ve seen in some time.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Gorgeously Mournful Yet Hopeful Sound and Visuals of Daniel Land’s “New York Boogie-Woogie”

Written and recorded in a number of locations including London, Manchester, Devon, California and New York City and featuring over 20 musicians including members of Daniel Land and The Modern Painters, the backing bands of Andrew Saks (a.k.a. ASAKS) and Gerald Hopes (a.k.a Little Nova Sound), members of Land’s current band and ambient composer Bing Satellites, who co-wrote some material, co-produced and played several instruments on the record, Land’s forthcoming sophomore full-length solo album In Love With a Ghost may arguably be one of the more complex and textured efforts he has released.

Interestingly enough, the album’s material was written right after his longest running project Daniel Land and The Modern Painters had broken up, and in a period in which he had been forced to consider giving up music about halfway during the recording of the album, when he had suffered a number of health issues including a painful and chronic inner-ear infection that left him prone to bouts of extreme dizziness and partially deaf for over a year. And as a result, among several things Land had been thinking of during tat period influenced the tone and feel of his forthcoming album’s material. As Land explains in press notes: “This is an album about cities. It is an album about reinvention, and starting your life over. It is an album about growing up, finding love, and settling down. And to a lesser degree, it is about the damage that can be done to a person, or a family, by falling in love with the wrong person. With ‘In Love With A Ghost’, I came full circle for a while by incorporating a whole bunch of influences that pre-date my love of dream-pop and shoegaze. I really wanted to make a colourful, widescreen, detailed record. When I started the album, I didn’t have a live band, and most of the tracks were written on the piano, for my own amusement, rather than for a group with three guitarists.

“Unable to make music, and living in a new city made me feel, at times, powerfully depressed. This became a crisis of confidence that went very deep and it did seem, for a while, that I would never find my way back to making music again, ” Land continues. “Finishing the album was a process that involved re-evaluating my life and overhauling my relationship to music, and coming out of the other side more healthy, more humble, and more grateful. It’s good to be back again.”

And while possessing a mournful air about what was and what can never, be the album’s first single “New York Boogie-Woogie” manages to also simultaneously possess a hopefulness towards the future — with the recognition that things constantly change, and that you better respect and cherish that. Sonically speaking, Land’s plaintive falsetto vocals are paired with dramatic piano chords, propulsive drumming, shimmering guitar chords and a gorgeous sax solo to craft a song that possesses a cinematic yet moody sweep.

The recently released music video for the song features black and white footage in and around New York that captures a sense of endless wonder and possibility and profound loneliness.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Led by its founding member, British artist Jaike Stambach, and currently featuring bandmembers Markus Mocydlarz and Janek Sprachta, the Berlin, Germany-based indie rock trio The History of Colour TV was initially conceived as a solo, experimental multimedia project. With the release of two full-length albums and several EPs released through Bruit Blanc Records and renowned shoegazer label Saint Marie Records, the members of the Berlin-based have developed a reputation for restless expansion and experimentation with their sound as their recorded output has consisted of noise rock, sound collages, shimmering deram pop and recently more straightforward rock — and for extensive touring and live shows across both Berlin and Continental Europe.

As the story goes, earlier this year the trio of Stambach, Mocydlarz and Sprachta set off to Black Box Recording Studio to write and record the material which would eventually comprise their forthcoming third, full-length effort Something Like Eternity with Peter Deimel, who’s best known for this work with The Wedding Present, Shellac and The Ex. And as you’ll hear on the album’s latest single “Wreck,” the members of the Berlin, German-based trio wanted to focus on a raw, live-like sound; in fact, the band recorded the song with minimal overdubs and as a result, it feels like an accurate representation of their live sound while evoking 90s alt rock — in particular, the song reminds me of Pablo Honey and The Bends-era Radiohead as the band pairs shimmering yet slightly ragged arpeggio guitar chord-led melody, propulsive and stormy drumming, Stambach’s plaintive vocals signing lyrics that recount the story of a group friendship/group dynamic tarnished by disaffection and apathy.

As the members of the band explain press notes as a member of the group, the narrator describes feelings of confusion, helplessness and hurt over the members of the group’s inability to figure out a way to positively change the situation. After a series of surreal descriptions, the song implies that the friends wind up in a car crash — with the narrator left to contemplate both the aftermath and randomness of an event that nullified any possibility of reconciliation. And as a result the song possesses a bitter and unresolved sense of confusion, ache and resignation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Jason Greenberg and Sandy Johnston, the Canadian post-rock/shoegaze duo In Light Of can trace their origins to when Johnston had applied to a job opening that Greenberg posted, and although the duo lived some distance away and don’t share mutual connections, they quickly bonded over a shared passion for post-rock. And as the band’s Greenberg explains in press notes, the duo have an interesting creative process in which, Johnson frequently comes up with rough sketches and song ideas, records them on his iPhone and then sends it to Greenberg, who then fleshes out the original ideas while keeping elements of the original lo-fi recordings; in fact, the five songs on the duo’s debut EP Little Treasures were pieced together in a similar fashion.

The duo’s debut single “Bless Your Heart” is a slow-burning instrumental comprised of shimmering guitar chords played through gentle amounts of reverb paired propulsive song that’s reminiscent of The Verve‘s debut EP — in particular, I’m reminded of “A Man Called Sun” off that EP — while possessing a painterly quality in which successive chord and drumbeat adds a bit of color and texture to the gorgeous yet moody whole.

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Halifax, Nova Scotia’s Kestrels Return with Another 90s Alt Rock-Channeling Single Paired with Slick Visuals

Interestingly, the Canadian trio’s self-titled effort’s third and latest single “Descent of Their Last End” continues on a similar vein as “No Alternative,” as it’s an anthemic bit of buzzing shoegaze that sounds as though it could have been released in 1993. We’re talking about buzzing power chords, thundering drumming and a propulsive groove that you can mosh to in a sweaty club — but with a hint of what sounds like synths that act like bookends to the song.

The recently released video is comprised of a TV siting in a middle of an urban street, and a suburban back yard with projections of weird psychedelic-like footage in empty rooms, suburban yards and slick split screens.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Now, if you’ve been frequenting site over the past few years, you’ve likely been made intimately familiar with JOVM mainstay act  Thee Oh Sees. Led by  Castle Face Records co-founder John Dwyer and featuring a rotating cast of collaborators and friends, the band has long-held reputation for being both incredibly prolific and for a relentless touring schedule. And this year, further cemented that established reputation as the band released two albums — a live album with DVD footage, aptly titled Live in San Francisco, which was recorded over three nights of shows The Chapel and featured live versions of material off the band’s also recently released full-length Weird Exit, the first entry of a planned series of albums.

Earlier this year, I wrote about “Plastic Plant,” the first single off Weird Exit, a single that continues the band’s renowned guitar pyrotechnics but filtered through dreamy psych rock, gritty garage rock, prog rock with tons of effects pedals paired with propulsive and forceful drumming and Dwyer’s falsetto. And of course, in typical Thee Oh Sees fashion it’s a thrashing, ass-kicking, sweaty mosh pit worthy song with an atypical, almost jam-like song structure. “Dead Man’s Gun,” Weird Exit’s second single seamlessly meshed garage rock, psych rock, surfer rock and punk as Dwyer’s falsetto and howls are paired with alternating sections of scorching power chords, shimmering reverb and delay pedaled surfer rock and psych rock chords in the song’s quieter sections — with the whole thing being held together by a propulsive rhythm section featuring a throbbing and insistent bass line and a rolling drum pattern.  Interestingly, Weird Exit‘s third and latest single “You Will Find It Here” may arguably be one of the more contemplative and dreamier singles that the band has released to date, as the song begins with a trippy introduction full of shimmering feedback before turning into a slow-burning dirge of sorts in which layers of buzzing and angular guitar chords, twisting and turning organ chords, propulsive cymbal-led drumming and a driving bass line are paired with Dwyer’s equally dreaming falsetto floating over the instrumentation before gently fading out. And in some way, the song evokes a pleasant reverie in which the song’s narrator has spent contemplating their inner self and their place in the universe. Yes, it’s that trippy.

Dwyer and company are finishing a rather lengthy world tour with a full slate of Fall/Winter Stateside shows with Amplified Heat, Straight Arrows, Alex Cameron, Magnetix and my personal favorites The Blind Shake opening for Dwyer and company during various dates — and it includes three NYC area dates: 11/11/16 and 11/12/16 at the Bowery Ballroom and 11/13/16 at Warsaw. Check out tour dates below.

Fall/Winter Tour Dates.

11-01 Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre
11-02 El Paso, TX – Lowbrow Palace
11-04 McDade/Austin TX – Sherwood Forest Faire @ Sound on Sound F
11-05 New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jack’s #
11-06 Memphis, TN – The Hi Tone Cafe #
11-07 Nashville, TN – Mercury Lounge #
11-09 Asheville, NC – Grey Eagle Tavern & Music Hall #
11-10 Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts ^
11-11 New York, Ny – Bowery Ballroom
11-12 New York Ny @ Bowery Ballroom w/ Straight Arrows
11-13 Brooklyn, NY – Warsaw ^
11-15 Providence, RI – Aurora ^
11-16 Montreal, Quebec – La Tulipe
11-17 Toronto, Ontario – Danforth Theater
11-18 Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom
11-19 Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
11-20 2016 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle w/ The Blind Shake, Torture Love
11-23 Missoula, MT – Stage 112
11-25 Seattle, WA – Neumos %
11-27 Portland OR @ Aladdin Theater %
11-26 Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre %
11-29 San Francisco, CA – The Chapel %
11-30 San Francisco, CA – The Chapel %

# Amplified Heat
^ Straight Arrows
% Alex Cameron
* Magnetix
! Blind Shake