Deriving their name from a line in a Tom Waits song, the San Francisco, CA-based quartet Jet Trash continue the Bay Area’s long-held reputation for gritty garage-based indie rock and surfer rock through he release of their self-titled debut EP last […]
Category: indie rock
New Video: The 120-Minutes Channeling Sounds and Visuals of Ulrika Spacek
Last November, I wrote about indie rock project Ulrika Spacek. Comprised of long-time friends Rhys Edwards and Rhys Williams, the duo conceptualized the project during a single night in Berlin based around their mutual influences —Television, Pavement, Sonic […]
Currently comprised of founding members Clint Sargent (guitar, vocals) and Luke Strahota (drums), along with Colin Sheridan (bass) and Kaitlyn Ni Donovan (vocals, guitar), the Portland OR-based shoegaze quartet The High Violets can trace their origins to the breakup of The Bella Low, which featured Sargent, Strahota and another founding member Violet Bianca Grace (who left after a few early gigs). After a lineup change that resulted in their current lineup, the quartet released the their EP Dream Away, their full-length debut 44 Downin and their critically applauded third effort To Where You Are through Irish label Reverb Records. And as a result The High Violets saw a rapidly growing profile across North America as they played sets at NXNE in Toronto and SXSW in Austin, TX and then released a remix album, Satellite Remixes, which featured remixes from the renowned Ulrich Schnauss, Carmen Rizzo and others.
Although the band is currently on hiatus from touring and live shows, they have remained active in the studio. The band’s fifth full-length effort, Heroes and Halos is slated for an April 1, 2016 release through Saint Marie Records and the album’s first single “Bells” has the band pairing layers of shimmering guitars and a propulsive and steady rhythm with Ni Donovan’s gorgeously ethereal and wistful vocals in a way that nods towards The Sundays “Here’s Where The Story Ends” but with a cosmic glow that belies a subtly modern production.
Late last year, I wrote about Liverpool-based shoegaze quintet The Vryll Society. The quintet, comprised of Michael Ellis, Ryan Ellis, Lewis McGuinness, Lloyd Shearer, and Benjamin Robinson, were discovered Alan Willis, the late founder of Deltasonic Records, who noticed potential in the band and guided the quintet through their development as a band and as songwriters. Over the course of the following year, the British shoegaze quintet locked themselves away in their rehearsal space, where they jammed and began writing material that was inspired by Funkadelic, Aphrodite’s Child, krautrock and classic shoegaze.
Now if you had been frequenting JOVM around then, you’d recall that I wrote about “Coshh,” the second single off the band’s debut EP Pangea. That particular single had the quintet pairing a tight, motorik groove consisting of wobbling bass lines and propulsive four-on-the-floor-like drumming, shimmering guitar chords played through layers of reverb and delay effect pedals, atmospheric electronics and anthemic hooks with ethereal, falsetto vocals to craft a song that possessed a mesmerizing cosmic sheen.
Sonically, the Liverpool-based quintet’s latest single “Self-Realization” will further cement their reputation for shimmering and anthemic shoegaze as the band pairs the prerequisite shimmering guitar chords, a driving motorik groove, wobbling and undulating electronics, twinkling keys and anthemic hooks with ethereal vocals to craft a sprawling song that structurally twists, bends and turns — while sounding as though it subtly nods at The Verve; in fact, the guitar work bears an uncanny resemblance to Nick McCabe’s expansive and expressive sound, all while bearing the cosmic glow that initially caught my attention.
Currently comprised of Laena Geronimo, Shannon Lay, Michael Rudes, and Amy Allen, the Los Angeles, CA-based psych rock/punk rock/post-rock quartet FEELS have developed a reputation locally for an intense live show — and with the release of the frenetic and sprawling “Tell Me,” the first single off the band’s forthcoming self-titled debut effort, produced by the renowned Ty Segall, has the band seeing a rapidly growing national profile, as The Fader and a few other websites across the blogosphere. Sonically, the band pairs layers of jangling and buzzing guitars, a propulsive rhythm section, laconic yet sultry vocals in a song that rapidly twists, turns and shifts tempo that nods at prog rock, as much as it sounds inspired by psych rock. Interestingly enough, the song reminds me quite a bit of The Mallard‘s equally frenetic, sprawling yet bristling Finding Meaning In Deference.
If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past 3 or 4 years, you may be somewhat familiar with yet another JOVM mainstay act — Bambara. Comprised of twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh and their childhood friend, William Brookshire, the band formed back in 2008 when all three members were living in Athens, GA. After relocating to Brooklyn and recording their debut effort DREAMVIOLENCE, the trio exploded into the national scene for a punishing sound that compared favorably to the likes of A Place to Bury Strangers, Weekend, and others.
Since the release of DREAMVIOLENCE the band’s sound has increasingly incorporated elements of punk rock and thrash punk — and as a result, their sound has become much more abrasive, forceful and propulsive as you’ll hear on “All The Ugly Things,” the first single off the band’s long-awaited sophomore effort, Swarm. Unsurprisingly, the material’s — and in turn, the single’s — abrasive quality was inspired by the trio’s surroundings: Reid Bateh’s lyrics describe a New York that’s stark, grimy, bleak, merciless and full of unhinged, unstable characters desperately trying to survive with whatever dignity, decent and sanity they have left. And at times it sounds and feels like an urgent and desperate howl of pain into a cold, indifferent void.
The trio have a few upcoming shows — including their album release show at Palisades with The Men, Pill and Hubble. Check out the tour dates below.
Tour Dates
2/25/16 Brooklyn, NY: Palisades: Album Release Show with The Men, Pill and Hubble
3/12/16: Atlanta, GA: 529: with Guerrilla Toss and Muuy Biien
3/15/16 – 3/19/16: Austin, TX: SXSW
New Video: Watch Alison Mossheart Brave a Massive Storm in the Video for “I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)”
http://cache.vevo.com/assets/html/embed.html?video=US3JJ1500922&autoplay=0 Comprised of Allison Mossheart of The Kills and Discount (vocals), Jack White formerly of The White Stripes and currently of The Raconteurs (drums, guitar and vocals), Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age (guitar, […]
If you’ve been frequenting this site a bit over the years, you may recall that I’ve written about the Atlanta-based trio The Coathangers on a couple of occasions. And interestingly, the band has what may arguably be one of the most prototypically punk rock and funniest formation stories that I’ve heard. As the story goes, the band formed when the then-quartet of guitarist and vocalist Julia Kugel (a.k.a. Crook Kid Coathanger), bassist Meredith Franco (a.k.a. Minnie Coathanger), drummer Stephanie Luke (a.k.a Rusty Coathanger), and keyboardist Candice Jones (a.k.a. Bebe Coathanger) decided to start a band for the sole purpose of being able to hang out and play parties — and they didn’t let the fact that none of them actually knew how to play an instrument get in the way of them being in a band and having a good time. As a result, the band’s earliest songs walked a tightrope between abrasive dissonance and a primal minimalism.
In the the decade or so since their formation, the band has released four full-length albums and have gone on a number of North American and European tours, which have cemented their reputation for writing incredibly catchy songs — and for unruly live shows. Back in 2014, during the recording sessions for Suck My Shirt, the band went through a lineup change as Candice Jones left the band. Naturally, as a result of the lineup change, the newly-consituted trio’s fourth effort revealed a refined songwriting approach in which the album’s material possessed a raw, spontaneous simplicity and fury with arrangements that felt streamlined and more direct. In other words, no frills, no bullshit, balls-to-the-wall rock that spiritually channelled AC/DC and the Ramones.
“Make It Right,” the first single off the band’s forthcoming Nosebleed Weekend continues in the same lines of their previous effort as it possesses a raw and furious feel paired with a primal simplicity — it’s grimy, gritty punk that also manages to nod at old fashioned garage rock and surfer rock, complete with a “we don’t give a fuck” sneering attitude. Interestingly, the largest departure for the forthcoming album was the actual recording process. Their previous albums were recorded at The Living Room Studios in Atlanta with Ed Rawls while this effort had the band recording the material at Valentine Recording Studios in North Hollywood, where The Beach Boys and Bing Crosby recorded albums. As the band’s Julia Kugel mentioned in press notes “The studio had been custom built by Jimmy Valentine and he was very protective of his passion. It sounds weird, but his spirit was there, checking in on us and fucking with us a bit.” That shouldn’t be surprising as the Nosebleed Weekend sessions were the first sessions at the studios in 36 years — and yet in some way, the location seems to help capture the materials’ primal immediacy.
With the release of their debut album Coco Beware and their sophomore self-titled album, New York-based quintet Caveman — comprised of Matthew Iwanusa (vocals, guitar), James Carbonetti (guitar), Jeff Berrall (bass), Sam Hopkins (keys) and multi-instrumentalist Matthew Prescott-Clark — have developed a profile locally and nationally for a moody and gorgeous guitar and synth-based sound that at times owed a sonic debt to Peter Gabriel, U2 and others. And as a result the quintet has toured with the world, playing shows with the likes of The War On Drugs, Weezer and Jeff Tweedy, and they’ve received praise not just from this site, where they’ve become mainstays but from a number of major media outlets.
Now, it’s been some time since we’ve heard from them but the band’s long-anticipated third full-length effort Otero War is slated for release this summer. And the album’s first single “Never Going Back” is arguably the most upbeat and anthemic song the band has released to date, while sonically sounding as though it drew from early 80s Bruce Springsteen (in particular, think of “Dancing In The Dark“) but with Carbonetti’s gorgeous guitar work paired with soaring synths and Iwanusa’s plaintive vocals, while dealing with themes that Springsteen would have easily written about back then — figuring out the complications of love, desperately wanting to escape a humdrum and bland life, of recognizing that at a certain point, your decisions loom larger and larger over your life and more. It’s powerfully universal and speaks to things we’ve all felt and known at some point in our own lives.
New Video: The Hauntingly Gorgeous and Mournful Visuals for Victoria + Jean’s “Härligt Sverige”
As you can imagine, over the course of the six year history of this site, there have been an increasing number of artists who have become mainstays — including Victoria + Jean, a Stockholm, Sweden-based avant […]
New Video: The Playful 60s-Inspired Visuals for Pom Poms “123”
If you had stumbled onto this site at the end of last year, you would have likely come across a couple of a posts about Los Angeles-based duo Pom Poms. Comprised of singer/songwriter Marlene and Grammy-nominated producer, songwriter […]
Formed back in 2007, Pinkshinyultratablet is a St. Petersburg, Russia-based shoegaze quintet that takes their name from an Astrobrite album, as the project led by Scott Cortez has been a major influence on their songwriting approach and their sound. The St. Petersburg-based quintet’s debut effort Everything Else Matters was released to critical acclaim internationally — and as a result, the band toured across the European Union, received airplay across several radio stations and has seen a growing international profile.
Slated for release on February 26, Pinkshinyultratablet’s sophomore effort Grandfeathered is not only a highly-anticipated album among shoegazer fans, the album is also reportedly a much more experimental effort, as the material reveals a band blurring the lines between visceral noise and restrained subtlety, while adding electronic elements. Grandfeathered’s second single “The Cherry Pit” has the band pairing layers of guitars played through various effect pedals, gently swirling electronics and a driving rhythm section with ethereal vocals bubbling and floating over a shimmering and breezy mix that sonically resembles RIDE and Chicago‘s Lightfoils.
New Audio: Mike Kunka and The Melvins Team Up for Some Punishing and Kick Ass New Sounds
Around the time that bassist/vocalist Mike Kunka’s band godheadSilo went on what eventually turned out to be a permanent hiatus back in 1998, Kunka busied himself by tagging along on a tour with The […]