JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Smooth B’s 55th birthday.
Category: Live Footage
Throwback: Happy (Belated) 86th Birthday, Buddy Guy!
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Throwback: Happy 81st Birthday, George Clinton!
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Throwback: Happy (Belated) 75th Birthday, Carlos Santana!
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Throwback: R.I.P. William Hart
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Throwback: Happy 51st Birthday, MF DOOM!
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Live Footage: MAGON performs “Halley’s Comet” and “Fire on Fire” in Fontainebleau, France
Over the past three years or so, I’ve managed to spill quite a bit of virtual ink covering the Israeli-born, Paris-based singer/songwriter, guitarist and JOVM mainstay MAGON, who with the release of Out in the Dark quickly established a sound, that at the time, he dubbed as “urban rock on psychedelics.”
The Israeli-born, Paris-based JOVM mainstay’s sophomore album Hour After Hour was a decided change in sonic direction with the material being “somewhere between Ty Segall, Allah-Las and The Velvet Underground” according to MAGON. He closed out the year with his third album In The Blue, an album that saw the JOVM mainstay drawing from two completely different sets of influences -— 70s rock like Lou Reed and Led Zeppelin and contemporary influences like Mac DeMarco and Devendra Banhart. Written around the birth of the artist’s daughter, the album is centered around what may arguably be some of the most introspective songwriting of his growing catalog — while featuring a more assertive delivery.
Continuing upon a remarkably prolific period, MAGON’s fourth album A Night in Bethlehem was released earlier this month. Shortly after the album’s release, MAGON invited his live band to a farm in the woods of Fontainebleau to record and film a live EP featuring four songs from his most recent album. Because the album’s material was mostly recorded by himself in his studio, the live sessions presents the album’s material in a much more organic, rawer sound.
Two of those live EP’s songs were filmed:
“Hailey’s Comet,” a dreamy bit of psych pop centered around glistening and reverb-drenched post punk-like guitars, a simple back beat and fluttering, intergalactic-like feedback that touched upon the immensity of historical and cosmic time. Throughout the song, its narrator spends the song wondering how life and humanity will be the next time Halley’s Comet passes by our part of the cosmic neighborhood in 2061. How many of us will be around? What will we say about this moment to our descendants? Will history be kind to us?
The live session features “Fire on Fire.” Built around a laconic, easy-going groove, trippy reverb and delay pedal drenched guitars paired with a mix of surrealistic and contemplative lyrics, “Fire on Fire” expresses a slow-burning yearning.
Live Footage: Javier Moreno and Los Amigos Perform “La Escalera” at Masterlink Studios
Javier Moreno is an emerging Barcelona-born and-based singer/songwriter and guitarist. Along with his backing band Los Amigos which features musicians from Spain, Cuba, Brazil and Peru, Moreno has spent the past 12 years touring extensively throughout London and the rest of the UK.
Although Moreno has returned to Barcelona to work on his forthcoming Joe Dworniak-produced third album, earlier this year, Moreno and his backing band recorded a live session at Masterlink Studios in Guildford, UK. The two song session features “Despedida” off last year’s Uno EP and “La Escalera” a shuffling groove-based cumbia that’s a feel good summer banger paired with an unfitting message.
The live footage of the band performing “La Escalera” was shot in a single take and captures their live energy and unbreakable simpatico.
Live Footage: Montreal’s zouz Performs “Monotone” at Ausgang Plaza
Montreal-based indie outfit zouz formed back in 2016 and quickly made a name for themselves in the local scene with the release of 2017’s EP 1 and 2018’s EP 2. Since the release of EP 1 and EP 2, the rising Montreal-based outfit have gone through a massive change in creative and sonic direction: Their full-length debut, last year’s Vertiges saw the band crafting much more complex arrangements with elements of math rock and post-punk while thematically, the album’s material touches upon anguish, sadness, love gained and lost, and so on.
Album single “Monotone” is an anthemic bruiser centered around grungy and distorted power chords, thunderous drumming for the song’s verses and chorus, math rock guitar pyrotechnics for the song’s hook paired with punchily delivered vocals singing lyrics that in French describe existential malaise and dysfunctional love as being one in the same. (They frequently feel as though they are when you’re in the throes of both or either one!)
The accompanying, intimately shot live footage was shot at Ausgang Plaza, where the band played Vertiges live last October. The live footage captures the band’s live energy while capturing what may arguably be one of Montreal’s most exciting, up-and-coming bands.
Live Footage: Malagasy JOVM Mainstays LohArano at Trans Musicales, Rennes, France
Antananarivo, Madagascar-based trio LohArano — Mahalia Ravoajanahary (vocals, guitar), Michael Raveloson (bass, vocals) and Natiana Randrianasoloson (drums, vocals) — formed over six years ago, and in that that time, they’ve developed a unique, boundary pushing sound that pairs elements of popular and beloved Malagasy musical styles like Tsapiky and Salegy with heavy metal.
LohArano’s sound and approach representsa bold generation of Malagasy young that honors and respects the traditions of their elders yet are also inspired by Western music — while roaring with the fierce urgency of our moment.
Over the past couple of years, the Malagasy metal outfit has been very busy: They released their self-titled EP, which “Tandrroka,” a mosh pit friendly ripper, featuring rumbling, down-tuned bass lines, thunderous drumming, scorching guitar riffs and Ravoajanahary’s feral Karen O-like vocals.
They quickly followed up with their full-length debut LohAmboto, which featured the System of a Down-like album title track “LohAmboto,” another mosh-pit friendly ripper that sees the band refining and honing their unique, global take on metal.
The JOVM mainstays closed out last year with their first European tour — and it included a set at Trans Musicales in Rennes, France. The band filmed the set and released it as a concert film last week. While prominently featuring singles like “Andrambavitany” (their debut single), the aforementioned “Tandrroka” and “LohAmboto,” as well as material off their full-length debut. The live footage reveals a trio that plays their rippers with a feral intensity and the self-assuredness of old pros. Play this one loud and headbang your night away, y’all.
Throwback: Happy 80th Birthday, Curtis Mayfield!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 80th anniversary of Curtis Mayfield’s birth.
Throwback: Happy 96th Birthday, Miles Davis!
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Throwback: R.I.P. Alan White
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Live Footage: Beach House Performs “Superstar” on “Late Show with Stephen Colbert”
Baltimore-based JOVM mainstays Beach House — lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Victoria Legrand and multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally — formed back in 2004. And in their nearly two decades together, have released eight albums, including their critically applauded, most commercially successful album to date, the 18-song, double LP Once Twice Melody, which was released through Sub Pop Records earlier this year. (Since I mentioned that the album is their most commercially successful to date, Once Twice Melody recently peaked at #1 on Billboard‘s Album Sales Chart, the duo’s first-ever album to do so. It also debuted at #1 on the Top Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, Tastemaker Albums and Top Current Album Sales Charts. And the album also spent six weeks at #1 on the NACC 200 College Charts.)
Primarily written between 2018 and last July, Once Twice Melody also features a handful of songs that date back at least a decade earlier. The album was mostly recorded at Baltimore’s Apple Orchard Studio and produced by the band — a first for the band. Much like 7, Once Twice Melody features live drumming by the band’s longtime touring drummer James Barone, recorded at Pachyderm Studio in Minnesota and United Recording in Los Angeles. The album also features a string ensemble, performing arrangements by David Campbell.
Across Once Twice Melody‘s 18 songs, the JOVM mainstays have written material that features several different styles, song structures and spirits: Listeners will hear songs without drums, songs centered around acoustic guitar, electronic songs without guitar, songs with wandering melodies, songs with repetitive melodies and songs built around string arrangements. And while the album sees the band expanding upon and playing with their sound, the duo haven’t completely eschewed the arrangements and sounds that have won them acclaim across their previous seven albums.
Last night, the Baltimore-based JOVM mainstays were on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where they performed the glittering and wistful “Superstar,” a song that looks back at a romantic relationship and compares it to a shooting star that quickly flashes, burns out and reappears somewhere else.
The live footage will give you a great taste of what to expect of the duo’s live show, just before they continue their extensive, headlining international tour to support Once Twice Melody. The tour has been extended through November 2022 with a handful of newly added dates including several stops across the global festival circuit: Omaha, NE’s Maha Festival (July 29th-30th), Portugal’s Paredes De Coura (Aug. 17th-20th), Salt Lake City, UT’s Ogden Twilight (August 25th), Pasadena, CA’s This Ain’t No Picnic (Aug. 28th), Las Vegas, NV’s Life Is Beautiful (Sep. 16th-18th), Bentonville, AR’s Format Festival (Sep. 23rd-25th), and Primavera Sound Editions in Brazil, (Sao Paulo, Nov. 5th), Chile (Santiago, Nov. 11th), and Argentina (Buenos Aires, Nov. 13th).
For my fellow New Yorkers, the JOVM will be playing two dates at the breathtakingly beautiful Kings Theatre: July 19, 2022 and July 20, 2022.
Throwback: Happy 70th Birthday, David Byrne!
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