Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays The Dream Syndicate Share Kaleidoscopic Visual for Brooding “Damien”

Over the past couple of years of this site’s almost 12 year history, I’ve managed to spill a copious amount of virtual ink covering the acclaimed and legendary Los Angeles-based psych rock act and JOVM mainstays The Dream Syndicate. 

Originally formed back in the early 80s, The Dream Syndicate — currently founding members Steve Wynn (guitars, vocals), a critically applauded singer/songwriter and solo artist in his own right, and Dennis Duck (drums), along with Mark Walton (bass), Jason Victor (lead guitar) and newest member Green On Red’s Chris Cacavas (keys) — have managed to split up and reunite a few times throughout their extensive history, including their most recent reunion in 2017, which began a run of critically applauded, forward-thinking, mind-bending releases.

2020’s The Universe Inside marked the first time in their long and storied history in which every song was conceived and written as a collective whole. Sonically, the album’s material was unlike anything they’ve done together or even individually. The material draws from each individual member’s eclectic interests and passions — in particular: 

  • Dennis Duck’s love and knowledge of European avant garde music
  • Jason Victor’s love of 70s prog rock 
  • Mark Walton’s experience in Southern-fried music collectives
  • Chris Cacavas’ interest in sound manipulation 
  • Wynn’s love of 70s jazz fusion. 

The Universe Inside‘s six songs came from one completely improvised recording session in which the band came up with 80 continuous minutes of soundscapes. “All we added was air,” Wynn explains in press notes. Aside from vocals, horns and a touch of percussion here and there, every instrument is recorded live as it happened.

The Dream Syndicate’s fourth post-reunion effort and eighth overall, Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions is slated for a June 10, 2022 release through Fire Records. Continuing to push their sound and approach in new and varied directions, Ultraviolet Battle Hymns reportedly sees the band taking on British glam, German prog rock, krautrock and Brian Eno-like ambient music interwoven into their psychedelic, melodic hues. The album also features guest spots from longtime collaborator and friend, The Long Ryders‘ Stephen McCarthy and Marcus Tenney, who contributes sax and trumpet to the album’s songs. 

“Where I’ll Stand,” the album’s expansive first single clocked in at a little over five minutes begins with a twinkling, synth-led prog rock intro that nods at Trans Europe Express before morphing into a circular chord progression centered around twangy, reverb-drenched guitars and a slow-burning groove.  “It feels like an attempt–via the lyrics and the circular chord progression–to impose some kind of order and logic on a world that was severely lacking in both respects at the time,” The Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn explained in press notes.

“Damian,” Ultraviolet Battle Hymns‘ second and latest single is a brooding and slow-burning song that may arguably be their most AM Rock-inspired song of their extensive — and still growing — catalog: Centered around a shuffling groove, the song has a California beach sheen but with a gritty and lurking sense of evil and unease. Fleetwood Mac meets Steely Dan, perhaps?

“I wanted to write and record something that would have sounded good coming out of the Radio Shack speakers in my Gremlin. . . the sense of mystery and time time was enhanced by Marcus Tenney’s era-perfect sax and trumpet work and then sweetened by a backing vocal arrangement Stephen McCarthy brought to the session,” The Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn says.

Created by Mike Bourne, the accompany video for “Damien” is a kaleidoscopic and lysergic trip. Tune in and zone out, y’all.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Spaceface Share an Anthemic Banger

Formed back in 2012 by Jake Ingalls, a former member of The Flaming Lips, the self-professed “retro-futurist dream rock” outfit Spaceface is currently split between Memphis and Los Angeles, and features a collection of current and past members of The Flaming Lips and Pierced. In the decade since their formation, the members of Spaceface have developed a reputation for crafting catchy songs with elements of dream pop, funk, rock and post-disco.

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of the past year, you’d recall that the JOVM mainstays sophomore album Anemoia was released through Montreal-based label Mothland. The album is the result of several months spent back in 2019 at Blackwatch Studios, where the band spent several months working with Jarod Evans writing material inspired by funk rock and the turn of the millennium psychedelia revival.

Although the material can be initially perceived as a feat of efficient and minimalistic songwriting by Ignalls and a cast of friends and collaborators, centered around slick melodies, lush arrangements and effortlessly flowing rhythmic grooves, each spin reportedly will reveal a new layer while painting a positive but somewhat critical portrayal of modern life.

In the lead up to Anemoia‘s release, Spaceface and Mothland released six singles off the album, including “Happens All The Time,” “Earth In Awe,” and “Piña Collider,” which featured samples and choir vocals from actual CERN scientists and “ were all previously released to praise across the blogopshere.

I’ve managed to write about three more released singles:

  • “Long Time:” a woozy and funky contemplation of life choices and alternate realities centered around a strutting bass line, glistening synth arpeggios and infectious hooks paired with guest vocals from Penny Pitchlynn, best known for her work with BRONCHO and LABRYS.
  • “Rain Passing Through:” an Oracular Spectacular era MGMT meets  Nile Rodgers-like bop with guest vocals from  Mikaela Davis about the fleeting moments one may have with former or future lovers in passing turbulent times, and despite knowing that it probably shouldn’t, wouldn’t or can’t happen, that it was okay to feel good and safe, even if it was for a brief, lovely moment. 
  • “Millions & Memes,” a hook-driven ear worm centered a buzzing, phaser-drenched guitar riff and funky boom bap beats that — to my ears, at least — sounds like a slick and seamless synthesis of Currents era Tame Impala, 70s glam rock and funk. Much its predecessors, “Millions & Memes” is rooted in deeply detailed psychological observation and overwhelmingly positive messaging. 

 Anemoia‘s seventh — that’s right seventh! — single “Classic Style” is an anthemic, hook-driven banger, centered around buzzing power chords, thumping beats, dreamy vocals and twinkling keys. While to my ears, sounding as though it were indebted to Lonerism and Currents era Tame Impala, “Classic Style” is a swaggering yet earnest pick up line to that pretty young thang at the club, who just caught your eye.

Directed by longtime collaborator Jarod Evans, the accompanying video for “Classic Style” features cameo from The Flaming Lips’ The Brothers Griiin and employs a rather simple concept: a sort of behind the scenes look at the shooting of a video, fittingly shot in a lysergic haze.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Weird Nightmare Teams Up with Bully on the Driving and Earnest “Wrecked”

Alex Edkins has developed and honed a reputation for being a master craftsman of sweaty, mosh pit friendly rippers as the frontman of Toronto-based JOVM mainstays METZ. 

Edkins’ new side project Weird Nightmare sees the METZ frontman showcasing a new side of the long-established songwriting that has won him acclaim and fans across the globe: enormous power chord driven rippers with mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses — but paired with a sugary and distorted power pop touch. 

So far I’ve written about two of Weird Nightmare’s singles:

  • “Searching For You,” a fun, straightforward power pop banger, featuring shout-along-with-upraised-beer-in-the-mosh-pit choruses, earnest lyricism and the enormous power chords Edkins is best known for but with an accessible, old-timey inspired craftsmanship that makes the song incredibly radio friendly — as though it Edkins and his METZ bandmates were covering Cheap Trick or Big Star. “It’s a fun, no nonsense rock ‘n’ roll song,” Edkins explains. “It’s about searching for meaning and inspiration all around us. In my mind, the ‘you’ in the chorus refers to something bigger than companionship or love, it’s that intangible thing we all look for but never find.”  
  • “Lusitania,” Weird Nightmare’s sophomore single is a fun, old school rock/power pop anthem centered around Edkins’ unerring ability to craft an enormous, crowd pleasing hook paired with blistering guitar work and earnest songwriting. “‘Lusitania’ was a big breakthrough for the entire Weird Nightmare album. I realized that, musically, my goal was to make songs that would make people feel good!” Edkins says in press notes. “This idea of waking up from a terrible dream or winter changing into spring. Momentary relief. We all need that feeling right now and music has always been what I turn to most.” 

“Wrecked,” Weird Nightmare’s third and latest single is a driving and ardent guitar pop anthem centered around big hooks, enormous power chords and sweetly, lived-in lyricism. It’s also the first Edkins song that I can remember that features boy-girl call and response vocals, thanks to a guest spot from Bully‘s Alicia Bogannano.

“‘Wrecked’ is about missing something,” Edkins says. “For me, it’s about missing my wife and son while on tour. Being away has become harder and harder to do. I think most people can relate to it.  Feeling impossibly far away from the ones you love and coming to the realization that you won’t feel whole again until you return. I was really happy to collaborate with Alicia (Bognanno) on this song and I love what she adds to it. Alicia has a one in a million voice. A voice that you recognize immediately and she really lifts the song way up.”

Directed by Ryan Thompson, the accompanying video for “Wrecked” follows a dog without a pack entering a dog park. Doggy hijinx ensue.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Gothenburg’s Holy Now Shares Hazy Visual for Achingly Earnest “Hold Me/Know Me”

With the release of their full-length debut, 2018’s I Think I Need The Light and its follow-up EP, It Will All End In Tears, Gothenburg-based indie outfit Holy Now, led by Julia Oleander, quickly amassed international acclaim from the likes of Gold Flake Paint, Gorilla Vs. Bear and The Line of Best Fit among a lengthy list of others.

The rising Gothenburg-based outfit’s sophomore album Dream of Me is slated for release this fall through Lazy Octopus. The album reportedly sees the band cementing the sound that has won them international attention — crisp, reverb-drenched guitars, dreamy choruses paired with a decidedly analog feel.

“The album has been in the works for two long years. It was made in stages and recorded in different places around Gothenburg. The pandemic made us change, we did not rehearse as usual but met and rehearsed intensively and then went straight to the studio,” the members of Holy Now say of the album’s creative process.

Dream of Me‘s first single “Hold Me/Know Me” sees the rising Swedish outfit continuing upon the familiar elements of their sound — the aforementioned reverb-drenched and shimmering guitars, Oleander’s achingly plaintive vocals, dreamy choruses and old-school, analog feel — but within an atmospheric arrangement, that places a focus on the song’s earnest, lived in lyrics describing a familiar feeling to all of us:

“‘Hold Me/Know Me’ is a song about a new love,” the band explains. “The feeling of not knowing someone but being absolutely sure that you just want to be around that person, and the fear that also comes with that, when things suddenly become important. It’s a bit more stripped back than other Holy Now songs, both in feeling and lyrics.”

The accompanying video by Oscar Andersson follows the band’s Oleander basking and daydreaming on a glorious, sun-dappled day in a cute apartment. The video is a very much a hazy dream of swooning, first pangs of like/love.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising Montreal Artist Naomi Shares a Sultry, Club Friendly Bop

Naomi is a Montréal-based multi-disciplinary artist, who first after studying theater made a name for herself when she started landing roles on both the small and big screen when she was 14. Because she has long seen art as a continuous means of expression, she went on to study dance at the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal.

As a dancer, the Montreal-based multi-disciplinary artist has appeared in and/or choreographed music videos for Rihanna, Marie-Mai, Coeur de Pirate and others, as well as for local dance performances.

While she was establishing herself as an actor and dancer, the Montreal-based artist quietly developed a passion for singing — without fully giving herself permission to explore it fully. Interestingly, Coeur de Pirate’s Beátrice Martin saw star potential in the Montreal based multi-disciplinary artist and took her under her wing.

Encouraged by Couer de Pirate’s mentorship and encouragement, naomi began to realize that she was never far off from making her own music. All that she needed was a little push.

Signed to Bravo Music, the Montreal-based artist began to write her own material and has taken a bold leap into a career as a pop singer. Naomi’s first two singles “Tout à nous” and “Zéro stress” have received airplay on WKND, Rouge FM, Arsenal, POP, CVKM and several other regional radio stations across Quebec.

Naomi’s third and latest single is the club friendly, Rowan Mercille and Naomi co-written “Semblant.” Centered around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering trap-meets-Caribbean beats paired with the Montreal-based artist’s sultry delivery and an infectious hook, “Semblant” is a self-assured summertime banger that reveals a bonafide superstar in the making.

The song’s narrator details a sensual encounter in which both parties have developed an inescapable and primal magnetism that draws them into a vicious yet irresistible cycle of sexual need and desire.

Directed by Élise Lussier, the accompanying visual for “Semblant” features a solitary Naomi sultrily dancing by herself — both for herself and for a possibly unseen viewer — while seemingly attempting to resist the irresistible.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Thaïs Shares a Glistening New Bop

Rising Montreal-based singer/songwriter and JOVM mainstay Thaïs specializes in an atmospheric and delicate take on pop centered around the French Canadian artist’s ethereal vocals. Thematically her work focuses on melancholy, loneliness and dysfunctional, confusing, heartbreaking love.

Last year’s Paradis Artificiels EP featured two tracks I wrote about:

  • “Boreal,” a track inspired by a trip she took to Iceland that evoked the awe-inspiring sense of being in a gorgeous, natural beauty and taking it all in deeply
  • “Sushi Solitude,” an atmospheric and delicate bit of synth pop that brought Washed Out to mind. 

2022 has been a big year for the Montreal-based JOVM mainstay: Earlier this year, Thaïs signed to Bravo Musique, who will be releasing her newest EP Tout est parfait: acte un on May 6, 2022.

Tout est parfait: acte un will feature “Arrête de danser,” a slickly produced bop centered around glistening and atmospheric synth arpeggios and trap beats that saw the rising French Canadian artist alternating between a syncopated trap-like flow for the song’s verses and ethereal cooing for the song’s hook and choruses. And while arguably being one of her most club friendly songs, “Arrête de danser” is a bitter tell-off to an unhealthy, dysfunctional lover that the song’s narrator knows deep down is wrong for her — and yet can’t quite quit.

The EP’s second and latest single, the Coeur de Pirate co-written, Renaud Bastien-produced “Vieux Port,” continues a run of danceable and seemingly upbeat bops featuring wobbling bass synth, glistening and arpeggiated synth melodies, twinkling keys, some brief bursts of industrial clang and clatter and soaring strings paired with Thaïs ethereal cooing. But just underneath the surface is a song that details a relationship that’s seemingly on the ropes while contemplating the passing of time and the desire to turn the clock back — with the knowledge you have now.

Directed by Jeanne Joly, the accompanying video for “Vieux Port” is a stylistically shot visual that features the Montreal-based JOVM in an art covered room creating her own art and dancing expressively.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising Canadian Artist Magi Merlin Shares an Unapologetic Black Anthem

With the release of her first two EP’s 2019’s On My Way to the Listening Party and last year’s Drug Music EP and a handful of standalone singles, the fairly mysterious yet rising Canadian artist Magi Merlin (pronounced MADGE-eye) has exploded onto the national scene: She has received praise from CRACK Magazine. Along with that she has opened for Lido Pimienta and played at Osheaga Festival alongside ODIE, Jessie Reyez and others. 

Earlier this year, the rising Canadian artist released the Funkywhat-produced “Free Grillz,” a track that featured Merlin’s mix of fiery, self-assured bars and sultry crooned hook gliding over icy, trap hi-hats, skittering snares, glistening synth arpeggios and a tweeter and woofer rattling bass line. “Free Grillz” found the Canadian artist hoping to aspire to at least some of the tropes of hip-hop fame while reflecting on a series of bitterly harsh and inescapable, daily realities, like having oblivious people carelessly mispronounce your name, misogyny, kicking clingy and stupid men out of your life and so on with a mix of humor and world dominating swagger.

Merlin’s third EP Gone Girl is slated for a May 27, 2022 release through Bonsound/AWAL. The EP’s material may arguably be the Canadian artist’s most personal and audacious effort to date: Merlin grew up in Saint Lazare, a suburb of Montreal, created by Nixon types in 70s. A Place of white folks by white folks. Much like in the States, the suburbs are viewed as the epitome of all that’s good and “normal.” Unless of course, you’re Black and Queer — and that perceived normalcy is challenged.

The EP, which continues Merlin’s ongoing collaboration with Funkywhat draws from 90s house, drum ‘n’ bass, Motown and acid flecked hip-hop to create a sound that evokes smoky, after hours clubs — but with rumbling bass lines and thunderous 808s. Thematically, the EP sees the rising Canadian artist touching upon generational angst, fake friends, casual racism and more.

The rising Canadian artist’s latest single “Pissed Black Girl” is a sleek and hyper modern pop song that features Merlin’s assured vocal delivery gliding over icy synth arpeggios, skittering trap beats and a sinuous bass line. Interestingly, “Pissed Black Girl” is rooted in a familiar pent up frustration with fake white progressives and phony liberals but instead of the cliched trope of angry Black woman, it’s a dance floor friendly banger that tells those fakes to go fuck themselves and sit down, while the rest of us get down.

“I wrote this song summer 2020,” Merlin says. “I was made to really look at my identity as a Black woman and what that identity means to the people I surround myself with. I didn’t realize a lot of the people I had around me at the time that identified as progressive, leftist and ‘allies’ were not as supportive as they made themselves out to be. Talking with them just resulted in arguments instead of compassion and understanding. This made me very angry and the only thing I was able to do to vent my frustrations and arrive at some form of catharsis was by singing about it.

“The title of the track references a story an ex-friend recounted to me as well as what I and many other black women who speak their minds are reduced to: an ‘angry black woman.’ This ex-friend told me about a time they went to a predominantly white party in the suburbs and one of the party-goers, while staring out onto the front lawn of the house, said: “wow, there’s a N***er on the lawn” – one of many atrocious acts that go unchecked in white suburbia and various other white spaces. If there is anything I’ve learned from my experiences with ignorant and bigoted people, it is how unapologetic I need to be about my existence. I’m a girl; I am pissed and I’m Black. What about it?”

The accompanying video features the rising Canadian artist being unapologetically herself — but at one point dancing in a circle of flames that reads “Pissed Black Girl.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays La Femme Share Hazy and Hallucinogenic Visual For Atmospheric “Tu T’en Lasses”

Founded back in 2010, Parisian psych pop act and longtime JOVM mainstays  La Femme — currently, founding members Sacha Got and Marlon Magnée, along with Sam Lefévre, Noé Delmas, Cleémence Quélennec, Clara Luiciani, Jane Peynot, Marilou Chollet and Lucas Nunez Ritter — managed to completely hoodwink the French music industry by lining up a DIY Stateside tour as a then unknown band, with only $3,000 Euros and their debut EP, that year’s Le Podium #1.

After playing 20 gigs across the States, the members of La Femme returned to their native France with immense interest from the Parisian music scene. “The industry was like, ‘What the fuck? They have an EP out and they are touring in the US and we don’t know them?” Marlon Magnée told The Guardian. “So the buzz began to start. When we came back to France, it was red carpet. Fucking DIY.” 

2013’s critically applauded and commercially successful full-length debut Psycho Tropical Berlin found the Parisian JOVM mainstays making a wild, creative and sonic left turn incorporating krautrock and synths to the mix. The album eventually earned a Victoires de la Musique Award. Building upon a rapidly growing national and international profile, La Femme’s sophomore album, 2016’s Mystére to praise by Sound Opinions, The Line of Best Fit, The Guardian, AllMusic, BrooklynVegan and a lengthy list of others. 

The French JOVM mainstays long-awaited, third album Paradigmes was released last year through the band’s own Disque Pointu and distributed through IDOL. And over the course of that year, I managed to write about five of the album’s nine previously released singles:

  • “Cool Colorado,” a coolly bombastic single that seemed indebted to Scott Walker and Ennio Morricone soundtracks while being an “ode to the San Francisco of the 70s — and to Colorado, the first American state to legalize cannabis. 
  • Disconnexion,” a surreal what-the-fuck fever dream centered around pulsating Giorgio Moroder-like motorik grooves, a fiery banjo solo, atmospheric electronics, twinkling synth arpeggios, a philosophic soliloquy delivered in a dry, academic French and operatic caterwauling. 
  • “Foutre le Bordel,” a breakneck freak out that meshed Freedom of Choice-era DEVO and Giorgio Moroder with ’77 punk rock nihilism. 
  • “Le Jardin,” an achingly sad lullaby written and sung in Spanish — the band’s first song in Spanish. Inspired by a trip to Spain that the band took a few years ago, the song as the band explains is a kind of an old-school slow dance, which underlines how fragile and random fate is.
  • “Pasadena,” a slow-burning, woozy ballad that sounds — and feels — like a narcotic-induced haze. Written as an informal response and continuation of the story told in “Septembre,” off the band’s sophomore album, “Pasadena” features the main character of “Septembre” as a teenager. And as a result, the song is about budding romances — primarily their seemingly carefree nature at the time, their eventual difficulties and confusions, and the weight of peer pressure.

April has been very busy for the JOVM mainstays. Earlier this month, they released Paradigmes: Le Film, a full-length film co-directed by the band’s Sacha Got and Marlon Magnée and Aymeric Bergada du Cadet that’s centered around the album’s material, and highlights their humor and creativity. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8Wnil2ipf0

The JOVM mainstays will be releasing an exclusive, vinyl, Record Store Day edition of Paradigmes, Paradigmes: suppléments, a deluxe edition of their critically applauded third album. You can purchase it here: https://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/14923

And along with the Record Store Day exclusive vinyl release of Paradigmes: suppléments, the band released yet another single off Paradigmes, the album closing track “Tu T’en Lasses,” a slow-burning and atmospheric fever dream, centered around skittering beats, glistening synths and a distorted yet mournful horn solo paired with dreamily delivered vocals.

The accompanying video for “Tu T’en Lasses” continues a run of hazy, feverish visuals: The members of La Femme are house band at a local dance, playing the slow dance song for the couples out there — including a Sid and Nancy-like couple. Is it an achingly nostalgic memory of a lost love and a time since passed — or a drug and booze-fueled hallucination? Or perhaps both? That’s up to you to decide.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Psychedelic Porn Crumpets Share Animated, Horror Film-Inspired Visual for New Ripper “Acid Dent”

Throughout their history, the acclaimed Perth-based outfit Psychedelic Porn Crumpets — Jack McEwan (vocals, guitar), Luke Parish (guitar), Danny Caddy (drums), Wayon Bilondana (bass) and multi-instrumentalist Chris Young — have developed a reputation for being one of Australia’s preeminent purveyors of enormous riff-based psych rock.

The Perth psych rockers’ fifth album Night Gnomes officially dropped today through Marathon Artists/What Reality? Records. The follow-up to last year’s critically applauded SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound, Night Gnomes sees the acclaimed Aussie outfit throws the listener into a range of different sonic territories and emotional fields through the exploration of even more sonic influences and creative tangents than before while being firmly rooted in the sound and approach that has won them fans across the world.

Written in Perth during pandemic related lockdowns, and recorded at McEwan’s Perth home and Blackbird Studio with Dave Parkin, Night Gnomes is informed by the sense of isolation and the accompanying mania of being out of sync with the normalcy and patterns of the life that McEwan and the rest of the band had gotten accustomed to over the past few years.

“Night Gnomes is a bit darker than the other four releases. I don’t know if that’s the bi-product (sic) of being locked inside Western Australia for the past two years but it’s definitely given us a lot of time to think,” McEwan says of the new album. “I reckon this record has a bit more of a KID A/Amnesiac vibe to it, it’s a bit weirder, a little left of the ‘psych/pop’ world we’ve been tagged under. I kinda like that though, forever expanding, variety is the spice of life! It starts moody, talks of break ups and new relationships; gets kinda chirpy in the middle and then ends really beautifully, a bit like Jurassic Park 3. I reckon Spielberg might actually rate it, he’s a mixture of a bag, ain’t he.

“All in all, I’m very proud of everyone’s efforts, it’s a step up which is a good direction to be stepping and it’s a good body of work that I’m happy to share with the world, our little patch of darkness. And if deeper isn’t your cup of moonshine, then at least you know the sixth album will be upbeat as F@!#.””

Because the album follows so closely to its immediate predecessor, in some ways the material on Night Gnomes feels a bit like a continuation of the same narrative ideas and story that McEwan initially dreamed up. Unsurprisingly, the album retains elements that will appeal to the band’s oldest fans while providing a peak of where the band is going next sonically. “I stepped up a few recording techniques and tried to hone in on the production side of things a little more, gave my mental train a fresh lick of paint and tried to make the album step up in quality from the previous four releases, while still holding onto that ‘Crumpet’ approach to songwriting,” McEwan says.

“There’s definitely a few moments in older albums where I’ve been lazy and tweaked things after we’ve finished recording but with Night Gnomes, I made sure to stick with Dave’s ethos and polish every track before it was sent to Jelly to mix. I’m much happier with how my vocals are sitting now, I left a lot of room in the tracks to bring them out rather than adding twenty million layers beforehand, it feels a lot cleaner, the idea for each song is present and accessible without too much ear straining. To me, it’s our best work. I feel like we’re moving forward while still learning and these albums are a checkpoint to where we’re at, and for now we’re happy with our little Night Gnome.”

Night Gnomes‘ latest single “Acid Dent” is a head banging ripper, centered around enormous, power chord-driven riffs, rumbling bass, driving rhythms paired with mosh pit friendly hooks and McEwan’s punchy shouts. But while thrashing with a relentless and seemingly carefree abandon, the song sees its narrator offering a bit of a concession to growing older and maybe slowing down a bit from some of the riotous decadence of youth — before its way too late.

Every generation has their means of escapism and for some reason here in Perth, or at least when we were in our heyday you could purchase mushrooms and acid from any decent supermarket,” McEwan explains. “So it’s inevitable we’re gonna be munching jumpers and chatting to fences in a few decades, but as for now, well… we’ve seemed to somehow milk a career out of it. Who’d have thought. But yeah, it’s probably not going to end well, hence my newly appointed position on drug safety. Then again, someone also once told me, “Hell hath no fury like a man who’s pressed pause on his drug abuse”, so now I’m slightly more perplexed as to where I stand. Anyway, good luck to everyone, enjoy yourselves but remember nobody wants to pick up your marbles after.”

“When we were younger, we were carefree and living tall, “McEwan says. “You get home with a handful of stuff in your pocket from whatever festival and just munch all of it, until you wake up in the morning so scattered. If we kept carrying on this way, we’d wind up in mental institutions by 35. So this is a nice little story about slowing down a bit.

Directed by frequent visual collaborator Ollie Jones, the video for “Acid Dent” continues a run of claymation-based animated videos. This time, we follow a mustachioed maintenance man working at PPC Chemicals, who has a terrible accident at work: He falls into a glowing vat of toxic sludge.

After being treated at a local hospital, he returns home to discover that as a result of his accident, everything he touches melts before his eyes. The video ends with some hilarious yet horrifying, horror movie-inspired hijinx. “I’ve always been a fan of the horror sub genre ‘ MELT MOVIES ‘ — films like Street Trash, The Blob and Body Melt,” Ollie Jones explains. “So when I was given the title of the track, I knew what I wanted to do right away. A simple story of a guy who after a freak accident is granted the powers to melt everything he touches and how it escalates in a comedy of errors throughout the video. Think the Skittles advert only more gruesome.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Trenton’s Joy on Fire Shares Sardonic and Explosive Ripper “Selfies”

Currently based in Trenton, noise rock/no wave/experimental rock/art punk outfit Joy on Fire — founding members John Paul Carillo (guitar), Anna Meadors (saxophone), spoken word artist Dan Gutstein (vocals) and a drummer — can trace their origins to Baltimore‘s art scene, where the band’s founding members originally met and started writing material together.

“Baltimore is a city where musicians of different stripes come together quite readily.  With the art college (MICA) [Maryland Institute College of Art] up the road from The Peabody Conservatory, trained jazz / classical musicians come together, in the city’s Station North Arts District, with self-taught musicians who bring other artistic disciplines into their music, a Talking Heads vibe,” Joy on Fire’s John Paul Carillo writes in a statement about Baltimore and its influence on the band. “In my case, while Anna was at Peabody, I was at The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, getting a degree in fiction writing.  Anna and I met in a basement jam session, and the band began then.  We still play the first song we ever wrote together, ‘Red Wave,’ which finally appeared on 2021’s Unknown Cities.”

Meadors’ background as a classically trained saxophonist collided with Carillo’s love of experimental art rock and punk and creative sparks immediately few between the pair. “I knew pretty early on that a career in classical saxophone wasn’t for me; I met John during my sophomore year [at the Peabody Conservatory], and the world of weird rock music opened up for me,” Meadows writes. “I had been listening to this Terry Riley album for saxophone quartet and vocalist, Assassin Reverie, and fell in love with it, and John introduced me to the music of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, as well as the bands Morphine and King Crimson. There is this saxophone solo on King Crimson’s ‘One More Red Nightmare‘ that changed my life, it is so visceral, and it starts with just a long trill that is so simple and so perfect for the part. When Joy on Fire started, I was able to use the techniques I learned from jazz improvisation over this big chordal electric bass sound that John has, and it was such a thrill.”

Since those early jam sessions between Carillo and Meadors, the band has expanded to a quartet with the addition of Gutstein and a drummer while being remarkably prolific, releasing five full-length albums: 2015’s full-length debut The Complete Book of Bonsai, 2017’s Fire with Fire, 2019’s Hymn, last year’s Unknown Cities and Another Adventure in Red, which landed at #7 on Concrete Islands’ Albums of the Year list for 2021.

The Trenton-based outfit has toured up and down the Eastern Seaboard to support their recorded outfit with stops at Burlington Discover Jazz Fest, Boston’s The Middle East Café, Baltimore’s Metro Gallery, Asheville’s Asheville Music Hall and Shapeshifter Lab.

Joy on Fire’s seventh album, the Carillo and Meadors-produced States of America is slated for a June 11, 2022 release through their longtime label home Procrastination Records. The album’s material can be traced to a joint writing session between the band’s Carillo and Gutstein, which quickly “grew into monsters” as the duo turned loose song structures, ideas and lyrics into fleshed out songs. Most of the album’s material was recored at Princeton University‘s Studio B, where Meadows is currently a Ph.D. student in Music Composition.

The album will feature previously released singles “Anger and Decency,” “Thunderdome,” which originally premiered on Bob Boilen’s All Songs Considered and “Uh Huh,” which has an accompanying video that’s an official selection at 14 film festivals across the world, including LA Rocks Film Festival, London Rocks Film Festival and was a winner at the Obskuur Ghent Film Festival.

States of America‘s latest single “Selfies” is a neurotic, New Wave-meets-No Wave-meets-art punk ripper centered around a menacing Stooges-like groove, thunderous drumming, Gutstein’s sardonic, spoken word lyrics about the emptiness and vapidity of social media narcissism paired with Meador’s saxophone skronk and wailing that initially creeps its way into the arrangement and builds up in intensity as then song ends with an explosive and chaotic coda. The song captures the relentless need to be liked, seen as cool, successful and popular that’s inspired by the social media age in a way that’s startlingly accurate yet wildly hilarious.

“‘Selfies’ began with a riff I had hanging around for a while, a riff that has a bit of a Stooges vibe, especially with the reverse delay on it, and when lyricist / vocalist Dan Gutstein joined Joy on Fire, I arranged it for vocals,” Joy on Fire’s John Paul Carillo writes. “Dan has some great lines in it, displaying his edgy sense of humor: ‘Happiest,” goes the refrain, ‘we were happiest / Lying to each other.’  The piece is a critique of narcissistic culture, with ‘Love is like gazing everywhere / Catching an echo with your hands…Why not, why not, why not selfies!’  The impossibility, emptiness, and sadness of trying to catch an ‘echo with your hands’ is (not) relieved by taking selfies, would be one interpretation.  Often in Joy on Fire songs, saxophonist Anna Meadors begins the song or at least jumps in pretty quickly.  This time, she lays out for the body of the song, and then just kills it over a vamp that drives to the end of the tune, with Dan then sneaking back in, like the sax has driven him mad: ‘La-la-la-la-la Selfies!’  The wild saxophone is a further Stooges connection.  The acidy vibe that Iggy Pop asked for from Stooges saxophonist Steve Mackay — Anna certainly has it here, and then some.”
 

The accompanying video for “Selfies” continues in a similar vein as the video for “Anger and Decency,” with heavy amounts of visual distortion and manipulation atop footage of the band performing the song and fittingly cuts to a number of video selfies.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Aussie Artist Gray Days Shares a Trippy Visual for Glistening “Transcend”

Gray Days is the (mostly) solo recording project of a rather mysterious Aussie singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who writes and records all the parts of his music — with the exception of drums and tricky lead guitar parts. He makes his music in his garage and then takes it to a friend’s studio, where that friend engineers and mixes the material. 

Last week, I wrote about “Going Nowhere,” a song that sonically brought JOVM mainstay act Husky and Starsailor to mind, complete with an anthemic Brit Pop-like hook. But underneath all of that, “Going Nowhere” revealed a songwriter with a deliberate attention to craftsmanship and an uncanny knack for a big, catchy hook.

Released late last year, “Transcend” is a dreamy, 120 Minutes MTV-like track centered around shimmering and twangy guitars, a sinuous bass line, the Aussie artist’s plaintive delivery, a big hook and a wah wah pedaled solo, that sounds as though it were inspired by Starfish era The Church.

The accompanying visual features some trippy and fittingly psychedelic imagery.

Both “Going Nowhere” and “Transcend” will appear on Gray Days full-length debut, Drifting, which is slated for release tomorrow.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Smile Shares a Gorgeous and Unsettling Visual for “Free In The Knowledge”

The Smile features a collection of England’s most accomplished musicians — and some extremely familiar names: Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet‘s Tom Skinner.

So far, the trio have released four critically applauded singles, including two which I’ve written about.

  • “The Smoke“
  • “You Will Never Work in Television Again“
  • “Skirting On The Surface,” a meditative slow-burn centered around Greenwood’s looping and shimmering guitar, stuttering jazz syncopation, a supple yet propulsive bass line, mournful saxophone and Yorke’s weary falsetto singing lyrics contemplating impermanence and mortality.
  • “Pana-vision” a cinematic, Amnesiac era Radiohead-like song centered around a mesmerizing piano line, jazz syncopated drumming, a supple bass line and Yorke’s imitable falsetto.

All four of those tracks will appear on the trio’s highly anticipated debut Nigel Godrich-produced full-length debut A Light For Attracting Attention. Slated for a May 13, 2022 release through XL Recordings, the album features strings by the London Contemporary Orchestra and a full brass section of contemporary British jazz musicians that include Bryon Wallen, Theon Cross and Nathaniel Cross, Chelsea Carmichael, Robert Stillman, and Jason Yarde.

A Light for Attracting Attention‘s fifth and latest single “Free In The Knowledge” is a sparse and brooding song centered around atmospheric synths, strummed acoustic guitar, a cinematic string arrangement and Yorke’s imitable falsetto singing lyrics that captures the desperation, uncertainty and madness of our unique and troubling moment.

Directed by Leo Leigh, the accompanying, cinematically shot visual that captures a collection of characters in the throes of an inexplicable and desperate mania in the English woods. The end result is a video that’s unsettling, haunting and full of existential dread.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: A.M. Boys Share a Trippy Visual for Hypnotic “Traveler”

New York-based electronic duo A.M. Boys features two accomplished and grizzled scene vets:

  • John Blonde (synths, vocals), is an electronic musician and singer/songwriter, who was a principle member of JOVM mainstay act House of Blondes. As a solo artist, he releases material as Muscle Club.
  • Chris Moore, a producer, engineer, mixer, multi-instrumentalist, and electronic musician. As a producer and engineer, Moore has worked with David Bowie, TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Scarlett Johansson, Foals, and OSEES. As an electronic musician, Moore has released solo work as Light Vortex and through a variety of other aliases through the years.

Blonde and Moore can trace their collaboration together back to meeting at an Aphex Twin listening party they attended back in 2014. The duo struck up an instant chemistry that resulted in a batch of original songs in 2018 using analog synths, drum machines, space echo and voice that paired clean, post-punk minimalism with a contemporary approach to rhythm and arrangement.

They sent Suicide’s Martin Rev one of their earliest tracks “Distance Decay,” and by the next day, they were offered an opening slot with the post-punk legend. The duo have shared a stage with Deerhunter side project Moon Diagrams, and they’ve played one of the most memorable sets at local, experimental venue Spectrum. As DJs, they’ve spun sets at Jupiter Disco, Troost, Sundown Bar, Wythe Hotel and several other spots across town.

The New York-based duo’s full-length debut Distance Decay is slated for a June 3, 2022 release. Written and recorded by the duo, at their Brooklyn-based studio Glowmatic Sound with additional vocal recording by Jeff Berner at Studio G, the album’s title is derived from a term that describes the pattern of criminals committing fewer crimes, the further they travel from their homes. Sonically, the ten-song album sees the members of A.M. Boys focusing on an intimate and minimalist approach to instrumentation and composition through the juxtaposition of rippling rhythms with melodic synth lines and ethereal vocals.

The album’s material as written during darkly lit, late night jam sessions influenced by post-punk and coldwave, along with their revered trinity of Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin and Prince — with one song being directly influenced by Throbbing Gristle. The recording sessions were deliberately pared down to allow the pair to recreate the songs live. For the duo, the minimal approach helped to yield material that develops a deeper emotional resonance with repeated listens. “We knew we didn’t want to layer too much, we felt that the songs sounded stronger with less. A lot of modern music can be fussy and cluttered, we wanted to present the music simply, gaining a transparent power,” Blonde explains.

During the height of the pandemic, Blonde and Moore holed up at their studio and recored an entire second album — and are currently working to incorporate some of that new material in their live sets. But in the meantime, Distance Decay‘s second single, “Traveler” is a mesmerizing and hypnotic track featuring skittering beats, glistening and oscillating synths paired with Blonde’s ethereal vocals and spacey feedback. While nodding at John Blonde’s previous work with House of Blondes and Kraftwerk, “Traveler” fittingly possesses a trippy cosmic air, the end result is a song that seems to be a perfect for late night space travel.

Directed and filmed by New York-based motion designer David-Lee Fiddler, the accompanying visual for “Traveler” was a deeply collaborative effort between Fiddler and the duo that incorporates live, in-studio footage shot by Doug Young, animated still photos taken by A.M. Boys’ John Blonde, which were used for the album’s cover art. The end result is a trippy and mesmerizing video that seems perfect for those with ASMR. The duo credit Fiddler with being an energetic director that “seemed capable of translating any idea we had into reality.” Blonde adds “The ‘Traveler’ video is what we think the electricity looks like inside our synthesizers.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Denver’s Graffiti Welfare Shares Trippy “Volume”

George Lattimore is a Denver-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind behind the emerging psych pop recording project Graffiti Welfare. Lattimore grew up in a music loving home, where he developed a voracious ear, listening to anything he could get his hands on.

Eventually, the Denver-based multi-instrumentalist discovered Animal Collective, Tame Impala, Radiohead, Brian Eno, Miles Davis and a few others. For Lattimore, listening to Tame Impala’s Lonerism was a life changing experience: The first time he heard the album, he bought a Roland Juno-G keyboard and started writing and recording his own material.

Lattimore used that Juno-G until the screen died; but that was fine because at that point, he was ready to grow musically and to become much more serious at pursuing a career in music.

He moved from Austin to Denver for grad school, then recorded and self-released an EP on Spotify that began to receive some positive attention. Buoyed by the positive attention from his debut, Lattimore felt that he was ready to make something much more serious, defined and complete — his full-length debut Revolving Shores.

Written, self-recorded and self-produced over the course of five years, Revolving Shores was mastered at Golden Colorado‘s The Wheelhouse Studio. Revolving Shores‘ first single “Volume” is centered around Lattimore’s laconic delivery, glistening synth arpeggios, reverb-drenched, blown out beats and a wobbling bass line. The end result is a somnambulant song that evokes a half-remembered yet very vivid dream.

The accompanying video for “Volume” features stock footage of Midtown Manhattan shot in the 50s and 60s, mass manufactured doodads, what appears to be Los Angeles in the 80s that’s slowly given trippy, mind-bending effects.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Emerging Aussie Artist Gray Days Shares a Heady Visual for Anthemic “Going Nowhere”

Gray Days is the (mostly) solo recording project of a rather mysterious Aussie singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who writes and recordings all the parts of his music — with the exception of drums and tricky lead guitar parts. He makes his music in his garage and then takes it to a friend’s studio, where that friend engineers and mixes the material.

Released a few weeks ago “Going Nowhere” sees the emerging Aussie artist pairing shimmering and reverb drenched guitars, a steady backbeat and a plaintive vocal delivery with an enormous, anthemic Brit Pop hook. And while sonically recalling Aussie JOVM mainstay act Husky and Starsailor, “Going Nowhere” not only reveals a deliberate attention to craftsmanship — but a songwriter with an uncanny knack for writing an infectious hook.

The accompanying visual for “Going Nowhere” is a heady mix of cinematic, live action footage of every day people — a young couple madly in love, a commuter train in the rain and of people seemingly starting anew in their lives with animation and other effects.