Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay MUNYA Builds a Spaceship and Travels to Space in Playful Visual for “Voyage”

I’ve managed to spill a copious amount of virtual ink covering Québec-born and-based multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and producer Josie Boivin, the creative mastermind behind the critically applauded recording project and JOVM mainstay act MUNYA over the past couple of years. 

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over that same period, you might recall that when Boivin was asked to play at 2017’s Pop Montreal, she had only written one song. Ironically, at the time, Boivin never intended to pursue music full-time; but after playing at the festival, she quickly realized that music was what she was meant to do. So, Boivin quit her day job, moved in with her sister and turned their kitchen into a home recording studio, where she wrote every day. Those recordings would become part of an EP trilogy with each individual EP named after a significant place in Boivin’s life: Her debut North Hatley EP derived its name from one of Boivin’s favorite little Québecois villages. Her second EP, the critically applauded Delmano EP derived its name from Williamsburg, Brooklyn-based bar Hotel Delmano. The third and final EP of the trilogy, Blue Pinederived its name from the Blue Pine Mountains in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.

Since the release of that critically applauded EP trilogy, the Québec-born and-based JOVM mainstay has been busy: She released a string of singles, including the Washed Out-like “Pour Toi,” a single centered around the aching and unfulfilled longing of being forced to speak to a loved one from a distance. And she worked on her highly-anticipated full-length debut Voyage to Mars. 

With a background in opera and jazz, Boivin’s life has been centered around two big dreams: to be a musician — and to go to Mars. “I love space. I love aliens. I love thinking that we’re not alone in this big strange universe,” she says. “Those things give me hope.” Naturally, that hope led to Voyage to Mars, an album that derives its title from Georges Méliès’ classic silent film Le Voyage dans la Lune. Slated for a Friday release through Luminelle Recordings, the album’s material often feels as though it were beamed in from another, more beautiful and whimsical world. 

In the lead-up to the album’s release later this week I’ve written about two of the album’s previously released, official singles:

  • Deriving its title from the name of a Florida town, located about 15 miles from the John F. Kennedy Space Center, “Cocoa Beach” features a driving and funky bass line, four-on-the-floor, squiggling Nile Rodgers-like guitar, glistening synth arpeggios and Boivin’s dreamily coquettish vocals singing lyrics in English and French. The song is centered around the JOVM mainstay’s unerring knack for crafting a razor sharp, infectious hook — and fittingly, a ton of space and space travel-related imagery. 
  • A slow-burning cover of The Smashing Pumpkins‘ “Tonight, Tonight” that sees the JOVM mainstay stripping some of the original’s bombast away for an intimate, bedroom pop-like production centered around shimmering and reverb drenched guitars and skittering beats paired with Boivin’s ethereal and plaintive vocals.

“Voyage,” Voyage to Mars‘ latest single is an upbeat bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, squiggling rhythm guitar, a driving and funky bass line, handclap driven percussion and the JOVM mainstay’s ethereal cooing. Further cementing Boivin’s unerring knack for crafting infectious hooks paired with earnest songwriting, “Voyage” manages to tie the album’s themes together while being a celebration of the journey that led her to the release of the album. But it’s also about the importance of taking the time to enjoy your dreams as they — finally! — come true. “‘Voyage’ is about willing your seemingly impossible-to-achieve dreams to come true…like building a ship and traveling to space to meet up with an old friend on Mars,” the JOVM mainstay explains.

Directed by Ashley Benzwie and Boivin, the recently released and playful video for “Voyage” begins with Boivin reminiscing about her dear Martian friend. She then researches and builds a spaceship out of wood, reclaimed metal and other scraps to visit her friend. The video ends with Boivin blasting off towards her destination.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Spaceface Teams up with LABRYS on a Breezy and Funky Meditation on Life Choices

Founded back in 2012 by Jake Ignalls, a former member of The Flaming Lips, Spaceface is self-professed “retro-futurist dream rock” outfit is split between Memphis and Los Angeles — and features current and past members of The Flaming Lips and Pierced. Since their formation, Spaceface has developed a reputation for crafting catchy songs that whirl, twirl, bend and stretch, attract and propel while sonically featuring elements of dream pop, funk, rock and post-disco.

Spaceface’s forthcoming full-length album Anemoia is slated for a January 28, 2022 release though Montreal-based label Mothland. Anemoia is the result of several months spent at Blackwatch Studios in 2019 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, as the result of slick melodies, lush arrangements and effortlessly flowing rhythmic grooves, each spin reveals a new layer, painting a positive but somewhat critical portrayal of modern life.

In the lead up to the album’s early 2022 release, Mothland and the self-professed retro-futurist dream rock have released three singles off the album to date: “Happens All The Time,” “Earth In Awe,” and “Piña Collider,” which featured samples and choir vocals from actual CERN scientists. Anemmoia‘s fourth and latest single “Long Time (feat. LABRYS),” which features Penny Pitchlynn, best known for her work with BRONCHO and LABRYS taking on vocal duties. Centered around a breezy and lush arrangement featuring glistening synth arpeggios, crunchy bass lines and thumping beats that recalls Tame Impala, “Long Time” contemplates life choices and alternate realities through a series of “well, what if I did x instead of y.”
 
“It’s about that dreamlike state of wondering where you could be in your own life if you had just taken that left down the other road instead of taking a right,” Spaceface’s Jake Ignalls explains in press notes.  “It’s this inescapable feeling that sometimes you’ve slipped into an alternate reality without realizing and you think, ‘My god, is this my life? There’s another one for me out there.’” 

Directed by Marina Aguerre, the recently released video for “Long Time” was shot on grainy VHS tape and follows three people — two women and a presumably Spaceface himself — getting ready for a small gathering, where the trio eventually dances the night away through trippy effects.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Nice, France’s BLC MIRROR CLB Releases a Creepy Visual for Scorching “Sleepwalk Time”

Nice, France-based act BLC MIRROR CLB was initially formed as a duo in 2017 featuring founding members Fabz (vocals, guitar, synths) and Marz (drums, backing vocals). The French act’s 2019 self-titled debut EP was release to critical praise nationally and internationally from Skriber, Rock Made in France, Indiebox and Eric Alper among a list of others, and the EP received airplay globally from stations like CT Rocks, London Radio, Nuevos Pero Rotos, CATA Radio, ODDScene, Radio Kaos Caribou and Radio Volna.

The rising French act expanded into a trio with the addition of Ben (bass, backing vocals). Shortly after Ben joined the Nice-based outfit, gradually went through a radical change in sonic direction, moving from indie rock into brooding electro post-punk, inspired by Portishead, Eagulls, Siouxsie and The Banshees and others.

BLC MIRROR CLB’s latest effort, the five-song We Are The Ghosts Part 1 was recently released through Shake A Leg/Exquisite Noise Records. The EP continues the act’s gradual movement into post punk and cold wave. EP single “Sleepwalk Time (A Song for M)” is a brooding and uneasy song featuring buzzing bass synths, scorching guitar lines, thumping beats, industrial clang and clatter and howled vocals in an expansive, dread-inducing song structure. Sonically, the song — to my ears, at least — brings The Fragile era Nine Inch Nails, Third era Portishead to mind but while evoking our near-dystopian reality.

Directed by Albin Lunareiff, the recently released video features grainy and intimate VHS-styled footage of the band performing the song in a bare studio. Bursts of computerized MS DOS-like text appears superimposed over the band. It’s just as creepy and uneasy as the accompanying song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: DG Solaris and Jeremy Tuplin Team Up on the Gorgeous and Meditative “Idle”

London-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Danny Green may be best known for being the frontman of acclaimed British folk pop act Laish. With Laish, Green wrote and recorded four critically applauded albums released through French indie label Tailres, which he and his bandmates supported with extensive touring across the UK, the European Union and the States. 

In 2019 Green went through a number of major life changes: That March, he met Leanna “LG” Green — and by December they got married. For their honeymoon, Leanna and Danny Green decided to spend six months across South America with a simple recording setup that they carried with them in a backpack. During their trip, the couple wound up writing and recording demos that would become the earliest material of their recording project together DG Solaris.  “In between swimming with sea-lions, exploring sacred plant medicines and climbing mountains, we had been searching for beautiful spaces to set up our backpack studio,” the Greens explained in press notes. “All of our recordings feature the sounds of birds, cicadas and crickets.”

Returning home to London after their honeymoon, Danny and Leanna recruited Tom Chadd, Matt Canty and Matt Hardy to help flesh out the material they demoed during their honeymoon. The end result was the act’s full-length debut, last year’s Spirit Glow, which drew from and meshed elements of 70s psych pop, synth pop, krautrock and prog rock in a unique and playful fashion — with the album’s material written as a textural journey through emotional realms. “We wanted to explore the idea of two voices, two spirits, two creative minds and see where this dynamic could take us,” DG Solaris’ Leanna Green says in press notes. Danny Green adds, “It has been an incredibly inspiring trip. We came back with over forty songs and it has been a challenge to chose our favourites for this first album.”

Recently Green has been collaborating with Somerset, UK-born, London-based singer/songwriter  Jeremy Tuplin. With the release of his full-length debut 2017’s I Dreamt I Was an Astronaut Tuplin’s sound and approach gradually evolved with the Somerset-born, London-based singer/songwriter incorporating indie rock and psych music into what he has semi-ironically dubbed “space folk.” 2019’s Pink Mirror was released to critical acclaim with the album being lauded by The Line of Best fit, Loud & Quiet Magazine, BBC Radio 6 and Rumore Magazine. As a result of Pink Mirror‘s success, Tuplin received funding from PRS’ Open Fund to record last year’s Violet Waves. 

So far Green and Tuplin have collaborated on two singles together:

“Ocean/Are You Weird Enough?” which, came about from some unusual circumstances: Although Green and Tuplin have been writing and recording albums during the past decade, they’ve only been vaguely aware of each other’s existence. One night in Peru, following an intense shamanic ceremony, Green had a vivid dream that he and Tuplin were floating high above the ocean. The next morning, Green contacted Tuplin to share his strange astral encounter — and the pair began a correspondence.

Written and recorded during the middle of a pandemic — which created its own challenges — “Ocean/Are You Weird Enough?” is centered around a sparse yet haunting arrangement of acoustic guitar, atmospheric synths, shuffling drums serving as a gentle and ethereal bed for a gorgeous melody — and some equally gorgeous harmonies. And while sounding a bit like a cross between The Church and Nick Drake, the song as Green explains thematically explores the oneness and weirdness of people within a collective whole. 

“In The Name of Love” which continued a run of meditative material centered around atmospheric synths, strummed acoustic guitar serving as a sumptuous bed for the pair’s mellifluous vocals and equally gorgeous harmonizing. Much like its predecessor, “In The Name of Love” brings The Church’s “Under the Milky Way” but while also nodding at Nick Drake. Thematically, the song tackles chaos theory, the nature of the cosmos and our tendency to distort the truth in the name of love. But underneath the seriousness of the song, there’s a a delicately wry sense of humor over the fact that everything in the cosmos may ultimately be up to chance.

The pair’s third single together “Idle” is a bittersweet yet mischievous song that’s one part aching and earnest love song, one part ironic meditation on being an artist, one-part mournful meditation on the passing of time centered around shimmering acoustic guitar, atmospheric synths and the pair’s mellifluous vocals.”Idle came to us in early 2020. A natural process that came from two artists who were almost strangers to each other, meeting in a room, trying to write a song together for the first time. Little did we know that this moment would launch a year-long collaboration,” Green and Tuplin explain.

The video by Jeremey Tuplin stars his cat Kimchi, being — well, a cat. And it’s just adorable. We need more of this, please!

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Paris-based Electro Pop Duo Entrée Libre Releases a Summery, Club Friendly Ode to Travel

Formed back in 2019. Parisian indie electro pop duo Entrée Libre consists of two childhood friends, who derived the project’s name from the first letter of their first names. Sonically, the pair have developed joyful, spontaneous and hook driven pop. which for the duo served as an escape from the our strange and uncertain moment.

Entrée Libre’s debut EP is slated for release in 2022 . The forthcoming EP will feature previously released singles “L’Air du temps,” “Dehors,” and its third and latest single, the funky “Aller Simple.” Centered around a slick, dance floor friendly production featuring twinkling and arpeggiated synths, squiggling Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar, thumping beats, a propulsive disco-tinged bass line, and an infectious shout-along worthy hook, “Aller Simple” is one-part 80s New Order, one- part JOVM mainstays DBFC, one-part Daft Punk. And at its core is the very human desire to escape and start over — or just to go somewhere for a necessary reset.

Directed by frequent visual collaborator Leila Macaire, the recently released video is a playful and summery blast, that follows the pair and their friends as they travel and goof off — in much warmer climes. It makes me long for travel and new adventures. Soon, I hope. Soon.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sei Still Releases a Trippy Visual for Tense and Brooding “Extraradio”

Post punk outfit Sei Still — Sebastián Rojas (organ, synths), Mateo Sánchez Galán (guitar), Jerónimo Martín (drums, percussion) and Lucas Martín (vocals, guitar) — can trace its origins to when the members of the band decided to take a random trip to some desolate woodlands outside of Mexico City work on a couple of songs. Those sessions were so productive that it led to the quartet starting the band in earnest.

With just a couple of singles under their collective belts — 2017’s “Oto” and 2019’s “Tacticas de Guerrilla Urbana” — the band quickly earned a rapidly growing profile in their native Mexico, sharing stages with Stereolab, Kikagaku Moyo, Institute, and Lorelle Meets The Obsolete. The members of the Mexican post punk outfit signed to London-based label Fuzz Club Records, who released their self-titled full-length debut last year. The album quickly solidified new European fanbase for the Mexican post punk outfit, while selling out its initial vinyl pressing.

Slated for a November 26, 2021 release through Fuzz Club Records Sei Still’s highly-anticipated sophomore album El Refugio marks a number of major changes for the Mexican post-punk outfit: The band relocated to Berlin, where they wrote and recorded El Refugio. And sonically, the album represents an evolution in the now-Berlin-based band’s sound. Whereas their self-titled debut was heavily indebted to the Krautrock sounds of Can and Neu!, El Refugio reportedly sees the band crafting a somewhat skeletal effort: while still centered around a motorik pulse, El Refugio‘s songs sees the band eschewing the expansive and hypnotic tendencies of its predecessors for a more wiry, post-punk sound. The song are much shorter and unapologetically to-the-point, while brimming with tension and anguish.

“The biggest influence on this record was the fact that our personal lives had a radical change and we felt the need to do something different, to dig deeper into the possibilities of what the band was about,” the members of Sei Still explain. “We never wanted to make the same record twice.” Naturally, the move from from Mexico to Germany would have been a massive upheaval both personally and culturally, but the rising post punk outfit managed to do so a few weeks before pandemic-related shutdowns and quarantines, which gives the material a visceral feel.

Expressionist rather than psychedelic, the band explains that El Refugio “alludes to childhood, dreams, desire, loneliness, paranoia and hope. A longing for a different reality that breaks the monotony of daily life. It’s more about sensations than something you can describe in words. I think what makes music great is that it has to be experienced so we try to part from a specific mood or emotion, which is something very abstract that people can interpret in their own way.”

El Refugio‘s latest single is the brooding, “Extraradio.” Centered around Lucas Martín’s dry sprechgesang delivery in Spanish, an angular bass line, bursts of wiry, delay pedaled guitar and an insistent motorik pulse, “Extraradio” bears a resemblance to Joy Division while evoking the profound loneliness of being an Other in a foreign land with a culture and language you can’t understand.

Directed by Pilar Gost, the recently released video for “Extraradio” evokes the lonely and paranoid feel of the song, capturing the band’s members dancing, vamping and brooding in strobe light.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Namesake (f.k.a. Honduras) Releases a Frenetic Visual for Breakneck Ripper “Population”

A love of Bob Dylan and basketball brought Patrick Phillips to New York — but it was the scene at Bushwick’s Shea Stadium that lead him to form a band with Tyson Moore, Josh Wehle and Paul Lizarraga. Initially formed as Honduras, the New York-based indie act now known as Namesake, experienced some early success with their free-spirited full-length debut, 2015’s Rituals, including opening for Interpol. But a wrench was thrown into their plans when frontman Patrick Phillips was arrested at work. As Phillips recalls it, the night cops swarmed on the venue where he was bartender ring at the time was his worst nightmare. However, with the passing of time, Phillips now sees the ordeal and the night he spent in jail as a sort of dark stroke of serendipity that forced him to reevaluate the coping mechanisms in his lie that were simply not working: He saw it was time to embrace his bisexuality, confront the abuse he had experienced in the past and address his addictions and anger.

“Without hitting that rock bottom, I feel like I could have kind of kept simmering on low and just kept going about my life,” Phillips says. “I needed therapy, and I needed something to happen to get me there. It was a pretty scary experience, and it could have gotten a lot worse, but I really was able to make the most out of a really crappy situation.”

Tyson Moore left the band last year, and a name change just felt necessary to the remaining band members — perhaps offering a fresh, new start. Namesake’s first album as Namesake, Redeeming Features manages to benefit from Philips’ shift in perspective. Released earlier this month, the album manages to tackle heavy themes but while being fun. “There’s just something beautiful about attacking really heavy lyrical matter, but at the same time, you can tap your foot along to it,” says Phillips. “You’re able to acknowledge things about yourself and to be truthful. But you have to tell your story with a smirk, because we all have our own stuff to go through. It can’t be too self-serious! You definitely have to be truthful with yourself.”

Redeeming Features‘ latest single “Population” is a breakneck ripper that’s one part surf rock, one part post punk centered around wiry guitar blasts, a propulsive motorik-like groove, Phillips snarl vocals delivering incisive observations about our current socioeconomic climate of rampant greed and inequity, the desperation and frustration of Joe and Jane Public trying to get by in New York — or anyplace else.

Directed, shot, edited by Namesake’s Josh Wehle, the video for “Population” begins with `the band’s Phillips presumably passed out on the street after a night of wild debauchery. Waking up, he walks down a quiet city street when he comes across an ad that reads “It’s not too late to save yourself call 212-555-HELP.” Phillips calls the line and expresses every bit of rage within his soul before hanging up the phone. Two other working women in gray suits call on the same phone and do the same. Life is infuriating and unfair

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Blushing Team Up with Miki Berenyi on the Gorgeous and Anthemic “Blame”

Over the past couple of years of this site’s 11-plus history, I’ve managed to spill a copious amount of virtual ink cover the Austin-based dream pop/shoegazer outfit and JOVM mainstays Blushing. Featuring two married couples — Christina Carmona (vocals, bass) and Noe Carmona (guitar, keys) and Michelle Soto (guitar, vocals) and Jacob Soto (drums), the JOVM mainstays can trace its roots back to El Paso, where Jacob Soto and Noe Carrmona grew up as lifelong friends and musical partners.

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

The members of the Austin-based shoegazer outfit spent the bulk of 2016 writing and refining material, which eventually led to their debut EP, 2017’s Tether, which was released to positive reviews across the blogosphere, including this site. Building upon a growing profile in the shoegaze and dream pop scenes, Blushing returned to the studio to write and recored their sophomore EP, 2018’s Weak, an effort that saw them firmly cementing a sound seemingly indebted to Lush, Cocteau Twins and The Sundays but while being a subtle (and gentle) refinement. They needed that year with the Elliot Frazier-produced and mixed “The Truth”/”Sunshine” 7 inch, which featured what may arguably be the most muscular and direct song of their catalog to date. They also managed to spend the year touring to support their recored output, sharing stages with Snail Mail, Sunflower Bean, La Luz, BRONCHO, Illuminati Hotties, JOVM mainstays Yumi Zouma and others.

2019 saw the release of their self-titled, full-length debut, which they supported with an extensive US tour with Ringo Deathstarr that included a stop at Saint Vitus Bar that November. Although touring was on an indefinite hiatus until recently, the Austin JOVM mainstays have been busy: they signed to Kanine Records, who will be releasing their highly anticipated Elliot Frazier-produced, sophomore album Possessions.

Slated for a February 18, 2022 release, Possessions is an album born out of incredible patience and perseverance: The earliest tracking sessions started in 2019 and continued in fits and starts through the quarantines, lockdowns and re-openings of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a break in production while Frazier welcomed his second child, and that was followed by the massive blackouts across Texas resulting from the February 2021 winter storm across the region. Interestingly, when the album was finally finished, what revealed itself was an album that reportedly is at points heavier and at other points lighter. Thematically and lyrically, the album sees the band embracing the full and complicated spectrum of life and relationship but while recognizing the need for escape and whimsy.

The album also sees the band collaborating with two shoegazer legends — Lush and Piroshka‘s Miki Berenyi, who contributes vocals on an album track and RIDE‘s Mark Gardener, who mastered the album at his OX4 Sound in the UK. Fittingly, Possessions‘ first single “Blame” features the aforementioned Berenyi. The collaboration can trace its origins back to when Blushing covered “Out of Control” for a Lush tribute album in 2018. The cover caught the attention of Berernyi, who tweeted her appreciation — and a friendship began.

As the band continued to track material for Possessions, the JOVM mainstays approached Berenyi about the possibility of her working on a song, and they were thrilled to find that she shared their excitement about working together. The band then sent Berenyi the track and lyrics digitally with the request that she add any vocals she’d like. The end result is a lush, densely layerred song featuring glistening and reverb drenched guitars, an enormous hook and some eerily spectral harmonies and counter melodies between Christina Carmona, Michelle Soto and Berenyi. But just under the shimmering surface is a subtle sense of menace, expressed by the refrain “Stick around and find out . . . “

The recently released video for “Blame” is a trippy and whimsical mind-fuck of a visual that follows a couple experiencing three completely different sets of reality simultaneously. We start off with a couple having a quiet and boring night at home: glasses of wine, dinner and Netflix before bed. They may care about each other, but they’re also hopelessly bored and hemmed in by their lives. We also see the couple, presumably single or having an open relationship at a rave. The woman smokes and flirts shamelessly with a fantasy man, from a romance novel. The man loses himself in music. What’s real? That’s up to you. Maybe both are. But at its core the video points out that relationships can be hard, amazing and dull simultaneously.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Los Angeles’ Elle PF Releases a Brooding Visual for Slow-Burning and CInematic “Ultimatum”

Ranelle Labiche is a classically trained, Minneapolis-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and frotntperson of Los Angeles-based indie outfit Elle PF. Labiche can trace the origins of her music career back to when she had turned five and started to play piano and violin. By the time she was in her late teens, she was playing in local punk bands. The Minneapolis-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist earned degrees in music and psychology. And as an adult, she splits her time between her full-time job as a board certified music therapist, who works in mental health treatment centers in the Los Angeles area. Between her full-time work and her creative work, Labiche has continued to find a way to fuse music and creative expression as a tool to help herself and others to process and analyze events and emotions.

With Elle PF, Labiche and her bandmates — Jessica LaSota (bass, backing vocals), John Acarregui (drums), Doc (guitar) — specialize in a lush, widescreen sound that features elements of indie rock, haunting harmonies and electronic production within symphonic-like movements , inspired by an eclectic array of artists including Bjork, St. Vincent, Amanda Palmer, and God Speed You! Black Emperor.

Elle PF”s full-length debut, 2018’s She Wrote It was recorded and produced by the band’s Labiche. The 12-song album touched upon themes of social frustration, loss, melancholy, existential apathy paired with incisive political commentary — all while firmly establishing their lush, widescreen sound.

During the pandemic, the members of the Los Angeles-based indie outfit went into the studio to write and record their sophomore album I Woke Up Today Laughing. The album’s first single is the the slow-burning and brooding “Ultimatum.” Centered around a lush production featuring glistening synths, shimmering guitars, Labiche’s sultry cooing, dramatic drumming and a soaring hook, “Ultimatum” sonically — to my ears, at least — brings the likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees and contemporaries like Jennie Vee to mind.

Directed by musician and director, Jimmy Whispers, the recently released video for “Ultimatum” is inspired by Labche’s love for motorcycles: on her free time, the Minneapolis-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist rides with local motorcycle crews like Queers on Gears, Women SoCal Rides and The Litas. The video follows Labiche getting on her beloved bike and riding through the Los Angeles area — through suburban sprawl, the Sunset Strip at night and windy canyon roads. The video makes it apparent that its protagonist is struggling with a difficult and challenging past and present, and the desire to freely move forward on a new path.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: James Wyatt Crosby Releases a Hazy, Nostalgia-Inducing Visual for Breezy “Shadow of a Ghost”

James Wyatt Crosby is a singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who’s currently based in the rural township of Tiny, Ontario Canada. (Yes, that’s a real place. Located in South Central Ontario, Tiny is — well, tiny, as it has a population of 11,787 or so.) Crosby’s full-length debut, 2017’s Twins featured “Deep In Yr Mind,” a track which amassed over 1.2 million Spotify streams, while landing on Nerdist’s 25 Best Underground Albums of 2017.

The following year, Crosby released the standalone single “Lemonade (No I Never),” which wound up being a surprise hit on Canadian college radio, at one point peaking at #1 on CFMU-FM. 2019’s Here We Are In Heaven EP wound up becoming a fan favorite, while seeing the Canadian singer/songwriter craft more addictive dream pop melodies.

Last year, the rising Canadian artist went on a forced recording and touring hiatus as a result of the pandemic; but 2021 has seen Crosby’s material appear on a handful of CBC and Netflix shows. Released earlier this month through Wavy Sun, Crosby’s latest single “Shadow of a Ghost” is a summary blast centered around layers of shimmering guitars, glistening synths, a sumptuous bass line, a simple backbeat and Crosby’s achingly plaintive and yearning vocals. The end result is an infectious and nostalgia-inducing bit of dream pop that sounds indebted to 120 Minutes MTV era alt rock.

“This song was written during a time when it seemed like the fabric of reality was coming apart at the seams right in front of me,” James Wyatt Crosby explains in press notes. “Life can be so beautiful but also so painful and disturbing and this song speaks about the way that loss and grief can change the way that you perceive yourself and the world around you. This song allowed me to move through some challenging times.”

Fittingly for such a nostalgia-inducing tune, the video is shot through a hazy filter, reminding us of summer days when things seemed far easier and far simpler.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New VIdeo: JOVM Mainstay Sam Fender Releases a Frenetic Visual for Anthemic Yet Intimate “Get You Down”

Over the course of the past couple of years, I’ve managed to spill copious amounts of virtual ink covering North Shields, UK-born, Newcastle-based singer/songwriter, guitarist and JOVM mainstay Sam Fender. 2019 was a breakthrough year for Fender: His Bramwell Bronte-produced. full-length debut, Hypersonic Missiles was a commercially successful and critically applauded effort, which was supported with some relentless international touring that included two North American tours with a festival stop at Lollapalooza and sold-out shows in Los Angeles and NYC. Fender also made appearances Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. And Fender was featured on CBS This Morning Saturday in a segment in which CBS anchor Anthony Mason chatted with the British JOVM mainstay about his seemingly sudden rise in notoriety. 

Although 2019 was full of some momentous, life-changing achievements for the rising, young British singer/songwriter, the year unfortunately, ended on a frustrating and disappointing note: Fender had to postpone and then reschedule a handful of sold-out, end-of-the-year dates.

Before the pandemic struck, last year looked promising for the JOVM mainstay. Fender was hand-picked by  Elton John to play at his annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Party — and he received a BRIT Award nomination for Best New Artist. 

Much like countless other artists across the world, Sam Fender’s plans were put on an indefinite pause but he did manage to keep busy, writing and recording the standalone single, the anthemic 80s-inspired slow-burn “Hold Out,” and a bluesy cover of Amy Winehouse‘s “Back To Black,” which he performed on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge series. But along with that he also wrote and recorded his highly-anticipated sophomore album Seventeen Going Under. 

Released earlier this month through Interscope Records, Seventeen Going Under is the most intensely personal album of Fender’s growing catalog with the material finding Fender turning the mirror on himself — particularly his adolescence and the trials and tribulations of growing up. As a result, the album is a relatable journey that careens through an often misspent youth, navigating tumultuous relationships with both friends and family and trying to figure out what comes next and how to get there. Naturally, his birthplace of North Shields serves as the setting for the album’s songs, which see him chronicling cherished memories, difficult encounters and the events that he can’t unsee. “The whole record is about growing up and the self-esteem issues that you carry into your adult life,” the acclaimed, British JOVM mainstay explains. 

Seventeen Going Under‘s third and latest single “Get You Down” is a big, breakneck Born in the USA era Bruce Springsteen-ilke song centered around Fender’s earnest delivery, a soulful horn solo, strummed guitar, a sprinkle of soaring strings. While being an unvarnished and honest look at himself and his life, revealing a man, who has desperately fought against the destructive patterns and cycles of his own upbringing and his battles with crippling self-bout, the new single centered around Fender’s unerring knack for crafting rousing arena rock anthems. “This song in particular is about how insecurity has affected my relationships. Definitely one of the more personal ones,” Fender notes. 

Directed by Hector Dockrill, the recently released video for “Get You Down” stars the British JOVM mainstay as the song’s narrator, desperately struggling with his self-doubt, his upbringing and with keeping a major romantic relationship together. Told through a kinetic yet gorgeously shot series of flashbacks, the video follows the car racing protagonist as he practices for a major race — and then gets into a near fatal car wreck during the race.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Palm Ghosts Release a True Crime-Inspired Visual for Dance Floor Friendly “Bloodlight”

Led by singer/songwriter, producer and Ice Queen Records founder Joseph Lekkas, the Nashville-based indie rock act Palm Ghosts can trace its origins to when Lekkas resided in Philadelphia. After spending a number of years playing in local bands like Grammar Debate! and Hilliard, Lekkas took a lengthy hiatus from writing, recording and performing music to book shows and festivals in and around the Philadelphia area. Lekkas initially started Palm Ghosts as a solo recording project — and as a creative outlet to cope with an incapacitating bout of depression and anxiety. 

During a long prototypically Northeastern winter, he recorded a batch of introspective songs that at the time, he dubbed “sun-damaged American music” that would eventually become the project’s full-length debut. After a short tour in 2013 to support the album, Lekkas packed up his belongings and relocated to Nashville, enticed by the city’s growing indie rock scene. Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past handful of years, you may recall that Palm Ghosts’ third album, 2018’s Architecture was a change in sonic direction for the project with Lekkas writing material influenced by the sounds of the 80s — in particular, Cocteau Twins, Peter Gabriel, Dead Can Dance, New Order,  The Cure, and others. 

Much like countless other acts across the world, Lekkas and his bandmates spent much of forced downtime of the pandemic, being as busy as humanly possible: The members of the JOVM mainstay act wrote a ton of new material. The past year or so of isolation of lockdowns and quarantines, socioeconomic and financial uncertainty and protests and demonstrations helped to fuel an immediacy to the material the band had been busily writing.

Earlier this year, the Nashville-based outfit released their fourth album Lifeboat Candidate, a fittingly dark, dystopian effort full of confusion, fear and dread, informed by the events and circumstances of last year. And while the world feels little changed since last year, the JOVM mainstay’s fifth album Lost Frequency is a much different album. Initially scheduled for release last year, Lifeboat Candidate harkens to the before, when things seemed normal — or at least less uneasy, less desperate. After a difficult 18 months of pandemic, 700,000+ deaths in the US alone, financial despair, political uncertainty and more, having some respite, some sort of escape is what most of us urgently need. In a loose sense, Lost Frequency feels almost celebratory — and perhaps a bit more nostalgic, than its immediate predecessor. But the material lyrically brings confrontation to the forefront, reminding the listener that at this juncture, normalcy is devastating. 

 Lost Frequency‘s first single “Bloodlight” continues a run of hook-driven material indebted to The Cure, Cocteau Twins, Peter Gabriel, Depeche Mode and the like with the song being centered around tweeter and woofer thumping beats, shimmering guitars, hypnotic, motorik grooves, atmospheric synths and an enormous hook. And while dance floor friendly, the song lyrically is a seething indictment of humanity and its treatment of Mother Earth. 

“‘Bloodlight,’ the album opener, is a dark dance track that compares the  climate crisis to a crime scene,.” Palm Ghosts’ Joseph Leekas explains in press notes. “Luminol is a chemical commonly used in  forensics for the detection of blood stains. Nothing vanishes without a trace  and particles of blood adhere to surfaces for years.  

“The same applies to what humans have done to the earth. The damage will remain long after we are gone.”  

Directed by Nick Hawl, the recently released video for “Bloodlight” stars Ben de la Cour, Jessica Bell, Charles Hager and Cole Morse in a dark and uneasy police procedural that follows two cowboy hat wearing detectives investigating a brutal and bloody double murder. But as the story slows unfurls, we see that something is dangerously wrong: one of the detectives was obsessed with the victim — and towards the end of the video, we see a vicious yet fairly obvious plot twist that hits upon the themes of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Jess Chalker Returns With a Trippy Visual for Sultry “Cynical”

Sydney-born, London-based singer/songwriter and producer, Jess Chalker started her music career as the frontman of Aussie New Wave act We Are The Brave. And since We Are The Brave’s breakup, Chalker has become a highly sought-after collaborator: She has worked with Sam Fischer, Vintage Culture, Isamachine, Gold Kimono, and Passenger — and she was part of the Grammy Award-winning songwriting and production team that cowrote Lisa Loeb‘s lead single on the acclaimed artist’s kids record Feel What U Feel. Additionally, the Aussie-born, British-based artist wrote “Darkest Hour” for the Amazon Original series Panic, performed by Tate McRae.

Chalker finally steps out into the spotlight as a solo artist with her full-length debut Hemispheres. Slated for a November 5, 2021 release through her own imprint 528 Records, the album was completed under the massive weight of the pandemic, and as Chalker grappled with the loss of her day job and heartbreaking health issues. 

Much like countless others across the globe, she found herself spiraling and turned to music for the creative outlet she needed. Collaborating with friends across Sydney, Los Angeles and London, including Dan Long, Josh Humphreys and Chalker’s former We Are The Brave bandmate Ox Why, Chalker wound up finishing what would turn out to be a deeply emotional album. And interestingly enough, she managed to find much longed-for freedom in the process: “Releasing this album is terrifying and thrilling to me,” the Aussie-born, British-based artist says in press notes. “I grew up in a religion that discouraged us from pursuing career success, where women weren’t allowed on stage to address an audience directly. I think it’s why I’ve always tried to avoid the spotlight but, after the year we’ve all had, my perspective on things has changed quite a lot. I’m not wasting any more time doubting myself.”

Sonically, the album reportedly finds Chalker and her collaborators crafting material featuring guitar-driven hooks and retro synths paired with the Aussie-born, British-based artist’s expressive vocals. Thematically, the album deals with themes that explore the dichotomy between depression and hopefulness, self-doubt and self-love and more. 

In the lead up to the album’s forthcoming release, I’ve managed to write about two of the album’s previously released singles:

  • The Chalker, Rich Jacques and Martjin Tinus Konijnenburg co-written “Don’t Fight It.” Centered around glistening synth arpeggios, reverb-drenched drums. Chalker’s expressive vocals, the track hints at Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and Prince, while full of the bittersweet longing and uncertainty of a narrator who’s physically and emotionally lost. 
  • The breezy and defiantly upbeat “Stupid Trick.”Centered around shimmering guitars, atmospheric synths, Chalker’s plaintive vocals, the song thematically focuses on the innocence and desperately intense feelings of teenaged love, before gradually learning what love really is and what it really means. And while bringing up memories of Pat Benetar‘s “Love is a Battlefield,” Rod Stewart‘s “Young Turks” and others, the song continued a run of material driven by Chalker’s unerring knack for paring earnestly written material with a razor sharp hook. 

“Cynical,” Hemisphere‘s latest single is a smoky pop song centered around Chalker’s achingly tender vocals, twinkling keys, atmospheric synths, a sinuous and propulsive bass line, and a bluesy guitar lines. But while being sultry and full of longing, “Cynical” possesses an underlying tension, tumult and tension that should feel familiar to anyone, who has been in a complicated, dramatic relationship full of fiery passion that will burn out or blow up in everyone’s faces,

“Musically this song feels quite drama-filled,” Chalker says, “There’s a tension in it that’s familiar, like the tumult of being in one of those relationships you know won’t go the distance but feels good in the moment.”

Directed by Thomas Calder, the recently released video for “Cynical” is part lyric video, part music video in which we see Chalker rendered in blown out, psychedelic colors,.

Pre-order the album now via Bandcamp (https://jesschalker.bandcamp.com)

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Belgian Shoegazers Slow Crush Return with a Dreamy Visual for Brooding and Lush “Lull”

Belgian shoegazer outfit Slow Crush — currently Isa Holliday (vocals, bass), Jelle Harde Ronsmans (guitar), Jeroen Jullet (guitar) and Frederik Meeuwis (drums) — exploded into the international shoegaze scene with the release their full-length debut, 2018’s Aurora. Between 2018 and 2020, Slow Crush supported the album with nonstop, relentless touring across the world with acts like Pelican, Torche, Soft Kill, and Gouge Away — and with festival stops at Roadburn, ArcTanGent, 2000Trees and Groezrock.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the members of the Belgian shoegazer outfit was forced to cancel plans for two European tours and a Stateside tour at the last minute. But interestingly enough for the band, the pandemic was a bit of a blessing and a bit of a curse: The time off from touring allowed the band to re-think and re-group. Aurora‘s unexpected success and the demands of heavy touring had taken a toll on everyone’s personal lives. This was intensified with a massive lineup change, which saw two members leave. Eventually Holliday and Ronsmans recruited the band’s newest members Julioet and Meuwis to complete the band’s newest lineup. And adding to a stormy period of change and uncertainty, the band’s label Holy Roar Records collapsed, leaving the band without a home. 

Slow Crush’s highly anticipated sophomore album is slated for a Friday release through Quiet Panic. Written in between tours and the unexpected downtime during pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns, the album’s material is heavily influenced by turbulent times — both personal and global. While further cementing their sound, featuring abrasive and whirling layers of guitars and thunderous drumming paired with Holliday’s ethereal vocals, Hush reportedly finds the band growing as musicians and songwriters. Although the album was informed by and inspired by the dark and heavy times, the material isn’t all bleak; in fact, it’s filled with the hope for a bright, new day. 

In the lead up to the album’s release, I’ve written about two of Hush‘s released singles:

  • Brooding album title track “Hush,” which was centered around an expansive song structure with towering layers of feedback and fuzz pedaled guitars, thunderous drumming and Holiday’s sensual yet ethereal cooing. And at its core, the song expresses an aching and unreciprocated longing.
  • “Swoon,” a breakneck ripper with mosh pit friendly hooks that brought Finelines era My Vitriol and Lightfoils to mind but paired with introspective and impressionistic lyrics. The song can be read in a number of different ways: it could be read as touching upon the loneliness, uncertainty and longing that comes about as a result of a seemingly bitter breakup. But it can also be read as a desire to escape a bleak world through connecting with someone equally as lonely as you are. 

“Lull,” Hush‘s latest single continues a run of brooding and lush painterly textured shoegaze that may remind some listeners of a slick synthesis of A Storm in Heaven, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. And much like its predecessors, the song features impressionistic lyrics that express a profound and bitter ache.

The recently released video for “Lull” by Bobby Pook at SumoCrucial is a hazy yet cinematic fever dream that follows a man riding around a very European town on a bicycle when he sees a woman walking into the sea, The man gets off his bicycle and runs towards the woman — but is she a mirage? Is she some lingering ghost that has haunted him? That is up to you.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Frankie and The Witch Fingers Take Viewers on a Drug, Chaos and Violence-Fueled Trip Through Los Angeles

Since initially forming in Bloomington, IN over a decade ago, the rising Los Angeles-based psych rock outfit Frankie and the Witch Fingers — featuring core trio Dylan Sizemore (vocals), multi-instrumentalist Josh Menashe and Shaughnessy Starr (drums) — have developed and honed a reputation for restless experimentation, multiple permutations and a high-powered, scuzzy take on psych rock, centered around absurdist lyrical imagery, often fueled by hallucinations, paranoia and lust. The end result is material that manages to be simultaneously mischievous and menacing. When Shaughnessy Starr joined, the band went through another of their many sonic permutations, which resulted in a lysergic and claustrophobic sound rooted in Black Sabbath-like riffage.

Building upon a rapidly growing national profile, the band has opened for the likes of JOVM mainstays Thee Oh Sees, Cheap Trick and ZZ Top.

The band’s most recent full-length effort, Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters . . . was last released last year through Greenway Records and Levitation Festival‘s label The Reverberation Appreciation Society. Recorded in a breakneck five-day recording session, Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters . . . features much more insidious, evil and ambitious material while capturing the band in the midst of massive personnel changes: longtime bassist Alex Bulli left the band, and as a result, Josh Menashe wound up writing and playing most of the material’s bass parts with occasional contributions from Dylan Sizemore. Much like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard‘s Infest the Rats Nest, Frankie and the Witch Fingers’ latest effort sees the band writing expansive and maximalist material — with fewer moving parts.

Since the release of Monsters, the band has been busy writing and recording new material, including the “Cookin'” seven inch, which was released through Greenway Records and The Reverberation Appreciation Society today. “Cookin'” further cements the Los Angeles-based psych outfit’s long-held reputation for psych rock centered around scorching riffage. Paired with a punchy baseline and a rousingly anthemic sing-along chorus, “Cookin'” manages to be a rollicking party starter — but the good time vibes are superficial, as the song thematically calls out humanity’s obliviousness, greed and wastefulness,

Directed by Alfredo Lopez, the recently released video for “Cookin'” features three badass women, who gleefully inflict all kinds of chaos and destruction wherever they go, while doing a shit ton of drugs and drinking way too much booze.

“‘Cookin’ is a visceral and violent snapshot of three agents of chaos who gleefully inflict destruction and terror wherever they go,” the members of Frankie and The Witch Fingers explain. “They are personifications of the brutality of nature, the wrath of humanity, and the cruel unpredictability of reality. Havoc incarnate, they weave a path of wanton destruction and utter wastefulness throughout a sweaty, summer day in Los Angeles. The significance of moral values, of good and evil, are entirely human constructs; in nature it’s only kill or be killed — and leave the remains for someone else to clean up. The themes behind this song and video are a rumination on the ways in which we are carelessly laying waste to the resources we were gifted. Nature is relentless, humans are destructive, and everything decays eventually. The planet doesn’t belong to us, we belong to the planet, and she’ll be here long after we’re gone.”

The band is currently on tour with Acid Dad — and the tour includes a stop tomorrow night at The Bowery Ballroom. For tour dates and ticket information for tomorrow night and the remaining tour dates, check out the following: https://frankieandthewitchfingers.com/#shows