Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Hot Garbage Release a Trippy and Menacing Visual for Anthemic, New Ripper “Sometimes I Go Down”

Toronto-based psych outfit Hot Garbage — Alex Carlevaris (lead vocals, guitar), Juliana Carlevaris (bass, vocals), Dylan Gamble (keys, synths) and Mark Henin (drums) — will be releasing their Graham Walsh-produced full-length debut RIDE through beloved Montreal-based label Mothland on October 29, 2021.

Coming hot on the heels of some extensive North American touring including opening for Ty Segall, Meatbodies, L.A. Witch and JJUUJJUU, as well as stops at LEVITATION and Sled Island Festivals, the Graham Walsh-produced RIDE was recorded mostly live off the floor at Palace Sound and Basketball 4 Life Studios to to better capture the band’s raw energy, developed and honed from relentless touring. Sonically, the 33 minute album, which also features a guest spot from Kali Horse’s Sam Maloney on percussion, reportedly sees the Toronto psych rockers meshing core elements of 60s and 70s psych music, post punk and desert rock but while also speeding through motorik krautrock, nodding at surf rock and flirting with garage rock paired with otherworldly textures. Thematically and lyrically the album’s material tackles the afterlife, depression and freedom — but also rejoices in soft mantras and uplifting verses. The end result is an album’s worth of material that simultaneously evokes dread, beauty, wonder, horror and mystery.

RIDE’s first single “Sometimes I Go Down” is metallic mesh of psych rock, post punk and kraut rock featuring scorching guitar fuzz, thunderous drumming, droning and glistening organ, boy-girl vocal harmonizing and a relentless motorik groove paired with enormous hooks. While the band mentions that the song draws influence from Sonic Youth, Wand, L.A. Witch and Kikagaku Moyo, I also hear hints of Directions To See a Ghost era Black Angels.

Hot Garbage’s Alex Carlevaris says of the new single “It’s okay to feel down sometimes and need space. We as people have to accept that, allow that and have a healthy and realistic idea about having shitty days, feeling like shit and still loving ourselves. Also recognizing that others around us may need it and being patient with people.”

Directed by William Suarez, the recently released video features the members of Hot Garbage getting on the phone to make or receive phone calls using a four-way split screen. Whether or they’re actually speaking to each other in a four way call is up to you but you’ll notice that each of the characters is acting a little off — perhaps because something is after them? A mysterious black clad figure suddenly appears and each character disappears — that is until the end when the tarot card playing woman shows the figure the card she just pulled out during her reading. Trippy.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: London’s Jessica Wilde Releases a Soulful Banger

Jessica Wilde is a rising London singer/songwriter, spoon word who has been both behind the scenes and in the spotlight as a solo artist: Wilde has written songs for renowned K Pop label, SM Entertainment — and she has collaborated with Rudimental, Emeli Sande, Tough Love and Kizzo. As a solo artist, Wilde’s work has begun to receive airplay across BBC Radio with airplay from Robert Elms, Claira Hermet, Salma El-Wardany and LionHeart and Amelia Poamz, as well as Record of the Week nods from BBC Radio 1xtra and BBC Radio London. Her material has also bene played on KISS FM, Hoxton Radio, Reprezent Radio, Amsterdam’s Radio 5 and many others. Wilde has also landed material on UK Spotify’s Pride Editorial Playlist.

ng to a growing platform, Wilde has been interviewed by The Independent, featured in Clash Magazine, Wonderland, The Daily Star, WordPlay, Cool Hunting, Noctis Magazine, and SBTV’s New Music Friday. Her life story, which features battles with addiction and struggles with sobriety have caught the attention of several podcasts and influencers, who focus on sexuality and addiction, including Mouth Off, Muso Muso and a live interview with sober blogger Katie McNicol.

Wilde’s forthcoming album is a concept album with each song being much like a diary entry, in which the listener is taken on a journey from addiction, bad behavior and toxic relationships to self-love and sobriety. “Daylight,” the album’s fourth single continues Wilde’s ongoing collaboration with producers Eljay and Kris Houston. Centered around a warm and vibey production that gently nods at old school soul, paired with thumping beats, “Daylight” is roomy enough for Wilde’s big soulful vocals –before showing her off that she can spit some bars, too. But at its core, the song tells the tale of a dysfunctional and unhealthy relationship fueled by reckless and debauched partying that morphs into a destructive, self-sabotaging Groundhog’s Day.

Wilde through a seemingly endless cycle of booze and drug fueled nights with a lover, filled with passionate love making, drag out, knock down fights and early morning, hung over come downs, full of regret and shame that only ends with Wilde walks away and breaks the cycle.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Miles Francis Tackles Male Ego with “Popular”

Over the past decade, New York-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Miles Francis has developed a reputation locally and elsewhere as a musician’s musician — and arguably one of the local scene’s best kept secrets. Francis can trace much of the origins of their career to learning the drums when they turned six, then guitar, bass, keys and percussion.

As a working musician, Francis has toured the world with Arcade Fire’s Will Butler, Antibalas and EMEFE — and he has collaborated and performed with Sharon Jones, Amber Mark, Angelique Kidjo, Allen Toussaint, TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and a lengthy list of others. As a result of their various collaborations, Francis has appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and The Late Show with David Letterman. Francis stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with the release of 2018’s debut EP Swimmers, which earned praise from The Fader, Stereogum and KCRW for material that saw the New York-based artist blending an eclectic array of influences including David Bowie, Prince, Afrobeat and a childhood obsession with early 2000s boy band pop.

The New York-based artist has released two singles this year — “Service,” which was released earlier this year and the recently released “Popular,” which features Lizzie Loveless and Lou Tides (best known as TEEN’s Lizzie and Teeny Lieberson). Both tracks will appear on a forthcoming project that will explore and question masculinity, male conditioning — and their own gender identity, presumably informed by Francis coming out as a non-binary. Whereas the Prince meets Afrobeat-like “Service,” is a darkly ironic send up of the over-the-top obsequiousness of boy band pop, “Popular” is its anthesis, featuring an ego-driven, narcissist, who craves undivided attention. While centered around Francis’ unerring ability to write a rousingly infectious hook, “Popular” manages to be simultaneously breezy and full of menacing anxiety and insecurity, evoked through rapid-fire drumming, slinky and angular guitars, buzzing bass synths and twinkling keys. “I grew up with Backstreet Boys posters lining my bedroom walls, floor to ceiling,” Francis recalls. That era of music is dear to my heart, but upon closer look those songs are ridden with anxiety, songs about male adolescence written by grown men. That anxiety and impulsiveness is the place from which ‘Popular’ grows out from.”

Francis goes on to say that “Service” and “Popular” are “my own little Jekyll and Hyde. “One minute, it’s ‘I’ll do anything for you’ – the next minute, it’s ‘I don’t care for you.” They addd “I am interested in man’s two-faced-ness – our ability to show one thing to the world and someone completely different in private.” And as a result, at their core, both songs are about the male ego. “Power is essential to the male ego. That ego is a house of cards, of course, threatened by even the slightest loss of control. These songs and videos are meant to illustrate that delicate balance between control and disarray.” About “Popular,” in particular, Francis says ““Everyone indulges in having an ego and wanting to be recognized, but men seem particularly bent on the power element — whether it’s taking up space in a room or leading a country.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Alea Releases a Buoyant and Defiant Feminist Anthem

Alea is a rising, La Guajira, Colombia-born and New York-based singer/songwriter, composer and musician. She attended La Colegiatura Colombiana and later Berklee College of Music.

The Colombian-born, New York-based artist’s latest album, Alborotá was released earlier this month. The album’s title is deeply personal to Alea. Alborotado(a) translates directly to rowdy, riotous, loud, disorderly; and in most of Latin America, it means being too much, too different, too sexual.

The album title Alborotá is deeply personal to Alea. Alborotado(a) translates directly to rowdy, riotous, loud, disorderly; and in most of Latin America it means being too much, too different, too sexual. Alea elaborates, “I was called an alborotada growing up by my family and friends because I was extremely driven by creativity and imagination,” the Colombian-born, New York-based artist explains. “I fought hard to keep true to this nature, but this judgment took a toll on me as a I got older, and I started to believe that I was the problem. My body was the problem, my womanhood was the problem.” She adds, “I decided it was time to redefine this word, to give it a new meaning in my life and use it as a flag that represented being free, different, independent, out spoken, equal, feminist. I named the album Alborotá because it defines who I am now and what I wish to share with others, this inner fire of strength and overcoming difficulties that liberates you and celebrates you in every way.”

Alborotá further establishes the Colombian-born artist’s unique sound and approach with the album’s 10 diverse songs that break the traditional Latin music mold while being deeply inspired by it: rooted in female and Latinx empowerment, the album’s material blends Latin folklore inspired by cumbia, porro, corrulao and huapango with pop, Afro Colombian and Latin groove. “I decided that I couldn’t let other people and the environment dictate my freedom, who I chose to love and how I decided to speak about my truths,” Alea says in press notes. “My music became a reflection of that. To be bold, fierce and unapologetic.”

Alea continues, “I wanted to write an album that spoke about my roots as a Colombian Afro-indigenous woman. So this was also an exploration of identity, one that I wasn’t close with until I moved far away and somehow labels became a permanent part of who I was. I had to honor these roots because it felt like a calling. Many dreams of spiritual encounters and re-signifying the pain of being a Latin American woman taught to be silent. With this album we explored realms of music from cumbia to currulao, from a huapango to a vallenato, from folkloric rap to ranchera music; we were bold and authentic. I’m really proud of this work. It was not an easy road, but we did it!”

Drawing from Isunza’s background of Mexican, Brazilian and Flamenco music, the tone of the album was set with an organic and authentic vibe created with only acoustic instrumentation through a highly acclaimed collection of collaborators including Latin Grammy Award winners Felipe Fournier, Luisa Bastidas and Flor de Toloache’s Jackie Coleman, as well as Latin Grammy Award nominee Sonia De Los Santos. “Among them we also featured world class artists like Renee Goust, Elena Moon Park, Jaime Ospina, Miche Molina, George Sáenz, Juan Ruiz and Kika Parra, Alea adds. “Our rhythm, our lock and groove was set by the incredible Franco Pinna on drums. We also had the help and ears of friends like Kamilo Kratc, Nacho Molina and Luis F. Herrera, who listened to mixes and gave us feedback. All arrangements were written by Sinuhé Padilla-Isunza and myself. The entire album was mastered by Grammy winner, Luis F. Herrera.”

Over the past two years, the Colombian-born, New York-based artist has been releasing singles and videos from the album, including “Échale Sal,” which was hailed as one of NPR Alt.Latino’s favorite songs of last year. Alboratá’s latest single “No Me Apaga Nadie” is a bold and defiant feminist anthem centered around a gorgeous arrangement featuring Latin and Afro-inspired percussion, strummed flamenco-styled guitar and a regal, mariachi-like horn line. And over that arrangement, Alea leads a defiant call and response vocal section. “The title refers to the fire within, the fire that you are,” Alea explains. “Not permitting anyone dim you down. It’s a call to be rebellious and free in a society where you have to claw your way in to be part of the conversation.”

streets of New York — specifically Uptown and the Lower East Side — with her homegirls. As a native New Yorker, I found the fact that she could literally dance along Delancey Street past Allen Street without anyone caring or particularly noticing anything both hilarious and very much a New York thing. But she’s also boldly taking up space with an infectious joie de vivre. We also see moments of friendship and deep affection between women, as we also follow the Colombian-born, New York-based artist help a friend hurriedly move.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Milan’s The Gluts Return with a Furious, New Ripper

Milan-based punk rock outfit The Gluts — Claudia Cesana (bass/vocals), Bruno Bassi (drums) and Nicolò Campana (vocals, synths) and Marco Campana (guitar) — derive their name from an age-old term often used to denote unsold, surplus goods. For the Milanese quartert, they’ve taken it to symbolically express a surplus of energy, much like the energy that has long driven their own work. Interestingly, since the band’s formation, the Milanese punks have established and honed an explosive and psychedelic-leaning take on noise and thrash punk with the release of their first three albums, 2014’s Warsaw, 2017’s Estasi and 2019’s Dengue Fever Hypnotic Trip. 

de Wit-produced fourth album Ungrateful Heart is slated for an October 8, 2021 release through Fuzz Club. Reportedly, the album sees the Italian quartet making a decided sonic departure from their previously released work. Ungrateful Heart’s material is deeply indebted to 70s punk, 80s hardcore and post punk — in particular, Fugazi, Gang of Four, Sex Pistols, Public Image, Ltd. and the Campana brothers’ obsession with Italian and American hardcore punk.

Recorded over a tireless week in which the band and their producer essentially lived and worked side-by-side in the studio around the clock, the Ungrateful Heart sessions were fueled by a forceful intensity and uncompromising fierceness. “Bob’s contribution to this album was essential. He pushed us beyond our limits. It was difficult, we can’t hide it, but it really was worth it,” the members of The Gluts say in press notes. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about album track “Love Me Do Again,” a slick and uncanny synthesis of Never Mind the Bollocks-era Sex Pistols and Mission of Burma rooted in unadulterated hedonism. Written by the band’s Bruno Bassi while in pandemic-related lockdown, the song was “inspired by the different versions of the myth of Dionysus (the Greek god of wine, pleasure, madness and frenzied ecstasy) and an unexpected excitement caused by imagining how great it would be to be all together again,” the band explains.

Heart’s latest single, “Mashilla” is a furious and muscular aural assault featuring scorching and angular riffage, thunderous drumming and vocal cord ripping howling. And while indebted to 70s punk and 80s hardcore, the song is centered around an alternating grunge rock-like song structure featuring hypnotic verses and ferocious mosh-pit starting choruses.

Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Brace Beltempo, the recently released video is a stylish and frenetically shot visual featuring the members of the band performing the song in an abandoned office space, along with some hallucinogenic sequences during the song’s hypnotic passages.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay MUNYA Reunites with a (Very) Long Distance Loved One in “Cocoa Beach”

Over the past couple of years, I’ve managed to spill quite a bit 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. 

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 her critically applauded EP trilogy, the Québecois JOVM mainstay has 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. Boivin has also been busy working on her highly-anticipated full-length debut Voyage to Mars.

Voyage to Mars, an album that derives its title from Georges Méliès’ classic silent film Le Voyage dans la Lune. Slated for a November 5, 2021 release through Luminelle Recordings, the album’s material feels beamed in from another, more beautiful and whimsical world.

Co-directed by Ashley Benzwie and MUNYA, the recently released video is a direct follow-up to the video for “Pour Toi.” With the “Pour Toi,” video, we see the JOVM mainstay on the phone chatting with an unseen and distant loved one. With “Cocoa Beach,” we see who MUNYA was longing to be with — a humanoid alien, who has returned to Earth to reunite with Boivin. Hilariously, the pair spend time playing paddle ball, running on the beach and just hanging out like any other normal couple, except I’m pretty sure the phone bills would be expensive.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Mexico City’s Petite Aime Releases a Hilarious and Trippy Visual for Dance Floor Friendly “Elektro”

Mexico City-based psych pop act Petite Aime was founded by Little Jesus bassist Carlos Medina. Last year, Medina (guitar) was joined by Aline Terrein (vocals), Isabel Dosal (vocals), Santiago Fernández (bass) and Jacobo Velazquez (guitar) to write and record the project’s self-titled full-length debut.

Slated for an October 1, 2021 release through Park The Van/Devil In The Woods, the Mexican psych pop act’s self-titled debut reportedly finds the band crafting material that fluctuates between different genres and styles based on psych pop and psych rock while touching upon influences like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Big Thief, Magic Potion, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Crumb. Lyrically the album’s material is generally centered around an expression of the existential angst gendered by the search for the “self” in an increasingly impersonal world,. where the line between what’s real and what’s virtual crystallizes.

The album’s latest single “Elektro” is a dreamy yet club friendly bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, a hypnotic motorik groove, and propulsive four-on-the-floor paired with ethereal French vocals, complete with a vocoder drenched coda. While sonically nodding at From Here To Eternity-era Giorgio Moroder and JOVM mainstay MUNYA, “Elektro,” was actually inspired by dreaming and dreams. “We tried to translate a dream where you don’t know exactly where you are going but you let yourself go,” the band explains. “Stars come down to Earth and transport you to another world and although you know you are enjoying it you’ll always miss the place where you come from.”

The recently released video begins with a Members Only jacket wearing man, listening to music on his Walkman and jamming out in an abandoned mall. Initially, the viewer may think our protagonist is hopefully alone in a post-apocalyptic world much like our own — but towards the vocoder-drenched coda, the protagonist is surprised when he sees a crew of friends, who invite him to join.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Heartless Bastards Release a Surreal and Gorgeous Visual for Cinematic “You Never Know”

Deriving their name from a hilariously incorrect answer on a multiple-choice trivia game (the question was: “What is the name of Tom Petty‘s backing band?”), the acclaimed indie rock act Heartless Bastards  was founded in by Dayton, OH-born singer/songwriter, guitarist and founding member Erika Wennerstrom in Cincinnati back in 2003. Initially started as a solo recording project, Heartless Bastards quickly evolved into a live band featuring a rotating cast of musicians and collaborators that regularly played throughout the Midwest.

The Black Keys‘ Patrick Carney caught the band and was so impressed by what he had heard, that he passed along a copy of their demo to Fat Possum Records, who signed the band and then released their first there albums — 2005’s Stairs and Elevators, 2006’s All This Time and 2009’s The Mountain. Between the writing and recording of All This Time and The Mountain, Wennerstrom relocated to Austin. And around that time, the band’s touring lineup featured David Colvin (drums) and Jesse Ebaugh (bass), who both played on the Heartless Bastard demos recorded six years prior. The band expanded into a quartet with the 2009 addition of Mark Nathan (guitar).

The band signed to Partisan Records, who released the band’s last two critically applauded albums — 2012’s Arrow and 2015’s Restless Ones. Wennerstrom stepped out from behind a band and released her solo debut, 2018’s Sweet Unknown to critical applause. “It was a deeply personal album and it just felt fitting to use my name,” Wennerstrom says of her solo debut. “It kind of forced me to allow myself to be a little more exposed, and stand on my own two feet. I feel like I’ve grown so much creatively and personally through this process.”

Since release of Sweet Unknown and a tour to support it, Wennerstrom, along with a powerhouse backing band featuring Okkervil River’s Lauren Gurgolo (guitar), White Denim’s Greggory Clifford, Mercury Rev’s and Midlake’s multi-instrumentalist Jesse Chandler, My Morning Jacket’s Bo Koster (keys), Patty Griffin’s David Pulkingham (guitar) and longtime Heartless Bastards bandmate Jesse Ebaugh (bass) went into the studio to write and recorded their Kevin Ratterman co-produced sixth album A Beautiful Life, the band’s first full-length album of original material in over five years.

Although Wennerstom first considered releasing A Beautiful Life under her own name as the follow up to her solo debut, she ultimately came to view the album’s material as the continuation of the journey begun on the band’s 2005 full-length debut. Sonically, the album’s material reportedly is a coalescence of a number of eclectic influences and references including French pop, Celtic folk, space rock. Disney film scores and post punk. And as a result, A Beautiful Life may arguably be their most expansive and elaborate batch of material in their catalog to date while still being centered around Wennerstrom’s lyrics, which inspire contemplation, joyful defiance, catharsis, and empathy. “For me music is a gift,” Wennsterstrom says in press notes. “I do it because I love it, and because it helps me feel more connected to the world. I think we all long for a deep connection, and I hope this record adds to the conversation on how we as a species can stop seeing ourselves as separate. I hope it helps everyone to think about how we can look out for each other, take care of each other, and lift each other up.”

Slated for a September 10, 2021 release through Sweet Unknown Records/Thirty Tigers, A Beautiful Life will feature “Revolution,” an incisive and urgent song featuring an expansive song structure that meshes elements of psych rock and blues, that that calls upon the listener to get their shit straight and make the world a better place before it’s too late.

The album’s latest single “You Never Know” may be the most cinematic songs of their entire catalog. Featuring a soaring string arrangement, flamenco-like guitar playing paired with Wennerstrom’s plaintive wailing, the song is a sweet reminder that life is short and sometimes in love and in countless other things, we should take a chance. You’ll never know what will happen, until it actually happens.

“When I wrote “You Never Know,” I imagined it being in Moonrise Kingdom, the Wes Anderson film, even though the movie has already been made. There’s a sense of adventure and innocence that youth embodies whether it’s with love or goals and dreams. This song is a reminder to stay open. Life is short. Take chances.”

Directed, shot and edited by Vanessa Pie, the recently released video stars Kaylyn Mae McClellan and Tiel Ann Larson in a surreal and cinematically shot fever dream with a sailboat to nowhere, a zebra, some expressive face paint, a doorway to another dimension. But at its core is a sweet and tender love story of two people who will be companions through some zany adventures — perhaps because they both took a chance and were open.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising Canadian Artist Freddie Future Releases an Intergalactic Visual for Summery “Loving You (So High)”

With the release of 2019’s self-titled full-length album, an effort that featured the attention grabbing single “Too Heavy,” the Toronto-based indie dance pop artist Freddie Future exploded across both the Canadian and international scenes while establishing a sound that’s inspired by Rüfüs Du Sol, Elderbrook, Majid Jordan, Cannons and A R I Z O N A among others. Since the release of his full-length debut, the rising Canadian dance pop artist has received praise from the likes of Clash Magazine, Exclaim!, Variance Magazine, Northern Transmission, Toronto Guardian and Canadian Beats. He has had his work playlisted on MrSuicideSheep, Spotify’s New Music Friday Canada, Fresh Friends, JustVibing and Outliers playlists, and as a result, his work has amassed over 2.6 million streams.

Freddie Future’s latest single “Loving You (So High)” is a summery club banger featuring shimmering synths, wobbling bass lines and tweeter and woofer rocking beats paired with Future’s ethereal yet plaintive vocals and a rousingly anthemic hook. While sonically recalling Octo Octa’s Between Two Selves, “Loving You (So High)” manages to simultaneously evoke dipping into a bracingly cold pool on a sultry summer afternoon and the swooning euphoria of discovering new love.

“’Loving You (So High)’ was the first track written for this new project, and instantly I knew there was something special here,” the rising Canadian artist explains. “The song is about being so consumed with a desire for someone that their love feels like the best drug you could ever have. It’s that ultimate state of euphoria you feel when you truly love that person. The song started with a few vibey chords but really came together once the catchy vocal hook was made. “I get so high off loving you. So high, so high, so high”.”

The recently released video by Physical Presents is an intergalactic visual that features several holographic projections of the rising Canadian artist on an extraterrestrial moon with an enormous planet and a floating space cube in the background. It’s a fittingly futuristic and trippy visual that captures the song’s swooning longing.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Evidence Releases a Haunting Visual for Brooding “Taylor Made Suit”

Los Angeles-based emcee, producer and JOVM mainstay Evidence — born Micheal Taylor Perretta — has established himself as one of hip-hop’s most accomplished emcees and producers: as a solo artist and as a producer, Perretta has worked with Beastie Boys, Linkin Park, Defari, Planet Asia, DJ Premier, WestsideGunn, Prodigy, Rapsody, Aloe Blacc, Action Bronson, Atmosphere’s Slug, Cypress Hill and a lengthy list of others. He won a Grammy for his co-production on Kanye West’s critically applauded, breakthrough debut album The College Dropout. He also has won two Juno Awards for his production work for Canadian hip-hop act Swollen Members. But he’s arguably best known for being a member of beloved hip-hop act Dilated Peoples with Rakaa Iriscience and DJ Babu. 

Evidence has recorded and released five albums with his Dilated Peoples bandmates. And as a solo artist, the Los Angeles-based emcee and producer has released three full-length albums, including 2018’s critically and commercially successful effort Weather Or Not and an EP. He has also released an album with The Alchemist as Step Brothers. Managing to remain extraordinarily busy, Evidence released this fourth solo album Unlearning Vol. 1 the other day through his longtime label home Rhymesayers Entertainment. 

The 14 track album pairs Evidence’s own production work with the likes of The Alchemist, Nottz, Sebb Bash, Animoss, Mr. Green, V Don, Daringer, Khrysis, and QThree [EARDRUM] showcasing the Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstay’s ability to collaborate with a wide and eclectic array of producers while still crafting a cohesive album. Additionally, the album features a small cast of guests that includes Boldy James, Conway The Machine, Fly Anakin, Navy Blue, and Murkage Dave. Recently Evidence offered insight into the transition from Weather Or Not into the writing and recording of the material that would become Unlearning Vol 1: “I don’t feel like I’m Evidence, the character. I feel like I’m me,” he told DJ Booth, adding “I don’t mind evolving publicly.” 

During the build up to the album’s release, I wrote about three of the album’s single: 

“Pardon Me” an example of grown shit hip-hop, centered around a soulful Pete Rock-like production that serves as a warm and comfortable bed for Perretta’s contemplative verses reflecting on mortality, hard-won lessons, adulthood and being a parent and artist — and how those particular roles can be contradictory and difficult to manage. 
“All Of That Said” found Evidence collaborating with Boldy James. Prominently featuring a soulful and cinematic sample featuring soaring strings, buzzing guitars and chopped up vocals, the song sees the JOVM mainstay and Boldy James reminiscing on the long and hard journey to achieve what they’ve achieved both personally and professionally. And while seemingly a bit world-weary, there’s a profound wisdom within both emcees bars — the wisdom that comes from struggle, setbacks and victories small and large. Like I said before, this is adult shit coming from adult places. 
“Where We Going From Here,” which was centered around a dusty and woozy production featuring boom-bap beats and lurching synths. Over that uneasy production, the Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstay effortlessly rhymes about where he’s been while wondering what exactly is next for him.

Unlearning Vol. 1’s latest single “Taylor Made Suit” is a brooding song centered around a sparse and haunting production featuring a repeated guitar figure, skittering beats and reverb-drenched vocal samples throughout. Over that spectral production Evidence spits rhymes with an unusually deep emotional heft, with a verse directly addressing the death of his son’s mother, detailing two painful scenes — that his wedding suit was the same suit that he wore to his son’s mother’s funeral and later, a scene in which he has to hold back tears before telling his boy with somewhat false assurance “Your momma is in heaven.” There’s heartbreak, despair and love and devotion in very adult, and very real terms.

Continuing an ongoing collaboration with director and photographer Stephen Vanasco, we see the Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstay in a suit and trench coat arriving at a bungalow — as though coming from something. He rhymes to his own reflection in the window, as though gearing himself up to tell someone something hurtful yet important. We also follow him through the desert and under palm trees. The video ends with a devastating close up that focuses on Evidence wearing the titular suit.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New VIdeo: Hamilton, Ontario’s Ellevator Releases a Stylish Visual for Sleek and Anthemic New SIngle “Easy”

Rising Hamilton, Ontario, Canada-based indie rock trio Ellevator — currently Nabi Sue Bersche (vocals), Tyler Bersche (guitar) and Elliott Gwynne (bass, synths) — have received attention in their native Canada and elsewhere for a developing and honing a sound that draws from late-aughts guitar music, post-rock, U2, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Feist, Spoon and Death Cab for Cutie paired with lean, razor sharp hooks, sweeping crescendos and Bersche’s sultry, pop star vocals singing lyrics, which thematically touch upon power, love and loss from deeply lived-in, personal reflections.

With the release of 2018’s self-titled EP, the Hamilton-based indie act exploded into the national and international scenes: material from the EP amassed over a million streams across the digital streaming platforms. The band also toured across North America with Our Lady Peace, Matthew Good, BANNERS, Cold War Kids, JOVM mainstay Rich Aucoin, Dear Rouge, Bishop Briggs, Arkells and Amber Run.

Elleavator’s long-awaited full-length debut is slated for a 2022 released through Arts & Crafts. But in the meantime, the Canadian trio released their first bit of new material in some time, the Chris Walla-produced “Easy.” Featuring slashing guitars, shimmering synth arpeggios, Nabi Sue Bersche’s pop star-like vocals and razor sharp hooks, “Easy” reveals an act that has made a bold and decided step forward in their sound and approach. The song sees the band balancing deliberate attention to craft, earnest, lived-in lyrics and slick, studio polish in a way that reminds me of Deep Sea Diver’s impressive Impossible Weight.

Much like the rest of the trio’s previously released work, “Easy” thematically touches upon love, connection and identity while drawing from Bersche’s personal experiences: For a period of her youth, Nabi Sue Bersche was a member of what could be described as a cult, and “Easy” is a rumination on the good and evil things we are raised to believe. “I was raised in the world of charismatic Christianity – an offshoot of Pentecostalism,” Ellevator’s Nabi Sue Bersche explains in press notes. “God was magic and prophetic ecstasies happened every Sunday. As a child, I spoke in tongues and prayed until my body swayed with a gentle force like wind knocking me backward. A deep and abiding love of the natural world took hold of me. I witnessed firsthand the wild power of music – how it could uplift, ensnare, console, inspire.

“When I was 17 I moved to the other side of the world and joined what would most accurately be described as a cult. I prayed for strangers I met in parking lots. I shut my eyes and read the dappled light between my lashes like tea leaves that could divine the future. Vulnerability was a badge in that community so I learned to overshare. Teachings were given in the language of freedom while the stiff hand of purity reduced my body to a shameful temptation. Growing up like that gave me a love of music, a nose for bullshit, and a lot to unravel. This song is about the good and evil things we are raised to believe. I was held captive by an ideology that severely limited my life and my perspective of the world around me. It’s a process I’m still in the middle of, this work of extraction.”

Directed and edited by Cam Veitch, the recently released video for “Easy” was shot in and around a Hamilton parking lot with a sleek and stylish panache fitting of a sleek and stylish song. But throughout there’s the odd sense of the video’s protagonist — the band’s Nabi Sue Bersche — being followed by something inescapable and constant.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montreal’s Mort Rose Releases an Expansive and Trippy Single and Visual

Founded back in 2016, the Montreal-based psych rock act Mort Rose has established a sound heavily influenced by and indebted to the sounds of the late 60s — but with a personal and modern touch. The band’s sophomore album Goodbye Cowboys is slated for a September 10, 2021 release, and the album reportedly finds the Montreal-based act further embracing all things psychedelia.

Earlier this year, I wrote about “Money,” a mid-tempo, trippy song featuring shimmering sitar, guitar, dreamily sung verses, multi-part harmonized choruses and rousingly anthemic hooks before a “Baba O’Rileyf” meets bluegrass coda. But underneath the tune-out and lift-off vibes, the song is a satirical take on money and cryptocurrency that says “invest all of your money into some crypto and forget the world’s problems. Get rich at all costs, y’all!”

Goodbye Cowboys’ latest single., the expansive, “On part au soleil,” is centered around dreamily sung verses and choruses, fuzzy power chord-driven riffage, soaring soloing and dreamily sung choruses and verses before closing out with a gentle fade out. While featuring esoteric lyrics, the song continues a run of 60s inspired psych rock meant to get the listener to tune out and lift off into the stratosphere. So sit back, close your eyes, vibe out, and soar above the unending shittitness of our world for a few minutes. Trust me, you’ll need it.

Much like its predecessor, the recently released video for “On part au soleil,” is a decidedly DIY affair that mixes childlike animation, playful superimpositions and cheap effects — all to a hallucinogenic effect.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Aussie Post Punk Band S:Bahn Returns After a Lengthy Hiatus

Melbourne-based post-punk/alt rock act S:Bahn currently features the following:

Kristian Brenchley (guitar), a former member of WOMAN and Degrasser and a current member of The Tim Evans Band.
Denis Leadbeater (drums), a founding member of Rootbeer and a member of post-rock, improvisational duo Under The Sea.
Dik (guitar, vocals), a former member of Bastard Kestrel, an act championed by John Peel in the early 90s and the creative mastermind behind the minimal synth punk act mnttaB
Rene Schaefer (bass), a former member of The Bites and currently guitarist in cold wave act Banish

The act formed back in the mid 90s and quickly received attention for specializing in a Chicago and DC-inspired take on post punk. After releasing 1996’s debut effort, Stock Footage EP and 1998’s North Sea Clean, the members of the band went on to their own creative projects and day jobs. But after a long hiatus, the band reunited. Between lockdowns during the early parts of the pandemic, the band recorded their second full-length album, the soon-to-be released Queen of Diamonds.

“Exhaustion,” Queen of Diamonds’ latest single finds the band seemingly coming back to where they left off: Dischord Records meets Signals, Calls and Marches-era Mission of Burma inspired post punk centered around angular attack, thunderous drumming, half sung/half spoken verses and multi-part harmonizing on the song’s anthemic chorus. At its core is a searing yet world wearied indictment of post modern, consumerist life.

The recently released video is a frenetically shot, black and white, visual that captures the energy of the band’s live show.

Polaks Records will be releasing Queen of Diamonds tomorrow.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Acclaimed Chicago-based Singer/Songwriter Neal Francis’ Souful and Uplifting “Can’t Stop the Rain”

Born Neal Francis O’Hara, the Livingston, NJ-born, Chicago-based singer/songwriter and pianist known as Neal Francis can trace the origins of his sound and approach to his childhood: he was obsessed with boogie woogie piano and his father gifted him a dusty Dr. John album. O’Hara quickly became a piano prodigy, touring Europe with Muddy Waters’ son and with other prominent bluesmen across the States when he was just 18.

In 2012, Neal Francis joined the popular instrumental funk band The Heard. With the Livingston-born, Chicago-based singer/songwriter and pianist at the creative helm, The Heard quickly became a national touring act, making stops at New Orleans Jazz Fest and Bear Creek, and touring with The New Mastersounds and The Revivalists. As The Heard’s profile rose, Francis sunk deeply into addiction. By 2015, he had been fired from his band, evicted from his apartment and was inching perilously close to his own destruction. “When you get close to death like that you can feel it,” Francis recalls. An alcohol-induced seizure that year led to a broken femur, dislocated arm, and, finally, the realization that he needed to get clean. Although he identifies as not being religious, Francis took a music-ministry job at St. Peter’s UCC in 2017 at the suggestion of a friend.

Francis’ solo debut, 2019’s Changes was released to critical acclaim with the album landing on Best-of-the-Year lists of KCRW, KEXP and The Current while BBC Radio 6 hailed him as “the reincarnation of Allen Toussaint.” Adding to a breakthrough year, Francis toured with Lee Fields and The Expressions and JOVM mainstays The Black Pumas. He shared a stage with members of the legendary The Meters at New Orleans Jazz Fest. And he did a live session on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic.

Despite having breakthrough success with his career, Francis broke up with his longtime girlfriend while on tour to support Changes. When the tour ended, he trend to Chicago and found himself with no place to stay. So, he ended to St. Peter’s and asked if he could move into the parsonage. “I thought I’d only stay a few months but it turned into over a year, and I knew I had to do something to take advantage of this miraculous gift of a situation,” he says.

Francis began writing new material, a series of songs that’s both strangely enchanted and painfully self-aware, inspired by Greek myths, frenzied dreams and late night drives and a possibly haunted church. (More on that in a bit.) The end result is the Chicago-based artist’s highly-anticipated sophomore album In Plain Sight, an album that derives its title from the title of a song that wound up getting cut from the album. “It’s a song about my breakup and the circumstances that led to me living in the church, where I’m owning up to all my problems within my relationships and my sobriety,” says Francis, whose first full-length chronicles his struggles with addiction. “It felt like the right title for this record, since so much of it is about coming to the understanding that I continue to suffer because of those problems. It’s about acknowledging that and putting it out in the open in order to mitigate the suffering and try to work on it, instead of trying to hide everything.”

Continuing his ongoing collaboration with Changes producer Sergio Rios, a guitarist and engineer, who has worked with CeeLo Green and Alicia Keys, the album spotlights Francis’ reminded yet free-spirited piano playing. “From a very early age, I was playing late into the night in a very stream-of-consciousness kind of way,” he says, naming everything from ragtime to gospel soul to The Who among his formative influences.

Recorded entirely on tape with his backing band, Kellen Boersma (guitar), Mike Starr (bass) and Collin O’Brien (drums), In Plain Sight is also fueled by Francis’ restless experimentation with a stash of analog synths lent by his friends during his early days living at the church “My sleep schedule flipped and I’d stay up all night working on songs in this very feverish way,” he says. “I just needed so badly to get completely lost in something.”

By the end of his surreal and sometimes eerie experience of living at the church—“I’m convinced that the stairway leading to the choir loft where I used to practice is haunted,” he says—Francis had found his musicality undeniably elevated. “Because I was forced into this almost monastic existence and was alone so much of the time, I could play as often and as long as I wanted,” he says. “I ended up becoming such a better pianist, a better writer, a better reader of music.” Dedicated to a woman named Lil (the de facto leader of the St. Peter’s congregation), In Plain Sight ultimately reveals the possibility of redemption and transformation even as your world falls apart.

In Plain Sight’s first single is the uplifting and shuffling boogie woogie “Can’t Stop the Rain.” Centered around a Southern rock arrangement reminiscent of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” complete with a soaring gospel-tinged chorus, Francis’ latest single also prominently features a smoldering slide guitar solo from Derek Trucks. Underlying the whole affair is Francis’ unerring knack for a crafting an infectious hook paired with lived-in, world weary yet hopeful lyrics expressing a profound yet simple sentiment — gratitude. “I wrote that with my buddy David Shaw, who came up with the refrain and this idea that even though life’s going to throw all this shit at you, there’s still so many things to be grateful for,” Francis says.

Directed by Alec Basse, the recently released video for “Can’t Stop the Rain” is split between the Francis and his backing band performing in a sparse studio space and Francis playing on his childhood piano in a suburban styled home — in the rain. Towards the end of the video, we see Francis destroying his childhood piano, the same one he used for the song’s recording.

Francis is currently on a massive and extensive Stateside tour that included dates opening for The Black Pumas and stops at Bonnaroo, Americana Fest, Shaky Knees, and Outside Lands, as well as several other stops on the national festival circuit. The tour also includes two NYC area dates: a sold-out Mercury Lounge show on September 20, 2021 and a Brooklyn Bowl show on 9/22/21. You can check out the rest of the tour dates below. Tickets and other information is available at nealfrancis.com.

In Plain Sight is slated for a November 5, 2021 release through ATO Records.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Penelope Isles Release a Hallucinogenic Visual for Fluttering and Intimate “Iced Gems”

Led by sibling duo and co-songwriters and co-vocalists Lily and Jack Wolter, the Brighton-based indie rock act Penelope Isles had a breakthrough 2019: their self-produced, full-length debut Until The Tide Creeps In was released to critical acclaimed globally. And to support the album, the band shared stages with The Flaming Lips and The Magic Numbers, playing over 100 shows — and they made three Stateside tours, including a stop at the inaugural New Colossus Festival.

The duo’s highly-anticipated Jack Wolfers-produced sophomore album Which Way To Happy is slated for a November 5, 2021 release through Bella Union. The album’s material was forged during a period of emotional and professional upheaval for The Wolters and for Penelope Isles. The band spent much of 2019 touring across Europe and America with their bandmates. When the pandemic struck early last year, the band — understandably — felt as though everything was falling apart: much like countless other folks across the world, the members of Penelope Isles found their plans in an indefinite halt. Jack and Lily were dealing with their own respective romantic heartaches and the departure of two bands members, who were replaced with Henry Nicholson, Joe Taylor and Hannah Feenstra for the recording of the album. “A godsend after a low time,” Lily Wolters says.

The Wolters along with Nicholson, Taylor and Feenstra holed into a small cottage in Cornwall to start work on the new album when lockdowns were instituted everywhere. Claustrophobia kicked in, existential anxiety over the pandemic permeated everything and emotions — naturally — ran very high. “We were there for about two or three months, untilately,” says Jack. “It was a tiny cottage and we all went a bit bonkers, and we drank far too much, and it spiralled a bit out of control. There were a lot of emotional evenings and realisations, which I think reflects in the songs. Writing and recording new music was a huge part of the recovery process for all of us.”

ex feelings. But interestingly, Which Way To Happy may arguably be the most ambitious effort to date: Sometimes, the album’s material swoons, sometimes it soars. Other times it bravely says “it’s OK to not be OK.” And this is while balancing a tight rope between expansive, cosmic pop and up-close, heart-felt intimate songwriting.

Last month, I wrote about Which Way To Happy’s cinematic first single “Sailing Still.” Centered around a shimmering and brooding string arrangement, gently strummed guitar, thunderous drumming, a soaring hook and Lily Wolter’s achingly tender vocals, the heartbreakingly gorgeous track evokes a deep yet familiar yearning for peace in a mad, mad, mad world — while sonically bearing a resemblance to Lily Wolter’s collaboration with Lost Horizons.

Which Way To Happy’s second and latest single “Iced Gems” is a gently undulating track featuring twinkling keys, fluttering and atmospheric electronics, thumping beats and Lily Wolters’ achingly plaintive vocals. Although the song is a decided sonic departure from its immediate predecessor and their previously released work, the song is centered around some deeply intimate lyricism and the duo’s unerring knack for crafting infectious, razor sharp hooks.

me graphics that follows the Wolters as they travel by raft, complete with a living room set up and by tricked out van with bouquets of flowers before ending up in a meadow where they jam out.