JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Simple Minds frontman Jim Kerr’s 67th birthday.
Category: post punk
New Audio: George Aletras Returns with Yearning and Melancholy “Όπως Παλιά” (“Like the Old Times”)
George Aletras is a Greek singer/songwriter and musician, whose work sees him moving between indie rock, post rock and cinematic soundscapes, frequently blurring the boundaries between them. At times, his work leans into experimental territories, not as a statement of style, but a a natural consequence of exploration, where form isn’t followed but discovered,
Earlier this year, I wrote about “Τώρα,” a tune that seemingly channeled Heaven Up Here-era Echo and the Bunnymen and contemporaries like PLOHO. The Greek artist’s latest single “Όπως Παλιά” (“Like the Old Times”) continues a remarkable run of hook-driven and nostalgia-inducing post punk built around a melodic bass line, atmospheric synths, shimmering and angular guitars, relentless four-on-the-floor paired with yearning, melancholy vocals. Fittingly, for a song that sounds as though it could have been released in 1983, the song as Aletras explains is about nostalgia, lost innocence and the desire to see the world once again through the eyes of love.
Sometimes, in a brutal, mad world dreaming of the old times seems — well, necessary doesn’t it?
Throwback: Happy 75th Birthday, Fred Schneider!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates The B-52’s co-founder Fred Schneider’s 75th birthday.
New Video: M. Woodroe Shares Tense, Bruising “Sweetness, Sweetness”
Brighton-based outfit M. Woodroe — Marcie Garwell (vocals, guitar), Ben Elwin (guitar), Jeorgie Pinder-Whiley (bass), Sam Sezarin (drums) — exploded out of their local DIY scene, quickly establishing themselves as one of the city’s most exciting, emerging acts. Their work pairs intricate, provocative and politically-charged lyrics that touch upon boundary-pushing explorations gender, sexuality and desire with angular, fuzzy and noisy post punk-inspired guitar work.
The emerging and rising Brighton-based have played shows alongside Mcluksy, Prostitute, and others, developing a reputation for an intense live show, while receiving airplay from BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music and BBC Introducing. And building upon a growing profile, the post-punk quartet recently signed to Venn Records, who will be releasing their highly-anticipated debut EP, The Treatment of Fractures on September 18, 2026.
The EP’s first single “Sweetness, Sweetness” is a bruising tune that captures an indecisive, neurotic narrator, who’s on the verge of exploding in a seething fury in every direction, fueled by self-flagellation and confusion. While sonically channeling the likes of JOVM mainstays Whispering Sons, the song as the band’s Marcie Garwell explains is “about many things — weakness, identity, acquiescence, confusion . . . the position you drink not to make a fuss. It’s a pipe bomb sent to order, hate mail addressed to compromise, yet it’s indecisive in all its threats and feelings – never sure of where it lies.
Directed by J. Taylor-Jones, the accompanying video for “Sweetness, Sweetness” is a feverish portrayal of discomfit, self-flagellation, dread and despair that feels particularly modern.
Throwback: Happy 65th Birthday, Curt Smith!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Tears for Fears co-founder Curt Smith’s 65th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 66th Birthday, John Taylor!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Duran Duran bassist John Taylor’s 66th birthday.
New Video: Sweeping Promises Share Forcefully Urgent “Cocoon”
Lawrence, KS-based duo Sweeping Promises — Lira Mondal (vocals, bass, production) and Caufield Schnug (guitar, drums, production) — can trace their origins to a chance meeting in Arkansas, which led to a decade of playing together in an eclectic assortment of projects. Meticiuluosly controlling every aspect of their craft, from the frist note they write together, through production and engineering, using space as a key element of their sound, to mastering, each song is a testament to their long-held dynamic chemistry as musicians and artists.
Their full-length debut, 2020’s Hunger for a Way Out was released through Feel It Records. Written before the pandemic, the album’s material managed to pair the anxious urgency of a commanding live performance with a gauzy production, creating a distorted sense of time. That resonated with tons of folks during quarantine, who turned the album into a life-saving flotation device — and fittingly the album received rapturous praise from Stereogum, Pitchfork, and NPR. Around then, Feel It Records and Sub Pop agreed to join forces to distribute the duo’s work across North America and globally, starting with 2021’s “Pain Without a Touch.”
2023’s sophmore self-produced album Good Living Is Coming For You was released across North America through Feel It Records and globally through Sub Pop. Produced and recorded in the duo’s Lawrence-based home studio, Good Livng Is Coming For You was a decided cahnge in direction and appraoch: They eschewed the brutalist ambienace of their former Boston subterranean, concrete laboratory and the single mic recording technique of its immediate predecessor. Recorded in a nude painting studio bathed in light with high-ceilings, their Kansas studio is a reverb-rich space, that helps influence the album’s overall sound. Thematically, the album’s material touched upon power struggles, accepting aging, breaking restraints and more, delivered with a fervent urgency.
The band’s third album, You Say I Romanticize is slated for an August 14, 2026 release globally through Sub Pop. Recorded over an 18-month period, You Say I Romanticize is a tribute to the chaos of creation and collaboration under shifting circmstances. Mondal and Schung found and tested themselves in their combination tour house and recording studio annually working on dozens of albums by other bands, hosting tour stops, planning shows and the like. After an immerseive process of traking adn whittling down YSIR demos and carving out an idiosyncratic chamber recording member for the album’s deliberate and international wall-of-sound appraoch, the duo brought in touring drummer Spenser Gralla to play the album’s matreial as the band would on stage.
The album’s frenzied and passionate sound shines most in Modal’s vocal perforamnce. Where you might have heard a growl here and there on certain previously releserd Sweeping Promises trcks, the band’s frontwoman shouts, roars, hits tricky notes all over teh place and shreds her thraot throhgout the album’s run time.
You Say I Romanticize takes the art-by-any-means-necessary ethos that Mondal and Schung have firmly established throhgout their careers and turns the prompt upside down, landing on a perosnality epidemic that manifests across the album’s ten songs.
The album’s second single “Coccon” is a forcefully urgent and angular post-punk ripper, anchored around some of the most impassioned and musuclar recorded performances I’ve yet to personally heard from the band — especially from Mondal, who showcases a punchy attack for the song’s verses and a forceful growl for the song’s choruses and hooks.
“We wrote ‘Cocoon’ years ago to extend our live set back when we only knew the ten songs from our first album,” the band says. “
It has become a staple of our live set over the years and has undergone several metamorphoses in our home studio, as we wanted to develop this track in a disarming and dead-simple way for the ‘live sound’ mentality of YSIR. The music video intercuts homegrown live footage of the band playing shows in the Kansas community with the sculptural and psychogeographic idea of the cocoon, which entices and finally envelops our singer, Lira Mondal.”
New Video: Cowards Share Bruising “Fear of Fear”
Italian noise rock/shoegaze/post-punk trio Cowards — currently founding members Luca Piccinni (vocals, guitar) and Guilia Tanoni (vocals, bass) and the band’s newest member Michele Prosperi (drums) — formed back in 2019 and quickly established a sound deeply rooted in 1990s aesthetics featuring a blend of abrasive, feedback and noise-driven guitar textures and elements of dream pop and grunge.
Following the tragic and untimely death of their previous drummer Pepe Carella in 2021, the band found renewed momentum with the addition of Michele Prosperi. The band released their full-length debut, last year’s God Hates Cowards through Bloody Sound. They supposed the album with extensive touring of the Italian club scene, as well as a run of the Italian festival circuit.
Building upon a steadily growing profile, the Italian trio will be releasing their sophomore album Can You Hear Me through Bloody Sound on Friday, June, 19, 2026. Can You Hear Me? reportedly sees the Italian trio further cementing a sound rooted in noise, post-punk and shoegaze while being more nuanced and texturally layered. While still featuring the abrasive guitars they’re known for, there are more atmospheric passages, a more forceful and driving rhythm section and it’s all underpinned by urgent, unflinching vocals.
Whereas God Hates Cowards thematically was intensely introspective, Can You Hear Me? sees the band turning their gaze outward. Personal unrest and unease is merged with a much wider narrative, in which individual emotional collapse reflects a broader systemic breakdown.
Can You Hear Me?‘s first single “Fear of Fear” is a bruising and bombastic, 90s alt rock-meets-METZ mosh pit friendly ripper that thematically channels John Cale’s “Fear is a Man’s Best Friend.” “Fear feeds on itself, limiting and controlling us — yet it can be faced and dismantled,” the band explains.
The animated video for “Fear of Fear” channels Edvard Munch’s The Scream while capturing paralyzing fear — of the thing just around the corner; that will relentlessly chase you down and so on.
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New Video: Dublin’s THEATRE Shares Shimmering “Gaudete”
Originally formed in Limerick and currently based in Dublin, the rising Irish quintet THEATRE — Maeve O’Shea (vocals), Oscar Halpin (guitar), Dara Gooney (guitar), Gerry Sheil (bass) and Sean Storan (drums) — have received rapturous praise internationally from Stereogum, NME, The Line of Best Fit, Dork, Clash Magazine and Wonderland, as well as airplay;ay from BBC 1 Radio‘s Sian Eleri and Alyx Holcombe, BBC Radio 2‘s Jo Whiley, BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq, Huw Stephens, Deb Grant and Nathan Shepherd, Apple Music‘s Matt Wilkinson, Radio X‘s John Kennedy, as well as others.
The rising Irish outfit’s debut EP Incarnate was released yesterday through BMG/Echo. And as the band’s Maeve O’Shea explains, “Incarnate as a body of work feels like the physical embodiment of what our band has been for us over the past few years. These are some of the first songs that we wrote together, but they have gone through an evolution of their own after touring them for so long. They follow a theme of a changing-like person, someone who has two sides to them, but as a whole this EP is a presentation of our work finally in the flesh, real and ready. We’ve waited a long time to bring them out to the world in their truest form.” Much of the EP’s material is an ode to Limerick and its people, and how it shaped the band through often very dark, uneasy times.
The EP’s latest single “Gaudete” is a shimmering bit of 80s inspired post punk that subtly references Irish folk and brings early U2, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the like to mind while showcasing O’Shea’s breathtakingly gorgeous, yearning vocal and the band’s knack for rousingly anthemic and cathartic hooks and choruses.
“‘Gaudete’ was written in the early days of the band,” O’Shea says. “At the time I was listening to a lot of English and Irish folk music, and Steeleye Span was one of the most prominent inspirations. In their album Below the Salt they recorded a rendition of ‘Gaudete,’ a 16th century Christmas hymn – I heard the melody entangled in a guitar melody that Dara brought to a rehearsal and was determined that the two could be married together. The result was an original song that references the choral aspects of the ancient ‘Gaudete’ and plays with a dark lyrical theme to contrast the Latin meaning behind the word, rejoice or be joyful.”
Directed by Flo Webb, the accompanying video for “Gaudete” is a decidedly early 80s MTV-inspired yet cinematically shot visual that also showcases the breathtaking beauty of Ireland.
New Audio: La Sécurité Returns with Breakneck and Defiant “Nah Nah”
Acclaimed Montréal-based JOVM mainstay collective La Sécurité — Éliane Viens (vocals, synths, percussion and drums), Félix Bélisle (bass, synths, percussion, piano and production), Kenny Smith (drum, guitar), Laurence Anne Charest-Gagné (guitar, percussion, vocals) and Melissa Di Menna (guitar, synths, vocals, percussion and artwork) — just released their highly-anticipated Emmanuel Éthier and Félix Bélisle co-produced sophomore album Bingo! today through Mothland in Canada and the States, and Bella Union for the rest of the world.
Bingo! sees the band continuing to meander in and around the fringes of punk, New Wave, krautock and dance punk while mischievously floating stylistic form every chance they get. Interestingly. while anchored around their usage of polyrhythm, counterintuitive chord changes and subtle melodic and harmonic dissonance, the album’s material sees the band incorporating more New Wave, no wave, noise rock and even shoegaze elements of the sound that has quickly won them international acclaim.
Recorded with the band playing live off-the-floor, using rare ribbon microphones and vintage compresses, the album’s recording sessions added to the material’s free-flowing feel and vibe. Many of the album’s hooks were improvised through jazz-tinged musical flights during recording sessions. And much like its critically applauded predecessor, many of the Bingo’s! songs saw the group improvising lyrics in the studio, effectively catching lightning in a bottle.
The album’s songs tackle knotty themes like mental health, the the autonomization of women, and dysfunctional relationships with their custom moxie. Other songs playfully muse about food or address everyday mundanity with sarcasm and irony. There’s a song that celebrates unsung heroes, like the elderly.
Bingo! features the previously released “Detour,” “Ketchup,” album title track “Bingo,” “Snack City,” “‘Deny,” and it’s latest single “Nah Nah.” “Nah Nah” is a breakneck and defiant DEVO-like punk ripper with French lyrics spelling out boundary etiquette for the less perceptive folk out there with a “don’t-fuck-with-me” attitude. Their sophomore effort’s latest single continues to showcase the band’s unerring knack for crafting catchy, unforgettable hooks, the song sees the band playfully implementing a switcherroo with Charest-Gagné taking on lead vocal duties while Viens bashes the living shit out of the drums and Smith contributes slashing guitar attack.
The band explains, “On ‘Nah Nah,’ Éliane played the drums and Kenny the guitar. The lyrics are by Félix and Laurence Anne, dealing with the feeling of wanting to be left alone while communicating a certain madness. Meanwhile, Éliane—with a joint in her mouth—and Melissa were writing ‘Snack City,’ as the band was finalizing the demos for the album.”
Throwback: Happy 64th Birthday, Nick Rhodes!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes’ 64th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 70th Birthday, Richard Butler!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Psychedelic Furs and Love Spit Love frontman Richard Butler’s 70th birthday.
New Video: Mouth Ulcers Return with Shimmering, Hook-Driven “Space”
Formed last year, London-based outfit Mouth Ulcers — Zak Watson (vocals, guitar), Josephine Rose (guitar, vocals), Jamie Lee Culver (bass) and David Zbirka (drums) — are part of a new generation of dark post-punk that’s actively reshaping the genre into something urgent, youthful and intoxicating.
With the release of last year’s “Western Horror Story” and “A Perfect End” the British quartet quickly developed a sound that they’ve playfully dubbed as “music for vampires to dance to” — i.e. brooding, groove-driven and irresistibly cool.
Recently, the rising British outfit made their live debut with sold-outs the UK and The Netherlands, And building upon a growing profile, the band signed to LAB Records, who will be releasing the quartet’s highly-anticipated debut EP, Silent Pictures on July 10, 2026. The EP reportedly sees the band firmly cementing the sound that has received praise from The Line of Best Fit, So Young, Rough Trade and Louder Than War, as well as airplay from BBC 6 Music‘s Lauren Laverne, Chris Hawkins and Steve Lamacq, BBC Radio 1‘s Daniel P. Carter, KEXP and Radio X, a blend of Joy Division, The Cure and Bauhaus, built on melodic bass lines, wiry guitars and cavernous baritone vocals.
The EP will feature the previously released “Prevail” and its latest single, “Space.” “Space” is a brooding yet hook-driven and dance floor friendly bit of goth-inspired post punk that sounds like it draws from Echo and the Bunnymen and The Cure. The band explains that, “‘Space’ explores how nostalgia can feel like both a physical presence and a permanent loss. Something that’s a common theme across the whole EP, seeing how the past is a part of you but you have to leave it behind to survive.”
Directed by the band, the accompanying video for “Space” continues a run of visuals that seem indebted to 120 Minutes-era MTV. complete with footage of the band playing the song is a haunted and extremely British forest at night and a ton of double exposure-based footage.