Category: post punk

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Crá Croí Returns with Broodingly Eerie “Fires at Dawn”

Deriving their name from the Gaelic word for “heartache,” “vexation of spirit,” County Cork-based duo Crá Croí — RG (songwriting, production, mixing and mastering) and CD (vocals and visuals) — have employed a fiercely DIY ethos while establishing a sound that meshes elements of 1980s New Wave, post-punk and goth, featuring melancholic synths, dark melodies, angular guitars and sharp, hook-driven vocals. 

The Irish duo’s work explores themes of nihilism, love and destruction, dystopian collapsed and nuclear annihilation, often wrapped in irony and paired with post-apocalyptic metaphors. 

The Cork-based duo’s self-produced, 12-song, full-length debut, Tá brón orm is slated for release during the second half of 2026. Deriving its title from the Irish phrase for “sadness” or “sorrow is on me,” the duo’s debut effort will feature the previously released “Radiation Romance,” a track that seemingly channeled  She Wants Revenge and Interpol, and “Fires At Dawn,” the album’s second and latest single.

Continuing a run of broodingly cinematic tunes, “Fires At Dawn” features CD’s Paul Banks–like vocal paired with eerily atmospheric synths, a relentless motor groove, bursts of squiggling and shimmering reverb-soaked guitars and a punchy yet anthemic hook and chorus. Sonically nodding at Joy Division and Antics-era Interpol, “Fires At Dawn” “captures the moment between ruin and renewal,” the duo explain. It’s “a hymn for the haunted and anthem for survival.” They add that the lyrics trace a world where “‘the poets of the chaos’ rise from the ashes, chasing embers just to feel the fire thrive.”

The accompanying video was created by the band’s RG using stock footage and iMovie, and features visuals of the sun in space, with its fires endlessly churning, the Aurora Borealis and flames, emphasizing the song’s themes of destruction, purity and renewal.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 76th Birthday, Tom Verlaine!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 76th anniversary of the birth of Television’s Tom Verlaine.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Italy’s Ellecielles Shares Brooding and Uneasy “Living Twice”

Ellecielles is the DIY, bedroom noise project of a mysterious and enigmatic Italian producer and multi-instrumentalist. His latest single “Living Twice” is a slick and seamless mesh of New Order-meets-The Cure-like New Wave/post punk/goth and classic shoegaze guitar textures serving as an uneasy, fever dream-like bed for goth-inspired vocals.

At its core, the song evokes a seemingly endless push and pull between one’s best and worst inclinations. The Italian artist explains the song is “about the burden of carrying two versions of yourself, or perhaps even experiencing moments is intense that they feel like a second life.”

“Lyrically, I delved into the struggle of contradictions: the urge of feeling something even if it has a high emotional price, the moments you feel like ‘Mr. Charisma’ are equally backed up by moments when failure eats you up from the inside,” he adds. “It’s about the moments where you question everything, feeling both completely lost and strangely found. . . . “I hope listeners find a place of their own duality within these lines, known that they’re not alone in navigating those complex emotional landscapes.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay Sylvia Black Returns with “Long Gone Garden”

Los Angeles-based multifaceted producer, singer/songwriter, bassist, performer, restless performer and JOVM mainstay Sylvia Black has had a long-held reputation for being difficult to pin down. Since her first job singing and entertaining at a resort hotel in Northern Japan as teen, music has been her lifeline.

Throughout her career, Black has steadily gained momentum as a writer and producer, consistently creating music on her own terms, simultaneously cementing her place in the post-punk and goth-romantic renaissance, while being restlessly creative. Her lengthy credits reflect her eclectic tastes and wide-ranging abilities. She was the frontperson of the New York-based trio KUDU with Deantoni Parks (drums, production) and Nicci Kasper (keys, production) in the early 00s. Black also has writing and recording credits with Grammy Award-winning pop act Black Eyed Peas, Daphne Guinness and more. Her lengthy and impressive resume includes collaborations with legends like Tony Visconti, Lydia Lunch and Moby, as well as The Knocks, Armand Van Helden and French electro pop duo Telepopmusik. And last, but definitely not lease, her sultry rendition of ‘I Put A Spell On You” appeared on the hit Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. 

As a bassist, Black has played with The Brand New Heavies‘ N’Dea Davenport, Living Colour‘s Muzz Skillings and with Maya Rudolph’s Prince cover band Princess.

The JOVM mainstay’s long-awaited new album, the 11-song Shadowtime is slated for a January 16, 2026 release. The album rsees Black continuing her long-held approach of songwriting from the bottom up. “I find a beat that I’m in love with and go forward,” Black says. “The bass provides the floor, but as a singer, I’m also coming in with the roof. If you can write a beautiful song with just those two elements, bass notes and the voice, that’s a job well done.”

Written, produced and performed primarily by the JOVM mainstay, the album was crafted with support from longtime mix engineer and creative foil Ruddy Lee Cullers. The album’s material will reportedly be a haunting exploration of nostalgia and futurism, that sees Black pushing her sound in new directions by weaving hypnotic rhythms, cinematic layers and raw, visceral emotion, while moving effortlessly from dance floor anthems to atmospheric meditations on love, loss and transcendence. “This album is about finding beauty in ruins,” Black says. “About letting the shadows speak through me. Returning to California brought out the memory and soul of my goth days gone by.” 

Shadowtime will feature the previously released “Talking in Tongues,” a brooding blend of goth, New Wave and shoegaze that seemed to nod at Suicide, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and others, while being the perfect, atmospheric bed for Black’s sultry delivery. The album will also feature, its second and latest single, “Long Gone Gardens.”

Anchored around a forceful and commanding bass line and bursts of shimmering, reverb-soaked guitars and twinkling keys, “Lone Gone Gardens” seemingly nods at Siouxsie and the Banshees — for example, think of “Hong Kong Garden,” and “Happy House” — while channeling Black’s childhood bond with the natural world, amidst the fruits and flora grown by her grandmother. But the song also subtly evokes the Biblical garden of Eden: You can almost picture Adam and Eve at the tree of knowledge, and what happens right as they eat the fruit . . .

“The track is a reflection about a choice that seemingly lets you lose everything but puts you on a new path to find salvation again in another form,” the JOVM mainstay explains.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Belated 51st Birthday, Nick Zinner!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Yeah Yean Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner’s 51st birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Berlin’s Atomic Fruit Shares Brooding and Atmospheric “Medicine”

Earlier this year, Berlin-based post-punk/trip hop duo Atomic Fruit — Martin Lundfall (vocals, synths, guitar), Raphaël Giraldi (bass) and Federico Lenzi (drums) — released “Hit The Ground,” which premiered on The Spill Magazine with an evocative music video.

“Medicine,” the third single from the trio’s forthcoming third album is an atmospheric and brooding bit of Bristol-inspired trip hop anchored around shimmering and squiggling, reverb-drenched guitars and a relentless rhythmic pulse paired with Lundfall’s yearning croon, which evoke a tense and feverish mix of desperate, irresistible craving, confusion, bitter regret and self-flagellation.

The new single dives into themes of need and addition, and that invisible tension between what we desire and can’t let go of. The band explains that “Medicine” started out as a song about writer’s block but gradually turned into a song about the awareness of how difficult it is to feel that first spark again.

Along with the new single, the trio will close out 2025 with three Italian dates and a live session in collaboration with video platform Plate:X featuring unreleased tracks from the new album.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 70th Birthday, Billy Idol!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Billy Idol’s 70th birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: TRAITRS Returns with Propulsive and Anthemic “i was ill, you were wrong”

With the release of their first three albums, 2017’s Rites and Rituals, 2018’s Butcher’s Coin and 2021’s Horses in the Abattoir, Toronto-based coldwave duo TRAITRS — longtime friends Sean Patrick Nolan and Shawn Tucker — firmly established a sound that blended horror-based imagery with anthemic choruses and cinematic, atmospheric soundscapes. And during that time, the duo evolved from bedroom artists selling cassette tapes to amassing millions of streams globally and playing hundreds of shows internationally. 

The Canadian duo’s highly anticipated Josh Korody-produced, Matt Colton-mastered fourth album Possessor is slated for a March 13, 2026 release. According to the band’s Shawn Tucker, Possessor is “the most personal record I have ever written.” The album was written during Toronto’s coldest winter months, informed by storm battered days and a heavy emotional landscape. The pair focused on capturing precise moods, with lyrics serving as the material’s driving force with the surrounding soundscapes grew to mirror the bleak beauty of the writing process.

Possessor will feature the previously released “Burn In Heaven,” a track that channels The Cure, Bauhaus, Depeche Mode and Cocteau Twins, while showcasing their unerring knack for crafting rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. The album’s second and latest single “i was ill, you were wrong,” continues a remarkable run of brooding and cinematic material. And while channeling a synthesis of New Wave and goth in a way that brings The Cure and New Order to mind, “i was ill, you were wrong,” is a chilly yet achingly heartfelt and intimate tune that showcases the duo’s rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses.

Thematically, the song examines humanity’s denial of its mortality and the complicated structures we build to distract ourselves from the fear of the inevitable, including the fragile bubbles we often create to shield ourselves from the one deeply universal thing that impacts us all — death.

“I felt that song connected me to everything and everyone, it is the one thing we all share and have in common,” the band’s Shawn Tucker says. “It is also a wake up call to live the life you want to live. We only have one chance at this so go dance in the rain.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 49th Birthday, Oliver Ackermann!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates A Place to Bury Strangers frontman Oliver Ackermann’s 49th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 75th Birthday, Tina Weymouth!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Tina Weymouth’s 75th birthday.

women who kick ass by William Ruben Helms
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Live Concert Photography: Bonnie Trash with Clone and The Acute at The Wood Shop 11/13/25

Live concert photography of Bonnie Trash with Clone and The Acute at The Wood Shop earlier this month.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Sylvia Black Shares Brooding and Sultry “Talking in Tongues”

Los Angeles-based multifaceted producer, singer/songwriter, bassist, performer, restless performer and JOVM mainstay Sylvia Black has had a long-held reputation for being difficult to pin down. And since her first job singing and entertaining at a resort hotel in Northern Japan as a teen, music has been the JOVM mainstays lifeline.

Throughout her career, Black has steadily gained momentum as a writer and producer, consistently creating music on her own times, while simultaneously cementing her place in the post-punk and goth-romantic renaissance and been restlessly creative. Her lengthy credits reflect her eclectic tastes and wide-ranging abilities. She was the frontperson of the New York-based trio KUDU with Deantoni Parks (drums, production) and Nicci Kasper (keys, production) in the early 00s. Black also has writing and recording credits with Grammy Award-winning pop act Black Eyed Peas, Daphne Guinness and more. Her lengthy resume includes collaborations with legends like Tony Visconti, Lydia Lunch and Moby, as well as The Knocks, Armand Van Helden and French electro pop duo Telepopmusik. And last, but definitely not lease, her sultry rendition of ‘I Put A Spell On You” appeared on the hit Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

As a bassist, Black has played with The Brand New Heavies‘ N’Dea Davenport, Living Colour‘s Muzz Skillings and with Maya Rudolph’s Prince cover band Princess.

The JOVM mainstay’s newest album, the 11-song Shadowtime is slated for a January 16, 2026 release. The album sees Black continuing her long-held approach of songwriting from the bottom up. “I find a beat that I’m in love with and go forward,” Black says. “The bass provides the floor, but as a singer, I’m also coming in with the roof. If you can write a beautiful song with just those two elements, bass notes and the voice, that’s a job well done.”

Written, produced and performed primarily by the JOVM mainstay the album was crafted with support from longtime mix engineer and creative foil Ruddy Lee Cullers. The album’s material will reportedly be a haunting exploration of nostalgia and futurism, that sees Black pushing her sound in new directions by weaving hypnotic rhythms, cinematic layers and raw, visceral emotion, while moving effortlessly from dance floor anthems to atmospheric meditations on love, loss and transcendence. “This album is about finding beauty in ruins,” Black says. “About letting the shadows speak through me. Returning to California brought out the memory and soul of my goth days gone by.” 

Shadowtime‘s first single “Talking in Tongues” is a brooding blend of goth, New Wave and shoegaze that seemingly nods at Suicide, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and others, featuring a relentless motorik groove and industrial-like thump serving as an atmospheric bed for Black’s sultry delivery.

Black says, “It’s about one who has lost their agency by letting outward elements control them and deceive them. Or, a drunk bitch.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 72nd Birthday, Andy Partridge!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates XTC founder and frontman Andy Partridge’s 72nd birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Ireland’s Crá Croí Shares Brooding and Anthemic “Radiation Romance”

Deriving their name from the Gaelic word for “heartache,” “vexation of spirit,” County Cork-based duo Crá Croí — RG (songwriting, production, mixing and mastering) and CD (vocals and visuals) — have employed a fiercely DIY ethos while establishing a sound that meshes elements of 1980s New Wave, post-punk and goth, featuring melancholic synths, dark melodies, angular guitars and sharp, hook-driven vocals.

The Irish duo’s work explores themes of nihilism, love and destruction, dystopian collapsed and nuclear annihilation, often wrapped in irony and paired with post-apocalyptic metaphors.

The County Cork-based duo intend to release a handful of singles with an album and select live shows played over the next year or two. According to the band gigs happen only when the setting is right, because for the duo “art comes first” and their integrity matters more than exposure for the sake of exposure.

Their latest single, the brooding “Radiation Romance” seemingly channels She Wants Revenge and Interpol: swirling and angular power chords are paired with eerie atmospheric synths, a relentless, motorik-like groove and rousingly anthemic hook and chorus that serves as a stormy bed for CD’s punchy, yet Paul Banks-like vocal. Thematically, the song focuses is a tongue in check take on the nuclear annihilation that would make Vincent Price proud.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Philadelphia’s Sri Lanka Shares Brooding and Driving “Solstice”

Sri Lanka is a Philadelphia-based band that originally formed back in 1986. The band quickly established a sound that draws from goth and post-punk, as well as elements of alternative rock and psych rock. They saw extraordinary popularity in the Philadelphia and New York underground music scenes of the late 1980s and 1990s before going through a series of tumultuous lineup changes following the departure of founding member and the tragic death of frontman Brett Turner

Suffering from depression, Turner took his own life back in 1989, when he was 20. The band went on to try out several vocalists before landing on Jose Maldonado. And with Maldonado, the Philadelphia-based post punk went on to record and release 1992’s Shadow and Ivy EP and 1993’s Here. Friction between band members Erb and Maldonado started early on and ultimately led to the band splitting down the middle shortly after the release of Here with Erb and Chairs going in one direction, Maldonado and Stein going in another. Rob Studt retired from music altogether.

Erb went on to rejoin his original founding partner Lee Daniels and formed the band [needle] in 1995.

Back in October 2020, the band announced the forthcoming release of Leviathan on their Facebook Fan page, after a 25 year hiatus. And that November, they released the album’s title track “Leviathan.” They also released two live recordings from Christmas 1998 at Philadelphia’s Club Memphis and February 1989 at Philadelphia’s Revival.

Leviathan‘s latest single “Solstice” is a driving bit of goth-tinged post punk featuring shoegazer guitar textures and industrial thump that seemingly channels Cocteau Twins and contemporaries like ACTORS, while showcasing the band’s ability to craft a driving and rousingly anthemic, catchy hook and chorus.

The band explains that “Solstice” was a previously unrecorded song written back in 1991 that may arguably one of the best songs they’ve ever written.