JOVM celebrates what would have been Jimi Hendrix’s 79th birthday.
Category: Psych Rock
New Video: JOVM Mainstays TEKE: TEKE Release a Frenzied and Mischievous Visual for “Kala Kala”
Initially started as a loving homage and tribute band to legendary Japanese guitarist Takeshi “Terry” Terauchi, the Montreal-based collective TEKE: TEKE – Yuki Isami (flute, shinobue and keys), Hidetaka Yoneyama (guitar), Sergio Nakauchi Pelletier (guitar), Mishka Stein (bass), Etienne Lebel (trombone), Ian Lettree (drums, percussion) and Maya Kuroki (vocals, keys and percussion) — features a collection of accomplished Montreal-based musicians, who have played with the likes of Pawa Up First, Patrick Wilson, Boogat, Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra and others. The Montreal-based act quickly came into their own when they started to blend Japanese Eleki surf rock with elements of modern Western music including shoegaze, post-punk, psych rock, ska, Latin music and Balkan music. Adding to a bold, genre-defying sound, the band’s arrangement meshes rock instrumentation with traditional Japanese instrumentation.
With the release of their debut EP 2018’s Jikaku, the members of the Montreal-based septet came into their own highly unique and difficult to pigeonhole sound that features elements of Japanese Eleki surf rock, shoegaze, post-punk, psych rock, ska, Latin music and Balkan music. Last year was a momentous year for TEKE: TEKE. They signed to Kill Rock Stars Records, who released the rising Canadian act’s full-length debut Shirushi earlier this year.
In the lead up to the album’s release, I wrote about five of its singles:
- “Kala Kala:” Deriving its title from a phrase that roughly translates to English as clattering, “Kala Kala” is centered around a mind-melting arrangement and song structure, Kuroki’s howling and crooning. And to my ears, the track accurately captures the band’s frenetic live energy.
- “Chidori,” a cinematic yet mosh pit friendly freak out that’s one part psych rock, one part Dick Dale-like surf rock, one part Ennio Morricone soundtrack delivered with a frenetic aplomb.
- “Meikyu:” Deriving its title from the Japanese word for labyrinth, the track is a no bullshit, no filler all killer ripper with menacing guitar work, dramatic bursts of trombone, fluttering flute, thumping tribal drumming and some wild soloing within an expansive, mind-melting song structure.
- Yoru Ni,” a fever dream featuring dreamy blasts of flute and trombone, menacing and slashing guitars and intricate Japanese shamisen. Deriving its name from the Japanese phrase for “at night,” the song despite it’s mischievous tone, is a somewhat romantic and spiritual tale about its central character letting go of a long-held delusional quest.
- “Barbara,” a mischievous and cinematic track with a stomping, punk rock energy that sounds like the perfect soundtrack for a misfit circus — or the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, as each instrumental part seemingly introducing a new and strange character. Much like the previously released singles, “Barbara” captures the frenetic energy of their live sets. The lyrics as the band explained are a twisted take on zashiki-warashi, spirit beings, who like to perform pranks and bring good fortune to those who see them.
The Montreal-based JOVM mainstays just announced a 2022 North American tour that includes a handful of club dates and some Winter festival appearances. Sadly, there aren’t any New York dates on this run. But if you happen to be in or near any of these cities, go and catch them. As always, tour dates are below. But in the meantime, the band released a trippy visual for album single “Kala Kala.”
Directed by the band’s Maya Kuroki and Serge Nakauchi Pelletier, the video is a deft and playful mix of illustrations and old-timey collages by the band’s Maya Kuroki, close-up footage of the band by Lily Pelletier, live footage of the band and more, edited by Serge Nakauchi Pelletier. It’s a frenzied and arresting visual delight, chock full of Easter eggs and sight gags.
New Video: Dream Phases Releases an Expansive and Trippy Meditation on Creativity and Writer’s Block
After spending stints in notable Los Angeles-based acts like Blank Tapes, The Relationship, Levitation Room and Nacosta, Brandon Graham decided that it was time to step out into the spotlight in his own terms. Initially starting the Los Angeles-based psych rock outfit Dream Phases as a solo, home recording project, the project became a full-fledged band when Garham’s brother Shane and their friend Keveen Badouin assisted him in fleshing out the material he had written.
Creatively, the sibling bond between Brandon and Shane is at the heart of the band. “There is a special synergy between us that wouldn’t be there if we weren’t brothers,” Shane Graham says. “We share many of the same influences, but we also have some different ones as well that help make the band unique. We don’t always see eye-to-eye creatively, but then we work it out and end up with something we are both excited about.”
The then-newly launched band released their debut EP 2017’s Maybe Tomorrow, which was quickly followed by their full-length debut So Long, Yesterday. Both releases saw the band establish a sound that drew from The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young — as well as acts like Rain Parade, Elliot Smith and Autolux among others. The band supported both of those efforts with touring that found the Los Angeles-based psych outfit replicating the dreamy vibes of their studio work with raw energy, light shows and other visual effects at SXSW and two European tours. “Our albums are very thought-out, but our live show is more primal and exciting in a different way,” Dream Phases’ Brandon Graham says in press notes. ““We never wanted to be a band that sounds exactly like it does on record.”
Dream Phases’ sophomore album New Distractions is slated for a November 10, 2021 release through Nomad Eel Records and Lunar Ruin and the album sees the band translating the experiences of its members into something compelling — and universal while pushing their sound into new directions. The album. which was written through email and Zoom meetings is also the first album, where it’s a fully collaborative affair with all of the band’s members having songwriting credits. “In the past I would make a fully fleshed out demo recording and then show the guys that,” Brandon Graham recalls. “With this one I mostly just wrote the skeleton of the song, like the lyrics, vocal, guitar and sometimes keys and then sent that. We talked about structure, rhythm, and other elements that brought the songs to life.”
“I think there’s a lot more self-reflection in these songs,” Brandon Graham says. “They were written during the COVID lockdown, and there was so much happening in the world that you really had to look at yourself in the mirror and ask where you stood on a range of issues. Several of the songs deal with growing older and taking care of yourself both mentally and physically, as well as learning to not take things for granted.” Matters of the heart also were a new emphasis for the material. “In my previous bands, I rarely if ever wrote about relationships, but it seems like every other song on this album is about them. I guess I’m trying to be more direct now,” Brandon Graham adds.
New Distractions‘ latest single is the dreamy “In A Box.” Seemingly indebted to Summer of Love era psych rock and 70s AM rock, the song is centered around shimmering, delay and reverb-drenched guitars, Brandon Graham’s plaintive falsetto and expansive song structure that starts out a bit brooding and gets increasingly hopeful as the song moves towards its conclusion. And while decidedly trippy, the song is informed by personal, lived-in experience as the band explains.
“‘In a Box’ was the first song written for New Distractions, in fact we played this song on our 2019 European tour. The song is about overcoming writers block, and searching for the inspiration to do just that. The chorus progressively get more hopeful as the joy of writing something new is felt. The accompanying music video was made by Matthew Lingo and Styles Wolff Baker and visualizes the journey through the sub conscious mind, searching for inspiration.”
Initially started as a bedroom solo recording project back in 2017, Orlando-based psych outfit Timothy Eerie has become a full-fledged band with a rotating cast of players. The Orlando-based psych outfit’s latest single “We’re Going To Make It” is a sunny and lysergic anthem for the end of the world — or our near dystopian future.
Centered around reverb-drenched vocals. glistening organ arpeggios, scorching guitars and forceful drumming, “We’re Going To Make It” is indebted to 60s psych rock but with a modern twist: the song’s narrator knows that the hope for a better world may be desperate and foolish, which gives the song a bitterly ironic bite, just under the trippy vibes.
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
New Video: Brazilian JOVM Mainstays WRY Releases a Sunny and Optimistic Bit of Power Pop
Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil-based psych rock outfit and JOVM mainstays WRY — Mario Bross (vocals, guitar), Luciano Marcello (guitar), Ítalo Ribero (drums) and William Leonotti (bass) — are at the forefront of Brazil’s indie rock and psych rock scenes, releasing six albums of material that have firmly established a sound that features elements of Brit pop, alt-rock, shoegaze and post punk — with a distinctly Brazilian flavor.
After a stint living and working in London, the Brazilian JOVM mainstays earned a growing international profile, which led to several tours across the UK and the European Union, including some stops on the European festival circuit, most notably, Barcelona’s Primavera Sound.
Along with their growing recorded output, the members of the band own a very popular club in their homeland, which has frequently hosted their internationally acclaimed countrymen, fellow JOVM mainstays and friends Boogarins.
Last year’s brilliant Noites Infinitas was released to critical praise, with the album receiving airplay on radio stations across Brazil and the States. The album also landed on a number of Best of Lists globally. Continuing upon the momentum of Noites Infinitas, the Brazilian psych rock outfit will be releasing their seventh full-length album Reviver on November 12, 2021 through Deaf Haus.
Reviver‘s first single “Where I Stand” is a sunny and overwhelmingly optimistic bit of power pop centered around WRY’s unerring knack for crafting enormous Brit Pop-like hooks, fuzzy power chords and thunderous drumming. The band explains that lyrically the song is about hope — but it can be read about hope returning after a bleak and very dark period, much like our current one. As long as we breathe, feel, think and experience, all is never lost.
Directed by Alex Batista, the recently released video for “Where I Stand” features the members of the Brazilian quartet riding bicycles on an airport runway while rocking out to the song. It’s playful, goofy and necessary.
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 a Friday 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 engendered by the search for the “self” in an increasingly impersonal world, where the line between what’s real and what’s virtual crystallizes.
Last month, I wrote about “Elektro,”a dreamy yet club friendly bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, a hypnotic, motorik groove and propulsive four-on-the-floor, ethereal vocals singing lyrics in French and a vocoder drenched coda. Sonically recalling From Here To Eternity-era Giorgio Moroder and JOVM mainstay MUNYA, “Elektro,” as the band explained 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.”
“Adiós,” the self-titled album’s latest single is a delicate and introspective song centered around strummed acoustic guitar, woozy synths, and Spanish lyrics delivered with a wistful nostalgia over something or someone that you can’t ever get back — but with the understanding that it may be for the best.
“It’s a ballad where we say goodbye to someone or something forever,” the band explains. “It’s a nostalgic and introspective song that allows us to accept that saying goodbye is a way of freeing oneself and letting be.”
New Video: Toronto Garage Psych Outfit Wine Lips Releases a Furious Ripper
Started as a part-time project between founding members Cam Hilborn (vocals, guitar) and Aurora Evans (drums), the rapidly rising Toronto-based, garage psych rock outfit Wine Lips — Hilborn and Evans, along with Jordan Sosensky (guitar) and Charlie Weare (bass) — hit the stage together for the first time in late 2015. The band began playing shows in and around Toronto, eventually stretching out organically to the surrounding towns and cities, then into Québec
By mid 2017, it was clear that the band members were ready to make a full-time commitment. That year, they released their self-titled full-length debut through Fried Records, which they supported with a five province tour with a stops in the country’s Maritime Region — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. A chance meeting resulted in an April 2018 tour of Hong Kong and China, where they were received by enthusiastic audiences.
Building upon a rapidly growing profile, the Toronto-based garage psych outfit released their sophomore album, 2019’s Stressor, which they supported with relentless touring across North America until the pandemic struck. But the band was able to amass an ardent following — and some of their material has been featured prominently on television and Netflix.
Much like countless artists across the world, the members of the band spent the bulk of last year, holed up at London, Ontario-based Sugar Shack Studios, where they wrote and recorded their Simon Larochette-produced third album Mushroom Death Sex Bummer Party. “The record is crazy! We really spent a lot of time getting the songs to sound exactly the way we wanted,” Cam Hilborn says in press notes. ” I think this is the best stuff we’ve recorded and I’m super stoked with the end result!”
Slated for a Fall release through Montreal-based Stomp Records, Mushroom Death Sex Bummer Party is reportedly a collection of psych rock bangers influenced and informed by the likes of The Hives, Bad Nerves, Dead Kennedys, Thee Oh Sees, Idles, Ty Segall, Buzzcocks and Parquet Courts.
Clocking in at 90 seconds, Mushroom Death Sex Bummer Party‘s first single “Eyes” is a sweat and beer fueled mosh pit ripper centered around scuzzy power chords, frenetic drumming, rousingly anthemic hooks and Hilborn’s shouts and yelps. Play this one at ear splitting volumes and rock out. You’ll thank me for it.
“Eyes is a song about feeling burnt out creatively, mentally and physically. Something so many of us can relate to, even more so over the past year and a half,” Wine Lips’ Hilborn explains in press notes. “It sheds light on situations where you find yourself powering through the days with different coping methods brought on by late nights, alcohol and promiscuity, and seeing how far you can push the limits of your body before you find yourself defeated and broken down.”
Directed and filmed by Sammy J. Lewis, the recently released video begins with a woman smoking a cigarette in a seedy, garbage-strewn Toronto alley. The cigarette smoking woman sees a slightly opened garbage bag with a glowing light coming out of it. Curious, the woman opens the bag and dives into a frenzied live performance of the song.
“Sammy had the idea of making it look like the band was playing inside a garbage bag, so we did a classic performance video but tried to make it a little more interesting with crazy fast paced cuts and some added green screen fun,” Wine Lips’ Hilborn says of the video. “It was super fun, super sweaty and we felt like trash by the end of the day.”
New Video: Montreal’s Mort Rose Releases a Trippy DIY Visual for Twangy “Je dois savoir”
Since their formation back in 2016, the Montreal-based psych rock act Mort Rose has established a sound that’s deeply indebted to the sounds of the late 60s — but with a personal yet very modern touch. Goodbye Cowboys, the Montreal psych rockers psych rock sophomore album is slated for a September 10, 2021 release, and the album reportedly sees the act further embracing all things psychedelia.
In the lead up to the album’s release, I’ve managed to write about two of the album’s singles:
“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’Riley” 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!”
“On part au soleil,” a song that continues a run of 60s inspired psych rock, featuring dreamily sung verses and choruses, fuzzy power chord-driven riffage and soaring soloing that’s meant to get the listener to tune out and lift off into the stratosphere.
Goodbye Cowboys third and latest single “Je dois savoir is a twangy, country rock take on psych rock that may remind some listeners of a wild mix of The Beach Boys, Exile on Main Street era Rolling Stones, The Byrds and even inner Journey Out era Psychic Ills but with a mischievous, shit-stirring air, an infectious hook and some scorching soloing.
e recently released video for follows the band on a promotional photo shoot in which the members of the band dress up as a hippie cowboys in the countryside. We also see intimate footage of the band in the studio working on the album. There’s also somme fittingly appropriate kaleidoscopic imagery and playful superimpositions that features the individual members of the band riding an exotic animal.
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.
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.
Emmanuel Alias is a French-born, Montreal-based singer/songwriter multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, dilettante and polymath whose musical career has managed to go through about four different paths before he started his eponymous psych rock project ALIAS. After spending 9 years studying jazz at the Darius Milhaud Conservatory in Aix-en-Provence, France, Alias relocated to Quebec in 2014. Landing at job at XS Music, Alias worked with Jean-Phi Gonclaves on composing music for HBO’s Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects, ICI Télé’s Une autre histoire, Hubert et Fanny and Cerebrum et Mon fils, Mariloup Wolfe’s feature film Jouliks and for a number of Cirque du Soleil productions.
Since 2017, Alias hs also worked for Musique Nomade, where he produced multidisciplinary Oji-Crie’ and Mi’gmaq artist Anachnid‘s DREAMWEAVER, which was nominated for an Association québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la video (ADISQ) Award and long-listed for the Polaris Prize. The French-born, Montreal-based artist also produced singles by Q-052, Annie Sama, Chances, iskwē and Beyries‘ “Out of Touch,” off her recent album Encounter. Additionally, he’s the musical and stage director of Anachnid concerts — and he’s accompanied Beyries on stage a few times.
Simultaneously, the French-born, Montreal-based singer/songwriter, composer and producer has a had host of different projects to accommodate his need and desire to explore different genres releasing punk, hip-hop and ambient material under different monikers — until settling on his latest, eponymous project Alias, a psych rock inspired project that finds him crafting songs centered around wild, hallucinogenic stories that include the personification of dogs, dementia, the Wild West, killers, loneliness, space exploration. The whole affair sounds as though it could have been released decades ago — and as though it were released yesterday.
Alias’ debut EP It’s Not Funny So Stop Smilin’ was released last week through Simone Records. The EP’s latest single “Why Don’t You Wanna Dance” is a trippy and modern take on classic psych rock and glam rock featuring fuzzy power chords, soaring organ, twinkling synth arpeggios and a chugging, motorik groove paired with an age old tale of rejection, humiliation and paranoia that should feel familiar to the outcasts and weirdos amongst us.
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.
New Audio: The Theory of Why Releases an Expansive Mosh Pit Ripper
Currently split between Seattle and DC, The Theory of Why — Anton Kropp (guitar, bass) and Julia Nova (vocals) — features two seasoned DC indie rock and punk rock scene vets. I’ve covered music in some fashion for over 15 years — 11 just with this site — and typically when band members move across the country there’s two general responses: the band splits up — or they embrace the distance.
Citing Earth, Stereolab, YOB, Julie Doiron, and a eclectic series of other acts as influences, the members of Theory of Why have come up with a unique sound and approach fueled by their experiences in DC’s scene.
2021 has been a busy year for the duo: Earlier this year, they released the Path Of The Heart EP and they’ve followed that up with their recently released full-length effort Pomegranate. Pomegranate’s latest single, the expansive album title track “Pomegranate (Denial)” is mosh pit ripper centered around fuzzy power chords, thunderous drumming and euphoria-inducing hooks. But much like The Mallard’s Finding Meaning in Deference, “Pomegranate” is fueled by an underlying sneering frustration and unease, inspired by the past 17 months of our collective hell.