JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Beastie Boys co-founder Ad Rock’s 60th birthday.
Category: punk rock
Lyric Video: Philadelphia’s Soul Glo Teams Up with Tunde Adebimpe on Bruising Yet Vulnerable “Ppl Worried”
Since forming in Philadelphia back in 2014, rising punk outfit Soul Glo — currently Pierce Jordan (vocals, bass), GG Guerra (guitar, bass, vocals, programming) and TJ Stevenson (drums) — was dubbed the “future of hardcore” by Pitchfork after the release of 2022’s breakout effort, Diaspora Problems, a culmination of nearly a decade of playing basements, small clubs and DIY spaces and creative development.
Diaspora Problems has amassed over 14 million streams and critical praise from the likes of BrooklynVegan, who called it “. . . one of the best punk albums released in recent memory” and Pitchfork lauding its mix of ” . . . radical, actionable rhetoric, absurdist humor, and breathtaking vulnerability.” And building upon a rapidly growing profile, the band has been touring extensively, including opening for My Chemical Romance, paying Coachella’s Sonora Stage in 2023 — and they played the first hardcore set at NPR Tiny Desk.
The Philadelphia punks are currently on your with Chat Pile, Virga and Shallowater. The tour includes a November 10, 2026 stop at Brooklyn Steel, a hometown show on November 11, 2026 at Union Transfer, and more. Tour dates are below. And for more information, including tickets, check out: https://soulglophl.com/tour
The band’s newest album, NA I’M GON GRAB ALLAT is slated for a January 15, 2027 release through Epitaph Records. Simultaneously more intense and more approachable than Diaspora Problems, Recorded at Philadelphia-based Foto Club, NA I’M GON GRAB ALLAT isn’t all guitar-driven wth frenetic drum patterns and heavy hip-hop beats. The album features guest appearances from Commitment’s Tati Salazar, Mannequin Pussy’s Bear, New York-based experimental rapper MIKE, Chattanooga-based genre-defying rapper BbyMutha, Whipping Boy, OXBOW, and Buñuel frontman Eugene Robinson, and TV On The Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe. But the band retains the familiar elements of their sound: fast, frantic playing, Jordan’s mile-a-minute delivery and Stevenson’s imitable drumming. The result is more than just a collection of 14 songs, but a profound and compelling journey through the complexities of surviving modern existence — hopefully with your dignity and sanity intact.
Throughout the album’s runtime, community is front of mind on the album’s lyrics, which the band’s Jordan Pierce describes as being “largely about failures, mine and others, in my relationships with different men in my life.” Having a long-held reputation as a vulnerable, funny and soul-baring lyricist, Pierce’s lyrics explores the idea that men live “constantly at the expense of everyone” while speaking of the Black experience within the punk and hardcore scene and everything life, resentment, relationship anxieties, drug abuse, self-discovery and breaking down the “male loneliness epidemic.” Pierce dedicates the album to “everyone, who has known the joy and pain of loving a man. All different types of love: platonic, romantic, familial, self.’
NA I’M GON GRAB ALLAT‘s latest single “Ppl Worried” feat. Tunde Adebimpe is frantic, swaggering and bruising, mosh pit friendly ripper anchored around the lived-in, deeply confessional thoughts of a dysfunctional yet very human narrator, wrestling with losing oneself in grief and heartbreak, the numbing solitude of addiction and cycles of self-sabotage with a vulnerable, self-awareness that’s unvarnished and all too real.
New Audio: Belgium’s Solarski Shares a Punchy, Mosh Pit Friendly Ripper
Mysterious and emerging Belgian trio Solarski is inspired by post-punk and indie but steadfastly refused to be easily categorized. Their latest single “Do You Need a Riot?” is a punchy, mosh pit friendly ripper with […]
Throwback: Happy 75th Birthday, Sting!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Sting’s 75th birthday.
New Video: Delivery Shares Club Friendly Art School Rock Tune “Measuring Cup”
Rising Melbourne-based indie outfit Delivery — Bec Allen (bass, vocals), James Lynch (guitar, synths, vocals), Scarlett Maloney (guitar, vocals), Jordan Oakley (guitar) and Liam Kenny (drums, vocals) — emerged from their hometown’s COVID pandemic lockdowns and quickly established a sound that blends elements of post-punk, punk, garage rock and dance floor rhythms into something distinctly their own. The quintet have built moment with the release of last year’s Force Majuere, which Rolling Stone called a “statement of intent” and relentless touring to support the album, becoming one of Oz’s most compelling and restless rock bands.
The rising Aussie quintet’s highly-anticipated third album Zone 3 is slated for a February 26, 2027 release through Heavenly Recordings. Zone 3 reportedly marks a new chapter for the rising Aussie quintet. Written in the wake of extensive time on the road, the album captures Delivery as a fully-formed unit that’s confident enough to trust their instincts and adventurous enough to push beyond the sounds that initially defined them.
Conceived as a late-night record, Zone 3 is specifically for crowded bars, packed dance floors, darkened clubs and the hazy hours before sunrise. Sonically you’ll hear rigid drum-machine driven grooves, synth pulses, wiry guitar bursts, hypnotic baselines and vocals that effortlessly shift between detached cool and infectious urgency.
Recorded in a furious 12-day session at Melbourne-based York Street Studios with producer Dan Lusscombe and engineer Stefan Blair,. the Aussie quintet’s third album reportedly finds them at their most focused, playful and expansive — and may arguably be their boldest effort to date.
Znne 3′s first single “Measuring Cup” is hook-driven tune anchored around a hypnotic, motorik groove, wiry post-punk guitar lines and pulsing synths paired with coolly delivered vocals. The result is a song that sonically to my ears is one-part Sonic Youth-like art punk, one-part pub rock and stoner rock bombast, one-part dance punk.
“There is a certain kind of pressure in modern society to be vigilant about who someone is, what they stand for and if they are ‘your people,'” Delivery says. “But it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s a challenge to engage positively with people who hold different values or stances, and a celebration when you know you’ve found someone who aligns with you, whether that’s politically, socially, or personally. ‘Measuring Cup’ is like an invitation to get on a level together and join the club.”
Directed by the band’s Scarlett Maloney, the accompanying video for “Measuring Cup” features the members of the band as they plan and then commit a perfectly planned, perfectly executed heist, complete with an inside man. And the only way it could have been possible was that they were all with their people.
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Throwback: Happy 68th Birthday, Joan Jett!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Joan Jett’s 68th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 68th Birthday, Dr. Know!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Bad Brains guitarist Dr. Know’s 68th birthday.
New Video: Toronto’s Wine Lips Shares Punchy “If You Don’t Know”
Over the past decade, the Toronto-based psych punk outfit Wine Lips — currently Cam Hilborn (vocals, guitar), Aurora Evans (drums), Jordan Sosensky (guitar) and Charlie Weare (bass) — have quietly become one of their homeland’s most successful indie acts: They’ve amassed over 50 million Spotify streams, while receiving praise from Iggy Pop on BBC Radio and landing material on film, television and video games. Adding to a growing globally recognized profile, the Toronto-based quartet have relentlessly toured a sweat-soaked, high energy live show across North America, the European Union, the UK, Hong Kong and China while sharing stages with the likes of Frankie and the Witch Fingers and Death From Above 1979. Throughout their history, the Canadian punk rockers have carved their own lane, where fuzz pedals, frantic energy and razor-sharp songwriting coexist in a perfect balance.
Wine Lips’ fifth album, TV Dinner was released last Friday through Stomp Records. Drawing from an The Hives, Osees, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Bad Nerves and the melodic punch of Nirvana at their most immediate, the new album may arguably be their most observant, strangely relatable and complete statement to date while still rooted in their signature blend of garage punk, blown-out psychedelia and fuzzy rock.
TV Dinner superficially features 13 adrenaline-fueled, loud, hook-driven rock songs. But if you deeper, the album offers a snapshot of what it feels like to live right now in our dystopian, late-stage capitalist hellscape: Everyone and their mom and cousin are selling shortcuts. Everyone is an expert. Your phone constantly pings with updates. Your rent and grocery bills rocket skyward while the apartments somehow get smaller. Dopamine arrives in short bursts through nicotine, sugar, social media feeds, alcohol, dreams of escaping the rat race and whatever else gets you through another day. Somewhere between the doomscroll, another trip to the doctor, another dead-end job, and another microwaved meal, Cam Hilborn found thirteen songs hiding in plain sight. The songs are written from the perspective from someone who’s neck deep int the shit, like everyone else, desperately trying to make sense of a mad, mad, mad world.
Recorded at London Ontario‘s The Sugar Shack with longtime collaborator Simon Larochette, the new album captures the band trusting instinct over perfection. Mistake sand happy accidents stayed. So did strange noises. They left the edges and roughness because they believe that’s where the life lives. The album also sees the band’s Aurora Evens taking up lead vocal duties on album track “Projector.”
The album’s latest single “If You Don’t Know” is a punchy and anthemic blend of garage punk, glam rock and pub rock, showcasing the band’s unerring knack for crafting catchy hooks paired with fuzzy power chord-driven. shout- along-with-an upraised-beer-in-hand choruses. Arguably the most direct, in-your-face ripper the band has released to date, the song features a narrator wrestling with something familiar to me — and to most of y’all — growing older. Yes, there’s the tacit realization that time races by, but it’s rooted in something far deeper — that age is supposed to come with some earned wisdom, some sort of forward progression and a shit ton of nostalgia. But what if there isn’t much wisdom and no real forward progression? Is the dream of being a rock god childish? Who the fuck really knows?
The accompanying video follows a man-child living out his fantasy of being a superhero in a very real world, including his seemingly real super powers, which help him save lives and do good.
The band are currently in the middle of a rather extensive European tour. They’ll tour across North America to close out 2026 and their North American tour includes a December 4, 2026 stop at Warsaw. Check out the tour dates below.
Throwback: Happy 74th Birthday, Joe Strummer!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 74th anniversary of the birth of The Clash’s Joe Strummer.
New Video: Brighton’s Split Dogs Shares Bruising and Anthemic “Suffer”
Deriving their name from the classic zombie film Return of the Living Dead, Brighton, UK-based punks Split Dogs — founding duo and romantic couple Harry Atkins (vocals) (they/them) and Mil Martinez (guitar) (he/him), along with Chris Hugall (drums) (he/him) and Suez Boyle (bass) (she/her) — can trace their origins back to 2015: The band’s founding members had the idea to start a band fueled by their frustration over music they saw as soulless and commodified product made to sell the listener and fans more useless shit.
As a youngster in South London, Mil Martinez would hear Status Quo, Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Dire Straits on the car radio while his father drove him to school. At home, he would invade his older brother’s record collection, which leaned towards punk and heavy metal. In the UK’s Black Country, Harry Atkins’ mother instilled a love of Northern Soul, Slade and rock ‘n roll, with stories of nights out at Club Lafayette and family singalongs at home. According to Martinez, “Our sound is a culmination of all those early influences and, to be honest, it really shows.”
Split Dogs officially appeared on the scene in 2022. Suez Boyle, a prominent figure in the queer punk scene, best known for her work with The Walking Abortions joined the band in 2023. Up until that point, Chris Hugall, an old friend of Martinez and a former member of ska punks Mouthwash, an act that was once signed on Rancid‘s Hellcat Records, helped design the band’s artwork. Hugall joined the band full-time last year, cementing the band’s current lineup.
The quartet quickly won over Bristol’s accepting and tolerant punk scene, a scene that has always welcomed LGBQT+ folks and marginalized people, with raucous live shows featuring infectious lyrics. As word spread, the gigs increased and in short order, the Brighton-based punk outfit was playing sold-out rooms across the European Union, which caught the attention of British label Venn Records.
The Brighton-based quartet released their Peter Miles-produced sophomore effort, Here to Destroy last year. Recorded over a breakneck three day session at Middle Farm Studios, the album, which featured album track “Lafayette” was laid straight to a 16-track reel-to-reel tape machine without autotune, effects pedals, and computers. Adding to the visceral authenticity of the recording, the album’s material was recored with Atkins singing along in a vocal booth. No cutting and pasting on a program. And it meant that everyone had to nail their takes. “It was a blast!” Split Dogs’ Martinez says. “We fully immersed ourselves, sleeping in a small apartment below the studio, cooking meals and listening to Pete’s extensive record collection.”
The quartet’s third album, Nice N’ Rough is slated for a September 25, 2026 release through Venn Records. Its predecessor, Here To Destroy was recorded while the band’s then-new lineup was still feeling their way while Mil and Harry were in the midst of early parenthood; however, Nice N’ Rough is a bolder, brassier, even more fun effort. The new ingredients are “confidence and time,” says the band’s Mil Martinez. “We’ve not lost what we were, but we’ve evolved and tightened the screws, cleaned it up, made it a little slicker. The songs are more thought-out and everyone’s had a hand in them.” The album’s lyrics are brutal and funny, continuing a long-held and beloved rock ‘n’ roll tradition.
“Rock’n’roll’s meant to be fun, isn’t it?” Mil says. “There aren’t enough bands doing that OTT [“over the top”], tongue-in-cheek thing. When I was younger, I wanted to seem cooler and tougher than I was. Now, I don’t care what people think of me, so I wear my heart on my sleeve. We’re quite shameless, really.”
Nice N’ Rough’s latest single “Suffer” is a bruising, arena rock ripper that seemingly channels Highway to Hell-era AC/DC, Ace of Spades-era Motörhead, Joan Jett and JOVM mainstays Amyl and the Sniffers. But beneath the power chord driven riffs and the rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses is a lived-in emotional and psychological turmoil. The result is a song that showcases a band that can deftly pair old school OTT rock riffs and bombast with deeply heartfelt, earnest lyricism.
Fittingly the accompanying video for “Suffer” features some hilarious rock tropes: The lead guitarist playing his explosive riffs as lightning bolts explode around him. Skulls, skulls and more skulls. The band playing the song in an eerie graveyard and more. It’s a bit of goofy fun.
Throwback: Happy 28th Birthday, Genesis Owusu!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu’s 28th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 67th Birthday, Belinda Carlisle!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Belinda Carlisle’s 67th birthday.