Category: Spotify Playlist

Spotify Playlist by William Ruben Helms

Playlist: Flight 777: JOVM 10th Anniversary DJ Set

JOVM officially turned 10 last Tuesday and to celebrate the occasion, I hosted a globe spanning, genre-busting DJ set for a collection of dear friends, colleagues and supporters.  Unfortunately, because of time limits, I couldn’t play the full set — but it exists here. A nearly 6 hour journey through time, space and continents.

Sit back, ask the flight attendant for a drink or seven and enjoy the ride. And hopefully you’ll return to Flight 777 at some point. I think we may be flying again in about a month or so. Maybe you should join us for the ride?

In the meantime, check out the playlist, below.

 

 

Spotify Playlist by William Ruben Helms

I just spent the past four days and five nights in Montreal covering the 14th annual M for Montreal Festival. And while walking and taking public transpiration from the gorgeous Hotel Monville in Downtown Montreal to the various networking events, happy hours and showcases I listened to a bit of music — some things a bit more obsessively than others. Check out this mostly Montreal-inspired playlist that features The Beat Escape, Corridor, Leonard Cohen, Jef Barbara, BRAIDS and more. Check it out.

 

 

indie rock by William Ruben Helms

If you’ve been following me through my various social media platforms, you’d know that I’ve been in Chicago for the past few days for a conference related to my day job — and of course, while in town I’ve been running around to see friends, eat good food, drink good beers and catch as much live music as I could possibly take in. Naturally, while en route here and towards the bars, music venues and restaurants I’ve eaten in, I’ve spent it listening to a variety of music — especially Chicago blues, particularly my favorites, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and B.B. King. Check out this (mostly) Windy City-inspired playlist below. (Of course, there will likely be additions as I’m commuting to and fro for the next few days, so feel free to keep checking it.)

Spotify Playlist by William Ruben Helms

 

There’s still some outstanding business with 2017 that I must attend to before I can begin 2018 in earnest and in this case, check out some of what I think were the best singles of the past year. Although the music industry typically slows down during the holidays, I’m looking forward to what 2018 brings musically and creatively — and most importantly for new music that I’ll love and tell you about.

Spotify Playlist by William Ruben Helms

With the close of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, countless bloggers and others have spent the past few weeks retrospectively looking back at the previous year. Now yesterday, I had posted what I thought were some of the best albums of 2016 — and continuing on with that vein, I wanted to share what I thought were the best singles of 2016 with a Spotify playlist. Check it out below.

 

Spotify Playlist by William Ruben Helms

The Joy of Violent Movement’s Best Albums of 2016

 Earlier this year, I had a lengthy bit of correspondence with a British publicist, who I’ve worked with for some time – and as you can imagine, once you’ve worked with someone for a while, the lines between friendship and your professional working relationship can become a bit blurred. But in any case, this colleague had asked how I was doing and at the time my response was: “If there was one word to describe my 37th trip around the sun, I’d say it would be this – embittering.” In that email exchange, I had gone on to describe how I had been dealing with several different, complicated situations in which politics, race and other sociopolitical issues of our era had come up and impacted my personal and professional life in messy and heartbreaking ways. Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site since I started it almost 7 years ago or follow me through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, that music has held a profound role in my life, informing both my intellectual and emotional life. And while some things have been difficult, I can still say that I’ve been particularly blessed. After all, the fact that music can hold the same vital connection that it did when I was 3, 13 or 25 as it does when I’m 37, suggests that somehow I’ve been doing something right. With our lives becoming more urgent, more politically charged than ever, I personally find myself turning towards art and music to gain a further understanding of my life, my inner world and my place in a ugly and cruel world – and frequently a world that seems to hate difference, uniqueness, thoughtfulness, etc.

Sadly, over the past couple of years, this site’s Best of List has kind of languished although I had desperately wanted to post something about my favorite albums of the year; however, there have been years in which I had been incredibly overwhelmed – to the point of not having enough time to actually sit down and write. And while some friends and other associates have bemoaned the death of the music industry without realizing that over the past year, there’s been some challenging and interesting music that’s been released; that there’s been collaborations that would have never happened 30 years ago happening right this minute, and in the case of this year, there have been an incredible array of releases that I’ve been absolutely been obsessed with in a variety of ways. Check out what were the best albums this year, below.

 

Hannah Williams and The Affirmations Late Nights and Heartbreaks

Plague Vendor BLOODSWEAT

Beacon Escapements

David Bowie Blackstar

Cinemechanica S/T LP

Exploded View  S/T LP

A Tribe Called Quest We Got It From Here . . . Thank You 4 Your Service

Run the Jewels Run The Jewels 3

Clipping Splendor and Misery

Kishi Bashi Sonderlust

The Veldt The Shocking Fuzz of Your Electric Fur

Marta Ren and The Groovelets Stop Look Listen

Goat Requiem

Magic Trick Other Man’s Blues

Drakkar Nowhere S/T LP

La Sera Queens EP

Preoccupations S/T LP

The Deltahorse Transatlantic

Anna Rose Strays in the Cut EP

Super Hi-Fi Super Hi-Fi Plays Nirvana

Beninghove’s Hangman Zohove: Beninghove’s Hangmen Play Led Zeppelin

Shana Falana Here Comes the Wave

 

Honorable Mentions

Wolkoff Without Shame

Milemarker Overseas

La Femme Mystère

Arbor Labor Union I Hear You

The Shondes Brighton

My Gold Mask Anxious Utopia

Alma Afrobeat Ensemble It’s Time

Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra Bade Zile

Siama Matuzungidi Rivers – from the Congo to the Mississippi

Bad Sports Living with Secrets

San Lazaro La Despedida

 

Check out JOVM’s top ten albums on Spotify:

 

 

Spotify Playlist by William Ruben Helms

 

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So last evening, the folks at Speak Into My Good Eye (SIMGE) in partnership with The Footlight had the first of a monthly series dubbed Blox Cord in which three other Tri-State area-based writers/editors/bloggers are invited to curate a live showcase of locally-based indie music. And each writer/editor/blogger did a short DJ set in between sets.

Sponsored by Narragansett Beer and Austin Eastciders, the inaugural lineup included:

SLONK DONKERSON // (SIMGE)
Fruit & Flowers // (CoolDad Music)
Leland Sundries // (Elmore Magazine)
The Vaughns // (The Joy of Violent Movement)

And there was a there was a happy hour with  Narragansett and Austin Eastciders drink specials and giveaways that was DJ’d by up-and-coming producer DJ DeModa.

Check out some of the songs that I wound up playing as part of my showcase, as well as a bunch of shows I would have loved to play if I had more than my allowed time.

 

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

February 2016’s JOVM Spotify playlist will likely continue the wild variety I’m so proud of but with a number of mainstay artists including tracks by Victoria + Jean, Anna Rose, Rene Lopez, Anika, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Gosh Pith, Marco Benevento, New Order, Boulevards, Mavis Staples, Sofi Tukker, Charles Bradley, Majid Jordan, La Sera, Pr0files, Atmosphere, We Are Temporary, Beacon, Elephant Stone, Caveman, Octo Octa and several others who you’ve become familiar with through this site. But you’ll also come across a couple of tracks from one of my favorite new artists of the year, Sophie and the Bom Boms, some classic blues from Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley and George Thorogood, porto-metal and stoner rock and countless more. Check it out!

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Although not every single I’ve written about over the course of 2016 was available on Spotify, this month’s playlist continues with what I think is the strength of this site — true diversity of music. And this month’s playlist features tracks from JOVM mainstays METZ and Jonathan Scales Fourchestra, Koncept and J57 as well Toronto, ON-based electro pop act Laser, Keith Murray, Main Source, the legendary Mavis Staples, singer/songwriter Jenny Gillespie and many more. This playlist also includes a 50 plus song tribute to David Bowie, who has been a large influence on me and the eventual creation of this site. Check it out and enjoy!