A long-held JOVM Christmas tradition: John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas (War Is Over)”
Category: Video
Throwback: Happy 80th Birthday, Lemmy!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 80th anniversary of Mötorhead founder and frontman Lemmy Kilmister’s birth.
Throwback: Happy 61st Birthday, Eddie Vedder!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder’s 61st birthday.
New Video: Nicklaus Rohrbach Shares Dreamily Cinematic and Nostalgic “Jigsaw”
French composer, producer, arranger, sound engineer and musician Nicklaus Rohrbach has spent the bulk of his career collaborating with an eclectic array of artists including Verlatour, omega violet, Sangue, Shoefti, Jamika and The Argonauts, Kohhen el Kef, Carole Cettolin and a lengthy list of others.
Rohrbach stepped out into the spotlight as an artist with a handful of singles and his debut EP, Selfie. The EP’s latest single “Jigsaw” is a lush and cinematic tune featuring some dramatic, swelling piano, twinkling synths and buzzing synths paired with Rohrbach’s plaintive vocal and a big, euphoric hook and chorus. Sonically, “Jigsaw” reminds me of a synthesis of M83 and A Rush Of Blood To The Head-era Coldplay, with the song being anchored around a similar sense of dreamily wistful nostalgia., and a tinge of hope.
Rohrbach explains that the song is “a synth-wave, progressive pop song, where I’m dealing with multiple selves through space and time.
Designed, directed and edited by Maria Rieger, the accompanying video for “Jigsaw,” captures almost everyday scenes in Paris, seemingly full of possibilities.
Throwback: Happy 65th Birthday, Luther Campbell!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Luther Campbell’s 65th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 76th Birthday, Maurice and Robin Gibb!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 76th anniversary of the births of Maurice and Robin Gibb.
New Video: Aure Shares Meditative “L’orage”
Music has always been a vital form of expression for Paris-based Aure, who found her path as a professional musician after a career in architecture. The Paris-based artist specializes in a minimalist, stripped back folk sound inspired by the likes of Sibylle Baier, Jessica Pratt and Nico with multilingual lyrics.
Her debut EP, 2023’s a few notes was released to praise from Télérama, France Inter, RFI, Les inRocks, and more. She supported the album with touring across Europe, opening for Andy Shauf and Tom McRae.
Building upon a growing profile, Aure’s full-length debut, printemps is slated for a March 20, 2026 release through Belgian label MayWay Records. Informed by the poetic minimalism of artists like Atahulpa Yupanqui, Facundo Cabral, Lhasa, Jessica Pratt and Nico, the album sees the French artist drawing from a wide range of musical influences and languages, while allowing them to intertwine as different facets of her own identity. The album’s songs unfold in a visual world informed by the photography of Graciela Iturbidem and Katrien De Blower and Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire.
Thematically, printemps is an album of thresholds, written in that liminal, in-between space where one chapter has just ended and another one is about to begin. And as a result, the album thematically evokes new beginnings, shifting bearings, turbulent crossings towards safer harbors.
printemps‘ third and latest single “L’orange,” which features arrangements by Aure and her collaborator Corentin Oliver is a meditative song built around a gorgeous arrangement of plucked and twinkling guitar and gently padded drumming serving as a lush bed for the Parisian artist’s hauntingly ethereal yet yearning delivery in French and English. Sonically, the track subtly recalls a synthesis of the psych folk of Nick Drake and of contemporaries like French-born, Montréal-based artist Lonny, evoking an impressionistic painting.
“Two people are looking for shelter, and the storm is still close. This song evokes a flight and tries to capture the fleeting moment of a break in the clouds – uncertain how long it will last, yet filled with a particular kind of grace. English and French answer each other throughout, leaving us unsure whether we’re hearing two voices or just one, inviting the other to join in their escape,” the French singer/songwriter explains.
The accompanying visualizer features the French singer/songwriter flying a kite on the beach, split in a way to look like a collage.
Throwback: Happy 85th Birthday, Frank Zappa!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 85th anniversary of Frank Zappa’s birth.
Throwback: Happy 84th Birthday, Maurice White!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 84th anniversary of the birth Earth Wind & FIre’s Maurice White.
Throwback: Happy 110th Birthday, Edith Piaf!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 110th anniversary of the birth of Edith Piaf.
New Video: TV FACE Shares Furious “Happy New Year”
Earlier this year, Lancaster, UK-based noise rock trio TV FACE — Steve “sTeVe” McWade, (vocals, guitar), Brigit McWade (bass, vocals) and Dave “Steeny” Steen (drums) — released their sophomore album Wolf Rents Bark through Crackedankles Records.
The trio close out 2025 with Wolf Rents Bark landing at #7 on Louder Than War‘s Top 100 Albums of 2025 list — and with the album’s latest single “Happy New Year.” Unlike the holiday season standard “Auld Lang Syne,” which is can often be a mix of bittersweet and hopeful, “Happy New Year” is a furious and noisy ripper that expresses a sense of hope that becomes the disillusionment and frustration of someone who suspects that the new year will be more bullshit, more chaos, more delayed hopes and dreams and so on.
“Live, this track has been landing hard. ‘Happy New Year’ charts innocence slipping into disillusionment, with lyrics written under a self-imposed rule of just three syllables per line,” TV FACE explains. “It inspired Wolf Rents Bark, our album title for an age where politician-CEOs cosplay as ‘the guy next door,’ while extracting wealth at a pace. The band are releasing this festive protest song instead of creating more landfill Christmas-themed shit.”
Directed and edited by the band’s Steve McWade, the accompanying video for “Happy New Year” was filmed by the band and Punk Rock Greeny, and features three wolf-heading wearing humans, who correspond to the each of the band’s members at a New Year’s Eve party. On the TV, TV FACE performing the song. The band intended to do something simple, but then they didn’t.
Throwback: Happy 82nd Birthday, Keith Richards!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Keith Richards’ 82nd birthday.
Throwback: Happy 55th Birthday, DMX!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 55th anniversary of the birth of DMX.
New Video: GUMDROP Shares Sugary and Hook Driven “EYE CANDY”
Los Angeles-based GUMDROP is a collaborative project featuring acclaimed producer Shmu, who has worked with Zorch, Botany and Vinyl Williams and singer/songwriter Buttons. The project sees Buttons, whose vocals oscillate between rage-driven screaming and distorted bubblegum pop paired with Shmu’s R&B-inspired vocal stylings and kaleidoscopic production.
The duo’s self-titled full-length debut is slated for a December 25, 2025 release through Grind Select. The album sees the pair swimming between the shallow and the deep with the material thematically touching upon heartache and entanglement, social unrest and the effects of late-stage capitalism warping our sense of self identity and more. Sonically, the pair intentionally confound and subvert musical norms with verve, aggression and saccharine-fueled wonder.
The soon-to-be released album’s latest single “EYE CANDY” is a woozy, hook-driven blend of 80s R&B bass synths, shimmering and angular New Wave-like guitars and bubblegum pop that’s anchored around a pointed commentary on beauty standards in our late-stage capitalist hellscape. The song captures a narrator, whose sense of self is a bit warped — by social media influencers, memes and pop culture.
Fittingly, the video is an all pink, fever-dream that emphasizes the song’s unique mix of cute, sultriness and menace.
Throwback: Happy 86th Birthday, Eddie Kendricks!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 86th anniversary of the birth of The Temptations co-founder Eddie Kendricks.