Category: Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Halifax, Nova Scotia’s Kestrels Return with Another 90s Alt Rock-Channeling Single Paired with Slick Visuals

Interestingly, the Canadian trio’s self-titled effort’s third and latest single “Descent of Their Last End” continues on a similar vein as “No Alternative,” as it’s an anthemic bit of buzzing shoegaze that sounds as though it could have been released in 1993. We’re talking about buzzing power chords, thundering drumming and a propulsive groove that you can mosh to in a sweaty club — but with a hint of what sounds like synths that act like bookends to the song.

The recently released video is comprised of a TV siting in a middle of an urban street, and a suburban back yard with projections of weird psychedelic-like footage in empty rooms, suburban yards and slick split screens.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Surreal Visuals and Swaggering, Hyper-Futuristic Sounds of Bonzai’s “I Did”

As you’ll hear on “I Did,” the latest single off Lunacy pairs Mura Masa’s swaggering futuristic and incredibly unique production style comprised of industrial clang and clatter, stuttering and skittering beats, staccato cascades of hot, neon synths with Bonzai’s swaggering, self-assured vocal style, which nods at a young Missy Elliot. As the Irish pop artist explains “I wrote ‘I Did’ about some people I felt were jealous of me and I what I was doing cause they think they’re better than me and you know that might be true but I did something with myself and they did not.” She later explains on the incredibly technicolor and psychedelic animated video directed by Tom Bunker, which features Bonzai’s cartoon avatar running through a surreal, dream-like jungle, “the video is meant to depict a journey to success, the tree being the tough climb to the top and the voyage through space at the end being the sweet victory.”

As the video’s producer Tom Bunker adds “The original idea for the video came out of a discussion illustrator Pete Sharp and I had with Cassia [a.k.a. Bonzai) about the track It follows themes that Bonzai puts across in the track about progression in life and moving away from negativity, which could be resentment from your peers or a giant smoke monster that lives in a log. It’s a pretty relatable struggle either way. For the jungle sequences, a lot of the plant and wildlife were a mishmash of different fruits and flowers which Pete took from old Botanical drawings and references of exotic animals.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Scavenger Hunt’s “Stranger Things” and 80s Pop Inspired Sounds and Visuals for “Never Enough”

If you’ve been frequenting this site, you may recall that I wrote about “River Runs Dry,” a single off the duo’s soon to be released Shapes and Outlines EP — and that particular single found the band managing to mesh anthemic and swooning 80s-inspired synth pop with a slick, contemporary production with Lamoureaux’s sultry pop-star belter vocals. The EP’s latest single “Never Enough” is a mid-tempo bit of anthemic synth pop that sounds as though it were inspired by the likes of contemporary acts like St. Lucia and others, thanks in part to the use of chiming percussion that emphasizes the song’s hook, sinuous bass line, some Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar. Of course, I think the single will help to further cement the duo’s burgeoning reputation for crafting slick, anthemic and radio friendly electro pop with an heartfelt and swooning earnestness.

The recently released music video draws influence from both the hit Netflix show Stranger Things and from MTV-era pop videos but with an equally slick production and visual value.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Terry Malts’ Mournful Yet Radio-Friendly New Single

Over the past couple of months I’ve written about Party’s first two singles “Seen Everything,” and “Used To Be,” which both revealed a professional studio polish while retaining the band’s uncanny penchant for crafting infectious and catchy hooks while thematically the album’s first two singles possess a bittersweet and wistful nostalgia over the thing that have and will continue to change but a burgeoning Zen-like acceptance of the impermanence of all things. But they do so with a radio-friendly, power pop-inspired sound. The album’s third and latest single “Gentle Eyes” continues in a similar vein and while sounding as though it were drawing from classic power pop, the song also sounds as though it draws from early New Wave — in particular, early New Order. However, lyrically the song deals more directly with the end of a romantic relationship, in which the song’s narrator admits his role in the breakup and how his former lover’s ghost lingers everywhere for him.

The recently released video employs a very simple concept. Shot in a slightly purplish, black and white tint, the video features the band perfuming the song in a darkened studio, which emphasizes the loneliness and ache at the heart of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Russian Indie Rock Band Return with Brooding Yet Swooning New Single and Visuals

Much like it’s preceding single “Tell Me,” Dialogue’s latest single “By Your Side” is an moodily atmospheric single consisting of twinkling and shimmering synths, swirling electronics, four-on-the-floor drumming, brief blasts of plucked guitar chords and earnest and plaintive baritone in a swooning proclamation of love and devotion while further cementing their reputation for crafting material that sounds indebted to the classic 4AD Records sound.

The recently released video features fittingly moody and brooding visuals including the band preparing to record and record in a darkened studio, members of the band walking around their town and some of its quieter and lovelier sights and so on.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: clipping’s Vicious Anti-Donald Trump Diss Track “Fat Fingers”

Recently, the trio participated in the 30 Songs, 30 Days project, contributing a vicious and scathing anti-Donald Trump diss track “Fat Fingers” in which Diggs references Nas’ legendary diss track “Ether” and the Canadian anthem “O, Canada” to a sparse yet forcefully minimalist production featuring a sample of people whislting the melody of the Canadian anthem, boom bap-beats, industrial clang and clatter. Fuck Donald Trump and everything about him and his family!

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Twin Limb’s Ethereal and Sensual, Shoegazer Cover of Can’s “Yoo Doo Right”

Interestingly, to celebrate the release of their full-length effort, the trio of Bender, Ratterman and Guthrie released a swaggering, moody, sensual and shoegazer rock-leaning cover of the legendary German experimental rock/prog rock cover of Can’s “You Doo Right” that the Louisville, KY-based trio recorded live in their studio — and as you can hear, their cover possesses a towering yet cool, self-assuredness.

As the band’s Kevin Ratterman explained to the folks at CLRVYNT: “When I was building my recording studio, La La Land, Can was one of the constant soundtracks blazing through the speakers day in and out. The meditative, flowing, ever-changing rhythms and melodies were a perfect backdrop for [not only] the monotony of construction, but the excitement of building something where so much creativity was about to be captured. When Twin Limb was a duo before I joined the band, they came in to La La Land to record an album not long after construction was finished. Through working on their record, I most excitedly joined the band and I immediately heard similarities between Maryliz [Bender]’s tribal drum style and the song ‘Yoo Doo Right’ once we started working on their album. I had a fantasy of us doing a cover of that song, and was so excited to hear both their voices together singing it; Michael Karoli’s guitar playing has always been an influence on me, and [I] was so excited to play those anthemic guitar hooks. It’s scary to cover a song by a band that carries so much integrity among some of the most influential experimental musicians of our time, but the first time we played that song, it was so apparent it was going to be so free and fun to play live, especially in a small room packed to the gills of sweaty human creature people.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Hazy and Aching Visuals and Sounds of Jess Williamson’s “See You In A Dream”

“See You In A Dream” is Heart Song’s latest single and it will further cement the Austin, TX-based singer/songwriter’s burgeoning reputation for crafting material that’s lush and cinematic while being profoundly intimate and vulnerable. The ache, longing, recrimination and resolve at the core of the song not only evokes the lingering ghosts that drift and haunt your loneliest moments — perhaps drinking alone at your local bar, when everyone else has gone home and the bartenders are beginning to clean up and shut down for the night. And much like Vera Lynn’s “Auf Wiederseh’n, Sweetheart” Williamson’s “See You In A Dream” there’s a sense of regret and begrudging acceptance of people growing apart, of relationships ending and something that was once part of your present becoming part of a growing and complicated past.

Directed by Daniel Hill, the recently released video for “See You In A Dream” was inspired by an old Roky Erickson video and was shot mostly on VHS — with the VHS footage representing dream sequences, emphasizing both the ache and the lingering ghosts that inhabit the sparse arrangement.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Psychedelic Yet Nostalgic Visuals for Indie Rock Act Pamphleteers’ “Shivering”

“Shivering,” is the first single off the band’s recently released full-length debut Ghost That Follows, and the single consists of shimmering and angular guitar chords paired with propulsive drumming, tumbling bass line, Crawford’s plaintive and urgent vocals and an anthemic hook in a song that sounds as though it were inspired by 80s post-punk — but at its core the song feels simultaneously joyous over small pleasures and haunted by the ghosts of their friends and loved ones and the recognition that some losses linger forever.

The recently released video for the single fittingly uses a ton of nostalgic imagery — including a cassette tape being run through an off-brand Walkman that appears as though it were recorded onto an old VHS or Betamax tape, psychedelic imagery of people skateboarding in the California sun and amusement parks shot on Super 8 film but treated through a kaleidoscopic filters and the like.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The 60s Psych Rock and Horror Movie-Inspired Sounds and Visuals of Tele Novella’s Latest Video

“Even Steven” is the latest single off the band’s recently released House of Souls and the single sounds as though it were inspired by 60s psych pop and Roger Corman horror movies — in particular, his loopy Fall of the House of Usher, as the band pairs shimmering guitar chords played through reverb, soaring organ chords, an anthemic and infectious hook, and sultry and subtly menacing vocals in a song about a evil character, named Even Steven who does everything within his power to get even with those who he feels wronged him.

The recently released music video employs the use of Claymation, construction paper animation and collages to create a hilarious DIY video full of cartoonish gore and violence — all of which are fitting for the Halloween season.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Introducing, the Jazzy Neo-Soul Sounds of Vinegar Mother

As Vinegar Mother, the band has developed a reputation locally as they’ve played a number of shows across this fair city — including The Knitting Factory and The Studio at Webster Hall — and along with a CMJ appearance last year, the band has opened for the likes of The Lonely Biscuits, Kat Wright and The Indomitable Soul Band, Joanna Teters and Mad Satta, thanks in part to an easygoing and jazzy take on neo-soul that sounds indebted to 90s Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and others, while possessing an expansive, prog-leaning song structure, as you’ll hear on the band’s latest single “Sunny Seat.”

As Vinegar Mother’s Julia Zivic explained to the folks at Impose, “Sunny Seat,” was inspired by personal experience and a journal entry she had been writing while committing to work. “I was writing on the subway after a bad falling out with one of my longest best friends,” Zivic explained. And as the story goes, as the G train she was on crossed the Gowanus Canal Bridge, the morning sun had hit her directly in the face. While being comforted but the sun’s warmth, Zivic wouldn’t shake the unbearable feeling of loss — and she begun to write portions of the song while on the train. “I remember writing about how desperate I was to get home to Itamar and Jay and make a song out of these emotions I had. This song and its natural coming about means a whole lot to me. It cuts me deep every time we perform it.” So it shouldn’t be terribly surprising that the song while being somewhat upbeat, possesses both a morning commuter’s weariness and a deep, bitter ache.

For the recently released video, Zivic’s vocals narrate and serve as the innermost thoughts and feelings of the video’s protagonist, also played by Zivic. Throughout the video, its protagonist is reminded of the fact that not only do ghosts linger, they are inescapable and find eerie ways to haunt you. And of course, we see Zivic rush back to her bandmates in Brooklyn to ostensibly write the song with an easygoing, cool-self assuredness.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Vienna, Austria’s Hearts Hearts Return with a Brooding and Artistic Meditation on Identity, Self-Invention and Perspective

“AAA” is the Austrian quintet’s latest single off Young and sonically it’s a song that nods at Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail to the Thief-era Radiohead as shimmering guitar chords, stuttering drum programming, swirling electronics, twinkling keys and a lush string arrangement with Österle’s tender and aching falsetto expressing a deep yearning for more while possessing an underlying uncertainty at its core. Interestingly enough as the band’s frontman David Österle explained about both the song and its video treatment: “I think that the world is a place, where we can dare to pretend. ‘AAA’ deals with that basic feature of the human condition. We fake it till we make it, and thereby go (at least sometimes) astray in the plethora of metamorphoses in that societal masquerade. I think that by assuming different roles we ourselves are fulfilling the requirements of the economy, demanding excessive flexibility and changeability. As a result we all feel like faceless puppets sometimes.

“We wanted to make a video that visually underscores this figuration of identity as a permanent process of self-inventions. The video is much about showing people in different perspectives. The images are blurry, sometimes they are overlapping and merging together seamlessly. What the lens captures, is actually the performance of a performance, the play in a play.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Renowned British-born Singer/Songwriter Miten’s Elegantly Simple Cover of a Beloved Beatles Tune

Miten’s recently released Temple At Midnight is his first solo English language work in over a decade and in many ways the album finds him returning to his musical roots while writing deeply personal material inspired and influenced by his own journey to renewal, faith and love. And interestingly, the album’s latest single is an elegantly simple cover of The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” in which Miten’s soulful and wizened vocals are paired with a sparse arrangement that has Miten accompanying himself with guitar, a bit of piano here and there, a mournful string arrangement and some backing vocals from his partner and collaborator Deva Premal. And while radiating a quiet assuredness and tranquility, Miten’s cover also possesses the same wistfulness of the original.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Gorgeous and Surreal Visuals and Sounds of Pavo Pavo’s “Ran Ran Run”

If you have been frequenting this site, you may have come across a couple of posts about the band when they released their “Ran Ran Run”/”Annie Hall” 7 inch, an effort that was also praised by the folks at Stereogum as “weightless pop music that sounds like it was beamed down from a glimmering utopian future,” while nodding at the psych pop sounds of the mid 60s; but just underneath the gleaming surface, there’s a bit of unease, anxiety and rot. In my mind, the song strikes me as a feverish yet whimsical dream of simmering synths and ethereal harmonies that skip about the song’s instrumentation like a pebble being tossed across a placid lake.

The band’s long-awaited full-length debut Young Narrator in the Breakers is slated for a November 11, 2016 through Bella Union Records and to celebrate the album’s upcoming release, the band released a gorgeous and artful music video for the album’s first single “Ran Ran Run.” Directed by artist collective SWIMMERS, the video features the bandmembers in a series of surreally staged scenarios that emphasize the song’s ethereal and surreal nature. As the band’s Eliza Bagg explains of the song and the video, “‘Ran Ran Run’ is a song about the joys and sorrows of growing up, the awareness of impermanence and change — ‘time is a hole in my waterbed!’ In the video we pass through some kind of portal into a completely manufactured reality — a space that is intense but also playful, full of stark contrasts and extremes (of color, texture, mood). We’re somewhere between children and adults, literally dressing up, playing, play-acting, trying on the guises of who we might be. Actually a theme throughout this record is that the whole prospect of becoming an adult involves a little bit of fantasy — reaching for a possible world or possible self, and aiming for magic, for something over the top, fantastical.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Mind-Bending, Psychedelic Visuals and Sounds of Twin Limb’s “The Weather”

“The Weather” is the latest single off the Louisville, KY’s soon-to-be-released effort Haplo and much like the other material I’ve written about over the years, it possess a gauzy, dreamy quality — as though the song’s narrator has just been awakened from a pleasant reverie; however, where the previous singles were towering, “The Weather” is much more understated as undulating and droning keys are paired with shimmering guitar chords played through gentle amounts and reverb and sultry pop belter-like vocals in a song that focuses on a growing sense of anticipation and aching longing.

The recently released music video employs the use of kaleidoscopic filters and effects to create a trippy and mind-bending psychedelia that further evokes the song’s gauzy feel.