Category: Video Review

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Wombo Shares Nervous “S.T. Tilted”

Since their formation back in 2016, Louisville-based trio Wombo — Sydney Chadwick (vocals, bass), Cameron Lowe (guitar) and Joel Taylor (drums) — have carved out a unique lane for themselves, contorting post-punk structures into uncanny shapes. And with their Danger in Fives, which is slated for an August 8, 2025 release through Fire Talk, reportedly sees the band not only enhancing their formula, but routinely perfecting them.

To ace their techniques, the Louisville-based trio had to tear them apart first. Long-held , standardized practices of writing and workshopping material in Joel Taylor’s post-war basement rehearsal space were paused while the band explored different writing process. And that experimentation results in the band showcasing some subtle shifts and additions to their sonic palette, including digital texture and the incorporation of drum machine on a couple of tracks. The band’s desire to change their model was in part to “get away from a results mindset, where it’s about producing things for a certain expectation instead of doing it all for the joy of exploring,” the band’s Cameron Lowe says. Adds the band’s Chadwick, “I don’t want to be in a band that’s confined to one form of writing. Where’s the fun and the creativity and the exploration in that? You have to push yourself and try something new.”

Danger in Fives final advance single, “S.T. Titled,” sees the band at their distilled, purest essence. Anchored around Lowe’s angular, off-kilter bursts of scratchy guitar, Taylor’s skeletal yet propulsive drumming and Chadwick’s supple bass lines, the song’s arrangement serves as a nervous and uneasy bed for Chadwick’s dreamily mesmerizing delivery. By contrasting the deeply nervous and uneasy with the seemingly calm, the song somehow manages to evoke our current nightmarish moment in which we’re all slowly losing our minds — and trying not to show it. But, as always cracks will show . . .

“It’s the first song we wrote after the Slab EP that made it on Danger in Fives,” the band’s Lowe says of the single. “We weren’t sure it was going to work, but all the contrasting parts ended up being cool. It’s rare for a Wombo song to be written on guitar first like this one, with some of the bass and drum parts jammed out in the basement afterwards. The wacky guitar part came last.”

Directed by the band’s Cameron Lowe, the accompanying video for “S.T. Titled,” continues a run of entirely self-produced videos. The video sees the band in a hand-made waiting room set, constructed by Lowe and Chadwick in Chadwick’s garage. The band is seen anxiously waiting in the waiting room — with the expected anxiousness and unease that waiting rooms entail.

The Louisville-based trio will be marking on a tour to support the new album. The tour includes a September 12, 2025 stop at Baby’s All Right and a September 14, 2025 stop at one of my favorite rooms in Montréal, L’Escogriffe. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: poor effort. Shares Throbbing “talking mouth (on & on)”

Salford, UK-based singer/songwriter Matty Dagger is the creative mastermind behind the rising British synth punk project poor effort. Emerging last year with a run of pithy singles that included “You’re Wrong, I’m Right (Symphony)” and “HRMC,” which received coverage from DIY Magazine and Louder Than War, as well as airplay on BBC 6 Music. Those two singles saw Dagger quickly establishing a sound and approach that saw him parting trippy beats and pencil-sketch riffs with relatable humor. While being a barrage against a surrender to bleakness and hopelessness, the Salford-based artist has specifically set out to cultivate a distinct environment of lo-fi storytelling.

The Salford-based artist built upon a growing profile by playing with a rotating cast of musicians in venues across the region, including Colours Hoxton and The Eagle Inn — with more shows scheduled throughout the rest of this year.

Dagger’s Dean Glover-produced poor effort self-titled EP reportedly sees him dipping in and out of alternative hip-hop, post-punk and electronica while inspired by Benefits, Sleaford Mods and Kate Tempest and lengthy lockdown periods in which he put self-taught production techniques and poetry to tape.

The debut EP is slated for an October 3, 2025 release through Manchester-based Home Taping in partnership with EMI North. The EP will feature the previously released “City of Hope,” which received airplay from BBC 6 Music, BBC Introducing Manchester and Radio X. The EP’s latest single “talking mouth (on & on)” continues a run of material anchored around a minimalist as maximalist ethos that reminds me a bit of JOVM mainstays The Vacant Lots. Featuring a throbbing and propulsive bass line, driving beats and a glistening synth melody, the song’s instrumentation serves as a woozy bed for Dagger’s laconic delivery.

Thematically, the song address the chaos of communication overload and how “conclusion arrives before irony does in the slow death of nuance,” according to Dagger.

“At first ‘talking mouth’ was a lot faster and more of a thrashy garage punk song, but I struggled to get the chorus to feel right at that pace. I slowed the tempo down and found that this let it breathe a lot more while still maintaining its distinct drive,” the rising Salford-based artist says. “The synth melody and sequencers then transformed the nature of the song completely. The initial recordings are still lying around somewhere, maybe I’ll put them on the bonus compilation in 2050.”

Fittingly, the accompanying video features Dagger and band performing in a studio, shot in a grainy security-style footage with an explosion of handwritten song lyrics and musings, typed out words, Polaroid photos and more.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Dutch Mustard Shares Breakneck and Escapist “Life”

Dutch-born, London-based artist Sarah-Jayne “SJ” Riedel is the creative mastermind behind the rising indie recording project Dutch Mustard. With Dutch Mustard, Riedel blends ethereal dream pop, 90s alt-rock with shoegaze touches to create a soundscape that features painterly and swirling guitar textures while the Dutch-born artist’s vocals drift between a near whisper and yearning, heavenly arching shouts. 

Riedel and Dutch Mustard exploded into the British scene with the release of 2022’s debut EP An Interpretation of Depersonalisation, an effort that was featured by the BBC while receiving airplay on BBC Radio 1’s Future Artists with Jack Saunders and a co-sign from the legendary Iggy Pop.

2023’s sophomore EP,  Beauty received airplay from BBC Radio 6’s Lauren Laverne and co-signs from Don Letts and Amy Lamé. Adding to a growing profile, The Independent, The Line of Best Fit, Clash, Dork and Notion have all covered her — and The Grammy Awards selected her a one of 6 Female Fronted Acts Reviving Rock, along with Wet Leg. 

Since then, the Dutch-born, London-based artist has been busy: She has released a couple of singles — two of which I’ve written about here: “Loser” and “Dreaming,” which was released earlier this year. She followed that up with her Stateside debut at The New Colossus Festival earlier this year. Building upon a growing international profile, Riedel’s latest single, the Dean James Barrett, Craigie Dodds and Riedel co-written “Life” is a breakneck, Brit Pop meets industrial punk-like track anchored around taut, skittering beats and buzzing power chord-driven riffs that continues a run of material that showcases her unerring knack for crafting catchy, rousingly anthemic hooks. While being one of the punchiest songs of her growing catalog, “Life,” as she says “is the soundtrack to that heartbreak you should’ve seen coming, when everything gets so chaotic and absurd, all you want to do is tap out for a minute.”

Directed by Josiah Newbolt, the accompanying video is split between gritty black and white shot footage of Riedel and her backing band out in the streets, as we follow her to a studio for a carefully choreographed dance routine. The result is an urgent and vivid fever dream.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Public Circuit Shares Twinkling and Percussive “To The Grave”

Although they formed back in 2023, rising New York-based electronic music trio Public Circuit — Ethan Beaumont (vocals), Sean Holloway (drums) and Nelson Fisher (electronics) — exploded into the scene with last year’s full-length debut, Lamb, which they supported with sold-out shows across 30 states, including a run of the domestic festival circuit with sets at New Colossus Festival, Hopscotch and MACROCK. Building upon a growing profile, the trio’s highly anticipated sophomore album Modern Church is slated for a September 12, 2025 release through à La Carte Records.

Modern Church reportedly sees the New York-based trio dismantling and reassembling post-punk with surgical precision. The pretense of retro revivalism is swapped out for something much sharper, darker — and entirely their own. Sonically rooted in the trio’s newfound sense of collaboration between each other, the album’s material features angular electronic instrumentation and raw percussive rhythms bathed with the high gloss ache of sophsitipop.

Thematically, the material is overtly religious. But it’s used as an analogically tool to explore sexual identity, the fleeting faith of society and the illicit repercussions of unresolved trauma. And much like its immediate predecessor, the new album continues a run of material deeply influenced by New York’s constant feed of noise and relentless energy.

Modern Church‘s second and latest single “To The Grave” sees the rising New York trio pairing twinkling synths with relentlessly driving rhythmic pulse in a way that reminds me a bit of Information Society’s “What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy)” and Violator-era Depeche Mode while rooted in a deeply neurotic and unresolved tension — and a deep seated fear to live in one’s truth.

“Life is frail – Many people live a life where they never fully resolve trauma, hatred, etc., and, therefore, take it to the grave with them,” the members of Public Circuit explain. “Whether it be childhood trauma, gender expression / exploration, or failed romances; this song is inspired by moments left unresolved or, otherwise, unspoken.”

Shot on grainy VHS by Nara Avakian and edited by the band’s Ethan Biamont, the accompanying video for “To The Grave” follows the members of the band as they dig a grave and then bury a body in the woods — a secret that has to be kept until death.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New VIdeo: Tame Impala Shares Euphoric and Trippy “End Of Summer”

Tame Impala’s latest single “End Of Summer” is the first bit of new material from the acclaimed Aussie multi-instrumentalist, producer, and singer/songwriter Kevin Parker since 2020’s The Slow Rush — and is the first release on his new label home Columbia Records.

“End Of Summer” sees the Tame Impala mastermind pushing his acclaimed project into a completely new direction as the euphoric track channels acid house, deep house while still remaining trippy and mind-bending.

“End Of Summer” is accompanied by a narrative visual directed and edited by multi-disciplinary artist Julian Klincewicz that follows Parker in the creation of the song, while on an abandoned train car and wandering through the streets of a city in a fashion that kind of reminds me of Purple Rain.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Faetooth Shares Forceful and Stormy “Hole”

Led by Jenna Garcia (vocals, bass), Los Angeles-based outfit Faetooth specializes in a sound that they’ve dubbed “fairy-doom:” a unique and eclectic amalgamation of doom metal paired with vocals that alternate between spellbinding melodies to guttural shrieks and howls. 

Last month, the Los Angeles-based outfit announced their highly-anticipated sophomore album Labyrinthine will be slated for a September 5 release digitally through AWAL and on vinyl and CD by The Flenser. Labyrinthine will reportedly see the band further establishing their “fairy-doom” sound while embracing a newly softened, more intimate tone, anchored around emotional rawness.

Throughout the album, the material touches upon themes of loss, self-pity, personal relationships and more. The inmate balance doesn’t dilute their intensity; rather it reframes it, offering listeners a haunting yet delicate atmosphere, layered with entrancing textures that build up to explosive catharsis. The result is an album that’s a hauntingly visceral and disturbing vision, anchored by deep introspection. 

Labyrinthine will feature the previously released, “Death of Day” which to my ears channeled the likes of Tool and JOVM mainstays Slumbering Sun, and “White Noise,” a bruising ripper rooted in a palpable and unsettling mix of anguish, despair, loathing and fury that feels both lived in and deeply familiar. 

“Hole,” the album’s latest single is a slow-burning and meditative doom metal dirge that slowly builds up into a bruising and stormy intensity, fueled by a lived in urgency and desperation to get away from a seemingly fucked up past and fucked up cycles of dysfunction, abuse, etc. And much like the previously released singles, “Hole” does so with an innately empathetic sensibility that says to the listener “I’ve been there. You aren’t alone.”

 

“’Hole’ is a meditation on the choice of confronting the past, or burying it,” the band’s Jenna Garcia explains. “Sobering, waking, realizations of cycles find themselves bared, culminating in an invocation-like verse that declares severance to all ties to a creeping past.”

Directed by Joe Mischo, the cinematically shot visual for “Hole” follows a a woman frantically running through a wooded countryside that includes madness, regret, possession and witches.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Street Eaters Share Furious and Impassioned “Tempers”

Oakland-based post punk outfit Street Eaters — co-founders Megan March (vocals, drums) and John No (bass, vocals), along with Joan Toledo (guitar) — will be releasing their long-awaited and highly-anticipated fifth album, Opaque on September 5, 2025 through Dirt Cult Records. The seven-song album reportedly sees the trio attempting to stitch up the bloody wounds of their past while being a meditation on birth, death, excavated trauma, and trying to find steadfast kinfolk in a world that’s increasingly splintered, fucked up and cruel.

Much like all of us, Street Eaters have been through the wringer a bit since 2017’s The Envoy.

The band’s guitarist Joan Toledo, left a transphobic family and government in her native Florida, eventually relocating to San Francisco, where they became an editor at Maximum Rocknroll Magazine and a radical union organizer at the world famous City Lights Books.

The band’s front woman Megan March had a child. And while becoming am other was, as she puts it, “and incredible joy and opportunity to rewire emotional pathways and deep wounds,” it was also a reminder of her own childhood: March’s mother was violently homophobic and eventually threw Megan and her teenage sister — both queer — from their childhood home.

For March, childbirth was both a traumatizing and transformational experience. Ironically born on July 4, her baby immediately entered a world steeped in bureaucracy: The hospital was so understaffed that March was neglected until the last moment and was forced to endure an emerging C-section. “I was borderline dehumanized by the toxic, misogynistic nature of the American medical system and its focus on efficiency and profit before care,” she says.

“Opaque is a record that gets deep into the stark and beautiful reality of growth and transition from trauma and loss,” Street Eaters’ March explains. “What does it mean to wake up one day and realize you are living the way you have always demanded to live  — yet with all those jagged piles of emotional, physical, and social/political baggage still slicing through the veil?” The album isn’t just confrontational; it’s complicated. It sees the band, much like the rest of us, groping towards identity, understanding, and a place in the world in the process of being curated. “It’s a transition into finding peace with the world — a resonant connection with community and chosen family, getting beyond a lot of the pain and hurt,” the band’s John No says. “We’re trying to suture up wounds at this point and create something that’s healthy.”

Opaque‘s first single “Tempers” is a furious, adrenaline pumping ripper featuring scuzzy, serrated power chords, thunderous guitars and March’s urgent and impassioned vocals. March says, the song is about “being in isolation and not being sure what the future is going to be like and how things will be when the storm is over.”

The accompanying video directed by Krista Wright and Theo Garvey, in a hospital waiting room, where no one ever seems to get helped with anything. The band turns the hospital room into a stage that they rip up with a furious performance of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Automatic Returns with Trip Hop-Inspired “Mercury”

Formed almost a decade ago, Los Angeles-based post punk outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon Gaines (bass, vocals) — have released two albums:

  • Their full-length debut, 2019’s Signals saw the trio quickly establishing their sound, which paired motorik grooves with icy atmospheres. 

  • Their sophomore effort, 2022’s Excess saw the band sonically riding an imaginary edge where the 70s underground met 80s corporate culture. 

After they finished touring to support their sophomore album, each member of the trio pursued their own interests: Glaudini honed her skills as a producer; Saxon Gaines enrolled in botany classes; and Dompé got married, moved out to the country and began caring for horses. 

With two albums under their collective belts, the trio wanted to do something different for their third album. Slated for a fall release through Stones Throw Records. Is It Now? sees the trio collaborating with producer Loren Humphrey to build upon the sound of their previous releases — minimalist yet danceable songs, which they describe as “deviant pop.”  Throughout the album’s recording process, Humphrey encouraged the band to play live and loose through long takes that allowed the rhythm section to breathe.

Is It Now? will feature album title track, “Is It Now?,” a continuation of the sound they’ve established through their first two albums, while simultaneously being a subtle refine with one of the tightest grooves they’ve written to date with their unerring knack for catchy hooks. And at its core, the song expresses a deeply modern sense of unease and restlessness.

Is It Now?‘s second and latest single, “Mercury” is a brooding and slow-burning, trip hop-like track featuring glistening synth stabs and a propulsive backbeat sample that’s heavily inspired by the Stones Throw catalog. The band’s Izzy Glaudini says, the song’s lyrics are a reminder “not to fall into nihilism or cynicism, to instead see life through a bit of a spiritual lens.” She adds, “Despite the horrible shit constantly happening, life can still be mysterious and beautiful. I wanted to lean into a sense of dreaminess, and to have the verses feel like a dark lullaby.”

Directed by Sira Sounds, the accompanying, dreamily shot visual features the trio — both individually and as a unit — drinking from a goblet with green liquid.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: A!MS and ArrDee Team Up on Breezy and Soulful “Need Somebody”

Currently based in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, A!MS is an emerging and rising artist, who has developed a sound and approach that he has dubbed “Global Street,” which is informed by his multicultural background and blends hip-hop’s spirit, street culture, global sounds and digital-era creativity. The Cyprus-based artist sees this new, hybrid sub-genre as a home for artists beyond traditional scenes, that will unite voices from overlooked corners of the globe with a “as street, as it is worldwide” ethos. 

His forthcoming album Peak Season will feature the previously released Antaeus-produced “Light & Love,” feat. Julian Marley and Hypertone while reportedly cementing his Global Street sound. Peak Season‘s latest single, the Golden Boy-produced, Stjge co-written “Need Somebody” feat. UK-based rapper ArrDee is a hook-driven, summery bop which continues a run of material that effortlessly blends Afrobeats, dancehall and hip-hop.

Throughout the song, the Cyprus-based artist and the UK-based rapper trade verses that deliver a much-needed message of escape, safety and uplift in our mad uneasy time.

Directed by WALKMNS, the accompanying video for “Need Somebody” is a slick and stylish visual that features some playful moments, including a young girl, who’s missing her two front teeth smiling for the camera.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rakim Teams Up with Dem Jointz and Detroit’s Lazarus on Hard-Hitting Anthem “Not To Be Defined”

The legendary God MC, Rakim will be releasing his fourth solo album, The Re-Up on August 29, 2025 through 1332 Records on all digital streaming platforms with physical copies — that’s right, vinyl, CDs and cassette tape — available right now.

The Re-Up‘s first single, the Dem Jointz-produced “Not To Be Defined,” is a collaboration with Detroit-based emcee and certified physician Lazarus, who was featured in the US Library of Congress for being the first artist to premiere a song from space. “Not To Be Defined” marks a first for the beloved, hip-hop legend, who has helped make the genre a global phenomenon — the first time that he has worked with a Detroit-based artist, ever.

Rakim and Lazarus deftly trade inspired, lyrically packed bars over Dem Jointz’s broodingly cinematic, thumping boom-bap Preemo-meets-Pete Rock-like production. While serving as a meeting of like-minds across different generations, “Not To Be Defined” is a forceful reminder of hip-hop’s artistry and power when true lyricists with something to say grab the mic. And for those, who think that they can’t find that real shit, it’s out there; you just have to make more of an effort to find it.

Directed by Matt Alonzo, the accompanying, slickly edited video features the two emcees on a Detroit rooftop and a studio, spitting bars. Fittingly, the video is no-filler, no bullshit — just real shit.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: she’s green Shares Shimmering and Bittersweet “Willow”

Minneapolis-based outfit she’s green — Zofia Smith (vocals), Liam Armstrong (guitar), Raimes Lucas (guitar), Teddy Nordvold (guitar) and Kevin Seeback (drums) — specialize in crafting dreamy soundscapes that transport the listener to scenes of soft summer rain and fields of swaying wheat, infused with raw emotional intensity. 

With the release of their earliest singles “river” and “smile again,” the Minneapolis-based quintet quickly became a staple within the Midwestern alternative scene, while earning praise from Complex, Star Tribune and The Current. Their debut EP, 2023’s Wisteria saw the band establishing an honest and exploratory songwriting process and a reputation for being a force in the world of sonic surrealism. Adding to a growing profile, the rising Minnesotans have supported their material with tours throughout the Midwest and East Coast with the likes of Hotline TNT, Glixen, Friko and others. 

Earlier this year, she’s green recently signed to New York-based Photo Finish Records, who will be releasing the band’s highly-anticipated Henry Stoehr-sophomore EP Chrysalis on August 15, 2025. The EP will feature the previously released  Souvlaki-era Slowdive-like “Graze,” which I wrote about earlier this year.

The EP’s third and latest single “Willow” is a shimmering, rousing The Sundays-meets-A Storm in Heaven-like showcasing the band’s penchant for rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses paired with Zofia Smith’s dreamy and ethereal delivery floating over thunderous drumming and swirling and hazy, shoegazer guitar textures. While arguably being one of the more energetic songs on the new EP, “Willow” is underpinned by a bittersweet and uneasy longing over something that you’re slowly losing — and that you can’t possibly stop.

“‘Willow’ reflects on our dying relationship with the natural world—a relationship that’s not always loving, but formative nonetheless,” the band explains. “It’s an energetic song that we love playing live.”

The accompanying video features the band’s frontperson Zofia Smith wandering through a forest, looking towards the dappled light shining through the tree canopy. While there’s longing and sadness in there voice, the light on her face also suggest that there’s hope just on the other side. But as the video ends, the viewer’s viewpoint becomes increasingly blurry as she sings about uncertainty and melancholy.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Living Hour Shares Fuzzy and Simmering “Wheel”

Acclaimed Winnipeg-based indie quintet Living Hour — Sam Sarty (vocals, multi-instrumentalist), Gil Carroll (guitar), Adam Soloway (guitar, vocals), Brett Ticzon (bass, keys) and Issac Tate (drums) — will be releasing their Melina Duterte, a.k.a. Jay Som-produced fourth album Internal Drone Infinity through Keeled Scales and Paper Bag Records on October 17, 2025. Initially known for their lush fusion of dream pop and shoegaze, the Canadian quintet have continually evolved throughout their history, gradually merging folk-inflected slowcore, fuzzy indie pop and hazy noise rock into a sound that’s expansive and emotionally piercing.

Internal Drone Infinity was recorded during the stark, isolating cold of a Manitoba/Winnipeg November. Duterte flew in the day after performing on Saturday Night Live with Boygenius, and the energy of that whirlwind transition seeped into record’s intimate yet vast emotional core.

Drawing from Yo La Tengo, Magnolia Electric Co., The Weakerthans, Feeble Little Horse, Yuck and DIIV, Internal Drone Infinity sees Living Hour reportedly crafting a striking sonic atmosphere, full of icy, melodic vocals, grainy textures, twangy warmth, screeching distortion and immersive percussion. Thematically, the album explores the cyclical process of observation, documentation and projection. While being a raw, commanding expansion of their long-held dreamy sound, the album’s material also gives voice to the quiet strength and simmering rage of the overlooked.

Before I forget, drums on two album tracks, “Wheel” and “Texting” were recorded by The Weakerthans’ Jason Tait at his Winnipeg home studio.

The forthcoming album’s first single “Wheel” is angsty and fuzzy, 120 Minutes MTV-era alternative rock-like track, which features arguably some of the biggest and catchiest hooks and choruses they’ve written or recorded paired with the band’s unerring knack for breezy melodies. But just underneath the surface, the song is a tale of simmering and uneasy rage about being taken advantage of — and unnecessarily being put in danger.

“The story of ‘Wheel’ begins with buying a car off Facebook Marketplace in BC,” the band’s Sam Sarty explains. “Turns out the car was junk, but I had no choice but to drive it home to Winnipeg. It took 3 days. I was driving through the mountains, and the headlights were so dim, and for a stretch there was nowhere to turn off. It felt like a weird, horrific video game–navigating the road and dodging danger and trying not to die. I also felt so deeply betrayed by all the men involved in the whole thing.  

“These men feel like a series of characters now. I felt so powerless in this weird system that prioritizes men and their opinions. In this song, I was able to imagine an alternate reality where I’m a vengeful spectator in these men’s lives. What if I had died on the road, and what if I came back and plagued them all with my powerful essence that they so easily dismissed, contorted and took advantage of in order to sell me a fucked up car?”

“I fantasized about how it would feel to ‘fall off the wheel’ and lean into this witchy, monstered realm of existence where men are de-centered. One where I would have no hesitation to put those men in the same danger they put me in.”

Filmed by Leigh Lugosi, the accompanying video for “Wheel” was shot on VHS and features the band performing the song in the studio, doing band hang out/photo shoot kind of stuff, as well as goofing off. And fittingly, it feels like it could have aired on 120 Minutes back in the day.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: TTSSFU Shares Yearning and Propulsive “Call U Back”

Tasmin Nicole Stephens is a Wigan, UK-born, Manchester, UK-based producer, singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind behind the emerging and rising DIY shoegaze solo recording project TTSSFU (pronounced phonetically as T-T-S-S-F-U). With her TTSSFU debut EP, last year’s Me, Jed and Andy, Stephens quickly established an enormous and atmospheric sound, which some said deftly combined the dreamy and eerie qualities of The Cure with the breakneck BPMs of bands like The Strokes and The Drums.

Me, Jed and Andy EP featured “I Hope You Die,” which amassed well over, one-million streams on YouTube and “Studio 54.” Adding to a growing profile across the UK and elsewhere, the rising Wigan-born, Manchester-based artist began making the rounds of the British festival circuit, playing sets at Green Man, Bristol Sounds and Manchester Psych Fest among others. She also landed opening slots for the legendary Kim Deal, acclaimed JOVM mainstay Soccer Mommy, Mannequin Pussy and  English Teacher.

The rising British artist closed out last year by signing with Partisan Records, who will release her highly-anticipated sophomore EP, the seven-song Blown on August 29, 2025. Having gone into the EP intending to “write some pop songs and something happy,” what came out was much more aligned with her songwriting approach. The result is a quasi-real-time document of Stephens’ life in all of its messy and uneasy contradictions. pierced together by her diverse musicality and a souped-up sonic palette.

Blown EP‘s first single, the Chris Ryan co-produced “Call U Back” opens with an eerie, squealing siren call-like burst of feedback that wails through the song before it quickly turns into a propulsive and broodingly atmospheric bed for Stephens’ yearning delivery. The new single continues to showcase an artist with an unerring knack for pairing remarkably catchy hooks with unvarnished, deeply lived-in lyricism and songwriting.

“‘Call U Back’ is a song about when you really like someone and you chase them around to try and make it work, but end up just making a fool of yourself by holding onto the slightest chance of it working,” Stephens explains. “When you listen to it, imagine you’re drunk on a night out at the point that things slowly start to just feel awful…”

Directed by Lewis Vorn, edited Desperate Pervert Graphics’ Shea McChrystal, the accompanying lyric video for “Call U Back” features the rising British artist an old-fashioned landline, shot in grainy and glitchy VHS-styled tape, desperately attempting to reach al love interest, who may not all that interesting. And throughout the video, we see her start to lose her mind — perhaps from the fact that she has wasted her time on someone who’s not worth it.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Friendship Commanders Share Two Fierce, Earnest Anthems

Nashville-based duo and JOVM mainstays Friendship Commanders — Buick Audra (vocals, guitar) and Jerry Roe (drums, bass) — will be releasing their fourth album BEAR on October 10 through their new label home Magnetic Eye Records.

Co-produced by the band’s members and longtime collaborator Kurt Ballou, who also tracked the instrumental performances and mixed the material, BEAR’s songs are unified in a theme that runs throughout in various ways: the ever-elusive idea of belonging, where it occurs and where it absolutely doesn’t.

Written around the realization that she had essentially been kicked out of womanhood, Friendship Commanders’ Buick Audra wrote BEAR‘s material as a way to document her awarenesses while cataloging other areas of human connection: art, outsider culture, and dark rock venues — all places where empathy and creativity grow wild. She and her bandmate Jerry Roe arranged and performed the album specifically to have two sides to it musically: heavy and light. Salt and sugar. Fire and air. Lost and found.

The JOVM mainstays have excitedly shared two album tracks from the forthcoming album: “MELT,” is a breakneck, yet bold, heart-worn-on-sleeve anthem that showcases the duo’s unerring knack for paring arena rock-like bombast, complete with enormous riffs and thunderous drumming, with earnest, deeply lived-in lyricism and songwriting. “MELT” features what may arguably be among the most syrupy sweet melodies they’ve recorded of their growing catalog while expressing a sense of betrayal, confusion and heartache, a sort of et tu Brute? moment for the song’s narrator.

Directed by the band’s Jerry Roe with cinematography by Roe and Jarad Clement, the accompanying video for “MELT” was shot at Nashville’s DRKMTTR, where the band has built their own community and features familiar faces and friends from their music scene. It captures the sweaty joy of going to a show and bonding with both new and old friends over your love of a band; of that shared sense of a band or a musician singing songs that seem to speak about you and your life, the things you’ve felt and the things you’ve seen.

“KEEPING SCORE,” will further cement the JOVM mainstays heart-worn-on-sleeve ethos but while being a breakneck and defiant, war cry of an adult, who has learned how to parent and protect her childhood self, and is willing and able to defend young girls, who remind her of herself when she was their age from the insults and ill-treatment she received.

The accompanying video for “KEEPING SCORE” was directed and edited by the band’s Jerry Roe and features cinematography from Roe and Jarad Clement. Shot at Franklin, TN-based Westlight Studios, the video features the duo performing the song in a cinematic black and white, with stylish lighting.

“‘KEEPING SCORE’ was the first song written for BEAR. I think of it as the mother of the album,” Audra says. “When I was a kid, the mother of my best friend, a boy, singled me out as a problem for her son and all the other boys in our skateboarding crew. She was afraid I was corrupting them somehow. She called around and spread non-truths about me to the other parents, some of whom I’d never met. It was devastating, humiliating beyond words. Years later, I realized women in my own generation were doing the same thing to little girls who knew their sons. Little girls! Age seven, eight! Being called ‘hussies’ by grown women! Color me horrified. Color me involved. Now that I can speak for myself, I will also speak for girls like me. Someone should. The propulsive riff on this song is my war cry.”

“‘MELT’ is about realizing I’ve never really fit with my own kind, something I’ve only come to terms with in the last two years or so,” the Friendship Commanders frontperson continues. “I’ve spent so much time and energy trying to be a woman among women, but at the end of the day, I’m just always over here being too loud. Too much. And yet, somehow also not enough. It’s a stunning paradox. Musically, the song has a sugary quality to it, which is also referenced in the line, ‘that’s how they punch you, sugar over fists.’ This track beats me up because it’s so painfully true, but it’s also a delight to play.”

“These songs were so exciting to hear when Buick played them for me for the first time – pretty unlike anything we’d ever done up to this point in terms of energy and propulsion,” the band’s Jerry Roe adds. “Our music has tended to move either fast or slow while somehow feeling heavy at all times, and these songs lean and move forward in a way that’s much brighter and quite joyful, even through the subject matter. To play them almost feels like being flown through the air towards a gigantic bullseye made of fiery confetti! I can’t wait to play this new album live.”

You can preorder the forthcoming album here.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Dragon’s Kiss Shares Bruising Ripper “Road Warrior”

Portuguese sextet Dragon’s Kiss — Tiago “Bastard” Teixeira (vocals), Adam “Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlawa” Neal (vocals), Hugo “Rattlesnake” Conim (guitar), Dário “Tornado” Granadeiro (guitar), António “Thunder” Seixas (bass), Marco “Pain” Dores (drums) — exploded into the international metal scene with 2014’s Barbarians of the Wasteland.

The Portuguese’s long-anticipated, self-produced, sophomore album, The Return of the Wild Dogs is slated for a July 21, 2025 release through Firecum Records. The album will reportedly feature six, no-filler, all-killer, no-bullshit tracks that showcases what the band is about: blazingly fast riffs, razor-sharp solos, pummeling rhythms and a relentlessly raw energy. Unconcerned with trends and overproduction, the band has crafted pure, timeless heavy metal rooted in speed, attitude and grit.

The Return of the Wild Dogs‘ latest single “Road Warrior” is a bruising ripper that showcases the band’s dexterously played, blazing riffage, pummeling and propulsive rhythm section, and their knack for mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses. While bringing the RidingEasy Records roster to mind, the song’s lyrics focus on a post apocalyptic world seemingly inspired by our desperate and uneasy moment and Mad Max.