Category: Video Review

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tonguetied Shares Glistening and Brooding “Selfish Girl”

Drawing from folk and electronic music, rising British artist Elena Garcia, best known as Tonguetied sees her work as a balance-point between Julia Jacklin and Grimes with nods from Young Fathers, Kate Bush, Caroline Polachek, Daughter and Yuné Pinku.

In a relatively short period of time, Garcia’s work has caught the attention of major British outlets like The Independent, Clash Magazine and BBC Radio 6. Building upon a growing profile, Garcia’s Tonguetied debut EP BLOOM is slated for an October 27, 2023 release.

BLOOM reportedly sees Garcia pairing the songwriting of a diarist, carefully treading a line between a direct and indirect gaze with what’s quickly becoming her trademark production style — arpeggiated synth pulses paired with her ethereal delivery.

The EP’s latest single “Selfish Girl” is built around glistening synth pulses, thumping beats and a driving groove serving as a lush and silky bed for Garcia’s ethereal vocal, expressing yearning to fit in, frustration, the sensation of not quite fitting in, and unease within the turn of a phrase — and within a lived-in specificity that should feel familiar to almost all of us.


“Born from a place of frustration, ‘Selfish Girl’ was one of the fastest songs I’ve ever written. The lyrics and melody came to life within around 15 minutes,” Garcia explains.

“As I grow and find my footing in this strange and very often unfair world, I become increasingly aware of those around me who don’t seem to align on the importance of self reflection. We all make mistakes, and all have moments of taking our lives for granted, but a perpetual inability to entertain the privilege you walk through life with, starts to become inexcusable. 
 

Navigating friendships and communication in your 20s can be difficult – Selfish Girl provides me with an outlet to scream ‘I don’t care what you have to say’ into the musical abyss, and save my more put-together and perhaps constructive conversational approach, for real life.” 

Shot by Zak Watson of Timestorm Productions, the accompanying video for “Selfish Girl” captures the rising British artist at dawn in silhouette and with sweeping cinematic aplomb and in brooding shots in stark, dream-like wood scenes.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Elisapie’s Yearning Rendition of Queen’s “I Want to Break Free”

Acclaimed Montréal-based singer/songwriter, musician, actor and activist Elisapie was born and raised in Salluit, a small village in Nunavik, Québec’s northernmost region. In this extremely remote community, accessible only by plane, she was raised by an extended, yet slightly dysfunctional adoptive family. Growing up in Salluit, she lived through the loss of cousins who ended their lives, experienced young love, danced the night away at the village’s community center and witnessed first hand, the effects of colonialism — i.e., poverty, hopelessness, alcoholism, suicide, and more. 

Much like countless bright and ambitious young people across the world, the Salluit-born artist moved to the big city — in this case, Montréal to study and, ultimately, pursue a career in music. Since then, her work whether within the confines of a band or as as solo artist constantly displays her unconditional attachment to her native territory, its people, and to her language, Inuktitut. Spoken for millennia, Inuktitut embodies the harshness of its environment and the wild yet breathtaking beauty of the Inuit territory. Thematically, her work frequently pairs Inuit themes and concerns with modern rock music, mixing tradition with modernity in a deft, seamless fashion. 

She won her first Juno Award as a member of Taima, and since stepping out into the spotlight as a solo artist, her work has received rapturous critical acclaim: 2018’s The Ballad of the Runaway Girl was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, and earned her a number of Association du disque, de l’industrie du spectacle Québeécois (ADISQ) Felix Awards and a Juno Award nod. She followed up with a performance with the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal — at the invitation of Grammy Award-winning maestro Yannick Nézet Séguin — at Central Park SummerStage, a NPR Tiny Desk Session and headlining or festival sets both locally and internationally. 

In her native Canada, she is also known as an actor, starring in the TV series Motel Paradis and C.S. Roy’s experimental indie film VFC, which was released earlier this year. She has also graced the cover of a number of magazines including Châtelaine, Elle Québec and a long list of others. And as a devoted activist, she created and produced the first nation-wide broadcast TV show to celebrate National Indigenous People’s Day. 

Slated for a Friday release through Bonsound, her fourth solo album Inuktitut features inventive re-imaginings of songs by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Blondie, Fleetwood Mac, Metallica and more. Each of the acts and artists covered have warmly given their blessing to receive the acclaimed Canadian artist’s unique treatment. Fittingly, each song is imbued with depth and purpose, as the album’s material is an act of cultural re-appropriation that reinvigorates the poetry of these beloved songs by placing them within Inuit traditions. 

Through the album’s 10 songs, the acclaimed Inuk tells her story and offers these songs as a loving gift to her community, making her language and culture resonate well beyond the borders of the Inuit territory. But the album is also a testament to the power and remarkable universality of pop music, a reminder of the universality of human life, and fittingly an ode to the experiences, memories, places and people, who have shaped us.

So far, I’ve written about three of the album’s released singles: 

“Taimangalimaaq (Time After Time),” a gorgeous and fairly faithful Inuktiut adaptation of Cyndi Lauper‘s 1983 Rob Hyman co-written smash hit “Time After Time” that retains the familiar beloved melody of the original paired with a percussive yet atmospheric arrangement and the Salluit-born, Montréal-based artist’s gorgeous, achingly tender delivery. 

“Taimangalimaaq (Time After Time)” was inspired by a childhood memory of Elisapie’s aunt Alasie and her cousin Susie:
 

“I was able to get through my pre-teen years, thanks to my Aunt Alasie, as my mother had neither the knowledge nor the experience to give me a crash course on puberty, fashion or social relationships,” Elisapie recalls. “In addition to entering a new chapter in my life, we were in the midst of the 80’s and modernity was shaking up our traditional methods. My mother’s generation had lived in Igloos, and the cultural changes were too swift. 

“Despite her struggles, my aunt ensured I felt accepted and exposed me to new and modern things like TV, clothes, dancing, Kraft Dinner and make-up! 

 Whenever I went to my aunt’s house, I was in awe of my older girl cousins. They were all so cool and stylish, and they loved pop music and the crazy makeup of the 80s and early 90s.  One of my favorite memories is listening to the radio with them and hearing Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’ for the first time. It was like a lightning bolt, and I couldn’t separate the song or the artist from my older cousin Susie. For me, the song was all about her search for beauty, connection, love, and rising above pain.”

“Isumagijunnaitaungituq (The Unforgiven),” a hauntingly gorgeous, dream-like re-imagining of Metallica’s “The Unforgiven” that retains the song’s familiar melody but featuring an arrangement of traditional drums and flute and acoustic guitar paired with the acclaimed Canadian artist’s equally gorgeous, yearning delivery, some brooding synths and the incorporation of Inuktitut throat singing.

“Isumagijunnaitaungituq (The Unforgiven)” finds the acclaimed Canadian artist paying tribute to the Inuit men of Salluit and nodding to the time she interviewed Metallica’s Kirk Hammett in the early 90s:

“When I was 14 years old, I applied for a job at TNI, the first Inuit TV-radio broadcaster, and I was thrilled when I was chosen for the position! Everyone at the station dreamed big, and they put in a request for an interview with Metallica. The band was so loved in Salluit that we had to give it a shot. Metallica accepted only two interviews on their Québec tour, and TNI was chosen. In my boys’ eyes, I was the coolest!

As a teenager, I only wanted to hang around the gang of boys in my village. We would all go to my cousin’s house and smoke weed while listening to Metallica. The band’s music allowed us to delve into the darkness of our broken souls and feel good there. Men’s roles in our territory had been challenged by colonization, and it had become confusing what life was supposed to look like for a man. My boys were seeking new roles, and subconsciously, I allowed them to be my bodyguards so they could feel strong. Looking back, I was trying to give them the strength to find their place.
 

“‘Isumagijunnaitaungituq (The Unforgiven)’ incorporates throat singing, known as katajjaq in Inuktitut. It felt like katajjaq was so appropriate, says Elisapie. It is Inuit women who throat sing. Inuit women, mothers and grandmothers had to be the nurturing ones during the hard times, as men were struggling emotionally due to colonialism. Through this song, I wanted the feminine strength to balance the men’s challenges.”

“Qimmijuat (Wild Horses),” a gorgeous reimagining of the classic Rolling Stones tune “Wild Horses,” which retains the original’s yearning and tender ache, but places the beloved melody in a hauntingly sparse arrangement by her longtime collaborator Joe Grass that that features a plaintive piano melody by Leif Vollebekk, a gorgeous, bluesy guitar solo and striking drumming from Robbie Kuster. Elisapie’s yearning delivery ethereally floats over the arrangement. 

The song is a tribute to a childhood friend of Elisapie who had a difficult home life due to his parent’s separation and a strained relationship with his father. “Wild Horses became a source of comfort for him and his obsession with it was palpable, as if he was riding away from all his problems on the back of this song,” explains Elisapie.

Inuktitut‘s fourth and final pre-release single “Qimatsilunga (I Want to Break Free),” is a hauntingly gorgeous and bittersweet re-imagining of Queen’s “I Want to Break Free.” Elisapie’s rendition of the song, slow’s the tempo down quite a bit, and places the song’s yearning melody and anthemic chorus within a haunting arrangement of strummed acoustic guitar and twinkling keys paired with dramatic drumming before closing in a slow, gentle fade-out.

The acclaimed Canadian’s rendition of “I Want to Break Free,” much like the preceding singles, sees her simultaneously evoking both fond and bittersweet memories of her youth in Salluit, while paying tribute to her cousin Tayara, with whom she grew up:

“Tayara was a little older than me. He was quiet, handsome, graceful and he loved music. He was named after our great-grandfather, a remarkable and gentle man. Tayara never found his place and never lived life to its fullest. Sadly, like too many Inuit teenagers and many of my cousins, he committed suicide by hanging himself in the tiny closet of his house, right next door to mine,” Elisapie says

But despite this tragic story, the Montréal-based JOVM mainstay sees this song as one of resilience, strength and of mourning:  “When ‘I Want to Break Free’ played on the radio, something magical happened. The lyrics resonated with him, allowing him to embrace his differences and marginality with pride. It was our song. When we danced to it, he shared his inner world with me, with all its complexities and desires. Through this music, he showed me how to be punk, wild and fierce. He was my best friend. When I sing it now, it’s a way of saying goodbye. Despite all its strength and power, it’s the saddest song in the world.”

Continuing her ongoing collaboration with Phillipe Léonard, the accompanying video for “Qimatsilunga (I Want to Break Free)” presents a visual narrative that invites people to break free from social norms and expectations — and express their desire for freedom through dancing. “We see Simik Komaksiutiksak, a contemporary dancer who energizes members of the community through his gestures and the light he projects on them,” explains the director. “In turn, he feeds on the movement of others, and a conversation takes shape as the video unfolds. It’s an invitation to dance, to let off steam.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Mildlife Share Mind-Bending and Expansive “Return to Centaurus”

With the release of 2017’s full-length debut, Phase, Melbourne-based psych jazz/jazz funk/jazz fusion outfit Mildlife — multi-instrumentalists Jim Rindfleish, Adam Halliwell, Kevin McDowell and Tom Shanahan — exploded into the national and international scenes. The album, which was a mind-bending mix of jazz, jazz fusion, krautrock, 70s psychedelia rooted in trippy grooves, became a word-of-mouth sensation among open-minded, crate-digging DJs searching for that perfect, seemingly undiscovered or little-known incredible groove.

Phase was also a sensation internationally. The album was praised by a nubmer of media outlets internationally, including Resident Advisor, Uncut, The Guardian and others. The album earned several award nominations including Best Album at the 2018 Worldwide FM Awards,  Best Independent Jazz Album at the 2018 AIR Awards and a Best Electronic Award nomination and win at the Music Victoria Awards. The Aussie outfit’s full-length debut also received airplay from BBC Radio 6. And adding to a growing profile both nationally and internationally, the members of Mildlife won over fans with a loose-limbed, free-flowing improvisational approach to their live show, which they took on tour with Stereolab, JOVM mainstays King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard and Harvey Sutherland.

Building upon that momentum, Mildlife’s first national headlining tour was sold-out, and they quickly followed up with a ten-date UK and European Union tour.

Mildlife’s sophomore album, 2020’s Automatic was a stylistic shift for the acclaimed Aussie outfit. The album’s material was much more danceable, but while continuing their unerring knack for knowing when to let a track luxuriate and stretch out — without being self-indulgent. The album received critical applause internationally while earning the Aussie outfit an ARIA Award win.

Unable to play shows in person in front of living, breathing, sweating and dancing humans because of the pandemic, the band traveled by boat to a long-abandoned 19th century fort on South Channel Island, just outside of Melbourne, where they performed material from both Phase and Automatic for a 70-minute concert film and live album, Live from South Channel Island. 

The acclaimed Melbourne-based outfit’s latest single “Return to Centaurus” is their first single bit of new material since the release of their sophomore album. Clocking in at a little over 10 minutes, “Return to Centaurus” opens with droning synths and leads into Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd-meets-space rock-like introduction, with Kraftwerk-like vocoders. By around the 2:40 mark, the song quickly morphs into some hook-driven acid funk with loping yet supple bass lines, shimmering funk guitar riffs, glistening space-age synths, bursts of fluttery flute and intricate yet propulsive drum patterns. Rooted in the Aussie outfit’s love of 70s psychedelic and cosmic sounds, the new single serves as a reminder of their seemingly effortless mastery of mind-bending and unhurried trippy grooves.

Directed by Jordan Gusti, the accompanying video for “Return to Centaurus” sees the quartet longing around a sleek and artful, mid-century mod-meets 70s space age/futuristic living room, seemingly absorbed in deep, brooding thought. Through a series of mesmerizing, slow zooms, the video reveals the cosmos both within and without.

 “We liked imagining a room that our minds inhabit together while we’re in hyper sleep on the way to a distant constellation,” the band says of the new single and accompanying video. “As our bodies lay still in a capsule tucked in the closet of a fast-moving craft, our minds meet in this artificial room designed by someone or something else. The room is a tool to keep our minds limber as our human forms spin against time in the physical world. Is it a room within a room though? Does your body lay still in a capsule as your mind watches this clip? Are we all returning together? Who knows. It was fun to draw on each other and watch Adsy take his true form as the silver Mark anyway.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Romy Valalik Shares Haunting and Eerie “Comme un reve”

French indie artist Romy Valalik is a self-taught singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, who started her career as a bassist. She quickly turned to electronic instruments, so that she could fully express her musical ideas — and have a symphony orchestra at her fingertips.

The French artist quickly established an attention grabbing sound that featured gorgeous symphonic-inspired arrangements paired with a Björk-like vocal. After singing to Universal Music France, Valalik released her debut EP, 2021’s 1 and last year’s “I Am Your Treasure,” she chose to follow her own path and become an independent artist with complete artistic freedom.

Her latest single “Comme un reve” is built around an eerie arrangement of twinkling keys, bursts of soaring strings and trumpet serving as an atmospheric bed for the French artist’s hauntingly expressive vocal. It’s a remarkably cinematic song that while somewhat indebted to Björk sounds as though it should be part of the soundtrack of a bildungsroman featuring a character discovering herself.

The accompanying video, which was directed by the French artist, features the artist in tight closeups, appearing like a siren in the deep. Behind her tendrils of light move with her. It’s a fittingly eerie and dreamy visual.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: London’s O.MORGZ Shares Summery and Upbeat “Living”

Emerging, Croydon, UK-born, London-based emcee O. MORGZ grew up in a Black, Caribbean-British household, where he heard a variety of music from Missy Elliot to Beres Hammond, but he took a shine to hip-hop at a very early age. Despite, his interest and passion for hip-hop, the emerging London-based artist didn’t start to pursue a career in music until 2019 with the release of “My Element,” which saw him using a combination of skippy flows and harmonic melodies to get his message across.

Much like countless young Blacks across the world, the London-based artist has had to face a lot of obstacles in a relatively short time, but his ambitions, go-getter attitude and vulnerability are at the core of his work. Ultimately, he hopes to project a sense of consciousness that gives a positive outlook on life. But he also hopes to encourage his audience to acquire financial freedom with a concept he’s dubbed “Money Motivation.”

O.MORGZ’s latest single “Living,” is a breezy and upbeat summery bop built around a vibey production featuring twinkling keys and skittering boom bap serving as a lush and chilled out bed for the British artist’s effortless and self-assured flow. As O.MORGZ explains underneath the song’s celebratory and anthemic nature, is a song meant to be motivational for anyone in difficult circumstances to get up and get yours.

Directed by Fivos Vas, the accompanying video follows the emerging British artist through beautiful Cypress. It’s the high life that many of us dream of attaining — and are busting our asses to achieve.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: CÒDICE Shares the Ballad of Don Alfredo

Mexican outfit CÓDICE — Carlos Torres (bajo quinto, backing vocals), Javier Cuen (vocals), Odandy Cuen (electric bass), Arturo García (accordion), Cristian Gutiérrez (drums) and Diego Gonzales (tuba) — features members, who have been performing and playing music at private events since they were all young boys. Since the band’s formation over a decade ago, they have recorded and released two live albums, a live album with a backing band, a studio album and two chirrin-style albums that have seen them establish their own take in Norteńo, a regional Mexican genre, most popular in Northern Mexico, that meshes local Mexican folk music with Austrian-Czech folk music that traces it origins back to the days of brief reign of Emperor Maximillian I and the Second Mexican Empire.

Based on the use of double and triple meter, the genre’s lyrics generally deal with socially conscious and relevant topics — although there are many beloved norteño love songs. Typically, the genre has arrangements featuring accordion and bajo sexto or bajo quinto. (I had to look this up but a bajo sexto is an acoustic guitar with 12 strings in six double courses. A bajo quinto is an acoustic guitar with 10 strings in five double courses. They sound a little different and are tuned a bit differently, but they’re open played kind of like a bass guitar.)

During CÒDICE’s decade-long career, they’ve been busy: They’ve recorded and released two live albums, a live album with a band, a studio album and two chirrin-style albums, all of which feature some of their most popular songs including “Me Gustas Mucho,” “Te Amare Más” and “Humilde de Abolengo.”

The Mexican norteño outfit recently signed to Fonovisa Records, an imprint of Universal Music Latin Entertainment/Universal Music Latino, who will be releasing their forthcoming album, which will feature “Las hazañas del güerito,” and their latest single “Don Alfredo.” “Don Alfredo” is a corrido, a narrative ballad — in this case, telling the tale of Don Alfredo, a local criminal boss, who gets double-crossed and ends up in jail. (Yes, it does sound a bit like a hip-hop song doesn’t it?) The song is built around the genre’s easy-going Austrian-Czech/German oompah groove paired with gorgeous vocals.

The accompanying video follows the tale of Don Alfredo, with the band acting as the omnipotent narrator of the tale.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Friendship Commanders Share Stormy “Still Life”

Slated for a September 29, 2023 release, Friendship Commanders‘ Kurt Ballou and Friendship Commanders co-produced third album MASS is a concept album that thematically is about time, memory and frontperson Buick Audra’s personal experiences of leaving Massachusetts, a place she left because she no longer felt comfortable or welcome.

So far, I’ve managed to write about three of the album’s released singles:

  • “Fail,” a grunge-inspired ripper built around fuzzy power chords, thunderous drumming and enormous mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses paired with Buick Audra’s expressive, Ann Wilson-like delivery. “Fail” manages to simultaneously evoke a cry for help and a desperate attempt to connect with another that just seems to fall a bit short. The duo explained that the song was written to honor the memory of Spore‘s and Sunburned Hand of the Man‘s Marc Orleans, who committed suicide in June 2020. “We chose to make the song energetic, dissonant, and big, just as he would like it. Bit of a departure for us from our usual doomy vibe, but it’s still the same band, we think,” the band says. 

  • “High Sun,” a 120 Minutes-era MTV alt-rock/shoegazey-like single that’s a a bit of a departure from the doom-influenced heaviness that they’re best known for. “When I moved away from Boston, I hauled an enormous amount of shame along with me. I had experienced these weird, high-impact moments that were not only troubling on their own, but the aftermath saw me painted as an outcast in my former social groups,” Friendship Commanders’ Buick Audra explains. “And I was young enough to believe that I was the problem. I had been in one controlling relationship in which being different was treated as disobedient, and I was punished for it—publicly. Being a person who was wired to take on blame, I absorbed it. But now when I look at the story, I see the manipulation, the dynamics that repeated themselves. They were experts at making people feel like outsiders, experts at deflecting responsibility. I wanted to drag it all out into the daylight with this big, fuzzy song. I’ve been waiting a long time to say this.”

  • “Vampires,” an earnest, arena rock-like anthems — with the new single being built around fuzzy power chords, thunderous drumming, enormous shout-along worthy hooks. Much like its predecessors, “Vampires” is informed by and fueled by deeply embittering and at times humiliating personal experience. And as a result, the hurt and disdain at the core of the song is visceral. “There was a season at the end of my time in Boston where I was being turned into ‘The Problem’ by someone who wanted to control me and couldn’t; it was a moment where I could have played small and gone along with what she wanted, as I had once done,” Audra explains in press notes. “But I didn’t. I played big. I kept what was mine instead of giving it away—which included parts of my identity. And while the result was a scorched earth reality that impacts my sense of self to this day, it also ended the whole thing. I learned a valuable lesson in that season: don’t fuel the narcissists. Keep your power for yourself. It’s what they hate. And if they’re going to drag your character out in front of everyone you know, you might as well burn it all down for the warmth.”

“Still Life,” MASS‘ fifth and final single is a stormy and forceful ripper built around Jerry Roe‘s thunderous drumming, Audra’s towering walls of guitar and her powerhouse vocal, which in this song express hurt, confusion, simmering anger, defiance and pride within the turn of a phrase. The band explains that the song outlines a series of interactions in which one person is told to be quiet about their injuries, to essentially “walk them off,” even when those injuries might be life-threatening.

Directed and edited by the band’s Jerry Roe and stylishly shot by the band’s Roe and Jarad Clement with lighting by Clement, the accompanying video features the band performing the song in a bare studio with the camera circling them in an intimate yet dizzying fashion.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Austin’s DAIISTAR Shares Fuzzy “Parallel”

Austin-based shoegazers DAIISTAR (pronounced Day-Star) — Alex Capistran (vocals, guitar), Nick Cornetti (drums), Misti Hamrick (bass) and Derek Strahan (keys) — formed back in 2020. And since their formation, the members of DAIISTAR have crafted a narcotic blend of noise and melody that draws from the neo-psychedelic era of the 80s and 90s and modernizes it with modulating synths, heavy guitars, bouncing bass lines and spiraling hooks.

The Austin shoegeazer outfit’s Alex Maas-produced full-length debut, Good Time saw its release yesterday through Fuzz Club, revered British-based purveyors of all things psych. (You can purchase the vinyl here. LEVITATION is also offering their own colored vinyl variant, which is available here.)

“To us these songs were a glimmer of light,” the band’s Alex Capistran says. “Starting a band at the peak of the pandemic to some might seem ill timed, but to us it was a way to escape for a moment. There was something to look forward to and we kept our heads in the future. These songs guided us through some dark times and hopefully they can do the same for you. GOOD TIME is here!“

“Parallel,” Good Time‘s latest single sees the band pairing fluttering synths, buzzing power chords, dreamy falsetto vocals in a way that will bring The Jesus and Mary Chain and more modern fare like Crocodiles and others to mind. But underneath that is a remarkable attention to craft with the band revealing their penchant for catchy hooks.

“Sometimes I’ll be working on a song for weeks, other times I pick up the guitar and write nothing, but the songs that seem to emerge out of thin air always end up being my favorite,” Capistran says. “‘Parallel’ came to me instantly and has become one of the tracks I feel most connected to on the album. It’s a love song contrasted with fuzzed out guitar and driving rhythm. It’s about those days we find ourselves gliding effortlessly through time as two lives in unison and we can’t help but think ‘how is this real.'”

Directed by the band, the accompanying video is indebted to classic 120 Minutes MTV-era visuals: The band performing in a studio with fittingly psychedelic visuals behind them.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Aussie Punks CIVIC Share a Furious Ripper

Hailed by Stereogum as “an unholy lo-fi pile-up of garage rock, punk and 90s-style noise rock,” Melbourne-based punks CIVIC — Jim McCullough (vocals) – Lewis Hodgson (guitar) – Roland Hlavka (bass) – Jackson Harry (guitar) – Matt Blach (drums) — have developed a reputation for reimagining the reckless intensity of proto-punk for an era of unending and unceasing uncertainty.

Earlier this year, the Aussie outfit released their acclaimed album Taken By Force through ATO Records. They supported the album with a European tour, which brought their brand of masterfully controlled chaos, which blurs the line between furious catharsis and unbridled fun. And they’ll be embarking on their first Stateside tour this fall. The tour will include an October 7, 2023 stop at Elsewhere Zone One, an October 8, 2023 stop at Johnny Brenda’s and several others across the country, as well as sets at this year’s LEVITATION Festival and Gonerfest. All tour dates and ticket info can be found below.

Along with the tour announcement, the members of the acclaimed Melbourne-based punk outfit share a new single, the blistering ripper “Hourglass.” Built around scorching riffage, breakneck drumming, an angular bass line and Jim McCullough’s snarled delivery, “Hourglass” is a mosh pit friendly anthem that’s furiously cathartic yet upbeat. The song manages to evoke the sensation of wanting to bust out of rut, even if you don’t know how.

“Off the back of Taken By Force we wanted to create something new, an evolution of sound for us,” CIVIC’s Jim McCullough explains. “We’d dropped down to a 4 piece so already Lewis [Hodgson] had more space to come through with his guitar parts, be more experimental, less chaotic; more defined. Lyrically I am touching on aspects of change, more specifically the process during change. Going through some kind of shit and sediment and coming out the other side; a hopeful development of a refined version. We start again”

Directed, filmed and edited by Oscar O’Shea, the accompanying video follows a Mickey Mouse sweater-wearing man with headphones rocking out throughout various locations in suburban Melbourne, while the band drives around aimless and goofs off in a claustrophobia-inducing room. Proudly DIY and endlessly goofy, the video accurately captures the sense of wanting to bust out of a rut.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Dublin’s SPRINTS Confront Imposter Syndrome with Furious Ripper “Up and Comer”

Dublin-based punk outfit SPRINTS — Karla Chubb (vocals, guitar), Colm O’Reilly (guitar), Jack Callan (drums) and Sam McCann (bass) — formed back in 2019. And since their formation, the Irish quartet have developed a reputation for crafting an abrasive brand of punk rock, influenced by early Pixies, Bauhaus, Siousxie Sioux, King Gizzard, Savages, and LCD Soundsystem.

Their first two EP’s, 2021’s Manifesto and last year’s A Modern Job were released to rapturous praise from UK music outlets like DIY, The Guardian, NME, Loud & Quiet, Dork, and Clash. They also received airplay from BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6 Music.

The Irish punk outfit’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, Letter To Self is slated for a January 5, 2024 release through City Slang Records. The album, which will feature previously released singles “Adore Adore Adore” and “Literary Mind,” was recorded in France’s Loire Valley with Gilla Band‘s Daniel Fox over the course of 12 days. The album “is a deeply personal and autobiographical lyrically and in its key themes, while sonically it explores a space inspired by our love of early 80s gothic, 90s noises rock and more modern influences,” SPRINTS’ Karla Chubb explains. “It revisits our most vulnerable moments and imbues them with visceral garage-punk. It aims to take the things that are considered inherently negative – feelings of anxiety, anger and rage, and turning them into a positive. Using our experiences to fuel us and pouring them into a positive outlet. It’s cathartic, it’s honest, it’s raw.” While pain is used to fuel growth, at its core, the album is rooted in a message of self-acceptance.

The album’s lead single “Up and Comer” is an earnest and furious ripper built around buzzing power chords, thunderous drumming and mosh pit friendly hooks paired with Chubb’s feral delivery. The song thematically sees the band exploring and confronting imposter syndrome — but through the perspective of embittering, lived-in, fairly universal experience. And as a result, the song will be catharsis inducing for anyone, who has felt like an imposter –whether professionally, personally or both.

“It’s an invisible narrative that has been constructed by the doubts and negativity I’ve been fed by others,” SPRINTS’ Chubb explains. “It’s a song that takes aim at these ideas, and instead of letting them continue to hold me back, sees me finally break free of the expected, embrace the anger and let it rip.” 

Directed by Ellius Grace, the accompanying video captures the band’s frenetic live energy — with the band performing in an empty auditorium with a fan and a bored janitor. Throughout, the band’s members confront their own feelings of self-doubt and imposter syndrome.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Crowleys Shares Gauzy “Seasons”

Hamilton, ON-based indie outfit The Crowleys — founding members Cohen Wylie (guitar, vocals, production), Stuart Downie (drums, vocals),and siblings Justyn (synth, guitar) and Collin Horlick (bass, bass synth), along with Giuliana Frontini (vocals) — can trace their origins back over a decade: The band’s founding quartet met and bonded over their shared love of music back in high school. As a quartet, the band built a reputation for crafting kaleidoscopic psych rock and for stage rattling live shows across the Greater Toronto Area.

With the addition of Frontini back in 2019, the band evolved to focus on more melodically forward psych pop material that draws from 60s rock, 80s pop and modern psychedelia rooted in driving and crunchy rhythms, distinctive synth warble, diverse vocals and pedal-driven guitar lines. Their songwriting process is highly collaborative with each member of the band brining their own musical interests and expertise to the table. The finished product, polished by Wylie’s distinctive production style can be described as high energy psych pop steeped in nostalgia.

The band’s full-length debut Strange Seasons has humble origins: The material was born from a group of friendly getting together to show each other the new song idea that they had come up with. Thematically, the album’s material touches upon environmental angsts but with a romantic current throughout: The album’s lyrics often reference a relationship with another person as a means of surviving catastrophe. According to the band, “the album attempts to put the strangeness of the world into words and melody.”

Written by the band’s Justyn Horlick, album single “Seasons” is a slow-burning and gauzy track featuring glistening synth warble, reverb-drenched guitar, a supple bass line and a steady rhythm paired with Frontini’s breathy coos. The song’s coda was inspired by Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings‘ “100 Days, 100 Nights” with a trippy time signature change from 4/4 to 6/4. But despite the dreamy, shoegazer-like gauzy quality, “Seasons” is informed by environmental anxiety: The song’s lyrics were written by the band’s Frontini on a hot November day, when she noticed that she was unsettled by the unseasonable temperature.

Shot on grainy Super 8 Film, the accompanying video for “Seasons” is an abstract look at the allure of consumerism and its resulting environmental impact.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Slowdive Shares Shimmering and Yearning “alfie”

Slowdive — co-founders  Neil Halstead (vocals, guitar) and Rachel Goswell along with Nick Chaplin (bass), Christian Savill (guitar) and Simon Scott (drums) — will be releasing their highly-anticipated fifth album everything is alive on September 1, 2023 through Dead Oceans. everything is alive is the shoegaze pioneers’ first album in over six years, and the material reportedly sees the British outfit finding ever more contours of its immersive, elemental sound. Individually, each of the album’s songs contain the duality of a familiar internal language mixed with the exaltation of new beginnings.

The record began with the band’s Halstead in the role of writer and producer, working on demos at home. Experimenting with modular synths, Halstead originally conceived everything is alive as a “more minimal electronic record.” The band’s collective decision-making ultimately saw them drawing back to their signature reverb-drenched guitar sound — but the synths seeped their way into the compositions. “As a band, when we’re all happy with it, that tends to be the stronger material. We’ve always come from slightly different directions, and the best bits are where we all meet in the middle.” Halstead says. “Slowdive is very much the sum of its parts,” Goswell adds. “Something unquantifiable happens when the five of us come together in a room.”

The album was recorded over a couple of years, starting in the fall of 2020 at Courtyard Studio, where they’ve historically recorded. Sessions moved to Oxfordshire, and then the Wolds of Lincolnshire and then to Halstead’s Cornish studio. Early last year, the band enlisted Shawn Everett to mix six of the album’s eight tracks. 

Because of their deep and lengthy history, there’s a palpable familial energy to the band — and fittingly to to the album: The album is dedicated to Goswell’s mother and Scott’s father, who both died in 2020. “There were some profound shifts for some of us personally,” Goswell says. Life’s profound shifts and uneasy crossroads are often reflected in the many-layered emotional tenor of their music. And while everything is aliveis informed by some of life’s heaviest experiences, the material sees the band poised, wizened and pitching themselves to hope. Sure, there’s sadness, but there’s gratitude and uplift, coming from the acknowledgement that life is complicated yet profoundly beautiful in itself. 

Thematically, the album is in many ways an exploration into the shimmering nature of life and the universal touch points within it. Sonically, the album reportedly sees the acclaimed British outfit boldly pushing their sound towards the future with the material touching upon the psychedelic soundscapes they’ve long been known for but with 80s electronic elements, and John Cale-inspired journeys.

In the lead-up to the album’s release on Friday, I’ve managed to write about three of the album’s singles:

  • “kisses,” a breathtakingly gorgeous song, which struck me as being a sort of gentle refinement of the classics enveloping Slowdive sound that fans have long adored: reverb-drenched guitar textures,. Goswell’s and Halstead’s uncannily precise, yearning harmonies, soaring hooks and choruses and a gently driving groove — with featuring an emphasis on atmospheric synths. The result is a song that — for me, at least — evokes a waking dream full of intertwined yearning, nostalgia and hope. 

  • “skin in the game,” a slow-burning, forlorn and smudged song built around Halstead’s aching vocal radiating outward from hazy and distorted guitars paired with a narcotic and syrupy rhythm. Much like its immediate predecessor, the song evokes a woozily heartbreaking nostalgia, mixed with regret., unease and uncertainty.

  • “the slab,” one of the album’s heaviest songs and arguably one of Slowdive’s heaviest songs they’ve written or recorded in some time. Built around skittering and thunderous percussion, layers of reverb-drenched guitar fuzz and menacing synths, the song features Halstead’s plaintive delivery buried in the mix, seemingly desperately to burst out from its confines.

The album’s fourth and final pre-release single “alfie” is a breathtakingly gorgeous song that harkens back to the band’s 2017 self-titled album with the track featuring layers of shimmering guitars paired with a steady backbeat, Halstead’s yearning reverb-soaked vocal and the founding duo’s uncannily precise harmonies.

“‘alife’ is one of the first tunes we finished for the record,” Slowdive’s Halstead says. “Shawn Everett did a really nice job with the mix. We tried so many times to figure out a good mix by ourselves and couldn’t do it . . . it sort of had us beaten until Shawn stepped in. We decided if he could handle that one he could probably do the whole record. Our friend Jake Nelson did a really nice animation for this song; it takes some of the imagery from the artwork and digs a little deeper into that.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Golem Dance Cult Shares Brooding and Anthemic “21 Century Dogs”

Split between France and England, the emerging, self-described “industrial heavy rock dance” duo Golem Dance Cult features longtime friends and experienced musicians: producer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Charles Why, who has played in Lotsa Noise, Nexus and L-Dopa and vocalist Laur, who has played in Sparkling Bombs, Kevin K Band, Vague Scare and Other-ed. The pair’s latest project can trace its origins back to when they were teenagers, playing in the first band together, a band in which Laur played drums.

During most of the band’s short run together, the pair have written and worked on material remotely, as a result of pandemic-related restrictions and distance. Their work in Golem Dance Cult is structured around a couple of simple, agreed-upon parameters:

  • They had to work spontaneously, with each member following their instincts.

  • Mistakes should be expanded upon.

The duo eventually settled on a rock-inspired approach with electronic production but without holding to the formal structure — or strictures — of either genre.

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past year or so, you might recall that the duo released their debut EP 2021’s Grotesque Radio, an effort that featured the Bauhaus-like “Nosferatu Waltz,” a goth/horror track with a playful nod to Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. 

The duo’s full-length debut, Legend of the Bleeding Heart was released earlier this year. The album’s latest single “21st Century Dogs” sounds like a glammy, Bowie-like take on Bauhaus built around their penchant for enormous, arena rock like hooks and hours. The song is written and sung from the perspective of a dog and fittingly both the song and video ifeautres references and allusions from Luis Buñuel’s Le Chien Andalou and George Cheesbro’s Wolf Blood: A Tale of the Forest. But by doing so, the song and video explores people’s darkest, most feral impulses and desires.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Angeline Saris Teams Up with Naté the Soulsanger and Sandra Pippins on a Slinky Feminist Anthem

Over the past decade, California-based bassist, songwriter and educator Angeline Saris has developed a reputation for being an in-demand touring and session bassist, who has worked with an acclaimed collection of musicians and producers including Grammy Award-winning producer Naranda Michael Walden, Ernest Ranglin, Zepparella, The Celebration of Bowie Tour with Todd Rundgren, Adrian Belew, Spacehog’s Royston Langdon and Fishbone‘s Angelo Moore. Saris has also shared the stage with Carlos Santana, Ronnie Spector, Dionne Warwick, Steve Vai, Steve Morse, Richie Sambora, Orianthi, Steven Adler, Neal Schon and a lengthy list of others.

Saris showcased her talent as a songwriter with ANGELEX‘s 2018 debut Tight Lips, which received glowing praise from Bass Player Magazine, who wrote: “Her vibe on the album is that of a musician finally creating her own musical identity, after years of playing other people’s material–and it’s a sound that suits her well.”

“Come Undone,” sees Saris boldly stepping out into the spotlight as a solo artist, as it’s the first single she’s releasing under her own name. The track, which features soulful vocals from Naté The Soulsanger and Sandra Pippins is a slinky feminist anthem built around Saris’ dexterous and funky Patrice Rushen and Bootsy Collins-like bass lines, and a remarkably catchy hook. Inspired by Saris’ own experiences as a woman in the music industry, “Come Undone” is a kiss-off to misogyny — both external an internal — and the outdated ways that the world treats and perceives women that boldly says “Those old days ain’t coming back.”

Directed by Nino Fernandez, the accompanying video for “Come Undone” is slick and stylishly shot visual that showcases Saris, her incredible bass playing and her talented backing band.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Kendra Morris Returns with a Sardonic Sendup of Domesticity and Cohabitation

While celebrating a recent birthday, the acclaimed Florida-born, New York-based JOVM mainstay Kendra Morris was shaken by the realization that old habits were holding her back from growth. Something needed to change — and fast. She began writing new songs and rethinking of her old ones. Less-than-perfect takes were tolerated. She put a moratorium on love songs. As Morris puts it: “I needed to scare myself into growth.” The result is the acclaimed artist’s Torbitt Schwartz, a.k.a. Little Shalimar-prorudced fourth album I Am What I’m Waiting For.

Officially released today, through Karma Chief/Colemine Records, the album is a sophisticated, playful and joyful reinvention and an unfiltered expression of Morris’ weird universe that sees her delving deep into the little details. “How do you put yourself into a record?  I wanted to make it feel like you cracked open the ooze in my head,” Morris says. Fittingly, the album is an unvarnished self-portrait of Morris with all of life’s odd imperfections that captures the artist at the time of its creation. 

The 11-song album pairs Morris’ towering and effortlessly soulful vocal with a sound that features elements of dusty funk, R&B and touches of indie rock. Thematically, the album at points touches upon the mundane conflicts of domesticity and cohabitation, the Butterfly Effect, her fear of flying and even an attempt to expand the birthday song canon among others.

Last month, I wrote about “What Are You Waiting For,” a seamless synthesis of Muscle Shoals soul, psych soul, and Spoon-like indie rock built around a gritty, swaggering groove and Morris’ sultry and effortlessly soulful delivery. The song is a bold and playfully defiant feminist anthem that champions self-reliance and realness above all.

“Dominoes,” I Am What I’m Waiting For‘s third and latest single continues a run of material that meshes elements of Muscle Shoals-era soul, psych soul and Spoon-like indie rock paired with a swaggering and strutting groove and Morris’ powerhouse delivery. But at its core is a playfully sardonic skewering of the conflicts of domesticity and cohabitation that points out that hell can often be other people — including those you love.

Created by Morris and Julia Haltigan, and filmed in Morris’ Brooklyn home on VHS tape, the video features her husband and adorable pasta-loving dog Jerry and stop motion animation by Morris. The video goes through some of the scenarios discussed in the song. And while you can empathize with the fact that the scenarios are infuriating, there’s also the tacit and knowing nod that love is also accepting your dearest one’s irritating habits and quirks.