Category: women who kick ass

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Bored at My Grandma’s House Shares Lush and Anthemic Ode to Love

Cumbria-born, Leeds-based singer/songwriter and musician Amber Strawbridge is the creative mastermind behind the rising British indie rock project Bored at My Grandma’s House. Strawbridge began recording music back in 2017 using the GarageBand app on her phone; she then updated her bedroom setup after saving the money to buy a laptop and Logic Pro. After a couple of years of self-taught production and recording, the rising British artist worked with Clue Records, who released her critically applauded debut EP Sometimes I Forget You’re Human Too, an effort that sold out two pressings before Strawbridge ever played a single gig.

Strawbridge’s Bored at My Grandma’s House full-length debut, the Alex Greaves-produced Show & Tell is slated for a June 7, 2024 release through Clue Records/EMI North. She wrote and recorded all the demos for the album in her bedroom, before heading to The Nave Studio, where she worked with Alex Greaves, who gave the material a proper studio polish.

Show & Tell sees Strawbridge exploring a broad range of heavy topics including anxiety, friendship, introspection, love, greed, mental health, loss, empathy and the lack of it thereof in the world. “The main overall theme of this album is connection. Connection with myself, connection with the world and connection to the people around me who I love,” the rising British artist explains. “This album is for me first and foremost and was a way for me to internally process. 

“The origin of these tracks all stem from me wanting to understand these connections and process my emotions surrounding them. The album covers topics such as the power of queer love, humanity and its ‘delusions of grandeur’,  reflection and purpose. 

It would be unwise to say that I haven’t developed and changed a lot since my EP,” Strawbridge continues. “I’ve experienced more, questioned more, felt more and allowed myself to be vulnerable more – which I hope translates throughout the Album.” 

Sonically, her full-length debut reportedly sees her establishing a sound that’s reminiscent of the likes of Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail and Alvvays, while displaying the ability to alchemize the wistful and hopeful into expansive, anthemic tunes rooted in a pop sensibility.

The album’s latest single “I Like What You Bring Out In Me” is anchored around a lush and ethereal sound and production in which glistening and reverb soaked 90s alt rock-like guitars, a steady yet propulsive rhythm section are paired with Strawbridge’s yearning, heart proudly worn on sleeve delivery and her unerring knack for rousingly anthemic hooks. At its core, is a song written from lived-in, personal experience and captures the woozy, goofiness of love with a sense of optimism and a contented sigh.

“This song is about all the gross cringey things that come along with being in love. It’s about the realisation of someone bringing out the best in you and making you feel confident in yourself at all times, something that I hadn’t really ever experienced prior to being with my girlfriend,” Strawbridge says.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montréal’s DVTR Shares Anthemic Ripper “Les flics (sont des sacs à merde)”

Deriving their name as an acronym for the French phrase “D’où vient ton riz?” (Where does your rice come from?), Montréal-based duo DVTR is a new collaborative project featuring two of the city’s most highly acclaimed artists:

  • Laurence G-Do, the frontperson of JOVM mainstays  Le Couleur, an act that has toured internationally several times, and has opened for Giorgio Moroder, Polo & Pan and others, while amassing over 18 million streams across digital streaming platforms. 

  • JC Tellier, who has played with Gazoline, an act that has received multiple ADISQ and GAMIQ award nominations. Tellier has also played with Kandle, Xavier Caféine, Gab Bouchard and a lengthy list of other well-regarded artists in Québec. 

With the release of their debut EP BONJOUR, the French Canadian duo have been burning up the Canadian indie scene: The EP amassed a plethora of rapturous reviews, landed on a number of Best of 2023 Lists and earned the duo a handful of awards in Québec. 

The acclaimed and rising French Canadian duo celebrate their first full year of the project with their latest single “Les flics (sont des sacs à merde),” which translates into English as “The cops (are shitbags)” has quickly become a staple of their live set. Anchored around a supple and propulsive bass line, G-Do’s punchy delivery, buzzing power chords, and a steady four-on-the-floor, “Les flics” brings Ting Tings’ “That’s Not My Name” to mind — but while rooted in an unequivocal message that protestors and countless others rally behind: ACAB! Throughout the song, the duo excoriate and ridicule cops, referring them as a violent, brainless bullies and a shit ton more.

The computer animated video by Romy Côté further emphasizes its accompanying song’s themes: The video begins with an out-of-shape cop driving in a police car. Fittingly, the cop looks like a clown. As he drives around town, he comes across two people vandalizing some property. After a chase, the two young vandals overtake the cop and replace his shit for brains for an actual brain.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Razor Braids Share a “120 Minutes” MTV-Like Ode to the Uncertainty of New Love

Brooklyn-based indie outfit Razor Braids — Hollye Bynum (lead vocals, bass), Janie Peacock (lead guitar), Jilly Karande (vocal, rhythm guitar) — had a breakthrough 2023: Their full-length debut, I Could Cry Right Now If You Wanted To was released to critical praise from the likes of BrooklynVegan, Paper, Vanyaland, Creem Magazine and others. Adding to a big year, the band opened for The National, Foo Fighters, and Worriers, and they made the rounds of the festival circuit, playing sets at that year’s SXSW and Boston Calling.

The band’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Big Wave is slated for a June 2024 release. The album reportedly sees the band furthering their dedication to tightly layered vocals and emotionally reflective lyrics. Big Wave‘s third and latest single “Berate Me” features a dreamy and contemplative introduction, quickly followed by a prototypical grunge song structure held together by the crunch power chords and the big hooks that bring back memories of 120 Minutes MTV-era alt rock, like Live Though This-era Hole, Veruca Salt and others. The song conveys the woozy unease of starting a new relationship — with the all the prerequisite fears and uncertainties that we all have throughout our lives: Will this end like the other times? Will this be better? Will it be worse? What if it was always me? What if I just choose wrong? And so on in that sickening and all too familiar cycle of doubt. But it also captures a narrator, who has done some work on themselves and acknowledges they deserve and need better than what they’ve had in the past.

“’Berate Me’ is about entering a new romantic relationship with someone and the anxiety and baggage you bring along with you,” Razor Braids’ Bynum explains. “The healing done from past experiences has led you to the realization that you should be treated better than you’ve been. You recognize the patterns not only with past partners, but also within yourself. What is my role in this? What unhealthy behaviors am I exhibiting? It sometimes sucks to be self-aware. There’s this sense of playing it cool and really badass in a new relationship when in fact you’re like shitting your pants. You don’t want to show all your skeletons in the closet.”

Directed, produced, choreographed and edited by Hollye Bynum, the accompanying video for “Berate Me” shows the band’s members dressed in red and in a front of a red background struggling against themselves and forces that would deny them the hard-earned wisdom and peace they’ve fought for.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Norway’s Helsinki Horizon Shares Anthemic “Tie Them To The Mast”

Norwegian outfit Helsinki Horizon — founding member Snorre, (guitar, bass, keys) along with Öllegård (vocals), viNd (guitar) and Geir (drums) — can trace their origins back to 2008 as a solo recording effect with Snorre began writing music and recording demos. By 2012, viNd and Geir joined the project, and the band, then a trio began playing live shows.

Citing the likes of Radiohead, Mogwai, M83 and Max Richter as influences., the band also incorporates Tesla coil emulated Cello distortion and 8-bit crushed bass harmonica in a genre-defying sound and approach. Their debut EP, 2021’s Signal Flares drew from the band’s experiences in the underground metal scene, and received critical praise and attention across the post rock scene.

Released earlier this year, the Norwegian band’s full-length debut Sirens sees them collaboration with Stockholm-based avant-garde pop artist Öllegård contributing vocals while drawing from Homer’s Odyssey. Thematically, the album’s material touches upon existentialism, human facade, contemporary global politics, climate and environmental destruction and the consequences of all of these on us as a whole.

Sirens‘ first single “Tie Them To The Mast” is a seamless and slick synthesis of shoegaze, post rock, rock and electro pop anchored around a propulsive and swaggering rhythm section, atmospheric synth oscillations, and bursts of expressive guitar. The song’s arrangement serves as a dramatic bed for Öllegård’s earnest delivery — while revealing a band with an uncanny knack for a catchy hook and a big, sing-along worthy chorus.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Geneva Jacuzzi Shares a Striking Visual for a Brooding and Retro-futuristic Bop

Geneva Jacuzzi is a Los Angeles-based multimedia artist, whose immersive and unhinged performances are considered legendary: they often involve a psychotropic gallery of masks, costumes, confrontation and massive art installations. Her recorded music frequently features catchy hooks and cryptic moods dusted in 4-track grit.

Jacuzzi recently signed to Dais Records, who shared the following about the signing: “As long-time fans of Geneva’s immersive world-building, singular songwriting and unforgettable live performances, we are honored to welcome her to the Dais roster.” She adds, “So excited to join the Dais crew. It’s definitely the coolest label in LA. Exciting new adventures on the horizon!” 

The Los Angeles-based multimedia artist’s latest single “Dry” is a brooding yet swaying bit of 80s retro-futuristic synth pop, anchored around layers of glistening analog synth arpeggios and skittering beats paired with catchy, razor sharp hooks. Jacuzzi’s seemingly detached vocal singing about disconnection and uncertainty ethereally floats over the dreamy arrangement.

“I took a little break from writing music and when I sat down at home to record, ‘Dry’ was the first song to burst out,” Jacuzzi recalls. “The music came together so instantly it’s as if it had been waiting and perfecting itself for years in the ether. The chorus lyrics came that same week after I went on a date with Mike Judge and he never called me back (haha). I wasn’t upset or anything, but I had never been ghosted before and couldn’t help but equate modern love to an appliance you buy on the home shopping network.”

The accompanying video is shot in a strikingly cinematic black and white, and features Geneva suspended upside down in an elaborate art installation-meets-costume, being literally hung out to dry.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Los Bitchos Share Glittery Visual for Disco-Inspired Romp “La Bomba”

Acclaimed London-based instrumental outfit Los Bitchos — Australian-born, Serra Petale (guitar); Uruguayan-born Agustina Ruiz (keytar); Swedish-born, Josefine Jonsson (bass) and London-born Nic Crawshaw (drums) — can trace their origins to meeting at various late-night parties and through mutual friends. Inspired by their individual members’ different upbringings and backgrounds, the acclaimed British outfit have firmly established a genre-blurring and retro-futuristic sound that blends elements of Peruvian chica, Argentine cumbia, Turkish psych, surf rock, and the music each individual member grew up with: 

  • The Uruguayan-born Ruiz had a Latin-American music collection that the members of the band fell in love with

  • The Swedish-born Jonsson “brings a touch of out of control pop,” her bandmates often joke

  • Aussie-born Petale is deeply inspired by her mother’s 70s Anatolian rock records

  • And the London-born Crawshaw played in a number of local punk bands before joining Los Bitchos

“Coming from all these different places,” Los Bitchos’ Serra Petale says, “it means we’re not stuck in one genre and we can rip up the rulebook a bit when it comes to our influences.”

Los Bitchos’ Alex Kapranos-produced, critically applauded, full-length debut, 2022’s Let The Festivities Begin! was recorded at Gallery Studios, and saw the band cementing their reputation for crafting playful, lysergic yet party friendly grooves.

The London-based JOVM mainstays capped off a breakthrough year with two Serra Petale and Javier Weyler-co-produced singles “Tip Tapp” and “Los Chrismos,” their first Christmas-themed composition. Fittingly, “Los Chrismos” is a celebratory party-starting romp built around a psych rock-inspired, dexterous and looping guitar line, atmospheric synths, cumbia rhythms paired with holiday appropriate cheers and shouts. Simply put, the song is a much-needed hope and joy bomb in desperate, uneasy time.

The tracks were released digitally and physically on a flexi-disc, bundled with a red vinyl re-pressing of their debut — for that year’s holiday season..

Building upon a growing profile internationally, the London-based JOVM mainstays released 2023’s PAH! EP, a two-track effort that featured a mischievously, rowdy and downright boozy cover of The Champs‘ oft-covered “Tequila,” a song that has become a fan favorite during the band’s live shows. The EP also featured a reworking of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard‘s “Trapdoor.”

The British outfit’s latest single, the Oli Barton Wood-produced “La Bomba,” the first bit of new material from the band since last year’s PAH! EP. The track is an hook-driven 80s Turkish psych pop-inspired bop anchored around a shuffling dance floor rhythm, a twangy and looping guitar line, a disco-influenced bass line, some video game-like beats paired with glistening synths and ecstatic shouts.

“‘La Bomba’ is a burst of energy and power! It’s just such a fun song – we started playing it at festivals last summer and the energy felt so good!” The band says in press notes.

“The beginning stabs are what came to me (Serra) first as I was cooking in my kitchen. There’s something quite heroic and powerful about the opening guitar tone and the stabs underneath them. The twangy guitar tone cuts through the chaotic landscape of claps, pumping disco bassline and dreamy swirling synth sounds. The disco era influence is quite evident in this song, and I think the bassline sets the tone perfectly for this. Structurally the song delivers straight into a chorus (as Nile Rodgers said, ‘why wait?’). We wanted to keep this as close to a classic pop structure as possible, everything straight to the point. 

“The cherries on top are the little ping pong drum sounds (think Ring My Bell, Anita Ward) – they just make the track go off and totally emulate the feelings of euphoria and pure energy running through it.”

Directed by the band’s long-term artistic collaborator Tom Mitchell, the accompanying video, features some high-energy, glittery visuals that at points playfully nods at Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

The band says of the video “As it’s a high energy, pumping song, we needed to have really dynamic visuals to go with that and bring the song to life. The video has lots of shiny, glitterball moments and moves between performance and surreal segments. We had so much fun with make-up and styling for this video. Josefine saw this thing on Tik Tok where you film in a way which gives the illusion you’re riding a horse, so obviously we had a go and put that in the video last minute on set.”