Category: women who kick ass

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Currently comprised of Julia Kugel (vocals and guitar), Meredith Franco (bass), and Stephanie Luke (drums), the Atlanta, GA-based trio and JOVM mainstay The Coathangers in over a decade together have released five full-length albums in which each album found the band refining their sound and songwriting approach, balancing a brash, raw and seemingly spontaneously simplicity and urgency with a razor sharp wit and irony. And with the band’s last two full length efforts, Suck My Shirt and Nosebleed Weekend, the band was at their most streamlined and direct, giving the material off both of those albums a primal urgency — but with the sort of anthemic hooks that you can envision a room full of sweaty concertgoers lustily yelling along in a tiny, dark club.

Parasite, the band’s latest EP is slated for a June 30, 2017 release through Suicide Squeeze Records and the album’s material has the Atlanta-based trio balancing the unbridled and furious expressionism of their debut and the increasingly nuanced, pop-leaning sensibility of their last two albums. As the band’s Julia Kugel explains in press notes  “During the making of our last album, I didn’t want to scream anymore, I just wanted to sing and focus on melody. When we came to this recording, I just wanted to scream and curse.” And in some way, it shouldn’t be surprising that the EP’s material is partially inspired by both the bandmembers’ personal lives and the current political climate, rife with kleptocracy, hypocrisy, blatant sexism, racism and gratuitous cruelty while managing to be akin to a journey through them band’s existence and development.

 

“Captain’s Dead,” the first single off the EP manages to sound as though it could have been a B-side to any of the singles off Nosebleed Weekend while drawing from 90s grunge rock as the song structurally consists of alternating quiet and loud, anthemic hooks, and a surfer rock-inspired bridge, a propulsive rhythm section and a sneering punk rock air — but paired with twisting and buzzing organ chords. And much like the  band’s previously released material, the new single possesses an underlying mischievous feel underneath the scuzzy, give no fucks swagger.

The renowned garage rock trio will be embarking on a lengthy US and EU tour throughout the Spring and it’ll include two NYC area dates — April 20, 2017 at Sunnyvale and April 21, 2017 at Baby’s All Right. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

TOUR DATES:
03.09.17 – Visalia, CA @ The Cellar Door
03.10.17 – San Francisco, CA @ Brick & Mortar
03.11.17 – Oakland, CA @ Starline Social Club
03.12.17 – Santa Rosa, CA @ Arlene Francis Center
03.13.17 – Reno, NV @ The Holland Project
03.16.17 – Eugene, OR @ The Boreal
03.17.17 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
03.18.17 – Vancouver, BC @ Fortune Sound Club
03.19.17 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
03.21.17 – Spokane, WA @ The Observatory
03.23.17 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Fest
03.24.17 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Diabolical Records
03.25.17 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Bunkhouse Saloon

04.15.17 – Durham, NC @ Pinhook
04.16.17 – Richmond, VA @ The Camel
04.18.17 – Washington, DC @ DC9
04.19.17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Ortliebs
04.20.17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Sunnyvale
04.21.17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
04.22.17 – Boston, MA @ Do617 Pop-Up Record Shop @ Brighton Music Hall
04.24.17 – Montreal, QC @ L’ Esco
04.25.17 – Toronto, ON @ Silver Dollar
04.26.17 – Buffalo, NY @ Tralf Music Hall
04.27.17 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Roboto
04.28.17 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery
04.29.17 – Charlotte, NC @ Reverb Fest 5

05.12.17 – UK Manchester @ Night & Day
05.13.17 – UK Brighton @ The Joker
05.15.17 – UK Bristol @ The Exchange
05.16.17 – UK Oxford @ The Bullingdon
05.17.17 – UK London @ Oslo
05.18.17 – UK Hastings @ The Printworks
05.19.17 – UK Leicester @ The Cookie
05.20.17 – UK Leeds @ Gold Sounds at Brudenell Social
05.21.17 – UK Sheffield@ The Harley
05.23.17 – UK Ramsgate @ Music Hall
05.24.17 – BE Gent @ PSYCH OVER 9000
05.25.17 – NL Eindhoven @ Stroomhuisje
05.26.17 – NL Rotterdam @ Girls Go Boom Night @ Roodkapje
05.27.17 – NL Amsterdam @ Pacific Park
05.28.17 – NL Utrecht @ dB’s
05.30.17 – DE Hamburg @ Molotow
05.31.17 – DE Berlin @ Cassiopeia

06.01.17 – DE Munich @ Orangehouse
06.02.17 – DE Cologne @ MTC
06.03.17 – FR Paris @ Le Batofar
06.04.17 – IT Ravenna @ Beaches Brew Festival
06.08.17 – FR Clermont @ Ferrand Le Barraka
06.09.17 – FR Nimes @ This is not a Love Song
06.10.17 – FI Helsinki @ Sideways Festival

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Moody and Doom-Laden Sounds and Visuals of GHXST’s “Waiting for the Night”

Featuring co-founders and primary songwriters Shelley X and Chris Wild, GHXST is a New York-based noise rock/grunge rock/doom metal trio whose has publicly cited The Jesus and Mary Chain, White Zombie and Sonic Youth as their influences. And with their latest EP, Perish, the New York-based noise rock trio will further cement their reputation for crafting a noisy, shoegazer-like sound full of enormous power chords fed through layers upon layers of distortion and effects pedals, Shelley X’s bluesy croon — while being a subtle change in sound as the act employs the use of both obscured and distorted drum machine and some effects pedals on Shelley X’s vocals, as you’ll hear on the EP’s latest power chord, feedback laden, doom-filled dirge “Waiting for the Night.”

Directed by the members of the band, the video follows its primary duo wandering down a train line to a desolate, sleazy and decidedly American small town-based motel, where they broodingly sit around bored, waiting for something and nothing in their hotel room and in front of a projection screen featuring dusty, old images of the American West, before concluding with the duo driving along dirt-filled blacktop as the sun sets. And within both the song and its accompanying video, there’s a sense of restless energy and insomnia-filled, endless nights in seedy, fucked up and lonesome places.

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Austin, TX-based, self-described “freak parade” octet Sweet Spirit initially began as a solo project of its founding member  and frontperson Sabrina Ellis. And when she started the project, Ellis’ personal and creative lives were falling apart in front of her — Bobby Jealousy, the band she fronted and co-founded with her then-husband had been disintegrating along with her romantic relationship. Ideally, Ellis conceived Sweet Spirit as a way to hone her writing and offer her an ability to perform solo. “It was supposed to be focused on me writing solo, and performing with the guitar,” Ellis said in press notes. But interestingly enough, when the Austin, TX-based singer/songwriter and guitarist began her latest project, she was simultaneously writing and performing as a member of a local garage punk band A Giant Dog — and her A Giant Dog co-founder Andrew Cashen was intrigued by Ellis’ newer material, which drew from soul, country and pop music. Cashen quickly joined as a way to challenge himself creatively and as a musician. “I’m very comfortable doing loud and fast,” Cashen explained in press notes, “so this is uncharted territory for me.”

Ellis and Cashen began writing material at a breakneck pace and then recruited a core backing band of four more members, with whom they rehearsed religiously before playing a series of attention grabbing gigs around town. Within their first six months as a live, performing band they caught the attention of Spoon’s Britt Daniel, who then asked the band to play at Spoon’s “secret” kick off show for the tour to support They Want My Soul, which resulted in both greater local and national attention, including playing 2015’s SXSW — without having an actual album under their belts or applying. Adding to growing attention, the members of Sweet Spirit opened for Spoon for a 12 of Spoon’s Midwest and West Coast dates.

Building on the buzz they were receiving, the band released their full-length debut Cokomo and a two song collaborative effort with Britt Daniel to critical praise from the likes of Stereogum, Consequence of Sound, Spin and other media outlets, which lead to two national tours. In between playing shows, the band squeezed in studio time with producer Steve Berlin, best known for his work Los Lobos and Deer Tick to record their forthcoming sophomore full-length effort, St. Mojo, which is slated for an April 7, 2017 release through Nine Mile Records. Interestingly, the album’s first single “The Power” is a relatively recent staple of their live sets and a fan favorite, while revealing a change of songwriting approach and sound — towards the anthemic hooks, power chords and thundering drumming of glam rock; in fact, “The Power” sounds as though it draws from T. Rex‘s “Bang A Gong” but being both a battle cry for the outcasts, rebels and misfits to stand up and be proud of what they are, and feminist anthem that says “defy shitty stereotypes and be the you, you’re always meant to be — no matter what.” Considering our world and sociopolitical climate in which conformity is constantly demanded of you and in which in some cases being yourself can threaten the perceived social mores and sensibilities of judgmental, hypocritical prudes, rebelling and being your truest and only self may be the biggest, most revolutionary act of your life.

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now if you had been frequenting this site over the last few months of 2016, you’d recall that with the release of “Help Yourself” and several other singles the Welsh-born, London-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Sarah Howells, best known as Bryde quickly exploded into both the British and international scene as she received praise from Nylon, The Line of Best Fit and Earmilk and airplay from BBC Radio 6, BBC Radio Wales, Radio X and Huw Stephens’ BBC Radio 1 show for a sound that’s been compared to the likes of Jeff Buckley, Sharon Van Etten, Ben Howard and London Grammar while thematically focusing on complex, ambivalent and hopelessly entangled relationships.

Howells’ previous single and her JOVM debut,  “Wouldn’t That Make You Feel Good” was a boozy and woozy dirge in which the Welsh-born, London-based singer/songwriter and guitarist’s aching vocals are paired with bluesy yet shoegazer-leaning power chords reminiscent of  PJ Harvey, in a song that built up into a cathartic and explosive bridge before gently fading out.  Howells’ latest single “Less” continues her successful collaboration with producer Bill Ryder-Jones and it’s a viscerally forceful 90s alt rock-leaning track featuring an alternating quiet, loud, quiet song structure with an anthemic and cathartic hook. And while still channeling PJ Harvey, the song also manages to nod at Liz Phair, Hole and others, complete with an unflinching honesty and vulnerability.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Sally Spitz (vocals), Ali Day (guitar, bass), Max Albeck (drums), and Daniel Trautfield (bass, sax), the Los Angeles, CA-based feminist art-punk quartet French Vanilla can trace the band’s origins to the members being partially driven by a desire to forcefully challenge Southern California’s established music scene, dominated by a few influential, male tastemakers and to do cool shit while hanging with friends, the band played their first shows within their hometown’s queer punk underground. Interestingly, the quartet quickly developed a local and regional reputation for socially conscious lyrics paired with a post-punk and No Wave-leaning sound — and as a result, the band has opened for the likes of Girlpool, Screaming Females, Tacocat, Genesis P-Orridge and Cherry Glazerr and others.

Adding to the growing buzz surrounding the Los Angeles-based band, their self-titled full-length effort is slated for a March 24, 2017 release through Danger Collective Records — and as you’ll hear on the album’s latest single “Anti-Aging Global Warming,” the quartet pairs the propulsive and angular bass lines and slashing guitar lines with incredibly neurotic lyrics that express the narrator’s anxious and neurotic worries about the impending end of the world as we know it, and how easy things can suddenly turn to shit before you know it; but sonically speaking the song strikes me as being reminiscent of Talking Heads: 77 and Fear of Music-era Talking Heads, Entertainment and Solid Gold-era Gang of Four and A-Frames.

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Trippy and Mischievous Visuals for The Kills’ “Whirling Eye”

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site for some time, you’d be fairly familiar with the internationally acclaimed indie rock duo The Kills. And as you may recall, the band’s latest effort, Ash and Ice was the first album of new material from the duo in over five years — and from the album singles “Heart Of A Dog” “Siberian Nights,” and “Impossible Tracks,” the material off their latest album revealed a refinement of the sound that first caught the attention of fans and critics.

Fire and Ash’s fourth and latest single “Whirling Eye” continues in a similar vein to the album’s preceding singles as the duo pair tweeter and woofer rocking boom bap beats, layers of shimmering shoegazer rock-like guitar chords, a towering and anthemic hook and Mossheart’s imitable wail in a swaggering and bluesy song that builds up to stormy intensity — but much like their previously recorded output, there’s a palpable sensuality and sexual tension at its core.

Directed by Sophie Muller, the recently released music video for “Whirling Eye” was shot using several Go Pro cameras to create a 360º virtual reality video that follows the members of the band swaggering and strutting about in a variety of surreal and artistically shot scenarios and while giving the viewer an incredible amount of control to change camera angles at will and placing the viewer within the world of Mossheart and Hince, the video also manages to evoke the trippy sensation of the song’s whirling eye. (Please note, that in order to capture the 360º effect, you will have to view the video on Google Chrome.)

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Live Footage of Wax Idols Performing Brooding and Anthemic “Deborah”

American Tragic’s single “Deborah” is a brooding, New Wave-leaning sound that much like “Lonely You” sounds like it’s been influenced by the likes of Concrete Blonde and Siouxsie and the Banshees, as the song is a brooding and atmospheric song in which Fortune’s plaintive vocals are paired with shimmering guitar chords, four-on-the-floor drumming, gentle layers of buzzing and ethereal synths and a sinuous bass line, and a spoken word-like bridge, while Fortune’s lyrics focuses on character, who is reeling from heartache and can’t figure out what to do next or how to move on — directly from the perspective of the song’s Deborah.

Filmed by producer Omar Acosta of Stretch and Bobbito fame, the recently released video for “Deborah” features footage of the band performing “Deborah” and other songs during sets in Oakland, CA and Los Angeles CA.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Gorgeous and Brooding Visuals for BETS Shoegazer Rework of The Violent Femmes’ “Blister in the Sun”

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the last two months or so, you’d recall that the Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter BETS came to attention last year with the release of her critical applauded debut, Days Hours Night. Building upon the buzz of her debut, the Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and her producer were set to write and record new, original material when the duo discovered that they shared a mutual love of Violent Femmes 1983 self-titled breakout debut effort. Reportedly, within a few minutes, BETS and her producer decided to put the sophomore effort of original material on hold to work on a Violent Femmes cover album in which she reimagines the familiar and beloved material.

In fact, as you’ll hear on BETS’ slow-burning, shoegazer rework of “Blister in the Sun” guitars are fed through layers of distortion, fuzz and feedback paired with gentle drumming and BETS’ dreamily distracted vocals, while pulling apart the song’s melody and chorus to the point of it being dimly recognizable and giving her version an ethereal moodiness.

Directed by Valerie Sute, the recently released video for BETS’ gauzy and dreamy rendition of “Blister in the Sun” begins with some glorious footage of New York City before following a young woman wandering through the desert brush — both by car and by foot with a brooding moodiness.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of her 2016 debut, Fading Light, Dutch singer/songwriter and musician Annelotte de Graaf quickly received international attention for her solo recording project Amber Arcades, as thematically her material has largely drawn from both time and the relativistic experience of it, continuity, magic, jet lag and her own dreams; in fact, leading a life in which she’s followed her dreams, has informed much of the Dutch singer/songwriter and musician’s personal and creative life — because she had always dreamt of working for the UN, de Graaf eventually wound up working as a legal aide on UN war crime tribunals, and then followed it up by working in human rights law, assisting Syrian refugees. She also used her life savings for a flight to NYC and studio time to record Fading Lines with Ben Greenberg, who has worked with The Men, Beach Fossils and Destruction Unit, and a studio backing band that included Quilt‘s Shane Butler (guitar) and Keven Lareau (bass) and Real Esate‘s Jackson Pollis.

Building upon the buzz that she received for Fading Lines and a Fall tour with Nada Surf, de Graaf recently released her latest single “It Changes,” a propulsive single which interestingly enough reveals a decided change in sonic direction, as the song sounds as though it owes a debt to garage rock and post-punk, thanks in part to angular guitar chords played through effects pedals and an anthemic hook paired with de Graaf’s crooning. As de Graaf explains in press notes, the song is ultimately about life’s temporal nature. “Everything changes, all the time,” de Graaf says in press notes. “You think that when starting something new you can kinda tell which way it will go, but you never do. I always try to aim for constancy and stability but things always get messier than I foresaw. And hey, maybe that’s actually what makes it worthwhile.” As a result, while the song possesses a hopeful yet realistic take on life; suggesting that the recognition of messiness and uncertainty being a part of life and something you can learn from.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

women who kick ass by kelliezhao

Live Concert Photography: Mitski at Villain 11/22/16

Live concert photography of Mitski performing at Market Hotel late last year.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Introducing the Classic Country and Early Rock-Inspired Sound of Laura Jean Anderson

Laura Jean Anderson is an Olympia, WA-born, Los Angeles, CA-based singer/songwriter and guitarist who has started to receive attention for a sound and aesthetic that draws from classic country, 40s-50s blues and garage rock but with a subtly modern take, serving as a gentle reminder that earnest and personal songwriting may be more necessary than ever in the dark days that seem to be ahead of us. Anderson’s latest single “Won’t Give Up” features the Los Angeles, CA-based singer/songwriter’s gorgeous and expressive Patsy Cline/June Carter Cash-like vocals paired in a relatively simple arrangement of Anderson’s gently strummed electric guitar, and the addition of a gently propulsive rhythm section, which enters for the song’s anthemic and soaring hook. And although the song sounds as though it could have been released in 1956 or so, the Olympia, WA-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter explains in press notes, a “response to what’s going on in the political and social climate.” She goes on to say that she wanted to release the song “as fuel to the belief that you can’t give up on other people, just because they give up on you. It’s a deeply personal song, but I believe more than ever that the personal is political!”

Certainly, the song should remind the listener of the cliched adage that “no man is an island” and that most importantly, in these strange times, the universe can create some rather strange bedfellows. We’re going to have to rely on each other more than ever. So don’t give up; the fight is going to be long and tiring, but worthwhile in the end.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Thanks to technology, I’m writing this post while on a flight to Amsterdam, The Netherlands with the eventual destination being Dordrecht, The Netherlands for a few days for meetings related to my day job.  JOVM will be continuing as normal or close to normal as possible — although some of my posts will be at unusual times back home in the States thanks in part to the 6 hour time difference. Once I’m done with the business portion of my trip, there will be a few days hanging out in Amsterdam, which I’ll blog about at some point; after all, I wouldn’t be a blogger worth a damn if I didn’t bring my camera with me, right? But on to the business at hand — music, followed by music.

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site throughout its almost seven-year history, you’ve come across a number of posts on Brooklyn-based Afro-pop/dance pop act and JOVM mainstays Rubblebucket. Currently comprised of founding duo and primary songwriters Alex Toth (trumpet, vocals, percussion), Kalmia Traver (lead vocals, tenor sax, baritone sax), Adam Dotson (trombone, vocals and percussion), David Cole (drums) and Ian Hersey (guitar), the Brooklyn-based act can trace their origins to when Traver and Toth met while playing in a Burlington, VT-based Latin jazz act. Quickly bonding over being horn players, a love of Afrobeat and Afro pop and an uncannily preternatural connection, the duo relocated to Boston in 2006, where they did fairly respectable things to survive  — Traver spent time as a nude model for art classes, while Toth spent time hustling $50 a performance marching band gigs. And as the story goes, the duo of Toth and Traver began the band while being broke as shit in Boston. (Somehow that sounds like a song title, doesn’t it?)

Relocating to Brooklyn some years later, the members of Afro pop/indie pop act emerged into the national scene with the release of their critically applauded 2011 album Omega La La and an established reputation for a rather relentless touring schedule full of ecstatic, energetic and mischievous live sets. Over the past few years, the band has been pretty busy as they’ve released a handful of critically applauded EPs and their sophomore full-length Survival Sounds.  And in between slower touring periods, both Toth and Traver spent some time touring as special guests with fellow JOVM mainstay act Superhuman Happiness, a collaboration that goes back to when Stuart Bogie, Eric Biondo and company opened for Rubblebucket for a handful of shows in Burlington, VT. Interestingly during the same period of time, Rubblebucket’s recorded output revealed a band that gradually crafted and then cemented their own signature sound — while subtly expanding upon it. Their Save Charlie EP revealed a band that retained their genre-blurring sound but while also possessing elements of boom-bap hip-hop and electro pop. Additionally, as I noticed, Traver began increasingly emerging as a true frontperson.

The band’s soon-to-be released EP If U C My Enemies is slated for a January 20, 2017 release through So Sensation Records and from the EP’s first single ” “Donna” the band has further refined their sound — Traver and Toth’s enormous and swaggering horn lines are still there but they’re paired with swirling electronics, a distorted vocal sample and Traver’s coquettish cooing. “If U C MY Enemies” continues along a similar vein as Traver and Toth’s enormous horn lines are paired with sinuous and funky bass and guitar chords, swirling electronics, twinkling synths and a soaring, anthemic hook. And while being a bit more mid-tempo in comparison to its preceding single, that song may have arguably been the most muscular and forceful song that they had released to date.  Of course, building upon the buzz around the EP, the band recently released If U C My Enemies latest single “Not Cut Out For This,” a single that seems a bit like a return to form as sonically, it’s reminiscent of the material off Omega La La — twinkling and atmospheric synths are paired with propulsive, boom bap-like drums, a sinuous bass line and Traver’s sultry cooing. And while being a party song — sort of — the song reveals a much more deliberate, thoughtful nature.

The band is in the middle of touring to support the new effort. Check out the remaining tour dates below.

TOUR DATES
Jan 19 – Providence, RI @ Fete
Jan 20 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
Jan 21 – Fairfield, CT @ The Warehouse
Jan 26 – Albany, NY @ The Hollow
Jan 27 – Ithaca, NY @ The Haunt
Jan 28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Swaggering and Badass Visuals for Leopold and His Fiction’s Anthemic “It’s How I Feel (Free)”

Featuring frontman and creative mastermind Daniel Leopold, the members of Austin, TX-based indie rock act Leopold and His Fiction specialize in a sleazy and anthemic rock sound that draws from 60s psych rock and 70s deep-fried Southern rock, complete with a towering and badass swagger and twinkling piano and organ chords and blistering guitar pyrotechnics as you’ll hear on “It’s How I Feel (Free),” the latest single off the band’s soon-to-be released effort Darling Destroyer, slated for release on January 27, 2017.

As Leopold explains of the song’s inspiration, “The rhythm was undeniably, the seed from which the content and swagger for this song grew. People always ask me if I’m stoned. My eyes are wide and bright, the better to see you with. I tell them, ‘sure. I’m stoned. My heart is made of stone.’ Speaking in punchlines, in rhetorical answers. A pacifists defense mechanism. On the road, at home, more often than not I’m finishing articulating my side of a discussion, or answering one million questions of when and why with, ‘It’s How I Feel.’ I gave up being clever as far back as I can remember.” And as a result, the song possesses an unmistakably sneering punk rock sarcasm that seems to say “Oh yeah, well go fuck yourself, pal!” I suspect that attitude will be one of the ways many of us will be forced to us to survive.

Fittingly, the recently released video features quite a bit of swaggering badassery before Leopold’s car is blown up. Whoa.