JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Simple Minds frontman Jim Kerr’s 67th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 80th Birthday, Bon Scott!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 80th anniversary of the birth of AC/DC’s first frontman Bon Scott.
New Video: A Place to Bury Strangers Share Tense, Brooding and Atmospheric “Losing Time”
New York-based JOVM mainstays A Place to Bury Strangers — currently Oliver Ackermann (vocals, guitar), John Fedowitz (bass) and Sandra Fedowitz (drums) — released a rarities album Rare and Deadly earlier this year through Dedstrange.
Following 2024’s Synthesizer, Rare and Deadly sees the band cracking open a decade-long vault of raw nerve and sonic chaos. Spanning 2015-2025, this collection of demos, B-sides, abandoned experiments and forgotten fragments reveals the band at their most unfiltered, frequently caught between breakthrough ideas and beautiful mistakes.
Pulled from Oliver Ackermann’s personal archive of late-night recordings, blown-out tapes and half-finished sessions, the collection’s tracks pulse with the unruly energy that ATPBS has long been known for, but more dangerous with more jagged edges — on purpose.
Countless bands have opened up their vaults to fans and others, but Rare and Deadly is truly unprecedented: Every format is different — and as a result, tells a different story. The CD, cassette, vinyl and digital editions each feature their own unique track listing. No single version features the “complete” album. Instead, each format is its own window into Ackermann’s archive, revealing alternate paths, missing links and parallel “what if” versions of the band’s inner life. It’s deliberately unstable with the album shifting depending on how you choose to hear it, mirroring the chaos of its creation.
Across the collection’s tracks, you can hear the evolution of Ackermann’s restlessly creative mind. Some pieces feel like prototypes for future chaos, seeds that later bloomed on studio albums. Others are dead ends — ideas too volatile, too strange or too personal to ever fit the frame of a proper release. The tracks feature riffs mutated by malfunctioning pedals, songs born from gear pushed past its limits, or delicate melodies overwhelmed by towering walls of feedback.
Rare and Deadly includes the previously released, “Everyone’s The Same,” “Acid Rain” “Where Are We Now” “Song for Girl From Macedonia” and what was announced as the album’s then-final single “Time.” But the JOVM mainstays surprised folks with the surprise release of another single off the time album “Losing Time.” “Losing Time” is a brooding and tense song that features swirling and malevolent textures and a motorik pulse beneath Ackermann’s icy yet punchy delivery. Arguably, the most Suicide-like tracks in the band’s expansive catalog, the song is rooted in a brutally realistic acknowledgment– that forces beyond your control will drag you forward, that time and death wait for no one.
“‘Losing Time’ tackles the uneasy truth that life keeps moving whether we’re ready for it or not. Set against our signature storm of noise and tension, it’s a song about change, mortality and surrendering to the inevitable,” the band explains.
Directed by legendary horror movie director Travis Stevens, the accompanying video for “Losing Time” emphasizes the song’s themes with an uncanny precision.
New Video: Genesis Owusu Returns with Shimmering and Glitchy Surprise Single “HUMAN AGAIN”
Acclaimed multi-ARIA Award-winning Ghanian-born Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu released his highly anticipated third album REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE earlier this year through OURNESS.
REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE sees one of Australia’s most celebrated and visionary contemporary artists construct an exposed state-of-the-day record that’s experimental yet cohesive, desolate yet ecstatic, unflinching yet free. Duality is at the core of an album that sees the JOVM mainstay layering musings on an unsettled world with piercing reflections of his, and our own places within the world. Rich in lyricism and earnest in its message, REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE is a resolute effort that confronts a divisive era in which humanity and its institutions seem to be ripping apart at the seams and heeds a desperate need for unity.
Sonically drawing from and meshing elements funk, neo-soul, Brit rock and alt pop the album’s overall sound feels both sprawling and deliberate. “The world hasn’t ended yet,” Owusu. says. “We’re still moving, we’re still jumping, we’re still living, and so we shall continue. Through rain, shine, exploitation and warfare. We, the people, will always stubbornly persist, and hopefully persist hand in hand.”
Today, the acclaimed JOVM mainstay shares “HUMAN AGAIN,” a surprise stand-alone single and video that comes on the heels of REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE and his Red Star Wu’s Pirate Radio Tour, which electrified crowds in Australia and included sold-out headline shows in London and Paris, and opening dates with IDLES. “HUMAN AGAIN exists in the same mindset as REDSTAR WU — emotionally raw and reflecting deeply on our divisive, mad times. Sonically, the new single features bubbling and warbling synth glitch and skittering beats beneath Owusu alternating between a ferocious, ODB-styled snarl for the song’s punchy verses and his imitable croon. His delivery evokes a man at conflict with himself, seeming propelled forward by the digitized world that surrounds us. And yet, the song’s narrator finds a hopeful resolve, resilience in community, and inspiration in the collective fight to hold on to our humanity.
Owusu says, “I wrote this song when I was thinking about apathy. Living in the digital age of misinformation is genuinely brain-frying sometimes. So much global gaslighting, so much to cry and scream about; it’s easier to just flip the switch off and sink into base hedonism to feel human again. But it’s really important to care. You can party too. Care about the rights and freedoms that let you party. Care about all the people around the world who wanna party just like you. Keep fighting, kicking and screaming so the party doesn’t die.”
Directed by Isaac Brown, the accompanying video is a baroque, Interview with the Vampire-styled fever dream of lust, decadence and violence that collides with modern-day European streets in a way that emphasizes the tensions at the core of the song in a visceral fashion.
New Audio: Late Again Shares Breezy and Ironic “Crazy and Stupid”
São Paulo-born, Brooklyn-based artist Rafael Melo has had a multi-hyphenate career spanning award-winning films, bestselling indie video games and his solo recording project Late Again. And with Late Again, Melo expands the boundaries of his music beyond sound, in an effort to tell his stories in whatever medium it requires.
Sonically, Late Again sits at the intersection of North American indie pop, Bossa nova references, a hint of dreamlike film soundscapes and 80s Japanese grooves. Since starting the project in 2024, Melo has received coverage from Billboard, JazzTimes, Galore, Grimy Goods, TrebleZine and a long list of others. He also collaborated with Brazilian jazz maestro Arthur Verocai and experimental visual artist Gabriel Rollim, a.k.a Rollinos.
Building upon a growing profile, the São Paulo-born, Brooklyn-based artist’s third EP, I Dreamt I Was Awake is slated for a September 4, 2026 release. The new EP reportedly showcases a newfound confidence as he double downs on his astutely observational writing style. Over the course of six, intricately structured tracks, the EP’s material thematically explores the gap between the life you imagine, the one you’re actually living, and the strange ways people learn to make peace with that distance. Self-aware, sometimes humorous and always subtly critical, the EP’s songs fluctuate between tenderness and irony, minimalism and chaos, and the hyper-personal and universal.
The EP was recorded at Brooklyn’s Studio G and São Paulo’s Evil Twin Studio and features contributions from Kimbra‘s and Duda Beat’s Thiago Dom (drums), Twin Brother’s and John Roseboro’s John Lisi (bass) and was engineered by Nelson Espinal and mixed by Melo’s long-time Brazilian collaborator Heal Mura.
I Dreamt I Was Awake’s first single “Crazy or Stupid” is a languid, summer daydream of a tune, anchored around the sort of breezy yet hook-driven, dream pop textures that channels JOVM mainstays MUNYA, Kainalu and Tame Impala. But juxtaposed against the dreamy feel good vibes of the song are lyrics that casually reference the anxieties and horrors of our contemporary hellscape — potential deportation by ICE/CBP, AI takeovers and the like — while posting out that it feels like everyone has lot their mind. The result is a song that’s unsettling yet disarmingly catchy, and a clear-eyed, ironic look at our absurd, brutal world.
“It’s ultimately a funny ballad that doesn’t take itself too seriously” shares Late Again.
The song is accompanied by a mind-bending. highly computerized visualizer by Gabriel Rollim, a.k.a Rollinos.
Throwback: Happy 56th Birthday, Beck!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Beck’s 56th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 65th Birthday, Andy Fletcher!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 65th anniversary of the birth of Depeche Mode co-founder Andy Fletcher’s birth.
Throwback: Happy 86th Birthday, Ringo Starr!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Ringo Starr’s 86th birthday.
New Video: El Da Sensei Celebrates 20th Anniversary of “The Unusual” with Stylish Visual for Lush “Hold On”
El Da Sensei celebrates 20th anniversary of “The Unusual” with stylish visual for lush “Hold On.”
Live Footage: FATHERS Live at Wonderland Park
FATHERS is a collective of acclaimed artists and producers, renowned for their jazz-rooted musicianship, their production acumen and their love of the possibilities one can create in the studio. The collective features:
Kenneth Blume, a producer formerly known as Kenny Beats, who has worked on efforts by Vince Staples, Denzel Curry, Rico Nasty, IDLES, Freddie Gibbs, Geese, Weezer and a long list of others, He has also invited Doja Cat, Thundercat and Skrillex to participate in viral, streamed concepts across both Twitch and YouTube.
Kiefer Shackelford, a keyboardist and producer best known as Kiefer. Shackelford’s own work has earned acclaimed for his uniquely atmospheric blend of jazz, electronic music and hip hop. As a collaborator and producer, he has worked with Terrace Martin and Anderson .Paak. He produced two tracks on .Paak’s Grammy Award-winning 2019 album, Ventura, including the album’s lead single “King James.”
Ben “CARRTOONS” Carr, a New York-based genre-blurring multi-instrumentalist and artist, who in addition to producer-led projects like last year’s Space Cadet has gained traction through his inventive socials, multiple NPR Tiny Desk Concert appearances and production work with George Clinton, Freddie Gibbs, Jadakiss, Usher, and Roy Ayers. With FATHERS, Carr takes up bass duties.
Nate Smith a highly-respect and influential drummer, songwriter and producer, who has collaborated with an impressive and eclectic list of artists including Michael Jackson, Brittany Howard, Jon Batiste, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Childish Gambino, Vulpeck and a growing list of others. Earlier this year, Smith won two Grammy Awards for last year’s LIVE ACTION, a guest-packed effort that showcased his gifts as a conceptualist and as the fulcrum of an astonishing network of artists.
FATHERS core trio — Smith, Carr and Shackelford — can trace their origins back to 2023: Smith assembled the core trio as part of his residency at that year’s Montréal Jazz Festival. Tours of the States and Japan followed, where the trio further developed their chemistry as a working group. “We all write, we all play at a high level, and we’re pushing each other to be better,” says CARRTOONS. “So we know going into anything that there’s going to be an inspiration and a push from everybody else, so that hunger that we all have independently becomes this super-being when we get together.”
The outfit’s self-titled full-length debut is slated for a Friday, July 10, 2026 release through Blue Note Records. Produced by Blume, the album was recorded at his Los Angeles-based Putnam Hill Studio in an impromptu two day recording session. And as a result, the material possesses the magical spark of spontaneity and serendipity, while fittingly showcasing the talents of three talented musicians vibing and pushing each other.
“I was 95 percent through building my studio, and I asked Kiefer if he could come by with a band and play some instruments,” Blume recalls. “We custom-built our recording console and hadn’t heard anything through it yet. So it was meant to be a test day to make sure the studio was up and running. Kiefer happened to be playing shows with Ben and Nate at the time, and in testing out the equipment we recorded these songs in 48 hours. Turns out the board works just fine.”
The album includes the previously creased “PEARL,” a bit of Bossa Nova-tinged jazz pop that channels Stan Getz anchored around a bubbling groove and a gently swaying and shimmering melody.
To celebrate the album’s release, the trio recently released a half-hour long performance and interview video that features the outfit’s core compositional and performing trio performing stripped down jazzier arrangements of their debut’s material shot at Wonderland Park. The live session showcases that material is equally underpinned by bop era jazz and J. Dilla productions and is rooted in the trio’s soulful musicianship and effortless simpatico. Throughout the session, each member of the trio intuitively knows when to lead and when to follow in service of the melody and the overarching song.
The stylized video was inspired by the Bill Evans Trio’s 1972 appearance on the TV show The Jazz Set and in some way it has a surreal, yet deeply cool air.
New Video YHWH Nailgun’s Bruising, Visceral “Magazine”
Lane Stewart’s gorgeously shot and brooding short film accompaniment to YHWH Nailgun’s “Magazine.”
Throwback: Happy 51st Birthday, 50 Cent!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates 50 Cent’s 51st birthday.
Throwback: Happy 56th Birthday, Inspectah Deck!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Inspectah Deck’s 56th birthday.