Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Daniel Feldman is a Rockville, MD-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter, musician, who has had a lengthy and varied music career: He’s best known for a seven-year stint as the frontman of Baltimore-based indie rock outfit Yo No Say. He’s currently one-half of synth pop duo Airplane Man with lifelong friend and creative partner, Tim Sommers.

Since its formation, Airplane Man has released a handful of singles that have earned over a million streams each — all while receiving praise from Billboard and landing on Spotify playlists like New Music Friday.

Feldman’s solo recording project Sleepy Gary derives its name from two different sources: “I first heard the name Sleepy Gary in the context of a TV show called Rick and Morty,” Feldman explains. “In the episode, a suburban family becomes infested with brain parasites that present themselves as old friends via fond yet false memories. One of those parasitic cerebral manifestations is a nonexistent family friend named Sleepy Gary who wears a classic sleeping cap and pajamas and never opens his eyes more than halfway. 

“The character resonated with me because I myself am simply a mental parasite made of false memories.. ehem.. I mean, because I have always felt sleepiness was part of my identity” Feldman continues. “As a teenager I would start my pre-high school shower and end up napping on the bathroom floor, only to awake to an Amazonian climate and the sound of my mom pounding on the door, yelling that I was about to miss the bus again.

“In college I slept through nearly every one of my 8am literature classes. The sleepiness grew and grew until it became a monster that kept me up all night and ruined every morning. Something about that character in Rick and Morty nudged me subconsciously to own it. I am sleepy and that’s ok. I used to lay awake at night before playing shows with my old band. I figure, now with a name like Sleepy Gary if I don’t sleep.. I’ll just be that much more in character. Maybe it’s a way to lean into my anxiety around sleep. I also have to admit there’s just something to the way it sounds. It reminds me of a character you might meet in a gangster movie by Martin Scorcese or something.”

Feldman’s Sleepy Gary debut 21 Love Songs is a three-volume collection that took over seven years to complete and was written in three different cities —DC, Baltimore and New York. The album was completed last year while Feldman was quarantined in a 600 square foot Bushwick apartment with roommate and producer, Gabriel Stanley. Stanley co-produced the album. Grammy-nominated Dave Weingarten mixed the album. Grammy Award-winning Alex DeTurk.

The album sees Feldman quickly establishing a sound and songwriting approach that meshes elements of bedroom pop and psych pop. Thematically, the album is an ode to the many iterations of love we experience throughout our lives: unrequited, sensual, half-hearted, budding, obsessive and long-lost but while occasionally expanding upon what a love song actually is and focuses on.

In keeping with the album’s title, Feldman will release a song off the album every 21 days over the course of a year. The album’s latest single, the Tame Impala-like “W.D.I.L.Y.” Centered around tweeter and woofer rocking beats, reverb drenched guitar, glistening synth arpeggios, an enormous hook “W.D.I.L.Y.” sees Feldman pairing arena rock and club rocking bombast with intimate and achingly vulnerable lyricism: The song’s narrator longs for the old-school love song sort of love. But he finds himself alone, after yet another unrequited love. And yet it’s not completely hopeless; it’s the sort of song in which you see yourself in — and recognize that it’s a profoundly universal experience.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Acclaimed Melbourne-Based Act Mildlife Performs “Citations” on South Channel Island

2017 was a breakthrough year for the now-acclaimed Melbourne-based outfit Mildlife — multi-instrumentalists Jim Rindfleish, Adam Halliwell, Kevin McDowell and Tom Shanahan: Their full-length debut Phase, a mind-bending mix of jazz, krautrock and trippy grooves quickly became a word-of-mouth sensation among open-minded DJs and crate-diggers searching for that perfect, as-of-yet undiscovered-but-incredible beat. Their emergence — and their profile — was solidified by some extensive touring that demonstrated a loose-limbed live approach that thrilled and won over new fans, including the BBC’s Gilles Peterson.

By the end of 2017, the album received critical praise from  Resident Advisor, Uncut,and The Guardian, as well as airplay on BBC Radio 6. Adding to a growing profile, the album landed a handful of award nominations including Best Album at the 2018 Worldwide FM Awards,  Best Independent Jazz Album at the 2018 AIR Awards and Best Electronic Award nomination and win at the The Age Music Victoria Awards. DJ Harvey also included album track “Magnificent Moon” on his Pikes compilation Mercury Rising, Vol. II.

The Melbourne-based quartet have also opened for Stereolab, JOVM mainstays King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Harvey Sutherland. Their first national headlining tour was sold out, and they immediately followed up with a ten-date UK and European tour, which was culminated with a homecoming set at Meredith Music Festival.

Mildlife released their sophomore album Automatic through Heavenly Recordings late last year. The album, which debuted at #10 on the Aussie charts, saw the band crafting much more danceable material, centered around tightly structured arrangements that allow room for melodic improvisation paired with ethereal vocals. Interestingly, the album manages to further cement the Aussie outfit’s approach and reputation for effortlessly gliding between live performance and studio songwriting. Capping off the year, Automatic won an ARIA Award for Best Jazz Album.

Unable to play shows in person and in front of living, breathing, sweating and dancing humans, the mebmers of Mildlife travelled by boat to a long-abandoned 19th Century island fort on South Channel Island to play for fairy penguins and abalone poachers.

The end result: Live from South Channel Island, a 70 minute concert film and live album, in which the band recreate their live show while framed by Port Philip Bay. Live from South Channel Island is slated for an April 29, 2022 release through Heavenly Recordings/[PIAS] — and the band shared the album’s first single, an expansive live rendition of the Wish You Were Here era Pink Floyd meets jazz fusion-like “Citations,” which appears on Automatic. Of course, the accompanying live footage is at simultaneously eerie and jaw-dropping.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Haiku Hands Releases an Infectious Banger

Critically applauded Aussie electro pop act Haiku Hands — Claire Nakazawa, Beatrice Lewis and Mie Nakazawa — embarked on their first Stateside tour back in 2019, and the tour included a number of applauded, attention-grabbing sets at SXSW, opening slots for the likes of Japanese punk act CHAI, JOVM mainstays Tame Impala and Sofi Tukker, Chicago-based emcee CupcaKke and footwork producer DJ Taye.

Building upon a rapidly growing national and intentional profile, the Aussie trio released their self-titled, full-length last year through Mad Decent. Primarily recorded in Melbourne with Joel Ma (a.k.a. Joelistics), the Aussie electro pop outfit’s self-titled debut further cemented their reputation for a sound and aesthetic that’s rebellious and unconventional.

While featuring collaborations with Sofi Tukker, Mad Zach, Machine Drum, Mirac, Hermitude‘s Elgusto and Lewis CanCut, the album thematically probes technology, relationships and the absurd — with incisive social commentary. “The record explores an attitude of empowerment, humour and positivity whilst also delving into darker themes and expressions,” the members of Haiku Hands explain. “We aimed to be original in our creative choices, we were influenced by multiple genres and artists but were aiming to create something that sounded new and different.”

“Conclusions” is the first bit of new material from the acclaimed Aussie electro pop outfit since the release of their self-titled debut. Centered around thumping and driving beats, pulsating blown out bass lines and ethereal melodies paired with a chanted hook, “Conclusions” is a head banging club anthem with a spontaneous, stream of consciousness feel.

“‘Conclusions’ is a driving in the car late at night, volume maxed, head banging, face scrunching kind of track,” the Aussie electro pop trio say in press notes. “Pulsing burnt basslines and driving drums juxtaposed by floating melodic vocals instantly transport you to the organised chaos of Haiku Hands’ car yard complete with guard dog.  Written in full stream of consciousness mode and off a beat written on an iPhone on a plane by Suburban Dark, it’s a timely effortless take on human differences, ideas and why none of it matters when you’re in the zone.” 

The recently released video for “Conclusions” was shot by three a cinematographers in three different cities late at night. Featuring the members of the acclaimed act taking late night rides through misty, two-lane blacktop, deserted Sydney parking lots and Melbourne median strips, the video is wild trip through lucid, fever dreams, glitches in the matrix and some unpredictable and unexpected moments.

“Conclusions” will appear on a limited edition, classic black vinyl reissue of their self-titled debut, slated for a February 4, 2021 release through Spinning Top Records and Mad Decent.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Penelope Isles Release a Gorgeous and Mind-Bending Visual for “Have You Heard?”

Brighton-based indie rock outfit Penelope Isles — founded and led by sibling duo and co-songwriters and co-vocalists Lily and Jack Wolter — had a breakthrough year back in 2019: Their self-produced, full-length debut Until The Tide Creeps In was released to critical acclaimed globally. The band supported the album with some relentless touring that included sharing stages with The Flaming Lips and The Magic Numbers, as well as three Stateside tours, including a stop at the inaugural New Colossus Festival.

The duo’s Jack Wolters-produced sophomore album Which Way To Happy was released last month through Bella Union. The album’s material was forged during a period of emotional and professional upheaval for The Wolters and for Penelope Isles. The band spent much of 2019 touring across Europe and America with their bandmates. When the pandemic struck early last year, the band — understandably — felt as though everything was falling apart: much like countless other folks across the world, the members of Penelope Isles found their plans and hopes in an indefinite stall. Along with that, Jack and Lily were dealing with their own respective heartaches and the departure of two bandmates. The departing bandmates were replaced with Henry Nicholson, Joe Taylor and Hannah Feenstra for the recording of the album. “A godsend after a low time,” Lily Wolters says. 

The Wolters along with Nicholson, Taylor and Feenstra holed up into a small cottage in Cornwall to start work on the new album when lockdowns were instituted everywhere. Claustrophobia kicked in, existential anxiety over the pandemic permeated everything and emotions — naturally — ran very high. “We were there for about two or three months, ultimately,” Penelope Isles’ Jack Wolter recalls. “It was a tiny cottage and we all went a bit bonkers, and we drank far too much, and it spiralled a bit out of control. There were a lot of emotional evenings and realisations, which I think reflects in the songs. Writing and recording new music was a huge part of the recovery process for all of us.”

Finished away from the confines of the Cornwall-based cottage and further flushed out with arrangements by acclaimed composer Fiona Brice, the band’s sophomore album finds the band further emphasizing the core traits that have won them acclaim globally: the bond between Jack and Lily, a desire to celebrate life in all of its facets and a sensitivity towards complex feelings. But interestingly, Which Way To Happy may arguably be their most ambitious effort to date: Sometimes, the album’s material swoons, sometimes it soars. Other times it bravely says “it’s OK to not be OK.” And this is while seeing the band balance on a sonic and stylistic tight rope between expansive cosmic pop, and intimate, earnest songwriting. 

In the lead up to the album’s release, I’ve written about four of Which Way To Happy‘s singles: 

  • The cinematic “Sailing Still.” Centered around a shimmering and brooding string arrangement, gently strummed guitar, thunderous drumming, a soaring hook and Lily Wolter’s achingly tender vocals, the heartbreakingly gorgeous track evokes a deep yet familiar yearning for peace in a mad, mad, mad world — while sonically bearing a resemblance to Lily Wolter’s collaboration with Lost Horizons. 
  • “Iced Gems” is a gently undulating track featuring twinkling keys, fluttering and atmospheric electronics, thumping beats and Lily Wolters’ achingly plaintive vocals. And while being a decided sonic departure, the song is centered around somme deeply intimate lyricism and the duo’s unerring knack for crafting infectious, razor sharp hooks. 
  • “Sudoku” is a slow-burning and lushly textured bit of dream pop/shoegaze centered around shimmering guitars, plaintive and expressive vocals, a soaring hook and a fuzzy power chord driven solo.
  • “Terrified,” a sun-dappled, hook-driven bit of jangle pop but underneath the breezy and upbeat vibes, the song is a reflection on maneuvering a mad, mad, mad world with anxiety — and somehow pretending that you’re not crumbling on the inside.

The album’s fifth and latest single, the breakneck “Have You Heard?” was written by Lily Wolters and sonically is one-part Brit Pop, one-part jangle pop, one-part psych pop centered around rousingly anthemic hooks and Lily Wolters’ achingly tender and ethereal vocals. According to the band, the song was inspired by labelmates The Flaming Lips and much like that equally acclaimed act’s work, “Have You Heard?” manages to be upbeat — but that manages to be a bit deceptive, as the song has a bittersweet and uneasy undertone.

The recently released video was directed by renowned director Jamie Thraves, who has worked on gorgeous and mind-bending visuals for the likes of Radiohead and Coldplay. Shot in a cinematic black and white, the video is split between a surrealist narrative in which the band’s Lily Wolters has the power to hurt people just through words told forward and backwards paired with some great live-performance footage, which captures their live energy.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Leeds-based singer/songwriter and musician Jacob Andrews is the creative mastermind behind the rising recording project Honey Guide. Andrews is part of a music scene that recently has been pervaded with a spirit of cooperation and collectiveness with various projects trading ideas, members and resources with the idea of uplifting the city’s entire indie scene: He has played with Far Caspian, Niall Summerton and Harry Hanson. He’s currently working on material with  Van Houten’s Louis Sadler. And Andrews has Andrews has worked on his material with members of Eades at their Bam Bam Studios.

Andrews’ Honey Guide debut EP, A Tidy Room Is A Tidy Mind is slated for a Friday release through Eades’ own Bam Bam Records. The EP will feature previously released and highly acclaimed singles “I Feel Funny” “Oh Why” — and the EP’s latest single, the woozy “Just My Style,” a few good anthem that thematically focuses on the odd push and pull many of us feel when in a new relationship/situationship: the simultaneous desire to play it cool and move slowly, and to surrender yourself fully to your feelings. 

A Tidy Room Is A Tidy Mind‘s fourth and latest single, the slow-burning “Nom De Plume” continues a run of woozy and unhurried material. Featuring subtle nods to blue-eyed soul and The Beatles — to my ears, at least — the song may arguably be among the most contemplative and wistful of the rising Leeds-based musician’s growing catalog with the song evoking a familiar feeling for all of us: that old “if I had known now, what I had known then, maybe I would have done differently”/”what if I acted or done differently when x happened?”

“Nom De Plume is essentially about wishing to start again, with whatever it may be,” Andrews explains in press notes. “I often find myself battling with the thought that I’d have done things a little differently, spent a little more time and patience on someone, spent a little more time doing something that would have been worth my while, wishing that I’d have planned a little better. I remember getting asked ‘If you could change the name of your project from Honey Guide to something else, would you?’. The answer is absolutely not. The name Honey Guide is my Nom De Plume (or pen name) for writing music, as I didn’t really like the idea of using my actual name. I kind of liked the idea of it sort of being an alter ego in a sense. Guiding anyone who listened to something sweeter.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Clintiss Performs “Toreador” at Studio Flagrant

Clintiss is Rennes, France-born, Montreal-based composer, pianist and singer/songwriter. He relocated to Montreal in 2012, where he started his career in earnest with stints in Charlie Dahl and the Royal Big Band and MoooN — and in both acts, the French-born, Canadian-based artist was the primary songwriting and frontperson.

Since then Clintiss has spent hundreds of hours at the piano, seeking the musical language that could reconcile and synthesize his classical training and his love of contemporary, popular music — i.e., indie rock, post rock and neoclassical, among others. “For me,” Clintiss explains, “composing a piano solo piece is the fruit of a long journey and a lot of hard work… My personal challenge was to create a piano language that I couldn’t manage to find or hear anywhere else, a fusion between the demanding classical technique and the different musical repertoires that have influenced me over the years – classical, symphonic, pop, electronic music… I hope to have succeeded in developing something unique, sometimes a little peculiar, straddling several worlds.”

The French-born, Canadian-based artist’s full-length debut Toreador was released last month. And interestingly, the 13 song album is informed by Clintiss’ own experiences straddling different cultures: The Rennes-born, Montreal-based pianist has spent about two-thirds of his life in Europe and about one-third of his life in Canada. Written and recorded over the course of the past two years, the album’s material evokes life over the past two years — a seemingly carefree and happier before, and the isolation and uncertainty of pandemic-related quarantines and lockdowns. But each composition also manages an opportunity to escape for a little bit, at least.

The French pianist, recently did a live session at Paris‘ Studio Flagrant, where he performed material off his full-length debut, including the breathtakingly beautiful album title track “Toreador.” Centered around playing that’s simultaneously delicate yet forceful, “Toreador” is a twisting and turning composition that evokes — for me, at least — brisk winter afternoons wandering in the snow until the sun sets, and looking forward to warming your cold bones.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Courtney Barnett Performs “If I Don’t Hear From You Tonight” on “Jimmy kimmel Live!”

With the release of 2012’s I’ve Got a Friend Called Emily Farris EP and 2013’s How to Carve a Carrot Into a Rose, Melbourne-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Courtney Barnett received critical acclaim from outlets across North America, the UK and Australia for work that featured witty and rambling conversational lyrics, often delivered with an ironic deadpan paired with enormous power chord-driven arrangements. And although her success may have seemed like it came about overnight, it wasn’t; Barnett carved out a long-held reputation for being one of Melbourne’s best guitarists: she had a stint in Dandy Warhols’ Brent DeBoer’s side project Immigrant Union and guested on Jen Cloher‘s third album, In Blood Memory.

Barnett’s full-length debut, 2016’s Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit, which featured “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party” and the T. Rex-like “Elevator Operator was released to critical praise across the world. The acclaimed Aussie artist collaborated with Kurt Vile on 2017’s critically and commercially successful Lotta See Lice, which landed at #5 on the Aussie charts, #11 on the British charts and #51 on the American charts.

Her sophomore solo album, 2018’s Tell Me How You Really Feel, which featured the motorik groove-driven “City Looks Pretty” continued an enviable run of critical and commercial success. Barnett supported Tell Me How You Really Feel with a three month world tour that included some of her biggest tour steps in Australia at the time.

Barnett’s Stella Mozgawa co-produced third album Things Take Time, Take Time was released last month through Mom + Pop Music and Marathon Artists. Centered around intimately detailed songwriting, Things Take Time, Take Time finds the acclaimed Aussie crafting a journey through heartbreak, recovery and all the soft moments in between that speak to the feelings and experiences that are innately human.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the lovely ballad “Before You Gotta Go.” Centered around a sparse arrangement that begins with a warm drone before gently adding layers of twangy guitar, Barnett’s tender vocals, synths, drums and percussion in a slow-burning crescendo, “Before You Gotta Go” is a simultaneously a frustrated kiss-off and a gracious send-off rooted n a bittersweet, lived in-experience: the hope that the last words between you and a love be to unkind because nothing is guaranteed.

The acclaimed Aussie artist is currently in the middle of a lengthy and extensive North American tour that includes a February 5, 2022 stop at Radio City Music Hall with Julia Jacklin. As always, the rest of the tour dates are below. But in the meantime, Barnett was recently on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where she performed the introspective, garage rock-like “If I Don’t Hear From You Tonight,” a empathetic portrayal of the desperate self-doubt and awkwardness of a crush that’s probably requited, yet not exactly confirmed.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Brooklyn-based psych pop/dance pop act Psymon Spine — Noah Prebish, Sabine Holler, Brother Michael Rudinski, and Peter Spears — can trace its origins back to when its founding duo of Noah Prebish and Peter Spears met while attending college. Bonding over mutual influences and common artistic aims, Psymon Spine’s founding duo toured the European Union with Prebish’s electronic project Karate. And as the story goes, while in Paris, Spears and Prebish wrote their first song together. By the time, they arrived in London, they were offered a record deal. 

When Psymon Spine’s founding duo returned to the States, Spears recruited Micheal “Brother Micheal” Rudinski and their Karate bandmates Devon Kilbern, Nathaniel Coffey to join their new project. And with that lineup, they fleshed out out the demos, which wold eventually comprise their full-length debut, 2017’s You Are Coming to My Birthday. The band went out to support the effort with immersive art and dance parties like their Secret Friend party series across Brooklyn and through relentless touring. 

Prebish was also splitting his time with rising Brooklyn-based dream pop act Barrie and around the same time, Barrie began to receive attention across the blogosphere and elsewhere as a result of a handful of buzz-worthy singles, and 2019’s full-length debut, Happy to Be Here. Interestingly while with Barrie, Prebish met his future Psymon Spine bandmate, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Sabine Holler. 

The rising Brooklyn-based outfit’s sophomore album, Charismatic Megafauna was released earlier this year through Northern Spy to critical applause from the likes of Paste Magazine, FLOOD, Brooklyn Vegan, Under the Radar and NME. The album and its material was added to a number of playlists including NPR Music, Spotify‘s New Music Friday, All New Indie, Undercurrents and Fresh Finds, Apple Music‘s Midnight City and Today’s Indie Rock and TIDAL‘s Rising. And the album received airplay internationally from BBC, KEXP and KCRW among others. The album explores the complicated feelings and catharsis involved in the dissolution of human relationships through hook-driven, left-of center electronic dance meets psych pop.

In the lead up to Charismatic Megafauna‘s release, I managed to write about three of the album’s released singles:

  • “Milk,” a coquettish, club friendly banger with Barrie that brings to mind In Ghost Colours-era Cut Copy and Soft Metals‘ Lenses. The single received attention internationally — with the single receiving praise from   Vanyaland, High Clouds, Echowave Magazine, The Revue, Hype Machine and a list of others.The track also landed on  Spotify playlists like Undercurrents, All New Indie and Fresh Finds, as well as the YouTube channels of  David Dean Burkhart, Nice Guys‘ and Birp.fm. And lastly, the track received airplay on BBC Radio 6. 
  • “Modmed,” an  Andrew VanWyngarden-produced and cowritten, strutting disco-tinged track that’s captures the ambivalent and confusing mixture of frustration, doubt and relief of a relationship that had long petered out and finally wound down to its inevitable conclusion. Interestingly, the song is inspired and informed by personal experience: Prebish and Holler’s difficult decision to leave Barrie to focus on Pysmon Spine full-time. 
  • “Confusion,” a hazy and lysergic banger centered around shimmering synth arpeggios, a wobbling bass line and looping guitar solo paired with Prebish’s plaintive vocals and a trippy, spoken word-delivered break that sonically reminded me of Tame Impala‘s Currents.

Psymon Spine caps off a big 2021 with the digital 7 inch release, “Mr. Metronome”/”Drums Valentino.” “‘Mr. Metronome’ and ‘Drums Valentino’ were among the first song ideas we came up with when first starting our sophomore record” says founding member Noah Prebish. “We wrote them near the end of a two year hiatus which was spent pursuing various other projects by the individuals in the band. Following the break, we were all feeling hungry to make a new Psymon Spine record and we quickly began exploring the new sounds that would ultimately define the album. This process left us with two tracks which were a bit too crazy for Charismatic Megafauna, but too good not to finish.”

“Mr. Metronome” may arguably be the most straightforward, club friendly track of the band’s growing catalog. Featuring a German vocal hook sung by Sabine Holler, which translates to “I saw your message, I have to go work,” followed by a repeated refrain of “my schedule, my schedule,” “Mr. Metronome” is centered around tweeter and woofer rocking beats, glistening synth arpeggios and a relentless, motorik groove. Inspired by Kraftwerk, Soulwax and others, the song’s lyrics features musings on dating and social dynamics while reflecting the band’s restlessness and desire to quit all unfulfilling obligations to focus on what really matters to them — music.

“Drums Valentino” is a New Wave-like single featuring industrial clang and clatter, shimmering guitars, glistening synths and an off-kilter yet dance floor-friendly groove. Sonically, the song helps to emphasize the song’s lyrics, which talk about feeling uneasy and uncertain with a psychological precision.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Blushing Release a “120 Minutes” era MTV-like Visual for Woozy New Single “Sour Punch”

Over the past couple of years, I’ve managed to spill a copious amount of virtual ink cover the Austin-based dream pop/shoegazer outfit and JOVM mainstays Blushing. Featuring two married couples — Christina Carmona (vocals, bass) and Noe Carmona (guitar, keys) and Michelle Soto (guitar, vocals) and Jacob Soto (drums), the JOVM mainstays can trace its roots back to El Paso, where Jacob Soto and Noe Carrmona grew up as lifelong friends and musical partners. 

Jacob Soto and Noe Carmona relocated to Austin around 2009. Coincidentally, they both met their wives at The Side Bar and according to the band, “naturally all four of us became close friends.” As Michelle Soto was learning guitar, she also began writing material, creating guitar parts and vocal melodies in her bedroom. Christina Carmona, who is a classically trained vocalist, was recruited by Michelle Soto to contribute vocals; but Christina then taught herself bass and helped flesh out Michelle’s songs. Shortly after, Jacob and Noe began to notice how much potential the material had, and they joined in on a practice session to help further flesh out their arrangements. And from that point on, Blushing was a full-fledged band. Their natural simpatico and like-minded musical influences helped to solidify their ongoing creative process. 

The members of the Austin-based shoegazer outfit spent the bulk of 2016 writing and refining material, which eventually led to their debut EP, 2017’s Tether, which was released to positive reviews across the blogosphere, including this site. Building upon a growing profile in the shoegaze and dream pop scenes, Blushing returned to the studio to write and recored their sophomore EP, 2018’s Weak, an effort that saw them firmly cementing a sound indebted to Lush, Cocteau Twins and The Sundays but while also being a subtle (and gentle) refinement. They ended that year with the Elliot Frazier-produced and mixed “The Truth”/”Sunshine” 7 inch, which featured what may arguably be the most muscular and direct song of their catalog to date. They also managed to spend the year touring to support their recored output, sharing stages with Snail Mail, Sunflower Bean, La Luz, BRONCHO, Illuminati Hotties, JOVM mainstays Yumi Zouma and others.

2019 saw the release of their self-titled, full-length debut, which they supported with an extensive US tour with Ringo Deathstarr that included a stop at Saint Vitus Bar that November. Although touring was on an indefinite hiatus until recently, the Austin JOVM mainstays have been busy: they signed to Kanine Records, who will be releasing their highly anticipated Elliot Frazier-produced, sophomore album Possessions. 

Slated for a February 18, 2022 release, Possessions is an album born out of incredible patience and perseverance: The earliest tracking sessions started in 2019 and continued in fits and starts through the quarantines, lockdowns and re-openings of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a break in production while Frazier welcomed his second child, and that was followed by the massive blackouts across Texas resulting from the February 2021 winter storm across the region. Interestingly, when the album was finally finished, what revealed itself was an album that reportedly is at points heavier and at other points lighter. Thematically and lyrically, the album sees the band embracing the full and complicated spectrum of life and relationship but while recognizing the need for escape and whimsy. 

The album also sees the band collaborating with two shoegazer legends — Lush and Piroshka‘s Miki Berenyi, who contributes vocals on an album track and RIDE‘s Mark Gardener, who mastered the album at his OX4 Sound in the UK. Fittingly, Possessions‘ first single “Blame” featured the aforementioned Berenyi. The collaboration can trace its origins back to when Blushing covered “Out of Control” for a Lush tribute album in 2018. The cover caught the attention of Berernyi, who tweeted her appreciation — and a friendship began.

As the band continued to track material for Possessions, the JOVM mainstays approached Berenyi about the possibility of her working on a song, and they were thrilled to find that she shared their excitement about working together. The band then sent Berenyi the track and lyrics digitally with the request that she add any vocals she’d like. The end result was a lush, densely layered song featuring glistening and reverb drenched guitars, an enormous hook and some eerily spectral harmonies and counter melodies between Christina Carmona, Michelle Soto and Berenyi. But just under the shimmering surface is a subtle sense of menace, expressed by the refrain “Stick around and find out . . . “

Possessions‘ second and latest single, the woozy “Sour Punch” is a seamless synthesis of 90s indie pop and grunge centered around reverb-drenched guitars, crunchy power chords, propulsive drumming and hazy yet ethereal vocals. But underneath the shimmering melody and power chords,
“Sour Punch” as the band explains explores inequality and striving for independence in a relationship. You can feel the song’s narrator bristling from being hemmed in while desiring some space to herself, to be herself.

The recently recently DIY video sees the band paying a loving homage to the fun, strange and decidedly low-budget videos that they grew up watching during MTV‘s heyday. Within the world of the video almost anything can happen — from a neon colored, cartoon world being just outside of one of your window, to a enormous pug sitting outside another. And it includes the band performing in a mirror ball-like room. Sure, the budget may have been low but the video explodes with a playful creativity and ingenuity.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Tim Carman (drums), may be best known for his work with acclaimed Boston-based blues act GA-20, which features Pat Faherty (vocals, guitar) and Matt Stubbs (guitar). Carman’s latest project, Tim Carman Trio — Carman (drums), Steve Fell (guitar) and Ken Clark (electric organ) — can trace its origins back to last year: While quarantining in a New Hampshire cabin, Carman revisited records that his first drum teacher and mentor Bob Gullotti introduced him to during his formative years as an aspiring jazz drummer.

Inspired by 60s like Jimmy Smith, Brother Jack McDuff and others, The Tim Carman Trio is a no-fills, B3 organ, soul jazz outfit. The trio’s Carman and Dave Brophy co-produced full-length debut, Key Lime is slated for release sometime next year through Color Red Music. Key Lime‘s first single, the original composition “Blues for Bob ” sees Carman playing tribute to Gulloti — and the composition is a cool yet funky strut centered around Carman’s steady and efficient time-keeping and some self-assured and inspired soloing.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: New York’s Tempers Release a Brooding and Icy New Single

New York-based synth duo Tempers — Jasmine Golestaneh (vocals) and Eddie Cooper (production) — have diligently carving their own unique niche within dark indie, electronica and synth pop circles since their formation. After a series of digital singles released back in 2013, the New York duo began to solidify their sound and approach, a sleek. brooding, nocturnal take on synth pop.

The duo’s forthcoming, self-produced album New Meaning is slated for an April 1, 2022 release through Dais Records. As the duo explain, the album is about navigating the unknown, coping mechanisms and exploring the nature of choice. The album’s ten songs reflect on the creation go meaning as a way to access liberation in times of transition and loss while speculating on the transformative potential that exists alongside the grief of living in a world that is an ongoing state of crisis. Much like their previously released material, New Meaning continues a run of nocturnal music, that’s introspective yet quietly intense.

New Meaning‘s first single is the brooding “Unfamiliar.” Centered around Golestaneh’s sensual and emotive vocals, glistening synth arpeggios, shimmering and reverb-drenched bursts of guitar, a hypnotic, motorik groove, and an incredibly infectious hook, “Unfamiliar” sounds indebted to 80s New Wave while evoking our current moment — a world gone even madder and uncertain than ever before.

“’Unfamiliar’ explores the idea of progress, and what qualities might be needed to actualise it,” Tempers’ Jasmine Golestaneh explains in press notes. “So often change is just a rebranding of the same structures and conventions, history repeating itself. But also on a personal level, it’s hard not to repeat mistakes, habits are so seductive. I was thinking about the power of liminal space, and how building a tolerance to unfamiliarity might be a revolutionary act.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: French Duo La Choze Releases a Brooding and Cinematic Single and Visual

Southern France-based indie rock duo La Choze formed back in 2017. Since their formation, the French duo have developed and honed a brooding and cinematic sound centered inspired by 60s pop, featuring reverb-bathed guitars and tremolo.

La Choze’s third album 10 songs about love, loss and much more was released this past Saturday through Blössom Records. The album’s latest single, the brooding “Saturday” sees the French duo further establishing their incredibly cinematic sound — with the song built around shimmering, reverb-drenched guitars, gently padded drumming and ethereal boy-girl harmonizing. The end result is a song that reminds me a bit of Chris Issak‘s “Wicked Game” and Slow Air era Still Corners centered around aching regret and nostalgia.

The recently released video features the duo on a road trip through the French countryside in a vintage, purple Volkswagen Beetle: We the duo driving on winding, two lane blacktop under enormous skies.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Oliver Future Returns After 14 Year Hiatus to Release a Brooding Fever Dream

Split between Austin and Los Angeles, psych rock outfit Oliver Future — currently founding members Noah Lit (guitar, vocals), Josh Lit (vocals, keys), Sam Raver (guitar), Jesse Ingalls — was founded in Austin, back in 2002 featuring a lineup of Noah Lit, Josh Lit, Raver, Ingalls and Jordan Richardson (drums). While in Austin, the band wrote and recorded several albums before their management company relocated the band to Los Angeles in 2005.

The management company (and their stipends) disappeared quickly, and the band was stuck in Los Angeles, too broke to get back home. Luckily, they met producer and engineer Adam Lasus, who has worked with a who’s who list of contemporary indie rock acts, including recording a hit record with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, had just relocated to Los Angeles.

Lasus worked with the band on 2007’s Pax Futura, an effort that was released to widespread critical praise and received airplay on KCRW and NPR Music. The band, who were by then a fixture at Spaceland and The Echo, supported the album with several national tours, as well as stops at Austin City Limits Festival, SXSW, Sunset Junction Music Festival — and a live set on Morning Becomes Eclectic.

Just as the members of Oliver Future started working on Pax Futura‘s follow-up, a famous touring artist hired the band’s rhythm section. Ingalls and Richardson wound up touring the world and winning a Grammy while the remaining members of the band went on to write and record 2008’s In Event of Moon Disaster. Shortly, after In Event of Moon Disaster‘s release, the band broke up. Josh Lit, Noah Lit and Sam Raver returned to Austin.

Shortly after returning home, Noah Lit and Josh Lit became co-owners of popular East Austin craft beer and kolaches bakery, Batch Craft Beer and Kolaches. The successful brothers and business partners were still eager to create new music, and in 2019, they asked Jesse if he wanted to return to Austin to play what was intended to be a one-off, goodbye show at The Continental Club. The show was sold out, and although it was meant to close the book on the band, the fun of playing together was undeniable.

As the drudgery of lockdowns continues into last summer, Josh Lit, Noah Lit and Raver started regularly getting together to jam in their studio. The music instantly sounded like Oliver Future. They contacted Richardson, who remembered two of the songs they were working on before their initial breakup “Phases of the Moon” and “I Can’t Take It.” The rest of the material, which would eventually comprise their forthcoming album A Year at Home was written remotely between Austin and Los Angeles over the past year with the band sending tracks and ideas back and forth through text and email. Studio pro Jimmy Paxson played drums on the album.

The band describes the A Year at Home sessions as “the most effortless recordings they ever got to do.” The final touch was that the band recruited Adam Lasus to mix the record. Although the album is the first album from the psych rock outfit in over 14 years, the album’s material sees the band seemingly continuing where they left off.

“Phases of the Moon,” A Year at Home‘s first single is a slow-burning and brooding song, centered around glistening synth arpeggios, the Lits’ ethereal harmonies, shimmering guitars and a steady yet hypnotic groove. Sonically, “Phases of the Moon” will most likely draw comparisons to Dark Side of the Moon era Pink Floyd and Young Narrator in the Breakers era Pavo Pavo — it’s anachronistic take on retro futurism, which seems to reveal the rot, anxiety, and unease just underneath,

The recently released video for “Phases of the Moon” is an eerie yet gorgeous fever dream inspired by modern life in quarantine doldrums: evil phantasms are everywhere, so the video’s protagonist is left at home trying to hold on to the old normal, and to entertain herself — but she eventually she goes mad.