Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Dear Boy Shares Madchester-like “The Address”

Los Angeles-based indie outfit Dear Boy — founding members Ben Grey (vocals, guitar) and Keith Cooper (drums) alongside Austin Hayman (lead guitar) and Lucy Lawrence (bass, vocals) — can trace their origins back to when its founding members Grey and Cooper were living in London during their mid-twenties. Hayman and Lawrence joined the band once its founding duo returned to the States.

Interestingly, despite their Stateside roots, the Los Angeles-based quartet’s work has drawn from ’80s and ’90s Brit pop and shoegaze — with the band citing Pulp, Oasis, Slowdive and The Jesus and Mary Chain as major influences, while also embracing the likes of Pixies and R.E.M. 

The band’s sophomore album sophomore album, the Aron Kobayashi Ritch-produced Celebrator is slated for an October 17, 2025 release through Last Gang Records. Following the success of their full-length debut, 2022’s Forever Sometimes, the band took a step back from perfectionist production practices and leaned into spontaneity. Written in 12 sessions and recorded live in under two weeks, the album’s material reportedly bristles with a palpable energy while showcasing the band’s musical and creative chemistry. “We made this album to remember why we do this in the first place,” the band says. “Because we love it. We adore each other. Joy. Connection. Heartbreak. Celebration. We’re not interested in anything other than that.”

Celebration will feature the previously released “After All,” feat. Rocket’s Alithea Tuttle, a bombastic anthem that brings 120 Minutes-era MTV and 90s Brit Pop to mind. The album’s latest single “The Address” continues the band’s Brit Pop-meets-shoegaze while featuring a Happy Mondays/Madchester-style breakbeat-driven drum groove and shoegazer textured guitar chug serving as a lush yet subtly dance floor friendly bed for Ben Grey’s plaintive and yearning delivery.

Much like its immediate predecessor, “The Address” showcases the band’s uncanny knack for paring catchy hooks and swaggering bombast with earnest, lived-in lyricism.

Fittingly, the video made by the band’s Ben Gray and Ryan Saunders, the accompanying video draws heavily from old school MTV visuals.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tame Impala Returns with Yearning, Club Friendly “Dracula”

Acclaimed Aussie JOVM mainstay Tame Impala‘s highly-anticipated fifth album, Deadbeat is slated for an October 17, 2025 release through Columbia Records.

Deeply inspired by bush door culture and the Western Australia rave scene, Deadbeat sees Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker recasting himself as a sort of future primitive rave act. Conceived in various locations over the last handful of years, the album was largely galvanized between Parker’s hometown of Fremantle and his Inijidup, Western Australia-based studio Wave House during the first half of this year.

Renowned for being a perfectionist, Parker’s fifth Tame Impala album reportedly showcases an artist with a leveled-up mastery of songwriting but crafted with a newfound embrace of spontaneity. The result is a collection of remarkably catchy, hook-driven, club-friendly psych pop while being some of Parker’s most direct songwriting of his career to date. Sonically, there are timbres and textures that add new dimension to the material’s overall sound paired with a much richer, more playful vocal range.

Lyrically, the album finds Parker channeling an endless bummer with a self-deprecating fuck-up of a narrator stuck in a hopelessly negative feedback loop, when he should have long had his shit together. We all know this kind of dude — and in some cases, he is us. Thematically, the album suggests raving as self-inquiry, self-medication in lieu of self-care and the kick-on as domestic bliss. Dance and sweat your troubles, stresses and concerns away on the dance floor, y’all. Reality can wait another day or two — hell, fuck it, another three.

Deadbeat will feature the previously released “End of Summer,” the recently released “Loser,” and the album’s third and latest single “Dracula.” “Dracula” continues a run of club friendly bops, anchored around euphoric hooks — but while arguably being the funkiest song off the album to date. Lyrically, the new single is arguably one of the playfully self-deprecating and self-referential tunes of Parker’s growing catalog, while simultaneously expressing the swooning yearning that he’s long been known for.

Directed by multi-disciplinary artist Julian Klincewicz, the accompanying video for “Deadbeat” follows Parker and a big rig carrying a house, as the acclaimed Aussie artist struts his way to and through a rave in the rural Australia.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 80th Birthday, Bryan Ferry!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Bryan Ferry’s 80th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 53rd Birthday, Shawn Stockman!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 53rd birthday of Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 77th Birthday, Olivia Newton-John!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 77th anniversary of Olivia Newton-John’s birth.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Glimmer Returns with Bruising Yet Anthemic “Been Down”

Over the past couple of years New York-based grungegaze outfit and JOVM mainstays Glimmer — Jeff Moore (vocals, guitar), Jaye Moore (drums), Johnny Nicholls (guitar) and Kevin Dobbins (bass) — have released a handful of well-received singles have seen the quartet firmly establishing a sound that mixes elements of shoegaze, grunge and dream pop in a way that’s both nostalgia inducing and yet contemporary.

Building upon a growing profile, the band’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, Get Weak is slated for an October 3, 2025 vinyl release through Philadelphia-based label, Abandon Everything. Recorded with Jeff Berner at Brooklyn-based Studio G and mastered by Will Yip, Get Weak reportedly sees the band pairing their more pop-leaning singles with heavy-hitting alt-rock anthems and softer, more ethereal material

The album’s latest and last pre-release single “Been Down” features big, crunchy, Dinosaur Jr.-like riffs with even bigger, remarkably catchy The Colour and The Shape-era Foo Fighters-like hooks and forcefully propulsive drumming serving as a lush yet remarkably catchy bed for Jeff Moore’s dreamily plaintive delivery. “Been Down” showcases the band’s unerring knack for pairing big hooks and arena rock-like bombast with earnest, nostalgia-including lyricism. And while clearly drawing from 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock, the new single continues a run of material that manages to sound incredibly contemporary.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 51st Birthday, Daniel Kessler!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Interpol guitarist Daniel Kessler’s 51st birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Copenhagen’s Young Couple Shares Brooding “As the Leaves Unfold”

Copenhagen-based art rock/experimental art rock outfit Young Couple — Jonas Tøibner (vocals, guitar), Mikkel Kruse (bass), Eigil Fauerskov (guitar), Jens Brøndum (saxophone), and Christian Hafdrup (drums) — have crafted a intimate and unpredictable sound that sits within the intersection of post-rock, dream pop and neo-psychedelia featuring complex rhythmic structures, glitchy electronics, shoegazer like guitar textures and brooding sax lines paired with yearning vocals singing abstract lyrics full of fleeting, evasive images, describing an emotional landscape where love, dreams and friendships often intertwine.

The quintet have made a name for themselves in the Danish underground scene, playing shows with Jenny, Himmelrum and Bishbusch while members of the band have also played with Martha Elisabeth, Niko Corlin and Vakt. Building upon a growing profile in the Danish scene, Young Couple’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, yc is slated for a November 7, 2025 release through Pink Cotton Candy Records.

yc is the culmination of years of close friendship, extermination and musical exploration that reportedly sees the band pairing warm, organic instrumentation with layers of processing and effects. While drawing from shoegaze, post-rock and experimental pop, yc‘s material pushes the boundaries of those genres into something simultaneously familiar yet new. Thriving on contrast, texture and space, the Danish outfit’s full-length debut evokes a nocturnal, urban atmosphere perfect for listening on headphones late night.

yc’s first single “As the Leaves Unfold,” is a slow-burning and brooding tune that draws from and meshes elements of post rock, art rock, post punk, indie rock and shoegaze that captures an uneasy tension between the inner and outer worlds of its narrator with a precise attention to psychological realism. According to the band, “As the Leaves Unfold” is an exploration of “the small mysteries of everyday life,” and an optimism rooted in the belief that the most profound discovers of our lives can hide under the smallest of stones.

Adhering to long-held DIY ethos, the band accompany the new single with a completely self-made video, that features snippets of every day life full of symbolism — sunset at the beach, a major bicycle race, a boat ride in Arctic-like waters and more.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rafa Tena Teams Up With Sandra Carrasco on Elegant “Gitano soy”

Madrid-born singer/songwriter, composer and music producer Rafa Tena‘s career started behind the scenes as a lyricist and composer, who wrote a number of internationally recognized hits performed by other artists. Tena has also spent time working as a producer, a musical director for TV, and interestingly enough as an apprentice poet. Talk about a renaissance man, right?

Deeply enamored with Cuban music and culture, Tena has spent lengthy stints residing in Havana, where he collaborated with some of the country’s most prominent artists, before stepping out into the spotlight as a ember of Son DOS, with whom he has plans to release an album inspired by Cuba’s beloved son music.

If you were frequenting this site earlier this year, you might recall that I wrote about “Morcilla,” a collaboration with gypsy band Las Negris, a rowdy and raucous party starting tune, which saw the Madrid-born artist and Las Negris meshing elements of flamenco, tango and Cuban guagancó that featured mischievous lyrics referring morcilla (blood sausage), a beloved delicacy across the Spanish speaking world — with some regional differences in ingredients and how its prepared. The song also is peppered with references to Tena’s travels between Spain and Cuba, making a point of how much food

The Madrid-born artist’s latest single “Gitano soy,” is a collaboration with Sandra Carrasco, a highly sought-after flamenco artist, who has worked with musicians across jazz, classical and contemporary music. The song is an elegant and sophisticated blend of flamenco bolero and pop rock with a gorgeous string arrangement that feels simultaneously old world and contemporary, while rooted in earnest, seemingly lived-in lyricism and performances from Tena and Carrasco.

Directed by Lorena Flores, the accompanying video for “Gitano soy,” is a gorgeous and elegantly shot visual that feels a bit like a travel film-meets-pop music video.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 54th Birthday, Peter Salisbury!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates The Verve drummer Peter Salisbury’s 54th birthday.