Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: grandson Shares a Politically Charged and Anthemic Ripper

Jordan Benjamin is the Los Angeles-based creative mastermind behind the rising indie rock project grandson. Benjamin’s highly-anticipated sophomore grandson album, the Mike Crossey-produced INERTIA is slated for a September 5, 2025 release through XX Records/Create Music. The album reportedly marks an urgent, unfiltered chapter for Benjamin as an artist and songwriter, who’s operating on his own terms and speaking truth to power.

INERTIA‘s second and latest single “SELF IMMOLATION” is a Rage Against the Machine-meets-Incubus-era nu metal bruiser that sees Benjamin pairing a punchy and impassioned delivery with pummeling boom bap-like percussion, bursts of DJ scratching and a rousingly anthemic and mosh pit friendly, Tom Morello-like crunchy power chord-driven hook and chorus. Thematically, the song sees the rising Los Angeles-based artist unpacking what it means to have a cause to fight for — and to potentially die for.

“’Self Immolation’ was inspired by the Palestinian liberation movement across college campuses, inspired by the late Aaron Bushnell who gave his life in protest of the actions of the very military he served, inspired by the dead students of Kent State 1970, and written about what it means to have a cause to live for, to die for,” Benjamin explains. “I wrote it with my friends, each of us playing an instrument live together, in a stoned, free, creative place in Andrew’s studio one afternoon, and it was a feeling we locked into across the whole album. It was a blast to create, and we all felt a great deal of purpose and meaning in the session that day.” 

The accompanying video for “SELF IMMOLATION” is split between Benjamin and his backing band performing the song as two funereally-dressed women headbang and mosh behind him, edited footage from Kent State, protests, uprisings and fires.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Austin’s Die Spitz Shares a Bruising, Mosh Pit Friendly Ripper

Rising Austin-based outfit Die Spitz — Ava Schrobilgen, Chloe De St. Aubin, Ellie Livingston and Kate Halter — can trace some of their origins back to when Schrobilgen and Livingston met in preschool. They befriended Halter in middle school. And they brought De St. Aubin into their friend group when they started the band back in 2022.

Initially, the quartet was looking to find reasons to hang out more often, and decided they should start a band after a late-night viewing of the Mötley Crüe biopic The Dirt. They settled on the name Die Spitz over a “brown bag of Fireball,” opting for the feminine German definite article in place of the English. “It reminds me of the Grim Reaper spitting,” Livingstone jokes.

Their first live shows saw them pairing originals with covers from some of their early inspirations including Black Sabbath, Pixies, Mudhoney, PJ Harvey and Nirvana. Unsurprisingly, they express their ideas and themselves through a shameless blend of classic punk, hardcore metal, alt rock and more. They’ve also become known for riotous live show, where dueling cartwheels, members climbing rafters and solos while crowdsurfing could happen at just about any moment.

The Texan quartet’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, the Will Yip-produced Something to Consume is slated for a September 12, 2025 release through Third Man Records. The album reportedly sees the members of Die Spitz combining their passion, friendship, identity and artistry to fight against the seemingly inescapable decay and chaos that surrounds modern life. “There’s a political side to it, but addiction and love can also be all-consuming,” the band’s Ellie Livingston says.

As the band trades off instruments, swapping songwriting and vocal duties, and generating powerful songwriting on concussive bursts, they have managed to create their own little pocket of the world, where we can all stand on the edge together.

Something to Consume‘s 11 tracks reportedly contains multitudes and yet feels like a singular epicene, an expansive and expressive collection, unified in its camaraderie and freedom. “We depend on our freedom — freedom to do what we want, present the ideas we want, make the music we want,” Livingston says. “Whether it’s based in metal or something soft, no matter which of us wrote the song, we all contribute and work together. As a person, I don’t have a strong ego or voice, but within this band each one of us is capable of so much more.”

“Something to Consume is an album experience for everyone. Whether you’re craving a smack of lively metal or a melancholy wave of grungey violin, there’s a piece of all of us injected. Something to Consume is a call to the multitudes of ways we as humans allow consumption to enrapture our culture as well as ourselves.”

Though they’ve only been playing together for a few years, the album also shows a maturity and technical prowess wielded and wed to the service of their deep and abiding friendship — and a hope to inspire change. “Some people aren’t interested in being political activists via music, but it weighs on me heavily and I feel misaligned with my calling if I don’t,” Chloe De St. Aubin says. “The four of us are free spirits with multiple interests, and there’s no limit or power dynamic that can derail us.”

Something to Consume‘s first single, “Throw Yourself to the Sword” is a bruising, most pit friendly synthesis of Slayer and long-haired Metallica era thrash metal, The Sword-like stoner rock and punk anchored around some of the hardest and grimiest riffs I’ve heard in some time paired with punchily delivered verses and feral howls for the song’s hooks and choruses. Play loud and open up that fucking pit — right now!

“‘Throw Yourself to the Sword’ is a high-energy ode to what we want young people to feel. There’s a lot of existentialism and despair in other songs on the album that still sheath the same theme, but ‘Throw Yourself to the Sword’ is the raise of optimism. Despite living in a state of mundanity or hopelessness, you can still rise up and fight the unknown, as long as you’re willing to throw yourself to it,” Ellie Livingston explains.

Fittingly, the accompanying video directed by Emily Sanchez is set in and around a local laundromat, supermarket and farm with young women playing “Throw Yourself to the Sword,” as the band’s frontperson appears and inspires them to be mischievous and joyful as a form of resistance and when necessary to pick up the sword and fight.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 86th Birthday, Mavis Staples!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the legendary and incomparable Mavis Staples’ 86th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 71st Birthday, Neil Tennant!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant’s 71st birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Total Wife Shares Woozy “second spring”

Over the past decade, the experimental Nashville-based duo Total Wife — Luna Kupper and Ash Richter — have firmly cemented as fixtures of both the Nashville and East Coast DIY scenes.

The duo’s fifth album, Come Back Down is slated for a September 25, 2025 release through Julia’s War Recordings. Come Back Down is the follow-up to 2023’s in/out and builds upon their varied and rich catalog, while featuring the previously released 0 EP tracks “naoisa,” and “(dead b).”

The album’s latest single “second spring” is a woozy track that features fuzzy and churning guitars paired with syrupy sweet, ethereal melodies. At its core, the song evokes both the hope of new beginnings and the unease and anxiousness of what those new beginnings will actually mean for you and your life.

“Ash started the lyrics for this song in early spring of 2020, and worked them out over the next few years before Luna wrote this song, which helped her finish them,” the Nashville-based duo explain. “Hard to remember, but flowers will bloom with or without you,” is from the same poem that “Reveal Sky,” was written from (total wife Self-Titled LP, “It’s easy to forget that it’s spring, staring through grey-blue drywall”).“

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Tan Cologne Team Up With Trentemøller on a Minimalist and Dreamy Rework of “In Resin”

Enigmatic Taos, NM-based duo Tan Cologne — Lauren Green and Marissa Macias — released their third album Unknown Beyond last month through Labrador Records. Unlike their previously released material, Unknown Beyond sees Green and Macias reaching for the heavens and an intangible greater existence; the infinite and unexplainable while embracing the beauty of timeless uncertainty. 

Written, performed and recorded entirely by the duo at their Taos, New Mexico-based home, the album found the pair seeking solitude and retreat as they attempted to come to terms with the personal loss of family, friends and childhood homes — within a relatively short period of time. The album’s creative process quickly became a therapeutic outlet for grieving, dealing, changing and understanding new life transitions and ways of being, with each track being a part of the story of the entire album. 

The album’s material is centered around a more spiritual process. “We looked for signs and signals during the recording process” the duo says in press notes. “If we saw a shooting star, imagined a fire burning on a hill, or remembered an old satellite dish in someone’s yard, we explored that lyrically. Those visual guides became our pathways to the album. They were the signs to move forward.”

Interweaving and layering hypnotic beats, hazy shoegazer textures, abstract live drum patterns and sounds of searching for signals — of comfort and communication — from the invisible web, Unknown Beyond may arguably be their most immersive and emotive work to date. 

In the lead up to the album’s I written about three of the album’s previously release singles, “Cloud of Mirrors,” “Infinity“ and “Cool Star.”

The duo recently teamed up with Trentemøller on a reworking of Unknown Beyond closing track “In Resin.” The album track is a slow-burning and hazy tune featuring swirling, almost painterly, reverb-drenched, shoegazer guitar textures. While recalling A Storm In Heaven, the arrangement serves as a lush bed for Green’s and Macias’ dreamily ethereal harmonies.

The Trentemøller reworking retains the duo’s dreamily ethereal harmonies but replaces most of the shoegazer guitar textures with a looping, twinkling and eerily beautiful piano figure, which emphasizes the mysterious vibe of the song while giving it an old-timey feel and sound.

“In Resin” encapsulates the entire project thematically, as well as the duo’s experiences over the lat few years. “It talks about being everything once and then being it all again, and living several lives at the same time,” the band says. “‘In Resin’ is a special track that we spiritually found ourselves oscillating between leaving it as a rare gem to discover on the album or presenting as a focus,” they continue. “We opted for the mystery, but Trentemøller dove into it.”
 
The band expands, “A few years ago, Trentemøller connected with us and our sound. Now into the present and future, he offered to rework one of our tracks from our new album and selected ‘In Resin.’ He finished the new interpretation while we were on tour together in Europe. We feel our music is a communication and we are honored to continue ‘In Resin’’s sonic conversation with Trentemøller.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 66th Birthday, Jim Kerr!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Simple Minds’ frontman Jim Kerr’s 66th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 79th Birthday, Bon Scott!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 79th anniversary of Bon Scott’s birth.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Cochemea Shares Soulful and Meditative “Ancestros Futuros”

Acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, arranger and composer Cochemea Gastelum comes from a long line on musicians on both sides of his lineage. Over the past 25 years, Gasteum has built a distinct and accomplished career as a soloist and arranger/composer, collaborating with an eclectic array of artists across a wide range of genres — from his lengthy stint with Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings to the likes of Kevin Morby, Run The Jewels, Jon Batiste, Amy Winehouse, The Roots, Archie Shepp, Mark Ronson, the legendary Quincy Jones and a lengthy list of others.

His previously released material has received praised from both critics and DJs. 2019’s All My Relations, the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, arranger and composer’s critically applauded Daptone Records debut was a family reunion of sorts, uniting spirits, musicians and melodies across space and time. Leading a nonet, Gastelum and company employed drums, winds and vocals to create a deeply personal meditation on the interconnectedness of all things. Vol. 2: Baca Sewa expanded this exploration into the archives of family history, mythology and the cultural imagination.

Slated for a September 26, 2025 release through Daptone Records, Gastelum’s forthcoming effort, Vol. 3: Ancestros Futuros completes a triology while anchored in the cultural fabric that has nurtured him from the beginning. A Californian of Yaqui ancestry, Gastelum describes a central part of his work as “accessing ancestral memory that comes in different forms — sometimes when you visit a place, sometimes in dreams . . . it’s in our DNA.”

“For me it’s about seeking wholeness in these zones of fracture.” In fact, dreams play a vital role in his creative process., “A lot of melodies come to me through dreams,” he says. “I’ve kept a dream record for years, shaping the language into what I call dream scores.” One of these scores appears on the back over of Ancestros Futuros, reflecting the intuitive and layered nature of his work. This dream-guided approach carries into the album’s opening track, “Transmisíon del Soñar,” which serves as a “portal” between dimensions, echoing his connection with both the dream realm and the dynamic interplay of time and space.

His musical and spiritual synthesis is made possible through his deep reverence for the horn, and the music and traditions that precede him. Inspired by Eddie Harris, Yusef Lateef, Jim Pepper and Gary Bartz, Gastelum attempts to bride ancestral rhythmic traditions with forward-looking vision, to create a signature sound that’s both deeply rooted and expansive. With the new album, Gastelum continues to expand upon his work, effortlessly blending past, present and future into a ritual offering, in which memory, survival and imagination converge. The album’s material is also shaped by stories of survival and resistance.

The acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer gathered a core group of longtime collaborators, an octet featuring some of New York’s best percussionists and members of Daptone’s world famous rhythm section. Additionally, the album sees Gastelum collaborating with Daptone Records founder Gabriel Roth, a.k.a. Bosco Mann returning as producer and mixing engineer, recording the band live to 8-track analog tape.

Ancestros Futuros‘ first single, album title track “Ancestros Futuros” is a composition that sounds and feels simultaneously ancient and remarkably modern, meditative yet defiant. The acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, arranger and composer says “I was thinking about survival as a continuum connecting past and future connections,” which is a theme that echoes throughout his work. The song also draws from the story of a Yaqui midwife, who would bury the navels of newborns in the ground, so that future generations would rise and reclaim the land.