JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Paul McCartney’s 83rd birthday.
New Video: Singapore’s Blush Shares Deceptively Upbeat “X My Heart”
Slated for an August 1, 2025 release through Kanine Records, rising Singapore-based indie outfit Blush‘s sophomore album Beauty Fades, Pain Lasts Forever sees the band with a revamped lineup featuring Soffi Peters (vocals), Daniel Pei (bass), Sobs‘ Darrell Laser (guitar) and Forests‘ Jared Lim (guitar, production).
Continuing the “tangled family tree” collaboration of the contemporary Singaporean indie scene, the album features songwriting contributions from Peters, Laser and Lim with the material showcasing subtle influences from the latter two bands. The album reportedly finds the members of Blush attempting to create pristine pop that simultaneously explores life’s bittersweet moments while featuring intricately crafted arrangements that swirl between dreamscapes and noise.
Yesterday, the band announced their signing to Kanine Records while sharing Beauty Fades, Pain Lasts Forever‘s latest single “X My Heart.” “X My Heart” is an undeniably sunny yet ironically deceptive bit of pop that sees the band pairing jangling guitar and a catchy hook and chorus with a deeply melancholy and heartbroken lyrics.
Shot, directed and produced by Goh Koon How, the accompanying video for “X My Heart” is viral visual that sees its protagonist take spiral from wistful lovesickness into murderous and obsessive delusion.
Throwback: Happy 38th Birthday, Kendrick Lamar!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Kendrick Lamar’s 38th birthday.
New Video: Marseille’s Joe La Truite Shares Bruising “Octogone 8000”
Marseille-based metal outfit Joe La Truite — currently founding members Julien Liphard (Guitars/Vocals) and Charles Roussel (Bass/Vocals), along with Martin Denquin (drums) — originally started as a bit of fun back in 2017, releasing their debut EP that year River Metal, which quickly established their sound, a mind-melting blend of punk, metal and psych rock paired with tongue-in-cheek storytelling.
The Marseille-based outfit followed up with their sophomore EP, 2019’s Just A Little Thing Smooth and Wet. Shortly after that, the band’s founding duo met their current drummer, Denquin, with whom they felt an immediate and undeniable simpatico.
As a trio, the band wrote and recorded their full-length debut 2020’s Trapped In The Cosmos, which received critical applause locally and helped the band build up a following in and around the Marseille live music scene.
Last year, the band signed to Australia’s Blue Tongue Management, who helped the band undertake an introductory campaign to international media and music industry folks, which resulted in album material picking up rotation on multiple syndicated metal programs across the globe.
Building upon a growing profile in the international metal scene, the French trio’s sophomore album Ultimate Ninja Storm 2: Full Zguen was released last Friday through Full Zguen Records. Recorded at Southern France’s dBd Studio, Ultimate Ninja Storm 2: Full Zguen is a concept album based on the characters that inhabit video games. So what’s zguen? The band refers to this at the wild energy of their live performances, which always lead to fans and audiences headbanging until their they nearly broke their necks. The band likens it to controlled chaos.
Sonically, the album sees the band continuing to effortlessly weave elements of metal, punk and psych while showcasing adept musicianship. But unlike their previously released material, there’s a bit of hip-hop thrown in, too.
“Octogone 8000,” Ultimate Ninja Storm 2: Full Zguen‘s third and latest single is a bruising mosh pit ripper that shifts between math rock, heavy metal and trash metal with bombastic aplomb and a ton of sweat-fueled mischief. The song and the accompanying video hurls listeners and viewers into a surreal kaleidoscopic, Mortal Kombat-like arena, where two outlandish characters — Little Ninja Zombie Cyborg and disco-warrior-turned-nightclub-owner Cosmozouk clash in a seemingly never-ending battle of wills.
New Video: Godkomplex Shares Bruising “Satanica”
Godkomplex — Mr. Panik and Download — was formed back in 1998 with the intention of revitalizing hard industrial music and features two accomplished stalwarts of the industrial scene:
- Download’s career began in the mid 1980s with stings playing in a number of bands, including Servo Sector, which featured members of Kevorkian Death Cycle and Hex RX.
- Mr. Panik is currently involved in a number of side projects, including Chaos Frequency and Skinprobe among others.
With Godkomplex, the duo combine elements of several electronic genres, including drum ‘n’ bass, power noise, techno, trance and coldwave to produce a sound that preserves the integrity of early industrial music while employing a more modern approach.
The duo released their full-length debut, 2000’s World Below through Chaos Records. The album was re-released in 2003 through ANR/Hexagon with national distribution through DSBP.
Their sophomore album, 2006’s Audial Apostasy saw the duo expanding into a quartet with the addition of Reload and The Loch Ness Monster. The duo returned with last year’s “Torture” and “Race-4-Power,” which was released last year.
Building upon the momentum of those singles, the duo recently released “Satanica,” a bruising and forceful yet club friendly bit of industrial that channels the likes of Ministry and Rammstein, while hinting at much more contemporary fare.
Fittingly, the accompanying video for “Satanica” features imagery of witchcraft, accused witches being burned at the stake, folks head banging at a festival show to hard music and more.
Both “Race-4-Power” and “Satanica” will appear on the duo’s forthcoming best of compilation, Best of Godkomplex 1999-2024, which is slated for release late this year.
New Audio: N3WYRKLA Returns with Swaggering and Defiant “Bad Luck”
Philadelphia-born N3WYRKLA (pronounced New York L.A.) is a rising pop artist: “Outside All Night,” her collaboration with Brent Faiyaz and A$AP Rocky earned RIAA Gold Certification and has led to over one million monthly listeners on DSPs.
Earlier this year, the Philadelphia-based phenom opened for FERG on the North American leg of his The Darold Tour. And back in May, she released the lead single from her highly-anticipated full-length debut, “Plastic Cup.” “Plastic Cup” is burning up the charts right now: the track jumped to #15 on the Urban Radio Charts.
Building upon a rapidly growing profile, the Philadelphia-born artist shared her latest single, the Hitmaka-produced “BAD LUCK,” which features her honey-soaked vocal paired with a contemporary retro/old-school soul-inspired production that brings the likes of Monophonics, Bobby Oroza, Daptone Records, Colemine Records and others to mind.
Ironically, the song isn’t a lament on the narrator’s bad luck, whether personally or romantically or on superstitions; but rather, a self-assured side-eye to fuckbois, players, flops, deadbeats that open says that trusting these dudes out there is just going to get you a case of bad luck — and perhaps worse. At its core, it’s a feminist anthem that says “you don’t have to deal with bullshit, ever.”
New Video: JOVM Mainstays Nation of Language Share Woozy “I’m not Ready for the Change”
Acclaimed Brooklyn-based synth pop act and JOVM mainstays Nation of Language — Ian Richard Devaney (vocals, guitar), Aidan Noell (synths) and Alex MacKay (bass) — have managed to amass a rapidly growing and devout national and international fanbase as a result of a dance floor friendly sound that draws from New Wave, post-punk and shoegaze. The JOVM mainstays three albums, 2020’s Introduction, Presence, 2021’s A Way Forward and 2023’s Strange Disciple have received coverage from Billboard, The New York Times, Document Journal, BrooklynVegan, MOJO, NME, Pitchfork, Stereogum and lengthy list of others, including this site.
Adding to a rapidly rising profile, the band has performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Recently, “Weak In Your Light” was featured in the series finale of the Netflix hit show You. They’ve also become a mainstay on the international festival circuit, playing sets at Austin City Limits, Desert Daze, Pitchfork Festival, Primavera Sound, Pukklepop, Corona Capital, Outside Lands, Bonnaroo, and a growing list of others globally.
Last month, the acclaimed JOVM mainstays announced they signed to Sub Pop Records, who will be releasing their new material globally in 2025 and beyond, including the band’s highly-anticipated fourth album, Dance Called Memory. Slated for a September 19, 2025 release, the 10-song album was recorded, produced and mixed by Holy Ghost‘s Nick Millhiser, who produced 2023’s Strange Disciple. “What’s so great about Nick is his ability to make us feel like we don’t need to do what might be expected of us,” says Nation of Language’s Aidan Noell. The album was mastered by Heba Kadry, who has worked on some of the most acclaimed records of the past decade or so.
Sonically, the album is imbued with a subtly shifted palette: On some tracks percussion is smashed through a synthesizer to nod at early-2000’s electronic music. Chopped-up drum break samples make appearances, too.
Ultimately, for the trio, the hope was to weave raw vulnerability and humanity into a synth-heavy album. “There is a dichotomy between the Kraftwerk school of thought and the Brian Eno school of thought, each of which I’ve been drawn to at different points. I’ve read about how Kraftwerk wanted to remove all of the humanity from their music, but Eno often spoke about wanting to make synthesized music that felt distinctly human,” Nation of Language’s Ian Richard Devaney says. “As much as Kraftwerk is a sonically foundational influence, with this record I leaned much more towards the Eno school of thought. In this era quickly being defined by the rise of AI supplanting human creators, I’m focusing more on the human condition, and I need the underlying music to support that… Instead of hopelessness, I want to leave the listener with a feeling of us really seeing one another, that our individual struggles can actually unite us in empathy.”
Dance Called Memory will feature the previously released “Inept Apollo,” which continues a run of nostalgia-inducing, 80s New Wave-inspired material, while furthering their unerring knack for crafting slickly produced dance floor numbers anchored around earnest lyricism.
“I’m Not Ready for the Change,” Dance Called Memory‘s second and latest single features chopped up drum breaks seemingly inspired by Loveless-era My Bloody Valentine, glittering arpeggiated synths paired with whirring guitars and the band’s long-held penchant for enormous hooks and lived-in lyrics.
Directed by longtime collaborator John McKay, the accompanying, stylishly shot video features the trio performing the song in a studio — and for you fellow old heads, will subtly remind you of early 1980s MTV.
Along with the single and album announcements, the JOVM mainstay will be busy throughout the summer and fall. They’re will be opening for Death Cab for Cutie on their Plans: 20th Anniversary Tour for four dates: Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on July 31, 2025 and August 2, 2025 and for two-sold out shows in Chicago’s Chicago Theatre, August 5, 2025 and August 6, 2025.
Throwback: Happy 54th Birthday, Tupac Shakur!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 54th anniversary of Tupac Shakur’s birth.
Throwback: Happy 83rd Birthday, Eddie Levert!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates The O’Jays lead singer Eddie Levert’s 83rd birthday.
New Audio: Faetooth Returns with Bruising “White Noise”
Led by Jenna Garcia (vocals, bass), Los Angeles-based outfit Faetooth specializes in a sound that they’ve dubbed “fairy-doom:” a unique and eclectic amalgamation of doom metal paired with vocals that alternate between spellbinding melodies to guttural shrieks and howls.
Right as last week closed out, the Los Angeles-based outfit announced that their highly-anticipated sophomore album Labyrinthine will be slated for a September 5 release digitally through AWAL and on vinyl and CD by Flenser. The sophomore album will reportedly see the band further establishing their “fairy-doom” sound while embracing a newly softened, more intimate tone, anchored around emotional rawness. Throughout the album, the material touches upon themes of loss, self-pity, personal relationships and more. The inmate balance doesn’t dilute their intensity; rather it reframes it, offering listeners a haunting yet delicate atmosphere, layered with entrancing textures that build up to explosive catharsis. The result is an album that’s a hauntingly visceral and disturbing vision, anchored by deep introspection.
Labyrinthine will feature the previously released, “Death of Day,” a slow-burning and forceful dirge anchored a classic grunge song structure that features swirling shoegazer-like guitar textures, thunderous drumming, enormous power chords and eerie, banshee-like wailing paired with Garcia’s sonorous croon.
While channeling the likes of Tool, JOVM mainstays Slumbering Sun and others, “Death of Day” the song as the band’s Jenna Garcia explains “came to be after reading into the deity, Lilith. I was initially transfixed to the myth of her spawning from the ‘dregs,’ or lowest realm of evil. I perceived that as her coming from the dirt, the earth, and having to confront a life where her very existence is viewed as malevolence, as ugliness. She is cast out into isolation from the moment she came into being. I began to view that as a strong parallel to the existence of queer and trans people in a world that is constantly trying to exterminate and diminish them.”
Faetooth’s frontperson adds that the song’s lyrics “are written as a bit of ode to the Lilith archetype, and simultaneously celebrating and lamenting her forced seclusion from society. The first verse is about her coming into being, how she can only come out at night, and then the second verse is like, yeah, you all hate me, I’m gonna bring all my friends that you also deem as a scourge on society, f*** you.”
The album’s latest single “White Noise” is a bruising ripper, rooted in a palpable and unsettling mix of anguish, despair, loathing and fury that feels both lived in and deeply familiar. The band explains that the song emerged from a diary entry and is a relentless and intense reflection on inner turmoil. We’re often drawn to the familiar, when we don’t quite know why and even when we don’t immediately realize that we’re reaching out for it. And as a result, the song is an emotional upheaval, carrying the sort of harsh and uneasy truths that weigh heavily on one’s heart and soul.
The band’s guitarist Ari May says, “Performing the song always takes me back to a specific place, even if just for a moment.”
Throwback: Happy 88th Birthday, Waylon Jennings!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 88th anniversary of the birth of Waylon Jennings.
Throwback: Happy 56th Birthday, Ice Cube!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Ice Cube’s 56th birthday.