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Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Rising Los Angeles-based outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon (bass, vocals) — met while immersed in their hometown’s DIY scene and started jamming together back in 2017.

Since then, the trio became a local club circuit mainstay. Their full-length debut, 2019’s Signals saw the trio quickly establishing their sound, which paired motorik grooves with icy atmospheres.

Excess, Automatic’s forthcoming sophomore album is slated for a June 24, 2022 through Stones Throw Records. Sonically Excess reportedly rides the imaginary edge where the ’70s underground met ’80s corporate culture — or as the band says “That fleeting moment when what was once cool quickly turned and became mainstream all for the sake of consumerism.” Using that particular point in time as a lens through which to view our uncertain and seemingly apocalyptic present, the album’s material sees the trio taking aim at corporate culture and extravagance through deadpan critiques and razor sharp hooks.

“Skyscaper,” Excess‘ third and latest single is a dance floor friendly bop featuring glistening synths, relentless four-on-the-floor, a disco-like bass line paired with an icy and insouciant delivery and razor sharp hooks. Sonically, “Skyscraper” strikes me as a slick and effortless synthesis of Blondie, Devo and Talking Heads while being both ironic and politically charged. The band’s Halle Saxon explains that “Skyscraper” is ” . . .about spending your life making money and then spending it to fill the void created by said job.” Lola Dompé adds, “Kind of like going to LA to live your dreams.”

The past few weeks have been rather busy for the trio: Just after playing shows with IDLES and Parquet Courts and two sets at Los Angeles’ Cruel World Festival, the band will open for Tame Impala for two shows later this month. They’ll then head to Europe for a lengthy run of shows that features stops across the European festival circuit including Primavera Sound, Wide Awake and Best Kept Secret.

Over the fall, they’ll play a short run of shows with Osees. More dates will be announced in the near future. But in the meantime, tour dates are below. And you can click here for more tickets and info: https://automatic.band

Tour Dates

US (with Tame Impala)

May 24 : Wilmington, NC – Live Oak Bank Pavilion

May 26 : Columbus, OH – KEMBA Live! Festival Stage 

UK & EUROPE

May 28: UK, London – Wide Awake

May 29: UK, Manchester – Yes

May 30: UK, Leeds – Headrow House

May 31: UK, Brighton – Green Door Store

Jun 01: FR, Lille – L’Aéronef

Jun 02: FR, Paris – L’international

Jun 03: FR, Angers – Levitation

Jun 04: ES, Barcelona – Primavera

Jun 05: ES, Barcelona – Primavera

Jun 08: IT, Ravenna – Beaches Brew

Jun 09: CH, Neuchatel – Festineuch

Jun 10: CH, Aarau – Kiff (with Choir Boy & Soft Kill) 

Jun 11: DE, Mannheim – Maifeld Derbi

Jun 12: NL, Hilvarenbeek – Best Kept Secret

Jun 13: NL, Amsterdam – Bitterzoet

Jun 14: NL, Nijmegen – Merleyn

Jun 15: DE, Berlin – UFO Sound Studios

Jun 16: DE, Koln – Bumann & Sohn

Jun 17: BE, Charlerois – Fete De La Musique 

Jun 18: NL, Den Haag – Grauzone

US (with Osees)

Sep 05: San Francisco, CA – Chapel

Sep 06: San Francisco, CA – Chapel

Sep 07: San Francisco, CA- Chapel

Sep 09: Portland, OR – Roseland

Sep 10: Seattle, WA – Neumos

Sep 11: Seattle, WA – Neumos

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Psymon Spine Share Punchy “Wizard Acid”

Over the past handful of years, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering acclaimed Brooklyn-based psych pop/dance pop outfit and JOVM mainstays Psymon Spine. The band — currently founding duo Noah Prebish and Peter Spears, along with Brother Michael Rudinski — can trace its origins back to when its founding duo met while attending college.

Bonding over mutual influences and common artistic aims, Prebish and Spears toured across the European Union as members of Karate. 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 Prebish and Spears returned to the States, the pair 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 a series of demos, whcih would eventually become their full-length debut, 2017’s You Are Coming to My Birthday. The band then supported the effort with immersive art and dance parties, like their Secret Friend party series across Brooklyn and alter through relentless touring. 

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

The JOVM mainstay’s sophomore album, Charismatic Megafauna, which thematically explored the complicated and confusing feelings and the oft-resulting catharsis involved in the dissolution of human relationships through hooky synthesis of synth pop, electronic dance music and psych pop was released to critical praise from

Paste Magazine, FLOOD, Brooklyn Vegan, Under the Radar and NME. The album and several singles were 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. 

2022 saw the release of Charismatic Mutations, an album of of Charismatic Megafauna material. The members of the band grew up with a deep appreciation and love for the unique art of the remix. And as the story goes, the band found themselves craving longer, even more dance-floor friendly versions of album songs. So, the band recruited a handful of producers and electronic music acts. including including Hot Chip‘s Joe Goddard, Love Injection, Dar Disku, Each Other, Safer, Bucky Boudreau and Psymon Spine’s Brother Michael to remix material from the album. 

The Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays third album Head Body Connector is slated for a February 23, 2024 release through Northern Spy Records. The album is reportedly a gritty, punch, guitar-forward studio album from a band that’s long been obsessed with production. And perhaps more than their previous releases, Head Body Connector is explicitly informed and inspired by the band’s cathartic live show. “It’s more unhinged than anything we’ve made before,” Psymon Spine’s Noah Prebish says. “Throughout the writing process, we were always asking ourselves how we could make it really fun to play live.”  

Ironically, the album, though ready-made to be performed, was mostly written in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The band split their time between various home studios and friends’ back porches in Montauk, The Catskills, Boston and Brooklyn. It was fall and the crisp autumn air, and the political uncertainty and disquietude looming in the background lended itself to an undeniable longing for companionship. “It felt like we had collectively jumped from one timeline to another, more bizarre one,” Prebish says.

The central theme of time being fractured, chopped and screwed is integral to the album’s material and its album art, which was designed by New York-based artist Bucky Boudreau and appears in the form of alternative measurements of passing seconds, minutes, days, lifetimes, tally marks on a chalkboard and infinity signs made of camp bracelets on a cracked egg.“Head Body Connector is our response to a world even more chaotic than usual,” says Peter Spears, “and an exploration of the little joys, anxieties, and absurdities that world has to offer.” While being an ode to the dissonance of temporality in our current moment, it’s also an elastic tribute to friendship and harmony in the face of that dissonance.

Last October, I wrote about “Boys,” a track that begins with a glistening New Wave-meets-post punk introduction before quickly morphing into a funky, synth-driven both with slashing guitars. The two seemingly disparate sections are held together with Sabine Holler’s dreamy delivery. But just under the infectious, danceable surface, is an introspective song that reveals a subtle sense of unease.

The track was written after the band’s Sabine Holler relocated to Berlin, but she still lends her voice to the song. “By nature every Psymon Spine song must be a little cheeky to bypass our own self-criticism, but in reality ‘Boys’ is just a very earnest song about friendship,” the band notes. “Early on in the pandemic Sabine moved back to Germany and we weren’t sure what was going to happen, either to us as a unit or to the entire world. We went to Peter’s childhood home in Boston for a few days and fleshed out a demo that Michael had started a couple weeks earlier. We sent it to Sabine who almost immediately replied with the same vocal take you hear on the song today.” 

Head Body Connector‘s second and latest single “Wizard Acid” is a woozy bit of disco funk built around a punchy bass line, glistening synth arpeggios and thumping beats paired with lyrics about coming apart at the seams — both literally and metaphorically. Consumed with cabin fever, the song’s narrator is slowly losing their mind.

The band told the folks at Flood Magazine that the song is “part allegory, part nonsense, encapsulating elements of cabin fever, dread and humor.

We melded one of Michael’s early demos with one of Peter’s, creating one unholy coupling which eventually took the form of a shapeshifting disco jam. It sat instrumental for a couple months until Peter sent over some lyrics detailing a narrator slowly consumed by their sentient house, or perhaps losing their mind (maybe both?).” 

Directed by Dana Roth, the accompanying animated video feature bright abstract images of the band’s members, home furnishings, a guy sitting on his couch, people dancing and pulsating lines.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Dream Wife Shares Furious Dance Punk Anthem “Social Lubrication”

London-based punk outfit and JOVM mainstays Dream Wife — Rakel Mjöll (vocals) (she/her), Alice Go (guitar, vocals) (she/her) and Bella Podapec (bass, vocals) (they/them) — will be releasing their highly anticipated and long-awaited third album Social Lubrication through Lucky Number on Friday.

Throughout their career, the trio has been remarkably adept at merging the political and the playful, and Social Lubrication further cements that reputation. Forceful, vital statements are hidden within hot and heavy dance floor friendly anthems about making out, having fun and staying curious. In the JOVM mainstay act’s words, the album is: “Hyper lusty rock and roll with a political punch, exploring the alchemy of attraction, the lust for life, embracing community and calling out the patriarchy. With a healthy dose of playfulness and fun thrown in.”

There is a sense of fun and openness that is central to Social Lubrication, as well. “There’s a lot of lust in this album and taking the piss out of yourself and everyone you know,” Rakel Mjöll says. “It’s almost quite juvenile in that way.”

“The album is speaking to systemic problems that cannot be glossed over by lube,” Dream Wife’s Bella Podpadec says. “The things named in the songs are symptoms of f-ed up structures. And you can’t fix that. You need to pull it apart.”

Perhaps more than ever, the live show is at the core of the album and its material. “The live show is the truth of the band,” Alice Go says. “That’s at the heart of what we do and of the statements we’re making.” For the members of Dream Wife — and of any band, really — the live show is where the band and fans can come together in a shared moment of community. And to that end, the album is a celebration of community and a big ol’ middle finger to the social barriers that are enforced to sever connection, playfulness, curiosity and sexual empowerment. “Music is one of the only forms of people experiencing an emotion together in a visceral, physical, real way,” says Go. “It’s cathartic to the systemic issues that are being called out across the board in the record. Music isn’t the cure, but it’s the remedy. That’s what Social Lubrication is: the positive glue that can create solidarity and community.” 

An energetic, pedal-to-the-metal sound explodes through the album’s material. And you can hear it the loud, dirty riffs and shout-along worthy choruses specifically crafted for shaking asses, bouncing around and yelling joyously in shared spaces with friends and strangers. For the band’s Go, who produced the album, it was important to capture and bottle that joyful, frenetic feeling the band’s members all felt. “We wanted to get that rawness and energy across in a way that hadn’t been done before,” she says. 

 In the lead-up to Social Lubrication‘s release next month, I’ve written about four of the album’s released singles to date: 

  • “Leech,” an urgent, post-punk inspired ripper that saw the band’s Mjöll alternating between spoken-word-like delivery for the song’s verses and feral shouting for the song’s choruses. Mjöll’s vocal delivery is paired with an alternating song structure that features looping and wiry guitar bursts for the song’s verses and explosive, power chord-driven riffage for the song’s choruses. The song is a tense, uneasy and forceful, mosh pit friendly anthem for our uncertain, fucked up time, that addresses the inherent double standards of power — while urgently calling for more empathy.” 

  • “Hot (Don’t Date A Musician),” a Gang of Four-like, tongue-in-cheek ripper inspired by Mjöll’s grandmother’s sage advice — despite the fact that she herself, dated many musicians in her day — while wryly poking fun at musicians and the music adjacent, the band included. “Dating musicians is a nightmare,” Mjöll explains. “Evoking imagery of late night make-outs with fuckboy/girl/ambiguously-gendered musicians on their mattress after being seduced by song-writing chat. The roles being equally reversed. Having a laugh together and being able to poke fun at ourselves is very much at the heart of this band. This song encapsulates our shared sense of humour. Sonically it is the lovechild of CSS and Motorhead. It has our hard, live, rock edge combined with cheeky and playful vocals.”

  • “Orbit,” a dance punk ripper. built around a a propulsive disco-inspired post punk rhythm, bursts of wiry guitars paired with enormous hooks and Mjöll’s sultry rock goddess-like delivery that recalls Fever to Tell-era Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Echoes-era The Rapture and LCD Soundsystem among others. Much like its predecessor, the song is fun and rooted in a sense of youthful adventure and possibility. “Written through the joy of jamming together and locking into the groove like a multi limbed space age organism, ‘Orbit’ has a dance rock edge from the early noughties of bands like New Young Pony Club and Yeah Yeah Yeahs,” the band explains. “Lyrically, it was inspired by post-lockdown London coming back to life and sharing a space through friendship and community. And how each day you never know what’s in store for you or how a stranger can become someone close to you – for a day, a heartbeat, a phase, or a lifetime.” 

  • “Who Do You Wanna Be” the album’s fourth single continues a remarkable run of scuzzy post punk rippers built around slashing power chords, relentless four-on-the-floor and rousingly anthemic, shout-along worthy choruses paired with Mjöll’s delivery, which sees her alternating between flirty and bitterly sarcastic within a turn of a phrase. The song sees the band taking on capitalism and faux-activism — with a lived-in annoyance and bemusement. As they explain, the song is “about running on the capitalist treadmill and falling face first on the pavement. Hollow slogans, social media activism without action, leftist infighting, monetising feminism, ‘girl boss,’ all soul crushing nonsense. Capitalism consumes everything. We should tear down the unreachable, anxiety filled idea of perfectionism, and move from hyper individualised narrative to collective action to create hopeful, rebellious, collective, systems of care. This is a call to arms for change.” 

Album title track “Social Lubrication” is the final single ahead of its release on Friday. Built around wiry guitar blasts, relentless four-on-the-floor and a driving, forceful rhythm section paired with Mjöll’s fed up delivery and the JOVM mainstay’s unerring knack for rousingly anthemic, shout-along worthy hooks, “Social Lubrication” continues the album’s overall dance punk with social message aesthetic. In the case of the new single, it’s meant as a rallying call against the patriarchy while they call out unsolicited advice and gendered violence.

“Exhausted. Done with being polite, done with sugar coating, placating, and pandering to patriarchal bullshit. Wanting to just exist, in this body without being pigeon-holed or judged for the bodies we exist in. Do the job well. Show up. Not play other people’s games. You can’t fix something rotten to the core – we need revolution not reform,” the JOVM says of the new track.

The single is accompanied by a self-made video from the band that’s features influences spanning from their album art to the opening sequence from Yellow Jackets and more. And as a result, the video possesses an absurdist, almost Public Access TV-like air that fits the grainy VHS-styled quality of it all.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New VIdeo: JOVM Mainstays Dream Wife Share Kaleidoscopic Visual for Glittery Dance Punk Anthem “Orbit”

Deriving their name from a pointedly satirical criticism of society’s objectification of women, the acclaimed London-based JOVM mainstays Dream Wife — Rakel Mjöll (vocals) (she/her), Alice Go (guitar, vocals) (she/her) and Bella Podapec (bass, vocals) (they/them) — can trace their origins back to 2015 when the trio started the band as a art project, rooted in a unique concept: a band born out of one girl’s memories of growing up in Canada in the 1990s. 

Their 2018 self-titled debut was released to widespread critical acclaim, and led to the JOVM mainstays opening for Garbage, The Kills and Sleigh Bells, as well as their SXSW debut. Building upon a rapidly growing profile, Dream Wife followed up with a series of headlining tours across the European Union and the States, including a Rough Trade stop with New York-based genre-defying artist Sabri. 

Dream Wife’s 2020 Marta Salogni-produced So When You Gonna . . . saw the JOVM mainstays writing and recording some of their most urgent and direct material to date. Thematically touching upon abortion, miscarriage and gender equality, the album’s material is fueled by a “it’s-now-or-never” immediacy with the album’s material being a call to action to the listener to get up off their ass, and do the work to make a morally bankrupt world better.

Additionally, the album was a critical and commercial success — especially in the UK: The album landed at #18 on the UK Albums Chart, making it the only album in the Top 20 to be produced by an all womxn/non-male production and engineering team — and the only non-major label release to chart that high. 

The London-based outfit’s highly-anticipated and long-awaited third album Social Lubrication is slated for a June 9, 2023 release through Lucky Number. Throughout their career, the trio has been remarkably adept at merging the political and the playful, and Social Lubrication continues that reputation. Forcefully vital statements are hidden within hot and heavy dance floor anthems about making out, having fun, staying curious. In the band’s words, the album is: “Hyper lusty rock and roll with a political punch, exploring the alchemy of attraction, the lust for life, embracing community and calling out the patriarchy. With a healthy dose of playfulness and fun thrown in.”

“There is a sense of fun and openness that is central to Social Lubrication, as well. “There’s a lot of lust in this album and taking the piss out of yourself and everyone you know,” Rakel Mjöll says. “It’s almost quite juvenile in that way.”

Perhaps more than ever, the live show is at the core of the album and its material. “The live show is the truth of the band,” Alice Go says. “That’s at the heart of what we do and of the statements we’re making.” That energetic, pedal-to-the-metal sound explodes through the album’s material — and you can hear it through the loud, dirty riffs and choruses specifically built for dancing and shaking asses together in shared spaces. For the band’s Go, who produced the album, it was important to capture and bottle that joyful, frenetic feeling the band’s members all felt. “We wanted to get that rawness and energy across in a way that hadn’t been done before,” she says. 

For the band, the live show is where the band and fans can come together in a shared moment of community. And to that end, the album is a celebration of community and a big ol’ middle finger to the societal barriers enforced to sever connection, playfulness, curiosity and even sexual empowerment. “Music is one of the only forms of people experiencing an emotion together in a visceral, physical, real way,” says Go. “It’s cathartic to the systemic issues that are being called out across the board in the record. Music isn’t the cure, but it’s the remedy. That’s what Social Lubrication is: the positive glue that can create solidarity and community.” 

“The album is speaking to systemic problems that cannot be glossed over by lube,” the band’S Bella Podpadec says. “The things named in the songs are symptoms of f-ed up structures. And you can’t fix that. You need to pull it apart.”

So far, I’ve written about two of Social Lubrication‘s singles:

“Leech,” an urgent, post-punk inspired ripper that saw the band’s Mjöll alternating between spoken-word-like delivery for the song’s verses and feral shouting for the song’s choruses. Mjöll’s vocal delivery is paired with an alternating song structure that features looping and wiry guitar bursts for the song’s verses and explosive, power chord-driven riffage for the song’s choruses. The song is a tense, uneasy and forceful, mosh pit friendly anthem for our uncertain, fucked up time, that addresses the inherent double standards of power — while urgently calling for more empathy.” 

“It’s an anthem for empathy. For solidarity,” the JOVM mainstays explain. “Musically tense and withheld, erupting to angry cathartic crescendos. The push and pull of the song lyrically and musically expands and contracts, stating and calling out the double standards of power. Nobody really wins in a patriarchal society. We all lose. We could all use more empathy. As our first song to be released in a while, we wanted to write something that feels like letting an animal out of a cage. It’s out. And it’s out for blood…”

“Hot (Don’t Date A Musician),” a Gang of Four-like, tongue-in-cheek ripper inspired by Mjöll’s grandmother’s sage advice — despite the fact that she herself, dated many musicians in her day — while wryly poking fun at musicians and the music adjacent, the band included. “Dating musicians is a nightmare,” Mjöll explains. “Evoking imagery of late night make-outs with fuckboy/girl/ambiguously-gendered musicians on their mattress after being seduced by song-writing chat. The roles being equally reversed. Having a laugh together and being able to poke fun at ourselves is very much at the heart of this band. This song encapsulates our shared sense of humour. Sonically it is the lovechild of CSS and Motorhead. It has our hard, live, rock edge combined with cheeky and playful vocals.”

Tha album’s third and latest single “Orbit” is a dance punk ripper. built around a a propulsive disco-inspired post punk rhythm, bursts of wiry guitars paired with enormous hooks and Mjöll’s sultry rock goddess-like delivery that recalls Fever to Tell-era Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Echoes-era The Rapture and LCD Soundsystem among others. Much like its predecessor, the song is fun and rooted in a sense of youthful adventure and possibility.

“Written through the joy of jamming together and locking into the groove like a multi limbed space age organism, ‘Orbit’ has a dance rock edge from the early noughties of bands like New Young Pony Club and Yeah Yeah Yeahs,” the band explains. “Lyrically, it was inspired by post-lockdown London coming back to life and sharing a space through friendship and community. And how each day you never know what’s in store for you or how a stranger can become someone close to you – for a day, a heartbeat, a phase, or a lifetime.”

Directed by Sophie Webster, the accompanying video for “Orbit” is a kaleidoscopic and trippy visual that features the trio rocking out with a youthful abandon — and plenty of fans to blow around their hair, because rock ‘n’ roll, right?

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Temples Release a Trippy Performance-based Visual for “Hot Motion”

Earlier this month, I’ve written about the Kettering, Northamptonshire, UK-based indie rock/psych rock act Temples. And as you may recall, the act which is currently comprised of founding members James Bagshaw (vocals, guitar) and Tom Walmsley (bass) along with Adam Smith (keys, guitar) can trace their origins back to when the act initially began as a home studio-based project back in 2012 featuring two musicians, who had known each other for years from from Kettering’s local music scene.

The duo uploaded four self-produced tracks, which caught the attention of Heavenly Recordings founder and label head Jeff Barrett, who signed the band and agreed to release their debut single “Shelter Song” later that year. Shortly after signing to Heavenly Recordings, Bagshaw and Walmsley recruited Samuel Toms (drums) and Adam Smith to flesh out the band’s live sound — and to complete the band’s first lineup. Since then the band has released two critically applauded and commercially successful albums — 2014’s Sun Structures, which landed at #7 on the UK Charts and 2017’s Volcano.  Building upon a growing national and international profile, the British indie rock act has made appearances across the UK, European Union and North American festival circuits. They’ve shared stages with the likes of Suede, Mystery Jets, Kasabian and The Vaccines among others — but over the past years, they’ve transitioned into a headlining act that has also made their Stateside national television appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Last year, saw a couple of major changes: Samuel Toms left the band to focus on his solo recording project Secret Fix, and later joined the equally acclaimed Fat White Family. Temples also left their longtime label home Heavenly Recordings and signed with ATO Records, who released their highly-anticipated, third album Hot Motion. The album finds the band continuing to craft an intricate and nuanced sound — but while digging into a deeper, darker creative well of sorts.  The album’s second single, the shimmering and hook-driven, “You’re Either On Something” manages to possess a lysergic and technicolor quality that brings Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles, Tommy-era The Who and Currents-era Tame Impala to mind.

As you can imagine, I receive an overwhelming amount of email — a blessing and a curse, really — and sometimes I manage to miss things. In this case, I managed to miss an email regarding Hot Motion’s first single, album title track “Hot Motion.” Interestingly, the track strikes me as a seamless synthesis of bombastic, arena rock friendly Brit Pop and nuanced and textured psych rock centered around Bagshaw’s ethereal vocals.
The recently released video is centered around the band performing the song in a studio in front of bright yellow and orange light while employing some trippy camera work.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Psymon Spine Shares Trippy Video for Funky Yet Uneasy “Boys”

Over the past couple of years I’ve managed to spill quite a bit of virtual ink covering Brooklyn-based psych pop/dance pop outfit and JOVM mainstays Psymon Spine. Now. if you’ve been frequenting the site over the course of the past few years, you may recall that the Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays  — founding duo Noah Prebish and Peter Spears, along with Sabine Holler, Brother Michael Rudinski — can trace its origins back to when its founding duo met while attending college.

Bonding over mutual influences and common artistic aims, Prebish and Spears toured across the European Union as members of Karate. While Paris, Spears and Prebish wrote their first song together. By the time, they arrived in London, they were offered a record deal. 

When Prebish and Spears returned to the States, the pair 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 a series of demos, whcih would eventually become their full-length debut, 2017’s You Are Coming to My Birthday. The band then supported the effort with immersive art and dance parties, like their Secret Friend party series across Brooklyn and alter through relentless touring.

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

Back in 2021, Psymon Spine released their critically applauded sophomore album, Charismatic Megafauna. Thematically, their sophomore album explored the complicated and confusing feelings and the oft-resulting catharsis involved in the dissolution of human relationship through hook-driven, left-of-center electronic dance music meets psych pop.

The album received critical praise from Paste Magazine, FLOOD, Brooklyn Vegan, Under the Radar and NME. The album and several singles were 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. 

Last year saw the release of Charismatic Mutations, an album featuring remixes of Charismatic Megafauna material. The members of the band grew up with a deep appreciation and love for the unique art of the remix. As the story goes, after Charismatic Megafauna‘s release, the band found themselves craving longer, even more dance-floor friendly versions of album songs. The band then recruited a handful of producers and electronic music acts including Hot Chip‘s Joe Goddard, Love Injection, Dar Disku, Each Other, Safer, Bucky Boudreau and Psymon Spine’s Brother Michael to remix material from the album. 

“Boys,” the Brooklyn-based outfit’s latest single is the first bit of original material since 2021’s digital 7 inch release “Mr. Metronome”/”Drums Valentino,” which capped off a momentous year for the band. Starting with a glistening New Wave-meets-post punk introduction before quickly morphing into funky synth-driven bop with slashing guitars. And the two disparate sections are held together with Holler’s dreamy delivery. But just under the infectious, danceable nature, is an introspective song that’s subtly uneasy.

The track was written after the band’s Sabine Holler relocated to Berlin, but she still lends her voice to the song.

“By nature every Psymon Spine song must be a little cheeky to bypass our own self-criticism, but in reality ‘Boys’ is just a very earnest song about friendship,” the band notes. “Early on in the pandemic Sabine moved back to Germany and we weren’t sure what was going to happen, either to us as a unit or to the entire world. We went to Peter’s childhood home in Boston for a few days and fleshed out a demo that Michael had started a couple weeks earlier. We sent it to Sabine who almost immediately replied with the same vocal take you hear on the song today.” 

Directed by Bucky Boudreau, the accompanying video for “Boys” is a stylish and surrealist romp that features Holler in another location singing the song and running around Berlin, while the remaining members eat and cook eggs. Funnily enough, I fixed myself scrambled eggs this morning, so eggs all the time, huh?

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Automatic Shares an Incisive Visual for Glittery “Skyscraper”

Rising Los Angeles-based outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon (bass, vocals) — met while immersed in their hometown’s DIY scene and started jamming together back in 2017. 

Since then, the trio became a local club circuit mainstay. Their full-length debut, 2019’s Signals saw the trio quickly establishing their sound, which paired motorik grooves with icy atmospheres. 

Excess, Automatic’s forthcoming sophomore album is slated for a June 24, 2022 through Stones Throw Records. Sonically Excess reportedly rides the imaginary edge where the ’70s underground met ’80s corporate culture — or as the band says “That fleeting moment when what was once cool quickly turned and became mainstream all for the sake of consumerism.” Using that particular point in time as a lens through which to view our uncertain and seemingly apocalyptic present, the album’s material sees the trio taking aim at corporate culture and extravagance through deadpan critiques and razor sharp hooks. 

“Skyscaper,” Excess‘ third and latest single is a dance floor friendly bop featuring glistening synths, relentless four-on-the-floor, a disco-like bass line paired with an icy and insouciant delivery and razor sharp hooks. Sonically, “Skyscraper” strikes me as a slick and effortless synthesis of Blondie, Devo and Talking Heads while being both ironic and politically charged. The band’s Halle Saxon explains that “Skyscraper” is ” . . .about spending your life making money and then spending it to fill the void created by said job.” Lola Dompé adds, “Kind of like going to LA to live your dreams.”

The past couple of months have been extremely busy for the Los Angeles-based trio: After playing shows with blogosphere titans IDLES and Parquet Courts and two sets at Los Angeles’ Cruel World Festival, Automatic opened for JOVM mainstays Tame Impala for two shows to close out May. They then went to the UK and Europe, where they’re finishing a lengthy run of shows that featured stops across the major European festival circuit, including Primavera Sound, Wide Awake and Best Kept Secret. 

Over the fall, they’ll play a short run of shows with Osees. They’ll also just announced an appearance at this year’s Desert Daze Festival. And more dates will be announced in the near future. But in the meantime, tour dates are below. And you can click here for more tickets and info: https://automatic.band

Along with that, the trio shared a video for “Skyscraper,” which plays with 80s tropes, references and imagery in an adept fashion: big, boxy desktop computers, pastel business suits with big shoulder pads, sleek, androgynous business suits, which they wear with black bobbed wigs — reminiscent of the women in Robert Palmer videos. Throughout, the video pokes fun at consumerism and business culture with an incisive sense of humor.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Slow Crush Shares Woozy and Stormy “Blue”

Belgian shoegazer outfit Slow Crush — currently Isa Holliday (vocals, bass), Jelle Harde Ronsmans (guitar), Jeroen Jullet (guitar) and Frederik Meeuwis (drums) — exploded into the international shoegaze scene with the release their full-length debut, 2018’s Aurora. Between 2018 and 2020, Slow Crush supported the album with nonstop, relentless touring across the world with acts like Pelican, Torche, Soft Kill, and Gouge Away — and with festival stops at Roadburn, ArcTanGent, 2000Trees and Groezrock.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the members of the Belgian shoegazer outfit was forced to cancel plans for two European tours and a Stateside tour at the last minute. But interestingly enough for the band, the pandemic was a bit of a curse and a bit of a blessing: The time off from touring allowed the band a period of time to re-think and re-group. Aurora‘s unexpected success and the demands of heavy touring had taken a toll on everyone’s personal lives. This was intensified with a massive lineup change, which saw two members leave. Eventually Holliday and Ronsmans recruited the band’s newest members Julioet and Meuwis to complete the band’s second lineup. And adding to a stormy period of change and uncertainty, the band’s label Holy Roar Records collapsed, leaving the band without a home. 

Slow Crush’s sophomore album Hush was released earlier this year through Quiet Panic. Written in between tours and the unexpected downtime during pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns, the album’s material is heavily influenced by turbulent times — both personal and global. While further cementing their sound, featuring abrasive and whirling layers of guitars and thunderous drumming paired with Holliday’s ethereal vocals, Hush sees then and growing as musicians and songwriters. While the album was informed by and inspired by our dark and heavy times, the material isn’t completely bleak either; rather, it’s filled with the hope for a bright, new day somewhere over the horizon.

In the lead up to the album’s release, I’ve written about three of Hush‘s released singles: 

  • Brooding album title track “Hush,” which was centered around an expansive song structure with towering layers of feedback and fuzz pedaled guitars, thunderous drumming and Holiday’s sensual yet ethereal cooing. And at its core, the song expresses an aching and unreciprocated longing. 
  • “Swoon,” a breakneck ripper with mosh pit friendly hooks that brought Finelines era My Vitriol and Lightfoils to mind but paired with introspective and impressionistic lyrics. The song can be read in a number of different ways: it could be read as touching upon the loneliness, uncertainty and longing that comes about as a result of a seemingly bitter breakup. But it can also be read as a desire to escape a bleak world through connecting with someone equally as lonely as you are. 
  • “Lull,” a lush and painterly textured synthesis of A Storm in Heaven, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine featuring lyrics that expressed a profound and bitter ache.

Hush‘s fourth and latest single, the woozy “Blue” continues a run of stormy and textured shoegaze, centered around thunderous drumming, layers of pedal distorted power chords and enormous hooks paired with Holiday’s ethereal and achingly plaintive vocals. Much like its predecessors, “Blue” captures the complicated and contradictory feelings of a dysfunctional, tortured relationship — and in a way that feels lived-in.

The accompanying video by Vince Van Hoorick was filmed at Ancienne Belgique and featuring intimately shoots footage of the band performing the song in front of strobe lights.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Belgian Shoegazers Slow Crush Return with a Dreamy Visual for Brooding and Lush “Lull”

Belgian shoegazer outfit Slow Crush — currently Isa Holliday (vocals, bass), Jelle Harde Ronsmans (guitar), Jeroen Jullet (guitar) and Frederik Meeuwis (drums) — exploded into the international shoegaze scene with the release their full-length debut, 2018’s Aurora. Between 2018 and 2020, Slow Crush supported the album with nonstop, relentless touring across the world with acts like Pelican, Torche, Soft Kill, and Gouge Away — and with festival stops at Roadburn, ArcTanGent, 2000Trees and Groezrock.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the members of the Belgian shoegazer outfit was forced to cancel plans for two European tours and a Stateside tour at the last minute. But interestingly enough for the band, the pandemic was a bit of a blessing and a bit of a curse: The time off from touring allowed the band to re-think and re-group. Aurora‘s unexpected success and the demands of heavy touring had taken a toll on everyone’s personal lives. This was intensified with a massive lineup change, which saw two members leave. Eventually Holliday and Ronsmans recruited the band’s newest members Julioet and Meuwis to complete the band’s newest lineup. And adding to a stormy period of change and uncertainty, the band’s label Holy Roar Records collapsed, leaving the band without a home. 

Slow Crush’s highly anticipated sophomore album is slated for a Friday release through Quiet Panic. Written in between tours and the unexpected downtime during pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns, the album’s material is heavily influenced by turbulent times — both personal and global. While further cementing their sound, featuring abrasive and whirling layers of guitars and thunderous drumming paired with Holliday’s ethereal vocals, Hush reportedly finds the band growing as musicians and songwriters. Although the album was informed by and inspired by the dark and heavy times, the material isn’t all bleak; in fact, it’s filled with the hope for a bright, new day. 

In the lead up to the album’s release, I’ve written about two of Hush‘s released singles:

  • Brooding album title track “Hush,” which was centered around an expansive song structure with towering layers of feedback and fuzz pedaled guitars, thunderous drumming and Holiday’s sensual yet ethereal cooing. And at its core, the song expresses an aching and unreciprocated longing.
  • “Swoon,” a breakneck ripper with mosh pit friendly hooks that brought Finelines era My Vitriol and Lightfoils to mind but paired with introspective and impressionistic lyrics. The song can be read in a number of different ways: it could be read as touching upon the loneliness, uncertainty and longing that comes about as a result of a seemingly bitter breakup. But it can also be read as a desire to escape a bleak world through connecting with someone equally as lonely as you are. 

“Lull,” Hush‘s latest single continues a run of brooding and lush painterly textured shoegaze that may remind some listeners of a slick synthesis of A Storm in Heaven, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. And much like its predecessors, the song features impressionistic lyrics that express a profound and bitter ache.

The recently released video for “Lull” by Bobby Pook at SumoCrucial is a hazy yet cinematic fever dream that follows a man riding around a very European town on a bicycle when he sees a woman walking into the sea, The man gets off his bicycle and runs towards the woman — but is she a mirage? Is she some lingering ghost that has haunted him? That is up to you.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Temples Release a Trippy and Technicolor Visual for “You’re Either On Something”

Currently comprised of founding members James Bagshaw (vocals, guitar) and Tom Walmsley (bass) along with Adam Smith (keys, guitar), the Kettering, Northamptonshire, UK-based indie rock/psych rock act Temples initially began as a home studio-based project back in 2012 featuring two musicians, who had known each other for years from Kettering’s local music scene.

The duo uploaded four self-produced tracks, which caught the attention of Heavenly Recordings founder and label head Jeff Barrett, who signed the band and agreed to release their debut single “Shelter Song” later that year. Shortly after signing to Heavenly Recordings, Bagshaw and Walmsley recruited Samuel Toms (drums) and Adam Smith to flesh out the band’s live sound — and to complete the band’s first lineup.

Since then the band has released two critically applauded and commercially successful albums — 2014’s Sun Structures, which landed at #7 on the UK Charts and 2017’s Volcano.  Building upon a growing national and international profile, the British indie rock act has made appearances across the UK, European Union and North American festival circuits. They’ve shared stages with the likes of Suede, Mystery Jets,Kasabian and The Vaccines among others — but over the past years, they’ve transitioned into a headlining act that has also made their Stateside national television appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Last year, saw a major lineup change for the acclaimed British indie rock act. Samuel Toms left the band to focus on his solo recording project Secret Fix, and later joined the equally acclaimed Fat White Family. Temples also left their longtime label home Heavenly Recordings and signed with ATO Records, who will be releasing the newly constituted trio’s highly-anticipated third album Hot Motion.

Slated for a September 27, 2019 release, Hot Motion reportedly finds the band continuing to craft an intricate and nuanced sound — but while digging into a deeper, darker creative well of sorts.  The album’s second and latest single, the shimmering and hook-driven “You’re Either On Something.” And while the track  manages to possess a lysergic and technicolor quality that will bring of Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles, Tommy-era The Who and Currents-era Tame Impala to mind, the track hints at something much darker under the surface — perhaps, the relentless and gnawing desire to escape a world that’s become increasingly disappointing and mad. “I’m really proud of ‘Your’e Either On Something’ lyrically because I feel deeply connected with the words — they’re so truthful,” the band’s James Bagshaw says in press notes. “On that track, I can hear influences of stuff that I listened to when I was growing up. There’s almost a nostalgia to that track, even though it’s very forward-looking.”

“The video for ‘You’re Either On Something’ is semi-surreal depiction of a night out,” Temples’ James Bagshaw says of the recently released video. “Where an irrational fear replaces the fun and joviality, and the familiar becomes unfamiliar.

“But then, the feeling a fear dissipates and seems like a distant memory and the familiar feels comfortable again. Before you know it a guitar solo ensues…”