JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder’s 59th birthday.
Tag: alternative rock
Throwback: Happy 65th Birthday, Mike Mills!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates R.E.M.’s Mike Mills’ 65th birthday.
New Video: The Smile Shares Eerie and Haunting “Wall of Eyes”
The Smile is an acclaimed outfit that features some of the world’s most accomplished musicians — and a couple of household names: Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet‘s Tom Skinner.
Last year, the trio released their critically applauded Nigel Godrich-produced full-length debut A Light For Attracting Attention. The album saw the acclaimed outfit collaborating with London Contemporary Orchestra and a full brass section of contemporary British jazz musicians that include Bryon Wallen, Theon Cross and Nathaniel Cross, Chelsea Carmichael, Robert Stillman, and Jason Yarde.
The Smile’s sophomore album, the Sam Petts-Davies Wall of Eyes is slated for a January 26, 2024 through XL Recordings. The album, which was recorded in Oxford and legendary Abbey Road Studios features string arrangements from London Contemporary Orchestra.
Wall of Eye‘s first single, album title track “Wall of Eyes” continues a run of haunting and eerily meditative material with the song seeing the trio pair Yorke’s imitable and yearning delivery with a glitchy arrangement of strummed guitar melody, glistening strings and gently padded drums that evokes — at least to me — a slow burning sense of dread and unease.
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the accompanying video for “Wall of Eyes” begins with the band’s Thom Yorke sitting in a front of a mirror in a meditative pose, and then follows him walking through a busy city and sitting in a crowded pub by himself. The world rushes by him with furious intensity before a surreal, Being John Malkovich-like ending.
Throwback: Happy Belated 61st Birthday, Anthony Kiedis!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Anthony Kedis’ 61st birthday.
Throwback: Happy 55th Birthday, Thom Yorke!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Thom Yorke’s 55th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 58th Birthday, Greg Dulli!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Greg Dulli’s 58th birthday.
Slated for a June 2, 2023 release through Roswell Records/RCA Records, Foo Fighters‘ 11th album, the Greg Kurstin and Foo Fighters co-produced But Here We Are is informed and inspired by a year of staggering losses, personal introspection and bittersweet remembrances. While reportedly being a brutally honest and emotionally raw response to everything the band members have endured over the past year, But Here We Are is also a testament to the healing powers of music, friendship and family.
Fittingly, the 10-song album run the emotional gamut from rage and sorrow, to serenity and acceptance and all the myriad points in between. But the album is also marks the first chapter of the band’s new life.
The album’s first single, the anthemic album opener “Rescued” manages to channel The Colour and the Shape-era and There Is Nothing Left to Lose-era Foos but with a grizzled, hard-earned and harder-fought-for wisdom and maturity. Perhaps more than ever, there’s a weary, heartbroken exhaustion.. And yet, there’s also an irrepressible joy. Life will kick your ass and spit in your face. But if you’ve got your favorite tunes, your best pals and your family by your side, you can somehow get through almost anything.
But Here We Are is available for pre-order and presale now. All pre-orders and pre-saves include “Rescued” as an instant free download.
Throwback: Happy 54th Birthday, Dave Grohl!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Dave Grohl’s 54th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 58th Birthday, Eddie Vedder!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Eddie Vedder’s 58th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 66th Birthday, Peter Buck!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Peter Buck’s 66th birthday.
Since their formation in Cincinnati back in 1986, The Afghan Whigs — currently Greg Dulli (vocals, guitar), John Curley (bass), Patrick Keeler (drums), multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson and the band’s newest member, Blind Melon’s Christopher Thorn (guitar) — have a long-held reputation for refusing to play by convention: During the flannel and plaid of the early 90s grunge era, the members of The Afghan Whigs stood apart from their contemporaries for wearing suits and for being more likely to slide into a soulful groove than a power chord-driven riff.
Reuniting after an 11 year hiatus in 2012, the JOVM mainstays released two critically applauded albums, 2014’s Do to the Beast and 2017’s In Spades, that found the band writing and recording music that furthered their story together, while pushing their sound in new directions.
Slated for a September 9, 2022 release through Royal Cream/BMG, the JOVM mainstays’ ninth album — and first in five years — the Christopher Thorn co-produced How Do You Burn? reportedly picks up on the sound and appraoch of 2014’s Do to the Beast and 2017’s In Spades and pushes it even further. With the pandemic forcing Greg Dulli to abandon plans to support his critically applauded solo album Random Desire, the band began working on How Do You Burn? in September 2020 and continued over the next 14 months in remote recording sessions: Dulli, Thorn and Keeler in California; Curley, Jon Skibic (guitar) and Nelson laying down and engineering their own parts in Cincinnati, New Jersey and New Orleans respectively. “Once we got the system down, we started flying,” Greg Dulli says.
The album features guest spots from a collection of frequent and longtime collaborators including — the late Mark Lanegan, a collaborator of Dulli’s in The Twilight Singers and The Gutter Twins, as well as a close friend. Lanengan sung backup vocals on two album tracks. “It was Mark who named the album,” Dulli says in press notes. Susan Marshall, who contributed to 1998’s 1965 contributes vocals on album track “Catch A Colt.” Van Hunt,who toured with the band in 2012 and contributed to 2014’s Do to the Beast, contributes vocals on “Jyla” and “Take Me There.” And last but definitely not least, Marcy Mays, lead vocalist on Gentlemen‘s “My Curse” contributes vocals to “Domino and Jimmy,” a song that Dulli had specifically written with Mays in mind.
So far I’ve written about two of the album’s singles:
- “I’ll Make You See God,” which is arguably one of the hardest and aggressive songs they’ve written and recorded in close to 30 years.
- “The Getaway,” a widescreen ballad that pairs Dulli’s whiskey and cigarette-like croon with a gorgeous string arrangement, twinkling keys and Dulli’s unerring knack for crafting earnest, lived-in material with enormous, arena rock friendly hooks.
How Do You Burn?’s third and latest single “A Line of Shots,” a woozy yet anthemic ballad featuring heavily distorted and delay pedaled guitars, Greg Dulli’s imitable croon paired with a slow-burning groove and the band’s unerring knack for rousing, fist-up-in-the-air choruses. Perhaps unsurprisingly, “A Line of Shots” was so much of a crowd favorite during the JOVM mainstays’ May 2022 US tour that the band decided that the song needed its own moment in the sun.
The JOVM mainstays are about to embark on a UK and European Union tour that starts on July 23, 2022 and ends on August 10, 2022. The band will take a few weeks off and then go on a month-long US tour that includes a September 15, 2022 stop at Brooklyn Steel. They’ll cap a big year with a return to European Union and UK. Tour dates are below.
EUROPEAN SUMMER TOUR DATES
07/23 Brighton, UK Concorde 2
07/24 Suffolk, UK Latitude Festival
07/26 Frankfurt, Germany Batschkapp
07/28 Vienna, Austria Flex
07/29 Prague, Czech Republic Lucerna Music Bar
07/30 Berlin, Germany Metropol
08/01 Oslo, Norway Parkteatret Scene
08/02 Stockholm, Sweden Debaser
08/03 Copenhagen, Denmark Amager Bio
08/05 Hamburg, Germany Uebel & Gefährlich (Half House)
08/06 Nijmegen, Netherlands Roosje Live In Park @ Openluchttheater Goffert
08/08 Stuttgart, Germany Im Wizemann
08/09 Cologne, Germany Luxor
08/10 Lokeren, Belgium Lokersee Feesten
U.S. FALL HEADLINE TOUR DATES
09/09 Minneapolis, MN Fine Line Music Café
09/10 Chicago, IL Metro
09/11 Cincinnati, OH Bogarts
09/12 Detroit, MI St. Andrews Hall
09/14 Washington, D.C. 9:30 Club
09/15 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel
09/16 Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts
09/17 Boston, MA Paradise
09/20 Charlottesville, VA Jefferson Theatre
09/21 Asheville, NC The Grey Eagle
09/22 Birmingham, AL Saturn
09/24 New Orleans, LA One Eyed Jacks
09/28 Austin, TX Mohawk
09/29 Dallas, TX The Echo Lounge & Music Hall
10/01 Denver, CO Gothic Theatre
10/02 Salt Lake City, UT The Commonwealth Room
10/05 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom
10/06 Seattle, WA The Showbox
10/08 San Francisco, CA The Regency Ballroom
10/09 Dana Point, CA Ohana Encore
10/11 Tucson, AZ 191 Toole
10/12 Los Angeles, CA Belasco Theatre
EUROPEAN FALL HEADLINE TOUR DATES
10/22 Madrid, Spain Teatro Barceló
10/23 Barcelona, Spain Apolo 2
10/25 Milan, Italy Santeria
10/26 Rome, Italy Largo
10/28 Munich, Germany Freiheitshalle
10/29 Zurich, Switzerland Bogen F
10/30 Luxembourg Den Atelier
11/01 Amsterdam, Netherlands Paradiso
11/02 Antwerp, Belgium De Roma
11/04 Manchester, UK Cathedral
11/05 Glasgow, UK St. Lukes
11/06 London, UK KOKO
Throwback: R.I.P. Taylor Hawkins
JOVM pays tribute to the Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins.
Since their formation in Cincinnati back in 1986, The Afghan Whigs — currently Greg Dulli (vocals, guitar), John Curley (bass), Patrick Keeler (drums), multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson and newest member, Blind Melon’s Christopher Thorn (guitar) — have a long-held reputation for never playing by convention: During the plaid and grunge era of the early 90s, the members of The Afghan Whigs stood apart from their contemporaries by wearing suits and for being more likely to slide into a soulful groove than a power chord driven riff.
Reuniting after an 11 year hiatus in 2012, the JOVM mainstays released two critically applauded albums, 2014’s Do to the Beast and 2017’s In Spades, that found the band writing and recording music that furthered their story together, while pushing their sound in new directions.
“I’ll Make You See God,” is the first bit of new material from the JOVM mainstays since 2017’s In Spades, and the single is a roaring headbanger centered around fiery power chord driven riffage, thunderous drumming Greg Dulli’s imitable crooning and an arena rock friendly hook. It’s arguably one of the hardest and aggressive songs they’ve written and recorded in close to 30 years.
“That’s one of the hardest rock songs we’ve ever done,” the band’s Greg Dulli says in press notes. “It was written and performed on sheer adrenalin.”
Along with the new single, the JOVM mainstays announced a short run of US tour dates. which will see them playing small venues across the East Coast, Midwest and Southeast. The tour closes out with a May 25, 2022 stop at Music Hall of Williamsburg. As always, tour dates are below.
2022 TOUR DATES
05/11 Fort Lauderdale, FL Culture Room
05/12 Tampa, FL The Orpheum
05/13 Orlando, FL The Social
05/14 Atlanta, GA Terminal West
05/15 Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle
05/17 Nashville, TN The Basement East
05/18 Louisville, KY Headliners Music Hall
05/20 St. Louis, MO Delmar Hall
05/21 Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall Ballroom
05/22 Indianapolis, IN The Vogue
05/24 Pittsburgh, PA Mr Smalls Theatre
05/25 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
Throwback: Happy 53rd Birthday, Dave Grohl!
JOVM celebrates Dave Grohl’s 53rd birthday,