Tag: Austin TX

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Austin’s DAIISTAR Shares Fuzzy “Parallel”

Austin-based shoegazers DAIISTAR (pronounced Day-Star) — Alex Capistran (vocals, guitar), Nick Cornetti (drums), Misti Hamrick (bass) and Derek Strahan (keys) — formed back in 2020. And since their formation, the members of DAIISTAR have crafted a narcotic blend of noise and melody that draws from the neo-psychedelic era of the 80s and 90s and modernizes it with modulating synths, heavy guitars, bouncing bass lines and spiraling hooks.

The Austin shoegeazer outfit’s Alex Maas-produced full-length debut, Good Time saw its release yesterday through Fuzz Club, revered British-based purveyors of all things psych. (You can purchase the vinyl here. LEVITATION is also offering their own colored vinyl variant, which is available here.)

“To us these songs were a glimmer of light,” the band’s Alex Capistran says. “Starting a band at the peak of the pandemic to some might seem ill timed, but to us it was a way to escape for a moment. There was something to look forward to and we kept our heads in the future. These songs guided us through some dark times and hopefully they can do the same for you. GOOD TIME is here!“

“Parallel,” Good Time‘s latest single sees the band pairing fluttering synths, buzzing power chords, dreamy falsetto vocals in a way that will bring The Jesus and Mary Chain and more modern fare like Crocodiles and others to mind. But underneath that is a remarkable attention to craft with the band revealing their penchant for catchy hooks.

“Sometimes I’ll be working on a song for weeks, other times I pick up the guitar and write nothing, but the songs that seem to emerge out of thin air always end up being my favorite,” Capistran says. “‘Parallel’ came to me instantly and has become one of the tracks I feel most connected to on the album. It’s a love song contrasted with fuzzed out guitar and driving rhythm. It’s about those days we find ourselves gliding effortlessly through time as two lives in unison and we can’t help but think ‘how is this real.'”

Directed by the band, the accompanying video is indebted to classic 120 Minutes MTV-era visuals: The band performing in a studio with fittingly psychedelic visuals behind them.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Demons My Friends Share an Expansive Face-Melting Ripper

Currently split between Austin and Mexico City, Demons My Friends features members of Washington, DC-based outfit Fellowcraft and well-regarded Mexico City-based rock band QBO, and can trace their origins to an impromptu recording session at last year’s SXSW. Conceptually, the trio explore the inner journey its members have been on since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, confronting inner demons and battling anxiety, depression, self-doubt and rage while teaching themselves how to turn these demons into their “friends.”

The Mexican-American trio’s Jeff Henson-produced and mixed Demons Seem To Gather is slated for a September 8, 2023 release through Gravitoyd Heavy Music. Sonically seeming to draw from the likes of Monolord, King Buffalo, All Them Witches, Soundgarden, Baroness and a lengthy list of others, the trio’s full-length debut is reportedly features material that pairs drop-tuned grunge riffs, doom song structures, soaring melodies, groove-driven rhythms and psychedelic harmonies — but while rooted in the band’s musicianship.

Demons Seem To Gather‘s latest single “Make Them Pay” is built around a face-melting mix of sludgy power chords, thunderous drumming, Black Sabbath-meets-Soundgarden/Alice in Chains-like solos and crooned vocals with an expansive song structure. While touching upon some familiar styles, “Make Them Pay” is powered by dexterous and impassioned musicianship and earnest purpose.

Directed by Lu Salinas, the accompanying video for “Make Them Pay” was generated using AI, and it captures a fiery hellscape that sort of resembles the one we’re marching lockstep into right now.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays The Black Angels Share a Scorching Ripper

Austin-based JOVM mainstays  The Black Angels —  currently Alex Maas (vocals, bass), Christian Bland (guitar), Stephanie Bailey (drums), Jake Garcia (guitar) and multi-instrumentalist Ramiro Verdooren — released their sixth album Wilderness of Mirrors last fall through through Partisan Records. Co-produced by the band and Brett Orrison with engineering by John Agnello, Wilderness of Mirrors finds the band attempting to achieve something fresh and new through a gentle and subtle refinement of the sound that has won them fans across the globe. 

Throughout the album’s material, the band adds mellotron, string arrangements and an assortment of different keyboards to the mix, which adds different textures to their overall sound. Thematically, the album continues upon their long-held reputation for touching upon contemporary concerns — in particular, our uncertain and urgent moment of political tumult, the pandemic, and the ongoing devastation of the environment and its long-term implications to us and our descendants, among others. 

Late last year, I wrote about four of the album’s released singles:

  • “El Jardín,” a single, which at first glance is classic Black Angels: Bailey’s thunderous time keeping, Maas’ plaintive falsetto and supple bass lines paired with layers upon layers of guitar pyrotechnics and effects from Bland and Garcia — but the song’s sparking and brooding bridge sees the band adding bursts of twinkling Rhodes to the mix. Written from the perspective of our dear Mother Earth, “El Jardín” is a forceful and urgent warning to all of us: destroying the environment will ultimately lead to the destruction of humanity. 

  • “Firefly,” a loving yet classic Black Angels-like homage to 60s French pop, featuring a guest spot from Thievery Corporation‘s LouLou Ghelickhani, who contributes sultrily delivered vocals in French and English, alongside Maas’ imitable falsetto and paired with a hook-driven arrangement featuring reverb-drenched guitars, Maas’ supple and propulsive bass lines, some simple yet forceful timekeeping from Bailey and twinkling keys. 

  • “Without A Trace,” a bit of classic, Passover through Directions to See a Ghost-era Black Angels centered around fuzzy and distorted power chords, a reverb-drenched guitar solo, Bailey’s thunderous and propulsive time keeping paired with Maas’ imitable vocal delivery and supple bass lines. The song sonically and thematically is an eerie and brooding meditation that asks “is is still possible to be invincible when everyone else is expendable.” 

  • “Empires Falling,”  a scorching, politically charged ripper that examines humanity’s repetitive art of violent mass destruction. Built around scorching, power chord driven riffs, Maas’ imitable falsetto, a driving rhythm section powered by Bailey’s forceful time keeping, the song continues a run of material that harkens back to their earliest releases but fueled by an urgency informed by our desperate, uneasy time.

The album’s fifth and latest single “History of the Future” is a classic Black Angels headbanger built around scorching guitar riffage, Maas’ falsetto delivering lysergic-tinged lyrics, Bailey’s forcefully propulsive time keeping paired with the Austin-based JOVM mainstays unerring knack for rousingly anthemic, mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses.

Directed by Clever Cardoso and filmed in Terlingua, TX, the accompanying video was inspired by Pink Floyd‘s famous Live at Pompeii concert film, and captures the band playing the song amidst the immensity of the mountains surrounding them.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: La Sécurité Shares Bouncy Dance Punk Anthem “Serpent”

Montréal-based art punk quintet La Sécurité features a collection of acclaimed local players, with the band featuring current and past members of Choses Sauvages, Laurence-Anne, Silver Dapple, DATES, Pressure Pin, and others. Since their formation last year. the Canadian quintet have quickly developed and cemented their sound and approach: Meandering around the fringes of punk, New Wave and krautrock, the quintet’s take on art punk pairs jumpy beats, off-kilter arrangements and minimalistic yet melodic hooks, run through an insomniac filter. And while their music is razor sharp and danceable, their lyrical content is rooted in the feminist community-centric ethos of the Riot Grrrl movement. “It’s not just fun and games… it also bites. It’s catchy earworms delivered with a punk attitude,” guitarist Melissa Di Menna says. 

In a relatively short period of time, La Securité has quickly made a name for themselves in both the national and international scene: They’ve been invited to play at SXSW, FME, Phoque Off, Taverne Tour and DISTORSION Psych Fest, and they’ve shared stages with Automatic, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, TVOD, Margaritas Podridas, CIVIC, and Duchess Says. Building upon a growing profile, the French Canadian quintet’s highly-anticipated Samuel Gemme-produced full-length debut, Stay Safe! is slated for a June 16, 2023 release through Mothland. 

Recorded at Gamma Recording Studio, Stay Safe! reportedly features songs that are manic yet surprisingly laid-back, empowering and urgent, reflective yet melancholy — all while mischievously flouting stylistic form every chance they can get.

Last month, I wrote about album single “Anyway,” a scorcher built around buzzing and slashing power chords, a chugging motorik groove, bombastic hooks and choruses paired with a cooler-than-you swagger. But underneath the frenetic energy is a song informed by a deeply personal yet universal and super heavy subject: “This song was written in the early stages of dealing with grief related to miscarriage and pleads a sort of surrender to the strain it can put on a couple processing it,” La Securité’s vocalist Éliane Viens-Symott explains in press notes. 

Stay Safe!‘s second and latest single “Serpent” sees the Montréal-based post punk outfit quickly locking into the sort of dance punk groove that brings Echoes-era The Rapture and early LCD Soundsystem to mind paired with insistent shaker-driven percussion, twinkling keys, the collective’s unerring knack for dance floor friendly hooks and choruses and lyrics — in French — describing friend group drama. The song is a cheeky and sarcastic ode to complicated friendships that despite the language is very familiar. As the band puts it, “The person it is directed towards loves dancing. It’s a pretty dancy song. We hope they dance to it.” 

Directed by the band, the accompanying video for “Serpent” features lo-fi, vintage camera shot footage during their most recent run SXSW that showcases the band’s adventures around Austin — and the snarky and playful joy at the heart of the song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

After stints playing drums for acclaimed singer/songwriter Shilpa Ray and a list of other bands, Robert Preston Collum (guitar, vocals) stepped out into the spotlight with his solo project Pink Mexico. Preston self-released his 2013 full-length debut Pnik Mxeico, which caught the attention of Austin-based label Fleeting Youth Records, who then re-released the album the following December. 

Collum relocated to Brooklyn in the fall of 2014 to begin recording what would be his sophomore album. Following countless Brooklyn shows during the course of 2015, the project extended into a full-fledged band with the addition of Grady Walker (drums, vocals) and Ian Everall (bass). Collum’s Pink Mexico sophomore album, 2016’s Fool was released through Burger Records and French label Big Tomato Records. He and his bandmates supported the album with an opening spot for Honus Honus (a.k.a Mam Man) during that artist’s November 2016 tour. 

Pink Mexico’s third album 2019’s DUMP was released through Burger Records and Little Dickamn Records. Unlike the previously released albums, where Collum played all the instrumental parts, DUMP is the first album that features Everall and Walker on their respective instruments. 

The band’s fourth album, 2020’s Idiot Piss Illiterate was released through San Francisco-based label Broken Clover Records. 

Earlier this year, Pink Mexico announced their signing to Quiet Panic Records, who will be releasing their fifth album, Mirrorhead. Slated for a May 19, 2023 release, Mirrorhead was written and recorded during the period of its predecessor’s release. But while Idiot Piss Illiterate‘s material rode on a frantic garage rock undercurrent, the forthcoming album reportedly swaps out ragged pace for bruising waves of heavy sound, interspersed with moments of stripped back exposure. Thematically, the album’s material is rooted in a recollection of memories and experiences woven through the reconstruction of the self and a bold sense of experimentation. 

If you’ve bene frequenting this site, you might recall that earlier this month I wrote about Mirrorhead single “Dungeonhead,” a 120 Minutes MTV-era alt rock-inspired aural assault centered around layers of reverb-drenched, fuzzy and distorted power chords and thunderous power chords paired with Collum’s plaintive and ethereal lead vocal. But under the ironically detached delivery and enormous hooks, is a song that evokes a palpable sense of unease. 

Pink Mexico’s Robert Preston Collum calls “Dungeonhead,” “a track about never feeling comfortable in one’s own skin while reflecting on the obscurities of life during a time when the regular version of confusing and fucked up is even more fucked up and confusing.”

Mirrorhead‘s latest single “Shame” is a brooding bruiser built around layers of fuzzy and distorted power chords, thunderous drumming paired with Collum’s ethereal and achingly plaintive vocal. While continuing a run of material that sounds indebted to 120 Minutes-era MTV, “Shame” is imbued with a lived-in, bitter sense of shame, insecurity and self-loathing. “It’s a shame we as humans are so insecure and selfish that we’re incapable of having respect for one another,” Collum says. “The only undeniable certainties in this life are; no one decides to be born and we all die.”

The band will be playing an album release show at TV Eye on June 11, 2023 with TVOD, Substitute and a special guest TBA. Tickets and more info is available here.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Slumbering Sun Share Horror Movie-Influenced Visual for “Dream Snake”

Austin-based doom metal outfit Slumbering Sun — Monte Luna’s James Clarke (vocals), Destroyer of Light’s Keegan Kjeldsen (guitar), Temptress‘ Kelsey Wilson (guitar), Monte Luna‘s and Scorpion Child‘s Garth Condit (bass) and Destroyer of Light’s Penny Turner (drums) — is an All-Star band featuring acclaimed members of Texas’ underground metal scene. 

After the breakup of their previous band, James Clarke and Keegan Kjeldsen resolved to forget the bitter pain of an album that would never be released, by creating something new. They decided to start a new band with an album that Kjeldsen wrote between work on other projects. The pair continued the creative process at their rehearsal space with a few songs strummed on a clean, electric guitar: Clarke began to write melodies with the pair finishing lyrics. 

Clarke and Kjeldsen recruited Temptress’ Kelsey Wilson, who made the commute from Dallas for the writing and recording process. Scorpion Child’s Garth Condit and Destroyer of Light’s Penny Turner, who played in other bands with Clarke and Kjeldsen respectively were recruited to be the band’s rhythm section — and from that point on, Slumbering Sun was a full-fledged band. 

Released earlier this year digitally and on cassette and CD, tthe Austin-based doom metal outfit’s full-length debut The Ever Living Fire was recorded in a week-long recording session this past summer. Sonically, their full-length debut sees the band exploring broader melodies than their previous work while drawing from Celtic folk, doom metal act Warning, as well as 90s grunge rockers Soundgarden and Alice In Chains. 

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about three singles:

  • “Liminal Bridges,” an expansive song featuring an atmospheric introduction with swirling, shoegazer-like textures, followed by stormy, power chord-driven riffage and thunderous drumming paired with Clarke’s melodic crooning and enormous, arena rock-like hooks. The track sonically brought — to my ears, at least —  The Sword  to mind — ok but with a prog rock-leaning sensibility.

  • “Dream Snake,” an equally expansive track that opens with Black Sabbath and Soundgarden-like intro with fuzzy, power chord-driven riffage, thunderous drumming and a soulful solo paired with Clarke’s Ozzy Osbourne-like delivery until roughly around the five-minute mark. At that point, the song morphs into a sludgy doom metal dirge for the next two minutes or so before a gorgeous string arrangement carries the song into a gentle fadeout. Lyrically rooted in longing and heartbreak, “Dream Snake” sees the members of Slumbering Sun drawing from different eras one metal and doom metal and crafting something both familiar and new.

  • Album title track “The Ever Living Fire.” Continuing a remarkable run of expansive, mind-bending material, the song begins with a gorgeous 35 second, acoustic guitar-driven introduction before quickly exploding into an expressive and soulful doom metal dirge, built around sludgy power chord-driven riffage, thunderous drumming and Clarke’s crooning. And around the five minute mark, the band introduces a melodic hook that shifts the song in a trippy display of densely layered guitars. The song ends with a roughly minute-long, gorgeous acoustic gutter driven coda making it one of the more prog-leaning songs of the album’s released singles. 

Continuing to build about the attention the album’s first three singles have received throughout the course of this year, the Austin-based doom outfit recently shared the video for “Dream Snake.” Directed by the band’s James Clarke and Keegan Kjeldsen, the video follows four buddies driving to their regular dive bar for drinks and hijinks. They all happily greet their bartender, who serves them all their regular drinks. The bartender offers them a special stash of drugs called Sumatran Dream Flower with devilish delight. “Y’all really wanna get fucked up? Well I gotcha,” he seems to say. Fittingly, after snorting the Sumatran Dream Flower, they start having wild and paranoid visions of evil creatures wanting to kill them. Little do they know, it’s not a hallucinogen-fueled fever dream; it’s very real. B movie horror menace and bloodshed ensue to hilarious, goofy effect.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Chicago-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Elijah Montez is the frontman and creative mastermind behind the rising psych pop project Daydream Review. After relocating from Austin to Chicago, Montez and Daydream Review began catching the attention of Chicago’s leading tastemakers and beyond with the release of 2020’s “Blossom” and 2021’s retro-tinged, self-titled debut EP.

Last summer, the Chicago-based artist released two tracks, an A-side “Sensory Deprivation” and a B-side “Dream Sequence #29,” as a palette cleanser to his Daydream Review self-titled debut EP — and a teaser of new material. That material quickly established Montez as one of Chicago’s most buzz-worthy new artists. Adding to a growing profile, he supported that material with a lot of time touring with a backing band featuring Kaitlyn Murphy (backing vocals and auxiliary percussion) and a rotating group of friends. 

Daydream Review’s 13-song full-length debut Leisure is now out through Side Hustle Records. The album sees Montez aiming to expand upon the layered sonic world he has created — and continuing to push the boundaries of modern psych pop with dynamic production and reflective, existential lyricism. “Leisure is about the ever-present tension between the desire for free time, for personal enjoyment and leisure, and the demands that capitalistic society places on those desires, and how it restricts the ability to enjoy that free time,” Montez explains. ” Your job and work, to me, seem to be consistent specters that haunt your ability to enjoy your free time, knowing that those demands are always awaiting you when your free time comes to an end.”

That uneasy balancing act between work and free time informed much of the album’s creation and its themes. “Leisure,” Montez adds “as a concept, became something almost otherworldly and that much more desirable, something you dream about when you have so much time funneled into work, and the repetitive act of balancing those two ends up being something almost hypnotic, and I tried to channel all of that into the sonic qualities of the album.”

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I’ve written about three singles:  

  • “Have You Found What You’re Looking For,” a mellow slow-burn centered around painterly, shogeazer-inspired textures created by glistening, delay and reverb pedaled guitars, fluttering synth arpeggios and paired with a trippy groove and Montez’s ethereal delivery. The song sees its narrator asking himself — and in turn, his listener — if they’ve actually found what they’ve been looking for, with the tacit understanding that they may never actually find it anyway. 
  • “No Eternity,” another slow-burn centered around lush, glistening and wobbling synth arpeggios, a mix of blown-out beats and live drumming paired with Montez’s plaintive cooing and his penchant for well-placed, razor-sharp hooks. While sonically, “No Eternity” brings Currents-era Tame Impala to mind, Montez explains that lyrically, the song is inspired and informed by current events:  “Lyrically, it may be the closest to a song specifically about COVID–not the pandemic itself, but between the BLM protests in Summer 2020 and this change a lot of people have had to the nature of work, I had a hard time thinking of how things would look on the other side of it, and trying to make sense of the future when the only context you have is the past,” Montez says.
  • Album title track “Leisure,” which continued a remarkable run of slow-burning material, but while rooted in a Quiet Storm-meets-Tame Impala-like groove paired with twinkling keys and Montez’s breathy falsetto cooing. But despite the late night grooves, the song evokes — and expresses — a world-weary exhaustion and frustration that feels all too familiar.

Montez celebrates the release of Leisure with the release of “Dissolving.” Built around languorously buzzing guitars, twinkling synth arpeggios and a relentless motorik groove paired with Montez’s gentle and dreamy cooing, “Dissolving” is a sleek and seamless synthesis of Dark Side of the Moon and Currents that manages to evoke a gentle and slow-burning dissolving of a magic mushroom trip.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Pink Mexico Shares Brooding and Bruising “Dungeonhead”

After stints playing drums for acclaimed singer/songwriter Shilpa Ray and a list of other bands, Robert Preston Collum (guitar, vocals) stepped out into the spotlight with his solo project Pink Mexico. Preston self-released his 2013 full-length debut Pnik Mxeico, which caught the attention of Austin-based label Fleeting Youth Records, who then re-released the album the following December.

Collum relocated to Brooklyn in the fall of 2014 to begin recording what would be his sophomore album. Following countless Brooklyn shows during the course of 2015, the project extended into a full-fledged band with the addition of Grady Walker (drums, vocals) and Ian Everall (bass). Collum’s Pink Mexico sophomore album, 2016’s Fool was released through Burger Records and French label Big Tomato Records. He and his bandmates supported the album with an opening spot for Honus Honus (a.k.a Mam Man) during that artist’s November 2016 tour.

Pink Mexico’s third album 2019’s DUMP was released through Burger Records and Little Dickamn Records. Unlike the previously released albums, where Collum played all the instruments, DUMP is the first album that features Everall and Walker on their respective instruments.

The band’s fourth album, 2020’s Idiot Piss Illiterate was released through San Francisco-based label Broken Clover Records.

Earlier this year, Pink Mexico announced their signing to Quiet Panic Records, who will be releasing their fifth album, Mirrorhead. Slated for a May 19, 2023 release, Mirrorhead was written and recorded during the period of its predecessor’s release. But while Idiot Piss Illiterate‘s material rode on a frantic garage rock undercurrent, the forthcoming album reportedly swaps out ragged pace for bruising waves of heavy sound, interspersed with moments of stripped back exposure. Thematically, the album’s material is rooted in a recollection of memories and experiences woven through the reconstruction oft he self and a bold sense of experimentation.

Mirrorhead‘s first single “Dungeonhead” is a 120 Minutes MTV-era alt rock-inspired aural assault centered around layers of reverb-drenched, fuzzy and distorted power chords and thunderous power chords paired with Collum’s plaintive and ethereal lead vocal. But under the ironically detached delivery and enormous hooks, is a song that evokes a palpable sense of unease.

Pink Mexico’s Robert Preston calls “Dungeonhead,” “a track about never feeling comfortable in one’s own skin while reflecting on the obscurities of life during a time when the regular version of confusing and fucked up is even more fucked up and confusing.”

Directed by Steven Ungureanu, the brooding and uneasy accompanying video for “Dungeonhead” was shot across my home borough of Queens. I recognize a number of significant locations including Ridgewood, Jackson Heights, Forest Park, Ridgewood Reservoir, Far Rockaway and more.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Don’t Get Lemon Shares Groovy, 80s-Inspired “Blow-up”

Currently split between Austin and Houston, Don’t Get Lemon — Austin Curtis (vocals), Bryan Walters (bass, percussion) and Nick Ross (synth, guitar, drum programming) — is a dance pop outfit with a glam-leaning, synth-driven sound that draws from 70s Berlin and 80s Manchester.

Deriving its title from Michelangelo Antonioni’s swinging 1966 motion picture Blow-Up, the Texan trio’s latest single “Blow-Up” is a decidedly 80s Madchester/Manchester-inspired bop built around glistening synths arpeggios, Curtis’ ironically detached delivery, a motorik-like groove, angular guitar attack, and bursts of polyrhythm featuring bongo and electronic drums paired with bombastic hooks. The trio explain that the song, which features lyrics pierced together, borrowing from William S. Burroughs’ famed cut-up poetry technique and imagery inspired by David Lynch’s Blue Velvet is a “glimpse into the unseen dark.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Chicago-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Elijah Montez is the frontman and creative mastermind behind the rising psych pop project Daydream Review. After relocating from Austin to Chicago, Montez and Daydream Review began catching the attention of Chicago’s leading tastemakers and beyond with the release of 2020’s “Blossom” and 2021’s retro-tinged, self-titled debut EP.

Last summer, the Chicago-based artist released two tracks, an A-side “Sensory Deprivation” and a B-side “Dream Sequence #29,” as a palette cleanser to his Daydream Review self-titled debut EP — and a teaser of new material. That material quickly established Montez as one of Chicago’s most buzz-worthy new artists. Adding to a growing profile, he supported that material with a lot of time touring with a backing band featuring Kaitlyn Murphy (backing vocals and auxiliary percussion) and a rotating group of friends. 

Slated for an April 7, 2023 release through Side Hustle Records, Daydream Review’s 13-song full-length debut Leisure reportedly sees Montez aiming to expand upon the layered sonic world he has created — and continuing to push the boundaries of modern psych pop with dynamic production and reflective, existential lyricism. “Leisure is about the ever-present tension between the desire for free time, for personal enjoyment and leisure, and the demands that capitalistic society places on those desires, and how it restricts the ability to enjoy that free time,” Montez explains. ” Your job and work, to me, seem to be consistent specters that haunt your ability to enjoy your free time, knowing that those demands are always awaiting you when your free time comes to an end.”

That uneasy balancing act between work and free time informed much of the album’s creation and its themes. “Leisure,” Montez adds “as a concept, became something almost otherworldly and that much more desirable, something you dream about when you have so much time funneled into work, and the repetitive act of balancing those two ends up being something almost hypnotic, and I tried to channel all of that into the sonic qualities of the album.”

So far I’ve written about two singles:

  • “Have You Found What You’re Looking For,” a mellow slow-burn centered around painterly, shogeazer-inspired textures created by glistening, delay and reverb pedaled guitars, fluttering synth arpeggios and paired with a trippy groove and Montez’s ethereal delivery. The song sees its narrator asking himself — and in turn, his listener — if they’ve actually found what they’ve been looking for, with the tacit understanding that they may never actually find it anyway. 
  • “No Eternity,” another slow-burn centered around lush, glistening and wobbling synth arpeggios, a mix of blown-out beats and live drumming paired with Montez’s plaintive cooing and his penchant for well-placed, razor-sharp hooks. While sonically, “No Eternity” brings Currents-era Tame Impala to mind, Montez explains that lyrically, the song is inspired and informed by current events:  “Lyrically, it may be the closest to a song specifically about COVID–not the pandemic itself, but between the BLM protests in Summer 2020 and this change a lot of people have had to the nature of work, I had a hard time thinking of how things would look on the other side of it, and trying to make sense of the future when the only context you have is the past,” Montez says.

Leisure‘s third and latest single, album title track “Leisure” continues a remarkable run of slow-burning material but this time, rooted in a Quiet Storm-meets-Tame Impala-like groove paired with twinkling keys and Montez’s breathy falsetto cooing. But despite the late night-like groove, the song evokes — and expresses — a world-weary exhaustion and frustration that feels all too familiar.

“This song is about the absolute compression of your soul and destruction of your time that work culture and capitalism has made commonplace. There’s an uncertainty that it creates in terms of how you view your life, and how you’ll look back on it, how you can take care of yourself and your loved ones.” “Sonically,” he continues, “it has elements of psychedelic soul, so there’s a groove in it, but I think the arrangement communicates the exhaustion that’s baked into the lyrics.”