Tag: Baby’s All Right

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: youbet Shares a Grunge-Inspired Ripper

Led by Nick Llobet, New York-based indie outfit youbet‘s latest album, last year’s Way To Be and its singles received coverage from Stereogum, Consequence, Paste‘s “Best New Songs” and Post Trash. Album singles landed on playlists by Ones to Watch, Pitchfork “Selects,” The Alternative, The Line of Best Fit, Dork and a list of others.

The band supported the album through tours with Mary Timony, Palehound, Ratboys, Sour Widows, Truth Club, Coco, June McDoom and others. Their latest single “Deny” was released through Hardly Art, and the track is a decided sonic and stylistic left turn with the track being grunge-inspired ripper anchored around fuzzy power chords, thunderous drumming, big mosh pit friendly hooks paired with Llobet’s dreamy falsetto. Play loud — and open up that pit!

“Normally, youbet songs start on the nylon string, but this time I was inspired to write on the electric guitar,” Nick Llobet says. “While driving around last spring we listened to a ton of Polvo, Autolux, and Boris, just to name a few. ‘Deny’ was written last April after we got home from supporting Mary Timony on tour. I was inspired to create a song that captured the energy of that time. In this way, touring is such a great learning experience. Getting in front of new audiences last year helped us develop a new sound. We fed off of the energy. I would say this song is an experiment –trying to explore some new stylistic terrain. A lot of the new songs we’re writing live in this world – ‘Deny’ is a bridge.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Phoenix’s Glixen Shares Stormy “lick the star”

Phoenix-based shoegazers Glixen — Aislinn Ritchie (vocals), Esteban Santana (guitar), Keire Johnson (drums) and Sonia Garcia (bass) — was founded back in 2020 by the band’s Aislinn Ritchie, who then enlisted Santana, Johnson, and Garcia to complete the band’s lineup. Emerging from a scene of local DIY artists, the quartet’s unique sound and look set them apart from their counterparts and led to tours across the US alongside bands like Narrow Head, Cowgirl Clue, MSPaint, Hotline TNT, and They’re Gutting A Body of Water. 

Glixen’s debut EP She Only Said was released last summer through Julia’s War Recordings. The EP saw the band adding themselves to a list of contemporary shoegaze outfits actively pushing the genre in a new direction — through a approach that incorporates ethereal pop vocals and shimmering guitars that are meant to guide you toward the feeling of true self-expression. 

Building upon a growing profile, the Phoenix-based shoegazers’ highly-anticiapted Sonny DiPerri-produced sophomore EP quiet pleasures is slated for a February 21, 2025 release digitally through AWAL and on vinyl through Wichita Recordings. The EP will feature previously release singles “sick silent” and two singles I wrote about on this site:

“foreversoon,” a woozy bit of shoegaze built around fuzzy and melodic power chord-driven guitars, thunderous drumming and Ritchie’s tender and ethereal falsetto paired with enormous hooks and choruses. “foreverspoon” sees the Phoenix-based outfit taking up a much heavier sound that seemingly channels Souvlaki-era Slowdive, Nowhere-era RIDE, and contemporaries like JOVM mainstays Blushing. “‘foreversoon’ represents blissful moments of new love and intimacy,” Glixen’s Aislinn Ritchie explains. “The song harnesses melancholy chords, layered with fuzzy red melodies and gliding guitars that pull you in deeper. I wanted my lyrics to feel like a conversation that expresses my infatuation and sensuality. Time is relentless and memories are fleeting, this song encapsulates those emotions forever.”

“lust” is a woozy track that sees the band continuing to explore a heavier sound — but this time channeling 90s grunge and nu-metal with fuzz and distorted pedaled power chords, down-tuned bass and blissed out rhythms. Ritchie’s yearning vocal ethereally floating over the brooding and muscular arrangement. “lust” is about the yearning and wanting of somebody and the rush that that person makes you feel,” Glixen’s Aislinn Ritchie explains. “It is a feeling that is shallow, yet it feels intense and passionate but only for a moment. We wanted to take the direction of our sound to a heavier place. I wanted the weight of the sound to crush me.”

The Phoenix-based shoegazers celebrate the announcement of their second EP with another single from it, “lick the star.” Beginning with an eerily atmospheric and brooding sound bath-like introduction reminiscent of Cocteau Twins and Slowdive, “lick the star,” quickly turns into a wall of sound of fuzzy and swirling guitar textures, thunderous drumming paired with Ritchie’s ethereal yet plaintive delivery before ending with bursts of feedback.

“This song is special, it begins with a mellow sonic bath of an intro and explodes into a whirling wall of sound and melody,” the band’s Aislinn Ritchie says. “Also, we are excited to announce our first full US headline tour. This is going to be a very busy and fun year for us!”

2024 has been a busy year for the rising Phoenix-based quartet. They’ve played SXSW and Treefort Festval. They’ve also had opening slots for acts like Interpol, DIIV, Nothing., Tanukichan, Turnover, Glare, Glitterer, Softcult and Fish Narc among others.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sunflower Bean Shares a Gritty, Grimy Ripper

Formed back in 2013, while they were still teenagers, New York-based trio Sunflower Bean — Julia Cumming (vocals, bass) Nick Kivlen (guitar, vocals) and Olive Faber (drums) — have become one of the area’s most acclaimed outfits. During that period, they’ve released three critically applauded full-length albums, 2016’s Human Ceremony, 2018’s Twentytwo in Blue and 2022’s Headful of Sugar, which have featured several chart topping releases. They’ve supported those albums with sold-out tour dates as headliners and as openers for the likes Beck, The Strokes, Cage the Elephant, Interpol, Courtney Barnett, The Pixies, The Kills, DIIV, Wolf Alice and more. They’ve also made their run across the international festival circuit, making stops at Glastonbury, Governor’s Ball, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Reading Festival, Leeds Festival and others. And famously, they’ve opened for Bernie Sanders during this primary campaign rallies.

Adding to a growing profile, the band’s Julia Cumming had a guest spot on Yves Tumor‘s 2020 effort Heaven to a Tortured Mind. Kivlen and Faber collaborated with Frost Children on “SERPENT,” which appears on last year’s Speed Run.

The trio’s newest effort, Shake EP is slated for a September 27, 2024 release through Lucky Number. The self-produced and self-recorded effort will reportedly feature some of the band’s heaviest, most immediate and loudest material to date. Influenced by the doom-laden, riff-driven sound of Black Sabbath and others, the EP is an embrace of rock tropes and excess, while nodding to the band’s first two albums.

“SHAKE was inspired by our first years as a DIY band, the spirit that birthed us and gave us the chance to have this enduring journey together,” the band says of the EP. “We wrote, recorded, engineered, and produced these songs so nothing was filtered through anyone else’s idea of us. We always felt like rock and roll was a feeling, not a sound. But sometimes there is no subverting it or explaining it. We’re now offering it exactly as it occurred to us.” And as a result, the EP captures the band at its most raw, unfiltered and most natural state.

To further that theme, the band worked with rising Toronto-based director Isaac Roberts to create a 14-minute performance based video to showcase each track through an interpretation of the natural elements — earth, wind, water, fire and metal.

The EP’s lead single and title track, the grimy and gritty “Shake” is a scorching doom-laden, distorted pedaled power chord-driven ripper with thunderous drumming that captures the band at their loudest, hardest and meanest to date, and at their most inspired.

The accompanying video directed by Roberts performing the song in a torrential rain storm that created the sort of mud pit reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails‘ Woodstock 94 set. Fittingly, the video captures and emphasizes the grit and grime of its accompanying song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Automatic Channels Lou Reed as They Cover “New Sensations”

Los Angeles-based post punk outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon (bass, vocals) — can trace their origins to their hometown’s DIY scene: When the trio met, they each individually […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Mildlife Performs “Future Life”

Released last month through Heavenly Recordings, Mildlife‘s highly-anticipated third album Chorus may arguably be their most optimistic effort while serving as a sort of sonic testament to their unwavering adoration or 70s psychedelic and cosmic sounds. But if you delve a bit deeper, you’ll hear references to Polish jazz, Italo disco and a sprinkling of contemporary electronic sounds.

During its most human moments, the album’s material luxuriates in the velvety embrace of Tom Shanahan’s bass lines, Adam Halliwell’s luminous guitar riffs, Kevin McDowell’s hushed and alluring vocals, Jim Rindfleish’s intricate percussive tapestries and the spiritual rhythms of regular collaborator Craig Shanahan. Swept up in the chorus, the lines between individual and ensemble blur. 

“It’s knowing that all the pieces of our own puzzles can slot neatly into a bigger one,” the band’s Tom Shanahan says. The album sees the members assurance growing — both individually and as a band. On their previously released material, Kevin McDowell was the primary vocalist but Chorus sees each member having a moment of expression, highlighting their own choral visions, while forging a new unified openness and humanity to their sound. 

“We had this idea that we wanted to create a kind of disparate ecosystem of living things,” the band’s Tom Shanahan continues. “We liked the idea of creating a small metaphor of moving through space. You see moments of things and sounds that may not emerge again, until everything around you starts to unify.” 

The album sees the members of Mildlife thematically linking microcosmic personal meaning with a macro view from on high. “Chorus is about a coming together of disparate elements. Not in some sort of utopian aesthetic where everything works perfectly, but in the natural flow and state of things,” shares the band’s Jim Rindfleish. “It’s about cosmic compatibility and chemistry: what makes things work? Not just what makes the band work, but what makes good music, art or love? It’s the rhythm of nature.”

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

  • “Return to Centaurus,” the acclaimed Aussie outfits first bit of new material since 2020’s Automatic and first single off the album. Clocking in at a little over 10 minutes, “Return to Centaurus” opens with droning synths and leads into Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd-meets-space rock-like introduction, with Kraftwerk-like vocoders. By around the 2:40 mark, the song quickly morphs into some hook-driven acid funk with loping yet supple bass lines, shimmering funk guitar riffs, glistening space-age synths, bursts of fluttery flute and intricate yet propulsive drum patterns. Rooted in the Aussie outfit’s love of 70s psychedelic and cosmic sounds, the new single serves as a reminder of their seemingly effortless mastery of mind-bending and unhurried trippy grooves. 

  • “Musica,” a track built around a groove that’s one-part motorik, one-part glittery Giorgio Moroder-era Italo disco paired with squiggling, Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar, glistening synths and a supple bass line paired with McDowell’s hushed, gently vocodered vocal and propulsive congo-driven percussion with a spacey, Wish You Were Here-like synth solo. While seeing the band further cement their retro-futuristic sound, “Musica” reminds the listener — both new and familiar — that the Aussie outfit are modern masters of trippy, mind-bending grooves that draw from and effortlessly mesh elements of funk, jazz fusion, prog rock, komische musik and more. 

  • “Yourself” is a slinky yacht rock-meets-funky jazz fusion bop that sounds — to my ears, at least — as though it could have been a B-side to Hall and Oates‘ “I Can’t Go For That (Say No Go)” or on Jaco Pastorius‘ self-titled debut. Thematically, the song is about radical and meaningful self-acceptance and the joy to be found in shared purpose. It’s arguably one of the most uplifting and optimistic songs of the Aussie outfit’s growing catalog. 

Today, the acclaimed Aussie JOVM mainstays an announced a 16-date headlining US and Canada tour this October that includes an October 19, 2024 stop at Brooklyn Bowl and ends with a set at Live Oak, FL’s Hulaween Festival on October 25, 2024. Presale tickets for the tour are available through the band’s site and started at 10:00am local time and ends April 4, 2024 at 11:59pm local time (password: CHORUS). The general public on sale begins Friday April 5, 2024 at 10:00am. As always tour dates are below.

I caught them at Baby’s All Right back in March 2022, and they’re a must see live act. So don’t lose out on an opportunity to catch them, huh? In the meantime, the band shared a live video for album track “Future Life.” Starting with a slinky and strutting bass line, “Future Life” is anchored around a Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon/Wish You Were Here-era synth line, squiggling and dexterous over-drive and reverb-drenched jazz funk guitar line, a funky and strutting four-on-the-floor serving as a lush bed for McDowell’s and Halliwell’s dreamily delivered harmonies paired with bursts of vocodered vocals. This is the sound of 2024, as envisioned in 1975.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Blushing Teams Up with Jeff Schroeder for Woozy “Seafoam”

During the pandemic, Austin-based dream pop/shoegazer outfit and JOVM mainstays Blushing — married couples Christina Carmona (vocals, bass) and Noe Carmona (guitar, keys) and Michelle Soto (guitar, vocals) and Jacob Soto (drums) —signed to Kanine Records, who released their sophomore album, 2022’s Possessions.  

Possessions was an album born out of incredible patience and perseverance: The earliest tracking sessions started in 2019 and continued in fits and starts through the quarantines, lockdowns and re-openings of the pandemic. There was also breaks in production: Frazier and his spouse welcomed their second child and that was followed by massive blackouts across Texas as a result of the winter storm that wrecked havoc across the region. 

When the album was finally finished, the material saw the band embracing the full and complicated spectrum of life and relationships, but while recognizing the need for escape and whimsy. The album also saw the band collaborating with two legendary shoegazers — Lush and Piroshka‘s Miki Berenyi, who contributes vocals on “Blame” and RIDE‘s Mark Gardener, who mastered the album at his OX4 Sound in the UK. 

Immediately after the band wrapped the Possessions recording sessions, they began writing new material. Noe or Christina would upload a new song idea to a Google Drive almost daily, and within the hour, Michelle would have melody and lyrics fully formed. The band didn’t want to create an album, where each song was made to fit into the same aesthetic mold. Instead, they decided to run with each idea, no matter which direction it went, resulting in material that feels a bit like a sampler of the quartet’s collective influences — and much like a band playfully expanding and experimenting with their sound. 

While there are tracks that will be immediately recognized as being Blushing songs, the band’s third album Sugarcoat reportedly sees the band taking the opportunity to explore their love of post-punk, psych-gaze, grunge pop, indie pop, slowcore and more. Thematically and lyrically, the album asks many questions and sees its narrators reaching out to someone to provide answers or for the answers to come from within. Much of the questioning is informed by the constant uncertainty of our world and the inherent uncertainty of one’s life. Of course, one gets older. But with the accumulation of mistakes and wisdom, there are moments where you’re forced to confront yourself and question past decisions and actions. And you do so in the face of an unknowable, even more uncertain and uneasy future. 

Last month, I wrote about “Tamagotchi,” a decidedly playful Blushing-like song that seemed lovingly indebted to 120 Minutes-era MTV rock featuring fuzzy and crunchy guitars, Christina Carmona’s and Michelle Soto’s ethereal harmonies, thunderous drumming and an enormous chorus. The song’s narrator tells a tale of being indecisive with a matter of the heart and desiring to be playable character that has the big decisions made for you. Would you still feel heartache and regret, if someone else were pushing the buttons? 

Sugarcoat‘s second and latest single “Seafoam is a woozy mix of post-punk, early 90s alt rock and riot grrl punk and moody shoegaze that reminds me a bit of Finelines-era My Vitriol and features a scorching lead guitar contribution from former Smashing Pumpkins‘ guitarist Jeff Schroeder, who recorded his lead guitar lines during some time down time while touring with Smashing Pumpkins. That guitar line is paired with a brooding yet propulsive baseline and Christina Carmona’s delivery, which stars sweetly and tenderly before turning scalding. “While chatting after a Smashing Pumpkins concert one night, we made a joke about Jeff playing lead guitar on the next album,” says the band. “A few years later when Sugarcoat was being recorded we decided to see if Jeff would be interested in making the suggestion a reality. He enthusiastically accepted and later sent over a guitar track that flowed perfectly with ‘Seafoam.’”

Lyrically and thematically, the song’s narrator openly discusses the sense of anger and betrayal that comes from a dwindling romantic that’s petering out to its inevitable conclusion.

Directed by Eddie Chavez and edited by Jake Soto, the accompanying video for “Seafoam” was shot at Austin’s Link & Pin Art Gallery and features work by Kiah Denson and Christina Green-Martinez. Throughout the video,. the band dressed to the nine’s in their finest, alternating between vamping and brooding through the gorgeous space and performing the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Blushing Shares Playful and Anthemic “Tamagotchi”

Austin-based dream pop/shoegazer outfit and JOVM mainstays Blushing — married couples Christina Carmona (vocals, bass) and Noe Carmona (guitar, keys) and Michelle Soto (guitar, vocals) and Jacob Soto (drums) — can actually trace some of its roots to El Paso, where Jacob Soto and Noe Carrmona grew up as lifelong friends and musical partners. 

Jacob Soto and Noe Carmona relocated to Austin around 2009. The pair coincidentally met their spouses at The Side Bar and according to the band, “naturally all four of us became close friends.” As Michelle Soto was starting to learn guitar, she also began writing material, creating guitar parts and vocal melodies in her bedroom. Christina Carmona, who’s a classically-trained vocalist, was recruited by Michelle Soto to contribute vocals to her initial musical ideas; but Christina then taught herself bass and helped flesh out Michelle’s songs. Shortly after both Jacob and Noe began to notice how much potential the material had, and they joined in on a practice session to help further flesh out those initial arrangements. And from that point on, Blushing was a full-fledged band. Their natural simpatico and like-minded musical influences helped to solidify their ongoing creative process. 

The quartet spent the bulk of 2016 writing and refining the material, which eventually led to their debut EP, 2017’s Tether, an effort that received positive reviews across the blogosphere, including this site.

Building upon a growing profile in the shoegaze and dream pop scenes, the band returned to the studio to write and record their sophomore EP, 2018’s Weak, which saw them cementing a sound seemingly indebted to Lush, Cocteau Twins and The Sundays but while also being a subtle refinement. They ended that year with the Elliot Frazier-produced and mixed “The Truth”/”Sunshine” 7 inch, which featured what was arguably the most muscular and direct song of their catalog to date. They supported their recorded output with several tours that saw them sharing stages with the likes of Snail Mail, Sunflower Bean, La Luz, BRONCHO, Illuminati Hotties, JOVM mainstays Yumi Zouma and others.

2019 saw the release of their self-titled, full-length debut, which they supported with an extensive US tour with Ringo Deathstarr that included a stop at Saint Vitus Bar that November.

During the pandemic, the Austin-based JOVM mainstays signed to Kanine Records, who released their sophomore album, 2022’s Possessions.  Possessions was an album born out of incredible patience and perseverance: The earliest tracking sessions started in 2019 and continued in fits and starts through the quarantines, lockdowns and re-openings of the pandemic. There was also breaks in production: Frazier and his spouse welcomed their second child and that was followed by massive blackouts across Texas as a result of the winter storm that wrecked havoc across the region.

When the album was finally finished, the material saw the band embracing the full and complicated spectrum of life and relationships, but while recognizing the need for escape and whimsy. The album also saw the band collaborating with two legendary shoegazers — Lush and Piroshka‘s Miki Berenyi, who contributes vocals on “Blame” and RIDE‘s Mark Gardener, who mastered the album at his OX4 Sound in the UK. 

Immediately after the band wrapped the Possessions recording sessions, they began writing new material. Noe or Christina would upload a new song idea to a Google Drive almost daily, and within the hour, Michelle would have melody and lyrics fully formed. The band didn’t want to create an album, where each song was made to fit into the same aesthetic mold. Instead, they decided to run with each each, no matter which direction it went, resulting in material that feels a bit like a sampler of the quartet’s collective influences — and much like a band playfully expanding and experimenting with their sound.

While there are tracks that will be immediately recognized as being Blushing songs, the band’s third album Sugarcoat reportedly sees the band taking the opportunity to explore their love of post-punk, psych-gaze, grunge pop, indie pop, slowcore and more. Thematically and lyrically, the album asks many questions and sees its narrators reaching out to someone to provide answers or for the answers to come from within. Much of the questioning is informed by the constant uncertainty of our world and the inherent uncertainty of one’s life. Of course, one gets older. But with the accumulation of mistakes and wisdom, there are moments where you’re forced to confront yourself and question past decisions and actions. And you do so in the face of an unknowable, even more uncertain and uneasy future.

Sugarcoat‘s first single “Tamagotchi” is a decidedly playful, Blushing-like song that’s lovingly indebted to 120 Minutes-era MTV rock featuring fuzzy and crunchy guitars, Christina Carmona’s and Michelle Soto’s ethereal harmonies, thunderous drumming and an enormous chorus. The song’s narrator tells a tale of being indecisive with a matter of the heart and desiring to be playable character that has the big decisions made for you. Would you still feel heartache and regret, if someone else were pushing the buttons?

Directed by the band, the accompanying video for “Tamagotchi” follows the band as they’re about to hit the stage. In the adrenaline-fueled chaos to start the show, a tamagotchi manages to escape from its game-based confines as a result of a spilled drink on stage, and begins to interact with the outside world, at one point becoming both the band’s 2D mascot and a third guitarist. I hope Gizmo the dog isn’t too jealous! Seriously though, the video is an adorable and playful complement to the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Pissed Jeans Share a Bruising and Ripping Meditation on Harsh Truths

Allentown-based punks Pissed Jeans’ highly-anticipated sixth album Half Divorced further cements their longtime reputation for crating feral punk with their acerbic sense of humor. Thematically, the material mercilessly skewers the tension between youthful optimism and the sobering realities of adulthood but while still managing to be — perhaps inadvertently — fun. “Half Divorced has an aggression within it, in terms of saying, I don’t want this reality. There’s a power in being able to say, I realize you want me to pay attention to these things, but I’m telling you that they don’t matter. I’m already looking elsewhere,” the band’s Matt Korvette says.

Slated for a March 1, 2024 release through Sub Pop Records, the band’s members — Matt Korvette (vocals), Brad Fry (guitar), Randy Huth (bass) and Sean McGuinness (drums) — weren’t in a rush to finish the album, which was recorded and co-produced by Don Godwin at Takoma Park, MD-based Tonal Park. “We’re not the kind of band that bangs out a new record every two years,” Korvette says. “Pissed Jeans is truly like an art project for us, which is what makes it so fun.” The material’s distilled energy makes the album sound menacing and dangerous — with the songs unexpectedly veering into classic hardcore punk territory. Korvette says, “We realized we’d never really fucked with pop punk, and we thought, this is something that isn’t going to be immediately recognizable as cool. So let’s challenge ourselves to make it feel cool to us.”

The word divorce in the album’s title falls in line with the moments of humiliation, shame and defeat that are held up for all to see on the album. “If you say something enough or if you just allow it to exist publicly, then it loses its evil monster-in-the-closet thing,” Korvette says. 

In the lead up to the album’s release later this week, I’ve managed to write about two album singles:

  • “Moving On,” a hard-charing, balls-to-the-wall, mosh pit friendly ripper with some of the most shout along friendly anthemic hooks and choruses the band has ever written, buzzsaw-like power chords and propulsive, thunderous drumming paired with Korvette’s classic punk rock snarl. But at its core “Moving On” is as much about trying to put your best foot forward, as it is about throwing your hands up and accepting defeat. 
     

  • “Sixty-Two Thousand Dollars in Debt,” a bruising, mosh pit friendly, hardcore punk-inspired ripper that recalls classic Bad Religion, NOFX, Murphy’s Law and the like, complete with a scorching guitar solo. The song is about the heady — and all too adult — excitement of shrinking debt-to-credit ratios, which in this day and age, is a depressingly Sisyphean task. 

Clocking in at 90 seconds, Half Divorced‘s third and latest single “Cling to a Poisoned Dream” is a bruising ripper that, much like its immediate predecessor, recalls classic, mosh pit friendly hardcore punk: three scorching power chords, thunderous drumming and snarled vocals. The song thematically is an uneasy mediation of harsh, very adult truths: We’re desperately trying to survive with our sanity and dignity intact, in a world that’s rotten and may well be irreparably fucked. And in turn, that would mean the unsettling realization that we’re also completely fucked. Time is flying by. Anything we’re clinging to might be stupid and pointless, too. Fun times around here ain’t it? The only thing left is to roar into the void.

Directed by Joe Stakun, the accompanying video for “Cling to a Poisoned Dream” is shot with a fish-eye lens in a dark, strobe-lit warehouse, and features the band ripping while wearing work jumpsuits.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Psymon Spine Returns with Punchy and Groovy “Bored of Guitar”

Psymon Spine‘s third album Head Body Connector is slated for a February 23, 2024 release through Northern Spy Records. The album is reportedly a gritty, punchy, guitar-forward studio album from a band that’s long been obsessed with production. 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. 

So far I’ve written about two of Head Body Connector‘s singles:

“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. 

“Wizard Acid,” 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. 

Head Body Connector‘s third and latest single, the punchy and hook-driven “Bored of Guitar” is a mischievous tongue-in-cheek provocation built around guitar that sounds indebted to Gang of Four, Talking Heads, DEVO and others but full of scathing, self-deprecating, self-aware, self-criticism that’s seemingly informed by getting older, seeing your priorities shift and change — and perhaps hating it as much as you’re accepting it.

“‘Bored of Guitar’ was one of the earlier tracks we worked on for Head Body Connector. Like many of our songs, it started as two separate ideas that Peter, Michael, and I (Noah) smashed into one and then expanded upon,” the Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays explain. “The lyrics came to me piecemeal inspired by conversations I had been having with Michael about the kind of guitar-centric dude rock bands we were getting tired of seeing. The underlying fear for me, of course, was that we were one of those bands. Nothing disgusts a person like seeing in others what bothers them about themselves. The song is an amped-up meditation on (amongst other things) self-criticism, priorities shifting around, and the hilarious, painful, beautiful, humiliating, exhilarating experience of being in a band. It’s also about me working on my relationship with my younger self, the one who set most of my current life experiences into motion long ago. I love him and we’ve both got notes for each other.”   

Directed by Max Mainwood, the accompanying video for “Bored of Guitar” is a surreal, seemingly horror movie-inspired visual that features an adult and their younger self interacting with other, while being chased and haunted by menacing presences dressed in black and more. “I wanted to represent this song with a visual narrative that came from the band’s storytelling, but also pull from my personal interpretation of the song,” Mainwood explains. “This video plays as an energetic backdrop to a groovy tune, as well as an underlying story left for the audience to discover.”   

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 Audio: Dublin’s SPRINTS Share Cathartic and Deeply Personal “Shadow Of A Doubt”

Formed back in 2019, Dublin-based punks SPRINTS — Karla Chubb (vocals, guitar), Colm O’Reilly (guitar), Jack Callan (drums) and Sam McCann (bass) — have developed and crafted an abrasive brand of punk rock, influenced by early Pixies, Bauhaus, Siousxie Sioux, King Gizzard, Savages, and LCD Soundsystem. 

Their first two EP’s, 2021’s Manifesto and last year’s A Modern Job were released to rapturous praise from UK music outlets like DIY, The Guardian, NME, Loud & Quiet, Dork, and Clash. They also received airplay from BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6 Music.

Building upon a growing profile, the Irish punk band’s highly-anticipated full-length debut Letter To Self is slated for a January 5, 2024 release through City Slang Records. According to the band’s Karla Chubb, the album “is a deeply personal and autobiographical lyrically and in its key themes, while sonically it explores a space inspired by our love of early 80s gothic, 90s noises rock and more modern influences. It revisits our most vulnerable moments and imbues them with visceral garage-punk. It aims to take the things that are considered inherently negative – feelings of anxiety, anger and rage, and turning them into a positive. Using our experiences to fuel us and pouring them into a positive outlet. It’s cathartic, it’s honest, it’s raw.” While pain is used to fuel growth, at its core, the album is rooted in a message of self-acceptance. 

Recorded in France’s Loire Valley with Gilla Band‘s Daniel Fox over the course of 12 days, Letter to Self will feature previously released singles “Adore Adore Adore,” “Literary Mind” and its lead single “Up and Comer,” an earnest and furious ripper built around buzzing power chords, thunderous drumming and mosh pit friendly hooks paired with Chubb’s feral delivery. Thematically “Up and Comer” tackles imposter syndrome — through the perspective of embittering, lived-in, fairly universal experiences and feelings, which gives the song a cathartic air for anyone, who has felt like an imposter in their life.

“Shadow Of A Doubt,” Letter To Self‘s latest single begins with a lengthy and atmospheric slow-burn of an introduction pairing glistening and angular guitar bursts and Chubb’s emotive vocal that gradually builds up into an explosive, swirling and fuzzy power chord-driven climax before a slow-burning and atmospheric coda. The song manages to evoke a spiraling descent into dark madness with the immediacy of someone who has actually lived it — and survived to tell their story.

“‘Shadow Of A Doubt’ is our most vulnerable moment to date,” SPRINTS’ Karla Chubb explains. “It very bluntly deals with the experience of trauma, depression and the aftermath. It was written quite selfishly –  to take the weight of some of those feelings off myself by placing them on a page in an attempt to feel like I was healing, or ridding myself of them. An entirely cathartic process.

“The slow and intensifying build, the crashing drums, swirling guitars and chaotic climax all symbolize that pure terrifying fall into darkness, and the almost silent call for help. It’s the feeling of loneliness, abandonment and exile. It’s shouting out into the void and thinking everyone can hear you, but they can’t.

The vocal was recorded in three takes with jagged breaths and some misstepped lyrics purposefully left in. Here, we felt emotion was more important than perfection.”

Directed by Ellius Grace, the accompanying video for “Shadow Of A Doubt,” begins with the seemingly comatose and disaffected members of SPRINTS in a bare room with bandaged doctors checking in on them, and handing them their instruments. As the song builds up, the band members become more alive. By the time, the song reaches its explosive climax, everyone involved has descended into madness.