Tag: Bully

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Weird Nightmare’s Slow-Burning Cover of The Ramones’ “She’s The One”

Alex Edkins has developed and honed a reputation for being a master craftsman of sweaty, mosh pit friendly rippers as the frontman of Toronto-based JOVM mainstays METZ. 

His side project Weird Nightmare frequently sees the METZ frontman showcasing a different side of the long-established songwriting that has won him acclaim and fans across the globe: enormous, power chord-driven rippers with mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses but paired with a sugary, distorted power pop sensibility.

Last year saw the release of Edkins’ Weird Nightmare self-titled debut, which featured three singles I wrote about:

  • “Searching For You,” a fun, straightforward power pop banger, featuring shout-along-with-upraised-beer-in-the-mosh-pit choruses, earnest lyricism and the enormous power chords Edkins is best known for but with an accessible, old-timey inspired craftsmanship that makes the song incredibly radio friendly — as though it Edkins and his METZ bandmates were covering Cheap Trick or Big Star. “It’s a fun, no nonsense rock ‘n’ roll song,” Edkins explains. “It’s about searching for meaning and inspiration all around us. In my mind, the ‘you’ in the chorus refers to something bigger than companionship or love, it’s that intangible thing we all look for but never find.”  

  • “Lusitania,” Weird Nightmare’s sophomore single is a fun, old school rock/power pop anthem centered around Edkins’ unerring ability to craft an enormous, crowd pleasing hook paired with blistering guitar work and earnest songwriting. “‘Lusitania’ was a big breakthrough for the entire Weird Nightmare album. I realized that, musically, my goal was to make songs that would make people feel good!” Edkins says in press notes. “This idea of waking up from a terrible dream or winter changing into spring. Momentary relief. We all need that feeling right now and music has always been what I turn to most.” 

  • “Wrecked,” a driving and ardent guitar pop anthem centered around big hooks, enormous power chords and sweetly, lived-in lyricism. It’s also the first Edkins song that I can remember that features boy-girl call and response vocals, thanks to a guest spot from Bully‘s Alicia Bogannano. “‘Wrecked’ is about missing something,” Edkins says. “For me, it’s about missing my wife and son while on tour. Being away has become harder and harder to do. I think most people can relate to it.  Feeling impossibly far away from the ones you love and coming to the realization that you won’t feel whole again until you return. I was really happy to collaborate with Alicia (Bognanno) on this song and I love what she adds to it. Alicia has a one in a million voice. A voice that you recognize immediately and she really lifts the song way up.”

Weird Nightmare’s first single of the year is a cover of a Ramones classic, “She’s The One.” The Weird Nightmare rendition is a decidedly low-key and slowed down ballad-like take on the original featuring Beatles-like harmonies, fuzz guitar, shimmering pedal steel by Aaron Goldstein paired with Edkins unerring knack for catchy hooks. Interestingly, the ballad-like take on the punk classic, pulls out the swooning and heartfelt sentiment at the heart of the song.

Directed by Ladyhead Design, the animated video follows an animated Dee Dee Ramone skateboarding through the streets of Toronto to some of Edkins’ favorite haunts.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Athens, GA’s Easter Island Releases a Gorgeous and Cinematically Shot Visual for Soaring “Always Room For Another”

Rising Athens, GA-based dream pop act Easter Island — sibling’s Ethan (guitar) and Asher Payne (keys), Ryan Monahan (guitar), John Swint (drums) and Justin Ellis (bass) have developed and honed a sound that’s been compared to the likes of Explosions in The Sky, My Bloody Valentine, DIIV, Pedro the Lion and others. Their full-length debut, 2012’s Frightened featured material, which appeared in a number of TV show including ABC’s Off The Map, MTV’s Awkward and an live appearance on a 2019 episode of the CW’s Dynasty.

Adding to a growing profile, the act has shared stages with a number of acclaimed acts including David Bazan, The B52’s Cindy Wilson, The Low Anthem, Bully, Wild Nothing, White Rabbits, Valley Maker and a lengthy list of others. Over the past six years or so, the members of the Athens-based act have been working on new material in various studios across the country while touring and making stops across the national circuit touring — with stops at SXSW, CMJ, Treefort, Underground Music Showcase, Secret Stages and AthFest. They’ve even traveled to Japan to work on material — and to shoot the video for Take All The Time You Think You Need’s single “Island Nation.”

Speaking of Take All The Time You Think You Need, the Ryan Monahan-produced album which is slated for a December 2020 release draws from a diverse and eclectic array of influences including Sufjan Stevens, Max Richter and The Never Ending Story. The album’s latest single, the cinematic “Always Room For Another” originally premiered on Billboard back in 2018. The single is an incredibly cinematic track, centered around shimmering guitars, ethereal textures, a propulsive groove led by thunderous drumming, plaintive falsetto vocals and euphoric hooks paired with earnest songwriting packed with an emotional wallop.

Directed by the band’s Ethan Payne, the gorgeously shot, cinematic visual for “Always Room For Another” follows the band’s Ryan Monahan on an epic journey through Denver and eventually through White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. Throughout the video, the viewer is supposed to get a sense that its protagonist is on a quest to ultimately find himself.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Founded by The Weight’s and Gentleman Jesse’s Joseph Plunket (guitar, vocals) and Silver Jews‘ Brian Kotzur (drums), who also started in Harmony Korine’s critically applauded film Trash Humpers with State Champion‘s Sabrina Rush (bass), the rising Nashville-based trio Country Westerns can trace their origins to when the then Brooklyn-based Plunket relocated to Nashville, where he founded Duke’s, the sister bar to my beloved Clem’s. Although Nashville has a long-held reputation for teeming with solo artists and hired guns, Plunket met Kotzur, and the pair bonded over their mutual desire to be in an actual band.

Throughout 2016, Plunket and Kotzur spent their time in Kotzur’s garage writing material and tracking demos, eventually honing their sound. With the encouragement of their friends, they began looking for the band’s third member. Playing with a number of different lineups including Bully’s Reece Lazarus, who played on some of their earliest material, Plunket’s and Kotzur’s friend Sabrina Rush joined the band, completing their lineup after a series of lineup shuffles. Best known as a violinist and member of Louisville, KY’s State Champion, Rush had never played bass until that point; but bass came naturally to her, and Plunket and Kotzur quickly realized that her harmonic bass lines managed to perfectly flesh out their sound.

The first recordings with the band’s current lineup were recorded in Nashville with engineer Andrija Tokic, but the band was soon convinced to leave Nashville to record a couple of songs with Matt Sweeney at Brooklyn’s Strange Weather Studios with Daniel Schlett. Interestingly, the Sweeney-produced material caught the attention of Fat Possum Records, who signed the band during a brief break in the recording sessions.

Slated for a May 1, 2020 release, the band’s self-titled debut album reportedly finds the band playing with a bigger sound than what one would expect for a trio. Interestingly, the album’s first single “Gentle Soul,” which features a jangling guitar riff, Plunket’s raspy and growling vocals, a insistent and propulsive rhythm section and an enormous finds the band’s sound leaning heavily towards Document-era R.E.M. and 80s John Mellencamp: earnest lyrics, inspired by and written from hard-fought and harder-won experience paired with ambitious and accessible songwriting.

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Over the past few weeks, I’ve written quite a bit about Nashville, TN-based sibling duo JEFF The Brotherhood, as they’ve released two singles “Punishment,” and “Idiot” off their forthcoming full-length Zone, an experimental rock album that is the third and final part of a spiritual trilogy of albums that includes 2009’s Heavy Days and 2011’s critically applauded We Are The Champions.  The forthcoming album’s third and latest single “Roachin,” features Bully‘s Alicia Bognano on vocals in a scorching, power-chord heavy dirge that sounds deeply indebted to 90s alt rock — in particular, the Melvins —  as the song structurally consists of alternating quiet and loud sections, and an anthemic hook that you can picture kids moshing out to in a sweaty club. And much like “Punishment” and “Idiot,” the album’s latest single will cement the sibling duo’s reputation for crafting trippy, weed and beer inspired anthems full of enormous power chords, infectious and anthemic hooks.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Formed back in 2002 and comprised of Nashville, TN-based sibling duo Jake and Jamin Orral, JEFF The Brotherhood have developed a reputation for a sound and overall aesthetic that’s been influenced by jazz, black metal, hard rock, the films of Werner Herzog, the choreography of Kate Bush and the rivers of their home state. And over the past decade the duo have played well over 1,000 shows across North America, New Zealand and elsewhere, touring to support 11 full-length albums, as well as creating a number of related zines, puppets and videos among other things.

 

The duo’s forthcoming effort Zone is an experimental rock album that was recorded and co-produced by Collin Dupuis in a converted warehouse dubbed Club Roar and is the last part of a spiritual trilogy of albums that began with 2009’s Heavy Days and 2011’s critically applauded We Are The Champions, and it features a guest appearance from Bully’s Alicia Bognanno. Zone’s first single “Punishment”isa trippy prog rock-leaning track that begins with a lengthy garage, psych rock intro before turing into a towering squall of power chords and feedback with one of the most impressive guitar solos I’ve heard this year; naturally, the song confirms the duo’s long-held reputation for crafting anthemic and trippy songs with rapid tempo changes, blistering solos and driving rhythms and blistering guitar work.
 

 

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Alicia Bognanno has made a name for herself as an engineer, producer and soundperson across Nashville’s clubs and studios; however, her latest project has the Bognanno using her technical skills as the guitarist, vocalist, producer […]