JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 113th anniversary of the birth of Muddy Waters.
Tag: Chicago IL
New Video: Chicago’s Snowcuffs Shares Hazy and Anthemic “Burst”
Formed back in 2022, Chicago-based dream pop outfit Snowcuffs features members of Lightfoils and Astrobrite, Their debut EP, last year’s Sink Down saw the band quickly establishing a sound that balanced shimmering textures and memorable hooks. Inspired by Alvvays, Beach House and Mazzy Star, their work frequently drifts between nostalgic haze and fuzz-driven intensity while thematically touching upon longing, reflection and fleeting beauty.
The band has shared stages with Cold Gawd, Seashine and Cigarettes for Breakfast, and played a standout set at Kalamashoegazer, the country’s longest-running shoegaze festival.
Building upon a growing profile in the national shoegaze and dream pop scenes, the Chicago-based outfit’s sophomore EP Sweet Gravity is slated for a March 5, 2026 release. Engineered by Sanford Parker at Hypercube Studios, mixed by Robert Cheek and mastered by Baseline Audio Labs’ Chris Goosman, Sweet Gravity EP reportedly sees the band showcasing refined songwriting and a much more expansive sound that pushes the boundaries of dream pop without losing its heart and soul.
Sweet Gravity EP‘s latest single “Burst” sees the band pairing shimmering and swirling guitar textures, a forcefully driving rhythm section and remarkably catchy, rousingly anthemic hooks with ethereal vocals. Sonically, “Burst” seemingly nods at 120 Minutes-era MTV shoegaze and alternative rock — but with a decidedly modern sensibility. And at its core is a song and a narrator struggling with crippling ambivalence and self-doubt.
The band explains that “‘Burst’ is about the struggle of trying to be everything at once, and what happens when inaction, ambivalence, and self-doubt slowly erode your options in life.
I wait and see
Stare at the tree
Will it die of thirst
And fall down on me?
Ambivalence isn’t neutral, it’s destructive.”
Directed by Dave Rentaukas, the accompanying video for “Burst” is split between footage of the band’s lead singer in a Chicago area park as the sun begins to set and the rest of the band performing in a studio in front brooding yet trippy projections.
New Video: clubdrugs Return with Yearning, Club Friendly “Heart 2 Break”
clubdrugs are a Chicago-based, self-described goth pop duo that has developed a reputation and profile both locally and regionally for a genre-defying sound and for captivating live shows.
The duo begin 2026 with their latest single “Heart 2 Break,” an electro goth bop anchored around buzzing and wobbling bass synths, angular bursts of feedback-fueled guitars and thumping, industrial-like beats paired with the duo’s uncanny knack for catchy hooks. Maria dreamily yearning coos ethereally float over the brooding, club friendly production. Much like the previously released “Waiting,” “Heart 2 Break” is a dance song for the lovelorn, the heartbroken and the perpetually unrequited to dance to, in between their tears.
Directed by the Chicago-based duo, the accompanying video for “Heart 2 Break” is a hallucinogen-fueled dream that features the pair performing the song in a studio in front of trippy projections that manages to capture the yearning at the core of the song.
Throwback: Happy 71st Birthday, Fred White!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 71st anniversary of the birth of Earth, Wind & Fire co-founder Fred White.
New Video: Chicago’s Dendrons Share Tense and Uneasy “Monsteras”
Chicago-based indie outfit Dendrons formed back in 2018, initially starting out as an earnest collaboration between two childhood friends, who reconnected as adults, after spending years in different states. The project eventually expanded to a quintet, following the strength of DIY bookings and homemade recordings.
Since the band’s formation, they’ve developed a sound that meshes elements of post-punk, blender pop and noise. Their material frequently moves between worlds; at times, kitschy and intimate, before quickly morphing into maximalism, full of feedback, synths, multipart harmonies and combinations of propulsive drum kids and electronic beat sampling.
The band has supported their first two albums, 2020’s self-titled full-length debut and 2022’s 5-3-8 with extensively touring across the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe and the UK.
The Chicago-based outfit’s third album Indiana is slated for a November 17, 2025 release through Candlepin Records. The album reportedly found the band at a point of reinvention, with the album’s material featuring a refined sonic palette, which drew from a more diverse pool of influences among the band’s members. Songs were demoed, scrapped, rewritten and scrutinized in detail over the course of a two-year period.
Indiana‘s second and latest single “Monsteras” is a tense and urgent song that sees the band alternating between tautened restraint and noisy rock bombast, held together by the song’s relentless motorik-like groove and hushed, almost meditative vocals. Subtly recalling Canadian post punks Blessed, “Monsteras,” manages to evoke the surreal air of our current moment, in which we somehow still go to work and worry about the rent or the mortgage, while the world burns and the US slides into fascism. Nothing to see here. Get back to work, you lazy bum . . . And yet, deep in your soul, you know everything is deeply fucked up, and it’s somehow getting worse.
The accompanying video was shot over the course of a single night in Chicago. Shot in run-and-gun style, the video features elements of stop motion animation throughout. The “Dust Man,” the Sisyphean main character of the video was played by one of the band’s members. In some way, we are all Dust Man, performing absurd, often Sisyphean tasks until we die.
Long live Dust Man.
New Video: Sol ChYld Teams Up with Kaicrewsade on Soulful and Lived In “Travel Size”
Camden, NJ-based emcee Sol ChYld exploded into the national scene with 2023’s Something Came To Me, which featured the viral single “NBC.” Since then, the Camden-based artist has been busy: She toured with Erick the Architect, premiered a new song “PSA” in a n attention-grabbing COLORS Session and shared the “On the Radar,” freestyle, which helped bolster a growing profile.
Sol Child’s highly-anticipated third album REBIRTH. Theory is slated for a September 26, 2025 release through MNRK Music Group. The 10-track album reportedly sees the New Jersey-based artist at the peak of her powers as a lyricist and curator, collaborating with DRAM, Kaicrewsade, Kingsley Ibeneche and Eric Scott — all while eschewing the use of samples. The Dissect Podcast once compared to her to a young Kendrick Lamar, but REBIRTH. Theory sees her continuing in a more neo-soul leaning tradition of earnest, deeply felt lyricism and creativity of the likes of Eyrkah Badu, André 3000, Lauryn Hill and others.
REBIRTH. Theory‘s latest single “Travel Size,” features a vibey, neo-soul-tinged jazz groove-driven arrangement with skittering beats that serve as a lush and soulful bed for Sol ChYld and Chicago-based emceee and community organizer Kaicrewsade to spit the sort of conscious, deeply lived-in bars that would remind folks of Common, Black Thought, Mos Def and the like.
Directed by frequent collaborator Wayne Campbell, the accompanying video is a gorgeously shot and vivid visual shot in and around Camden and nearby Philadelphia.
Throwback: Happy 89th Birthday, Buddy Guy!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Buddy Guy’s 89th birthday.
Live Footage: The Color of Cyan Performs “Hail the Mountains” at Chicago’s Electrical Audio
Chicago-based post rock/post-metal outfit The Color of Cyan — Henry Cole (drums), Jorge Santana (bass) and Eduardo Cintron (guitar) — originally formed in San Juan, Puerto Rico back in 2000. The band re-emerged during the height of the pandemic as a solely instrumental project that created intricate soundscapes with aggressive guitar.
2021’s Agape featured multi-layered material that patiently built up in pressure and impact.
2023’s Egress, which was recorded between Puerto Rico, Chicago and Mexico City saw the band blurring the boundaries of a sound that featured elements of post metal, post rock and neo-classical while exploring emotion through introspective and delicate compositions. “Our music arrangements are purposely in constant motion, guided by emotions, impossible to replicate perfectly, like waves in the sea. Nothing is ever the same as before,” the Chicago-based outfit explained in press notes.
The Color of Cyan’s forthcoming third album As Human reportedly sees the band expanding upon their sound further with organic and abstract compositions that are central to the album’s identity. According to the band, “the album feels like a film without words — an exploration of what it means to be fragile, to endure, and to feel deeply.”
As Human’s first single “Hail the Mountains” is a cinematic and shoegazer-like composition featuring swelling, swirling and towering feedback-drenched guitars paired with shimmering strings that manages to evoke wind-swept, mountainous vistas while sonically recalling Collapse Under the Empire and You Doo Right. “This song is a towering ode to resilience. With swelling orchestration and tremolo-driven peaks, it captures the sublime tension between permanence and solitude, grandeur and stillness,” The Color of Cyan explains. “It’s a soundscape carved into stone, echoing long after the final note fades into an acoustic denouement.”
The band recorded a live session at Chicago‘s Electrical Audio, which features the band and an orchestra performing the song.
New Video: Smut Shares Expansive and Anthemic “Waste Me”
After spending years in the Cincinnati DIY scene, Smut — currently Tay Roebuck (vocals), Andie Min (guitar), John Steiner (bass), Sam Ruschman (guitar) and Aidan O’Connor (drums) — caught the attention of Bayonet Records, who signed the band and released their sophomore album, 2022’s critically applauded How the Light Felt. The album brought the band to Chicago, a city with more room for their growing sound.
But despite their early successes, they still faced the struggles of the modern working musician: instability, financial precarity, objectification and more. The band channeled a period of touring, personnel changes and personal upheavals into their third album, Tomorrow Comes Crashing.
Officially dropping today, through Bayonet Records, Tomorrow Comes Crashing marks the band’s first recorded output with O’Connor and Steiner while seeing the band re-energized and trained on the limitless potential that comes with making music with people you love.
The band specifically focused on capturing the big emotions that come with falling in love with music for the first time. The result is ten of what may arguably be their most intense, bombastic and focused songs to date.
The Chicago-based band recorded the album’s material “as live as they could,” alongside Momma‘s Aron Kobayashi Ritch in a Red Hook, Brooklyn-based studio over the course of a breakneck 10-day session. Right before they went off to New York, Roebuck and Min got married, with the rest of the band by their side.
“We have so much energy right now,” Smut’s Roebuck says. The recording sessions were a true labor of love — driving from Chicago with all their equipment, returning from 12 hour studio days to sleep on friends’ couches and floors, Roebuck completely blowing her voice by the end. Fittingly, the album is culmination of the band’s long-held DIY spirit — with the band creating a record that encompasses the intensity, moodiness and emotions of their journey so far.
In the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about two of the album’s previously released singles:
- “Syd Sweeney,” a song inspired by and named after the actor that describes the profound strangeness to be a woman, and how easily as a woman it is to be constantly misunderstood and misconstrued.
- “Touch & Go,” a full-throated, 120 Minutes MTV-era power ballad that showcases the band’s knack for pairing rousingly anthemic hooks with, big riffs and earnest, lived-in lyricism and songwriting.
Tomorrow Comes Crashing‘s latest single “Waste Me” continues a run of hooky and anthemic material that recalls 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock — but under the big power chords and arena rock swagger is a softness that’s feminine but also thoughtful, lived-in and deeply earnest while arguably being the most dynamic, expansive and The Cure-like song they’ve written and recorded to date.
“Waste Me” is inspired by Greek mythology. “I wanted to write about ego, about building people up in our minds to unreachable heights, and pride,” Smut’s Roebuck explains,. “The story of Icarus was really ripe to elaborate on so I just extended the story. What if Icarus lived? What if someone thought he was the answer to their prayers?”
The accompanying video by Michael Fanos features collage-styled animation loosely based on the song’s lyrics.
New Video: Smut Shares a “120 Minutes”-era MTV-like Power Ballad
After spending years in the Cincinnati DIY scene, Smut — currently Tay Roebuck (vocals), Andie Min (guitar), John Steiner (bass), Sam Ruschman (guitar) and Aidan O’Connor (drums) — caught the attention of Bayonet Records, who signed the band and released their sophomore album, 2022’s critically applauded How the Light Felt. The album brought the band to Chicago, a city with more room for their growing sound.
But despite their early successes, they still faced the struggles of the modern working musician: instability, financial precarity, objectification and more. The band channeled a period of touring, personnel changes and personal upheavals into their third album, Tomorrow Comes Crashing.
Slated for a June 27, 2025 release through Bayonet Records, Tomorrow Comes Crashing marks the band’s first album with O’Connor and Steiner and reportedly sees the band re-energized and trained on the limitless potential that comes with making music with people you love.
The members of the band focused on capturing the big emotions that come with falling in love with music for the first time. The result is ten of arguably their most intense, bombastic and focused songs to date.
The Chicago-based band recorded the album’s material “as live as they could,” alongside Momma‘s Aron Kobayashi Ritch in a Red Hook, Brooklyn-based studio over a breakneck 10-day session. Roebuck. Right before they went off to New York, Roebuck and Min got married, with the rest of the band by their side.
“We have so much energy right now,” Smut’s Roebuck says. The recording sessions were a true labor of love — driving from Chicago with all their equipment, returning from 12 hour studio days to sleep on friends’ couches and floors, Roebuck completely blowing her voice by the end. Fittingly, the album is culmination of the band’s long-held DIY spirit — with the band creating a record that encompasses the intensity, moodiness and emotions of their journey so far.
Last month, I wrote about album single “Syd Sweeney,” a track named for an inspired by the actor, that’s anchored around Siamese Dream-like power chords, rolling and propulsive drumming and enormous, beer-raised-high-in-the-air, shout-along worthy hooks and choruses paired with Roebuck’s rock goddess-like delivery before ending with a thrash metal-like coda that would make Billy Corgan smile.
The song is about how profoundly strange it can be to be a woman, to be misunderstood by people, who don’t even know you — and probably will never know you. Roebuck says: “Women in entertainment are exceptionally talented, smart and beautiful, because they have to be. Sometimes they want to explore sexuality and vulnerability in their work. Then the pitchforks come out, how dare they be amazing AND sexual? You can only be one or the other! Why is talent and hard work seemingly erased once you’ve seen a woman naked?”
“It makes sense then to interpret it as a horror film, where we have the dividing tropes of final girls and sexy bimbos who die first for being too damn sexy,” Roebuck continues. “We put the sexy woman in the movie so we can see her be sexy and then kill her for it. It’s a lose-lose. Being a woman in art is to be objectified one way or the other. Success is the monster chasing you, waiting for you to be a little too sexy, knife ready.”
Tomorrow Comes Crashing‘s latest single “Touch & Go” is a full-throated, 120 Minutes MTV-era power ballad that showcases the band’s knack for pairing rousingly anthemic hooks with, big riffs and earnest, lived-in lyricism and songwriting.
“‘Touch & Go’ is a broken fantasy that was pretty directly inspired by ‘Time to Pretend’ by MGMT,” Smut’s Tay Roebuck explains. “The pursuit of success and the daydreams we have of ‘making it’ are pretty easily shattered once you put that fantasy in the modern world. The song ends with the realization that the best part of music will always be the community you build with it.” In the song’s last moments she sings, “The basement flooded / The coffee burned / The van is broken down / We all take turns / Touch and go.”
Fittingly, the accompanying video looks and feels as though it could have aired during 120 Minutes.
New Video: Smut Shares Bombastic Ripper “Syd Sweeney”
After spending years in the Cincinnati DIY scene, Smut — currently Tay Roebuck (vocals), Andie Min (guitar), John Steiner (bass), Sam Ruschman (guitar) and Aidan O’Connor (drums) — caught the attention of Bayonet Records, who signed the band and released their sophomore album, 2022’s critically applauded How the Light Felt. The album brought the band to Chicago, a city with more room for their growing sound.
But despite their early successes, they still faced the struggles of the modern working musician: instability, financial precarity, objectification and more. The band channeled a period of touring, personnel changes and personal upheavals into their third album, Tomorrow Comes Crashing.
Slated for a June 27, 2025 release through Bayonet Records, Tomorrow Comes Crashing marks the band’s first album with O’Connor and Steiner and reportedly sees the band re-energized and trained on the limitless potential that comes with making music with people you love.
The members of the band focused on capturing the big emotions that come with falling in love with music for the first time. The result is ten of arguably their most intense, bombastic and focused songs to date.
The Chicago-based band recorded the album’s material “as live as they could,” alongside Momma‘s Aron Kobayashi Ritch in a Red Hook, Brooklyn-based studio over a breakneck 10-day session. Roebuck. Right before they went off to New York, Roebuck and Min got married, with the rest of the band by their side.
“We have so much energy right now,” Smut’s Roebuck says. The recording sessions were a true labor of love — driving from Chicago with all their equipment, returning from 12 hour studio days to sleep on friends’ couches and floors, Roebuck completely blowing her voice by the end. Fittingly, the album is culmination of the band’s long-held DIY spirit — with the band creating a record that encompasses the intensity, moodiness and emotions of their journey so far.
Tomorrow Comes Crashing‘s latest single “Syd Sweeney,” is inspired by the actor and is anchored around big, Siamese Dream-like power chords, rolling and propulsive drumming and enormous, beer-raised-high-in-the-air, shout-along worthy hooks and choruses paired with Roebuck’s rock goddess-like delivery before ending with a thrash metal-like coda that would make Billy Corgan smile.
The song is about how profoundly strange it can be to be a woman, to be misunderstood by people, who don’t even know you — and probably will never know you. Roebuck says: “Women in entertainment are exceptionally talented, smart and beautiful, because they have to be. Sometimes they want to explore sexuality and vulnerability in their work. Then the pitchforks come out, how dare they be amazing AND sexual? You can only be one or the other! Why is talent and hard work seemingly erased once you’ve seen a woman naked?”
“It makes sense then to interpret it as a horror film, where we have the dividing tropes of final girls and sexy bimbos who die first for being too damn sexy,” Roebuck continues. “We put the sexy woman in the movie so we can see her be sexy and then kill her for it. It’s a lose-lose. Being a woman in art is to be objectified one way or the other. Success is the monster chasing you, waiting for you to be a little too sexy, knife ready.”
New Audio: JOVM Mainstay Kelly Finnigan Teams Up with Chicago Soul Legend Renaldo Domino on a Deep Soul Cover
Acclaimed singer/songwriter, musician, producer and Monophonics frontman Kelly Finnigan teamed up with Chicago‘s Renaldo Domino for a cover of Buffalo-based duo Samson & Delilah‘s 1967 song “Keep Me In Mind.” The Finnigan and Domino cover, which features an All-Star cast of some of the soul scene’s best players was recorded entirely to tape in studios between the Bay Area, Chicago and Ohio during the recording sessions for the JOVM mainstay’s most recent solo album, last year’s A Lover Was Born.
The Finnigan and Domino rendition sees the pair and their collaborators tightening the original’s groove just a bit while retaining the original’s spirit and feel in a remarkably loving and straightforward period specific manner. And much like the original, the song’s mid-tempo groove-driven arrangement serves as a lush and funky bed for the pair’s uncannily soulful harmonizing, which in some way rekindles memories of Sam and Dave, and the like.
The standalone single was released digitally through Colemine Records. The 7″ 45RPM vinyl will be available on May 23, 2025. You can pre-order the vinyl or stream on your favorite DSP here: https://colemine.lnk.to/clmn260
New Audio: LutchamaK Shares Swaggering “Innsæi”
French JOVM mainstay LutchamaK returns with the four-track Hybrid EP. Released today through Chicago-based Urban Kickz Recordings Special Series, the French JOVM mainstay’s latest EP sees him continuing to bounce around several different styles and genres of electronic music, all while showcasing an uncanny ability to make it all cohesive.
You might recall that I recently released about EP title track “Hybrid,” a slick synthesis of joyous Larry Levan-like house, and glitchy, industrial-leaning Detroit and Berlin-like techno that slaps hard. The EP’s latest single “Innsæi” is a swaggering banger that recalls Tour de France-era Kraftwerk and John Carpenter soundtracks paired with some glitchy, retro-futuristic synths. But interestingly, “Innsæi” may be the most cinematic track of the JOVM mainstay’s growing catalog.