Tag: CMJ

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Back in January, I wrote a post on Reno, NV-born and Nashville, TN-based alt rock/blues/rock artist  Jack Berry. Berry can trace the origins of his recording career to when he wrote and recorded his first album while studying in  Los Angeles. Berry then worked and performed along the West Coast as one half a of a duo before before he decided that it was time to go solo. Relocating to Nashville, Berry spent several months couch-surfing and writing and recording material with the hopes that he could catch the attention of that city’s local press. Eventually, Berry began receiving praise from outlets such as Nashville Scene, The Deli Magazine, Blues Rock Review and others, which resulted in slots at Toronto‘s North by Northeast (NXNE), CMJ and SXSW‘s Red Gorilla Festival. Since then, Berry has played a number of venues between his hometown and NYC; however, 2016 may be his breakthrough year with the Spring 2016 release of his latest album, Mean Machine. 

Now, as I mentioned a little earlier, back in January I wrote about Mean Machine‘s first single “The Bull,” a sultry and bluesy single that paired arena rock-friendly power chords, propulsive and carefully syncopated drumming, an anthemic hook and Berry’s seductive crooning and howling that sonically seems to draw from Soundgarden (think of “Mailman” “Spoonman,”and “Fell on Black Days” off Superunknown) as it does from old-school blues and contemporary rock. Mean Machine‘s latest single “Bad Dog” continues where “The Bull” left off: arena-friendly power chords, propulsive drumming paired with  Berry’s sultry crooning; however, the song possesses a cocksure swagger and menace that pushes the song towards the old school blues territory — in particular think of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Born in Reno, NV and currently based in Nashville, TN, alt rock/blues rock artist Jack Berry can trace the origins of his recording career to when he wrote and recorded his first album while studying in Los Angeles. Berry then worked and performed along the West Coast as one half a of a duo before before he decided that it was time to go solo. Relocating to Nashville, Berry spent several months couch-surfing and writing and recording material with the hopes that he could catch the attention of that city’s local press.

Eventually, Berry began receiving praise from outlets both locally and nationally from the likes of Nashville Scene, The Deli Magazine, Blues Rock Review and others, which resulted in slots at Toronto‘s North by Northeast (NXNE), CMJ and SXSW‘s Red Gorilla Festival. Since then, Berry has played a number of venues between his home base and NYC; however, 2016 may be his breakthrough year with the Spring 2016 release of his latest album, Mean Machine. 

“The Bull,” Mean Machine‘s first single is a sultry and bluesy single that pairs arena rock friendly power chords, propulsive and carefully syncopated drumming, an anthemic hook and Berry’s seductive crooning and howling that sonically seems to draw from Soundgarden (think of “Mailman” “Spoonman,”and “Fell on Black Days” off Superunknown) as it does from old-school blues and contemporary rock.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Comprised of Evan Blum, Jacob Weaver and Rob Monsma, the Louisville, KY-based trio Murals was formed over 10 years ago while its members were high schoolers. As the story goes, the trio of Blum, Weaver and Monsma experienced several dips and turns with the members of the band eventually returning to their hometown to write and record music in an abandoned childcare center, located on a hill in a shady part of town — the sort of place the band notes, where acid trips and all-day jam sessions would go hand-in-hand.

With the release of “Violet City Lantern,” the album title track and first single off Violet City Lantern, and a subsequent stop at this past fall’s CMJ Festival, the Louisville-based trio quickly received national attention. “Long Bridge,” Violet City Lantern‘s latest single is a slow-burning and moody bit of psychedelia that sounds as though it draws from The Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin,” The Beatles,  The Beach Boys and 70s AM radio rock as shimmering guitar chords played with gentle amounts of reverb and wah wah pedal are paired with swirling and ethereal keyboards, gentle yet propulsive drumming and a weary baritone. The gorgeous track slowly unfolds towards the listener in a way that evokes waking from an intensely vivid dream.

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Suffers Remind You of Profoundly Sweet, Real Love

https://screen.yahoo.com/stay-130000291.html?format=embed     With the release of the Make Some Room EP, Houston, TX-based dectet The Suffers have exploded on to the national scene this year as the band has played festival sets at Hangout Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Neon Desert Music Festival, their […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

F.Y.I,’s musical career began in the middle part of this past decade as the co-founder of Los Angeles-based rap act Those Chosen, with whom he recorded over 100 songs, a number of mixtapes and a critically praised EP, 5IVE, which was produced by Grammy winner IZ Avila best known for his work with Usher, Janet Jackson, and Gwen Stefani. And with the release of his debut solo effort, Yo! The Places You’ll Go, which featured a collaboration with Rass Kass and Ab-Soul, the Los Angeles-based emcee’s album landed at #1 on WPTS, which won an MTVu Woodie Award for Best College Radio Station. And as a result of sharing stages with renowned artists including The Game, B.O.B., Big Sean, Curren$y, Slick Rick, De La Soul, Pac Div, Dead Prez, Little Brother, Black Milk, Pete Rock and CL Smooth and Boot Camp Clik and playing at music festivals such as CMJ, A3C and the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, F.Y.I. has quietly developed a national reputation as an emcee to pay attention to.

The Los Angeles-based emcee’s debut sophomore effort, Age/Sex/Location was released earlier today and the EP’s latest single, EP opening track “One Thang” pairs F.Y.I.’s confident and dexterous flow, rhyming lyrics about looking bravely forward and striving and accomplishing your goals without fear and without doubt. And he does so over
over a glitchy and soulful production consisting of boom bap beats, distorted vocal samples, whirring electronics. It’s swaggering yet upbeat hip-hop which shows how influential Kanye West, Outkast and Common have been to contemporary hip-hop.

Live Footage by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: CMJ 2015/BRIC Jazz Fest: Nate Smith and Kinfolk

Over the course of its 35 years of existence, the CMJ Music Marathon has developed a long-held reputation for being one of the world’s most renowned platforms for the introduction of new, independent artists — […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

It’s CMJ week yet again and of course, it means that I’m running around trying to catch a number of sets at various showcases across town, as well as connecting with friends, associates and colleagues. Of course, that also means extremely long days and nights of live music, so the amount of posts I’m able to commit to this week will be somewhat sporadic at best, until things slow down later on this weekend/early next week. (Such is the life of a busy blogger, right?)

In any case, let’s get to the immediate business at hand . . .

If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past couple of years, you may recall coming across a couple of posts about the Los Angeles-based, indie electro pop duo Pr0files. It’s been some time since I’ve written about them, so some backstory will likely be necessary: Comprised of Lauren Pardini (vocals, keys) and Danny Sternbaum, Pr0files can trace their origins to when Pardini and Sternbaum were bandmates alone with Sonny Moore, best known these days as mega-hit electronic music artist Skrillex in The Boy Traveller. When the project split up, Pardini went on to write for Pardini went on to write for DJ Khalil’s camp and has written tracks for Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and Drake; she also has collaborated with Purity Ring’s Corin Roddick and was briefly a member of The Silver Lake Chorus. Sternbaum on the other hand started his own band Baby Monster, an act that has toured with Klaxons, Miike Snow and Metric; and as a producer and remixer, Sternbaum has remixed tracks by Ellie Goulding, Gorillaz, Foster the Children and Miami Horror.

As Pr0files, the duo of Pardini and Sternbaum won attention across the blogosphere with the release of singles “Call Yourself A Lover,” “Luxury” and others for a slickly produced sound that possesses elements of R&B, electro pop and electronic dance music that for their earliest releases bore an uncanny resemblance to Beacon. However, “I Know You Still Care,” the first single off the duo’s long-awaited full-length debut, Jurassic Technologie, feels and sounds like a decided change in sonic direction, as the song possessed an urgent, insistent sensuality reminiscent of Giorgio Moroder‘s legendary work in the 1970s, as the song consisted of layers of shimmering and cascading synths, skittering percussion paired with Padroni’s seductive cooing to create what may arguably have been the duo’s most sensual and straightforward dance track.

The duo’s latest single “Empty Hands” is slow-burning and anthemic pop song comprised of layers of cascading synth stabs, swirling, atmospheric electronics, propulsive drum programming and Pardini’s earnest, pop belter/torch song vocals to craft a song that sounds as though it owes a debt to 80s synth pop (for some uncanny reason I thought of Howard Jones‘ “It Can Only Get Better“) and more contemporary fare, such as Haerts and St. Lucia.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past couple of years, you will likely be pretty familiar with the Brooklyn-based music and art collective Dead Leaf Echo. The band has a growing national and international profile as they’ve made appearances at SXSW, CMJ, NXNE, Northside Festival and the Beautiful Noise Festival, toured with and/or played one off shows with The Wedding Present, A Place to Bury Strangers, . . . And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, The Psychedelic Furs, Chapterhouse, Ulrich Schnauss, Weekend, Lorelei, The Ocean Blue, The Warlocks, Beach Fossils, and The Telescopes. They’ve had a number of singles top CMJ’s Top 20 Indie charts and have appeared on renowned indie station KEXP‘s John in the Morning twice, and on Nic Harcourt’s KCSN show. 

Their 4AD Records-inspired full-length debut Thought and Language, a concept album that followed a child from his conception, through birth until he grasps thought and language was released to critical praise across the blogosphere. The follow-up to their debut full-length, true.deep.sleeper was produced by Monte Vallier, who’s best known for his work with Weekend and Wax Idols was released last year.

Currently, the members of Dead Leaf Echo are in the studio working on their sophomore full-length effort, with Vallier taking up production duties. But in the meantime, the band released a 7 inch single last month and made an appearance at the Desert Stars Festival on a bill that included Swervedriver and The Lemonheads. “Lemonheart” is the first single from the 7 inch and the song reveals a subtle change in their songwriting arppaoch as the gorgeously shimmering guitar chords jangle so subtly and are paired with forceful percussion and ethereal vocals floating just above the mix, while still remaining faithful to the shoegaze sound that has captured the attention of the blogosphere.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Introducing The Breezy, Electro Folk Sound of Melbourne, Australia’s Oh, Pep!

Comprised of Olivia ‘Liv’ Hally and Pepita ‘Pep’ Emmerichs, the Melbourne, Australia-based contemporary folk duo Oh, Pep! have quickly amassed quite a bit of success — and they haven’t yet turned 23; they were awarded the Young […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Heather Robb (vocals, keyboard, drums), James Smith (vocals, guitar, bass, drums) and James Cleare (vocals, guitar, bass, drums), The Spring Standards can trace their origins to when they were all teenagers, as they […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Interview: A Q&A with Ward White

If you’ve been recently been frequenting JOVM, you’ve most likely come across a couple of posts on the Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Ward White. White is probably best known for his work as one of half of […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Daniel Paxton (vocals, guitars), Paxton’s brother, Conor (bass, pedal steel guitar), Patrick McHugh (backing vocals, guitar), Jimmy Cullen (backing vocals, keys) and Donagh O’Brien (drums), the Irish quintet of Buffalo Sunn can trace […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Ward White at Rockwood Music Hall 2/10/15

Last night, I was back at Rockwood Music Hall to catch the Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Ward White. White may be best known as one half of the chamber pop duo McGinty and White, which also features […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Ward White is probably best known as one half of the chamber pop duo, McGinty and White, which features former Psychedelic Furs keyboardist and founder of The Loser’s Lounge tribute series, Joe McGinty. Their debut […]