Tag: indie rock

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Slow Hollows Shares Woozy and Anthemic “Soap”

26-year-old Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Austin Feinstein has spent the past decade or so following his own arrow, doggedly reinventing and honing his work across a diverse array of material with Slow Hollows: 2015’s Atelophobia and 2016’s Romantic saw Feinstein and his bandmates exploring the fringes of indie rock, and caught the attention of Frank Ocean, who recruited him to sing the chorus of Blonde track “Self Control.” 2019’s Actors saw the band’s sound further expanding through the incorporation of R&B, dance music and production from Tyler the Creator. (Feinstein has appeared on Tyler the Creator albums since 2016.)

Despite enjoying a breakthrough moment, Feinstein and his bandmates decided the project had run its course, and announced that the band split up. A few years have passed and Slow Hollows returns as Feinstein’s solo recording project with his fourth album, Bullhead. The album reportedly sees Feinstein stripping things back to an element place. There are shades of Neil Young and Elliott Smith at the core the album’s material but the arrangements are lush and reveal an artist afraid to pair big guitar riffs with rich strings, moody synths.

Slated for a March 8, 2024 release through Danger Collective, Bullhead captures the young artist at his most confident and self-assured to date, while marking a new chapter for Feinstein both personally and professionally. “The last album felt like an effort to shed any identity Slow Hollows may have formed with our previous music,” explains Feinstein, “When it comes to Bullhead, making a sonic shift towards the sounds of early Slow Hollows records felt like something I needed to do for myself.”

“Soap,” Bullhead‘s latest single is a woozy yet smolderingly anthemic track built around whirring and jangling guitars, a propulsive rhythm section driven by off-kilter syncopation paired with power chord-driven hooks and hooks and Feinstein’s yearning delivery. “Soap” manages to be a slick synthesis of 2000s indie rock with some old-fashioned craftsmanship.

“I was staying at a friend’s house by myself for a few weeks right before recording this new record,” Feinstein recalls. “I remember feeling like I wanted to write a song that paid homage to the music that excited me as a kid. Most of that was guitar music, and I’ve fallen out of love with guitar lots of times but really wanted to force myself to explore that world again. Around that time I was starting to fall in love with someone so the words came pretty quick. Ultimately, this song is my homage to Modest Mouse.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video/New Audio: JOVM Mainstays METZ Share Two from Highly-Anticipated New Album

Toronto-based JOVM mainstays METZ‘s fifth studio album Up on Gravity Hill is slated for an April 12, 2024 release on Dine Alone Records in Canada and on Sub Pop for the rest of the world. The album, which is the JOVM mainstays’ first album in four years was engineered by Seth Manchester and features guest appearances from Black Mountain‘s Amber Webber and string arrangements by composer Owen Pallett.

Long known for blowing out eardrums with explosively loud songs of joyous rage, the Canadian JOVM mainstays — Alex Edkins (vocals, guitar), Chris Slorach (bass) and Hayden Menzies (drums) — have, over the course of their past couple of albums have begun exploring ways of turning abrasiveness into atmospherics. The evolution of their sound is not only a reflection of the band’s maturity as humans and as musicians, but also a changed world that demands much more nuance and compassion to comprehend and survive. Up On Gravity Hill reportedly finds the band continuing to bend the raw power of rock music to its most delicate, intricate ends. The album’s material may arguably be their deepest, detailed and unyieldingly personal batch of songs — and their most beautiful to date.

To spotlight this evolution in their sound and approach, the Toronto-based outfit has shared two contrasting singles:

“99,” a stomping and noisy motorik chug of a song built around their long-held penchant for shout along worthy, mosh pit friendly hooks choruses that sounds subtly informed by Edkins’ work with Noble Rot. Directed by John Smith, the accompanying video features the members of the trio performing the song in hazy and scorching VHS fuzz and computer generated 3D renderings. The single and its accompanying video are incisive commentary and criticism on our consumerist hellscape.

“Entwined (Street Light Buzz)” is a woozy and swooning song that sees the trio retaining their penchant for power chord-driven, enormous, shout along friendly hooks and choruses with a gorgeous and meditative shoegazer-like bridge.

“These two songs couldn’t be more stylistically and thematically dissimilar,” METZ’s Alex Edkins says. “‘Entwined (Street Light Buzz)’ is a song about the deep connection humans can foster with one another and how we carry people with us forever, even after death. ‘99’ is about the scourge of corporate greed and bottom-line thinking that runs rampant in modern society. Anything for a buck is the message being sent to younger generations.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ Shadow Sides Shares Brooding “No Going Home”

Citing Elliott Smith, The Cure, and Slowdive as major influences, Los Angeles-based indie outfit Shadow Sides — William Thad, John Elliott and Aaron Montes — have crafted a sound and approach that blends intimate songwriting with dreamy sheogazer-like atmospherics and 80s post-punk-inspired riffs. While rooted in an undeniably pop sensibility, the trio’s work explores existential themes, which gives the material a distinctly modern feel.

Shadow Sides’ full-length debut, Dissolve the Frame will feature brooding album single “No Going Home.” Built around a propulsive and angular bass line, jangling and reverb drenched, arpeggiated guitars, eerily swirling atmospherics and big hooks and choruses, “No Going Home” reminds me quite a bit of Starfish-era The Church and fellow Angelinos Blackout Transmission.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Seattle’s Weep Wave Returns with Grunge-like “Phasing”

Seattle-based post-punk outfit Weep Wave released their full-length debut, 2019’s S.A.D.to critical praise from KEXP, Seattle Music Insider, Raised by Cassettes and Dan’s Tunes among others.

In the five years since S.A.D.’s release, the band has been rather busy: They’ve gone through a lineup change, which has resulted in their current lineup: Dylan Fuentes (vocals, guitar), Mike Hubbard (drums, synth) and Mitch Midkiff (bass). They’ve released an EP and a handful of singles, one which was featured as KEXP’s Song of the Day that have gradually revealed an evolving and decided change in sonic direction. The band has shared stages with a handful of acclaimed and renowned acts including JOVM mainstays Los Bitchos, Blackwater Holylight, Gustaf, The Bobby Lees, Godcaster, Habibi, Reignwolf and Spirit Mother among others.

They’ve also made the rounds of the local and regional festival circuit, playing sets at Treefort Music Festival, Capitol Hill Block Party, South Sound Block Party and Off Beat Music Fest. And they’ve done multiple tours up and down the West Coast — and have played a few times here in NYC.

Slated for an April 5, 2024 release through Corporat Records, the Seattle-basd outfit’s 11-song Dylan Wall-produced sophomore album Speck was recorded at Seattle’s 7 Hills Studios and reportedly sees the trio embarking on a kaleidoscopic sonic odyssey through the diverse array of genres they proudly call home. Thematically Fuentes’ lyrics oscillate between two contrasting realms: outward to explore the effects of the perils of capitalism and climate change — and inward, to scrutinize the self, in particular dissecting the ego and self-identity. 

Last month, I wrote about the Low Praise-meets-grunge-like “Rebirth Mantra,” a song built around a pummeling, most pit friendly riff, thunderous drumming and a supple yet propulsive bass line within a classic, alternating loud-quiet-loud song structure that captures Fuentes at his most introspective and neurotic, with the song’s narrator expressing his fears of feeling into the same unhelpful — and perhaps even destructive — patterns that always lead to repeated failure and frustration. The song’s narrator envisions a transformed, evolved version of himself, a much more caring, courageous and empathetic self. Of course, are we able and willing to change and evolve? Or are we too stubborn, too blind to do what’s necessary to better ourselves?”

Speck‘s latest single “Phasing” is a decidedly grunge-like ripper built around the sort of feedback fueled, power chord-driven riffs reminiscent of 90s alt rock greats like Nirvana, Mudhoney, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, complete with enormous, arena rock-meets-mosh pit-like hooks and choruses.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay MAGON Shares Meditative and Introspective “Breakthrough Blitz”

I’ve managed to spill a copious amount of virtual ink covering the remarkably prolific, Israeli-born singer/songwriter, musician and JOVM mainstay MAGON. After the release of his fifth album, 2022’s A Night in Bethlehem, the Israeli-born artist, along with his partner relocated to Costa Rica, where he continued his ongoing prolific period with three more albums, 2022’s Enter By The Narrow Gate, last year’s Did You Hear the Kids? and Chasing Dreams.

Chasing Dreams saw the JOVM mainstay collaborating with local indie rock outfit Las Robertas, who acted as his backing band for the recording sessions. Sonically, the album continued a slow-burn expansion of his sound with the incorporation of string arrangements, which add a lush and dreamily cinematic quality to the material.

The JOVM mainstay begins 2024 with the announcement of his eighth album The Writing’s On The Wall. The album’s first single “Breakthrough Blitz,” pairs MAGON’s laconic, easy-going delivery with a simple yet propulsive backbeat, glistening keys, and a bluesy, Keith Richards-like guitar riff with a big hook. Thematically, the song touches upon the freedom and connection found in simple, everyday moments with the sort of contented sigh that can only comes from someone, who has lived a full and messy-life — and understands that he is truly very lucky.

Shot in the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, the video stars MAGON and his family — and features the JOVM as a sort of magical taxi driver, who picks up a woman and her young kids (the JOVM mainstay’s partner and two kids) on a dreamy and slow-burning trip through the verdant green, golden yellows and mountainous Mexican countryside.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Ginger AF Share Furious Protest Anthem “Femininity”

Formed back in 2018, Florida-based duo Ginger AF — multi-instrumentalist Kristen Cannell and Jerry Black — specialize in guitar-driven indie rock paired with an undercurrent of dystopian and existential themes, seemingly inspired by the dystopian hellscape we’re currently living in.

Their latest single “Femininity” is a hook-driven, mosh pit friendly ripper that sonically — to my ears, at least — seems to be indebted to 90s grunge and the Riot Grrl movement and rooted in righteous, feminist protest against a shitty and exploitive system and society. With “Femininity,” Cannell and Black have written a protest anthem against the growing way of draconian reproductive bills and laws across the country that make it impossible for medical providers to provide the healthcare that woman need — and endanger women in critical need.

Across significant portions of the country, there have been at least 64,000 rape-related pregnancies with no legal access to healthcare. That number is outrageous and absurd. And as result, the Florida duo’s single has a palpable and forceful urgency. It’s also a reminder that as voters, we must not lose sight of the fact that the world is complicated, and we’re going to have to make difficult and unsettling compromises for our loved ones’ well-being and safety.

The accompanying video begins with a newspaper featuring a headlines that read “Roe v. Wade Is Overturned,” “Overturning Roe Is An Insult to Women” and “Abortion Bans Will Result in More Women Dying” with the duo performing where the photos would normally be. The newspapers fade to the background — but important headlines pop up right behind the duo as they perform the song in a varying settings.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Donna Blue Shares Swooning “Aphrodite”

With the release of 2017’s self-titled debut EP, which featured  “Sunset Blvd,” a track that received airplay on Elton John’s Apple Music radio show Rocket Hour, acclaimed indie duo Donna Blue — romantic couple and musical collaborators Danique van Kesteren and Bart van Dalen — quickly established a dreamy and cinematic sound that seemed influenced by Phil Spector Wall of Sound-like pop, Pasty Cline, yè yè and David Lynch‘s Twin Peaks.

2020’s self-produced and self-recorded, five-song EP Inbetween EP saw the duo continuing upon the sound that won them attention nationally and internationally — while also seemingly drawing from Roy Orbison, Julee Cruise, Nancy Sinatra, Patsy Cline and so on. For me, it’s an effort that evokes very specific memories: wandering Amsterdam in varying degrees of inebriation, passing fellow drunk revelers shouting and dancing; scantily Red Light District prostitutes dancing to American pop, summoning customers with a wry smiles and knowing winks; and walking through Frankfurt-am-Main’s Haupwatche and Romer Districts longing for a face like mine in the crowd.

The duo’s full-length debut, 2022’s Dark Roses featured 11 dreamy, film noir-like cinematic tracks that saw the acclaimed duo taking up a decidedly twangy, Western sound inspired by Ennio Morricone, Piero Piccioni and John Barry paired with dreamily sensual vocals. 

The duo’s sophomore full-length album, Into The Realm of Love is slated for a March 8, 2024 release through their longtime label home, Snowstar Records. The album’s latest single “Aphrodite” is a swooning and twangy, film-noir-like bit of pop that seemingly channels Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, and more, full of sweet and charmingly old-timey declarations of love and devotion.

“Continuing along the classic storytelling lineage from the likes of well-known 1960’s duos Nancy & Lee, Serge & Jane, and Ramses & Liesbeth, our second single ‘Aphrodite’ is a duet written as a sort of myth,” the duo explain. “An upbeat and refreshing, yet nostalgic tale about a man trying to prove to a woman he is worthy of her love, while she is only interested in what he can do for her.“

Directed and edited by the duo, the accompanying video for “Aphrodite” is shot in a gorgeous black and white, and playfully draws from Greek myths, and films from the 20s-60s.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Berlin-based singer/songwriter, guitarist, photographer and JOVM mainstay Laura Carbone‘s first two albums 2016’s Sirens and 2018’s Empty Sea were released to rapturous critical praise, with both albums drawing comparisons to PJ Harvey, Shana Falana, Chelsea Wolfe, St. Vincent and others. 

Carbone’s highly anticipated third album, The Cycle is slated for an April release. The Cycle is a concept album that explores the emotional turmoil, triumphs and transformative experiences that the album’s protagonist experiences through the course of the passing seasons of a year. Throughout the course of a calendar year, up until the album’s release, Carbone released a new single every season. Each single represents an experience or inspiration associated with that particular season and the story of the album’s protagonist. 

Last year I wrote about album single “Horses,” a slow-burning song built around lush and shimmering acoustic guitar, Carbone’s expressive and yearning delivery, paired with a supple bass line and dramatic drumming. Sonically bringing PJ Harvey’s “You Said Something” to mind, the song is set in the fullness of summer. The song’s protagonist is experiencing the heat, humidity and passion of the season — when fields become gold and heatwaves and wildfires turn them into ash. But there’s a reminder that Mother Earth will restore and reclaim burnt ground in time. 

The Cycle‘s final single “The Good” is slow-burning and breathtakingly gorgeous song featuring shimmering and reverb soaked guitar, a supple and sinuous bass line, gently padded drumming and bursts of soaring organ serving as a lush bed for Carbone’s expressive vocal. At its core, the song is rooted in the lived-in personal experience and hard-fought, harder-won wisdom of someone who has lived a full, messy and complicated life. And a result the song is profoundly empathetic and understanding examination of human behavior that seems to say “I’ve been there, too.”

Carbone explains that the track looks at our puzzling capacity for denial — not just of the truth, but of the embrace and love we owe ourselves.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: TEKE::TEKE and Mirah Tackle The Clash For The Clash Tribute Album “Hearts & Minds & Crooked Beats”

As of last September, more than 114 million people globally have been forced to flee their homes as a result of conflict persecution and human rights violations. By the end of this year, that number is expected to reach 130 million people across the globe. Benefiting the International Rescue Committee (https://www.rescue.org) and their work with refugees, The Clash compilation tribute album Hearts & Minds & Crooked Beats invites artists, bands and visual artists to create work inspired by the legendary punk band The Clash — and to celebrate their music and human rights messages.

Slated for digital and vinyl release on International Clash Day, February 7, 2024, Hearts & Minds & Crooked Beats was mastered by Ted Jensen, known for his work with The Rolling Stones, Green Day, Norah Jones, Madonna, Alice In Chains and a lengthy list of others, the album will feature contributions from The Dandy Warhols, Smokey Brights, Seán Barna, Warren Dunes‘ Julia Massey, The Gotobeds, Big League, Labasheeda, The Rust & The Fury, acclaimed Montréal-based JOVM mainstays TEKE :: TEKE and Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Mirah. (Track listing is available below.)

Hearts & Minds & Crooked Beats Tracklist
1. The Dandy Warhols – Straight To Hell 
2. TEKE::TEKE – Bankrobber
3. Mirah – I’m Not Down
4. The Rust and The Fury – Guns of Brixton
5. Labasheeda – Deny 
6. Smokey Brights – Train In Vain (Stand By Me
7. Seán Barna – Hitsville U.K.
8. The Gotobeds – I’m So Bored with the USA
9. Julia Massey (Warren Dunes) – Rock The Casbah
10. Big League – Lost In The Supermarket
 

International Clash Day was established back in 2013 by KEXP DJ John Richards. The holiday marks a global, annual celebration of The Clash’s influential and important message and legacy. To celebrate the 11th International Clash Day, KEXP DJs Kevin Cole and Kid Hops will transition the station’s all-day International Clash Day programming on-air to the Gathering Space for International Clash Day Live, where Smokey Brights will play a live set of Clash covers and originals. Tickets and more information are available here. 

Mirah, Seán Barna and TEKE: TEKE will play a special album release show on February 2, 2024 at Brooklyn Made. Tickets and more information are available here.

Proceeds from album sales will go to the International Rescue Committee’s global fund, supporting their vital work in responding to humanitarian crises and helping impacted individuals rebuild their lives.

Today Mirah and TEKE:: TEKE shared their contributions to Hearts & Minds & Crooked Beats.

TEKE:: TEKE’s “Bankrobber” is a restrained mind-bending interpretation that’s part Spaghetti Western and partially inspired by a sound and approach that was developing in Japan during the 70s, n parallel to the UK’s punk scene with avant-garde outfits like Tokyo Kid Brothers and JA Seazer, which inspired them to sing the bulk of the song’s lyrics in Japanese. The result is something that’s familiar but somewhat alien, yet still deeply human and universal.

TEKE :: TEKE’s Maya Kuroki felt an immediate connection to “Bankrobber,” upon hearing the same words that her late father used to jokingly say “someday I’ll become a bank robber.” She wanted to represent the meaning of the lyrics as the voice of the “community” striving to counter the increasingly widening wealth gap. I envision a modern day Robin Hood, stealing from rich, greedy capitalists and giving their ill-gotten gains to the poor and needy.

The band’s Sei Nakauchi Pelletier adds, “‘Bankrobber’ was the first ever song I heard from The Clash, it was on a compilation tape a dear friend of mine had made for me in my early 20’s. The Clash went on to become one of my favorite and most-inspiring rock bands of all-time, way beyond their musical genius but also for their political stances and DIY approach.” Pelletier’s dear friend, Malcolm Baud, was enlisted to take part on the TEKE:: TEKE cover singing verses in English — a profound collaboration and full circle moment.

Brooklyn-based artist’s Mirah recruited Erica Freas and Karl Blau for a slow-burning, sultry yet deeply sweet take on “I’m Not Down” that maintains the original’s guitar-driven heart and kookiness while seemingly drawing from The Shangri-Las. “One of the best things about being asked to work on a project like this is the opportunity it gave me to play a bunch of Clash albums all at once and to pay close attention as I was listening,” the Brooklyn-based artist explains. “I wanted to pick one that felt right for my voice, with words which reflected something about me and my own experiences. Like a lot of people, I began having some run-ins with anxiety and depression during the pandemic. I wasn’t playing shows or making much music and I was spending nearly every waking hour with a tiny person who I’d given birth to 15 months before the pandemic started. ‘I’m Not Down’ was written as a sort of F you to hard times and depression, and that felt, and feels, pretty relevant.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Corridor Shares a Shimmering Rumination on Mortality

Mimi, Corridor‘s long-awaited and highly-anticipated fourth album is slated for an April 26, 2024 release on CD, LP and DSP globally through Sub Pop and across Canada through Bonsound.

The 8-song album, which was co-produced by the band and Joojoo Ashworth and recorded at Montréal-based Studio Gamma and mastered by Brooklyn’s Heba Kadry Mastering, derives its name from Jonathan Robert’s cat and features — presumably — Mimi’s face on the album artwork. Thematically, the album as the band explains is about “getting older” and “figuring out new parts of life,” inspired and informed by the type of personal changes that accompany the passage of time. And while the album’s material reflects a newfound and perhaps hard-won contemplative maturity, sonically, Mimi is reportedly a huge step forward with the band expanding on the sound of 2019’s critically applauded Junior with ever more richly detailed music rooted in a distinct rhythm pulse that recalls post-punk’s own classic era of meshing dance and rock textures.

For the acclaimed Montréalers and their fans, Mimi will feel like a fresh break — even for a band that has established themselves as being forward-thinking. Much like its predecessor, Mimi sees Corridor being impossible to pin down from song to song; however, whereas the elastic guitar rock of Junior came together quickly — or as the band’s Jonathan Robert describes the process ” in a rush” — then the steady-as-they-go creative pace of Mimi marked a desire to break from the “exhausting” work ethic that birthed Junior.

“The goal was to work differently, which is the goal we have every time we work on a new album—to build something in a new way,” Robert explains. “This time, we took our time.” During the summer of 2020, the members of the band — Jonathan Robert (vocals, guitar), Dominic Berthiaume (vocals, bass), Julien Bakvis (drums) and multi-instrumentalist Samuel Gougoux — holed away in a cottage to engage in the sort of creative experimentation that would lead to Mimi‘s material. “We went there to write, and a lot of ideas came from that retreat,” Berthiaume explains. “We didn’t end up with songs as much as we did ideas, so the result is a collage of the ideas.”

After that productive writing retreat, the band continued to tinker with the songs’ raw parts digitally and remotely over the next few years with co-producer Joojoo Ashworth leading their own specific talents in the theoretical booth. This process was naturally a byproduct of not having access to their rehearsal space as the COVID-19 pandemic faded into public view, but it was also a result of the band leaning header into incorporating electronic textures than previously.

 “For a long time, we identified as a guitar-oriented band, and the goal of making this whole record was trying to get away from that,” Berthiaume says, but while admitting that the band encountered their own challenges as a result: “We had to figure out how to make new songs without having the chance to play together. It was complicated sometimes.”

Some of the album’s new energy and life may be owed to Samuel Gougoux joining the band full-time, after pitching in on live performances in the past. “I come more from a background of electronic music, so it was nice to involve that with the band more,” he explains.

Mimi‘s first single “Mourir Demain” is built around brightly shimming and chiming guitars and soaring synths and post-punk like angular rhythms serving as lush, velvety and somewhat uneasy bed for Robert’s plaintive delivery ruminating on his looming mortality with a brutally, unvarnished yet very fearful realism. “I wrote it when my girlfriend and I were shopping for life insurance,” Corridor’s Robert says with a laugh. “With our little daughter growing up, we also considered making our will. I said to myself, ‘Oh shit, from now on I’m slowly starting to plan my death.”
 

Directed by Paul Jacobs, the accompanying video for “Mourir Demain,” features hand-drawn and animated images of death and despair that’s simultaneously beautiful and unsettling.