Tag: indie rock

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: WIND MILE Performs “Alone” in Berlin

 Berlin-based singer/songwriter, musician and photographer Antonin Côme is the creative mastermind behind the emerging indie rock project WIND MILE. Music allows the emerging Berlin-based artist to shut down the scientific/logical mind and follow his instincts.

Côme’s debut EP was written during a rather liminal period of his life: between Germany and France, and between his time as a student and adulthood. The EP’s material is rooted in the ambition to craft a coherent batch of songs that the listener can dive into repeatedly — built around guitar arpeggios, glistening synths and propulsive bass lines paired with dreamily delivered vocals.

The EP’s latest single, the dreamy ”Alone” is built around glistening guitar arpeggios, twinkling synths, the Berlin-based artist’s dreamy and plaintive delivery and enormous hooks. While sounding indebted to 80s pop, “Alone” is rooted in a lived-in earnestness — and is inspired by personal experience: The one was written between two different conversations with his six new roommates, who were — thankfully for him — becoming his friends. And as a result, the song is an ode to socializing and meeting new friends while reflecting his own need to be surrounded by people.

Recently, the emerging Berlin-based artist shared live footage of him and his backing band performing “Alone” in a gorgeous, sun-filled conference room with 50s-styled chandeliers. The live footage captures a group of young artists, who have developed an unmistakable simpatico.

“This live session came with the wish to capture a performance of us all together, firstly as a memory of the times we are spending creating something that belongs to us only,” Côme explains. “We are proud of it and wanted to be able to watch it when older.

“Additionally, we see it as a display of our craft and aesthetic ideas behind our music. We found this amazing location, the forum of an art school in Berlin, and managed to fully convince its owner after he attended one of our concerts. Restored in 2011, the design is from the 50’s, and the amazing wood walls and exceptionally high ceilings are a true gem and perfect complement our music that wishes to be polished, shiny, yet granular, spacious and soft. Finally, the warm and low-contrasty color palette of the place is fitting our sound ideas : we like to see it as an additional instrument for this session.

Accompanying us are five amazing friends that gathered forces to help us create this session, which made us quite emotional. Everyone in the band contributed to something they were the best at and seeing this synergy that was similar to the one we feel on stage was purely heartwarming. Not many of us actually come from art schools, and having the possibility to take part of a project like this one was a blessing and something we’ve secretly wished for a long time.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Zilched Shares Shoegazey and Anthemic “Earthly Delights”

23 year-old, Detroit-based singer/songwriter Chloe Drallos is the creative mastermind behind the rising pop recording project Zilched. Started back in 2017, Drallos exploded into the national scene with her full-length debut, 2020’s DOOMPOP, an effort, which saw the Detroit-based artist quickly establishing an eclectic, genre-defying take on pop. 

Drallos’ highly-anticipated sophomore album, the Ian Ruhala and Ben Collins co-produced Earthly Delights is slated for release next Friday through Young Heavy Souls. Earthly Delights is reportedly a testament to the maturation of her uncompromising creative vision that sees the Detroit-based artist adding elements of grunge to her gothic pop-tinged take on art rock. Lyrically, the material is a dazzling display of poetic lyricism that sees Drallos weaving an intricate tapestry of Romantic imagery, metaphor and religious allegory among other things, that manages to soften the blow of her brutal, unflinching honesty. Thematically, the album explores the purgatorial nature of bargaining with an indecisive lover and simultaneously with oneself.

Last month, I wrote about album single “Loveless,” a song that oscillates between shimmering and yearning Kate Bush-like verses and cathartic, rousingly anthemic choruses as the song’s narrator speaks of something that’s fairly universal: the frustration and annoyance of a lover that’s been withholding and indecisive. The song ends with its narrator essentially saying “make up your mind or I’ll make it up for you.” While “Loveless” is a display of slick and seemingly effortless craft, the song feels rooted in bitter, deeply lived-in experience.

“The song is like a conversation between lovers. Contemplating the purgatorial roller coaster that exists between freedom and unity,” Drallos says. 

Earthly Delights‘ third and latest single, album title track “Earthly Delights” derives its name after the Northern Renaissance triptych by Hieronymus Bosch. Built around buzzing guitars and synths, thunderous drumming, layers of vocal harmonies paired with rousing anthemic hooks, the shoegazey “Earthly Delights” is a redemptive narrative that takes place in three perspectival realms — and on in which Drallos finds celebration amidst seclusion and suffering.

“‘Earthly Delights’ is about reclaiming your sacred space in romance and realizing the space you’re sharing feels very wrong. When Eden feels like purgatory.” Drallos continues, “I was fed up with loneliness but didn’t want my solitude taken. I felt as though I needed to reclaim what I deem sacred.”

Fittingly, a song that reminds me so much of 120 Minutes era MTV alt rock, has a hazy, kaleidoscopic, 120 Minutes-like visual.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: King Tuff Shares Quirky and Breezy “Symphony Of A Man”

Brattleboro-born singer/songwriter and musician Kyle Thomas is the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed indie rock recording project King Tuff. Thomas’ sixth King Tuff album, the SASAMI co-written and co-produced Smalltown Stardust was released earlier this year to critical praise from the likes of The AV Club and Stereogum.

The album is “an album about love and nature and youth,” Thomas explains. The Brattleboro-born artist takes the listener with him on a journey to a place where past and present collide, where he can be a dreamer in love with all that he sees. Images of his youth abound. And as a result, it’s a spiritual, tender and joyous album that might shock and surprise those with only a passing knowledge of his back catalog.

Thomas will be releasing Smalltown Stardust (deluxe dust) on all DSPs on August 18, 2023. The expanded digital-only version of Smalltown Stardust will include the album’s original 11 songs, one previously unreleased song and four different studio version of songs from the album. “For the deluxe version of Smalltown Stardust, I’ve done some digging and found a few alternate versions of songs from the record,” Thomas says. “I often try songs in different ways before I land on the final versions, and these tracks are a good representation of that! Some of these songs were kicking around for years before they finally fell into place. I wrote ‘The Wheel’ all the way back in 2005! Sometimes they just need to stew I suppose. These versions are mid-stew but I think they still taste pretty good!”

To commemorate the upcoming release of Smalltown Stardust (deluxe dust), Thomas and Sub Pop Records shared “Symphony Of A Man,” a previously unreleased single that appears on the deluxe edition. Built around what sounds like glistening Rhodes, a supple and sturdy bass line, swaggering boom bap-like drumming, mischievous bursts of mellotron or crumhorn “Symphony Of A Man” is a quirky song that sounds like it would be perfect in a Wes Anderson film — but while displaying Thomas and SASAMI’s penchant for incredibly catchy hooks.

“This is the first song Sasami and I wrote when we first started working on the record, about a mysterious, reclusive musician who I won’t name (Chris Weisman),” Thomas explains. “It was half finished and abandoned pretty early on, but I like it just the way it is! Note the crumhorn solo in the outro.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstays Death Valley Girls Share Ecstatic “I Am a Wave”

For the better part of the past decade, Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstays Death Valley Girls — currently Bonnie Bloomgarden (vocals, guitar, Wurlitzer, organ), Rikki Styxx (drums), Larry Schemel (guitar) and Sammy Westervelt (vocals, guitar) — have used their music as a means of tapping into a communal cosmic energy. 2016’s Glow in The Dark, 2018’s Darkness Rains and 2020’s Under the Spell of Joy saw the band openly challenging the soul-crushing banality of modern society and celebrating “true magical infinite potential” through scorching proto-punk influenced riffage, earworm melodies, trippy lyrics and lysergic auxiliary instrumentation.

Released earlier this year, through their longtime label home Suicide Squeeze Records, Death Valley Girls’ latest album Islands in the Sky sees the band’s primary songwriter Bonnie Bloomgarden turning inward and using the band’s anthemic revelries as a guidebook to spiritual healing — and a roadmap for future incarnations of the self.

Islands in the Sky‘s material can trace its origins back to when Bloomgarden was bedridden with a mysterious illness from November 2021 to March 2022. “When I was sick I had to sleep most of the day,” Bloomgarden recalls. “I kept waking up every few hours with an intense message to take care of the island, feed the island…I have no idea why, but making music for the island kept coming up.”

Before her illness, Bloomgarden’s primary focus was writing songs to help others deal with their own suffering. But something within her shifted, and she began to turn her focus inward. “When I was sick I started to wonder if it would be possible to write a record with messages of love to my future self. This was really the first time that I consciously thought about my own suffering and what future me might need to hear to heal,” says Bloomgarden. “I struggled so much in my life with mental health, abuse, PTSD, and feeling like I didn’t belong anywhere. And I don’t want anyone—including my future self—to suffer ever again. I realized that if we are all part of one cosmic consciousness, as we [Death Valley Girls] believe, then Islands in the Sky could serve not only as a message of love and acceptance to myself, but also from every self to every self, because we are all one!”

The bulk of the album was channeled into being when Bloomgarden and Styxx went out to a cabin in the California woods on New Year’s Day 2022 to hunker down and write. Schemel and the band’s newest member Westverlt joined the band at Station House Studio to further flesh out the material. And while being some of the most ambitious aims for the band to date, the material may arguably be among their most raucous, danceable, and celebrato

The JOVM mainstays have ensured that 2023 has been a busy year. They’ve been touring to support the new album, and they recently released a standalone single, “I Am a Wave,” the first bit of new material since Islands in The Sky‘s release. Building off the sound and approach they developed on Islands in the Sky, “I Am a Wave” sees them adding elements of prog, shoegaze, pop and psych rock to their sonic palette to create something warmly familiar yet very different.

The song sees Bloomgarden’s earnest and soaring vocals pushing up against layers of reverb-soaked guitar jangle, propulsive and cascading drums and a supple bass line. Schemel also contributes a scorching solo before ending with a fervent and ecstatic coda. The song was written to evoke the sensation of a wave that crests and crashes out of the speakers — or your headphones.

“This song is for anyone that has had a hard time making decisions or following their gut!,” Death Valley Girls’ Bonnie Bloomgarden explains.

“I linger in indecision, and get stuck in the muck of options, weighing every single dynamic except ‘how does this make me feel.’ Sometimes it’s from fear of imperfection, but always it’s from self-doubt, not trusting my instinct, or letting my intuition be my guide. 

“I’ve learned a lot from spiritual people lately,” Bloomgarden continues. “Pagans and witches, calling in the elements. I imagine it’s similar to asking Jesus, a saint, an ancestor, to help for guidance. 

For me this song is like a meditation, or a prayer. To become a wave. To not want to turn in, quit, and become small or unseen, but to flow, and grow. Become part of the flow!!”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Shane Ghostkeeper Shares a Loving Classic Rock-Inspired Tribute to His Late Uncle

Acclaimed Calgary-based singer/songwriter and musician Shane Ghostkeeper is best known for his namesake band Ghostkeeper, an act that combines elements of 60s girl-group melodies, country music, 90s indie rock, African pop and traditional indigenous pow wow music, and has developed a reputation for crafting some of the more thrilling and interesting music to emerge from Alberta over the past 15 years or so.

Ghostkeeper stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with the recent release of his full-length debut, Songs For My People. Songs For My People is a deeply reverential tribute to the music he absorbed while growing up in the Northern Alberta Métis communities of Paddle Prairie, High Level and Rocky Lane. The acclaimed Canadian artist recruited a close-knit crew of collaborators to help bring his songs to life:

He recruited longtime producer Lorrie Matheson, who has been a part of the Ghostkeeper world from the beginning, working on the band’s 2008 debut And The Children of the Great Northern Muskeg through last year’s Multidimensional Culture. His Ghostkeeper bandmates — JOYFULTALK‘s Eric Hamelin (drums), Chad VanGaalen‘s Ryan Bourne (bass) and Surf Kitties‘ Wayne Garrett (guitar, pedal steel) — are his backing band, and as Ghostkeeper says “their expertise and wide-ranging artistic sensibilities helped elevate this album form what could have been a simple tribute project to another fully-formed entry in our body of work.”

Songs For My People‘s latest single “Sunbeam” is a jammy, joyful and deeply loving synthesis of elements of The Band, 60s psych rock and Creedence Clearwater Revival. “Sunbeam” is a mischievously anachronistic tune that sonically wouldn’t sound out of place in your dad’s or uncle’s classic rock record collection, but while being remarkably modern. The result is as song that sounds a bit like the soundtrack for one of the greatest, weirdest adventures ever known — life.

Ghostkeeper explains that “Sunbeam” was written for his late Uncle Tucker, and the family he left behind. “I was unable to attend his funeral, so I wrote this to express my condolences and support for my Aunty Lorraine and my cousins.

“Tucker was a huge force in the Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement community and beyond, and he was a fiercely dedicated father and husband,” Ghostkeeper continues. “This song started as an acoustic lament and then morphed into a classic rock-style tune once the band and I hit the studio. This was not my intent. However, my Uncle Tucker’s spirit stepped in and said let’s make this a rocker. I have awesome childhood memories of his love for classic rock; Led Zeppelin, T-Rex, and CCR. I will forever appreciate his influence on me.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Linka Moja Shares Soulful and Anthemic “Othersider”

Lake Tahoe, CA-born singer/songwriter and musician Linka Moja (pronounced Moya) can trace the origins of her music career to her childhood: From a young age, Moya found solace and self-expression in music, using her lyrics and melodies to navigate the challenges of the world around her. Her work explores and touches upon themes of resilience, love and the complexities of the human experience. Her love of outdoor activities shaped her unique perspective on life — and infused her music with a raw, lived-in authenticity.

The Lake Tahoe-born artist attended Kelly Slater’s surf camp, where she had a serendipitous encounter with Eddie Vedder and Jack Johnson. Moja found herself faced with a moment of truth. Unprompted, and with passion and determination, she stepped forward, picked up her guitar and began playing her original songs.

Her passionate performance caught Eddie Vedder’s attention and left an indelible mark on everyone present. The Pearl Jam frontman was so impressed by Moja that he offered her a slot to play at that year’s Ohana Festival. The invitation not only validated her courage and musical prowess, but it also opened quite a few doors for her.

Inspired by Vedder’s belief and encouragement, the Lake Tahoe-born artist wasted no time in channeling her passion into her music and in a whirlwind of creativity, she recorded a live EP Cough Drops in just a few days. The album showcased her distinctive blend of introspective lyrics, emotive vocals and original guitar and bass arrangements, informed by the angst and unease of being a teenager.

Shortly after, she then jumped back into the studio with Oscar Niedhart to work on her full-length debut, Serial Monogamist, which is slated to for release later this summer. But in the meantime, Moja shares EP single “Othersider,” a seamless synthesis of 90s grunge and neo-soul built around the Lake Tahoe-born artist’s sultry powerhouse delivery, fuzzy power chords and some rousingly anthemic hooks.”

Ultimately, what “Othersider” reveals is a superstar in the making — with seemingly effortless talent.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Phoenix’s Louis on Tour Shares a Towering Ripper

Phoenix-based indie outfit Louis on Tour — currently founding members Nick Kahlor (guitar) and Jesse Martinez (guitar) with Sam Green (drums), Tyler Stumpy Beck (bass) and Shana Backman (vocals) — can trace their origins back to 2018: The band’s founding duo Kahlor and Martinez started Louis on Tour after their high school band split up. Through countless auditions and hard work, the duo found and recruited Green and Stumpy Beck. And some after a couple of years, Backman joined the band in 2021.

Their debut EP, last year’s It’s Pronounced /Lou•ee saw the Phoenix-based quintet quickly establishing a high-energy sound with dueling guitar, power house vocals and tight grooves. Since the release of their debut EP, the members of Louis on Tour have been busy writing and recording material for their full-length debut, Don’t Hit Kids.

But in the meantime . . . The Phoenix-based quintet’s latest single “Shaman Mama” is built with enormous grunge-inspired power chords and dexterous guitar work and thunderous drumming paired with Backman’s powerhouse Hayley Williams-like vocal, rousingly anthemic hooks — and fittingly a trippy, shamanic like bridge. Sonically, the song sees the band seamlessly meshing elements of metal, emo, punk and grunge in a way that feels familiar yet very new.

The band explains that the song was inspired by a story that a therapist told them about her work and one of her patients. The patient had gone through something terrible, and the therapist, claiming to be a shaman, offered the patient a journey into the spiritual realm, so that they could collect a missing piece of the patient. “The song is an interpretation of what we think that journey was like,” the band says.

“The most fun and challenging song for me to write was ‘Shaman Mama,’ just because we came up with the song name and the sound of the song before we came up with the concept,” the band’s Shana Backman adds. “When it made for an epic story about a shaman, I knew nothing about shamanism. So, I definitely spent a lot of time immersing myself and deep diving into that so that I served it some justice that kind of made for an epic journey.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Sydney Cruse is a Mandeville, LA-born, New Orleans-based singer/songwriter and musician, who has spent her entire life singing and performing — and can trace her songwriting back to when she was eight.

Cruse’s latest single “Lost My Head” is a decidedly 120 Minutes MTV-era alt rock-like anthem built around fuzzy power chords, an enormous, shout-along worthy hooks paired with the Louisiana-born and-based soulful, riot grrl-like delivery. But at its core is deeply lived-in lyricism informed by real life experience.

Inspired by Soundgarden‘s “The Day I Tried To Live,” the song tells the story of an ex-lover starting from the day the narrator and ex met through their entire relationship and breakup. The song concludes with the narrator running into their ex about a year later, and realizing that they were a fool for being with such a shitty person. We’ve all been there at some point in our lives.

“Lost My Head” is the title track of Cruse’s forthcoming full-length debut, Lost My Head slated for a September 1, 2023 release.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Raleigh–Durham-based indie outfit Booster Club features a collection of grizzled North Carolina scene vets: Steven Bailey (vocals, guitar), who has had stints with Indiobravo, The Jaded Rakes, Paloma and Waxing Myrna; Alan Levine (bass), who has played with Bob Funck Band, Coytah, and Indiobravo; and Joey Zielazinski (drums), who had had stints with Secretary Pool and The Softeners.

Formed back in 2021, the self-described “college rock revival” band specializes in a sound that’s clearly indebted to The Replacements, Pixies, Hüsker Dü and the like — and yet the material, which they deliver with an authentic fervor, “fueled by death anxiety and caffeine,” manages to stand on its own. Despite sharing some common aesthetics with pre-internet college radio artists, the band takes on forward-leaning sensibilities that allows them to veer from anthemic hooks to art-rock chaos — within the same song.

The band presents their music “warts and all” partially due to a lack of audio editing ability but mostly because the band’s Steven Bailey frequently invents parts during sessions.

Earlier this year, I wrote about “Say It Out Loud,” an anthemic, college radio friendly jam built around enormous hooks, fuzzy power chords and heart-proudly-on-sleeve performances from old pros. At its heart, the song is a vital and powerful reminder that craft and earnestness are timeless whether you’re 20., 40 or 60 — and that this music thing is for the young, and the forever young at heart.

“Failure,” the North Carolina-based outfit’s latest single “Failure” continues a run of 120 Minutes-era MTV/college radio-like material built around the band’s penchant for big, catchy hooks but paired with a 12 bars blues-like guitar line, a simple old-timey backbeat and a heartbreakingly earnest vocal delivery. The song evokes a familiar feeling for anyone in a creative field — that nagging sensation of failure that’s always right around the corner.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ The Voxes Shares Funky Party Anthem “Midnight”

Los Angeles-based indie rock outfit The Voxes — Joseph Faundez (vocals), Adrian Jardines (guitar), Brian Lopez (guitar), Alec Pereda (bass) and John Toledo (drums) — formed back in 2013. And since their formation, the Los Angeles-based outfit have developed a sound that draws from 2000s indie rock and 2010s indie pop rock paired with energetic guitar melodies, lush harmonies and introspective lyrics.

Their full-length debut, 2021’s Closer Than Ever showcase the band’s growth as songwriters, with the album’s material featuring anthemic rock songs and introspective ballads.

The band’s follow-up EP is slated for release this summer, and it reportedly sees the Los Angeles-based outfit pushing the boundaries of their sound while staying true to their indie roots. The forthcoming EP’s first single, the Jose Cruz and Evan Lopez-produced “Midnight,” not only serves as a taste of what to expect from the new release; it’s also the first bit of new material from The Voxes since their full-length debut. Built around glistening synths, a sinuous bass line, angular bursts of guitar paired with yearning vocals and the band’s uncanny knack for catchy hooks. At its core, the song captures the sense of joy, good times, and possibility of something extraordinary happening just around midnight while hanging out with your friends. And the song does so while sounding as though it could have been released back in 1984.

“This song came to me out of the blue while sitting at the grand piano,” the band’s Brian Lopez explains. “Despite not being a proficient pianist, the chords flowed naturally. It came alive when John wrote that funky bass line.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Lumoy Shares Shimmering and Breezy “Mi Amore”

Lumoy is an emerging, Sydney-based singer/songwriter, musician, who cites an eclectic array of influences on her work, including house music’s gospel, 70s soul and R&B, Middle Eastern and Gregorian chant, international pop and more. Over the past couple of years, the emerging Aussie artist has been working with Paris-based musician and fashion photographer Steve Wells on her debut EP, Maintenant an effort that sees her drawing from her own varied influences and tastes paired with soulful and bluesy vocals. She also is working on writing meditation music, and seeking other multidisciplinary creative projects.

Late last month, I wrote about “Bet On You,” a bluesy number that struck me as being one-part Pretenders/Chrissie Hynde and one-part Divinyls “I Touch Myself,” with the song being built around a 12 bar blues-like guitar line, a steady backbeat paired with Lumoy’s sultry delivery and a soaring hook. The song evokes an aching, desperate, swooning longing for someone that’s begun to drive you a bit crazy.

The EP’s latest single “Mi Amore” is a hypnotic song built around a motorik-like groove, shimmering guitars, achingly tender harmonies paired with sultry spoken word lyrics and an incredibly catchy hook. But underneath the song’s breezy and sunny vibe, is a heartbreaking story of a deep love between a couple — and the crushing reality that one of them was dying. “The spoken lyrics are conveyed as if to the dying partner expressing deep love, compassion, comfort and support, as they draw their last breath and slip away into the night forever,” the Aussie artist explains.

Maintenant is slated for an August 25, 2023 release.