Tag: indie rock

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.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Drab Majesty Shares Lush Meditation on Time “The Skin and The Glove”

Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist Andrew Clinco, also known for his work drumming in Marriages founded Drab Majesty back in 2011 as a way to create music in which he recorded every instrument himself. For the project, Clinco created the androgynous character Deb Demure. Alex Nicolaou, a.k.a. Mona D (keys, vocals) joined the project in 2016. 

Since signing to Dais Records, the Los Angeles-based duo have released three albums, 2015’s Careless, 2017’s The Demonstration, 2019’s Modern Mirror, which saw the project combining androgynous aesthetics and commanding vocals with futuristic and occult lyrics, to create a style and sound that the band’s Demure refers to as “tragic wave.” 

Drab Majesty’s forthcoming EP, An Object in Motion is slated for an August 25, 2023 release through Dais Records. Clocking in at 32 minutes, the release actually sits somewhere between an EP and a mini-album, and the effort reportedly marks a new chapter in the project’s legacy story: Written during a 2021 retreat to the remote costal Oregon town of Yachats, the band’s Deb Demure leaned into the neo-psychedelic resonance of a uniquely bowl-shaped 12-string Ovation acoustic/electric guitar. After early morning hikes in the rain, Demure would record ambient guitar experiments the rest of the day, tapping into “flow states,” in which he would let the sound lead the way. Those sessions were then refined or recreated and then later elevated with contributions from Slowdive‘s Rachel Goswell, Beck’s, M83‘s and Air’s Justin Meldal-Johnsen, and Uniform’s Ben Greenberg. Fittingly, the EP reportedly holds true to its title, as it captures Demure and Drab Majesty in a transitional state, and evolving while showcasing a series of potential futures from the project. 

Last month, I wrote about An Object in Motion‘s first single “Vanity” featured a very rare guest spot from Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell. Built around shimmering, reverb-drenched 12 string guitar, gated reverb-soaked drum patterns, Demure’s plaintive commanding baritone paired with soaring hooks. Goswell contributes her imitably expressive vocal, which seamlessly intertwines with Demure’s vocal in an uncannily gorgeous harmony. To my ears, sonically, “Vanity” seems like a synthesis of Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne‘s “Close My Eyes Forever,” Sisters of Mercy, Disintegration-era The Cure and Goswell’s work with Slowdive — or in other words, something that will warm the cold hearts of any goth. 

An Object in Motion‘s second and latest single “The Skin and The Glove” is a lush, Smiths-meets-Slowdive/RIDE-like song built around reverb-soaked, shimmering 12 string guitar, a driving groove paired with the Los Angeles-based duo’s uncannily unerring knack for gorgeous harmonies and catchy hooks. But under the lush soundscapes is a song that thematically touches upon the endless march of time, and our inevitable mortality.

Inspired by the song’s lyrics, the accompanying video for “The Skin and The Glove,” was shot primarily on Super 8mm film while the band was on tour, and includes sequences in Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Switzerland, France, Italy, Hungary, Mexico, Vancouver, and Tasmania. Digital video footage was shot in Los Angeles. The duo decided that film was the medium that most accurately reflects the way that memories seem sewn together by fragments of imagery.

The video’s flashing moments in time that seem naturally edited seem naturally edited in some part by simply moving through moments, holding down the trigger and choosing to remember certain aspects of a day, a trip or an extended period of travel. Throughout, there’s the attempt to compress a long passage of time and the effort that goes into playing and touring in a band and to present it as the mind does; a tapestry of reflection and memory that seems stitched together randomly. And with that sort of ephemeral granularity, the potential to misremember — and to mythologize.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sugar Pit Shares Freak Folk Anthem “Why I Come Back Home”

Kian Stevens-Winston is an Illinois born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and creative mastermind behind the emerging indie rock recording recording project Sugar Pit. Stevens-Winston started the project in earnest in his Illinois bedroom back in 2015 with a slurry of singles.

While gaining momentum on Soundcloud, Stevens-Winston moved to Philadelphia, to study sound engineering at Drexel. He found a welcome home in the city’s college house show circuit, and then released his debut EP, 2020’s Defense Mechanism, which saw him quickly establishing his signature freak pop sound that draws from post-punk and garage rock paired with a raw yet eccentric vocal performance.

In 2021, Stevens-Winston relocated to San Francisco, where he began writing and recording his full-length debut while developing his live show. Last year, he relocated again to Los Angeles. And in L.A., he has hit the ground running: After assembling a revamped live quartet, the band played a handful of sold-out shows last November. Earlier this year, the Illinois-born, Los Angeles-based artist shared “Why I Come Back Home.”

Built around twangy and folksy acoustic guitar, fuzzy electric guitar-driven power chords, propulsive drumming and enormous power pop-like hooks and choruses paired with Stevens-Winston’s raw, yearning delivery. The song thematically touches upon a series of familiar struggles — life’s endless transitions, newfound independence and the longing for something constant and familiar in a mad, mad, mad, mad world.

Stevens-Winston explains that the song was written in between two major, life-altering events: a breakup and a solo move across the country. The result is a song swerves between heartbreak, despair and pride within the turn of a phrase — and in a fashion that feels familiar.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Bella Moore is a Los Angeles-based artist, who dreams of an anachronistic world. Growing up around racetracks, casinos, Floridian seas, old Hollywood films and carnivals, she is heavily influenced by memory. Last summer, she met a young boy, who read her palm and told her to pursue music. Shortly after, Moore’s fiancé, Limo’s Ben Howley had her debut on the band’s sophomore album — and from here she began to further experiment.

Because she had a very close relationship with her grandparents, Moore was drawn to the music of Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Rudy Vallée and a variety of singers from the ’30s to the ’50s. Combining that with other eclectic influences like Suicide, Bloodshot Bill and Les Rallizes Dénudés, the Los Angeles-based artist began to write material on her keyboard. Inspired mostly by drums, she can create a song entirely around a selection of carefully chosen waltz-styled drum beats. She then sought the help of Kirk Hellie and Rob Campanella, who helped her produce and mix her work.

Moore’s eerie debut single “Benny Valentine” features her ethereal croon floating across a brooding and uneasy arrangement of distorted and funny guitars, reverb-soaked drums. The song’s narrator describes a mesmerizing meeting with the enigmatic and mysterious Benny Valentine. While there’s a sense of fascination, the song also evokes deeper complexities to the encounter — mainly a character grappling between the internal conflict of attraction and resistance. The push and pull at the heart of the song adds to its unease.

“‘Benny Valentine’ is a love song,” Moore explains. “It reminds me of a nightmare and a dream all at once. It’s a feeling of doom and being eternal, living in love and not fear.” 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Gray Days Shares A Crafted Pop Anthem

Gray Days is the (mostly) solo recording project of a rather mysterious Aussie singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who writes and records all the parts of his music — with the exception of drums and tricky lead guitar parts. He makes his music in his garage and then takes it to a friend’s studio, where that friend engineers and mixes the material. 

Last year, the JOVM mainstay released his full-length debut Drifting, which featured:

  • The Husky and Starsailor-like Going Nowhere,” which featured an anthemic Brit Pop inspired hook while revealing a songwriter with a deliberate attention to craftsmanship and an uncanny knack for a big, catchy hook. 

  • “Transcend,” a dreamy 120 Minutes MTV-like track centered around shimmering and twangy guitars, a sinuous bass line, the Aussie artist’s plaintive delivery, a big hook and a wah wah pedaled solo, that sounds as though it were inspired by Starfish era The Church.

  • The Cocteau Twins meets Starfish-era The Church-like “Limelight,” a song built around layers of shimmering and jangling guitars, bursts of mournful horns, the Aussie artist’s plaintive vocal paired with a soaring hook making it arguably the most dream pop leaning — and the most beautiful song on the entire album. 

The Aussie artist’s latest single “Melon Mouth” is a crafted bit of dreamy pop built around jangling guitars, an incredibly catchy hook and a tight driving groove paired with the JOVM mainstay’s plaintive vocals. “Melon Mouth” continues a relatively recent run of pop-leaning material rooted in thoughtful lyricism.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: The Library is on Fire Teams Up with Mike Watt on a Tense and Uneasy Ripper

Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and musician Steve Five took his name from a poem by French wartime poet René Char, while working at Strand Bookstore. He also had weekly meetings over coffee with Television‘s Tom Verlaine. Five started The Library is on Fire back in 2007, and the band quickly established a sound that combined the melodies of Guided by Voices and the wall of sound guitar riffage of Dinosaur, Jr. and others.

The Library is on Fire quickly became a NYC scene mainstay and developed a reputation for playing chaotic live shows at Glasslands and Death by Audio. After several releases including 2010’s Magic Windows, Magic Nights, the band went on hiatus on 2014 with members going on to play in a number of other notable projects including Oberhofer, Public Access TV and more.

After a nearly lengthy hiatus, the members of The Library is on Fire have released new material, which will appear on their first album in almost a decade. The album will feature “Back Pocket,” a a sludgy, shoegazer-like ripper that brought A Place to Bury Strangers and others to mind.

The album’s second and latest single “Hotel Jugoslavija” features the legendary Mike Watt on a track built around relentless military styled drumming paired with sludgy angular bursts of guitar and lyrics that use a spy games metaphor to describe a relationship full of love, loss, deceit and heartbreak. The result is a song that possesses a math rock-meets-prog rock vibe while being tense and uneasy.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: The Library is on Fire Shares a Sludgy Ripper

Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and musician Steve Five took his name from a poem by French wartime poet René Char, while working at Strand Bookstore. He also had weekly meetings over coffee with Television‘s Tom Verlaine. Five started The Library is on Fire back in 2007, and the band quickly established a sound that combined the melodies of Guided by Voices and the wall of sound guitar riffage of Dinosaur, Jr. and others.

The Library is on Fire quickly became a NYC scene mainstay and developed a reputation for playing chaotic live shows at Glasslands and Death by Audio. After several releases including 2010’s Magic Windows, Magic Nights, the band went on hiatus on 2014 with members going on to play in a number of other notable projects including Oberhofer, Public Access TV and more.

Released earlier this year, “Back Pocket” is the first single from the Brooklyn-based outfit in over nine years. Built around distortion-pedaled power chords, thunderous and propulsive drumming, dreamy melodies and enormous hooks and choruses, “Back Pocket” is a sludgy, shoegazer-like ripper that brings A Place to Bury Strangers and others to mind.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Perhaps best known in his native Belgium as the frontman of the Ostend-based outfit Thin Line Men, an act known for meshing elements of rock, psych rock and dance floor grooves, Patrick Kimpe is also the creative mastermind behind The Autumn Parade, a project that was started during the height of the pandemic and sees the Belgian artist delving deep into his roots — his love of bluesy rock riffs and powerful grooves.

Released earlier this year, “Soul arise” is built around big bluesy guitar riffs, propulsive and thunderous drumming paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. The result is a song that possesses a Primal Scream-meets-Brit Pop-meets-glam rock sort of vibe.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Seattle’s Super Heavy Shares Brooding “Neon Blu”

Super Heavy is an emerging Seattle-based project that writes material built around eclectic arrangements, catchy yet dark melodic structures and earnest, stream of consciousness vocals. Released earlier this year, the Seattle-based project’s debut single “Neon Blu” is woozy song built around an arrangement featuring distorted, indie rock guitar, glistening synths, skittering beats paired with brooding delivery and a catchy hook. The result is something that brings Death Cab for Cutie to mind — but with a bit more brooding menace just under the surface.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Drew Kohl is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter. Relocating to Nashville back in 2014, Kohl quickly immersed himself in the city’s country/Americana scene, dressing the part and writing and performing folk-styled material. He has toured with the likes of Kiely Connell and Ray LaMontagne — and he has played at The Chicago Theater, Louisville Palace and lengthy list of other venues. But after spending several years in the scene, Kohl became increasingly disillusioned. He suddenly shifted to electric guitar and sought refuge in late night writing sessions that drew from Pavement, Elliott Smith, Johnny Marr and others. 

Kohl found those late night writing sessions liberating — he explored new sounds and darker thematic concerns. The end result is his latest music project Cold Equations and the project’s forthcoming Paul Moak-produced self-titled debut, which was recorded at Smokestack Studio. “The first LP I wrote, Ghost Town, was super liberating – I didn’t have to fit into the ‘Country- Americana mold’ so I felt free to explore new sounds and lyrical themes,” the Nashville-based Kohl explains. “The Americana genre started feeling super restrictive and I didn’t really resonate or identify with the aesthetic anymore. So I withdrew from performing for a while and started writing indie rock songs in my bedroom which eventually became the songs on this upcoming album. This is the record I always wanted to make.”

After meeting Ryan Dishen (drums) at a punk show and later John O’Brien (bass), Cold Equation quickly became a full-fledged band that started writing, revising and rehearsing the material that Kohl originally wrote during those late night sessions. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about “Identity Crisis,” a decidedly 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock anthem built around fuzzy power chords and the sort of mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses that would make Dave Grohl proud. As Kohl explains, the song is inspired by the sensation of something very familiar suddenly becoming unfamiliar — and facing someone, who suddenly acts out of character. But the twist is that the song’s narrator is the one, who’s having the crisis. 

Cold Equations’ latest single “Set The Boy Free” is a Smiths-like jangle pop anthem built around some Johnny Marr-like guitar work paired with the Nashville-based outfit’s penchant for catchy hooks and shout-along worthy choruses.

Fittingly, the song derives its title and sonic inspiration from Johnny Marr‘s autobiography Set The Boy Free. The book played a pivotal role in shaping the band’s creation and overall approach. But lyrically, the song is rooted in a familiar and relatable concept: needing to let go of someone or something you love. Nothing lasts forever, folks. And sometimes, you just have to let go — for yourself and for them.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Lumoy’s Sultry “Bet On You”

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 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.

The EP’s latest single “Bet On You” is a bluesy number that’s 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.

“Bet On You” is “a track about being intoxicated and willing to give myself away to a drug I couldn’t get enough,” the emerging Aussie artist explains of the song.

Maintenant is slated for an August 25, 2023 release.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Small Million Shares Slick and Trippy Visual for “Burnout”

Rooted in the collaboration of longtime creative partners Ryan Linder and Malachi Graham, Portland, OR-based indie pop outfit Small Million specializes in pairing deeply affecting sonic production informed by Linder’s background as a filmmaker with smart, lived-in lyrics about intuition and inhibition, losing control and ending up in unexpected places, being willing to fuck up, bodies being joyful, bodies being hurt and more. The end result is work that’s simultaneously intimate yet epic, delicate yet fierce. 

Since 2018’s Young Fools EP, years of experiencing chronic pain have led Small Million’s frontperson Malachi Graham to deep explorations of embodiment that have changed everything from her singing voice to her dance movies to her observations of human frailty. “There’s one side of chronic pain that leads you towards intuition, self-discovery, and listening closely to yourself. But it also means you end up sitting on the side of the room a lot, watching people and paying attention. Also you’re pissed,” Graham explains. 

Linder and Graham have been writing together as a duo but they recently expanded into a quartet, with the addition of Small Skies‘ Ben Tyler (drums) and Lo Pony‘s Kale Chesney (bass, backing vocals. Fittingly, their evolution into a quartet has resulted in the band’s sound and approach expanding to encompass more rock-based instrumentation and energy. 

The Portland-based outfit have been releasing new music throughout the course of the year, including their latest single “Burnout,” which will appear on their forthcoming album Passenger, slated for release through Tender Loving Empire. “Burnout” is a hook-driven bit of pop built around Graham’s ethereal vocal melody, glistening guitar lines, and a driving rhythm section. But underneath the infectiousness of the song is a sort of revenge fantasy about the feminine urge to destroy the male self-serving and flat vision of you, and dance in the rubble and flames. “My mom always told me to beware of being a ‘flattering mirror;’ to watch out for people who adore you because they love how you make them feel about themselves,” Small Million’s Malachi Graham explains.

Created and directed by Emma Josephson, the accompanying video for “Burnout” stars Sammy Rios as a woman struggling to burst out of being reduced to flattened, two-dimensional rendition of a person — while appearing as though she’s losing her own mind.