Tag: indie rock

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Frais Dispo Shares Gorgeous “Engraisser”

Featuring members of Montréal-based indie rock outfit Foreign Diplomats — Élie Raymond (guitar, vocals), Antoine Lévesque-Roy (bass), Thomas Bruneau Faubert (trombone, synths), Charles Primeau (guitar) and Antoine Gallois (drums) — Frais Dispo is a radical new direction for the musicians: The project sees the Canadian outfit writing and singing lyrics completely in French. Rooted in a much more collaborative songwriting approach, the band has gone through a decided change in sonic direction, with their new material drawing from alt country, folk and indie rock.

Frais Dispo’s full-length debut, Teinte is slated for an April 14, 2023 release through Audiogram. The album will feature “Julliet,” a song melancholy yet accessible bit of pop rooted in the sort of thoughtful and deliberate craftsmanship that gives the song a sweetly anachronistic air, while subtly bringing Fleetwood Mac to mind. As the band explained in press note notes., the song is a reflection on the languorousness of every day life and the passing of time in a small town. Everything is the same, including the simultaneous longing for a past you can’t get back — and for something, hell anything, to be different. The album will also feature “Chiens habillés,” which was released earlier this year.

The album’s third and latest single “Engraisser” sees the Canadian outfit fully embracing an alt-country take on indie rock, featuring twangy and reverb-drenched guitars, twinkling Rhodes and a chugging and propulsive rhythm section paired with big hooks. While subtly bringing Corridor to mind — at least to my ears — the song as the band explains touches upon night terrors, alcohol consumption that makes you fat and dull and being firmly rooted in the comfort of every day life.

As the band explains “Engraisser” came together quickly and naturally. It was one of the first songs they wrote and recorded as a quartet. With Élie taking up drum duties, the album started to take on its shape and identity.

“Fattening up came together very quickly and naturally. It’s one of the first songs we did as a quartet after our former drummer left. With Élie on drums, that’s when the album started to take on its stronger identity,” explain the band members.

To celebrate the album’s release, the band will be playing at Québec’s Santa Teresa Festival on May 14, and Petit Campus in Montréal on May 18.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Gal Pal Shares Swooning “Angel In The Flesh”

Rising Los Angeles-based trio Gal Pal — Emelia Austin (she/her), Shayna Hahn (she/her) and Nico Romero (he/him) — can trace their origins back to a serendipitous meeting in college: The members of the band lived in the same dorm and on the same floor. Each member was drawn to to other by a sense of shared ambition and a desire to play music in a way that felt nonjudgmental and generative. Their initial collaborations were improvisatory, long-winded and playful — and featured recently purchased equipment, including a drum kit no one yet knew how to play. “We were learning our instruments together,” Gal Pal’s Nico Romero says. “The project started from wanting to learn how to play an write songs with other people.” 

Earlier this year, the trio released “Mirror,” track that was written from an altered creative process — perhaps born out of necessity: Austin, Hahn and Romero experimented with writing in isolation, crafting songs with lyrics on their own before bringing them to the group. Featuring production assistance from Danny Noguieras and Sami Perez, the new single is also a bold step forward sonically for the band: Centered around an intricate, looping guitar riff, skittering drum patterns paired with Austin’s plaintive wailing “Mirror” is a shoegazey take on post punk that evokes both the sensation of being hopelessly stuck in a repetitive, dysfunctional pattern — and the slow-burning sense of dread, because there’s the acknowledgement of being stuck, and not knowing how to get out of a hellish loop. 

Gal Pal’s Emelia Austin explained that the song ““formed from Nico playing cyclical guitar riffs over and over again. It helped me form the theme of being stuck in a pattern. I then wrote lyrics that were cut-off sentences, repeating again and again to express that feeling. For me, ‘Mirror’ is about the ways we allow our identities to be misshaped by people in our lives, how we are used as reflections for others, and the anxiety over being able to control it or not.” 

Today, the rising Los Angeles-based trio announced that their new album This and Other Gestures is slated for a June 2, 2023 release. Marking their first album in six years, This and Other Gestures sees the trio now in their mid-20s and working through gender dysphoria, personal loss and the power and confusion of young adulthood. “These songs are very personal to us,” Gal Pal’s Austin explains. “We’re telling stories about different things — life, death, love, grief — all these things we’re going through and growing out of. These songs are about us processing change. Is it good, is it bad? We’re grieving, we’re celebrating.”

The album’s latest single “Angel In The Flesh” is a rousingly anthemic and swooning song that sonically is one part 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock and late ’90s-early ’00s pop punk/emo built around buzzing power chords, thunderous drumming. enormous shout-along worthy hooks and choruses, paired with heart-worn-on-sleeve lyricism. Ultimately, the song is a sweet declaration of love, full of the sort of bravery, vulnerability and longing that’s free of the cynicism and despair of bitter experience.

“I grew up listening to a lot of pop punk and emo bands,” Gal Pal’s Nic Romero says in press notes. “I was a big fan of labels like Fueled By Ramen and Decaydance as a kid. I think this song definitely comes from that background a bit. It’s easy for me to want to sing about crushes and longing because it’s a fun feeling to indulge in and romanticize, even when it hurts.” 

Directed by Ashley Kron, the accompanying video for “Angel In The Flesh” sees the band playing a dysfunctional TV sitcom family that manages to forget their dog’s birthday. The dog decides to run away — but bonds with his family when they attack a mailman to prove their love.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: RVG Shares Urgent “Squid”

Led by Adelaide-born Melbourne-based singer/songwriter Romy Vager, RVG — currently Vager (vocals, guitar), Gregor’s and Hearing’s Reuben Bloxham (guitar), Rayon Moon‘s Marc Nolte (drums), and Isabelle Wallace (bass) — have released two critically applauded albums:

2017’s A Quality of Mercy, which was recorded live off the floor at Melbourne’s iconic rock ‘n’ roll pub, The Tote Hotel. Initially released to little fanfare, the album, much to their surprise received critical acclaim both nationally and internationally, landing on a number of end-of-year Best of Lists.

2020’s Victor Van Vugt-produced Feral was released by Fire Records globally, excluding Australia and New Zealand, where it was released by Our Golden Friend. The album received breathless praise nationally and internationally, with Rolling Stone Australia calling the album “the record of a lifetime.”

RVG’s highly-anticipated third album Brain Worms is slated for a June 2, 2023 release through Fire Records globally with Our Golden Friend releasing the album in Australia and New Zealand. Between the band’s members, Brain Worms captures the band at their most confident point they’ve ever been in as a band. Sonically, the album reportedly sees the band moving past their influences, trying new things and pushing themselves towards what they believe is their best album of their growing catalog to date.

“Hype is scary. After two years of COVID it felt like the hype had gone down so we were able to just do stuff,” RVG’s Romy Vager says. “This time around we were like, this is what we’re doing, we’re taking control, we’re taking risks, and we’re going to make an album that sounds big so that when we hear it on the radio we want to hear it again. If we could only make one more album, it would be this one.”

Deriving its title from the hyper-recognizable experience of each day bearing witness to a world of private obsession being aired out in the infinite, Brain Worms may not be wholly new territory for the acclaimed Melbourne post-punk outfit and its frontperson, but there is a newfound radical acceptance. Recorded in London’s Snap Studios with James Trevacus, the ten-song album surges with lush sounds and clear intentions — and the magic of an acoustic guitar, once owned by Kate Bush, given to her by Tears for Fears, who legend has it, wrote “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” on it.

Last month, I wrote about the album’s first single “Nothing Really Changes,” an angular, 80s New Wave-inspired track rooted in enormous arena rock friendly riffage, paired with the Aussie outfit’s long-held penchant for anthemic hooks and choruses and Vager’s lived-in, heart-worn-on-sleeve lyricism: The song features a narrator desperately missing someone while confronting the lingering ghosts of their relationship — with frustration, despair, anger and a begrudging acceptance. As the band’s Vager explains, the song “started off as a songwriting experiment to write something catchy with an obnoxious riff, a cross between Divinyls and ‘Smoke on the Water.‘ It’s a song about missing someone but protecting yourself from being hurt.”

“Squid,” Brain Worms‘ second and latest single is a rousing arena rock friendly anthem that brings Heaven Up Here-era Echo and the Bunnymen and Starfish-era The Church to mind: Swirling and shimmering guitar textures are paired with angular guitar attack, thunderous drumming, shout-along worthy hooks and choruses. But while rooted in an absurd, Kafkaesque-like nightmare in which the song’s narrator imagines what might happen if they were to go back in time, step on something and become a squid, Vager’s delivery is so desperately earnest and urgent that it feels very real.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

Audio Interview: Nat Vazer

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms chats with acclaimed and rising Aussie artist Nat Vazer at last week’s The New Colossus Festival.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Island of Love Share Mosh Pit Friendly Ripper “Fed Rock”

Rising London-based outfit Island of Love — Karim Newble (guitar/vocals), Linus Munch (guitars/vocals) and Daniel Giraldo (bass) — can trace their origins to meeting through London’s hardcore punk scene, while playing in other bands, including Newbie’s Powerplant. They’ve all shared bills with bands like Chubby and the Gang and High Vis. Informed by their work in their previous project, the trio have continued to proudly adhere to a long-held DIY ethos: they book their own shows, print their own merch, design their own very distinct artwork and self-released their material, which was recorded at Fuzzbrain, an East London studio dedicated to fostering the underground music community by making high-quality studio and rehearsal space accessible to artists under 25 years-old at all price points. 

They released their debut collection of demos, Promo Tape back in 2020. By the time they had written and recorded last year’s Songs of Love EP, the trio had gotten much tighter. “Promo Tape was us trying to learn to write songs individually but Songs of Love was us trying to learn to write songs as a band,” Island of Love’s Karim Newbie says. 

Back in September 2021, Island of Love were invited to perform at the opening of Third Man Records’ The Blue Basement. It’s a good thing that the band showed up to the gig at all, given that they didn’t even think the email invitation they received to play was real. The very real and definitely not spam offer led to their on-the-spot signing to the label, opening slots for Jack White — and their self-titled full-length debut. 

Slated for a May 12, 2023 release, the London trio’s Ben Spence-produced, self-titled full-length debut reportedly sees the band crafting material that pinballs back and forth between tones and styles while rooted in crunchy guitars and the intrinsically melodic sensibility that brings Hüsker Dü and Dinosaur Jr. to mind while featuring the shared vocal and songwriting duties of Newbie and Munch. At the core of the material is a great deal of restraint and consideration, the sort that belies their relative youth as musicians — and as a band. While the material is loud and noisy, it’s built around push-pull dynamics that results in moments of tenderness and quiet that then elevates the crunch and power of the rousingly anthemic, noisier parts. The album shows the balance of it being written in bedrooms but being honed in live shows,” says Munch. “It captures a contrast.” 

Fittingly, the album explores duality, balance and contrast — sonically and thematically. Sure, there are crunchy power chords exploding out of the gate and into your eardrums one moment but there are also melodic, sugary pop hooks paired with introspective, considered songwriting. “This album exceeded our expectations,” says Newble. “I’m really proud of it.” What we’ve done on this album is much more of an accurate representation of us and where we’re at,” Island of Love’s Daniel Giraldo adds. “The EP sounds good but the difference on the album is huge.”

When the band set about making the album, they wanted to carry over as much of that DIY spirit as possible. They continued their relationship with Ben Spence and Fuzzbrain, who helped the band record their early demos. For the band, Spence, Fuzzbrain and the community both have fostered have proven invaluable to the band. “Growing up I couldn’t afford equipment,” Newble says. “But Fuzzbrain was this space where you could go to practice and use insane equipment. We never had to bring guitars, pedals or leads. You could just show up and plug in. We would have struggled to be a band without that place.” According to Giraldo , “It’s very much [Spence’s] record as much as it is ours.”

Last month, the trio shared the first taste of their full-length debut with the double A-side single “Grow”/”Blues 2000.” “Grow” is a decidedly 120 Minutes-era MTV-like bit of alt rock centered around crunchy power chords, thunderous drumming and the sort of enormous, melodic-driven hooks that immediately brings Dinosaur Jr. and others to mind. “Grow”is the first song the trio ever wrote together, and has been pulled and reimagined from their demo release, Promo Tape. “Blues 2000” continues the 90s alt rock vibes but is rooted in dueling guitar riffage and thunderous drumming. 

The album’s third and latest single “Fed Rock” features the band’s co-frontman Linus Munch taking on vocal duties, which also highlights the way the band’s co-frontmen seamlessly share songwriting, guitar and vocal duties. “Fed Rock” features the dueling guitar-driven power chord riffage, paired with enormous, saccharine pop hooks. And much like the previously released singles, the song is rooted in riotous, mosh pit friendly energy — all while still bringing back fond memories of Thin Lizzy, Dinosaur Jr., Weezer, and 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock.

Shot and directed by Cole Flynn-Quirke, the accompanying video for “Fed Rock” playfully riffs off Beastie Boys “Sabotage” and Planet of the Apes in a delirious DIY fashion.

“We wrote this song about a lot of the bands we were seeing around us when we first started gigging in London. It was one of the first songs written for the album and has always been a highlight of our set, and I think the faster pace of the song reflects the time it was written – the summer when we played our very first shows,” Linus Munch explains. “We were moving from Ben’s studio (Fuzzbrain in London) to small venues for the first time and our set was still heavily weighted on the side of stoned jams like ‘Tall Boots’ (from 2020 EP Promo Tape) and ‘Head Case’ (from 2022 EP Songs of Love). We all felt this new creeping influence of bands like Thin Lizzy and Ramones which gave ‘Fed Rock’ a different energy, while having a song in the set that said what we felt about certain bands we played alongside always made playing with them that little bit more bearable. The video was shot around Fuzzbrain with a small group of friends and family on a sunny day in February. The camera is shaky and the narrative is loose, but the spectacle of Dan’s Rambo-style blaze of glory at the mercy of two banana-wielding monkey detectives is alone worth the price of admission.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Silver Moth Shares Gorgeous “The Eternal”

This week will be extraordinarily as I’ll be covering the fourth edition of The New Colossus Festival this week. Look for various portions of my coverage to be coming within the upcoming weeks — including some potential interviews, live concert photography and other thoughts. But I’ll be trying my best to squeeze in my regular coverage of all things within my world — musically and otherwise.

So let’s get to the business at hand . . .

Silver Moth is new collective featuring a celebrated cast of musicians and artists, including Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite singer/songwriter and electro pop artist Elisabeth Elektra, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Evi Vine, Abrasive Trees‘ Matthew Rochford, Burning House‘s Ash Babb, Steven Hill and Prosthetic Head’s Ben Roberts, who has also worked with Abrasive Trees and Evi Vine. The collective can trace its origins back to a Twitter exchange between Matthew Rochford and Elisabeth Elektra about the Isle of Lewis. A couple of Zoom meetings would subsequently lead to Rochford, Elektra, Vine, Braithwaite, Hill, Babb and Roberts visiting Black Bay Studios on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, a dramatic location, where they recorded the collective’s full-length debut, Black Bay. 

Slated for an April 21, 2023 release through Bella Union, Black Bay reportedly is a testament to connectivity and receptivity and captures a union of disparate minds committing to something to something greater than the sum of its individual parts. Capturing the sound of seven storied musicians yielding to shared goals, the album ranges between hushed incantations and molten guitars, 15-minute noise rock epics and healing psalms. 

Last month, I wrote about Black Bay‘s first single, “Mother Tongue,” a slow-burning and sprawling song centered around swirling shoegazer-like guitar textures, twinkling reverb-drenched keys, ethereal and plaintive vocals paired with jazz-like drumming. While sounding like a synthesis of A Storm in Heaven and Dark Side of the Moon, the band explains that  “Mother Tongue is a song about women and other marginalized people rising up in the face of oppression.”

Black Bay‘s second and latest single “Eternal,” is a slow-burning, breathtakingly gorgeous hymn featuring shimmering and looping guitars, twinkling synths, military-like drumming, Elisabeth Elektra’s ethereal and yearning vocal paired with a soaring chorus that arches heavenward. Written by Silver Moth’s Elektra and Vine, the song is simultaneously a tribute to Elektra’s late friend Alanna, an invitation to listen deeply and carefully and a paean to female equality that’s fueled by “the need to reclaim and remember and give voice to those who are silenced,” Evi Vine explains.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Beth Arnold Gilbert Shares a Grunge-Inspired Anthem

Beth Arnold Gilbert is a Philadelphia-born and-based singer/songwriter and guitarist, who specializes in material that features a 90s alt-rock vibe with a pop sensibility paired with Gilbert’s expressive vocals.

“I Was Not Airtight,” Gilbert’s latest single is the follow up to her debut EP, 2021’s Gimme Back My Castle. Centered around layers of distorted and reverb-drenched guitar, enormous mosh pit friendly hooks paired with the Philadelphia-born artist’s raspy delivery, “I Was Not Airtight,” much like today’s previous post recalls 120 Minutes-era MTV alt-rock — in particular PJ Harvey, Veruca Salt, Hole, and Catherine Wheel among others.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Cleo Handler Shares Snarky Anthem “problem”

Cleo Handler is a Los Angeles-born singer/songwriter, filmmaker and longtime lyricist in the Advanced BMI Songwriting Workshop, who spent a decade here in Brooklyn, and returned back to Southern California in the “aftermath of an extremely disorienting, sudden breakup with her long-term (musician) partner.

Recorded at Wild Horizon Sound, the recently released, Claire Morrison-produced gold features session musicians Sarsten Noicee and Mike DeLuccia. gold as Handler explains “is about what’s gained when everything feels lost.

Handler’s recently released full-length album gold as she explains “is about what’s gained when everything feels lost. The raw production, honest storytelling, and deeply personal lyrics explore loss of love, community, reality, and even your idea of yourself… and oh, right – it’s a breakup album.

“This album – and accompanying videos – were born out of necessity, in the aftermath of an extremely disorienting, sudden breakup with my long-term (musician) partner,” Handler says.”Writing was the only thing that kept me afloat, and the overpowering urge to channel my own music the only task that made sense. It became a compulsion and I held on for dear life, singing and strumming, even when my voice cracked and my fingers bled.”

“These songs are about empowerment, self- actualization, and finding a reason to go on – and the courage to hope, sing, even laugh – in the darkest times,” Handler adds. “Musically, gold draws inspiration from beloved artists like Liz Phair and Wet Leg, nodding to the strength and snark of Olivia Rodrigo and Hole.“

gold‘s latest single “problem” is a lo-fi bit of indie rock rooted in heart-worn-on-sleeve lyricism, anthemic hooks and scuzzy power chords. Sonically. “gold” immediately brings memories of 120 Minutes-era MTV to mind — in particular Liz Phair, Hole, Veruca Salt and others with the snarky, righteously bitter sarcasm of the heartbroken.

“‘problem’ is about projection, reevaluating what you’ve been told, and reclaiming your power,” Handler says.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Henry Carlyle Shares Brooding and Atmospheric “I Float”

Best known for his work in acclaimed JOVM mainstay act The Orielles, Halifax, UK-born, Manchester-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Henry Carlyle stepped out into the spotlight as solo artist with 2021’s “The Ground,” a song that found The Orielles co-founder eschewing the disco floor strobe lights for thoughtful and lived-in lyricism and an intimate, dusty, lo-fi-like production. 

Described by Carlyle as “a song about displacement,” the song’s origins can be traced back to a winter day in which the Halifax-born, Manchester-based singer/songwriter and guitarist began writing down his fractious thoughts of his unanchored passing through time and space. “It was inspired by floating through the universe and through time bouncing off events and other humans, never really knowing where you should be or what you should be doing anyway” Carlyle explained in press notes. 

Carlyle’s second solo single “A Bigger Splash,” continued his collaboration with Julia Bardo (vocals) and Jack Bogacki (drums). The song was a strangely euphoric yet uncomfortably intimate song centered around Carlyle’s aching, world weary delivery, jutting and angular guitar attack and his unerring knack for razor sharp hooks. While sonically nodding Damon Albarn and Pavement among others, the song’s relatively young narrator is struggling with the difficulties and uneasiness of existence — as everyone has been for quite some time.

Written as a by-product of “going through stuff and nothing the time to think properly,” Carlyle explains that “I was thinking how these formative years might affect people as they move on. Which is why the song’s initial musical idea stuck with me and interested me a lot as a theme; it fluctuates between two keys, the end improvisation being the ultimate meditation in that idea. it all feels as I felt, in turmoil.” 

“The lyrics are mostly about self-medicating, trying to instantly feel better for a transient moment and then reeling from that for a longer period of time than the intended relief,” Carlyle adds. “Which is why the chorus only comes once and is only two lines long. Nothing good lasts too long and goodness changes all the time.”

Carlyle’s latest single “I Float” is a brooding and atmospheric track built around twinkling synths, rumbling low end, skittering boom bap-like drumming and brief bursts of scorching guitar feedback paired with Carlyle’s chilly and detached delivery. “I Float” manages to simultaneously seem informed by — and mirror — the adventurous sonic approach developed for The Orielles’ Tableau while evoking the unease of a forced isolation in which the narrator endlessly replays his thoughts and failures.

This winter crept up on us. I started writing a lot of music on this synth I bought back in October,” Carlyle explains. “During dark evenings I built up an ambient track, ‘Prelude’ and when I finished that I realised it was the element ‘I Float had been missing. Through its many iterations, I struggled to get close enough to expressing the song’s idea until then.
 
“It’s about floating on through, not being present, doing what you’ve got to do. In a sense, it’s about living a minimal existence until you feel well enough to thrive again.”
 
Shot by Giuilia Bonometti, the accompanying video is based on a concept by Carlyle and Bonometti: We see Carlyle wearing a white jumpsuit in a park at night, bopping and bouncing around to the song’s skittering beats, appearing as though he were in a mosh pit by himself.
 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Brooklyn’s O. Wake Shares Jangling Critique of Constant Connectivity

Led by singer/songwriter, musician and visual artist Ofer Shoval, Brooklyn-based art rock outfit O. Wake formed back in 2019. Since then, Shouval has been writing songs that explore the anxieties and absurdities of modern life through witty vignettes and sweeping soundscapes. They’ve also quickly become a mainstay in the local scene, playing shows across Brooklyn, including opening for Atlanta-based post-punk outfit CDSM last May.

O. Wake’s latest single “Head in the Cloud” is a hook-driven bit of guitar jangle pope that reminds me a bit of Murmur-era R.E.M. but while rooted in a bitter and frustrated sense of disconnection and isolation that belies the song’s seemingly upbeat, danceable nature.

“The track is a critique of the ideology that promotes our need to feel ‘connected’ yet takes away our space to experience the real world, leading to life passing us by,” O. Wake explains.

The Brooklyn-based art rock outfit will be playing this year’s New Colossus Festival.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Los Bitchos Share Mischievous and Boozy Cover of “Tequila”

London-based instrumental outfit Los Bitchos — Australian-born, Serra Petale (guitar); Uruguayan-born Agustina Ruiz (keytar); Swedish-born, Josefine Jonsson (bass) and London-born and-based Nic Crawshaw (drums) — can trace their origins to meeting at various late-night parties and through mutual friends. Inspired by their individual members’ different upbringings and backgrounds, Los Bitchos have developed a unique, genre-blurring and retro-futuristic sound blends elements of Peruvian chicha, Argentine cumbia, Turkish psych, surf rock, and the music each individual member grew up with: 

  • The Uruguayan-born Ruiz had a Latin-American music collection that the members of the band fell in love with. 

  • The Swedish-born Jonsson “brings a touch of out of control pop,” her bandmates often joke. 

  • Aussie-born Serra Petale is deeply inspired by her mother’s 70s Anatolian rock records. 

  • And the London-born Crawshaw played in a number of local punk bands before joining Los Bitchos.

“Coming from all these different places,” Los Bitchos’ Serra Petale says, “it means we’re not stuck in one genre and we can rip up the rulebook a bit when it comes to our influences.”

Los Bitchos’ Alex Kapranos-produced full-length debut, last year’s Let The Festivities Begin! was recorded at Gallery Studios, and saw the band further cementing heir reputation for crafting maximalist, trippy, Technicolor instrumental party starting jobs — with a cinematic quality.

The London-based JOVM mainstays capped off a momentous year with with two singles “Los Chrismos,” their first Christmas-themed composition and “Tip Tapp, which were co-produced by the band’s Serra Petale and Javier Weyler and recorded at 5db was released digitally and physically on a flexi-disc, bundled with a red vinyl re-press of their debut. “Los Chrismos” is a celebratory party-starting romp built around a psych rock-inspired, dexterous, looping guitar line, atmospheric synths cheers and shouts paired with cumbia rhythms. The end result is a much-needed joy and hope bomb that’s just pure unadulterated joy.

Los Bitchos’ forthcoming two-track EP PAH! is slated for a digital and 7″ release in mid-March through their label home City Stand — and the EP coincides with their upcoming UK and European tour opening for JOVM mainstays King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard. PAH! features a mischievously rowdy and boozy cover of The Champs‘ “Tequila,” a song that has become a fan favorite during the band’s live shows. The EP also features a reworking of the Gizz’s “Trapdoor.”

Filmed by Los Bitchos and Lea Emmery, the accompanying video for “Tequila” follows the members of the JOVM mainstay act stopping at a liquor store to buy a bottle of tequila, which they bring with them through a night of partying with friends new an old. And much like the cover, it’s a mischievous, rowdy night through London.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

M. Byrd is a German-born and based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalists and producer, who can trace the origins of music career, and his passion for music to when he was three: A very young Byrd used to play drums in front of the TV. Eventually, he found his dad’s guitar. Encouraged by a teacher, he picked up electric guitar and attended countless roots jam sessions at local joints. Influenced by Alice Coltrane, Tom Petty, Elliott Smith and David Lynch, Byrd began writing his own material. 

The German-born and-based artist turned heads back in 2020 with the release of “Mountain” and “Morning Sun,” tracks that amassed millions of streams and praise from Ones to Watch, Earmilk, Atwood Magazine and several others while firmly cementing his sound and approach: Intensely personal songwriting paired with shoegazer-inspired textures and pop-leaning accessibility. 

At the end of 2020, Byrd and producer Eugen Koop holed up in Detmold, Germany in a WWII-era British Corps squash hall-turned recording studio, where they worked on The Seed, the German artist’s forthcoming, full-length debut, an effort that sees Byrd personally playing guitar, synths and bass. The album’s material reportedly draws you in to inspire your own evolution. As Byrd says ““When you listen to the album, I hope you feel like you can grow with me. Maybe you’ll find confidence in yourself. We’re planting this thought with The Seed. 

So far I’ve written about two singles off the album:

  • “Over You/Over Me,” a song centered around Byrd’s plaintive and balmy vocal floating over a textured, shoegazer-like soundscape paired with a motorik groove and enormous hooks. Much like his previously released work, the new single is rooted in a bright, hopeful sense of the future. “I dreamt there were snakes all over my apartment,” Byrd recalls. “A snake is a symbol for drastic change in your life and you’re repressing it. There’s a lot of change for  me.  I’m  starting  to  be  a  full-time  musician.  There’s  still  a  pandemic.  I  tried  to  dress  up  this darkness nicely. I talked to a friend who is into interpreting dreams, and she said that snakes in dreams meant that I was going through a profound change in my life. I remembered a quote I once read in an essay by Freud:  ‘A  dream  is  the  liberation  of  the  spirit  from  the  pressure  of  external  nature,  a detachment of the soul from the restraints of matter.”
  • Album title track, “The Seed,” an anthemic, 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock song centered around Byrd’s uncanny knack for crafting rousingly anthemic hooks with earnest, deeply personal songwriting paired with a lush, Toad the Wet Sprocket meets Starsailor-like arrangement. “We realized then that nothing will ever be, no matter how far away you feel from something that’s happening in the world, independent from the suffering out there,” the German singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist explains. “It was a hard realization but we needed to figure out a way to deal with it. Listening to the whole album reminded me of holding a seed in my hands. It felt like the start of something and symbolized birth in times of chaos. The song and the album, we decided, had to be called nothing more and nothing less – The Seed.”

The Seed‘s third and latest singles, “Outside of Town” is a slow-burning, 80s-styled ballad built around glistening guitars, atmospheric synths and Byrd’s plaintive delivery paired with his unerring knack for crafting enormous, arena rock friendly hooks. While arguably the most retro-inspired of The Seed‘s released singles, the song is inspired by contemporary events.

“I wrote ‘Outside Of Town’ a few days after meeting a friend who had to flee from a war with his daughter,” Byrd explains. “It tells his story in a fictional city that is surrounded by desert and war, sustaining itself with big walls and what little water they have left.” M. Byrd adds, “every time I play the song, it reminds me of how I admire people who are fighting for a better life for themselves and their families. All of us could be in the situation of having to look past the borders of our homes, and every one of us should play a part in helping the people who are willing to go through so much suffering to provide a safer place for their family and children.“

The Seed is slated a June 16, 2023 release through Nettwerk Music Group.