Tag: indie rock

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: _telemaque_ Celebrates Life’s Simple Pleasures in New Single

Pierre Grech is a Toulon, France-based singer/songwriter, composer, producer and guitarist, who has long been influenced by folk, indie rock, hip hop, jazz, contemporary classical and electronica. Grech began writing songs as a child but he can trace the origins of his music career to the early 2000s: He was the frontman of experimental electronica act SLiDD — and around the same time, he co-wrote and arranged material on three Jen H. Ka albums. 

As a solo artist and bandleader, Grech has played shows across Paris and Southern France with re-arranged and re-imagined renditions of his material in several different iterations including electro rock, acoustic, cello-guitar duo, rock trio and more. But over the past few years, the French singer/songwriter, guitarist, composer, arranger and producer has been refining and honing his songwriting and compositional approach, as well as his guitar playing. The end result is Grech’s latest project _telemaque_,which finds the Toulon-based artist drawing from his long-held influences while crafting pop that’s energetic yet sensitive. 

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past year or so, you may recall that Grech’s _telemaque_ debut June EP, which featured the gorgeous, OK Computer-era Radiohead-like June last year.

His full-length debut _telemaque_ album is forthcoming — and the album features “December Sun,” which Greech says is the most rock-leaning song on the album. Interestingly, “December Sun” saw the French artist refining his overall sound and approach: While still drawing from Radiohead, the song subtly nods at krautrock and folk

Gre h’s latest _telemaque_ single, is the breezy samba meets OK Computer/Kid A-era Radiohead-like “Your liquid smile.” Featuring guest spots from Kentaro Suzuki (bass) and Joakim Toftgaard (trombone), “Your liquid smile” is centered around a loose yet hypnotic groove featuring a supple bass line and skittering beats, a looping guitar-driven melody and a mournful, modal trumpet line, which gives the song a wistful, nostalgic air.

“It’s a song on the theme of simple joys, as its title does not quite indicate,” Greech explains. “This piece has the sole ambition to please. Like a good dish of spaghetti with tomato sauce. You will see it with your ears.”

The accompanying video is shot on grainy, security camera-like VHS tape and follows someone making a simple dish of spaghetti and tomato sauce, complete with ingredients and instructions. It’ll make you hungry — while reminding you of life’s simple pleasures: a good meal, a good pint or a glass of wine, dear friends, a lovely song and so on.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: MAGON performs “Halley’s Comet” and “Fire on Fire” in Fontainebleau, France

Over the past three years or so, I’ve managed to spill quite a bit of virtual ink covering the Israeli-born, Paris-based singer/songwriter, guitarist and JOVM mainstay MAGON, who with the release of Out in the Dark quickly established a sound, that at the time, he dubbed as “urban rock on psychedelics.”  

The Israeli-born, Paris-based JOVM mainstay’s sophomore album Hour After Hour was a decided change in sonic direction with the material being “somewhere between Ty Segall, Allah-Las and The Velvet Underground” according to MAGON. He closed out the year with his third album In The Blue, an album that saw the JOVM mainstay drawing from two completely different sets of influences -— 70s rock like Lou Reed and Led Zeppelin and contemporary influences like Mac DeMarco and Devendra Banhart. Written around the birth of the artist’s daughter, the album is centered around what may arguably be some of the most introspective songwriting of his growing catalog — while featuring a more assertive delivery. 

Continuing upon a remarkably prolific period, MAGON’s fourth album A Night in Bethlehem was released earlier this month. Shortly after the album’s release, MAGON invited his live band to a farm in the woods of Fontainebleau to record and film a live EP featuring four songs from his most recent album. Because the album’s material was mostly recorded by himself in his studio, the live sessions presents the album’s material in a much more organic, rawer sound.

Two of those live EP’s songs were filmed:

“Hailey’s Comet,” a dreamy bit of psych pop centered around glistening and reverb-drenched post punk-like guitars, a simple back beat and fluttering, intergalactic-like feedback that touched upon the immensity of historical and cosmic time. Throughout the song, its narrator spends the song wondering how life and humanity will be the next time Halley’s Comet passes by our part of the cosmic neighborhood in 2061. How many of us will be around? What will we say about this moment to our descendants? Will history be kind to us? 

The live session features “Fire on Fire.” Built around a laconic, easy-going groove, trippy reverb and delay pedal drenched guitars paired with a mix of surrealistic and contemplative lyrics, “Fire on Fire” expresses a slow-burning yearning.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Warhaus’ Cinematic and Slow-Burning Ode to Denial and Heartbreak

Maarten Devoldere is a Belgian singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known for being one-half of the songwriting and vocalist duo of critically applauded, indie rock outfit and JOVM mainstays Balthazar — and for his equally acclaimed solo project, Warhaus.

With Warhaus, Devoldere cemented a reputation for crafting urbane, literature and decadent art rock with an accessible, pop-leaning sensibility: Devoldere’s Warhaus debut, 2016’s We Fucked A Flame Into Being derived its title from a line in DH Lawrence’s seminal, erotic novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover. And naturally, the material on the album thematically focused on lust, desire, the inscrutability of random encounters, bittersweet and aching regret with the deeply personal, confessional nature of someone baring their soul.

Interestingly, the material on Devoldere’s sophomore Warhaus album 2017’s self-titled album saw the acclaimed Belgian artist moving away from decadence, lust and sin towards sincere, honest, hard-fought and even harder-won love with some of the songs being influenced by Devoldere’s relationship with vocalist Sylvie Kreusch. The recording sessions for the album was a much more spontaneously affair, heavily influenced by Dr. John‘s Night Tripper period: Throughout the album, there are nods to voodoo rhythms and New Orleans jazz despite the fact that his backing band wasn’t technically known for being jazz musicians.

The slow-burning “Open Window” is the first bit of new Warhaus material since 2017’s self-titled album. Centered around Devoldere’s brooding baritone, strummed acoustic guitar, a Quiet Storm-like groove, twinkling piano and a gorgeous, cinematic string arrangement, “Open Window” is the sort of song meant to gently sway along to with eyes closed, drifting off into your own nostalgic dreams — or perhaps delusions.

In fact, the song is rooted in delusion — in particular, the delusion that the breakup isn’t permanent, that she (or he) will return soon enough. But it’s all just vapor and denial.

“Open Window is about keeping reality at bay in that comfortable bubble of denial. Definitely my favourite stage of heartbreak,” Delvodere explains.

Directed by Pieter De Cnudde, the accompanying video for “Open Window” follows Devoldere as he eats steamed mussels alone at a table for two. About half way into the video, we see what appears to be Devoldere’s possessions being tossed out into a window and smashing to the ground behind him. All of this occurs in a surreal, dream-like slow motion.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Montreal’s Teenage Witch Shares a 120 Minutes MTV-Like Ripper

Sabrina Coté is a Montreal-based singer/songwriter, musician and creative mastermind behind the DIY indie rock recording project Teenage Witch. Coté’s latest single “Jaloux” is a 120 Minutes-era MTV bop centered around a classic grunge song structure with alternating loud passages featuring fuzzy power chord driven riffage for the choruses and quieter passes with dreamy, shoegazer-like guitars for the song’s verses. It’s all held together by a simple yet thunderous backbeat paired with Coté’s icy delivery.

Sonically, the song features subtle elements of post-punk and grunge — while revealing an artist, who can shred hard and write an infectious hook.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Jonathan Personne Shares Groovy New Single

Jonathan Robert is a Montreal-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, animator and visual artist, who is best known for being a co-founder and co-lead vocalist of the internationally acclaimed JOVM mainstay act Corridor.

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of years, you may recall that Robert released his solo debut as Jonathan Personne, Histoire Naturelle, an album that sonically drew from desert dream pop, Western Spaghetti rock and jangle pop. Thematically, the album focused on the potential end of the world. (With the album’s timing, it may have hit the nail on the head a bit too hard, eh?)

Robert’s Jonathan Personne sophomore album, 2020’s Guillaume Chiasson-product Disparitions was primarily written while the Montreal-based artist was touring with Corridor, and came about in a quick and fluid fashion. While seeing him continuing upon the hook-driven yet intimate and sensitive songwriting that has won him acclaim,  Disparitions was largely inspired by a moment when music became a source of profound disgust for him. “I spent a lot of time touring away from home. Towards the end I felt like I was reluctantly going to do something that I had longed wished for,” Robert explained in press notes. 

Earlier this year, Robert signed with Montreal-based label Bonsound, who will be releasing his third Jonathan Personne album, the Emmanuel Éthier-produced Jonathan Personne on August 26, 2022. Written alone on an acoustic guitar in a cottage, the album took an unexpected turn, when the Montreal-based artist went to Quebec City-based Le Pantoum with his friends and frequent collaborators Samuel Gougoux (drums), Julian Perreault (guitar), Mathieu Cloutier (bass) and the aforementioned Éthier (violin, synths, mellotron, vocals and production). Featuring arrangements centered around electric guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, Rhodes, timpani, mellotron, synths, violin and even samples, the eight-song album continues Robert’s reputation for crafting material inspired by 60s pop and Spaghetti Westerns but with samples from obscure TV shows and movies, blistering rock grooves and extravagant guitar licks, the album features a more polished production than previous releases.

Featuring a Jonathan Robert illustration in which two children discover the remains of a dead body as its album cover art, the album thematically is rooted in duality: Continuing his reputation for breezy guitar pop, the album is also brutal, sinister yet candid. The end result is an album that evokes a mysterious world where ghosts, the supernatural, fate and broken characters with broken lives intertwine.

Last month, Bonsound and Robert released the album’s first single, “Un homme sans visage” a deceptively breezy song featuring an arrangement of gorgeous Mellotron-driven melody, jangling guitar, simple yet propulsive rhythms, bursts of lap steep, big hooky choruses and Robert’s plaintive falsetto. While continuing to be lovingly inspired by the sounds of the late 60s, But the song is a bittersweet, sort of modern fable that tells a story about a man, whose face is badly burned in a fire.

Jonathan Personne‘s second and latest single, “Rock & roll sur ton chemin,” is a deceptive straightforward rocker centered around a loose and breezy surf rock-like riff and a churning groove paired with dreamily delivered falsetto harmonies and Robert’s penchant for big, catchy hooks. Along with that, the song features subtle bit of bongo, Mellotron and whistles, which add to the song’s breezy vibes. But much like its predecessor, the song is actually bittersweet: The song is a tribute to dying art forms and those who still practice them. “Devoting oneself to a genre destined to failure, there’s something pathetic about it, but also something very beautiful,” Robert says.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Montreal’s zouz Performs “Monotone” at Ausgang Plaza

Montreal-based indie outfit zouz formed back in 2016 and quickly made a name for themselves in the local scene with the release of 2017’s EP 1 and 2018’s EP 2. Since the release of EP 1 and EP 2, the rising Montreal-based outfit have gone through a massive change in creative and sonic direction: Their full-length debut, last year’s Vertiges saw the band crafting much more complex arrangements with elements of math rock and post-punk while thematically, the album’s material touches upon anguish, sadness, love gained and lost, and so on.

Album single “Monotone” is an anthemic bruiser centered around grungy and distorted power chords, thunderous drumming for the song’s verses and chorus, math rock guitar pyrotechnics for the song’s hook paired with punchily delivered vocals singing lyrics that in French describe existential malaise and dysfunctional love as being one in the same. (They frequently feel as though they are when you’re in the throes of both or either one!)

The accompanying, intimately shot live footage was shot at Ausgang Plaza, where the band played Vertiges live last October. The live footage captures the band’s live energy while capturing what may arguably be one of Montreal’s most exciting, up-and-coming bands.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Julia Jacklin Shares Anthemic “I Was Neon”

With the release of 2016’s full-length debut, the folky Don’t Let The Kids Win, acclaimed Melbourne-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Julia Jacklin has carved out a reputation as a rather direct lyricist, willing to excavate the parameters of intimacy and angry in songs that are simultaneously stark and raw, loose and playful. 2018’s sophomore album Crushing drew the listener in even closer.

Jacklin’s third album PRE PLEASURE is slated for an August 26, 2022 through Polyvinyl Record Co. Conceived upon returning home at the end of an extensive world tour to support Crushing, PRE PLEASURE‘s material was finished in a frantic few months of recording in Montreal with co-producer Marcus Paquin. “The songs on this record took either three years to write or three minutes,” Jacklin says.

Jacklin teamed up with her Canadian touring band, which featured The Weather Station’s Ben Whiteley (bass) and Will Kidman (guitar), Folly and the Hunter’s Laurie Torres (drums) and Adam Kinner (drums), as well as string arrangements by Owen Pallett recorded by a full orchestra in Prague.

“Making a record to me has always just been about the experience, a new experience in a new place with a new person at the desk, taking the plunge and just seeing what happens” Jacklin says of traveling to Canada to work with a new producer for the third time in as many albums. “For the first time I stepped away from the guitar, and wrote a lot of the album on the Roland keyboard in my apartment in Montreal with its inbuilt band tracks. I blu-tacked reams of butcher paper to the walls, covered in lyrics and ideas, praying to the music gods that my brain would arrange everything in time.” 

Conceived upon returning home at the end of a mammoth Crushing world tour, and finished in a frantic few months of recording in Montreal with (“The songs on this record took either three years to write or three minutes”), PRE PLEASURE sees Jacklin expanding beyond her signature sound, while conjuring the ripples and fault lines caused by unreliable communication.

Sonically, PRE PLEASURE reportedly sees Jacklin and her backing band expanding upon the sound that has won her acclaim internationally while the album thematically focuses on the ripples and faultiness caused by unreliable communication.

PRE PLEASURE‘s latest single, the driving “I Was Neon” is features a relentless motorik groove, buzzing guitars, Jacklin’s plaintive delivery and an enormous, arena rock-like hook. And while being an anthemic bit of rock-leaning pop — or pop-leaning rock? — the song is centered around earnest, lived-in lyrics that simultaneously express crippling self-doubt but with a deeply intelligent, almost winking self-awareness of how ridiculous it is.

“I first wrote ‘I Was Neon’ for a band called rattlesnack, a short-lived much loved 2019 side project that I played drums in,” Jacklin explains. “I rewrote it for my album in Montreal, during a time when I was desperately longing for a version of myself that I feared was gone forever. I was thinking of this song when I made the album cover, this song is the album cover really.”  

Directed by Jacklin, the accompanying video for “I Was Neon” was shot in Melbourne and features the acclaimed Aussie singer/songwriter in an elaborate get up — a long dress, gloves, lots of rings and the like while playing guitar in a quirky and cluttered apartment that’s roughly the size of a box, and follows her as she bops around from room to room. We also follow Jacklin as she wanders a suburban, wooded area and swings near a lake. The video is a surreal fever dream in which its protagonist seems to be negotiating between stage presence and her real self.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Automatic Shares an Incisive Visual for Glittery “Skyscraper”

Rising Los Angeles-based outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon (bass, vocals) — met while immersed in their hometown’s DIY scene and started jamming together back in 2017. 

Since then, the trio became a local club circuit mainstay. Their full-length debut, 2019’s Signals saw the trio quickly establishing their sound, which paired motorik grooves with icy atmospheres. 

Excess, Automatic’s forthcoming sophomore album is slated for a June 24, 2022 through Stones Throw Records. Sonically Excess reportedly rides the imaginary edge where the ’70s underground met ’80s corporate culture — or as the band says “That fleeting moment when what was once cool quickly turned and became mainstream all for the sake of consumerism.” Using that particular point in time as a lens through which to view our uncertain and seemingly apocalyptic present, the album’s material sees the trio taking aim at corporate culture and extravagance through deadpan critiques and razor sharp hooks. 

“Skyscaper,” Excess‘ third and latest single is a dance floor friendly bop featuring glistening synths, relentless four-on-the-floor, a disco-like bass line paired with an icy and insouciant delivery and razor sharp hooks. Sonically, “Skyscraper” strikes me as a slick and effortless synthesis of Blondie, Devo and Talking Heads while being both ironic and politically charged. The band’s Halle Saxon explains that “Skyscraper” is ” . . .about spending your life making money and then spending it to fill the void created by said job.” Lola Dompé adds, “Kind of like going to LA to live your dreams.”

The past couple of months have been extremely busy for the Los Angeles-based trio: After playing shows with blogosphere titans IDLES and Parquet Courts and two sets at Los Angeles’ Cruel World Festival, Automatic opened for JOVM mainstays Tame Impala for two shows to close out May. They then went to the UK and Europe, where they’re finishing a lengthy run of shows that featured stops across the major European festival circuit, including Primavera Sound, Wide Awake and Best Kept Secret. 

Over the fall, they’ll play a short run of shows with Osees. They’ll also just announced an appearance at this year’s Desert Daze Festival. And more dates will be announced in the near future. But in the meantime, tour dates are below. And you can click here for more tickets and info: https://automatic.band

Along with that, the trio shared a video for “Skyscraper,” which plays with 80s tropes, references and imagery in an adept fashion: big, boxy desktop computers, pastel business suits with big shoulder pads, sleek, androgynous business suits, which they wear with black bobbed wigs — reminiscent of the women in Robert Palmer videos. Throughout, the video pokes fun at consumerism and business culture with an incisive sense of humor.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Cara Louise is an emerging Nashville-based singer/songwriter. Her David Beeman-produced full-length debut, Wholesome Dread is slated for a September 2022 release through Soul Step Records — and is the follow-up to her debut EP, 2019’s Fragile Heart.

Wholesome Dread reportedly sees the Nashville-based artist making a bold sonic push away from her classic country roots and blurring the lines between indie rock, folk and Americana, while also drawing from the Laurel Canyon folk sound and David Lynch among others.

Wholesome Dread‘s first single, “Empty Me” is a heady mix of classic doo wop, Lynchian eerie vibes and 60s psych pop centered around twinkling keys, atmospheric synths, twangy, reverb-drenched guitar, paired with Cara Louise’s plaintive pop belter-like vocals and an enormous hook. “Empty Me” sonically speaking is the sort of song where you’d sway to yourself or cry into your beer while longing for a past you can’t get back.

But interestingly enough, as the Nashville-based artist explains, the song is rooted in lived-in, universal experience — feeling dissociative and drained from the daily struggles of working to survive and pay bills while maintaining relationships.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Florian Rodel is a Nuremberg, Germany-born, Indianapolis-based singer/songwriter, musician, who inspired by Nirvana, Guns ‘N’ Roses, CAN, Jeff Beck, Miles Davis, classical music and a lengthy list of others, started to write his own original music — based around a creative process that frequently sees him writing melodic, rhythmic and/or harmonic sketches throughout his daily routine. He’d then record this ideas on his pone and then flesh it out later.

Rodel is also the creative mastermind behind the emerging indie rock/indie pop recording project fluidarmes. Recently Rodel contacted me about “Pony Drive,” a hook-driven and melodic bit of indie rock featuring twangy, reverb-drenched guitar lines recorded by Stuttgart-based guitarist Micha Herm in his home; thumping and propulsive rhythmic drumming recorded by drummer Martin Krümmling recorded at Ghost City Recordings; propulsive and supple bass lines recorded by bassist Joe Joaquin in his Berlin-based studio; and Rodel’s plaintive vocals and atmospheric synths recorded in Indianapolis. While being deliberately crafted, “Pony Drive” is rooted in a heart-worn-on-sleeve earnestness.

Rodel explains that the song lyrically is about having the best relationship you can have with yourself and rolling with the punches, because people don’t have much control of anything beyond their limited control.


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Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: French Trio Edgar Mauer Shares a Gorgeous, Yearning Single

Emerging French indie rock project Edgar Mauer was formed back in 2020 by its founding member, singer/songwriter and musician Maëve as a way to work around various gender issues. Alan, a multi-instrumentalist and sound engineer and Camille Bigeault (drums) joined, turning the project into a full-fledged band that developed a sound that meshes elements of Bristol trip-hop and Kate Bush-like pop with a modern touch.

The trio’s latest single “Elma Casper,” is a gorgeous and slow-burning dream pop-like song centered around Maëve’s yearning delivery, Bigeault’s tribal-like drumming, Alan’s glistening guitars paired with a soaring hook. Sonically “Elma Casper” — to my ears — recalls The Sundays, The Cocteau Twins and even Mazzy Star. And much like those acts, the song itself is rooted in the deeply personal, with a novelist’s attention to psychological detail.

As the band explains, the song’s inspiration comes from a mysterious name scrawled on a wall in Paris — Elma Casper. And Maëve wound up writing a song, imagining what Elma Casper’s life would be, while also wondering if someone scrawled her name on a random wall, if someone would be as curious as she was. They add that the song is an ode to the feelings and experiences we leave behind when living and leaving ap lace, accepting our own trajectory.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Jacob Haujberg is a Copenhagen-based multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter, known for his work with Palace Winter and Sleep Party People. Haujberg is also the creative mastermind behind the rising recording project Luster.

Haujberg’s Luster debut, 2020’s Turbulence was very much the sound of a band in the room, recording live and on the floor. But his recently released sophomore Luster album, PRESSURE, reportedly sees Haujberg crafting an eclectic, proggy yet accessible, and playful collection of songs that are simultaneously entertaining and moving. Thematically, PRESSURE looks outward and focuses on distorted communication and connection in a largely digital world — while considering pressure as a state that’s both personal and universal.

PRESSURE‘S latest single, the breakneck “BURN ALL BRIDGES” is a decidedly 80s synth pop inspired bop centered around relentless and metronomic four-on-the-floor, twinkling keys, squiggling synth bursts, Haujberg’s plaintive vocals and an enormous, rousingly anthemic hook. Seemingly drawn from Huey Lewis & The News, The B-52’s., David Bowie and even The Pointer Sisters, “BURN ALL BRIDGES” manages to feel carefully crafted yet earnest and immediate.

Haujberg explains that “BURN ALL BRIDGES” is a commentary on online communication and is a natural extension of PRESSURE‘s overarching theme. “If you press the world’s button it’s likely to push all of yours,” the Danish singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist says.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs Team Up with Perfume Genius on an Urgent Power Ballad

After teasing their first new bit of music in over nine — nine! — years, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs — Karen O. (vocals), Nick Zinner (keys, guitar, drum machine, bass) and Brian Chase (drums) — recently announced their long-awaited and highly anticipated fifth album, Cool It Down.

The forthcoming album is slated for a September 30, 2022 release through Secretly Canadian and features cover photography by Alex Prager. The eight-song album reportedly is an expert distillation of the band’s gifts and will impel the listener to move, cry and listen closely.

“To all who have waited, our dear fans, thank you, our fever to tell has returned, and writing these songs came with its fair share of chills, tears, and euphoria when the pain lifts and truth is revealed, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O writes in a statement to the band’s fans. “Don’t have to tell you how much we’ve been going through in the last nine years since our last record, because you’ve been going through it too, and we love you and we see you, and we hope you feel the feels from the music we’ve made. No shying away from the feels, or backing down from what’s been gripping all of us these days. So yes we’ve taken our time, happy to report when it’s ready it really does just flow out.”

“The record is called Cool It Down which is snagged from a lesser known Velvet Underground song. I told Alex Prager whose photo graces our record cover that her image speaks to sweeping themes in the music and sums up how I, Karen, feel existentially in these times! But there’s always more to the story. This is how our new story begins, we present to you with heads bowed and fists in the air ‘Spitting Off the Edge of the World’ featuring Perfume Genius.

Cool It Down‘s first single, the Dave Sitek-produced “Spitting Off the Edge of the World,” featuring Perfume Genius is a slow-burning and cathartic power ballad centered around glistening and droning synths, Chase’s thunderous drumming, a distortion-driven guitar solo by Zinner, arena rock friendly hooks paired with the lush interplay between Karen O’s and Perfume Genius imitable vocals. Sonically “Spiting Off The Edge” to my ears sounds like a slick yet subtle synthesis of Show Your Bones and It’s Blitz — and as a result, the song is simultaneously urgent yet an exercise in restraint.

Lyrically, the song reflects on the current state of the environment, and the need for honesty about the damage we’re inflicting on the Earth. “I see the younger generations staring down this threat, and they’re standing on the edge of a precipice, confronting what’s coming with anger and defiant,” Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O explains. “It’s galvanizing and there’s hope there.”

The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s longtime collaborator Cody Critcheloe a.k.a. Ssion, who designed the cover art for Fever To Tell, and who also directed Perfume Genius’ “Queen” directed the accompanying video which stars Perfume Genius as an avenging angel limo driver to Karen O’s desert rebel queen.

“A note on this video, it’s a dream collaboration with one of our favorite artists of the 21st century Cody Critcheloe who did the artwork for our first record back in 2003 and has been making visionary music videos for the last decade,” Karen O notes. “The time to collaborate again came with ‘Spitting,’ the shoot in Kansas City was dream-like, the dreams you have after eating something really greasy right before bed; bizarre, poetic, and intense. Perfume Genius was incredibly gracious to roll in the very cold mud as my co pilot and steal scene after scene with his surreal charm.  We trusted Cody implicitly, he surpassed expectations and gave us our November Rain. YYY’s spirit is alive and well through the eyes of Cody Critcheloe. Custom Yeahs limo was largely his handiwork, fueled on love.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Silk Skin Lovers Return with a Melancholy Yet Dance Floor Friendly Bop

Silk Skin Lovers — Félix Foucambert (vocals, guitar), Jean-Baptiste Halin (bass, bass synths), Lucas Lerbret (guitar, backing vocals) and London-born Callum Taylor (keys, backing vocals) — is a rising French indie rock outfit that emerged into French scene with a handful of singles inspired by and informed by nightlife and nightlife revelry. 

Last year’s debut EP, Bloom saw the band crafting material that frequently bounced between playful optimism and delight to late-night melancholy. In many ays, the EP evoked the blurring of memories from a night out to the brink of sobering up a bit as you head home — or when you arrive home, whichever came first. And although the EP’s material is primarily rooted in a magical surrealism, there are points where it reveals a thoughtful band concerned about serious issues of the day, including racism and police brutality.

“The first seeds of Bloom were planted in the summer of 2020,” the members of Silk Skin Lovers explain. “As a young and developing band, we found ourselves growing in a context that was harsh and complicated, as opportunities for artists were scarce to non-existent for a period. The EP was a natural response to not only the artistic restraints we were faced with, but the frustration of being away from what we love to do, and further from our aspirations as musicians.”

Earlier this year, I wrote about the uptempo Smiths-like EP single “Moon 1AM,” a track that revealed itself to be deceptively upbeat: the song is actually a dreamy and bittersweet rumination meant to make you dance away your sorrows for a few minutes.

Silk Skin Lovers followed that up with the Beach House-like “Forever,” a slow-burning ballad centered around atmospheric synths, shimmering, reverb-drenched guitars, gently padded drums and Foucambert’s achingly plaintive vocals. The end result is a song that simultaneously evoked euphoria and melancholy.  

The French pop outfit’s latest single “Wake Me Up When We Get There” continues a remarkable run of hook driven, dance floor friendly bops. Featuring glistening synth arpeggios, shimmering guitars, Foucambert’s achingly earnest delivery paired with metronomic-like thump and the act’s knack for infectious, razor sharp hooks, “Wake Me Up When We Get There” is a decidedly indebted to 80s pop — and if you’re a child of the 80s, you’ll probably think of A Flock of Seagulls, Human League and countless others.

But much like the previously released “Moon 1AM,” “Wake Me Up When We Get There” sees the band specializing in — and subtly refining — what the band has dubbed “happy melancholy.” It’s the sort of song where you can bond with those who have experienced a similar heartache as you with a knowing nod — and the sort of song meant for you to dance away your hurt for a few minutes.