Tag: Los Angeles CA

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Taleen Kali Shares Bruising “Crossed”

JOVM mainstay Taleen Kali (she/they) is a Los Angeles-born and-based singer/songwriter, guitarist, poet, essayist, visual artist, Dum Dum Records founder and head and Dum Dum Fest founder. As a singer/songwriter and musician, Kali has made a career out of crafting Romantic punk songs that are routinely dreamy and defiant while featuring elements of shoegaze, psych rock and grunge.

The Los Angeles-based artist also has been influenced by melodies and imagery from her Armenian heritage and her parents’ birthplaces of Lebanon and Ethiopia, fusing her cultural heritage and identity with the sounds of the modern countercultures that Kali grew up embracing and eventually exploring as musician.

Kali’s career started in earnest with a stint in Los Angeles-based outfit TÜLIPS. After TÜLIPS split up, the Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstay stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist, eventually touring across the US with Ex Hex, Alice Bag and Seth Bogart. 

The JOVM mainstay’s 2018  Kristin Kontrol-produced Soul Songs EP was recorded at Hollywood-based Sunset Sound Studios and found Kali’s long-held riot grrl ethos maturing into a polished, multifaceted punk-leaning sound with elements of noise pop and New Wave. The EP received praise from BUST Magazine and Stereogum, who likened her sound to a contemporary Blondie. Soul Songs was also included in Pitchfork‘s Guide to Summer Albums and LA Weekly‘s Best Indie Punk Albums. 

Their 2023 Jeff Schroeder and Josiah Mazzaschi-co-produced full-length debut Flower of Life saw the JOVM mainstay firmly cementing a fuzzy and noisy take on psych punk paired with vocals that ran the range of femme punk and shoegaze siren. The album’s first two singles “Flower of Life” and “Crusher” received airplay from KEXP and KCRW respectively. KCRW’s Henry Rollins — yes, that Henry Rollins — played the album on the station literally weekly after the album’s release. And the album’s material received heavy rotation over at KEXP.

Adding to a growing national profile, Kali was interviewed by Spin. Flowers of Life was named a Bandcamp Album of the Day. Kali also supported the album with two US tours that included sets at Freakout Fest, Psyched Fest, Treefort, SXSW and their own Dum Dum Fest.

Hot on the heels of their recent appearance at this year’s Purple City Fest in Edmonton, Kali and their backing band have just embarked on a North American tour. The tour includes an October 8, 2025 stop at Purgatory. And as always, the remaining tour dates are below.

But in the meantime, the JOVM mainstay shares their latest single “Crossed,” a bruising song anchored around thunderously propulsive drumming, swirling, shoegaze-meets-garage punk fuzz and enormous, rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses paired with Kali’s seductive, commanding delivery. The song may arguably be among the hardest and grittiest songs that the JOVM mainstay has released to date, showcasing a darker sonic direction drawing from the likes of The Horrors, Ringo Deathstarr, Sextile, L.A. Witch, Tamaryn, Curve, Chapterhouse and others.

“The opening lines of the song are ‘Rose is a rose’ which is from my favorite Gertrude Stein poem ‘Sacred Emily.’ It’s meant to convey ‘it is what it is,’ or ‘things are what they are.’ I wanted to write about how matter of fact things are in life when the only choice you have is to ride the waves of grief,” the JOVM mainstay explains. “I lost my grandmother in 2023, the year we released our debut album, and the song ‘Crossed’ is a personal exploration where I’m just trying to make sense of the loss. Missing my favorite person on earth and wishing I could find a way to commune with the dead. The artwork features an Ethiopian cross that my grandmother always used to wear from her hometown of Addis Ababa, which she passed onto me.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Black Polish Shares Bruising “Lush”

Black Polish mastermind Jayden “Jay” Binnix is a young, rising artist who spent their formative years split between Florida and Maryland, before later relocating to Los Angeles. Binnix, who says that they “popped out of the womb singing,” took piano lessons at five, and later picked up ukulele and guitar. After receiving encouragement from a vocal teacher, Binnix wrote their first song “Sophie,” inspired by their childhood girlfriend.

Released back in 2020, “Sophie” saw the young artist quickly establishing their own style of earnest, emotionally piercing lyricism and a dynamic sound blending alternative, electronic and pop music influences like Halsey, Twenty One Pilots and girl in red.

Binnix’s emotive and lived-in songwriting was sharpened through their 2021 Out of Place EP and last year’s full-length debut, Forest, which examined how their upbringing made it difficult for them to fully explore and express their identity — but eventually finding clarity through the other side. Their songs have landed on Spotify’s New Music Friday and All-New Indie playlists, and building upon a growing profile, they contributed “Armageddon,” to the acclaimed Hulu series, Love, Victor.

“I just want to make people feel less alone, to remind people that they don’t have to hate themselves, to inspire others to pursue creativeness and passion without embarrassment,” Binnix says. “I love hearing a listener respond to my music and say, ‘This is my comfort song.’ It makes me feel so sure about myself.

Binnix’s highly-anticipated Black Polish sophomore album YUNA is slated for an October 29, 2025 release through BMG. The album is a work of fiction and fantasy that centers around Black Polish’s alter-ego “Yuna,” a man-eating succubus, who allows Binnix to explore their most depraved instincts and hyperfeminine abilities to beguile and seduce.

Throughout the album, Binnix dives deep into the Yuna character’s psyche while presenting playful, dark-sided lyrics and ever-shifting sonics to relay the album’s intricate narrative. Ultimately, the album’s story suggests that some aspects of ourselves can never be fully banished or hidden, but must be understood and accepting. And at the core of the material, is the question: Can you learn to forgive and accept the darkest, most fucked up parts of yourself?

YUNA will feature the previously released singles “BONDAGE” AND “BE WITH YOU,” which received praise from Alternative Press, Paste Magazine, Out Magazine, Queerty and more, and the album’s third and latest single “LUSH.” Sonically channeling 90s grunge, Paramore and others, “LUSH” reveals an artist with an uncanny knack for pairing forceful rock bombast and arena rock friendly hooks with earnest, seemingly lived-in lyricism. The song also evokes the weird — and sometimes thrilling — push and pull of a dysfunctional relationship.

 “I don’t talk to anyone, knowing I won’t hear what’s good for me,” Binnix says of the new single. “If dysfunction is all you know, naturally, you’ll gravitate towards the familiar. Ignoring the fact that this will ultimately fail creates the illusion of freedom so you can experience a relationship without feeling trapped.”

The accompanying video features the rising Los Angeles-based artist as both Black Polish and their alter-ego Yuna at the beach at night, alternating between seductiveness and unhinged fury.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Womack Sisters Share Soulful Ballad “I Just Don’t Want You (To Say Goodbye)”

Los Angeles-based soul and R&B trio The Womack Sisters — BG, Zeimani and Kucha — are proudly carrying on their family’s legendary musical legacy. The trio’s Daptone Records debut, “I Just Don’t Want You (To Say Goodbye)” is an old-school soul-styled ballad featuring a slow-burning Motown Records-meets-Staxx Records-like groove serving as a lush bed for Kucha and Zeimani’s plaintive vocals and BG’s soulful lead to effortlessly harmonize throughout the song.

At its core, the song tells a tale of someone coming to terms with the pain of being in love with Mr. Wrong when they know they deserve Mr. Right — and in order to get to Mr. Right, they’ll have to make an uneasy, life altering decision.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Automatic Shares Dreamy “Lazy”

Formed almost a decade ago, Los Angeles-based post punk outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon Gaines (bass, vocals) — have released two albums: 

  • Their full-length debut, 2019’s Signals saw the trio quickly establishing their sound, which paired motorik grooves with icy atmospheres. 

  • Their sophomore effort, 2022’s Excess saw the band sonically riding an imaginary edge where the 70s underground met 80s corporate culture. 

After they finished touring to support their sophomore album, each member of the trio pursued their own interests: Glaudini honed her skills as a producer; Saxon Gaines enrolled in botany classes; and Dompé got married, moved out to the country and began caring for horses. 

With two albums under their collective belts, the trio wanted to do something different for their third album. Slated for a September 26, 2025 release through Stones Throw Records. Is It Now? sees the trio collaborating with producer Loren Humphrey to build upon the sound of their previous releases — minimalist yet danceable songs, which they describe as “deviant pop.”  Throughout the album’s recording process, Humphrey encouraged the band to play live and loose through long takes that allowed the rhythm section to breathe. The album’s material thematically demands the listener look at the world’s oppressive structures with a fresh urgency.

Is It Now? will feature album title track, “Is It Now?” and “Mercury,” which I’ve written about over the past couple of months.

The album’s third and latest single “Lazy” sees the band seamlessly blending elements of New Wave, post-punk and spaced-out trip-hop that continues to showcase the trio’s unerring knack for tight, focused grooves. Thematically, “Lazy” is a sort of ambivalent love song, delivered with a dark sense of humor.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: grandson Returns with Bruising and Anthemic “GOD IS AN ANIMAL”

Jordan Benjamin is the Los Angeles-based creative mastermind behind the rising indie rock project grandson. Benjamin’s highly-anticipated sophomore grandson album, the Mike Crossey-produced INERTIA is slated for a September 5, 2025 release through XX Records/Create Music. The album reportedly marks an urgent, unfiltered chapter for Benjamin as an artist and songwriter, who’s operating on his own terms and speaking truth to power. 

Earlier this summer, I wrote about INERTIA‘S second single, “SELF IMMOLATION,” an urgent and impassioned Rage Against the Machine-meets-Incubus-era nu metal bruiser that thematically saw the rising Los Angeles-based artist unpacking what it means to have a cause to fight –and potentially die for.

Inertia’s third and latest single “GOD IS AN ANIMAL” continues a run of urgent and impassioned, mosh pit friendly rippers that seemingly channels RATM while thematically questioning what it means to be truly civilized, essentially questioning how civilized our society really is — or isn’t. If you’re enraged by the overwhelming cruelty and brutality of the status quo, this song is for you.

“Years ago while on tour I had this idea for a musical based off of George Orwell’s 1984, where a farm animal realizes to run the farm it has to move like a human,” Jordan Benjamin says. “After a couple iterations of that, I decided to release the title track from it on INERTIA, and trust that if that project is meant to be, it’ll find its way to the light someday. It’s certainly a fitting concept for the present moment in time. After all, we live in a ruthless world, supposedly ‘civilized’, where the dominating nations and religions scrapped their way to the top through the savage rule of the animal kingdom. We’re ultimately just apes, too smart (or stupid) for our own good.”

Directed by Joe Weil, the accompanying video for “GOD IS AN ANIMAL” is shot in a lushly cinematic Black and White that features Benjamin and the two funereally dressed women from the “SELF IMMOLATION” video rocking out to the song. The women’s interpretive dance, mimics the extraordinarily ordinariness of animalistic violence in our world.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Winter Teams Up With Tanukichan on Woozy “Hide-A-Lullaby”

Currently, based here in New York, Samira Winter, best known as the mononymic Winter, is a Curitiba, Brazil-born, singer/songwriter, guitarist and bandleader, who cut her teeth playing in her first bands in Boston. Winter relocated to Los Angeles in 2013 and fell in love with the city. She quickly found a sense of belonging in its DIY rock community – the basement of her longtime Echo Park home was host to countless shows and even her first practices — and she grew attached to the city’s cosmic, inspiring aura. But at a certain point, the Brazilian-born artist craved a change of scenery to facilitate self-growth, a painful but necessary realization that inspired — and brought about — a move to NYC.

2022’s What Kind of Blue Are You? was in her words “a total reset” — a dark, healing and intensely personal effort. which firmly cemented the Brazilian-born artist’s unique musical language. As she was beginning to confront the end of her decade-plus long stint in Los Angeles, she was overcome by waves of memories and nostalgia, which helped to stir feelings of deep, pure-hearted reverence for her 20s — catching shows at The Echo, driving through Southern California, the seemingly never ending sun. . .

Winter’s highly-anticipated, Joo Joo Ashworth-produced Adult Romantix is slated for an August 22, 2025 release through her new label home Winspear. Instead of exorcising personal demons, the Brazilian-born artist visited the ghosts of heartfelt memories, which had spilled into her present reality. Chronically an emotional cross-country move, the album was written across a two year period in which she found herself in a transitory, almost nomadic state: frequently in between tours, in different cities and in various sublets. In many ways, the album is reportedly a farewell love letter to her time in Los Angeles — and perhaps to her 20s. Winter describes the album as a “tunneler of summers and memories” inspired by romantic-period books like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and 90s rom-coms, with the material indulging in heady melodrama and romantic and platonic longing — while embracing a lighthearted, youthful innocence.

Adult Romantix‘s final, pre-release single “Hide-A-Lullaby” feat. Tanukichan is a smoldering and woozy bit of dream pop that channels 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock, while seemingly evoking the dizzying giddiness of a summer love affair that you hope will last forever — even if you know, deep down, that nothing lasts forever.

“The song explores themes of the inner self-sabotager, the secrets hidden in the corners of the mind, and the dark forest as a symbol for the subconscious,” Winter explains. “It was amazing to have Hannah van Loon (Tanukichan) sing this one with me—her velvety, whispery voice perfectly complements the song’s haunted, mysterious romantic imagery.”

The accompanying video directed by David Milan Kelly features the band performing in the L.A. river, interspersed with narrative sections inspired by the album’s fictional story of an indie rock romance set during a lost L.A. summer. The second half of the video features documentary-styled interviews with Winter and local visual artists discussing their creative processes and inspirations.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Los Angeles’ Dear Boy Teams Up with Rocket on Anthemic “After All”

Los Angeles-based indie outfit Dear Boy — founding members Ben Grey (vocals, guitar) and Keith Cooper (drums) alongside Austin Hayman (lead guitar) and Lucy Lawrence (bass, vocals) — can trace their origins back to when its founding members Grey and Cooper were living in London during their mid-twenties. The band’s Hayman and Lawrence joined once the duo returned to the States. Interestingly, despite their Stateside roots, the Los Angeles-based quartet’s work has drawn from ’80s and ’90s Brit pop and shoegaze — with the band citing Pulp, Oasis, Slowdive and The Jesus and Mary Chain as major influences, while also embracing the likes of Pixies and R.E.M.

The band’s sophomore album sophomore album, the Aron Kobayashi Ritch-produced Celebrator is slated for an October 17, 2025 release through Last Gang Records. Following the success of their full-length debut, 2022’s Forever Sometimes, the band took a step back from perfectionist production practices and leaned into spontaneity. Written in 12 sessions and recorded live in under two weeks, the album’s material reportedly bristles with a palpable energy while showcasing the band’s musical and creative chemistry. “We made this album to remember why we do this in the first place,” the band says. “Because we love it. We adore each other. Joy. Connection. Heartbreak. Celebration. We’re not interested in anything other than that.”

Celebrator‘s first single, “After All,” features Rocket’s Alithea Tuttle. Anchored around rousingly a rousingly anthemic hook and chorus, the new single immediately brings 120 Minutes-era MTV and 90s Brit Pop to mind while arguably being the most straightforward, bombastic rocker of their growing catalog to date. “It is crazy to have been a band for this long without contributing a primal-teenage-bedroom-rock riff. Happy to finally right a wrong,” the band’s frontman Ben Grey says.

The collaboration with Rocket can be traced to a deep and genuine friendship. “We first played with Rocket on New Year’s Eve a few years ago and became fast friends. We’re both from the Valley, went to the same pre-school, a tale as old as time,” Grey explains. “But truly, they’re an important band, and I think Alithea has one of the defining rock voices of this generation. We feel so honored she sang on ‘After All’. It’s the Catherine Wheel/Throwing Muses moment we’ve always dreamed of.”

Directed by the band’s Ben Grey, the accompanying video for “After All” is fittingly, a decidedly 120 Minutes-era MTV-like visual that’s a slick mix of old super 8-shot home videos of family gatherings and celebrations with footage of the band playing in a studio amidst a storm of confetti.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ Swimming Bell Lovingly Tackles Beck’s “The Golden Age”

Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and musician Katie Schottland is the creative mastermind behind Swimming Bell. Earlier this year, she released her five-song  Rob Schnapf-produced EP Somnia  through Perpetual Doom. 

Somnia invites listeners to an ethereal sonic realm, a sort of underwater dreamworld where melodies drift effortlessly and rhythms pulse like ocean currents. Schottland envisioned the EP as an escape from the crushing weight of reality, a space where listeners could feel suspended — as though they were floating — between wakefulness and dreaming. Collaborating with Schnapf, Schottland embraced a much more percussive approach, allowing textures and rhythms to guide the listener through the material’s shimmering soundscapes.

“I wanted this EP to feel like sinking into water, where everything is softened and suspended,” says Schottland. “Given all the stress and tension in the world, I wanted to make a feeling of escape – something hypnotic and transportive. Rob and I explored percussive layers in a way that felt both grounding and dreamy, creating movement within.”

Her first single since the release of Somnia EP is a gorgeous and lovingly faithful cover of “The Golden Age,” off Beck’s critically acclaimed and beloved 2002 effort Sea Change. “Sea Change has always been one of my favorite albums. I love the production so much,” Schottland says. “I’ve wanted to cover ‘The Golden Age’ for a long time and when my pedal steel and keyboard players lit up at the idea too, it felt right. Rob Schapf produced this version, and we kept it minimal and open, letting the song unfold naturally.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Dream Bodies Shares Brooding and Road Trip Friendly “Run”

Steven Fleet is a Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist, poet, writer and artist, who has been in several music projects that have allowed him to play shows across the US, the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic. He is also the creative mastermind behind the solo recording project Dream Bodies. With Dream Bodies, Fleet crafts “witchy, dreamy, gothy, post punk, dream pop, cold wave with poetic, philosophical lyrics.” 

The Los Angeles-based artist’s recently Dream Bodies debut EP, Circle of Light features the previously released “Dream Hangover,” and the EP’s latest single, EP title track “Circle of Light,” which I wrote about earlier this year.

Fleet’s latest single, “Run” is presumably a standalone track that sees him further cementing the project’s sound and approach — Cocteau Twins-like reverb, relentless motorik pulse paired serving as a brooding bed for the Los Angeles-based artist’s sonorous baritone croon. But thematically, “Run” may arguably be the most road trip friendly track of Fleet’s steadily growing catalog.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Faetooth Shares Forceful and Stormy “Hole”

Led by Jenna Garcia (vocals, bass), Los Angeles-based outfit Faetooth specializes in a sound that they’ve dubbed “fairy-doom:” a unique and eclectic amalgamation of doom metal paired with vocals that alternate between spellbinding melodies to guttural shrieks and howls. 

Last month, the Los Angeles-based outfit announced their highly-anticipated sophomore album Labyrinthine will be slated for a September 5 release digitally through AWAL and on vinyl and CD by The Flenser. Labyrinthine will reportedly see the band further establishing their “fairy-doom” sound while embracing a newly softened, more intimate tone, anchored around emotional rawness.

Throughout the album, the material touches upon themes of loss, self-pity, personal relationships and more. The inmate balance doesn’t dilute their intensity; rather it reframes it, offering listeners a haunting yet delicate atmosphere, layered with entrancing textures that build up to explosive catharsis. The result is an album that’s a hauntingly visceral and disturbing vision, anchored by deep introspection. 

Labyrinthine will feature the previously released, “Death of Day” which to my ears channeled the likes of Tool and JOVM mainstays Slumbering Sun, and “White Noise,” a bruising ripper rooted in a palpable and unsettling mix of anguish, despair, loathing and fury that feels both lived in and deeply familiar. 

“Hole,” the album’s latest single is a slow-burning and meditative doom metal dirge that slowly builds up into a bruising and stormy intensity, fueled by a lived in urgency and desperation to get away from a seemingly fucked up past and fucked up cycles of dysfunction, abuse, etc. And much like the previously released singles, “Hole” does so with an innately empathetic sensibility that says to the listener “I’ve been there. You aren’t alone.”

 

“’Hole’ is a meditation on the choice of confronting the past, or burying it,” the band’s Jenna Garcia explains. “Sobering, waking, realizations of cycles find themselves bared, culminating in an invocation-like verse that declares severance to all ties to a creeping past.”

Directed by Joe Mischo, the cinematically shot visual for “Hole” follows a a woman frantically running through a wooded countryside that includes madness, regret, possession and witches.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: GHXST Shares Brooding “Cosmic”

Initially formed in Brooklyn back in 2010 and currently based in Los Angeles, indie duo GHXST — Shelley X and Chris Wild — specialize in a sound that draws from The Velvet Underground, Black Sabbath, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Mazzy Star, 90s grunge, and their never ending travels to nowhere.

The duo’s latest single “Cosmic” is slow-burning, slithering and brooding doom metal-like dirge reminiscent of the RidingEasy Records roster and Faetooth with a subtly stoner rock/desert rock vibe. At its core, the song channels the heat and the hauntingly uneasy stillness of the desert.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Automatic Returns with Trip Hop-Inspired “Mercury”

Formed almost a decade ago, Los Angeles-based post punk outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon Gaines (bass, vocals) — have released two albums:

  • Their full-length debut, 2019’s Signals saw the trio quickly establishing their sound, which paired motorik grooves with icy atmospheres. 

  • Their sophomore effort, 2022’s Excess saw the band sonically riding an imaginary edge where the 70s underground met 80s corporate culture. 

After they finished touring to support their sophomore album, each member of the trio pursued their own interests: Glaudini honed her skills as a producer; Saxon Gaines enrolled in botany classes; and Dompé got married, moved out to the country and began caring for horses. 

With two albums under their collective belts, the trio wanted to do something different for their third album. Slated for a fall release through Stones Throw Records. Is It Now? sees the trio collaborating with producer Loren Humphrey to build upon the sound of their previous releases — minimalist yet danceable songs, which they describe as “deviant pop.”  Throughout the album’s recording process, Humphrey encouraged the band to play live and loose through long takes that allowed the rhythm section to breathe.

Is It Now? will feature album title track, “Is It Now?,” a continuation of the sound they’ve established through their first two albums, while simultaneously being a subtle refine with one of the tightest grooves they’ve written to date with their unerring knack for catchy hooks. And at its core, the song expresses a deeply modern sense of unease and restlessness.

Is It Now?‘s second and latest single, “Mercury” is a brooding and slow-burning, trip hop-like track featuring glistening synth stabs and a propulsive backbeat sample that’s heavily inspired by the Stones Throw catalog. The band’s Izzy Glaudini says, the song’s lyrics are a reminder “not to fall into nihilism or cynicism, to instead see life through a bit of a spiritual lens.” She adds, “Despite the horrible shit constantly happening, life can still be mysterious and beautiful. I wanted to lean into a sense of dreaminess, and to have the verses feel like a dark lullaby.”

Directed by Sira Sounds, the accompanying, dreamily shot visual features the trio — both individually and as a unit — drinking from a goblet with green liquid.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: grandson Shares a Politically Charged and Anthemic Ripper

Jordan Benjamin is the Los Angeles-based creative mastermind behind the rising indie rock project grandson. Benjamin’s highly-anticipated sophomore grandson album, the Mike Crossey-produced INERTIA is slated for a September 5, 2025 release through XX Records/Create Music. The album reportedly marks an urgent, unfiltered chapter for Benjamin as an artist and songwriter, who’s operating on his own terms and speaking truth to power.

INERTIA‘s second and latest single “SELF IMMOLATION” is a Rage Against the Machine-meets-Incubus-era nu metal bruiser that sees Benjamin pairing a punchy and impassioned delivery with pummeling boom bap-like percussion, bursts of DJ scratching and a rousingly anthemic and mosh pit friendly, Tom Morello-like crunchy power chord-driven hook and chorus. Thematically, the song sees the rising Los Angeles-based artist unpacking what it means to have a cause to fight for — and to potentially die for.

“’Self Immolation’ was inspired by the Palestinian liberation movement across college campuses, inspired by the late Aaron Bushnell who gave his life in protest of the actions of the very military he served, inspired by the dead students of Kent State 1970, and written about what it means to have a cause to live for, to die for,” Benjamin explains. “I wrote it with my friends, each of us playing an instrument live together, in a stoned, free, creative place in Andrew’s studio one afternoon, and it was a feeling we locked into across the whole album. It was a blast to create, and we all felt a great deal of purpose and meaning in the session that day.” 

The accompanying video for “SELF IMMOLATION” is split between Benjamin and his backing band performing the song as two funereally-dressed women headbang and mosh behind him, edited footage from Kent State, protests, uprisings and fires.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Dream Bodies Shares Shimmering, Brooding, and Dance Floor Friendly “Circle of Light”

Steven Fleet is a Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist, poet, writer and artist, who has been in several music projects that have allowed him to play shows across the US, the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic. He is also the creative mastermind behind the solo recording project Dream Bodies. With Dream Bodies, Fleet crafts “witchy, dreamy, gothy, post punk, dream pop, cold wave with poetic, philosophical lyrics.” 

The Los Angeles-based artist’s recently Dream Bodies debut EP, Circle of Light features the previously released “Dream Hangover,” and the EP’s latest single, EP title track “Circle of Light,” a dance floor friendly bit of post punk/coldwave featuring skittering beats, squiggling, reverb-drenched guitars and broodingly atmospheric synths serving as a dark yet lush bed for Fleet’s sonorous baritone.

Fleet explains that the song’s lyrics focus on occult themes, and a liminal space between light and darkness, life and death. This new single, along with its predecessor helps introduce Fleet’s mystical, occult oeuvre.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Automatic Shares Restless “Is It Now?”

Los Angeles-based post punk outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon Gaines (bass, vocals) — formed nine years ago. And in that time, they’ve released two albums:

  • Their full-length debut, 2019’s Signals saw the trio quickly establishing their sound, which paired motorik grooves with icy atmospheres. 

  • Their sophomore effort, 2022’s Excess saw the band sonically riding an imaginary edge where the 70s underground met 80s corporate culture.

After they finished touring to support their sophomore album, each member of the trio pursued there own interests: Glaudini honed her skills as a producer; Saxon Gaines enrolled in botany classiest; and Dompé got married, moved out to the country and began caring for horses.

With two albums under their collective belts, the Los Angeles-based trio wanted to do something different for their third album. Slated for a fall release through Stones Throw Records. Is It Now? sees the trio collaborating with producer Loren Humphrey to build upon the sound of their previous releases — minimalist yet danceable songs, which they describe as “deviant pop.”

Is It Now?‘s first single, album title track “Is It Now?” is a continuation of the sound that they established on their first two albums while simultaneously being a subtle yet noticeable refinement. “Is It Now?” features what may arguably be the tightest groove they’ve written to date paired with icy synths and a call-and-response chorus while showcasing their unerring knack for catchy hooks. But at its core is a modern sense of restlessness and unease that just feels — well, familiar.

The new single celebrates being authentically yourself. The call-and-response chorus vies between two points f view — a rebellious perspective and the manufactured, mass culture one. Automatica’s Izzy Glaudini explains that, increasingly, “the thing I think about the most on a day-to-day basis is: how do you have a sense of joy while the world seems to be collapsing, and you feel so powerless?” 

She adds, “I feel like, as American citizens, we have a responsibility to pull the levers to stop the machine. ‘Is It Now?’ is about trying to not feel like a victim in this environment. It’s important to still feel a sense of joy, even amongst all the horrible shit going on in the world.” 

Directed by Nicola and Juliana Giraffe, the accompanying video for “Is It Now” features the trio in an I Love Lucy-like scenario at a factory while they pack boxes and load them onto a truck while evoking the restlessness at the core of the song.