Tag: Los Angeles CA

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Amira Jazeera Shares Flirty “Luv U Down”

Amira Jazeera is a queer Palestinian-American artist and producer, who currently splits her time between Chicago and Los Angeles. Raised with a fervent love for pop music, Jazeera’s work sees her pairing powerhouse vocals, catchy melodies and contemporary R&B and pop production with 80s and 2000s influences, 00s Arabic music samples.

Her work is often characterized by an emotional depth uncommon in most contemporary pop, sultry undertones — but anchored in empowerment.

Jazeera’s latest single “Luv U Down” is a fun, flirty electro pop tune along the lines of Janet Jackson‘s “When I Think Of You,” Madonna‘s “Dress You Up” and contemporary Finnish pop act Beverly Girl that evokes the thrill of finally having an intimate moment with that person you’ve longed forever for, or that lover, who knows how to touch you in the right spots. It’s an expression of the playful yet knowing level of lust, obsession and anticipation that are the best — and most fun — part of romantic affairs.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Deep Sea Diver Teams Up with Madison Cunningham on Power Ballad “Let Me Go”

Led by Los Angeles-born, Seattle-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and frontperson Jessica Dobson, Seattle-based indie rock outfit Deep Sea Diver can trace its origins back to when Dobson was 19: Dobson, who has had stints  playing with a who’s who list of contemporary acts, including Beck, Conor Oberst, Spoon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Shins signed with Atlantic Records. While with Atlantic Records, Dobson wrote and recorded two albums that she wasn’t completely satisfied with. Atlantic shelved the material and ultimately dropped her. 

After being dropped from Atlantic, Dobson wrote and recorded her solo debut EP New Caves as Deep Sea Diver. The project became a full-fledged band with the addition of members John Raines (bass) Dobson’s spouse Peter Mansen (drums), Garrett Gue (bass), and Elliot Jackson (guitar, synth), who helped to flesh out the project’s sound. 

The Seattle-based band’s critically applauded third album, 2020’s Impossible Weightwas released through High Beam Records/ATO Records and followed a busy year of touring with Wilco and Joseph to support their second album, 2016’s Secrets. “We went into the studio pretty quickly after the tour ended, and I sort of hit a wall where I was feeling very detached from making music, and unable to find joy in it,” Dobson recalls in press notes. “I realized I had to try to rediscover my voice as a songwriter, and figure out the vocabulary for what I needed to say on this album.”

Stepping back from music and the studio, Dobson focused on dealing with the depression she had been struggling with, and soon started volunteering at Aurora Commons, a drop-in center for unhoused people, most whom are drug-dependent and frequently engage in street-survival-based sex work. “I spent a lot of time with the women who frequent the Commons, and it taught me a new depth of empathy,” she says. “They’re people who don’t have the luxury of going back to a home at the end of the day and hiding behind those four walls, so they’re sort of forced to be vulnerable with what their needs are. Talking with them and listening to them really freed me up to start writing about things I’d never written about before in my songs.”

Co-produced by Dobson and Andy D. Park and recorded at Seattle’s Studio X and The Hall of Justice, Impossible Weight found Dobson and her bandmates digging far deeper emotionally than they had ever before — and pairing that emotionality with a bigger, more grandiose sound. While showcasing Dobson’s dexterous and forceful guitar work, the album’s overall lush textures and mercurial arrangements allow room for Dobson to fully demonstrate her vocal range in a way that she hadn’t before. “’I’d never produced a record before and I started out with low expectations for myself, but at some point I realized, ‘I can do this,’” Dobson recalls. “I decided to completely trust my voice and make really bold decisions in all my production calls—just push everything to the absolute outer edges.”

For Dobson redefining the limits of her artistry went hand-in-hand with deeper identity issues that came up while Dobson and her bandmates were working on the album. “I was adopted and just recently met my birth mother, and found out that I’m half-Mexican and half-Jewish,” Deep Sea Diver’s frontperson explained in press notes. “Discovering my heritage and learning things about myself that I never knew before really fed into that question of ‘Where do I belong?’” Simultaneously, Dobson rediscovered the sense of possibility, adventure and joy that she first felt when she started out as a 19 year-old.  “I think being signed at such a young age messed me up in terms of the expectations I put on myself,” she says. “Somewhere along the way I lost confidence in my own vision, but after making this record I feel a much larger freedom to go in whatever direction I want with my music.”

With Impossible Weight, Dobson hopes that others might reclaim a similar sense of freedom in their emotional lives. “Especially right now when the world is in disarray and there’s so much fear, I want this record to give people room to feel whatever they need to feel,” she says. “I hope it helps them recognize that it’s okay to fall apart, and that they’re meant to let others in instead of trying to work through everything on their own. Because the point is that the impossible weight isn’t yours to carry alone—that’s why it’s impossible.”

Signing to ATO was a significant step up for a band that had self-released its first two albums. The surge of resources resulted in a massive wave of exposure, including a spot on the Billboard charts. 

The Seattle-based outfit’s long-awaited and highly-anticipated fourth album, the 11-song, Dobson and Andy Park co-produced Billboard Heart is slated for a February 28, 2025 release through Sub Pop. The album reportedly puts the band– currently, Dobson, Mansen and Jackson — in the company of acts like St. Vincent, TV on the Radio,Flock of Dimes and others, that have found ornate and magnetic ways to make indie rock by discarding notions of how it must sound or what it must say. 

The album features additional production from Adam Schatz and additional contributions from The Shins‘ Yuuki Matthews, Caroline Rose and Greg Leisz. It was mixed by Park and mastered by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone. 

Some background is needed here: Back in July 2023 while recording in a Los Angeles-based studio, Dobson played a guitar solo but somehow felt nothing. Just a few days earlier, her band played a series of semi-secret shows for fans at a hometown bar, de facto rehearsals for cutting a new record. The sets had gone well, but almost immediately, the sessions didn’t. The songs’ essence seemed muddled, Dobson’s conviction lost somewhere in the 1,000 miles or so between Southern California and the Seattle-based home studio she shares with her spouse and frequent cowriter Peter Mansen. 

On that first night of recording sessions, Dobson broke down, wondering what she was doing there and what her band could do to fix it. For the first time in their history, the band retreated and headed home without a completed album. Did they need to scrap the entire thing and start again with new material? 

As it turned out, no. Following a brief break, Dobson found a renewed sense of self, a trust in her vision for her band and songs and her ability to capture them. After the Los Angeles hiccup a few months before, longtime collaborator and producer Andy Park asked Dobson how the new material was going over at an early fall dinner. She admitted that she needed help. And in that humbling confession, she seen found ways of working that helped her reimagine and reinvigorate the band — and directly led to their fourth album. 

For Dobson, the album is a triumph over self-doubt in which what initially felt like failure became an opportunity to find new freedom, belief, and even strength. 

As it turned out, Impossible Weight‘s massive success caused Dobson to doubt her impulses, and to begin thinking about what an idea’s impact or reception might be as much the strength of the idea itself. During this period of second-guessing, she and Mansen sat near the wide windows of their Seattle living room, with her on piano as he hammered a guitar nearby. Album track “See in the Dark” — a song about coveting your notions, despite the occasional sense they’re slipping away — emerged in that setting. 
 
That particular moment of domestic creation was essential for a number of reasons. Before Impossible Weight, Dobson and Mansen wrote many of Deep Sea Diver’s songs together; this was a return to that bond, which managed to carry over to more than half Billboard Heart‘s material. The pair began recording more at home, too. They borrowed microphones and a small batch of essential gear to record guitars and vocals in their basement. 

When discussions later began in earnest with Park, following the Los Angeles incident, Dobson began revisiting those earlier recordings, realizing that she had captured much of that ineffable spark at home, where the atmosphere was of her own design. Mansen and Park helped convince her that these wasn’t just good enough to use, but riveting in their realness. These early versions became templates to build upon and a frame, and a way for Dobson to believe again in the material, and most importantly, herself. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about “Shovel,” a Kate Bush-meets-St. Vincent-like tune anchored around buzzing and angular power chords, glistening synth arpeggios, relentless four-on-the-floor serving as a lush yet punchy bed for Dobson’s big, earnest vocal. Much like Impossible Weight, the new single sees the band crafting hook-driven arena rock friendly anthems informed by lived-in, personal yet somehow deeply universal experience. 

The album will feature the previous released album title track and “Let Me Go,”a slow-burning Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea-era PJ Harvey-like anthemic ballad that sees the ballad collaboration with Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Madison Cunningham.

Directed by the band’s Dobson and Tyler Kalberg and inspired by French New Wave films, the accompanying video for “Let Me Go” was filmed in and around Los Angeles on January 5, 2025 and follows Deep Sea Diver’s Dobson and Cunningham through a day in the life, hanging out and goofing off.

“I’ve been wanting to collaborate with Madison for a long time, and I was over the moon when this song came in such an unexpected moment,” Dobson says. “We were just jamming in the studio and I started playing a guitar riff that I’ve had kicking around since high school that Madison started immediately winding around on her guitar. We looped a drum machine that my co-producer Andy Park started playing and a few hours later most of the song was finished. This song felt effortlessly cool from the start; It reminds me of some of my favorite PJ Harvey songs, full of grit & power. We shot the music video with the same spirit, and as two LA natives who both love the city—we wanted to explore our hometown.  Not knowing that it was two days before the LA fires, it has subsequently taken on a new meaning as a love letter to the city we both adore.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Norwegian-born, Los Angeles-Based Alma Owren Shares Cinematic “Outcast”

Alma Owren is a 19 year-old Norwegian-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor, whose musical work is shaped by her synesthesia. Her music combines vivid soundscapes with powerful, emotion-driven storytelling rooted with vulnerable, relatable lyrics that will deeply resonate with listeners.

The Norwegian-born, Los Angeles-based artist’s debut EP Under the Surface will be released through AWAL. The EP’s first single “Outcast,” is a gorgeous folk pop tune that pairs an arrangement of strummed acoustic guitar, bursts of cinematic strings anchored by Owren’s gorgeous and emotive delivery.

The young artist explains that the song explores themes of isolation and identity through a cinematic soundscape.

Simply put, this young artist reveals a self-assuredness and emotional depth well beyond her relative young. I fully expect that she will have a big, bright future ahead of her.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Deep Sea Diver Shares Rousingly Anthemic “Shovel”

Led by Los Angeles-born, Seattle-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and frontperson Jessica Dobson, Seattle-based indie rock outfit Deep Sea Diver can trace its origins back to when Dobson was 19: Dobson, who has had stints  playing with a who’s who list of contemporary acts, including Beck, Conor Oberst, Spoon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Shins signed with Atlantic Records. While with Atlantic Records, Dobson wrote and recorded two albums that she wasn’t completely satisfied with. Atlantic shelved the material and ultimately dropped her.

After being dropped from Atlantic, Dobson wrote and recorded her solo debut EP New Caves as Deep Sea Diver. The project became a full-fledged band with the addition of members John Raines (bass) Dobson’s spouse Peter Mansen (drums), Garrett Gue (bass), and Elliot Jackson (guitar, synth), who helped to flesh out the project’s sound.

The Seattle-based band’s critically applauded third album, 2020’s Impossible Weight was released through High Beam Records/ATO Records and followed a busy year of touring with Wilco and Joseph to support their second album, 2016’s Secrets. “We went into the studio pretty quickly after the tour ended, and I sort of hit a wall where I was feeling very detached from making music, and unable to find joy in it,” Dobson recalls in press notes. “I realized I had to try to rediscover my voice as a songwriter, and figure out the vocabulary for what I needed to say on this album.”

Stepping back from music and the studio, Dobson focused on dealing with the depression she had been struggling with, and soon started volunteering at Aurora Commons, a drop-in center for unhoused people, most whom are drug-dependent and frequently engage in street-survival-based sex work. “I spent a lot of time with the women who frequent the Commons, and it taught me a new depth of empathy,” she says. “They’re people who don’t have the luxury of going back to a home at the end of the day and hiding behind those four walls, so they’re sort of forced to be vulnerable with what their needs are. Talking with them and listening to them really freed me up to start writing about things I’d never written about before in my songs.”

Co-produced by Dobson and Andy D. Park and recorded at Seattle’s Studio X and The Hall of Justice, Impossible Weight found Dobson and her bandmates digging far deeper emotionally than they had ever before — and pairing that emotionality with a bigger, more grandiose sound. While showcasing Dobson’s dexterous and forceful guitar work, the album’s overall lush textures and mercurial arrangements allow room for Dobson to fully demonstrate her vocal range in a way that she hadn’t before. “’I’d never produced a record before and I started out with low expectations for myself, but at some point I realized, ‘I can do this,’” Dobson recalls. “I decided to completely trust my voice and make really bold decisions in all my production calls—just push everything to the absolute outer edges.”

For Dobson redefining the limits of her artistry went hand-in-hand with deeper identity issues that came up while Dobson and her bandmates were working on the album. “I was adopted and just recently met my birth mother, and found out that I’m half-Mexican and half-Jewish,” Deep Sea Diver’s frontperson explained in press notes. “Discovering my heritage and learning things about myself that I never knew before really fed into that question of ‘Where do I belong?’” Simultaneously, Dobson rediscovered the sense of possibility, adventure and joy that she first felt when she started out as a 19 year-old.  “I think being signed at such a young age messed me up in terms of the expectations I put on myself,” she says. “Somewhere along the way I lost confidence in my own vision, but after making this record I feel a much larger freedom to go in whatever direction I want with my music.”

With Impossible Weight, Dobson hopes that others might reclaim a similar sense of freedom in their emotional lives. “Especially right now when the world is in disarray and there’s so much fear, I want this record to give people room to feel whatever they need to feel,” she says. “I hope it helps them recognize that it’s okay to fall apart, and that they’re meant to let others in instead of trying to work through everything on their own. Because the point is that the impossible weight isn’t yours to carry alone—that’s why it’s impossible.”

Signing to ATO was a significant step up for a band that had self-released its first two albums. The surge of resources resulted in a massive wave of exposure, including a spot on the Billboard charts.

The Seattle-based outfit’s long-awaited and highly-anticipated fourth album, the 11-song, Dobson and Andy Park co-produced Billboard Heart is slated for a February 28, 2025 release through Sub Pop. The album, which features the previously released album title track and “Let Me Go,” a collaboration with Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Madison Cunningham reportedly puts the band– currently, Dobson, Mansen and Jackson — in the company of acts like St. Vincent, TV on the Radio, Flock of Dimes and others, that have found ornate and magnetic ways to make indie rock by discarding notions of how it must sound or what it must say.

The album features additional production from Adam Schatz and additional contributions from The Shins‘ Yuuki Matthews, Caroline Rose and Greg Leisz. It was mixed by Park and mastered by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone.

Some background is needed here: Back in July 2023 while recording in a Los Angeles-based studio, Dobson played a guitar solo but somehow felt nothing. Just a few days earlier, her band played a series of semi-secret shows for fans at a hometown bar, de facto rehearsals for cutting a new record. The sets had gone well, but almost immediately, the sessions didn’t. The songs’ essence seemed muddled, Dobson’s conviction lost somewhere in the 1,000 miles or so between Southern California and the Seattle-based home studio she shares with her spouse and frequent cowriter Peter Mansen.

On that first night of recording sessions, Dobson broke down, wondering what she was doing there and what her band could do to fix it. For the first time in their history, the band retreated and headed home without a completed album. Did they need to scrap the entire thing and start again with new material?

As it turned out, no. Following a brief break, Dobson found a renewed sense of self, a trust in her vision for her band and songs and her ability to capture them. After the Los Angeles hiccup a few months before, longtime collaborator and producer Andy Park asked Dobson how the new material was going over at an early fall dinner. She admitted that she needed help. And in that humbling confession, she seen found ways of working that helped her reimagine and reinvigorate the band — and directly led to their fourth album.

For Dobson, the album is a triumph over self-doubt in which what initially felt like failure became an opportunity to find new freedom, belief, and even strength.

As it turned out, Impossible Weight‘s massive success caused Dobson to doubt her impulses, and to begin thinking about what an idea’s impact or reception might be as much the strength of the idea itself. During this period of second-guessing, she and Mansen sat near the wide windows of their Seattle living room, with her on piano as he hammered a guitar nearby. Album track “See in the Dark” — a song about coveting your notions, despite the occasional sense they’re slipping away — emerged in that setting.
 
That particular moment of domestic creation was essential for a number of reasons. Before Impossible Weight, Dobson and Mansen wrote many of Deep Sea Diver’s songs together; this was a return to that bond, which managed to carry over to more than half Billboard Heart‘s material. The pair began recording more at home, too. They borrowed microphones and a small batch of essential gear to record guitars and vocals in their basement.

When discussions later began in earnest with Park, following the Los Angeles incident, Dobson began revisiting those earlier recordings, realizing that she had captured much of that ineffable spark at home, where the atmosphere was of her own design. Mansen and Park helped convince her that these wasn’t just good enough to use, but riveting in their realness. These early versions became templates to build upon and a frame, and a way for Dobson to believe again in the material, and most importantly, herself.

The album’s latest single “Shovel” is a Kate Bush-meets-St. Vincent-like tune anchored around buzzing and angular power chords, glistening synth arpeggios, relentless four-on-the-floor serving as a lush yet punchy bed for Dobson’s big, earnest vocal. Much like Impossible Weight, the new single sees the band crafting hook-driven arena rock friendly anthems informed by lived-in, personal yet somehow deeply universal experience.

Directed by Tyler Kalberg, Jessica Dobson, Peter Mansen, the accompanying video for “Shovel” follows the members of Deep Sea Diver in a red pickup truck driving to the woods to ostensibly bury something — or someone — or to find something under the cover of night and in the halogen glow of headlights. As Dobson is shoveling, she expressively dances and bops around. It’s brooding, cinematic and yet it’s quite playful.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Charm School Shares Krautrocky “Happiness Is A Warm Sun”

Louisville, KY-born and-based singer/songwriter and musician Andrew Sellers, a.k.a. Andrew Rinehart has paid his dues in both New York’s and Los Angeles‘ DIY music scenes. His various bands have played with acts like Joan of Arc, Grizzly Bear and At The Drive-In.

Sellers’ latest project Charm School, which features longtime collaborators Matt Flip, Drew English, Brian Vega and Jason Bemis Lawrence signals a move away from his previous efforts, including his recent duet with Bonnie Prince Billy, and towards a much darker, more aggressive sound that sounds a bit like 70s post punk and No Wave with a bit of 90s post rock.

Charm School’s debut EP, Finite Jest was released earlier this year to praise from Queen City Sounds & Art and Post-punk.com among others. Building upon a growing profile, the project’s full-length debut, Debt Forever is slated for a January 24, 2025 release. The album’s latest single “Happiness Is A Warm Sun” is reportedly even more of a departure from an aesthetic that’s more along the lines of METZ and Protomartyr, and sees the band locking into a tight and jammy krautrock groove with swirling guitar textures paired with Sellers’ adopted Lou Reed-like singsongy delivery.

“This song is kind of an outlier on the record,” the band explains. It’s the only song that was basically improvised in the studio, and the only one where the lyrics were written sort of ‘automatically.’  They’re all ideas that have been swirling around in the collective unconscious for awhile now, pertaining to the intense state of the world: the rise of fascism, ongoing wars, financial pressure, overpopulation, media at a million miles per hour, the spectre of the algorithm, the total lack of empathy online, etc.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Los Angeles’ Jawdropped Shares Fuzzy Power Pop Anthem “Star”

Los Angeles-based outfit Jawdropped — Roman Zangari (vocals, guitar), Kyra Morling (vocals, tambourine), Sam Edwards (bass) and Joe Fastigi (drums) — features grizzled scene vets, who each come to their newest project together from a trail of previous projects, including Alms, The Shaking Hands, jerseygirl, Destiny Inn and others. Connecting through their involvement run the local DIY scene and their mutual respect and admiration for each other’s work, the band has quickly built up buzz for pairing tongue-in-cheek lyrics with catchy hooks and melodies in a way that recalls early 90s alt rock.

Adding to the growing buzz surrounding the band, they’ve opened for Chanel Beads, Fish Narc, PHF and others. And they recently signed to Fire Talk Records‘ imprint Angel Tapes, who also released their debut single “Star.” “Star” is a Dinosaur, Jr.-like bit of power pop featuring fuzzy, distortion pedaled power chords, thunderous drumming, big catchy hooks and saccharine sweet boy-girl harmonies. And while nostalgia-inducing for the old heads out there, the song is rooted in a subtly modern sensibility, much like bands like Glimmer and others.

“Star” presents the age-old tale of small-town girl moving to the big city to follow her dreams. But she swept up in the city’s seedy underbelly, partying and strung out on coke — like a star!

Directed by Jack Dione of untitled (halo), the accompanying video is a shot on supersaturated and grainy VHS-styled visual that captures the band’s goofy, freewheeling energy while following them through the streets of their hometown.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Droid Metal Share sultry Debut “Pleather”

Giuliano Pizzulo is a Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and musician, whose career started in earnest with a stint in the acclaimed indie rock outfit Incan Abraham, an act that received praise from the likes of Pitchfork, NPR and Spin. Since then Pizzulo has spent the past decade as a touring musician for Lorde, Childish Gambino and Passion Pit.

Pizzulo’s solo recording project, Droid Metal sees the acclaimed Los Angeles-based musician crafting a sound that meshes elements of 90s rave music, industrial electronica and pop. His Droid Metal debut “Pleather” is a synthesis of Downward Spiral-era Nine Inch Nails and Tweekend-era The Crystal Method and JOVM mainstay Blak Emoji featuring dense layers of woozy synths and skittering breakbeats paired with Pizzulo’s sultry falsetto.

The acclaimed Los Angeles-based artist explains that the song came out of a dance with a dangerous muse that took him to some new, illicit places both literally and metaphorically.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Soccer Mommy Shares Lush and Swooning “Abigail”

Acclaimed Nashville-based singer/songwriter and musician Sophie Allison will be releasing her fifth Soccer Mommy album Evergreen on Friday through Loma Vista Recordings.

Allison’s career started in earnest as a teenager, sharing near-demo form tracks on Bandcamp. The past handful of years, have found her employing the use of synthesizers and experimental production techniques, thanks to the endless studio resources she newly found at her fingertips. But when she started to write the material that would become Evergreen, Allison knew they called for different touch.

Songwriting has always been the acclaimed Nashville-based artist’s way to sort through life and to ground herself. And she was crafting the album in the wake of a profound and personal loss, it felt important to her to keep the material raw and relatable, unvarnished and honest. So, she opted for a much more organic production, which helped to shine a spotlight on her songwriting. The Ben H. Allen III-produced album was recorded at Atlanta’s Maze Studios and is a sonic return to the project’s roots, but recast on a cinematic scale through the use of acoustic guitar and lush string and flute arrangements.

Allison’s intention for the album was “to feel like you’re laying outside, eyes closed, the sun is on you, and you can feel the warmth & flowers & trees.” It’s appreciation that even in your darkest place, a sunny day can wash over you and lift your spirits. And with that as inspiration, this week Allison will be sharing an exclusive early first listen of Evergreen with fans, who can get to a lush outdoor location, like a backyard or a park. Starting tomorrow, Soccer Mommy fans can head to their nearest park and click open this link to access the early album listening experience.

The album’s final pre-release single “Abigail” is a lush and swooning love song that captures the desire, longing and hope of a newfound love — in this case, Allison’s purple-haired wife in the game Stardew Valley — with a lived-in earnestness.

The ConcernedApe-inspired music video, features Allison’s Stardew Valley avatar trying to court her true love.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ Reindeer Flotilla Shares Wistful and Brooding “Today”

Los Angeles-based duo Reindeer Flotilla — Neal Harris (vocals, keys) and Josh Brown (guitar) — started jamming together in the basement of an Atwater Village wine store, playing covers of John Carpenter, Brian Eno and Elliot Smith. Those early days playing covers helped the ban develop their own sound anchored around synths and guitar, which they’ve managed to further refine through the release of a batch of singles and two studio albums.

The duo’s latest single “Today” is a swaying and shoegazey bit of New Wave or a New Wavey bit of shoegaze featuring glistening synths, reverb-soaked guitar textures paired with Harris’ wistful croon. The result is a song that seems indebted to Yes‘ “Owner of a Lonely Heart” and Avalon-era Roxy Music.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Nature Loves Courage Shares Sleek and Dance Floor Friendly “Elevation”

Initially starting her career as a singer/songwriter and pianist, who drew comparisons to Annie Lennox and Kate Bush, McKenna Rowe (vocals, keys) found herself increasingly driven by an obsession with samples and beats when she founded the Los Angeles-based pop outfit Nature Loves Courage back in 2020 as a way to create her own take on lush, atmospheric grooves, inspired by the likes of Massive Attack and others. Rowe recruited Jacob Bergman (bass), Garrett Smith (drums) and Joe De Sa (guitar) to flesh out and polish the project’s overall sound.

The quartet aims to bridge electronic soundscapes with a dynamic rock sound, enveloping the listener in a pseudo live experience. Typically, the band’s material counterbalances airy string and piano arrangements with quirky synths and heavy rock and funk-inspired riffs.

Nature Loves Courage’s recently released and aptly named EP III managers to encapsulate the band’s sound and approach while seemingly drawing from Annie Lennox, Blondie, The Chemical Brothers and LCD Soundsystem. Thematically, the EP’s material dives into a completely storyline while touching upon heartbreak, practicing kindness to one another and more.

III EP‘s lead single “Elevation” is a dance floor friendly bop featuring a supple and funky bass line, twinkling, Larry Levan-like synth arpeggios and bursts of Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar paired with Rowe’s sultry pop starlet delivery and remarkably catchy hooks. Sonically meshing elements of house music and dance pop, “Elevation” thematically nudges the listener towards practicing some much-needed kindness towards others.

The Los Angeles-based quartet collaborated with Holy Smoke Photography on the accompanying video, which sees the band playfully experiment with animation to express different versions of themselves in a Nature Loves Courage multiverse.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ Steel Wool Shares “120 Minutes” era MTV-like “Eyes Closed”

Los Angeles-based shoegazers Steel Wool — Sean Lissner (vocals, guitar), Jaden Amjadi (bass, screaming), Evan Landi (drums) and Sam Schlesinger (guitar) — sonically find themselves splitting the difference between drawing from early post punk and sheogaze revival, blending ethereal synths and fuzzed out guitars to create soft yet abrasive anthems for sitting in traffic on the 101.

The quartet’s debut single, “Eyes Closed” features atmospheric synths, fuzzy and swirling guitar textures, reverb-soaked boom bap-like drums paired with plaintive and earnest vocals and big hooks. While seemingly indebted to the 120 Minutes era MTV alt rock-like sound that many of us love and remember, the Los Angeles-based outfit’s debut single sees the them subtly pushing the boundaries of shoegaze in a way that reminds me of BLACKSTONE RNGRS and others.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Frankie and the Witch Fingers Return with a Dystopian, DEVO-like Ripper

Since initially forming in Bloomington, IN over a decade ago, the acclaimed Los Angeles-based psych rock outfit and JOVM mainstays Frankie and the Witch Fingers — currently founding duo Dylan Sizemore (vocals, guitar) and Josh Menashe (lead guitar, synth), along with Death Valley Girls‘ Nikki “Pickle” Smith (bass) and Mike Watt’s Nick Aguilar (drums) — have a long-held reputation for restless experimentation rooted in the multiple permutations of their lineups, and for a high-powered, scuzzy, garage and thrash punk take on psych rock paired with absurdist lyrics frequently fueled by dreams, hallucinations, paranoia and lust. The result is material that can shift between mischievousness and menace. 

Last year’s Data Doom was primarily built around the cerebral yet visceral songwriting of the band’s co-founders while marking the first batch of written and recorded material featuring the band’s Smith and Aguilar. While crafting what may arguably be their most rhythmically complex work to date, the band drew influence from each member’s distinct sensibilities: Smith tapped into her extensive background in West African drumming, an art form she first discovered through her music instructor parents. Aguilar leaned into formative influences like longtime Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen.

Self-produced by the proudly DIY-minded band and recorded direct to tape by the band’s Menashe, Data Doom ultimately took shape through countless sessions in their Southeast L.A.-based rehearsal space, with the band allowing themselves unlimited time to explore their gloriously strange impulses. “There was no pressure and no real time constraint for this record, and because of that the creativity flowed in a very free way that probably wouldn’t have happened if we’d been on the clock in a studio,” Frankie and the Witch’s Dylan Sizemore says in press notes. “It showed us that the more we take the time to communicate and share our ideas with each other, the more it feeds our creative energy and helps us to make something we’re all really excited about.”

Last month, I wrote about “Bonehead,” a scuzzy, mosh pit friendly ripper that begins with a menacing opening groove that quickly drops into a distorted, double-time cacophony of blistering power chords, thunderous drums, bursts of quivering synths paire with rousingly anthemic hooks and punchily delivered vocals. 

“’Bonehead’ is a primitive, buzzy thumper, raw and stripped down,” the band says. “In a world where it’s easy to add more, we had a blast cooking out the junk and keeping it potent and pure. We wanted to capture the chaotic energy of those unfiltered live moments. Recorded the basics in one take, warts and all.

Thrashing around with a crowd of free spirits reminds us we can push back against the parasitic noise trying to keep us controlled—this is a little slice of that in recorded form.”

“i-Candy,” is the double AA side single to the previously released “Bonehead.” Beginning with a bleep and bloop-driven synth groove and propulsive drumming, “i-Candy” quickly turns into a bombastic, churning Devo-meets-King Gizz-like ripper. It’s nerdy — but goddamn it, it’s also blood thirsty.

“Bleeps and bloops tightly wound around a precise dystopian punk nodder, these were the magic digits we needed to punch in to bring ‘i-Candy’ to life,” the band explains. “This was one of the first songs to emerge from the incubator of recent demos. ‘i-Candy’ is a female sex robot, she isn’t programmed for any man’s need; she’s out to clean up the streets and settle the score in blood.” 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Frankie and the Witch Fingers Share a Scuzzy Ripper

Since initially forming in Bloomington, IN over a decade ago, the acclaimed Los Angeles-based psych rock outfit and JOVM mainstays Frankie and the Witch Fingers — currently founding duo Dylan Sizemore (vocals, guitar) and Josh Menashe (lead guitar, […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay TR/ST Shares Brooding and Uneasy “Performance”

Toronto-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and producer Robert Alfons is the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed JOVM mainstay project TR/ST. For well over a decade, Alfons has captivated audiences with a unique blend of dynamic vocals, emotive lyrics and late night sensuality. 

Alfons’ fifth TR/ST album, the TR/ST and Nightfeelings co-produced Performance is slated for a Friday release through Dais Records. The album’s title alludes to a friend’s offhand remark about the Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based artist’s intrinsically performative nature. Recorded in Los Angeles, the album’s material reportedly seethes with dread, lust, reckoning and abandon. Sonically, the production pair achieved a thick, smoky balance of eerie synths and fog machine low end paired with bruised, crooning vocals. The result is an album of material that moves between beauty and bitterness, rousing anthems and crushing anguish rooted by emotional turmoil, the lingering ghosts of guilt and the memories of those wronged and those still unforgiven. 

Alfons’ voice is the anchor in the storm, singing a collage of impressions and confessions with a smeared, stream of consciousness logic. He’s both observer and instigator, performer and playwright, liberated by the stage and the night.

Last month, I wrote about the Cecile Believe and Nightfeelings co-produced “Dark Day,” an ethereal yet uneasy track featuring eerily atmospheric and glistening synth arpeggios, skittering industrial clang and clatter serving as a foggy and unsettlingly brooding bed for Alfons’ bruised and aching vocal. “I think there’s something in the song about the flashes that come to you when you try to fall asleep, flashes that show you where you have unfinished business,” Alfons says of the song. “It was such a pleasure working with Cecile Believe and Nightfeelings on production for this track.”

Performance‘s latest single, album title track “Performance” continues a run of brooding and uneasy material, anchored around a foggy, strobe-lit fueled production featuring bursts of glistening synth arpeggios, skittering, reverb-soaked beats. Alfons’ aching and bruised delivery ethereally floats over the menacing soundscape.

Directed and edited by Bryan M. Ferguson and featuring cinematography by George Harwood, the accompanying video for “Performance” follows Alfons as he arrives at a grim karaoke bar. While he’s lost in his own performance, the sparse crowd is lost in their thoughts. You can almost feel the despair through the screen.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Bohemian Cristal Instrument Shares Gorgeous Teaser for “New Nature”

Splitting her time between Los Angeles and the Czech Republic, the Czech-born singer/songwriter, producer and musician Lenka Moravkova is the creative mastermind behind the indie electro pop project My Name Is Ann and the solo experimental electro pop project  Bohemian Cristal Instrument. 

The Czech-born artist hails from the Bohemia region of the Czech Republic, a region famed for its glass industry. Inspired by the region’s history, Morakova created several striking multimedia installations based on the sound of local glass factories during their decline. Those installations also helped inspire and inform the Czech-born artist’s Bohemian Cristal Instrument project — and the unique instrument at the center of the project. 

In the early 1950s, siblings Bernard and François Baschet developed a new instrument, the Cristal Baschet. With a Cristal Bachet, metal rods are embedded into a heavy plate to form the elements. Each metal rod is accompanied by an attached glass rod. The metal rod’s length, weight and position at the equilibrium point help to determine the sound’s pitch. The player gently strokes and/or rubs the glass rods with wet fingertips. Moravkova’s Bohemian Cristal Instrument is a unique version of the Baschet’s Cristal Baschet that follows the Czech-born artist’s original design. With her unique instrument, the Czech-born artist creates immersive and hypnotic soundscapes that pair the otherworldly acoustics of the Bohemian Cristal Instrument with ambient and pulsating electronics and her vocals. 

2017-2019 was a busy, breakthrough period for the Czech-born artist: In 2017 she went on her first European tour, which included a one-off collaboration with William Close and The Earth Harp Collective as a headliner at that year’s Colours of Ostrava. She performed at a TEDx Talk and with Grammy-nominated artist Bora Yoon at Los Angeles’ The Broad Museum. Live footage of Moráková in the California desert went viral, amassing over two million views. 

UNICODE EP, Maravkova’s Bohemian Cristal Instrument debut was released in 2018. The following year, she performed at Eurosonic Nooderslag. She was shortlisted for SXSW twice — back in 2020 and in 2022. 

Maravkova’s latest single, the slow-burning “New Nature” is the first single from her upcoming Bohemian Cristal Instrument full-length debut. “New Nature” continues a run of dreamily ambient yet remarkably cinematic and gorgeous material. Featuring gently oscillating synths, broodingly ambient electronics, twinkling keys and the lush theremin-like tones of Moravkova’s unique instrument, “New Nature” according to the Czech-born artist is set in a post-human world, where technology, humanity and nature are all merged to create a new unity. While the song acts as the soundtrack to a post-apocalyptic landscape, it offers a sense of a bright, hopeful future.

Along with the single, Maravkova shares a breathtakingly gorgeous video teaser, which manages to evoke the hopeful and futuristic sweep of the accompanying cinematic song and her gorgeous Bohemian Cristal Instrument, suggesting that she becomes one with her instrument.