Rodes Rollins is Boulder, CO-born pop artist, who has spent time living abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina and now currently splits her time between New York and Los Angeles. Her latest EP Young Adult was produced by Alex Goose, who has worked with Kevin Gates and Weezer, and the material on the EP is largely inspired by her experiences living about while also thematically focusing on the fleeting nature of beauty and youth — and as a result, as you’ll hear on the EP’s latest single “Young & Thriving,” the material possesses a wistful sense of nostalgia, acceptance and wonder over the circumstances and people that inform and influence one’s life. And it’s paired with a sexy and subtly Spaghetti Western, psych pop sound reminiscent of Betty Black.
Tag: Los Angeles CA
New Video: Scavenger Hunt’s “Stranger Things” and 80s Pop Inspired Sounds and Visuals for “Never Enough”
If you’ve been frequenting this site, you may recall that I wrote about “River Runs Dry,” a single off the duo’s soon to be released Shapes and Outlines EP — and that particular single found the band managing to mesh anthemic and swooning 80s-inspired synth pop with a slick, contemporary production with Lamoureaux’s sultry pop-star belter vocals. The EP’s latest single “Never Enough” is a mid-tempo bit of anthemic synth pop that sounds as though it were inspired by the likes of contemporary acts like St. Lucia and others, thanks in part to the use of chiming percussion that emphasizes the song’s hook, sinuous bass line, some Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar. Of course, I think the single will help to further cement the duo’s burgeoning reputation for crafting slick, anthemic and radio friendly electro pop with an heartfelt and swooning earnestness.
The recently released music video draws influence from both the hit Netflix show Stranger Things and from MTV-era pop videos but with an equally slick production and visual value.
Led by frontwoman Daiana Feuer and comprised of a constantly rotating cast of collaborators, musicians, and friends in a configuration that can vary between three and 12 different members, the Los Angeles, CA-based band Bloody Death Skull not only will likely win an award for best Halloween-themed band name in recent memory, the members of the band consider the band a wild fusion between performance art project and actual band. Sonically and aesthetically, the band has received attention for employing the chord progressions and song structures of early rock, R&B and soul, unusual instrumentation including ukulele, toys and other instrumentation, a punk rock sensibility and taboo-breaking lyrics focusing on love, daydreams, the cosmos, television, dead things, cute things (sometimes dead, cute things), existential crises and being a perpetual teenager forever.
Clocking in at 139 seconds, “Betsy’s Back” off the band’s recently released The Haunting of Bloody Death Skull EP sounds as though it could have been released in 1962 as the single features hand clap-led percussion, jangling guitar chords, a propulsive and rollicking rhythm section, bratty yet incredibly infectious melodies, a blistering early rock, guitar solo with Feuer’s sultry and ominous vocals that give a mischievous song an underlying sense of swaggering menace as Betsy has come back to get bloody revenge on those who have wronged her.
New Audio: clipping’s Vicious Anti-Donald Trump Diss Track “Fat Fingers”
Recently, the trio participated in the 30 Songs, 30 Days project, contributing a vicious and scathing anti-Donald Trump diss track “Fat Fingers” in which Diggs references Nas’ legendary diss track “Ether” and the Canadian anthem “O, Canada” to a sparse yet forcefully minimalist production featuring a sample of people whislting the melody of the Canadian anthem, boom bap-beats, industrial clang and clatter. Fuck Donald Trump and everything about him and his family!
If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of years, you’ve certainly been very familiar with Toronto, ON-born, New York-based singer/songwriter and electro pop artist Joanie Wolkoff, who has long been a JOVM mainstay, thanks to her work in a number of attention-winning projects including Her Habits, her solo work as Wolkoff, collaborations with The Hood Internet and others, as well as Gemology, a project Wolkoff began with the then-New York-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Natasha Chitayat, who has since relocated to Los Angeles. Now, it’s been a while since we’ve last heard from the duo as a writing and recording unit, as the aforementioned Wolkoff and Chitayat have been busy with a variety of other creative pursuits; however, the duo recently reconvened to write and record their latest single “Come Again.”
As for “Come Again,” Wolkoff’s ethereal vocals float over a dramatic and slow-burning production consisting of shimmering and twinkling synths, tweeter and woofer rocking boom-bap like beats, stuttering and skittering drum programming, warm blasts of guitar and a sinuous bass line. Underneath the shimmering surface is a slowly swooning and euphoric giddiness over stumbling on to someone (whether as a friend or a lover) with whom you speak the same language, and with whom you find an instant and profound connection — and it comes about easily, frequently without explanation; it just is and always will be. But there’s also an underlying uncertainty that comes from the fact that relationships can be endlessly frustrating and short-lived; that sometimes there are moments in which you feel that maybe you’re not quite ready to give yourself — and you find that you’re freely and happily giving yourself. But no matter what, considering how frustrating and confusing relationships of any sort can be, lucky and are are those who find such a profound connection.
Live Concert Photography: La Sera and Springtime Carnivore at Mercury Lounge 10/22/16
Live Footage: clipping Performing “Taking Off” at Moog Sound Lab
clipping’s latest effort “Splendor & Misery”, is a Sci-Fi dystopian concept album that is both futuristic and yet describes our increasingly frightening and bizarre time. And since the release of the album I’ve written about its first three singles “Baby Don’t Sleep,” “Air ‘Em Out” and “A Better Place” and each single manage to further cement the trio’s reputation for pairing minimalist and industrial productions with Diggs’ rapid fire rhyming — but at points the material reveals a subtle refinement of their sound in which at times the material is both melodic and radio-friendly, while evoking the impending apocalypse or the immensity, senselessness and indifference of the universe, the nature of man’s mind and so on.
Recently the trio was invited to Moog Sound Lab to perform “Taking Off” off Splendor & Misery and the video reveals how the trio creates their eerily fucked and hellish sonic vision live — in the case of this song clattering and clinking synths, stuttering drum programming are paired with Diggs ridiculously dexterous rhyming, in which he rhymes about gangstas riding rockets into the sky by getting fucked up in a parking lot, late at night, surreal, almost disconnected violence. And of course they do so while using a ton of really awesome Moog gear.
Currently comprised of founding member Brazilian-born and now Los Angeles, CA-based Samira Winter (vocals), Matt Hogan (guitar), Justine Brown (bass), and Garren Orr (drums), indie dream pop/shoegaze act Winter can trace their origins to when Winter along with the band’s co-founder Nolan Ely started the band in Boston. After the release of their 2012 debut effort Daydreaming EP, Winter relocated to Los Angeles where she recruited the band’s current lineup to flesh out the project’s sound.
As a newly formed quartet, the members of the band went into the studio to write and record their full-length debut Supreme Blue Dream, which Lolipop Records released last year. With material written and sung in both English and Brazilian Portuguese, the album thematically was designed to connect the listener to their inner child while writing shimmering and ethereal pop that interestingly enough sounds as though it could have been released by 4AD Records.
The band is working on their forthcoming sophomore effort Ethereality while making a number of tour dates, which you can check out below. But interestingly enough, the Los Angeles dream pop act’s latest single “Dreaming” was originally written in 2013 and was presumed lost when the band’s laptop was stolen on tour. However, the members of the band recovered a version of a song found on a backup hard drive — and the single will further cement the band’s growing reputation for crafting shimmering and ethereal pop in which Winter’s ethereal melodies are paired with shimmering guitar chords played through reverb pedal, a sinuous bass line and propulsive drumming. Sonically, the song evokes being woken from a pleasant and revelatory reverie.
Check out the aforementioned tour dates below.
Tour Dates:
October 18 Los Angeles, CA – Bootleg Theater *
October 21 San Francisco, CA – Slims #
November 5 San Diego, CA – Blonde Bar ~
November 6 Fullerton, CA – Continental Room ~
* = w/ Ducktails, Ablebody (Record Release), Wyatt Blair
# = w/ Picture Atlantic
~ = w/ So Many Wizards
New Video: Smoke Season’s Sultry, Synth Pop Cover of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer”
Just in time for the Halloween season, the members of Smoke Season released a minimalist synth pop cover of one of my favorite Talking Heads songs “Psycho Killer” in which Wortman’s sultry vocals are paired with cascading layers of shimmering synths, glitchy and stuttering drum programming and wobbling low end. And while the Talking Heads version conveyed a tense and anxious neurosis, the Smoke Season version makes losing one’s mind and killing darkly sexy — much like the visuals for the song, which features Wortman and Rosen dressed in tuxedos with scenes of modern dancers, dancing to the song, footage of trees coming into and out of shadow and the like.
New Video: Zig Zags Returns with Another Blistering, Face-Melting, Anthemic and 80s Metal Inspired New Single and Video
Running Out of Red’s third and latest single “They Came For Us” continue on the same vein as its preceding two singles — enormous, face-melting power chords, thundering drumming and rousingly anthemic hooks paired with lyrics that focus on horror movie themes. And every time I’ve heard this song, I can envision the metalheads at Clem’s, (un-iroinically) headbanging and shouting along with upraised beers and fists.
The recently released music video employs the use of suicidal cult imagery — and in some way, it reveals the dangers of blind obedience and conformity, while also pointing at the lunacy of following an ignorant, narcissistic, power hungry, greedy, authoritarian blowhard like Donald Trump.
With the release of lead single “Atlantis,” off her forthcoming and highly-anticipated EP Nemesis, Los Angeles, CA-based singer/songwriter and actress Bridgit Mendler first caught the attention of the blogosphere for a sound that possesses elements of hip hop, glitchy and contemporary electro pop, R&B and dancehall — and as a result, the track hit #2 on Spotify‘s Viral Chart, #1 on Hype Machine , garnered over 3 million streams across all digital streaming services and received praise from the likes of MTV, Nylon, Stereogum and Pigeons and Planes. And when you hear the song you’ll see why it burned up the internet charts as the slow-burning song pairs Mendler’s breathy coos with a slick, hyper modern production featuring stuttering drum programming, vocoder fed vocals, glitchy electronics, various bleeps, bloops and blips and twinkling synths and a flirtatious verse from Kaiydo. Sonically, the song is reminiscent of Abby Diamond‘s “Love to Watch You Leave” while nodding at Timbaland‘s revolutionary production — in other words, stuttering and bizarre angles while being airy and coquettish but underneath there’s an aching vulnerability.
Recently, young and renowned, Philadelphia, PA-based producer Tunji Ige remixed Mendler’s blogosphere burning single, pairing Mendler’s breathy coos with swaggering, tweeter and woofer rattling beats, glitchy electronics turning the song into a stomping, trap music-leaning club banger while retaining the original’s vulnerability. Check out how it differs from the original below.
If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past two years or so, you may be familiar with Chicago, IL and Los Angeles, CA-based distributor Permanent Records and RidingEasy Records collaborative series of 60s and 70s proto-metal, pre-stoner rock compilations Brown Acid: The First Trip and Brown Acid: The Second Trip.
Interestingly, RidingEasy Records’ Daniel Hall and Permanent records co-owner Lance Barresi spent a great deal of time not only just collecting and complain the singles on each volume of the compilation, they also spent time tracking down the songs’ creators, most frequently bands that haven’t been together in 30 or 40 years and encouraging them to take part in the entire process. As Barresi explained in press notes for the two compilations, “All of (these songs) could’ve been huge given the right circumstances. But for one reason or another most of these songs fell flat and were forgotten. However, time has been kind in my opinion and I think these songs are as good now or better than they ever were.” And by having the artists participate it can give the songs and the artists a real second chance at success, if not some kind of attention for their work.
Follow the critical and commercial success of the first two volumes, RidingEasy Records and Permanent Records will be releasing the third volume of 60s and 70s proto-metal and pre-stoner rock, Brown Acid: The Third Trip, which is slated for an October 31, 2016 release.. Now, if you had stopped by this site earlier this year, you might recall that I wrote about the third compilation’s first single Grand Theft’s “Scream (It’s Eating Me Alive)” a song that seemed to nod at Led Zeppelin III and IV, Rush and The MC5 — in particular think of “Immigrant Song” “When the Levee Breaks” “Working Man” and “Kick Out the Jams” as the song possesses a bristling, swaggering fury. The compilation’s second and latest single Chook’s “Cold Feet” sounds as though it were the love child of Jimi Hendrix‘s “Fire,” Black Sabbath and Mountain‘s “Mississippi Queen” but with a shuffling, bluesy swagger, as the song is full of sexual innuendo and braggadocio and an incredible bass line.
DANGERS is a Los Angeles, CA-based hardcore punk trio, comprised of Alfred Brown IV (vocals), Justin Smith (guitar), Anthony Rivera (drums), Chris Conde (bass) and since their formation in 2005, the trio have developed a reputation for doing things in true DIY fashion — including playing basements, garages, living rooms, squats, banquet halls, high school auditoriums and countless other unusual set ups across the US, UK, Australia, Japan and Southeast Asia. Adding to that reputation, the trio released their first two, critically applauded full-length efforts through their own label, Vitriol Records; however, the band’s forthcoming third full-length effort, The Bend in the Break finds the band releasing the album through Topshelf Records, and with the album’s first single “Kiss With Spit,” finds the band expanding upon their sound while retaining the elements that first caught the blogosphere’s attention. Interestingly, “Kiss With Spit,” had the trio pairing layers of scuzzy and acidic guitar chords, thundering drumming, a persistent bass line and howled vocals in a way that sounds reminiscent of Melvins, Metz and Nirvana — in particular, think of “Dive,” “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” and “Breed,” complete with a tense, mosh pit worthy fury.
The album’s second and latest single, album title track “The Bend In The Break” continues along the vein of its predecessor — tense, angular power chord-based dirged in which thundering drumming, furiously howled vocals are paired with a shouted and anthemic hook in a song that structurally consists of loud and even louder sections. Interestingly, the song reminds me a bit of Sugar Army‘s 2009 release, The Parallels Amongst Ourselves but with an equally mosh pit worthy fury.
If you’re out on the West Coast throughout late October, check out the tour dates below. In the meantime, we’ll be awaiting some East Coast dates for the band.
TOUR DATES
* = w/ with Super Unison
OCT 20 – San Francisco, CA @ Thee Parkside
OCT 21 – Oakland, CA @ 1234 Go! Records *
OCT 22 – Los Angeles, CA @ TBD
OCT 23 – Los Angeles, CA @ All-Star Lanes *
NOV 10 – Portland, OR @ Blackwater
NOV 11 – Tacoma, WA @ Real Art
NOV 12 – Seattle, WA @ The Black Lodge (w/ The Exquisites)
NOV 13 – Bremerton, WA @ The Tiki House (matinee show)
New Video: The Darkly Comic Visuals for Bridgit Mendler’s Blogosphere Dominating Single “Atlantis”
The slow-burning song pairs Mendler’s breathy coos with a slick, hyper modern production featuring stuttering drum programming, vocoder fed vocals, glitchy electronics, various bleeps, bloops and blips and twinkling synths and a flirtatious verse from Kaiydo. Sonically, the song is reminiscent of Abby Diamond’s “Love to Watch You Leave” while nodding at Timbaland’s revolutionary production — in other words, stuttering and bizarre angles while being airy and coquettish but underneath there’s an aching vulnerability.
The video was produced by Allie Avital, who has produced videos for Chairlift, The Knocks and Autre Ne Veut, and as Bridgit Mendler explains in press notes “We found a concept that has both dark satirical and heart-aching moments. I break into my ex’s house and try to recreate our lost love while he is passed out. Even in the midst of fun and light moments in life, my heart is limp as his hand hits my knee while we dance in the kitchen. I’m a huge fan of Allie’s work but in addition to that, she is a smart and warm-hearted person that went above and beyond to make this project what it is.”
If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past few months, you may have come across a couple of posts on the somewhat mysterious Los Angeles, CA-based electro pop duo Sibling. Now you may recall that the duo received quite a bit of buzz with the release of their debut single “Easy,” and they followed it up with “Westside,” a single that had the duo paired a sparse production consisting of shimmering cascades of synths, an anthemic hook and pop belter vocals in a radio friendly song that swooned with a bittersweet longing. “Revolve,” which quickly followed may arguably be the most dramatic and cinematic song they’ve released as they paired a production featuring twinkling piano keys, undulating synths and swirling electronics with sultry pop star vocals.
The duo’s latest single “Rearview” will further cement the duo’s reputation for crafting earnest songs with anthemic, larger-than-life hooks and while sonically bearing an uncanny resemblance to the likes of Katy Perry, Sia and others as the song’s radio-friendly production features swirling electronics, stomping boom-bap drums and neon bright synths; however, despite the radio-friendly sound, the song possesses a bittersweet ache at its core, as the song’s narrator focuses on an desperate and unrequited love with a close friend — the sort in which the narrator is torn between the hurt of a love that can never be, the closeness that they have and the cherished memories they’ve made.