Tag: Los Angeles CA

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstays Allah-Las — Matthew Corriea (drums, vocals), Spencer Dunham (bass, guitar, vocals), Miles Michaud (guitar, organ, vocals) and Pedrum Siadatian (guitar, synth, vocals) can their origins to when its members first bonded over psych rock vinyl in the back room at Amoeba Records. And over the course of the past 15 years, the Los Angeles-based quartet have been busy: they’ve developed a reputation for alchemically blending surf rock with folk rock jangle and rock; they’ve built up their lauded music podcast Reverberation Radio; and their record label Calico Discos.

Naturally, a lot has changed throughout the years, and their forthcoming album Zuma 85 reportedly finds the quarter facing a new world with a wealth of new sounds.

The pandemic-induced downtime between 2020-2022 opened up space for the members of the band to focus on their own lives and interests, and the time to re-envision what their creative process could look like and be. When it was safe to reconvene, a sense of looseness proved to be pivotal. Instead of bringing finished songs to the studio, they arrived at Stinson Beach-based Panoramic House with sketches, ideas and riffs.

Working with co-producer Jeremy Harris, the band crafted and shaped the album’s material over the course of three sessions, which were then mixed in Los Angeles by frequent collaborator Jarvis Taveniere. It was clear to the band that the studio’s bucolic environment — observed through picture windows overlooking Stinson Beach and Bolinas Bay — would be conducive to creating Zuma 85‘s material. “We got in real late that first night of the first session,” Allah-Las’ Miles Michaud says. “It was around midnight. We had a quick intro and Jeremy had a bottle of wine. We had a little and he said, ‘You wanna start recording?’”

They wound up recording something. When the group reassembled the following morning to listen to what they recorded, they found the session’s first song “Right On Time” mostly finished. It managed to be unlike anything the band had ever recorded, but it felt entirely natural. “Everything just worked,” Michaud says. “That studio just pulls it out of you.”

Zuma 85 derives its title from a photo of an abandoned by California-based photographer John Divola. Selected by the band’s Matthew Correia, the band’s resident photography fan and graphic designer, the photo juxtaposes a visage of man-man chaos against the natural beauty of the West Coast. It served as a reference point for the album, a symbol for the band’s new era.

Sonically, Zuma 85 reportedly sees the band leaving the familiar territory of their previously released material and embracing newer influences like late-era Lou Reed and John Cale, Peter Ivers, early Brian Eno and Roxy Music, as well as textures borrowed from Japanese pop and loner-folk obscurities. Some of the album’s material touches on komische, others are antehmic and electronic boogie, and there are even prog rock inspired material.

Zuma 85‘s first single, album title track “Zuma 85” is a dreamy composition built around a glistening and looping guitar lines, twinkling percussion, a driving groove powered by relentless four-on-the-floor and atmospheric synth textures paired with an easy-going yet catchy groove. The end result is a trippy take on the komische sound.

The JOVM mainstays will be embarking on a lengthy international tour that features an August 4, 2023 stop at The Rockaway Hotel and a September 11, 2023 stop at Amsterdam’s Paradiso, one of the world’s great music venues. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

Tour Dates

6/15 – 17 – PiP Fest – Oslo, NO 

6/16 – Bergenfest (Bergenhus Fortress & Castle) – Bergen, NO 

6/17 – Pumpehuset – Copenhagen, DK 

6/20 – Slaktkrykan – Stockholm, SE 

6/22 – Selección Sonora @ Centro Cultural Ágora – A Coruna, Galicia, ES 

6/23 – Dabadaba – Donosti, ES 

6/24 – Tomavistas – Madrid, ES 

6/25 – Wheels & Waves – Biarritz, FR 

6/28 – Zeltival @ Tollhaus – Karlsruhe, DE 

8/3 – Levitate – Boston, MA 

8/4 – The Rockaway Hotel – Queens, NY 

8/30 – Mascotte – Zurich, CH 

9/1 – Room 2 – Glasgow, UK 

9/2 – Psych Fest – Manchester, UK 

9/3 – End Of The Road Festival – Salisbury, UK 

9/4 – Marble Factory – Bristol, UK 

9/6 – KOKO – London, UK 

9/7 – Chalk – Brighton, UK 

9/9 – Le Trianon – Paris, FR 

9/10 – Cactus – Bruges, BE 

9/11 – Paradiso – Amsterdam, NL 

9/13 – Huxleys – Berlin, DE 

9/14 – Muffathalle – Munich, DE

9/16 – Technopolis – Athens, GR 

10/23 – Crescent Room – Phoenix, AZ 

10/24 – Launch Pad – Albuquerque, AZ 

10/26 – Ferris Wheelers Backyard – Dallas, TX 

10/29 – Belly Up – Aspen, CO 

10/31 – Metro Music Hall – Salt Lake City, UT 

11/1 – Treefort Music Hall, Boise, ID

11/2 – Rev Hall – Portland, OR 

11/3 – Freakout – Seattle, WA 

11/4 – Volcanic Theatre Pub – Bend, OR 

11/6 – Goldfield Trading Post – Sacramento, CA 

11/7 – Phoenix Theater – Petaluma, CA 

11/8 – SLO Brew – San Luis Obispo, CA 

11/15 – Lodge Room – Los Angeles, CA 

11/16 – Lodge Room – Los Angeles, CA 

11/18 – August Hall – San Francisco, C

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Dzasko Shares Breezy and Nostalgic “Take a Chance”

Diego Zevallos is Lima-born singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and DJ who splits his time between his hometown and Los Angeles. Zevallos is also the creative mastermind behind the emerging recording project Dzasko. The Peruvian artist’s Dzasko debut EP 2021’s Letters from California was recorded between Los Angeles and Joshua Tree and saw him quickly establishing a retro-futuristic sound.

The Lima-born artist’s sophomore Dzasko EP Auguries of Innocence derives its name from William Blake’s famous poem “Auguries of Innocence,” a piece about corruption and the loss of innocence. Fittingly, the EP’s material sees the Lima-born artist reflecting on corruption and the loss of innocence, inspired and informed by the political turbulence in Lima last year. The EP’s latest single “Take A Chance” sees Zevallos crating an catchy and breezy blend of psych pop, indie rock and electro pop reminiscent of Tame Impala — but dreamier and full of aching nostalgia for a place and time that can’t ever be had again.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Drab Majesty Teams Up With Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell on Brooding “Vanity”

Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist Andrew Clinco, also known for his work drumming in Marriages founded Drab Majesty back in 2011 as a way to create music in which he recorded every instrument himself. For the project, Clinco created the androgynous character Deb Demure. Alex Nicolaou, a.k.a. Mona D (keys, vocals) joined the project in 2016.

Since signing to Dais Records, the Los Angeles-based duo have released three albums, 2015’s Careless, 2017’s The Demonstration, 2019’s Modern Mirror, which saw the project combining androgynous aesthetics and commanding vocals with futuristic and occult lyrics, to create a style and sound that the band’s Demure refers to as “tragic wave.”

Drab Majesty’s forthcoming EP, An Object in Motion is slated for an August 25, 2023 release through Dais Records. Clocking in at 32 minutes, the release actually sits somewhere between an EP and a mini-album, and the effort reportedly marks a new chapter in the project’s legacy story: Written during a 2021 retreat to the remote costal Oregon town of Yachats, the band’s Deb Demure leaned into the neo-psychedelic resonance of a uniquely bowl-shaped 12-string Ovation acoustic/electric guitar.

After early morning hikes in the rain, Demure would record ambient guitar experiments the rest of the day, tapping into “flow states,” in which he would let the sound lead the way. Those sessions were then refined or recreated and then later elevated with contributions from Slowdive‘s Rachel Goswell, Beck’s, M83‘s and Air’s Justin Meldal-Johnsen, and Uniform’s Ben Greenberg.

Fittingly, the EP reportedly holds true to its title, as it captures Demure and Drab Majesty in a transitional state, and evolving while showcasing a series of potential futures from the project.

The EP’s first single, the brooding “Vanity” features a rare guest spot from Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell. Built around shimmering, reverb-drenched 12 string guitar, gated reverb-drenched drum patterns, Demure’s plaintive yet commanding baritone paired with soaring hooks. Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell contributes her imitable, expressive vocal, which seamlessly intertwines with Demure’s vocal in an uncannily gorgeous harmony. Sonically, “Vanity” seems like a synthesis of Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne‘s “Close My Eyes Forever,” Sisters of Mercy, Disintegration-era The Cure and Goswell’s work with Slowdive — or in other words, something that will warm the cold hearts of any goth.

The collaboration came as a result of a mutual admiration for each other’s world. “As a long time listener and devotee of Slowdive, a band that literally shaped my DNA as a listener and musician, it was truly humbling to have Rachel offer her iconic vocal stylings to this song,” Demure says. “Her voice is a sonic treasure and unmistakable. I’m infinitely grateful to call her a friend and am still pinching myself wondering —  how did we get here?”

“It’s no secret that I am a long time Drab Majesty fan so when Deb asked me some years ago now if I would be interested in collaborating it was an immediate yes,” Slowdive’s Goswell adds., “Honoured to give my voice to ‘Vanity.'”

Directed by Jai Love, the accompanying video showcases a cast featuring Drab Majesty, Rachel Goswell, Samantha Robinson and Isabelle Rose Nelson, and is shot with a nostalgia-inducing VHS haze that’s full of the heartache of a childhood innocence long gone.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ Mirrorball Shares Dreamy “Red Hot Dust”

Los Angeles-based dream pop duo Mirrorball — singer/songwriter Alexandra Johnstone and multi-instrumentalist and composer Scott Watson — features two local indie scene veterans. Following a successful debut back in 2019 with two songs as part of a singles series released on Dangerbird Records, the duo caught the attention of acclaimed producer Chris Coady.

The duo would meet up with Coady at Sunset Sound to discuss and plan their next recording. And over the next few months, they wound up forging a special bond with the acclaimed producer, which resulted in the duo’s forthcoming EP which will showcase the band’s unique dreamy and nostalgic pop sound.

Mirrorball’s latest single “Red Hot Dust” is a gorgeous and brooding track built around twinkling keys, a subtle yet supple bass line and propulsive drumming paired with Johnstone’s gorgeous and expressive vocal. While sonically bringing a synthesis of Beach House, Scott Walker, and 70s AM rock, the song evokes a woozy yet familiar surviving through the perceived end of the world sensation that we’ve all lived through these last couple of years.

Mirrorball’s Alexandra Johnstone explains that “Red Hot Dust” was written “during difficult times as a way of forcing some light to the surface because I wanted to feel like I could go home again at a time when I could not physically go home.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Night Beats Shares Soaring and Groovy “Thank You”

Texas-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Danny Lee Blackwell is the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed psych rock outfit Night Beats. With Night Beats, Blackwell creates music like one might assemble a puzzle: He builds his work from one moment, an initial spark that for him, must fit a specific criteria — it must give him goosebumps. If he gets goosebumps, then he will purse that idea relentlessly until he has a new song; if not, he moves onto the next moment, constantly looking for the perfect molecule of a song. 

Rajan, Blackwell’s fifth Night Beats album is slated for a July 14, 2023 release through Suicide Squeeze/Fuzz Club. The album began much like every other Night Betas album before it: Shortly after the release of 2021’s Outlaw R&B, Blackwell had the familiar itch to create new music. Writing isn’t a process that Blackwell has to sit down and engage with, rather it’s something he’s always doing. The only differentiation between creative periods is what makes it on certain albums and what winds up falling victim to the cutting room. “Whenever my writing gets to a point where songs begin to take shape, it begins to feel like a faucet,” Blackwell explains. “As soon as Outlaw R&B was finished, I began writing and very quickly fell in love with a few ideas that encapsulated the feeling of Rajan. I think writing is a constant cycle in that it never really begins or ends, but there are definitive points where the writing is leading somewhere.” 

Early on, Blackwell felt that the album would be dedicated to his mother. Although thematically, it doesn’t always reflect his tribute, the material is informed by the familial tie. “This isn’t a concept album, because every album has a concept. That term never made sense to me. But if it’s about one thing, it’s about this pursuit of freedom that was instilled in me by my mother,” Blackwell says. “In the arts, I’m very lucky in that I have 100% control over what I want to say, and how I do it,” he explains. Fittingly, the album’s material is wildly diverse and lands somewhere between Spaghetti Western film score and psych pop opus — while being among Blackwell’s most cohesive works to date. Some of the album’s songs nod at Anataolian funk and Western tinged R&B. Others with 70s Brazilian psychedelia, Chicano soul, rock steady — and even Lee “Scratch” Perry-inspired dub. “Rajan is just one of six examples of me doing exactly what I want, and not caring about whether it’s checked out or not. I’m a journeyperson. I want to make things for the sake of making them,” Blackwell says. 

And while clearly indebted to its influences, Rajan is wildly innovative and finds Blackwell pursuing his wildest musical whims. “I’m here to explore. I think exploration is the underlying reason in a way, of why we do the things we do,” Blackwell explains. “I feel lucky. What can I say? I feel blessed.”

Last month, I wrote about Rajan‘s first single, album opener “Hot Ghee,” which simultaneously sets the stage for what to expect sonically from the album and establishing a scalding hot take on the interaction of psych rock, jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop and more. Built around bluesy and sultry guitar lines, swinging drumming, layers of intertwined harmonies, subtle bursts of twinkling piano, “Hot Ghee” sounds like a synthesis of Altin Gün, Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles and Free Your Mind . . . And Your Ass Will Follow-era Funkadelic that’s mind-bending while displaying Blackwell’s unerring and deft craftmanship. 

“Thank You,” Rajan‘s second single is a soaring and groovy bit of gospel-tinged psychedelia built around Blackwell’s yearning falsetto, twinkling keys, dense layers of bluesy wah wah pedaled guitar, towering feedback, paired with a gospel backing chorus. Sonically nodding at a bit at Sly and the Family Stone “Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself” and Parliament Funkadelic’s “Testify,” “Thank You” expresses a sense of profound gratitude.

Directed by Vanessa Pla, the accompanying video for “Thank You” is a slick and cinematically shot visual that visually tackles the themes of the song — gratitude and transformation, as we see Blackwell physically transform by the video’s conclusion.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Death Bells Shares Brooding and Anthemic “Take My Spirit Now”

Since their formation in Sydney back in 2015, Death Bells — Will Canning (vocals) and Remy Veselis (guitar) — have firmly cemented a sound that effortlessly blurs elements of post-punk and garage rock, centered around Canning’s baritone and Vessels’ wiry, reverb-soaked guitar lines. And as a result, the duo quickly became a mainstay in the national and international alternative/underground/indie scenes.

As Canning and Vessels have grown up and matured, the band has evolved through a handful of releases — 2016’s self-titled debut EP, 2017’s full-length debut, Standing at the Edge of the World and a seven inch through Funeral Party Records and a 2019’s “Around The Bend”/”Life Stands Still” single through Metropolitan Indian. 

The Aussie duo relocated to Los Angeles in 2018. The band’s current iteration has managed to really blossom: They signed to Dais Records, who released their sophomore album 2020’s New Signs of Life, an effort that saw them embracing their diverse tastes to craft expansive, hook-driven songs. As a response to pandemic-related quarantines and lockdowns, the duo secluded themselves at Bombay Beach last year, to record a live session that featured five tracks off New Songs of Life titled Live from Bombay.

Last year’s Between Here & Everywhere was recorded with Colin Knight at Paradise Studios. The nine-song album saw the duo adopting a collaborative approach, as they collaborated with an experienced cast of players on keys, strings, piano and backing vocals. The album’s material represents the pair’s continued growth as artists and people and deeply inspired — and informed — by the the vastness, messiness and oddness of their adopted home. Featuring lyrics that the duo consider “narrative, but not autobiographical,” the album’s material ebbs and flows from harrowing to hopeful, and are born of intrigue, intimacy and a sense of “looking outward,” as the Sydney-born, Los Angeles-based duo explain.

The album featured two singles I managed to write about:

  • “Hysteria,” which bristled with a sense of urgency and immediacy while being rooted in the personal and deeply universal — the search for meaning in a seemingly meaningless, mad world, and the desire to just pack up and leave it all behind. “’Hysteria’ was one of the last songs we wrote as we were putting together the new album,” the duo explain. “It was one of those moments where the tune just figured itself out. It feels urgent, immediate and honest, and we’re very proud of it.”

  • “Lifespring” a brooding and hypnotic bit of post punk featuring Vaselis’ wiry bursts of guitar, thumping four-on-the-floor, glistening synths and a relentless motorik groove paired with a rousingly anthemic chorus. And while being inspired — and deeply indebted — to the sounds of the late ’70s and early ’80s, the song describes our bleak moment with an uncanny specificity.

Between Here & Everywhere‘s highly-anticipated follow-up Take My Spirit Now is slated for a July 21, 2023 release through Dais Records. Written and recored late last year in intimate, focused sessions at Paradise Studios, after months of touring across North America and Europe, the new material sees the band introducing a decidedly new sound — jagged guitars careening through towering feedback and textured drums. The band enlisted longtime friend Burning Rose Records’ Morgan Wright to mix the EP. Wright’s background in electronic music influenced the more programmed elements of the material.

“Take My Spirit Now,” the first single and title track off the forthcoming EP is built around a sinuous and propulsive bass line, fluttering feedback, boom bap-like drumming, angular and jagged. reverb-soaked guitars paired with Canning’s achingly plaintive baritone, a dreamy bridge section and the duo’s unerring knack for writing bombastic, rousingly anthemic hooks. But the song is thematically touches upon love, paranoia and destiny — and features a weary and uncertain narrator seemingly questioning everything.

“Take My Spirit Now” was the first song that began to feel fully realized when we were recording late last year,” Death Bells’ Will Canning explains. “There’s something wild and dangerous about the sound of it, which inspired some of the chorus’ lyrics. The song is more about a feeling than a specific time or place. 

Directed by Colin Fletcher, the accompanying video follows an assortment of characters, including the band’s Will Canning sitting in the backseat of a car, going off on a ride — to an unknown and unseen destination. At points, the car drives on, without passengers. “We’re portraying a simple analogy — the idea that sitting in the backseat, going along with the ride, is fun. Sometimes you’re on the ride alone, sometimes with someone else,” Colin Fletcher says. “Who’s driving? Doesn’t matter. Where are they going? Doesn’t matter.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Pearl & The Oysters Share Woozy and Dreamy “Fireflies”

Released earlier this year through Stones Throw Records, Pearl & The Oysters‘ fourth album, Coast 2 Coast is heavily influenced by the pair’s move from Paris to Los Angeles — with a stop in Florida. Written mostly in Juliette “Pearl” Davis’ and Joachim Polack’s 1-bed apartment, the album’s material was fleshed out by a collection of friends and collaborators including Stereolab‘s Lætitia Sadier, Unknown Mortal Orchesta‘s, Caroline Rose’s and La Luz’s Riley Geare, Neon Indian creative mastermind Alan Palomo, Dent May, Mild High Club‘s Alex Brettin, and Shags Chamberlain, who mixed the album.

Because it was inspired so much by the pair’s relocation, the album thematically explores the idea of travel — physical, mental, experienced and fantasized. The album draws on an eclectic array of aesthetics and images, including Barbarella followed by an Agnés Varda triple bill; Florida swamps and sandy L.A. beaches under a mirrorball-like sun; a radio picking up a faraway broadcast before it fades into an oldies pop station, and crashing waves that melt into the sound of Davis’ white noise machine, among other things.

Coast 2 Coast‘s latest single “Fireflies” is a breezy and nostalgia-tinged bop built around woozy analog synths, twinkling keys, a supple bass line and a steady yet propulsive backbeat paired with Davis’ plaintive delivery. Sonically. “Fireflies” reminds me a bit of a synthesis of Young Narrator in the Breakers-era Pavo Pavo and 70s AM rock. Inspired by the late composer Ryuchi Sakamoto, the song explores dream states and insomniac visions.

Directed by Ambar Navarro, the accompanying video for “Fireflies” is informed by old sci-fi films: We see Davis hatching from a pearl and throughout the video, she plays a a daydreaming Tinkerbell type, who travels freely from planet to planet. Police acts as a controller of the universe while trying to capture Juliette, who has teleportation powers.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Habitat Canada and Druzy Team Up on a 80s Funk-Inspired Bop

Habitat Canada is a rising yet mysterious Montréal-based solo electronic music project that’s inspired visually by 70s and 80s noir, the sounds created by the beloved Prophet Synthesizer, and electronic music artists and composers like Vangelis, Kavinsky, and HERO. Since emerging into the scene back in 2021, the Canadian artist has released a growing collection of work that’s been well received by music cognoscenti, landing on a broad range of playlists and blogs. Building upon a rapidly growing profile internationally, Habitat Canada has had his work featured in a New York Post news docuseries, a Ford Motors commercial, and other film projects.

Over the past couple of years, the rising Canadian artist’s work has increasingly paid homage to 70s and 80s horror and sci-fi movie soundtracks, complete with the familiar — and perhaps prerequisite — grit and palpable tension. Slated for a June 2023 release through DRRT Records, his forthcoming EP, Lunar Spectrum is reportedly informed by “Scarecrow,” his collaboration with Rush Midnight that saw him delving deeper into retro-futuristic sounds, while also showcasing the rising producer and artist’s skills.

“Fascination,” Lunar Spectrum EP‘s latest single features a sultry and yearning and sultry pop starlet turn from Los Angeles-based funk duo Druzy, and fittingly is a breezy and funky bit of 80s nostalgia that immediately brings Prince, Control and Rhythm Nation-era Janet Jackson, Let’s Dance-era David Bowie, Nile Rodgers, Rio-era Duran Duran and others to mind — but with a clean, hyper modern sheen. It’s a fun, party-starting bop meant to get asses out of seats and moving.

“I started working on the track not long after meeting with Druzy for the 1st time (our first collab was entirely virtual due to the pandemic and being based on opposite sides of the country). We kicked it off on a rooftop in Downtown LA and I had a sound and image in mind,” Habitat Canada explains. “The song structure came pretty fast, the heavy drum and bass groove added with some industrial effects gave us a nice jolt of brightness to the darker sound palette on the EP. The team at DRRT sent it quickly to Druzy in hopes of doing a second collaboration together. We were all super excited about the result and couldn’t have asked for a better fit.”

“We love Habitat Canada‘s music and our previous collaboration, ‘Speed of Light’, was a pleasure to work on so it was an immediate yes to doing another collab with Nico,” Druzy explains. “Especially when we got sent a track this good to write on!”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ Draag Shares a Cathartic Ripper

Los Angeles-based musician Adrian Acosta was trained as a mariachi singer by his father, an established noreeńo musician, but after finding his older brother’s electric guitar, wound up getting into indie rock and shoegaze. Acosta started the rising electro shoegaze outfit Draag as a solo recording project, but the project expanded into a full-fledged band when he brought together local musicians — Jessica Huang, Ray Montes, Nick Kelley and Eric Fabbro — from the disparate musical worlds of underground punk, experimental jazz, no wave and classical to flesh out the project’s sound.  

The band initially set about reviving songs from a karaoke tape deck that Acosta recorded when he was 10. They quickly became a buzz-worthy local act, playing shows with Wednesday, Reggie Watts, Mint Field and a lengthy list of others. Then the Los Angeles-based shoegazers released two critically applauded EPs, 2018’s Nontoxic Process and 2020’s Clara Luz.

Building upon a rapidly growing profile, Draag’s full-length debut, Dark Fire Heresy is slated for an April 28, 2023 release. Featuring arrangements built around Nintendo-era synths, lush guitars and warped tape samples played in reverse, the album thematically is reportedly a cathartic portrayal and release of religious trauma informed by Haung’s experience of using therapy to process her upbringing in a religious cult. Some songs act as vessels of healing and forgiveness and others became a revenge fantasy. Ultimately, the album holds space for a deeply familiar sentiment — the things you could have said, done or knew, while acknowledging a bittersweet nostalgia.

Built around dense layers of scorching guitar fuzz paired with relentless, staccato thrash punk-styled drumming paired with ethereal vocal harmonies mosh pit friendly hooks and tape hiss and

Dark Fire Hersey‘s latest single “Demonbird” sees the Los Angeles-based shoegazers adding their name to a growing list of acts boldly pushing the genre’s sonic boundaries as far as humanly possible — while ripping extremely hard.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Night Beats Shares Mind-Bending “Hot Ghee”

Texas-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Danny Lee Blackwell is the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed psych rock outfit Night Beats. With Night Beats, Blackwell creates music like one might assemble a puzzle: He builds his work from one moment, an initial spark that for him, must fit a specific criteria — it must give him goosebumps. If he gets goosebumps, then he will purse that idea relentlessly until he has a new song; if not, he moves onto the next moment, constantly looking for the perfect molecule of a song.

Rajan, Blackwell’s fifth Night Beats album is slated for a July 14, 2023 release through Suicide Squeeze/Fuzz Club. The album began much like every other Night Betas album before it: Shortly after the release of 2021’s Outlaw R&B, Blackwell had the familiar itch to create new music. Writing isn’t a process that Blackwell has to sit down and engage with, rather it’s something he’s always doing. The only differentiation between creative periods is what makes it on certain albums and what winds up falling victim to the cutting room. “Whenever my writing gets to a point where songs begin to take shape, it begins to feel like a faucet,” Blackwell explains. “As soon as Outlaw R&B was finished, I began writing and very quickly fell in love with a few ideas that encapsulated the feeling of Rajan. I think writing is a constant cycle in that it never really begins or ends, but there are definitive points where the writing is leading somewhere.”

Early on, Blackwell felt that the album would be dedicated to his mother. Although thematically, it doesn’t always reflect his tribute, the material is informed by the familial tie. “This isn’t a concept album, because every album has a concept. That term never made sense to me. But if it’s about one thing, it’s about this pursuit of freedom that was instilled in me by my mother,” Blackwell says. “In the arts, I’m very lucky in that I have 100% control over what I want to say, and how I do it,” he explains. Fittingly, the album’s material is wildly diverse and lands somewhere between Spaghetti Western film score and psych pop opus — while being among Blackwell’s most cohesive works to date. Some of the album’s songs nod at Anataolian funk and Western tinged R&B. Others with 70s Brazilian psychedelia, Chicano soul, rock steady — and even Lee “Scratch” Perry-inspired dub. “Rajan is just one of six examples of me doing exactly what I want, and not caring about whether it’s checked out or not. I’m a journeyperson. I want to make things for the sake of making them,” Blackwell says.

And while clearly indebted to its influences, Rajan is wildly innovative and finds Blackwell pursuing his wildest musical whims. “I’m here to explore. I think exploration is the underlying reason in a way, of why we do the things we do,” Blackwell explains. “I feel lucky. What can I say? I feel blessed.”

The album’s first single, album opener “Hot Ghee” both sets the stage for what to expect from the album, while establishing it as a scalding hot take on the intersection of psych rock, jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop and more. Built around bluesy and sultry guitar lines, swinging drumming, layers of intertwined harmonies, subtle bursts of twinkling piano, “Hot Ghee” sounds like a synthesis of Altin Gün, Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles and Free Your Mind . . . And Your Ass Will Follow-era Funkadelic that’s mind-bending while displaying Blackwell’s unerring and deft craftmanship.

Directed by Chris Keller, edited by Bradley Hale and featuring animation by Hale, the accompanying video for “Hot Ghee” recalls the opening sequences to 60s lysergic-tinged films, complete with line animation, footage of Blackwell rocking out and singing the song’s lyrics, superimposed with more Blackwells. Trippy.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Crocodiles Shares Fuzzy and Anthemic “Upside Down In Heaven”

Crocodiles — Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell — have had a nearly 25 year history: After initially becoming acquainted at a local Anti-Racist Action meeting, Welchez and Rowell found their respective teenage bands booked on the same bill at a punk gig hosted at a Mexican restaurant in their native San Diego. As their mutual friend Russell Cash, who wrote their bio describes it, “Young Brandon watched in awe as a teenage Charlie clambered up a confused family’s table and proceeded to bash the living hell out of his cheap guitar. When his set was through, young Charlie melted back into the crowd and found himself awestruck as the pubescent Brandon took the ‘stage’ (floor) and proceeded to shriek, croon, howl and spit his way through his own band’s allotted 20 minutes. Once the noise was over, the two found each other, expressed their mutual admiration and over a shared Coca-Cola agreed to dissolve their respective bands and join forces.”

After a few false starts, the duo found their footing with the noise-punk outfit The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower. They spent five years traversing the country, building up a cult following, while playing every backwoods dump that would have them. They met and inspired other like-minded freaks — an occasionally they’d get beaten up by feral rednecks. Eventually, the band imploded in a cloud of poverty and addition. But Charlie and Brandon agreed to keep their partnership going.

After a year years experimenting with their songwriting and sound and trying out various lineups and names, they decided to kick out the half-committed losers and jokers they were working at the time, and replaced them for a beat up, old drum machine. Immediately, they set to work on the batch of songs that would become Crocodiles debut album, 2009’s Summer of Hate.

Over the course of the band’s 15 year history, they’ve released seven albums and a handful of EPs while going through a flurry of changes: Their recorded output has seen them change their sound — art punk, psych rock, 60s-inspired pop and trashed-out glam. They’ve changed personnel several times, starting out as a duo, then they were a quintet, then they were a duo again and more recently as a quartet. They’ve also relocated multiple times — residing in San Diego, New York, Paris, Mexico City, London, and Los Angeles. But two things have remained the same: they’ve toured incessantly, bringing their unique brand of rock to fans in almost every corner of the globe — and the band’s core duo have never wavered on their teenage mission to help each other escape a life of drudgery, boredom and expectation through music, art, friendship and of course, adventure. After all, why not do something really fucking interesting and perhaps kind of crazy with your best friend, right?

Crocodiles’ eighth full-length album, the Maxime Smadja-produced Upside Down In Heaven was released yesterday through Lollipop Records. After a prolonged hiatus, the band finally reconvened at St. Jean de Luz, France’s Quicksilver Studios to put their eighth record on wax. Atef Aouadhi (bass) and Diego Dal Bon (drums) were recruited to flesh out the material for teh sessions. The album sees the band continuing in their long-held fashion to zig-zag cohesively from one style to the next and back again. As Russell Cash describes the album’s material, “The songs are direct, cut to the chance and leave listeners thirsting for more.”

Upside Down In Heaven‘s third and latest single, album title track “Upside Down In Heaven” is a pop-inspired anthem, rooted in the duo’s unerring knack for pairing melody, scuzzy guitars. and razor sharp hooks with lyrics that express heartache, regret with a weary and bitter, lived-in burn.

“Maybe I was chasing that elusive Stiff Records sound or simply trying something that would make Westerberg smile,” Crocodiles’ Charles Rowell says of the single. “Either way it’s pure pop for heads who appreciate lyrics and melody. It’s a little sad but triumphant and true. If you’ve ever felt like you’re a little too far from home, like you’ve chased the dream until it’s turned into a nightmare, then here’s another song burning with regret and wasted wisdom.”

Directed by Sam Macon, the accompanying video for “Upside Down In Heaven” starts off with an old Pizza Hut commercial and quickly takes the viewer to an 80s-influenced tele-evangelist show featuring the band’s Brandon Welchez as a Jim Baker-type preaching to folks as they get the Holy Spirit. Naturally, our preacher has an angel and a devil on both shoulders whispering to him (the band’s Charles Rowell). But eventually Welchez’s preacher listens to the devil, and things take a playfully satanic turn — as it should!

Video by William Ruben Helms

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

Audio Interview: MANE

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms chats with rising Adelaide-based artist MANE at last week’s The New Colossus Festival.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Cleo Handler Shares Snarky Anthem “problem”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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